Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoological Park 2023

Still Przewalski's Horse.

The reason I heard for moving species out of the valley was because of complaints that visitors could not see the animals very well.

The giraffes haven't been in the valley for a long time now, several years before the pandemic. The valley enclosure doesn't have any housing of its own, so no species had permanent access to it.
 
NMM said:
Still Przewalski's Horse.

The reason I heard for moving species out of the valley was because of complaints that visitors could not see the animals very well.

The giraffes haven't been in the valley for a long time now, several years before the pandemic. The valley enclosure doesn't have any housing of its own, so no species had permanent access to it.
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I agree, the African Valley was opened in 2009 by the Kenyan High Commissioner, there were 35 animals to begin with, Grevy Zebra, Waterbuck, and Ostrich, Giraffe came a few months later, straight away visitors were unhappy that they could not get close to the animals or even see them, The whole thing was never planned it should have had walkways along the side and as been said no animal housing was built, today it just has the horses I dont think anyone at Marwell knows what to do with it now.
 
okapis said:
I agree, the African Valley was opened in 2009 by the Kenyan High Commissioner, there were 35 animals to begin with, Grevy Zebra, Waterbuck, and Ostrich, Giraffe came a few months later, straight away visitors were unhappy that they could not get close to the animals or even see them, The whole thing was never planned it should have had walkways along the side and as been said no animal housing was built, today it just has the horses I dont think anyone at Marwell knows what to do with it now.
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One headthought I had that I thought would be nice was maybe to get a few more horses, as well as bison and maybe other animals [reindeer?] - to recreate a scene of Pleistocene Europe.
I think there are various directions Marwell could take such a huge space in...

Another thing I think would be nice for Marwell is - very innvative idea - signage. I understand that Marwell has been shifting to a largely digital alternative to traditional signage as of recent, but I have seen some pictures of how Marwell used to be with signage - and it was very good! Very interesting! To consider yourself educational you must strive for more than the bare minimum of signage in your zoo methinks. The app doesn't even have information for all of the animals - what curiosities regarding Brazilian Guinea Pigs and Green Toads, say, are visitors missing out on?
 
The Valley is quite a frustrating area of Marwell, it has to be said. Although it has been Przewalskis for a while I remember in the not too distant past seeing Hartmann's Mountain Zebra in there. I still think it could be a good exhibit, it's huge and the lake in the middle makes a good feature. I think they should put pathways along the edge and have purpose built housing for some species adjoining it. Hopefully that will happen in the next few years.
 
The valley should make a very good main feature exhibit but it won't work as such unless they fix the two main problems.

1 - Having no housing of its own means whatever is kept there needs to move back to another enclosure overnight.

2 - Viewing. Despite being a very large paddock the area you can view it from is quite small. It does not help that this also happens to be the outdoor eating area for Cafe Graze.

Unless those two issues are fixed I can't see that you can do anything else with it in its current form, other than use it for additional space for the occupants of one of the paddocks between Into Africa and Cafe Graze, which is exactly what they are doing with the Przewalski's Horse.
 
Observations from a visit today.

  • Starting with the former African Valley as it is the recent topic of discussion. I didn't see anything and there we no animal signs next to the viewing area. Does this mean they are now not using it?
  • There has been a lot of progress with the Snow Leopard extension. The fences have been put up. It is a lot bigger than I had expected. It stretches all the way down to opposite the Semi-Aquatic Mammal House.
  • Rock Hyrax are back in Thriving Through Nature and they were very active when I was in there. The signs for the Green Toad have gone though.
  • Have the Emperor Tamarins moved enclosure in Life Among the Tress? They are in with the Golden Lion Headed Tamarins, Pygmy Marmosets and Brazilian Cavies. I thought they were with the Goeldi's Monkey and Coppery Titi Monkeys.
  • The aviary next to Marwell Hall that used to hold Weaver Birds has been demolished.
  • In Aridlands, you can see the indoor quarters for the Dorcas Gazelles again. The viewing windows had previously been blocked off.
 
dillotest0 said:
Did the old male die at some point? I recall they had a male...

After looking their first one was a female after all... any news on what happened with her?
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Yes they had a pair before female died a while ago male this year, so this is a new pair.
 
NMM said:
What are they putting in the banteng's food/water? How many young is that now.
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There are now nine individuals within the herd (2:7). I also talked to a volunteer during my visit. She suggested, prior to the recent arrival three other calves have been born this year (1:2).
The keeper said they may consider a pause on breeding for a period.
 
Jon Boy said:
There are now nine individuals within the herd (2:7). I also talked to a volunteer during my visit. She suggested, prior to the recent arrival three other calves have been born this year (1:2).
The keeper said they may consider a pause on breeding for a period.
Click to expand...
At the end of 2022 there were 1.5 Banteng at Marwell there were two births this year in Feb, March, so this is the third birth this year.
 
A picture of the snow leopard expansion has been uploaded.
upload_2023-11-13_23-32-27.jpeg
To myself it looks great...
Though my main concern with Marwell now is that as it moves into the 'Post-Cretney Years'... for whatever Cretney did with Marwell during his time there... there was a sense of consistency. Nothing was totally unforseen... and so now the future of Marwell will be curious to behold.
Which I suppose could be for better or for worse.
But if this is representative of what is to come... maybe my pessimism is somewhat unfounded...
 

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