Chester Zoo My Chester Zoo Visits

I'm sure we'll know as soon as they are decided. I wondered whether there was a date by which Chester would know, maybe a council meeting where the final decision would be made on it.
 
a few bits of news to report:

Only one Okapi visible
Red Lechwe are back in with Roan Antelope. The male Scimitar Horned Oryx is in the old wallaby paddock
Sammy and Malindi the Rhinos have switched enclosures.
 
Cool, I wonder where the other Okapi is? Have they been breeding, maybe they are doing tests on the female to see if shes pregnant? Any sign of that new Duiker that I've heard they've got?
 
May well be, but also a possibility that one has died :(

There's any number of reasons an aninal might not be visible - there's no reason to worry just yet! :)
 
Well let's hope that it's a pregnancy test :). There are so many more possibilities, could just be having a simple health check-up or anything I suppose. I suppose they have an off-show area, maybe she's just in there for a bit of 'quiet time,' especially if she is pregnant.
 
Well let's hope that it's a pregnancy test :). There are so many more possibilities, could just be having a simple health check-up or anything I suppose. I suppose they have an off-show area, maybe she's just in there for a bit of 'quiet time,' especially if she is pregnant.

Really, I do wonder what people think they do with animals at the zoo?

I really don't know what you have going on in your head about tests!

Lets just all calm down a bit here. Chester have the space availble to leave both off-show if they wished for no reason. Lets not jump at conclusions because we don't know the answer.

Also how do you know it was Stuma (the female Okapi) that was off-show?
 
a few bits of news to report:

Only one Okapi visible
Red Lechwe are back in with Roan Antelope. The male Scimitar Horned Oryx is in the old wallaby paddock
Sammy and Malindi the Rhinos have switched enclosures.

Red Lechwe? Is it Kafue Flats Lechwe?

Rhinos move around alot now, or seem to on my visits.
 
These are just guesses that I'm coming up with, like I mentioned it could be any number of reasons. I'm not actually saying that they have bred, I wouldn't know that. I just mentioned that I hope she is pregnant :).

Also, if they have bred then don't you think they would be doing pregnancy tests, and even if she hasn't I'm sure they have regular, off-show health check-ups.
They may even have access to the off-show areas on their own accord, I'm just coming up with possibilities.
 
These are just guesses that I'm coming up with, like I mentioned it could be any number of reasons. I'm not actually saying that they have bred, I wouldn't know that. I just mentioned that I hope she is pregnant :).

Also, if they have bred then don't you think they would be doing pregnancy tests, and even if she hasn't I'm sure they have regular, off-show health check-ups.
They may even have access to the off-show areas on their own accord, I'm just coming up with possibilities.

Maybe Aliens took one of them away!

I hope that she becomes pregnant soon too, but considering its a long and slow process we may be in for a long wait.

Also the Okapi cycles are not that long, and Dicky usually indicates when Stuma has come into season. So I doubt they do pregnancy tests it will probably be a more wait and see to see if she comes back into season. So no I don't think they carry out pregnancy tests on animals just because they have bred!

I now know your coming up with suggestions but its not always clear and this leads to wrong information being presented on here.
 
Ahhh sorry, only been on for a few days so not 100% sure of how things work, perhaps if I'd made it clear that it was just a hope?

Also, I've seen keepers do pregnancy tests on plenty of zoo programmes, but I guess maybe it is different for each species (I've not seen it for Okapi, but I've seen them do scans and check scat/urine with species like Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos). Again, could be differ between species/zoos/even individual animals as to whether they do checks.

Sorry for the misunderstanding :)
 
Ahhh sorry, only been on for a few days so not 100% sure of how things work, perhaps if I'd made it clear that it was just a hope?

Also, I've seen keepers do pregnancy tests on plenty of zoo programmes, but I guess maybe it is different for each species (I've not seen it for Okapi, but I've seen them do scans and check scat/urine with species like Elephants, Giraffes and Rhinos). Again, could be differ between species/zoos/even individual animals as to whether they do checks.

Sorry for the misunderstanding :)

Not a problem, just that speculation on here can soon become fact. We had it not long ago and I know for the fact the Keepers do not like it.

Keepers don't like it when there is speculation on here because most are willing to discuss the animals with you and think people just go away and make stuff up (which sometimes does happen).
 
Ahhh right, I did hear that Chester aren't too keen on this site, which is a shame since it is a good website, but I can see how somebody may state an opionon or theory and then somebody else interprets it as fact. I'll be alot more careful in future when posting :).
 
I don't know which Okapi was outside but they were locked out.

I thought Chester had Red Lechwe as that's what the map has always said.
 
Ahhh right, I did hear that Chester aren't too keen on this site, which is a shame since it is a good website, but I can see how somebody may state an opionon or theory and then somebody else interprets it as fact. I'll be alot more careful in future when posting :).

Chester don't have a problem with this website as such, just with the speculation! ;)

Curator of Mammals Tim Rowlands recently held a special walk-and-talk for ZooChat members to try to better communicate with the site and hopefully reduce the speculation a bit. (hence why people keep getting reminded not to read too much into rhino movements between paddocks!)


I thought Chester had Red Lechwe as that's what the map has always said.

You're right in that the map has always said that, but it's an error (albeit a persistent one!). Technically Red Lechwe should refer to the subspecies Kobus leche leche, whereas the Chester animals (like almost all other K. leche in Europe) are K. l. kafuensis - Kafue Flats Lechwe. The enclosure labels have always been correct since I've been going.
 
Ahhh cool, I find this website to be very informative and is a wonderful place to meet other zoo geeks like myself ;p. I will keep the speculations to a minimum :).

You'd think Chester would have corrected the Lechwe error by now lol.
 
The subspecies K.l.kafuensis was not described until 1963, Chester's Lechwe arrived in 1959 when there were only two known subspecies. This may be why there is some confusion.
 
Just for the record both Okapi are alive and well as I saw both outside today,although the male was shut out so that the Red Natal Duiker could have the inside show enclosure for the Okapis not that she was seen on any of my 4 visits to the Okapi House.
 
No need to panic. On a recent visit I was convinced there were only four giraffes. Next time I went there were five. Obviously I missed seeing one, but I didn't automatically think it had died.
 
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