Banham Zoo Banham Zoo Mixed African Paddock?

Cheburban said:
Not sure I made myself clear enough....my understanding is that there are NO plans for such an exhibit and never have been. As far as I am aware it has never been formally discussed, although I would never go as far as to say NEVER, the main part of that part of the zoo was to move the Grevy's so that they shared the paddock with the Giraffe, its possibole they may have discussed the possibility of additional species but I dont think this was any more than a bit of chatter amongst staff. As previously pointed out unless it was done very differently it would be in direct competition with their sister park Africa Alive!
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The Giraffe paddock was deliberately designed to allow it to be extended. The initial plan is to move the Grevy's Zebra in when the financial climate gets to a more favourable state and then we will acquire more species. I am only going on what I have been told by the Keepers at Banham. I have NO idea whether there are actual plans that have been written up or whatnot. However, seeing as the owner of Banham Zoo had the Giraffe paddock designed so it could be easily extended, there was an early plan then to create the mixed African paddock.

Also, how are you so sure that there are no plans?
 
CiaranDUK said:
The Giraffe paddock was deliberately designed to allow it to be extended. The initial plan is to move the Grevy's Zebra in when the financial climate gets to a more favourable state and then we will acquire more species. I am only going on what I have been told by the Keepers at Banham. I have NO idea whether there are actual plans that have been written up or whatnot. However, seeing as the owner of Banham Zoo had the Giraffe paddock designed so it could be easily extended, there was an early plan then to create the mixed African paddock.

Also, how are you so sure that there are no plans?
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If I can begin with your last point, the reason I can be so sure is that I am the Animal Manager at Banham Zoo and so have considerable input into such decisions as I am sure you and everyone else that has had some input into this thread will appreciate, I have enjoyed reading the various comments but Zoochat is something that I look at as a leisure activity, although I have no issue with staff and volunteers posting information on here (it is after all a free country) I felt I had to correct the inaccuracies in this post.

The giraffe paddock was indeed built with the intention of moving the Grevy's so that they would share an extended enclosure, we know the location where the new stables will eventually go and also have architects plans for the new accommodation but this is on hold for the foreseeable future.

As for additional species, as I mentioned before, the keeping staff will of course discuss options for the future amongst themselves, during breaks and with volunteers and work experience students (I would be surprised if there were any keepers out there that didnt) but that does not mean that these are factual, I have even taken part in such 'tea break debates' myself but often these discussions or conversations are personal opinion and I think you may have confused them as having some factual content, its possible that some of the keepers may have done the same.

It may be that keepers do not fully understand the direction that we wish to take or what other plans are being considered, it cannot be the case that all things discussed are made common knowledge, many ideas never see the light of day for a number of factors.

Therefore I am afraid that I must correct you, WE are not planning to acquire any additional species for this exhibit, it has never been discussed by the managers or directors formally, I was present at the initial planning meetings for both phases of this exhibit and can confirm that this was never discussed as an option, yes it is possible that it is something we may consider but I think you really need to check the facts with either myself or Gary before posting information on here as factual.
 
Many thanks Cheburban for the clarification and your patience in correcting what I always suspected was someone "over-representing" Banham.
 
Oh dear...what a palaver! Thank you so much Cheburban for clearing this whole matter up. I was led to believe that Banham WAS going to build an African Exhibit with new animals and relativly soon. I can now see that Ciarian's discussion was only about some tea-break chatter! Thanks again.
 
lechweoryx said:
So is the or isn't there going to be a African exhibit at Banham?
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Apart from the proposed stables for the Grevy's zebra which will eventually see them share an enlarged paddock with the giraffe there are no plans for any such 'African' exhibit at the present time but as I stated before these plans are currently on hold.
 
You are welcome, sorry for the confusion, I am sure it was well intended but because the direction the thread was taking I felt it necessary to intervene, hope it is now clear for all.
 
Cheburban said:
If I can begin with your last point, the reason I can be so sure is that I am the Animal Manager at Banham Zoo and so have considerable input into such decisions as I am sure you and everyone else that has had some input into this thread will appreciate, I have enjoyed reading the various comments but Zoochat is something that I look at as a leisure activity, although I have no issue with staff and volunteers posting information on here (it is after all a free country) I felt I had to correct the inaccuracies in this post.

The giraffe paddock was indeed built with the intention of moving the Grevy's so that they would share an extended enclosure, we know the location where the new stables will eventually go and also have architects plans for the new accommodation but this is on hold for the foreseeable future.

