Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoo news 2025

@polarbear is correct that you can access for free on apple podcasts. You can also make a free Spotify account, although there will be more ads.
 
Cat-Man said:
@polarbear is correct that you can access for free on apple podcasts. You can also make a free Spotify account, although there will be more ads.
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Many thanks. Have now listened to three of the four (guess which one I have skipped, at least for now!) and content is good.
 
NMM said:
I saw the Beisa Oryx on my last visit and that was after HelloCrossy didn't see them.

The Chacoan maras are with the cotton-topped tamarins in Life Among the Trees. I have seen them but they are a frequent no show. There are a lot of places they can hide.
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Seen them this February inside
 
Visited today.

There was another member's talk today. It was title De-exitinction and was about attempts to bring back extinct species. It covered selective breeding projects based on physical characteristics, such as those for aurochs and quaggas as well as more genetic based techniques. They did have a vote on whether people thought any of these were bringing back extinct species and it was 100% no in all cases. One interesting thing that was mentioned is that there is a company trying to create a mammoth and they have been contacting zoos looking for elephants to place mammoth embreos. EAZA has taken a strong line against this and any zoo that does this will be booted out. People were asking lots of question and the talk ended up being more of a guided group discussion than a presentation.

A couple more talks have been announced. One in a couple of weeks about their work with the successful project to reintroduce scimitar-horned oryx. Laura Read will also be doing one in October. Unfortunately I cannot make the oryx talk as I have plans that weekend.

Other notes
  • It was very busy today. Cars were queuing on the road outside to get in. I have never seen that before.
  • As the beisa oryx have been asked about recently, I did see both today.
  • I also saw the cusimanses today so they are still there. They still don't have any signs on their enclosure though.
  • Life Among the Trees was interesting today. Saw things that are often no-shows.
    • One of the binturongs was very visible in the indoor section at the top of the exhibit.
    • I saw a couple of the coppery titi monkeys in the outside part of their enclosure. When outside they usually disappear amongst the foliage.
    • The cotton topped tamarins were all outside and interestingly all where the sun was directly shining. After being particularly active in the heatwave, I wonder if they do like heat.
    • The Chaocan maras were also visible outside today.
  • I think the roan antelope are claiming squatter's rights on the plains zebras indoor quarters. Second visit in a row I have seen them there.
  • Pasha the tiger was quite vocal today.
  • I think I saw an addax between the back of the former blesbok paddock and the Przewalski's horses housing. It looks like they might be an off show paddock there.
 
NMM said:
Visited today.

There was another member's talk today. It was title De-exitinction and was about attempts to bring back extinct species. It covered selective breeding projects based on physical characteristics, such as those for aurochs and quaggas as well as more genetic based techniques. They did have a vote on whether people thought any of these were bringing back extinct species and it was 100% no in all cases. One interesting thing that was mentioned is that there is a company trying to create a mammoth and they have been contacting zoos looking for elephants to place mammoth embreos. EAZA has taken a strong line against this and any zoo that does this will be booted out. People were asking lots of question and the talk ended up being more of a guided group discussion than a presentation.

A couple more talks have been announced. One in a couple of weeks about their work with the successful project to reintroduce scimitar-horned oryx. Laura Read will also be doing one in October. Unfortunately I cannot make the oryx talk as I have plans that weekend.

Other notes
  • It was very busy today. Cars were queuing on the road outside to get in. I have never seen that before.
  • As the beisa oryx have been asked about recently, I did see both today.
  • I also saw the cusimanses today so they are still there. They still don't have any signs on their enclosure though.
  • Life Among the Trees was interesting today. Saw things that are often no-shows.
    • One of the binturongs was very visible in the indoor section at the top of the exhibit.
    • I saw a couple of the coppery titi monkeys in the outside part of their enclosure. When outside they usually disappear amongst the foliage.
    • The cotton topped tamarins were all outside and interestingly all where the sun was directly shining. After being particularly active in the heatwave, I wonder if they do like heat.
    • The Chaocan maras were also visible outside today.
  • I think the roan antelope are claiming squatter's rights on the plains zebras indoor quarters. Second visit in a row I have seen them there.
  • Pasha the tiger was quite vocal today.
  • I think I saw an addax between the back of the former blesbok paddock and the Przewalski's horses housing. It looks like they might be an off show paddock there.
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There’s an interesting thread here discussing the work of Colossal (who are I think the people referred to in the talk re mammoths) and their nonsense claims about de extinction

