Blackpool were actually the last holder, where this individual clung on until 2015, more than a decade after they went from Chester: Europe's Last Arabian (Mountain) Gazelle at Blackpool, 25/07/15 - ZooChat
Great shame how it ended, as you say.
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Blackpool were actually the last holder, where this individual clung on until 2015, more than a decade after they went from Chester: Europe's Last Arabian (Mountain) Gazelle at Blackpool, 25/07/15 - ZooChat
Great shame how it ended, as you say.
London Zoo also held a couple of males in with the Giraffe for a short time,also Bristol held two or three in one of the old bear areas, Marwell in 1995 held 3.16. I believe the last ones at Marwell went to Blackpool.
Yes, originally there were at least 7 holders for G. arabica / G. erlangeri in the UK:
Blackpool ( - 2004 - 2015, arrived ex Chester Zoo)
Bristol ( - 1980 - ?)
Chester ( - 1964 - 2004, imports ex Aden and N. Yemen)
Dudley ( - 1985 - 1989, 1992-1997, imports ex Aden and N. Yemen)
London RP ( - ? - till 2004?)
Malton ( - 1976 - +?)
Marwell ( - 1978 - 2002, arrived ex Chester Zoo)
There was also a rumour about a No. 8 zoo.
I have to dig out my research papers and the studbook if any of you are really interested.
This Arabian gazelle population in the UK was both significant in size and was maintained robustly over at least 45 years. Its origins date back to the dark colonnial days of Aden Protectorate (UK socio-economic and political influence) and beyond from the Zaydi North Yemen region.
As all should know now, Yemen is currently a war-torn country ravaged by tribalist factional infighting (fission-fusion), regular armies (Yemen, KSA, UAE, Qatar) as well as private militias and a darkly cohorte of religious extremists forces (I do count both the Hawthi and Islamic Jihad amongst all these and none bode well for a regular administration of Govt. in Yemen) fighting each other and amongst one another for territory, cynical power of influence hunger and total indifference for the rule of law or any level of humanity. Worse still, the entire international community does not care one little bit and only decries some conflicts that are in the public eye or under intense media coverage....
I can tell you that these days, Yemen's Antilopini fauna has been severely decimated by amongst others hunting, animal trade, desertification and loss of habitat. Even in the early 60's one taxa restricted to a Yemen went extinct (G. bilkis). The only representatives of this species may be found in the Chicago based Field Museum of Natural History, which is a sad Epitaph in itself.
The latter constitutes for me personally the drive to continue to fight on behalf of endangered species globally and also why in the case where the global zoo community decides to phase out or stop exhibiting a species no matter the reason and its level of endangerment ...., my blood pressure rises no end and my disbelief / exasperation goes through the roof at such seemingly ignorance or indifference.
Osedax
Well-Known Member
By Malton, you mean Flamingo Land, right?
Yes, affirmative.
ZooNews2024
Well-Known Member
I whole-heartedly agree with you KB - and, well said.
Today's LC 'phase-out' can so easily be tomorrow's CR or extinction. All it takes is a change of politics, a war or a taxonomic change.
Zoos must make every effort to maintain stocks of everything they have, especially those spp which they do well with - independently, if the associations like EAZA, will not help.
Because he only had one female to breed with who was currently pregnant and he had 2 daughters that were approaching breeding age.
They only kept him for so long because they wanted another calf from Sundara with him although we now know the tragic outcome of that sadly.
Rajang-GOAT
Well-Known Member
He had been at he zoo for over 10 years and the calf Sundara was pregnant with was meant to be their last. Him moving would've allowed a new bull to arrive in a few years to breed with Indali and eventually Riva as well as Sundara if everything went well to grow the Hi Way matriline and the herd at Chester as a whole.
Of course this is mostly irrelevant with the tragic passing of Sundara and it will be interesting to see what the next steps the zoo takes are.
The main reason was to avoid him making babies with his 2 daughters who are still pretty young but most likely already having an estrus and could become pregnant. They will most likely receive a new, unrelated bull soon so that Indali - who is approaching the right age to become pregnant with her first calf - can breed.
A little bit of Chester Zoo news from the 2023 EAZA TAG report that I haven't seen mentioned before - in that year, Chester Zoo successfully bred their Imbabura tree frogs, Boana picturata, for the first time in an EAZA collection.
A great success for the team in a really fascinating species.
How much luck have people had seeing them on display in Tropical Realm?
Could elephants leave Chester completely? When we visit now, we don’t really take much notice of them as they are not always out in the enclosure and the inside part is not really a part of the zoo now they have the entrance outside of the zoo meaning you can only go in before or after visiting the zoo, unless you take a long walk round and back.
The enclosure, when more open around it and not so many trees and bushes, seemed a lot larger but now seems smaller, especially with buildings along one long side of it.
Chester zoo is aiming to be net zero by 2030 Chester Zoo sets ambitious net zero targets - with help of new green technology
I suppose anything is possible, but I would be amazed if the zoo went out of elephants: it is even possible that they could build a new elephant house for Anjan and establish a herd of bulls - but that is hardly likely. I think the best time to visit the Elephant House is fairly late in the afternoon when the elephants are brought in from the paddock. Why not vary your route, pass out through the gate and then go back to the Monkey House etc?
I have never seen Imbabura Tree Frogs at Chester but I have seen the species at Manchester Museum.
I find frogs at Chester Zoo to be very hard to see.
Last week I saw a Mountain Chicken at Chester for the first time in many years. I never failed to see them at Bristol.
Some Frogs are more visible and showy than others at Chester like some of the Poison Dart Frogs and Fea's Tree Frog which I see on most visits.
As horrific as recent history has been, I would imagine Chester are far too heavily invested both in situ and ex situ for them to phase out their elephants. However on the, albeit brief, number of times I’ve visited would a rethink of the exhibit be feasible? Particularly the bull paddock. Is a new elephant exhibit part of the zoo’s master plan?
There were plans to eventually expand the elephant paddock onto the car park, though whether these are still happening I'm not sure. Either way, it is probably many years off.
Elephants are a signature species for the zoo and they maintain in situ conservation links to India for Asiatic elephant conservation. You can more or less dismiss the zoo doing away with elephants and the Chester Zoo crowds just love them.