South Lakes Wild Animal Park Visit on 1st June

R

RTB1987

Well-Known Member
A few points of interest from my visit on Monday 1st June:
The former cheetah enclosure has been adapted to hold the Mandrill and Pygmy Hippos

There are now 5 spider monkeys, there were on my last visit 3 quite elderly ones so i'm not sure if 2 have been added or if these 5 have replaced the previous 3 who may have passed away. Any info would be helpful?

I managed to get chatting with a keeper after the rhino talk had ended who stated there may be quite a few changes on the African paddock. The rhino house can only provide space for 6 individuals so will be full to capacity once the 2 youngsters have been weaned. The keeper also stated that the father of the 2 youngsters Mazungu may be losing dominance of the herd to Huubke. This may result in youngsters born in the future being fathered by him therefore getting a wider genetic diversity of offspring from the herd. In terms of the giraffes the keeper stated that one of the bachelors will be moved to Dudley zoo soon and the plan is to disperse the bachelors (including a male that will be coming over from Ireland in the near future) as quickly as possible. Once this has been done the plan is to get a breeding group of Giraffes similar to the species the zoo is helping to preserve in Niger, Africa. Would this possibly be Baringo as she said it wouldn't be the Rotschild they currently hold??

Brown Capuchins now reside in the mixed South American paddock (excluding the Asian Short Clawed Otters of course). Weirdly while watching the animals the most dominant creature seems to be the otters.

Squirrel Monkeys now live in the enclosure that used to be occupied by the fruit bats.

The Park also now houses 20+ Caribbean Flamingos in the Outback area. Sadly the pool they are supposed to live in doesn't look big enough for them in my opinion.

The guide states that the park hope to have births from the Sumatran Tigers, Pygmy Hippos and Tapirs this year due to mating being observed. It also states they hope for pregnancies to occur in relation to the Andean Bears this year.
 
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gd report .... and great new regarding the bears do you know how many bears they have ? and which one could be pregnant ?
 
RTB1987 said:
Once this has been done the plan is to get a breeding group of Giraffes similar to the species the zoo is helping to preserve in Niger, Africa. Would this possibly be Baringo as she said it wouldn't be the Rotschild they currently hold??
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As mjmorg89 says, Baringo and Rothschild's are one and the same. It wouldn't be inconceivable for them to get West African giraffes - the Nigerian subspecies peralta is around in reasonable numbers in Europe (albeit almost exclusively in France).
 
Sorry about the Rothschild/ Baringo mix-up :o

Yeah there is 1 male and 4 females. I think it has been mentioned before that there are 2 females they can breed with who are sisters, while the other pair of sisters they have been advised not too. Sorry I can't give you any more info as time was tight and had to sacrifice the bear talk in order to eat as the talks are every half an hour from 12:30 onwards.
 
The old mandrill/ hippo enclosure is empty as far as i could see as the entrances to the housing were both shut.Nothing seems to have been done which implies there are no plans at the moment to put anything in there.

The new exhibit is basically the old cheetah enclosure but with a pool, a few rocks and bushes, and a solitary tree with a few ropes hanging off it. Correct me if i'm wrong but are Mandrills mainly ground dwellers?? If they are i guess thats why there isn't much in the way of climbing opportunities.
 
i was just on South lakes wild animal park's website, and when i clicked on the hippo link it has a pic of a common hippo, which species of hippo do they have as RTB1987 said they had pygmy???????
 
They also say their pair are the only pair in northern Britain, hello Edinburgh zoo!.
Who writes this drivel?
 
What, the only pygmy hippos in the UK?

How convinient to leave out Edinburgh, Marwell, London, Whipsnade, Bristol and Colchester...
 
No md, they only said Northern Britain, not just the south mate, a ridiculous statement for them to make.
 
Ah right. I suppose it would make sense if they mean't Northern England, but it's still a bit of an effortless claim. Marwell could say they have the only tigers in Hampshire, Paignton the only elephants in Devon, etc...
 
I think the tapirs should use the old hippo paddock, they'd feel much better than they would in with the bears!
And yes, all the signs do have pics of common hippo... When you can find an information sign that is!
 
yeah they have pygmy hippos...or common hippos with stunted growth :D

South Lakes has a history of UK this and UK that, the spectacled bears were marketed as the 'Only ones in theUK' till Chester received some. The Outback area has the 'Most Marsupial species in the UK'.

The Tapirs seemed fine to be honest when i went, they seem to hang around at the bottom part where there is grass to lie down on. Most of the species in that area mainly keep seperate except the otters that seem fearless :)
 
When I visited one of the bears went for one of the tapirs, as a result it seemed terrified and really on edge the whole time I was there. It's not fair on them to have them in constant fear like that. Yeah, apparently their method of feeding tigers on a pole is unique in Europe, but I'm sure I've seen it elsewhere.
 
I'm rather dubious about whether the Spectacled Bears can breed successfully while living in a mixed exhibit like this. Even if the dominant species it may be stressful for them, while they will need privacy and seperate den facilities if any of the females is to rear young successfully.
 
The few times i've been i've never seen anything like that happen, but it is probably only natural i guess. Maybe they were stupid to think a predator and prey species could co-exist in peace just because they're captive-born animals. There is no need to put an animal in a situation like ya say where its fearing for its life just because its a good exhibit.

I do think though that the feeding pole was the owners own idea and i think its been copied by other places. It was the first place i'd seen it done and from watching certain shows other places do seem to have started doing it aswell.
 
RTB1987 said:
I do think though that the feeding pole was the owners own idea and i think its been copied by other places. It was the first place i'd seen it done and from watching certain shows other places do seem to have started doing it aswell.
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You are right there, and it is now quite a common practice.
 
And yet they still claim they're the only place in Europe to do it lol. And I agree with Pertinax, must be highly stressful for all the animals in that exhibit. If the tapirs moved to the old Mandrill/hippo enclosure then they could be mixed with the spider monkeys in the enclosure next door.
 
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