If you dunnart know they were bringing back the thylacine
 
Colossal is the company mentioned. Their dire wolf project was used as an example. There was a poll during the talk as to whether their work was a gift to conservation or a distraction from it. The result was 100% distraction.

I think the attempts at bringing back long extinct species is stupid, but the genetic work could have some other uses. One possible use discussed was increasing genetic diversity in a species.

They did give the example of the Mauritius kestrel, which was brought back from low single figures. As a result there is a lot of inbreeding not much genetic variation. Samples from unrelated birds do exist. Some of the genetic techniques could allow those samples to widen the species's gene pool.
 
A great first visit to Marwell today after a long time coming.
  • It was particularly nice seeing the Dorcas Gazelles & Arabian Oryx given their rarity throughout Europe. It's such a shame the taxa are on their last legs in the UK as both are incredibly attractive.
  • The Tropical House was very pleasant with quite a similar feel to Chester's Monsoon Forest. There were two crowned pigeons calling and sparring which was fascinating to watch & hear. It was also pleasant seeing such a large number of Roul-roul with a number of chicks dotted throughout.
  • The native species area with Sand Lizards & White-clawed Crayfish respectively had a great wealth of information about how Marwell are aiding the two species' conservation and both the crayfish tank and lizard enclosure were very well furnished.
  • All hoofstock enclosures were of high quality and the dry ditches in many enclosures offered great views of the inhabitants.
  • I found the zoo generally of high quality though there were some areas, notably around the hall that appeared quite neglected and somewhat scruffy though this didn't detract from the rest of the collection.
 
Prochilodus246 said:
A great first visit to Marwell today after a long time coming.
  • It was particularly nice seeing the Dorcas Gazelles & Arabian Oryx given their rarity throughout Europe. It's such a shame the taxa are on their last legs in the UK as both are incredibly attractive.
  • The Tropical House was very pleasant with quite a similar feel to Chester's Monsoon Forest. There were two crowned pigeons calling and sparring which was fascinating to watch & hear. It was also pleasant seeing such a large number of Roul-roul with a number of chicks dotted throughout.
  • The native species area with Sand Lizards & White-clawed Crayfish respectively had a great wealth of information about how Marwell are aiding the two species' conservation and both the crayfish tank and lizard enclosure were very well furnished.
  • All hoofstock enclosures were of high quality and the dry ditches in many enclosures offered great views of the inhabitants.
  • I found the zoo generally of high quality though there were some areas, notably around the hall that appeared quite neglected and somewhat scruffy though this didn't detract from the rest of the collection.
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I’m glad you enjoyed your visit, and particularly the antelope. I’m as guilty as anybody is about moping about the loss of several antelope species at Marwell, but we should appreciate the ones they still have. Fingers crossed those species you mentioned stay for a while.
 
We visited yesterday and had a wonderful time. I’m always wary of visiting in the summer holidays, as a neurodiverse family we can find it very challenging, but we found it surprisingly manageable for a day of good weather

- it looks like there’s been good progress on the new red panda enclosure, including a new set of gates across the path and road. my girls are very excited to have it ready and inhabited as it’s one of their favourite animals.

- We went through life amping the trees and, though we sadly didn’t see the bokiboky, we very much enjoyed the chacoan maras - we spot them most times we visit now, as usual they were chilled out in a sandy area partially behind a bush but we still got a good view and watched them playing with a moving sticks around.

- It was great to see both snow leopard’s lounging on the rocks only a couple of meters apart, good signs for the further I hope!

