Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo news 2012 #3

Sea lion was still there yesterday evening at the member's/adopter's night, but he now has a new feeding/training platform which I've been told is the start of crate training him. Not sure if the moving date is confirmed yet though.

Not sure if any of this has been reported before, but I learnt a fair bit from the big cat talk yesterday-the male amur leopard is moving as he and the female do not get along, and slow progress is being made with the tiger introductions. They are being introduced every day now and after the initial set backs its looking increasingly promising for mating and the female is in season now. The male golden cat in the middle of the cat enclosures is going to be introduced to the female in the end enclosure shortly.

New male asiatic lion is settling in, it is the young male born last year at Bristol.

Saw 3 gentoo penguin chicks and at least one adult still on eggs, with at least 2 other active nest sites. Sadly, still no luck with the rockhoppers as far as I could see-the eggs I saw earlier in the summer are definitely gone and not replaced with chicks.

I think that was all the news I had. There are quite a few empty enclosures or enclosures with very few animals in (red river hog enclosure now has a single swamp wallaby in it for example). Hope they have some exciting plans to fill them, especially as the panda queues were quite big for a wet June week day yesterday.
 
Tunanta said:
Not sure if any of this has been reported before, but I learnt a fair bit from the big cat talk yesterday-the male amur leopard is moving as he and the female do not get along, and slow progress is being made with the tiger introductions. They are being introduced every day now and after the initial set backs its looking increasingly promising for mating and the female is in season now. The male golden cat in the middle of the cat enclosures is going to be introduced to the female in the end enclosure shortly.

New male asiatic lion is settling in, it is the young male born last year at Bristol.
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Can you confirm the death of Royal? (Male Asian Lion) Been reports floating around for the last week or so about his death but no offical word from the zoo yet... Great news if they have already got another male in though.

Shame about the faliure of the Leopards pairing but fingers crossed for both them (once the new male arrives) and the Tigers

Thanks for the updates
 
Nisha said:
Can you confirm the death of Royal? (Male Asian Lion) Been reports floating around for the last week or so about his death but no offical word from the zoo yet... Great news if they have already got another male in though.

Shame about the faliure of the Leopards pairing but fingers crossed for both them (once the new male arrives) and the Tigers

Thanks for the updates
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Yes he is dead. I don't really know much about Royal, having only moved to Scotland last year-can anyone tell me anything about his background, age etc?
 
Tunanta said:
Yes he is dead. I don't really know much about Royal, having only moved to Scotland last year-can anyone tell me anything about his background, age etc?
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He was born in May 2000 at Helsinki Zoo (parents Leslie and Vanaraj) and from there moved to London in first half of 2003 to do rabies quarantine (because they had the space whilst RZSS didn't) before being transfered in October 2003 to Edinburgh where he has been ever since... sired two cubs with each of the females in 2006.

Thanks for confirming the death anyway... A great shame but hopefully this allow Edinburgh to start breeding again at some point in the future :(
 
Some very good and interesting news from Tunata and kenspeckle thanks to both of you.

It'd be interesting to see if the new female Koalas do breed. I'm not a Koala expert however could the weather affect normal behaviour?

IMO the female Amur leopard should be moved on. She is obviously the problem as she has tried to attack the male every time they have been mixed. I do wonder if Tallinn's younger male could be a potential mate. He isn't yet mature, if Edinburgh are wanting a mature male then maybe YWP's males would be a candidate.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
It'd be interesting to see if the new female Koalas do breed. I'm not a Koala expert however could the weather affect normal behaviour?
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It shouldn't effect the Koalas behaviour,but seeing as these 2 females do not have to be kept,under the conditions set by San Diego Zoo,for how the have to be housed.Given that in their native Queensland a Koala can often wake up with a frost on its back,these 2 females could well be kept outside alot more than the 2 males are,because they are not owned by San Diego.

Whats far more interesting is the fact that these 2 females are coming direct from Australia,it may be interesting to see if this results in any other species that are native to Australia,starting to appear in the UK as a result of this!!
 
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Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
IMO the female Amur leopard should be moved on. She is obviously the problem as she has tried to attack the male every time they have been mixed. I do wonder if Tallinn's younger male could be a potential mate. He isn't yet mature, if Edinburgh are wanting a mature male then maybe YWP's males would be a candidate.
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With so few female Amur Leopards in the EEP atm, you can't just decide to swap one female for a different one without a good reason. Makes far more sense to ask the studbook to assign them a new Male (which there are far more of) than a replacement female. It will of eventually been an EEP recommendation anyway rather than Edinburgh demanding a "mature male"

Tallinns spare male is going to Italy. If he hasn't already left.

