Thanks for clarifying the order of departure. How could I forget 'Twiggy'- probably because she wasn't at Paignton very long.
ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2025
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Thanks for clarifying the order of departure. How could I forget 'Twiggy'- probably because she wasn't at Paignton very long.
BaoBao was Berlin's Panda and was paired briefly with Ming Ming at London. He was the survivor of their own pair and went on to be the oIdest Panda in Europe after he was returned to Germany I think. I did see them once so can claim having seen all the Pandas that were in London Zoo since ChiChi.
There was still a Goodfellow's tree kangaroo at the zoo in 2020; I think this was the last time...
Baringogiraffe12
Well-Known Member
Wasn’t the last female at ZSL London moved to Chester in 2017? I believe it was the female imported from San Diego originally, Sangria - who died in 2022.
The ZSL Animal Inventory for 2020 lists a female Goodfellow's tree kangaroo in the collection as at 1st January 2020 and none are listed for 31st December 2020.
Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Very interesting! I'd been led to believe that koalas were non-existent outside of Australia until London and a few others imported them in the eighties and nineties. Do you know where in the zoo the 1880 animals were kept?
It was kept somewhere offshow in the Clore, but I'm not sure where. I know that until recently the Whipsnade squirrel monkeys were kept in an offshow cage just about visible from the right angle, behind the gentle lemurs. Perhaps this is where they were kept before?
I fully agree that it would be great to see tree kangaroos return. They would be a good use of the empty Tecton Roundhouse, in my opinion.
EDIT: just searched the gallery and found this photo by @Crowthorne which seems to suggest that, while onshow, they were free-roaming in the walkthrough portion of 'Rainforest Life.' If true that's quite brilliant as I don't know of many tree kangaroo walkthroughs, but it does make me disappointed that I have no memory of them there whatsoever. The only photo I could find of her in Rainforest Life is this one, supposedly taken the day she went onshow.
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cerperal
Well-Known Member
Would make sense! The squirrel monkeys are still there but it's the bachelor group that lived in an enclosure at Gorilla Kingdom (these might be the same ones that you're referring to). I agree on the Roundhouse, it's in desperate need of being used for something other than hanging posters of animals not at the zoo
Kalaw
Well-Known Member
Yes, the bachelor group are the ones I am talking about. They were actually kept behind 'Rainforest Life' before they moved onshow to 'Gorilla Kingdom.' I didn't realise they moved back to their previous home; presumably this is due to the GK renovations?
cerperal
Well-Known Member
Yes, they moved in late July back there to coincide with what was meant to be the start of construction (but was obviously delayed). I'm not sure if the zoo intends to keep them long-term, but you can occasionally see them through the gentle lemur windows. There's also a small off-show desert exhibit back there which to my knowledge is empty, would be interesting to know what it used to hold.
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
Okay, that seems about right. In 2018 I done a keeper for a day at London Zoo, before they changed to only doing it at Whipsnade, I remember after feeding the Sloth and Monkeys, we were taken to the back area by the classroom part of the Rainforest section and went downstairs to where a Tree Kangaroo was, which we were shown but weren't allowed to take photos etc.
It was bugging me, as I couldn't think what enclosure this was, or that, but makes sense now that it was an off show area.
It was bugging me, as I couldn't think what enclosure this was, or that, but makes sense now that it was an off show area.
Yes that is the off-show enclosure the kangaroo was kept in. Prior to the tree kangaroo it held the Lac Alaotra gentle lemurs for several years. She only went on show in the main Rainforest Life space for a very short time (maybe only a few days) but I believe she was moved back off-show due to stress.
Yes, as far as I remember she was on-show in Rainforest Life for less than a week and had to be moved off-show, the walkthrough setting was too much for her. I never saw her unfortunately, only the platforms put up in preparation. Shame she couldn't have been put in the glass-fronted outdoor area where the Gentle Lemurs are now (and previously Spider Monkeys). Tree kangaroos could be an animal that London would do well with I feel, and with the many positive changes the zoo has undertaken the last few years, and continual addition of new and interesting species, maybe we can hope for a more successful return of tree kangaroos sometime!
London Zoo's first koala, which was acquired in 1880, was kept in the Superintendent's office. It spent most of the day asleep and, at night, was left free to wander around the office. Sady, after more than a year, it was accidentally killed one night by the heavy lid of a washing stand which fell down on its neck, trapping the koala and causing asphyxiation.
Typhlonectes
Well-Known Member
In the 1991 footage the zoo kept Wart Biter, New Zealand Weta and Olympia’s Ground Beetle. Does anyone have any further information on these projects? I seem to remember hearing the Wart Biter project failed but some more information would be good
I can recall one of the guidebooks from around that time had a picture of a wartbiter on a cricket ball with some accompanying text. I'll see if I can dig it out and post a picture.
Edit: from the 1994 guidebook
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Typhlonectes
Well-Known Member
Cool thanks!
There is this scientific paper about the former invertebrate house that was published in 1991, which includes some information about the breeding programmes for the ground beetle and wart biter (including a photograph of the wart biter breeding room), as well as a full list of species kept in the house at the time and an overview layout of the house.
This paper from 1997 says that there was high mortality among the wart biters because of an outbreak of the insect-killing fungus Verticilliurn lecanii. This resulted in the restocking of wart biters into areas that already had the species being cancelled, and this captive stock was only used to create brand-new populations.
Regarding the Olimpia's ground beetles, a group of 31 captive-bred animals arrived at London in October 1988 from France. In the first year of the programme, over half of these animals also died of Verticilliurn lecanii. The survivors of this outbreak did go on to breed successfully. While I do not know when the species disappeared from London's collection, they seem to have gone before the 1997 incident with the wart biters, as the crickets were housed in the same room that the beetles had previously been housed in.
Typhlonectes
Well-Known Member
Brilliant cheers
This year’s ZSL Annual Report just dropped, which can be found here: https://cms.zsl.org/sites/default/files/2025-10/ZSL Annual Report 2024-25 (1).pdf
In terms of the zoo’s future it doesn’t reveal much (except of course the ongoing Gorilla Kingdom expansion), but it does suggest they’re focusing specifically on making new zoo buildings more energy-efficient and sustainable
In terms of the zoo’s future it doesn’t reveal much (except of course the ongoing Gorilla Kingdom expansion), but it does suggest they’re focusing specifically on making new zoo buildings more energy-efficient and sustainable