Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoo News

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SWA

Well-Known Member
Hi

Here is some of the latest news:

1 Amur cub was born at the end of last year. Hopefully it will be out and about for Easter. I am not sure of the sex yet.

The male Snow Leopard (son of current pair) has left for Germany.

The new Restaurant has been started and should be open by the end of the year. It will over look the Valley Field (currently unused) and some of the current animals will be introduced into there.

The second phase of the Australia Zone should also be completed this year - it will house Emu and Kangaroos.

The old Lion House will be converted into an 'Amphibian Ark'.

If there are any specific questions you have on Marwell - free free to ask (I am a regular visitor)
 
Diana Monkeys

Hi

The Diana Monkeys have near breed at Marwell (to my knowledge)
 
Gorillas

Yes I believe the plan is to get gorillas within the next 2-3 years.

I think the current plan is that they will be a group of young males rather than a breeding group.

I guess it depends on how quickly they can get the funding.

My feeling is that will be the next 'major' project after the current developments have been completed.
 
SWA said:
The new Restaurant has been started and should be open by the end of the year. It will over look the Valley Field (currently unused) and some of the current animals will be introduced into there.
The Valley Field is fallow land? On which side of the Marwell Zoo plan is this?

Which animal species are to be introduced there? Do they plan to create a new themed exhibit there too?
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I guess they have no other possibility then to take an all male group if they want to exhibit gorillas; it`s the policy of the EEP that new holders will only get males for at least a couple of years. There is an exeption from time to time (Gaiaprk Kerkrade got a small family right from the beginning - propbably due to their affiliation with Apenheul, and now the Bioparc Valencia has also gotten females right away - my guess because they offered to take a problem = non breeding male too).
 
I have pulled out a copy of the ten year strategic vision and in it they say the valley will be a drive through exhibit with old army trucks in which will be.
Giraffe (hybrid)
Chapman's zebra
Waterbuck
Roan antelope
"Black" lechwe
hippo?
lion
 
Re Valley field

The Valley field is currently owned by Marwell and is about a 1/4 of the size of the current zoo. The site is behind the current fields running from the Giraffe to the Grevy Zebra (on the side of the Amur Leopard) to where the Sable Antelope are currently housed.

I think to start with zebra & antelope will be introduced there (not sure which species).
 
Part of the 'valley field' has been used for a very long time (wild horse, camel and currently Roan) but it is the much larger half to the north of the current gemsbok/ sable paddock that will be opened up for the first time. I saw the building work for the new restuarant on Sat.....very early days!! The old 10 year plan cited may not now be acccurate.
I was told that 'something' (probably exisiting stock) would be in the field when the restaurant opens but that full development of the exhibit will take place over a longer timeframe. Intention is (or was) to move much of the African stock from Southern part of zoo up there and develop exisiting rhino house for asian rhinos, etc to fit in with asian part of zoo (siamangs, roof of the world, etc). All probably 'in the mix' at the moment.

Re: Gorillas (or bonobos); always thought the 'south american' paddock near the entrance would be perfect for a great ape enclosure and is currently a bit of a waste of space (rheas, capybaras). Sadly, with the anteaters being moved to that area (now the SA 'biome', seems we are stuck with it.....

Finally, anyone know what happened to the Squirrel Monkeys on the island in Black Swan Pond??
 
Re Gorillas

On the 10 year plan the potential site of the Gorillas is where the Chapman Zebra are currently kept. This will mean that they will be near the Okapi and form a new zone

I hadn't noticed that the squirrel monkeys had disappeared - I will have a look next time I am there
 
More musings on Marwell....

Given that Marwell has always been the place to see large herds of African hoofstock, wouldn't it be nice if the new 'African Plains' exhibit contained a mix of species actually found on African Plains....I dream of wildebeest, eland, thompsons gazelle + existing zebra, ostrich, rhino.;)

Also, that little mongoose enclosure in the madagascar area (houses yellow mongoose) was originally built for madagascarn ring-tailed mongoose. Are they ever likely to materialize? (I doubt it!). :confused:
 
The only ring-tailed mongooses on ISIS are 1.1 at Heidelberg, but they have quite a few at Berlin, at least 3 pairs on show a few months ago. I assume they have bred them. They are very attractive creatures and highly active in the daytime, and would make a great display at Marwell.
 
Yassa said:
I guess they have no other possibility then to take an all male group if they want to exhibit gorillas; it`s the policy of the EEP that new holders will only get males for at least a couple of years. There is an exeption from time to time (Gaiaprk Kerkrade got a small family right from the beginning - propbably due to their affiliation with Apenheul, and now the Bioparc Valencia has also gotten females right away - my guess because they offered to take a problem = non breeding male too).
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I think bachelor Gorillas are a good start for any zoo(like Marwell) new to this species- they can learn how to husband them before maybe adding breeders later.. I've seen photos of Gaia Park's gorilla facility (and unlike my comments on Givskud's interior- see the Danish Zoo thread) it looks like a top quality facility. The small group(2.1) they got initially- Makulla, Irala and Mtonge- had already been separated into a subgroup at Apenheul so it was a good move for them. I think they've added a young female from Berlin.

I agree that Valencia were probably allowed to start a breeding group because they took Catou and Dorle from Duisburg as well..
 
zoogiraffe said:
I thought it was Bonobos they were going to get not Gorillas at least thats what i was told about 3 years ago!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I think the Bonobo idea has gone out of the window- I don't imagine they would have both Gorillas and Bonobos- Gorillas will pull in more visitors too..
 
Newzooboy said:
I was told that 'something' (probably exisiting stock) would be in the field when the restaurant opens but that full development of the exhibit will take place over a longer timeframe. Intention is (or was) to move much of the African stock from Southern part of zoo up there and develop exisiting rhino house for asian rhinos, etc to fit in with asian part of zoo (siamangs, roof of the world, etc). All probably 'in the mix' at the moment.
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Nice to learn that Marwell Zoo is going into fallow lands to develop its zoning plan. It seems sensible to move up all the African hoofstock up north and create more intra-species exhibits. Some of the current ones are so ... ahum ... lame and bare. Scimitars up to the addax/dama/dorcas habitat. Grevy's zebra, hyrax, some species of gazelle and perhaps lesser kudu (be nice). Etcetera.
 
I think the current paddocks work well in the summer when full of large mixed herds. A winter visit to Marwell does give the feel of lots of empty space since the hoofstock is kept on hard stands at this time to prevent the paddocks getting ruined and to assist with hoof/ parasite issues. I still prefer this to watching Zebra wading through a mudbath in the winter and concreted mud in the summer....

I think Aridlands would be too small for the Scimitar Oryx which now number a significant herd. Certainly there would be no room for exisitng Addax & gazelle as well (+ not sure that Addax and oryx could be mixed?). The oryx also look so good when mixed with the Grevy's Zebra.
 
Newzooboy said:
I think Aridlands would be too small for the Scimitar Oryx which now number a significant herd. Certainly there would be no room for exisitng Addax & gazelle as well (+ not sure that Addax and oryx could be mixed?). The oryx also look so good when mixed with the Grevy's Zebra.
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Affirmative on the addax/scimitar combo. That will not work. Addax are pure sanddune species and scimitar semi-arid steppe species basically. Also, the larger scimitars would supplant the addax. This is not what I meant though: the perfect combo would be scimitars and dorcas gazelle while addax being kept with the dama gazelle (would also be geographically correct as per habitat type).

I personally would not favour putting the scimitars in with the Grevy's zebra. The latter are sometimes quite aggressive and the scimitar bull is not mild mannered when it comes to defending his harem. :(
 
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