Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust Jersey priority developments

gentle lemur

gentle lemur

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I have just been looking at the Durrell website and there are artist's impressions of planned developments at Jersey. The three major animal projects are for gorillas and other African species, for Malagasy and Mascarene species and for reptiles and amphibians; there are also developments in the international training centre and the veterinary centre, a new entrance development plus revenue raising projects for Les Augres Manor and holiday homes. It looks very interesting, but very expensive - estimated cost £47 million over the next 5 years.
If they can do all this, it will put Jersey back near the top of every ZooBeater's list.

Alan
 
Sounds exciting and I when I visited, I felt the Gorillas could do with new accomodation (indoor mostly, the outside is fine but I guess a change would be good).

I thought Jersey Zoo was struggling financially? Will they be able to afford the cost of the new developments?
 
I'm astounded that they wish to raise and spend over $100 million within the next 5 years. I thought that Jersey Zoo was struggling with finances, and it will be a miracle if they actually come up with the cash. Government grants?

Their website certainly looks impressive, and kudos to the organization for dreaming up the eco-cottages to keep viewers on the island. In fact all of their plans appear to be fantastic...but where on earth is the money going to come from? I'm assuming that they already have some viable economic plans hidden up their sleeve or they wouldn't have come out and declared that they have a 5 year timetable to work with.
 
I highly doubt they can afford this unless it comes from funding from outside of the zoo,as i know visitor numbers are down but this is not just at the zoo but in Jersey as a whole,as for 5 years to do that lot very intresting if they pull it off in the timescale they should give lessons to other zoos.Finally i thought they had sold the training school to clear the debts of the zoo!!!!!!!!!!
 
Perhaps a wealthy philanthropist has stepped in and donated a wad of cash. The Seattle Zoo had an anonymous individual donate somewhere between $3-6 million to the zoo just over a year ago. They are building a new west entry and a penguin exhibit with the money. Maybe Jersey Zoo has a wealthy donor lined up...
 
Jersey Zoo has received generous private donations in the past, and no doubt will again in the future, so maybe. Jersey is a very wealthy island, with massive financial businesses located there. When I was there 10 years ago I was somewhat surprised to find out that the zoo didn't do much to try to access these businesses for financial support. Maybe someone has got their act together and put together a sponsorship package. Another thing to note is that a substantial part of the package is in fact accommodation, in the form of the eco lodges and the manor house. So these would produce new sources of income, hopefully.
 
I think Jersey Zoo may have come through an economic 'bottleneck' in the past few years. I believe they recently employed professional fundraisers to try and inject much needed new cash into what had become a struggling organisation. As Jersey is such a wealthy island its not surprising if some of the resident money-burgers have been approached for money and perhaps this is where some of the new funds are coming from.
 
Some really imaginative exhibits, wow!

I really hope this Madagascar/Comoros Hall will come off soonish. Jersey Zoo has always been in the forefront and this tropical Hall would bring them right back where the belong. A champion of the lesser fauna and flora and lesser known and under-appreciated species of our natural world. :)
 
Pertinax said:
Sounds great- all they need to do then is replace the male Ya Kwanza with a decent one, and get the group breeding normally....
Click to expand...

Any suggestions which new males would be genetically unrelated and suitable for the current batch of females (lo and behold not use any silverbacks from overrepresented breeding lines like Frankfurts)?
 
Is anyone else quite worried about the look of this enclosure?

I do hope it'll be ok, but I can't help but think this could be another exhibit that goes with the trend and does not address the multitude of problems associated with most gorilla enclosures.
 
^Chris^ said:
Is anyone else quite worried about the look of this enclosure?

I do hope it'll be ok, but I can't help but think this could be another exhibit that goes with the trend and does not address the multitude of problems associated with most gorilla enclosures.
Click to expand...

Even Basle Zoo, who were the first and one of the leading zoos to breed Gorillas in Europe in the 1960/60's are now planning large outdoor areas for all three Ape species(they haven't had proper outdoor enclosures before) and seem to be following the current trend- big open(?) enclosures with watermoats- however we must wait and see what really transpires..

In Jersey's case, the current large outdoor area is one of the best ones in the Uk- being landscaped and quite well planted nowadays- but the existing house is rather too small. This is one situation where I'd say a completely new enclosure isn't really necessary - especially with the current group of 1.4 animals of which only one female breeds.
 
jelle said:
Any suggestions which new males would be genetically unrelated and suitable for the current batch of females (lo and behold not use any silverbacks from overrepresented breeding lines like Frankfurts)?
Click to expand...

That's a hard one... As you know its becoming more and more difficult to source new breeding males which don't come from the overrepresented lines like Frankfurt/Jersey/ Krefeld/Apenhuel etc. There are still a few males in Europe but most are 'antisocials'

I think it would would have been a good idea if they had kept YK's son Mapema(now in Duisburg) in the group. He is genetically valuable too, unrelated to two of the Jersey females at all, and only distantly to a third(Bambuti) and being group-raised he would have taken over breeding the three females which his father shows no interest in. They could fairly easily have prevented him mating his mother- if Ya Kwanza didn't do keep him away.. then later either move the father or the son elsewhere if the need arose.

Anyway, it didn't happen and he went to Paignton instead. I do wonder if they will ever replace Ya Kwanza now...:(
 
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Pertinax said:
Even Basle Zoo, who were the first and one of the leading zoos to breed Gorillas in Europe in the 1960/60's are now planning large outdoor areas for all three Ape species(they haven't had proper outdoor enclosures before) and seem to be following the current trend- big open(?) enclosures with watermoats- however we must wait and see what really transpires..

In Jersey's case, the current large outdoor area is one of the best ones in the Uk- being landscaped and quite well planted nowadays- but the existing house is rather too small. This is one situation where I'd say a completely new enclosure isn't really necessary - especially with the current group of 1.4 animals of which only one female breeds.
Click to expand...

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.
 
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.
 
^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.
Click to expand...

That would certainly be the most sensible option- the house is really too small- but the outdoor is really pretty good nowadays and very spacious.
 
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