Paignton Zoo Paignton Zoo news 2025

Zoofan15 said:
Joanna the giraffe has died:

Her death leaves the zoo with four giraffes: Florrie, Eliska, Janica, and Otilie

Paignton Zoo Mourns The Loss Of Rothschild's Giraffe, Joanna • Paignton Zoo

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Joanna, our 11-year-old Rothschild’s giraffe. Joanna had been experiencing a decline in health which was no longer responding to treatment. Despite the best efforts of our dedicated veterinary and animal care teams, the difficult decision was made to humanely euthanise Joanna on welfare grounds.
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This is really sad and another blow for the zoo. Our thoughts are very much with her keeper team.
I am very much looking forward to the zoo opening up the elephant side of the barn to the giraffe herd and hope that this will improve their ability to manage a future bull and winter husbandry better.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Joanna the giraffe has died:

Her death leaves the zoo with four giraffes: Florrie, Eliska, Janica, and Otilie

Paignton Zoo Mourns The Loss Of Rothschild's Giraffe, Joanna • Paignton Zoo

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Joanna, our 11-year-old Rothschild’s giraffe. Joanna had been experiencing a decline in health which was no longer responding to treatment. Despite the best efforts of our dedicated veterinary and animal care teams, the difficult decision was made to humanely euthanise Joanna on welfare grounds.
Click to expand...
She seems to have passed on quite youngish for a giraffe. Longevity can be between 20-25... It will be interesting how the collection will care now and that hopefully they get a new bull very soon for breeding. I just cannot explain away why endangered Rothschildt's / Nubian giraffe are somewhat in stalemate after the years' of imposed non-breeding EAZA policy (which has both impacted the UK and Continental giraffe programmes equally ... While the issue of hybrids and rebreeding those to produce more hybrids has continued ... to be an issue in parts of Europe.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
She seems to have passed on quite youngish for a giraffe. Longevity can be between 20-25... It will be interesting how the collection will care now and that hopefully they get a new bull very soon for breeding. I just cannot explain away why endangered Rothschildt's / Nubian giraffe are somewhat in stalemate after the years' of imposed non-breeding EAZA policy (which has both impacted the UK and Continental giraffe programmes equally ... While the issue of hybrids and rebreeding those to produce more hybrids has continued ... to be an issue in parts of Europe.
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A bit off topic but what is the current state of hybrid giraffes in the U.K? Are there any left at the Aspinall Parks?
 
The last two queries are indeed better placed in either an European giraffe species thread or within the relevant zoo threads for Aspinall's Port Lympne and Marwell itself.
 
I hope that the zoos curators have planned for this sad & unfortunate situation? The rationale & justification for moving the Hartmanns herd off the grass hillside was to give them a large hard stand to improve their foot health - this is particularly important for this sub-species , according to Paignton. I’m not sure on U.K. Mountain Zebra numbers and breeding recommendations, but it would be sad to ‘go out’ of this species, unless there is a short-term loan of Plains Zebra planned?
I’m not sure whether the current situation will further encourage the giraffe herd into their bigger paddock (could this now be enlarged whilst there are no zebra?)
On another note, I hope the mammal & vet teams are being given the support (supervision counselling) they may need at this time, as they’ve had to deal with some major losses in a short period of time. Thoughts with them.
 
I can't speak of the zoos plans, as I no longer work there. However, knowing the UK population of Hartmanns, I would be surprised if Paignton received further individuals in the near future. We're now at probably less than 10 individuals in the UK. Marwell lost their breeding male last year, who thankfully left a youngster behind with one of the females. I doubt Blackpool would want to let any of their group go, and I don't recall the situation at Linton, but they could all be post breeding individuals? (happy to be corrected).
 
TriUK said:
I’m not sure on U.K. Mountain Zebra numbers and breeding recommendations, but it would be sad to ‘go out’ of this species, unless there is a short-term loan of Plains Zebra planned?
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Thoughts go out to the keepers and vets at Paignton.

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra in the UK from conversation about it in last years Marwell thread:

Blackpool 1:2
Linton 0:3 (one older and two younger females)
Marwell 0:2:1

Maybe if the foal at Marwell is a male it could go to Linton? It doesn't look too good for Paignton if they want to keep with the species.
 
Rajang-GOAT said:
Thoughts go out to the keepers and vets at Paignton.

Hartmann's Mountain Zebra in the UK from conversation about it in last years Marwell thread:

Blackpool 1:2
Linton 0:3 (one older and two younger females)
Marwell 0:2:1

Maybe if the foal at Marwell is a male it could go to Linton? It doesn't look too good for Paignton if they want to keep with the species.
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Although Linton wouldn’t want to go out of the species I would suggest it would make more sense for their females to go to another collection, but we’ll wait and see.
 
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