As for additional species, as I mentioned before, the keeping staff will of course discuss options for the future amongst themselves, during breaks and with volunteers and work experience students (I would be surprised if there were any keepers out there that didnt) but that does not mean that these are factual, I have even taken part in such 'tea break debates' myself but often these discussions or conversations are personal opinion and I think you may have confused them as having some factual content, its possible that some of the keepers may have done the same.

It may be that keepers do not fully understand the direction that we wish to take or what other plans are being considered, it cannot be the case that all things discussed are made common knowledge, many ideas never see the light of day for a number of factors.

Therefore I am afraid that I must correct you, WE are not planning to acquire any additional species for this exhibit, it has never been discussed by the managers or directors formally, I was present at the initial planning meetings for both phases of this exhibit and can confirm that this was never discussed as an option, yes it is possible that it is something we may consider but I think you really need to check the facts with either myself or Gary before posting information on here as factual.
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Well I do apologise, really I do. It's just that I have been led to believe by a few Keepers that there was going to be a mixed African Exhibit. I must also apologise to everyone else who I have mislead. I really do care about Banham Zoo as it's my local Zoo, have great childhood memories and for the fact that I volunteer there so I think maybe I have got too 'excited', hence a lot of threads made by myself about the latest Banham News! I hope what I have said hasn't put off anybody thinking of visiting Banham Zoo as I can honestly say that Banham is a wonderful and clean place with a nice range of animals.
 
CiaranDUK said:
Well I do apologise, really I do. It's just that I have been led to believe by a few Keepers that there was going to be a mixed African Exhibit. I must also apologise to everyone else who I have mislead. I really do care about Banham Zoo as it's my local Zoo, have great childhood memories and for the fact that I volunteer there so I think maybe I have got too 'excited', hence a lot of threads made by myself about the latest Banham News! I hope what I have said hasn't put off anybody thinking of visiting Banham Zoo as I can honestly say that Banham is a wonderful and clean place with a nice range of animals.
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The exuberance of youth is something I am sure many of us have felt (in my case sometime ago maybe, well certainly the youth part anyway) and I would not seek to criticise or belittle anyone for showing such obvious enthusiam, it is easy to perhaps get a little carried away, let no one forget how excited those of us that work or used to work in the zoo world feel from time to time, it is easy to see how people new to the delights of zoos can get a little too 'excited' as you put it, no harm done.
 
Cheburban said:
The exuberance of youth is something I am sure many of us have felt (in my case sometime ago maybe, well certainly the youth part anyway) and I would not seek to criticise or belittle anyone for showing such obvious enthusiam, it is easy to perhaps get a little carried away, let no one forget how excited those of us that work or used to work in the zoo world feel from time to time, it is easy to see how people new to the delights of zoos can get a little too 'excited' as you put it, no harm done.
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Thank you very much.
 
was it really necessary to revive a year-old thread with an inane comment?
 
To revive it into something other:

What do you fellow forumsters hold of the current giraffe paddock?
What is the plan with giraffe at Banham?

Incidentally, I would transfer the Grevy zebra out to Africa Alive (in all fairness) and combine both enclosures into one larger, more meandering exhibit (the current looks rather rectangular artificial).
 
The current giraffe paddock it is good for a zoo with the funds it has available especially as Both Banham and Africa Alive are privately owned.

Admittedly it is a bit square however adding the Grevy zebra paddock would not be possible the distance between them is a good 200 meters plus and there is a ditch on the North side of the Grevy paddock along with a mature trees inbetween the paddock and the ditch including large oaks. Also on the South side of the Giraffe paddock is a raised walkway which runs nearly the whole length of the enclosure which is a fairly new (ish) structure with large rocks forming another barrier to keep the giraffe a little distance away from the walkway which is in the paddock. Cameroon sheep do the job of keeping the grass down under this structure. Therefore would not be removed any time soon. The current paddock is currently large enough to hold the hybrid herd all mature females and one hybrid male foal. Both Africa Alive and Banham hold hybrids and I doubt this will change any time soon.
 
Both Banham and Africa Alive are now in a none breeding situations as requested by the EEP coordinator, the recent breedings at Banham was with the full agreement of the previous coordinator but as soon as the current coordinator requested Banham to cease breeding the adult male was transferred to another collection. Due to the lengthy gestation of this species it will be a while before Banham can be considered fully non breeding. It is expected that one of the collections, probably Africa Alive will switch to a pure sub species in the relatively near future as soon as animals are available and the hybrids will be transferred to a collection of the coordinators choosing. There are no plans to merge the Grevy's current enclosure with their current one as it would be logistically difficult and very expensive and there are other plans for this area. It is still intended to enlarge the current giraffe paddock to run behind the Sri lankan leopard enclosure but given the current economic climate I am sure all will understand that this is unlikely to happen at anytime in the very near future.
 
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