A swap with a certien British zoo who are in the exact same situation seems a far more scenario
 
Good to hear the koala import being confirmed as ZG says, hopefully this will be a new dawn of Australian native imports, following on from the arrival of wombats at Budapest, Tasmanian devils at Copenhagen and Eastern quolls at Leipzig.
Surely more significant than the arrival of the Chinese pair further down the hill.
 
kiang said:
Good to hear the koala import being confirmed as ZG says, hopefully this will be a new dawn of Australian native imports, following on from the arrival of wombats at Budapest, Tasmanian devils at Copenhagen and tiger quolls at Leipzig.
Surely more significant than the arrival of the Chinese pair further down the hill.
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Leipzig have Eastern Quolls!
 
zoogiraffe said:
Whats far more interesting is the fact that these 2 females are coming direct from Australia,it may be interesting to see if this results in any other species that are native to Australia,starting to appear in the UK as a result of this!!
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TBH, this is the prospect which I most like :p
 
Could the fact that the two females are coming direct from Australia be confirmation of Edinburgh and RZSS status in the zoo community being quite high? Would be amazing if they had a successful breeding with koalas before the pandas as it could well give a hint as to what could come with baby black and white bears!
 
Simon McGlary said:
Could the fact that the two females are coming direct from Australia be confirmation of Edinburgh and RZSS status in the zoo community being quite high? Would be amazing if they had a successful breeding with koalas before the pandas as it could well give a hint as to what could come with baby black and white bears!
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koalas have been exported to zoos outside Australia for years (since the 1980s when export legislation was drawn up), there's nothing new about it. Koalas are also not terribly difficult to breed, certainly nothing like giant pandas.
 
Chlidonias said:
koalas have been exported to zoos outside Australia for years (since the 1980s when export legislation was drawn up), there's nothing new about it. Koalas are also not terribly difficult to breed, certainly nothing like giant pandas.
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Accepting that exporting koalas from Australia is not unprecedented, I think that Edinburgh's current role as the European male koala holding facility will have been an important factor. I also wonder if there could be a connection with Edinburgh's incoming CEO, Chris West, formerly chief executive at the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia.

On another note, fund raising for the Penguins Rock development officially begins very soon so more details should be forthcoming, with hopefully some visual material.
 
I would very much doubt that Chris West arriving at Edinburgh,had anything to do with this,now if they were to annouce the arrival of more Giant Pandas,then that could have something to do with Chris West.Personnaly I would say the arrival of the female Koalas has,all the hall marks of something done by Mr Iain Valentine,a man very well known within in the zoo community for bringing in interesting animals into which,ever collection he is working at just look at some of the species that have arrived at Edinburgh over the last 5 years or more,and going further back the arrival of the Red Titi at Blackpool when he worked there,although thiose animals arrived after he left to go to Edinburgh.
 
Chlidonias said:
koalas have been exported to zoos outside Australia for years (since the 1980s when export legislation was drawn up), there's nothing new about it. Koalas are also not terribly difficult to breed, certainly nothing like giant pandas.
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Thanks for the clarification there. Still and interesting and exciting move for Edinburgh.
 
Will these be the first to come to Europe in recent history, direct from Australia?
 
kiang said:
Will these be the first to come to Europe in recent history, direct from Australia?
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the ones in Israel came direct from Australia (I don't personally include Israel in Europe but I know some do). Most of the Australian exports go to Asia (Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, etc). I think some further ones have gone to America as well. The mainland European and UK ones all seem to derive from San Diego stock (?) but someone can correct me if wrong.
 
Chlidonias said:
the ones in Israel came direct from Australia (I don't personally include Israel in Europe but I know some do). Most of the Australian exports go to Asia (Japan, China, Taiwan, Thailand, etc). I think some further ones have gone to America as well. The mainland European and UK ones all seem to derive from San Diego stock (?) but someone can correct me if wrong.
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@Chlidonias, that is probably the originator why the contention is that direct imports from Australia are not done. Whether that is simply by way of the San Diego connection, or by way of logistics and/or bureaucracy of paperwork and vet testing I do not know.

However, given that quite a few Asian countries have been able to import direct I cannot see why a determined effort from Europe direct could not be made (as would for some other interesting Australian species like wombat, echidna, rock wallabies, quolls et cetera).
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
However, given that quite a few Asian countries have been able to import direct I cannot see why a determined effort from Europe direct could not be made (as would for some other interesting Australian species like wombat, echidna, rock wallabies, quolls et cetera).
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Except that the species exported from Australia would need to be F1 or F2 generation captive born. Koalas - regularly bred in captivity. The other species mentioned are either irregularly bred, difficult to breed or part of a breeding program linked to releases. Possibly wombats could be exported in the near future, but not sure that it is likely with the other species mentioned.
 
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