Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Jersey priority developments

Yassa said:
I hope very much that they will keep Ya Kwanza with the female he is breeding with, he is genetically so very important. Either send them away together to a zoo with a smaller gorilla enlcosure, or keep them seperated as a second group.

For the other females, there are a couple of young male gorillas who would be interesting... the young males from the La Valle des Singes group (no Frankfurt/Jersey/Basle/Krefeld/Apenheul blood at all!), or in a couple of years the young males now growing up in Bristol (same). Or M`Tonge from Gaiapark, born Apenheul - ok he is overrepresented from his father`s side, but his mother was wild-born and has only 2 offspring. There are some more candidates out there; it`s getting more difficult but not impossible.
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I think its just possible they may in time be thinking of splitting the current group along the lines you say, keeping Ya Kwanza and H.Kahilli (his wife) together, and the three other females with a new male. That is the most realistic option. I can't see them ever risking sending Kahilli away- she is the only current breeding female and only daughter in the group of their old female N'Pongo- I would prefer she stays too. Splitting the group into two may be their only option if they want to breed from the other females, as finding a new home for Ya Kwanza will be next to impossible.

Re a (potential) new male- the two at Bristol are both still only babies- under three years old! Similarly Twycross's 'Matadi' is genetically valuable but too young also(five) Gaiapark's M'tonge could be a possible. Another genetically very valuable older male is the 11/12 years old 'Nasibu' at Kolmarden(from the very underrepresented original Bristol line)-he is the right age but was handraised and as yet not a proven breeder..
 
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^Chris^ said:
Actually re-reading the article, it sounds as though it may be just the house and gym which will be new, and perhaps the outdoor paddock will stay as it is. Fingers crossed.
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I've looked at the artist's impression but am none the wiser. It does say they are going to recreate a 'Bai'(which zoo doesn't nowadays?) but perhaps it will be a renovation/remodelling of the existing outdoor enclosure. On this site there isn't another large space nearby they can use for a brand new enclosure and the existing one would become wasted space. Should be interesting when(if) it happens...
 
Phase 1 of the re-development of Jersey Zoo will consist of

1. Mascarenia - a huge dome at the north west corner of the park to house endangered species from the Comoros, Mauritius and Madagascar. Free flying Livingstone's Fruit Bats will be the main feature. Other animals to be kept in this building will be lemurs and mongooses.

2. African Bai - a completely new gorilla enclosure which will be constructed on land to the south of the orang utan and gibbon islands. There will be enough room for a large group of gorillas and other animals will be Red River Hogs and guenons. The indoor accommodation appears to be as large as the whole of the orang utan area and south of that will be a huge outside enclosure.

3. Eco lodges where tourists can stay in environmentally friendly accommodation. These will be built to the west of the Mascarenes area.

Phase 2 will be

4. Research and veterinary facilities

5. Reptile and Amphibian breeding centres

6. Expansion of the International Training Centre

The Nubel Bird Propogation Centre has been refurbished and now consists of a specialised pigeon and dove rearing room, waterfowl incubation and rearing rooms and offshow aviaries for endangered passerines.

Durrell has been invited to found a captive population of Madagascan Pochard.

The Gerald Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust charity has been disbanded and replaced by a new charity called the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.

The Trust intends to continue to bring endangered animals back to Jersey in order to start breeding programmes.

49 Madagascan Side-necked Turtles have been reared at the Durrel supported Ampijoroa centre in Madagascar. It is only the second time this turtle has been bred in captivity.
 
Wow!.... things seem to be happening bigtime again. I wonder if they have the funding for these developments yet?
 
Money, money, money. Where on earth is it going to be coming from? I've read about rumors of private donors and corporate sponsorship, but nothing has been confirmed at this point. The timeline is supposedly 5 years for the majority of these projects, but it will be interesting to find out when the financing is announced.
 
Phase 1 estimate is £38 million! Phase 2 estimate is £9.

The trust is planning a marketing campaign. Is this why Paul Masterton has been brought in?
 
Writhedhornbill said:
I'm most excited about the Madagascan Pochard!
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I do hope that the last Madagascan pochard in the north-east may be captured to initiate a breeding programme at Jersey. Think what multiple egg laying and real genetic flow between the 9+4 would do for the species as a whole. It would be possible to breed up numbers quite impressively (just think what happened to Chatham island robins by the good works of the NZ DoC! :cool:
 
What's the story with the Madagascan Pochard- presumably down to almost single figures?

