Fota Wildlife Park Fota WP Futures

K

Kifaru Bwana

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I would like to know more about the extension of 27 acres Fota has available to start an Asian wildlife realm. There is a brochure which reveals some but not much. Talk of a masterplan ...

Does anyone on the forum know more?

Besides, I would love to hear from all what makes Fota special. We all know about Dublin Zoo and how it is moving forward, yet Fota is somewhere in the cold outside ..... :(
 
jelle said:
Besides, I would love to hear from all what makes Fota special. We all know about Dublin Zoo and how it is moving forward, yet Fota is somewhere in the cold outside ..... :(
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I went to Fota once, a few years ago. It is basically in two sections- a larger walk around area with paddocks for giraffes and other ungulates, and a smaller area of islands with water moats on which groups of primates live. I was disappointed to find some of the Primate islands were very rundown and overgrown with stagnant water in the moats, while some of the indoor areas were simply offshow green prefab huts. The effect was derelict looking and shabby. There is a large rookery in the park too and white splashes(droppings) from the nesting Rooks made it look even more scruffy.

The rest of the Park was better, with large open paddocks for giraffe, zebra, oryx (probably all mixed now), and simple runs for cheetahs etc but I wouldn't call it a top-class park.. at least then.:(
 
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Its my least favourite zoo. Two of the keepers were telling me they plan to get more big cat species and rhinos and upgrade some of the other enclosures. A lot of the problem was that the old director didnt really allow any new exhibits etc to go ahead even though the staff had some great ideas but hopefully that will change because when I was younger it was my favourite zoo
 
Not so much a feature as some possible new chicks at the park, ISIS is showing 0.0.2 white tailed sea eagle at the park.
 
Well, I hope this face lift includes upgrading the Primate Islands- they really were in a very poor state when I saw them.
 
I visited Fota yesterday for the first time, and I was pleasantly surprised by the park.
It appears to have been starved of investment for a while and the couple of changes in management haven't helped, but things are changing for the better, new developments, redoing some enclosures etc. I felt a lot of the problems were just cosmetic, easily solved with a lick of paint here and there or screening / cladding, its a work in progress so don't judge it on visits several years ago
I will write a short review and upload photo's over the weekend, hopefully anyway :)
 
The park's second Lar Gibbon was born on 23/6/10 It's sex has yet to be determind but mother and baby are doing well :) The first baby was a female born in 2007
 
jordan-12 said:
A white tailed Sea Eagle has successfully hatched.
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Ab fab news and an ambassador for the species reintroduction in Ireland!

Fota now has 2 pure-bred rothschildi bulls, Tadgh and Waldo ...
What is the long term plan with the rothschildi giraffe?

@Nisha
Side question: calf Finn (incidentally b. 4/7/2008) transferred to Belfast Zoo a hybrid or pure bred rothschildi?
 
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Al said:
Finn is a purebred rothschilds :)
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Hi Al,
Cheers for correcting. Just checked the data - and realised the stupidity of my error ...

Yep Finn gladly will be the new boss of a hopefully growing rothschildi breeding group. (I could shoot myself for asking ..., perhaps not a good idea ..., I get to live another day :D)


All the other questions still stand ...

K.B.
 
Seven Grey Cheeked Mangabey have arrived from Zoo Lyon and will be housed a mixed exibit with Meerkats as part of the new entrance complex development
 
I was at FOTA for a conference recently, It was my first visit to the park and I was very happy with what I saw. the park was beautifully presented, and all of the animals very happy and healthy in their respective homes. When I was there the sea eagle chick was thriving too :) great news for the sea eagle project going on at the moment. I have heard that in past year it was particularly shabby, and I believe I went after teh facelift, and like I said, I thought it was lovely! In fact I spent most of the day there and did a good 2 - 3 laps of the place still finding things to look at.
My only dissapointment was the decision to pull Humbolt chicks so that the penguin exhibit could be upgraded. Surely it coud have been put off a month or two and the chicks parent reared? Anyway, they will see the consequences of this in the coming months and years, unfortunately it will be the keepers who have to bear the brunt of this, and not the head guys who made the decision in the first place.
 
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