- Pasha was nowhere to be seen today, but we haven’t seen him much since Valentina’s passing

-We had the best view of the serval’s we have ever had! Right next to the glass, Hex had caught a bird and was busy enjoying her treat, Jinx watched on until Hex had enough and wandered off and he took the rest and ate it all, feathers and all! It was fascinating!
I’ve wanted to be able to tell the difference easily between the two for years and now I can which also made for a fulfilling trip

They’ve also finished building, and opened, a new permanent toilet block opposite the giraffes. I’m pleased they’ve done it but I do wonder whether they have an accessibility consult before they build as, once again, a well meaning facility with a cubicle labelled for the disabled has several features which aren’t actually accessible to many with extra needs
(as a disabled visitor myself I find this frustrating)
 
We visited again this week with the girls before they headed back to school
There were a couple of things to note:

- the servals were being kept inside due to some work on their outside enclosure. A keeper also said that they really liked their new revamped inside area (where there is a window) and Mr Jinx Moustache (the male serval) was super chilled out in there and we got an incredible of view of him

- the new red panda enclosure is pretty much finished now, and it looks great! We chatted with another keeper and asked a few questions
When they pandas get moved over it’ll be Cherry on her own at first, she arrived after Tashi and when they were introduced he was apparently quite territorial and they didn’t get on. It sounds like the plan is to try and possibly move him over after a while but cautiously and aware that he may need to go back to the current enclosure if it isn’t a successful introduction.

-The kids love the native species area, it was the first time we hadn’t seen a sand lizard, but the weather was pretty awful so I’m not surprised.
They now have two white clawed crayfish in the main tank that the girls found really easy to spot

The Lego event has finished now but was really enjoyable, I look forward to what the soo has planned next
 
I visited today. I like to get the occasional midweek visit in every now and then when it isn't busy.

  • There is a sign that they are going to update the tiger exhibit. I think I just missed Pasha (Amur tiger) being fed as he was eating and there was a small crowd watching him.
  • As SleepyServal said above there has been a lot of progress with the new red panda exhibit. The exterior fences look to be complete and a lot of work has been done with plants and rocks inside the exhibit. Work still in progress appears to be the installation of a metal overhang on the inside of the enclosure (it is now open topped) and construction of some wooden shelters.
  • The red river hogs were allowed into the sitatunga paddock today.
  • More of the wall has been removed from what was once coati roundabout.
  • One side of the okapi house was closed today.
  • There were barriers preventing people from getting to the red ruffed lemur exhibit in Life Among the Trees.
  • The indoor part of the Fur, Feathers and Scales walkthrough aviary was shut.
  • I saw the cusimanses being fed. It looks like they have trained them to a particular call, as they suddenly all darted outside.
  • All three roan antelope were out in the paddock today. That is unusual as they often choose to stay inside.
  • The area that used to be the old cheetah enclosure has been blocked off from the giraffe paddock again, this time by an electric fence. There are trees in that area, so I am wondering if they block the area off to allow the trees to recover from being browsed. They did look like they have been largely stripped of leaves.
  • An electric fence has also been put around the large tree in the lesser kudu paddock. The kudu were out and about in the paddock today, which surprised me given that they don't like inclement weather.
 
I presume that this Tiger enclosure work is part of/ the final part of the Cretney Era work - alongside the Caracara, Bush Dog & Snow Leopard enclosure rework. Not entirely sure it should be the focous right now but that discussion has already been had here.
 
HelloCrossy67 said:
I presume that this Tiger enclosure work is part of/ the final part of the Cretney Era work - alongside the Caracara, Bush Dog & Snow Leopard enclosure rework. Not entirely sure it should be the focous right now but that discussion has already been had here.
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I wouldn't have though so, given it is 2 years since he resigned and 18 months since Laura Read took over. I would have thought by now new developments would be working towards her plan.

It is always possible though that she did agree with some of his future plans and incorporated them into her own vision.
 
Sorry if it’s already been discussed but what’s there long term plan with the rarer species like the Greater Kudu, Dorcas Gazelle, Beisa Oryx and Arabian Oryx ?
 
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