Chatham Island Robin(Black Robin) there were only two breeding pairs and I think one additional bird left- but the species was virtually saved singlehandedly by just one pair- the female of which was called 'old blue'( her ring colour) she was a particularly fertile bird and laid repeated clutches of eggs, where the other pair repeatedly failed. Doc's manoevering of their eggs etc wouldn't have worked without 'old blue.

Going back to Jersey 'Phase 1'. I really hope that if they are expending huge amounts of money on a new gorilla exhibit, that they make it worthwhile by resuming a PROPER breeding group rather than what they have now.... Perhaps they will decide to keep Ya Kwanza and his one breeding female in the old building, and build a fresh group around a new male? In which case they are bound to claim the young female 'Jumatano' from Melbourne Zoo who is 'theirs' by exchange. I must admit the idea of it being a 'mixed' exhibit with guenons and red river hogs does sound an attractive idea and I'm sure Jersey will do it very nicely- finances permitting.
 
I know this is an old thread but my post seemed to fit nicely here.

browsing around the durrel website I found a rather rough map of the new developments on the design principles page:

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust | About Durrell | Vision | Design Principles

If you scroll to the bottom of the page the map is there. its seems very interesting as instead of being totally geographic they are centering areas around problems such as the bushmeat trade, introduced predators etc.
 
foz said:
I know this is an old thread but my post seemed to fit nicely here.

browsing around the durrel website I found a rather rough map of the new developments on the design principles page:

Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust | About Durrell | Vision | Design Principles

If you scroll to the bottom of the page the map is there. its seems very interesting as instead of being totally geographic they are centering areas around problems such as the bushmeat trade, introduced predators etc.
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Interesting, I wonder what species will be going into 'African Highlands'?
 
^Chris^ said:
Interesting, I wonder what species will be going into 'African Highlands'?
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Something like Geladas would fit quite nicely in the Gorilla exhibit in my opinion (at least i think the "highlands" area is the same area as the current gorilla exhibit)

EDIT: great minds Foz... ;)
 
In ZooChatter's dreams it would be Ethiopian Wolves. :rolleyes: But I think a Gelada/Barbary Sheep/Nubian Ibex mixed exhibit is a good possibility.
 
CZJimmy said:
Something like Geladas would fit quite nicely in the Gorilla exhibit in my opinion (at least i think the "highlands" area is the same area as the current gorilla exhibit)

EDIT: great minds Foz... ;)
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Yes, the existing Gorilla enclosure has hillocks already. They could landscape it more by adding rocks etc and maybe reducing the amount of climbing stuff if they want it to look realistic- as Geladas actually live in barren,, relatively treeless areas. I personally think they would be better without hoofed animals mixed in as the Geladas would make a good enough exhibit on their own but I imagine they'd want a mixed exhibit.

Jersey have had Geladas before, a small group that were later sent to London's Sobell Pavilions, where I think they finally died out.
 
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Pertinax said:
Yes, the existing Gorilla enclosure has hillocks already. They could landscape it more by adding rocks etc and maybe reducing the amount of climbing stuff if they want it to look realistic- as Geladas actually live in barren,, relatively treeless areas. I personally think they would be better without hoofed animals mixed in as the Geladas would make a good enough exhibit on their own but I imagine they'd want a mixed exhibit.

Jersey have had Geladas before, a small group that were later sent to London's Sobell Pavilions, where I think they finally died out.
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Yes, I guess Geladas are most likely, just wondered with Jersey's reputation whether they might've been able to stretch to something really unusual. Maybe not Ethiopian Wolves, but something a bit different. Nubian Gazelle would be a bit different, but I don't think Jersey is famed for hoofstock. I suppose Geladas aren't common in zoos, but I think they seem to be on the rise.

Thanks for suggestions.
 
You can scratch any bovids due to Jersey's (the island, not the zoo) strict rules protecting the founder base of Jersey cows. The only hoofstock previously held (to my knowledge) were Przewalski horses, Brazilian tapirs, Collared peccary and babirusa.
 
Secondary spend = We have none.
It's the best way to offer a more welcoming entrance (We already have a walk in building rather than any form of ticket booths) while also tagging on better facilities of all kinds (there are no toilets or food facilities in the visitor centre) and open up potential spend from people not interested in actually paying to enter the park.

Chester for example fulfill these needs with various restaurants, small food outlets and a multitude of ways to part with further cash, this is the most obvious form of that.
 
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