Knowsley Safari Park Knowsley Safari Park News 2011

As of the last few days or so the 3 roan are out now and in the section with wildebeest, lechwe, ankole and oryx. The oryx have had 3 births within the last 6 months, the youngest about 6 weeks old at a guess.

Plenty of births this year at Knowsley, must be love in the air their.
 
Some news from Knowsley's news pages - they are closing the park on weekdays during the winter months - whilst I totally understand their reasons and have to agree with them, from a purely selfish view point I love going round on a cold crisp winter weekday with no kids about and a lovely peaceful safari drive where I can loiter as long as I like anywhere - shame really but times is tough.

The quote from the website is:

The parks winter opening times will be changing this year and from 31st October 2011 the park will close during the week and only open to the public at weekends.
The decision has been made to help save on operating costs during very quiet periods and to enable the park to carry out maintenance within the safari drive.
Visitors and season ticket holders will still be able to enjoy the safari drive and all our animals at the weekends when we will still have our usual winter offer.
 
New Bull Elephant for Knowsley

Update on Facebook page today says that Knowsley is Expecting the arrival of a Bull Elephant called Kibo in the last week in September :)

Had a drive there last weekend and the work on the Elephant paddock is coming on great. I'm assuming Kibo is an African Bull to keep the herd pure african?
 
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Yes, I wonder if Nissim the younger bull will leave then I don't expect Knowsley to hold two bulls?

Also, Knowsley hold African bush Elephants (Loxodonta africana africana)

To my understanding this is the current group:


Nissim, adult bull born 01/12/94 at Ramat Gam Zoo (Never bred)

Shaba, adult female born in 1984 in the wild, mother of Ashanti

Nala, young female born 07/04/03 at Knowsley to Kruger and Tana

Tana, adult female born in 1987 in the wild, mother of Nala

Ashanti, young female born 15/01/03 at Knowsley to Kruger and Shaba

Buta, adult female born in 1987 in the wild (Never bred)

Jaba, adult female born in 1987 in the wild (Never bred)

Hopefully the new bull will successfully breed!:D
 
There are two bulls named Kibo in Europe: a 34-year-old at Boras (born at Hannover) and a six-year-old at Vienna (born at Wuppertal).

It seems that the additional fencing has been added to facilitate his arrival so it's probably the adult bull from Sweden who's coming over (he looks like a fine beast from the photos). He has two daughters at Boras, so perhaps they are looking to swap males around to prevent inbreeding.
 
I believe Nissim was quite young when he arrived at Knowsley from Ramat Gan . I wonder if that has caused problems with him needing to be dominant to the cows to mate . ( This has not been a problem at Chester where the current bull arrived as a yougster with an adult bull also present , this is with Asian elephants though ) .
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
Yes, I wonder if Nissim the younger bull will leave then I don't expect Knowsley to hold two bulls?

Also, Knowsley hold African bush Elephants (Loxodonta africana africana)D
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They have 1 male East African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana knochenhaueri)

The females are all African Elephants (Loxodonta africana)


The enclosure at Knowsley is possibly just about finished now I believe and looking good, sand and grass sections (mainly grass before) and several tree trucks appear to have been inserted in the ground (scratching posts? - I am no ele expert) and still one of the largest elephant areas I have seen any zoo or safari which is also very important.

Also a little bit more news from Knowsley is that the 5 Cape Buffalo cows now have a a bit of male company. He is a very impressive looking bull and I have already seen him showing 'interest' in the cows. Obviously for safety reasons they are now not directly within the safari drive, but easily seen from the car in a field fenced off from the main route (take binoculars for great view of him if visiting).
 
Knowsley have confirmed that Kibo will arrive from Boras and Nissim will go the other way. Nissim is being dominated by the cows at Knowsley but should fare better with the younger females in Sweden. Likewise, Kibo should be big enough to take control at Knowsley.
 
Great news Kibo is an impressive bull to breed with the adult females also Ashanti and Nala could breed in the next few years. I have read though that Kibo has a history of aggression towards visitors (throwing things etc), i don't know how true that is though???
 
Pootle said:
A little bit more news from Knowsley is that the 5 Cape Buffalo cows now have a a bit of male company. He is a very impressive looking bull and I have already seen him showing 'interest' in the cows.
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Do you know where he came from?
 
Upali said:
Great news Kibo is an impressive bull to breed with the adult females also Ashanti and Nala could breed in the next few years. I have read though that Kibo has a history of aggression towards visitors (throwing things etc), i don't know how true that is though???
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Well from seeing the re structuring of the new enclosure, it does add up what you say about him throwing things, as the public are now not able to get as close (and visa versa!) to the elephants as before from certain view points. I was wondering why that was and maybe now I know...
 
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Pertinax said:
I think it either has to be West Midlands SP, or from somewhere in Europe.
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I too initially thought WMSP, but I saw their bull a few months ago and this one looks different to me. The bull at Knowsley has a 'silvery' sheen to his back and I don’t recall the WMSP one having that colouration and the Knowsley bull looks bigger too, not certain however.
 
Didn't WMSP have just two male cape Buffalo at one stage a few years ago? They now seem to have 1.4 according to ISIS. I thought maybe the Knowsley one could be the 2nd male?

Some bull elephants in zoos do develop bad habits- throwing stones and heavy objects is one of them- very dangerous for the public!
 
I wonder how old the 5 cow Cape buffalo are - they seem to have been at Knowsley for many years . I do hope they are not too old to breed still .
 
West Midlands acquired 1:2 (I don't know where from) and they bred successfully rearing 0:2 so even if Knowsley's females are old could it be possible that when West Midlands mature a bit more they could potientally start a new breeding group at Knowsley?
 
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