Marwell Wildlife Review of my Marwell visit 29/08/09

Bele said:
My memory of how much the lions cost was on the high side !

Marwell received a pair of eland in 1979 .

I believe the wild boar was named after the local Policeman .
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I stand corrected...

The Boar was indeed named after a policeman (for an irreverant reason) -so maybe it was later deemed unsuitable. In those days a 'wild' boar loose in the countryside was an unusual event- his background was never established for sure but two wild boar were reported to have escaped from a small Wildlife Park at Great Bedwyn in Wiltshire- if he was one of those he had travelled some way(thirty miles?)to where he was captured.
 
The boar was called Coulston after the policeman. I got confused with a boar I saw at the IOW Zoo this week who was called Winston, sorry. :rolleyes:
 
it says, Lions and monkeys were different (they were saying people can't call it a proper zoo withought lions, monkeys and elephants) reluctently john knowles accepted a pair of patas monkeys. But until now, we were only able to obtain african lions
 
Cat-Man said:
it says, Lions and monkeys were different (they were saying people can't call it a proper zoo withought lions, monkeys and elephants) reluctently john knowles accepted a pair of patas monkeys. But until now, we were only able to obtain african lions
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To me, that sounds like only African Lions were available, but Marwell chose not to obtain them
 
Cat-Man said:
reluctently john knowles accepted a pair of patas monkeys.
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I didn't know they had Patas monkeys but they are relatively dull as an exhibit. They have also had De Brazzas(though for some reason they got rid of them) Sulawesi 'Black Apes'( they sound good..economical 'apes') Hamlyn's Owl faced Monkeys(didn't last very long) plus the Siamangs in that awful travesty of an original cage.

Things are a bit better nowadays...
 
Cat-Man said:
it says, Lions and monkeys were different (they were saying people can't call it a proper zoo withought lions, monkeys and elephants) reluctently john knowles accepted a pair of patas monkeys. But until now, we were only able to obtain african lions
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It doesn`t say that they did keep African Lion`s just that only African Lions were available,bearing in mind that you are trying to tell some people on here that have been involved with Marwell since the day it was first opened that they are wrong and that you know more about the place than them!I know which people i`m going to believe are right in this matter.
 
Marwell's patas monkeys were kept in the hurrendous old gibbon cage for a short time when it was first built. Marwell keeper ERIBECA 39 uploaded a picture of one in the cage here. The owl monkeys arrived with the colobus to populate the primate exhibit in the newly built Into Africa in 2000, but the last one died out only two years after.

And zoogiraffe's right Cat-Man, you shouldn't be so certain on facts before you're time where you don't have a reliable source.
 
zoogiraffe said:
It doesn`t say that they did keep African Lion`s just that only African Lions were available,bearing in mind that you are trying to tell some people on here that have been involved with Marwell since the day it was first opened that they are wrong and that you know more about the place than them!I know which people i`m going to believe are right in this matter.
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I think that's a little harsh. If I'd read the book I would probably have made that assumption too and would, most likely, have posted it on this thread. It's not like he just made it up - the information was taken from a reliable source.
 
The original group of Celebes black apes (as they were then known ) , probably wild-caught youngsters , were housed in one of the large enclosures in the Stable yard , on the left-side as you came in , where the lions had previously been . There were quite a few of them and they were very lively .
 
Eland

Marwells Elland where on the old East Section along with the Kulan and Onagar in 1981 when i started work there as a keeper. It was and still is Greater Kudu which are kept in the rhino area.
 
Cat-Man said:
But until now, we were only able to obtain african lions
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In Catman's defence, that particular statement is not very well phrased and so a little ambiguous. it should perhaps have said, 'we would only have been able', or 'only African lions were available'- which we didn't want- something like that.
 
Pertinax said:
In Catman's defence, that particular statement is not very well phrased and so a little ambiguous. it should perhaps have said, 'we would only have been able', or 'only African lions were available'- which we didn't want- something like that.
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I will take it up with the author of the book next time i speak to him,so we can get it cleared up before the updated version comes out.
 
My copy of Marwell The Story So Far has on page 36,

When Marwell opened the only chance would have been to obtain African lions, an animal fortunately both common in the wild and kept in abundance in captivity. It was some years later that Marwell acquired the very rare Asiatic lions

I have to agree with CZJimmy and Zoogiraffe, the use of past tense to me implies that African lions would have been availabe, not that they were obtained.
 
Im finding this an extremly interesting thread, even if my only visit to Marwell was when i was 5.

I know that we've now reached the conclusion that African Lions werent kept but to draw it to a firm close, if you look at this article

http://www.zoonews.co.uk/IZN/324/IZN-324.htm

which if you scroll down a little gives a list of species past and present at Marwell up until 2001.
There are no African Lions mentioned.
 
I've seen that list before, and whilst it is six years OOD (but we can't have everything!) it is very interesting. :)
 
bongorob said:
My copy of Marwell The Story So Far has on page 36,

When Marwell opened the only chance would have been to obtain African lions, an animal fortunately both common in the wild and kept in abundance in captivity. It was some years later that Marwell acquired the very rare Asiatic lions

I have to agree with CZJimmy and Zoogiraffe, the use of past tense to me implies that African lions would have been availabe, not that they were obtained.
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If that's how its written it is as clear as could be....
 
They would have had to have switched to the Asiatic hybrids after only 8-10 years of being open, as the asiatic-type lions were there from about 1980 possibly much earlier.
 
As it was me that originally put the cat among the pigeons re: African Lions at Marwell, I will say that there were two pairs of lions, one of which was quite heavily maned as I recall-it was a very long time ago. My memory is that they were African but maybe if they were Gir/African hybrids, they may have been noted as that and my recall is faulty. I cannot state definitively what the situation was-it's certainly not worth getting too fussed about!

The Eland were kept in the area where the Somali Ass/Roan Antelope are now kept.

I would like someone to confirm if Marwell did keep Gerenuk though-I am convinced I saw them at Marwell-I remember someone telling me something about their (to a schoolboy) interesting habit of drinking urine.

Anybody else remember the 2 conservation fairs-they were held up behind Treetops I think-possibly on part of what is the new African Plain-I got Sir Peter Scott's/David Bellamy's autographs but over the years I have lost them-I would pay quite a bit to get them again!

I also appeared in the crowd when Johnny Morris filmed with a Serval at the 2nd fair.
Shame there were never any more after that
.
I shall ask my Gran if she has any old photos of us from the early days when we visited-there may be something interesting there.

Marwell Dalek-are the White Rhinos and Kudu likely to move up to the African Plains exhibit? Is the viewing area up there likely to be expanded in the future?
 
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