Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Your right there, Andrew; Benson was fantastic.
Flamingo Land News from Flamingo Land
- Thread starter Nisha
- Start date
Your right there, Andrew; Benson was fantastic.
Following a request from Duerener1 I checked my notebook for my first visit in 2004 (23rd April) just in case I had a date, and I did. It was 11th March.
went a couple of weeks ago had a great day out. Staff did a great job of moving the snow. was understanderbly quiet. Alot of animals stayed in side though 
but giraffe house and hippo house got open up towards closing. Was surprised we we where allowed so close to the hippos under supervison even being allowed to pat them. Got talking to keepers chimps are gettign really old and when they pass on wont be replaced as they dont have facillties large enough to intergrate a new group. Baby tapiar loved the snow running around was very fast. Think ill go again b4 price goes up in march. Hopefully the rhinoes will be out which mite not be there much longer there looking into getting some younger ones and moving the older ones on to mate.
but giraffe house and hippo house got open up towards closing. Was surprised we we where allowed so close to the hippos under supervison even being allowed to pat them. Got talking to keepers chimps are gettign really old and when they pass on wont be replaced as they dont have facillties large enough to intergrate a new group. Baby tapiar loved the snow running around was very fast. Think ill go again b4 price goes up in march. Hopefully the rhinoes will be out which mite not be there much longer there looking into getting some younger ones and moving the older ones on to mate.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Do you know when the Tapir calf was born/the sex?went a couple of weeks ago had a great day out. Staff did a great job of moving the snow. was understanderbly quiet. Alot of animals stayed in side though
When I went the Giraffe/Hippo house was closed which I was a bit disappointed was looking forward to seeing Hippos.
The parks exsisting group of Mangabeys have moved into the former Chimp enclosure on what sounds like a temporary basis...
Flamingo Land - Mangabeys Have Moved!
Flamingo Land - Mangabeys Have Moved!
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
This is good news. Their old exhibit is actually very good, for them. Lots of areas off-show, outdoor exhibit, plenty of climbing opportunities. I thought they had 1.1? If so then it sounds as though they've bred a female which is brilliant news.
I am surprised they don't have more than this(1.2) by now as they have had a pair for quite a long time now.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Correct. They had a male (Joe?) on his own for a while before they imported a female from Rome (?). They had a female youngster which was hand reared, is this the other female?
The mangabey cage may have been good for them but it was a miserable thing stuck behind railway tracks with poor reflective viewing for visitors...mind you,better than the cages before...Seems like only yesterday that their new home was the Elephant House.All in all the zoo portion of F.L. is pretty good these days[the park thinks it to be fantastic] so i shouldnt moan i suppose,im always surprised its still there given that the zoo portion of the park always seems to be very quiet in visitor terms.
The zoo was packed during the £5 opening period earlier this year - everyone there just for the zoo and at a bargain price.
As far as I remember Joe died a few years ago and this is another male.
As far as I remember Joe died a few years ago and this is another male.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
So presumably it's 0.2 (Mother and daughter) with a new male. Do you know where he came from?
Just looking through my old notebooks. On 6th July 2007 I've noted euthanasia was on the cards for Joe who had diabetes. Nothing on 20th July. Or 3rd August (I bought Matt Brash's book that day - was it that long ago?!). 17th August either. Mmmm nothing for the rest of 2007! Ah, eureka, here's my first visit of 2008 (14th March) and a male Mangabey had arrived from Valencia the previous day. Success! (My visit of 14th March was not a success though as it was then I discovered the vast changes over the winter that horrified me so much and still do - the loss of the Bird Walk and the paddocks behind etc. I commented in my notes that the love affair was over and wrote "bring back the 1960s"!)
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Thanks for this Andrew.
So it would seem a new male arrived about four years ago to replace the old male 'Joe'. The females are a mother and daughter.
I was unaware the original male died. So the order of arrival went- Joe- female- new male.(correct?) Which male is the daughter from- the past or present one?
These are White-naped/collared Mangabeys I believe- same as at ZSL & Dublin though they both have bigger groups..
Flamingo Lane recieved a female from Roma in 2000 to be paired with Joe. After a few unsuccessful attempts they managed to produce a daughter in 2005 or there abouts. She was handreared and the assumption is that they now have this female and the mother as well as the replacement male.
visisted today for first day of winter season very quiet cant of been more than 20 cars. The amur sister tigers both had to be put down about 3 months ago, so the sumatran tigers have the run of both enclosures. There was a talk and feed in the hippo house made quick work of apples and cabbage. Think the rhinoes are on the move big container in their pen think they where trying to get them use to it. Theres a new diving platform in the sea lion show but they wont jump from it yet. Talked to two keepers and they nearly got some gorrilas. They where gona look after some for a scottish zoo while they where in quarantine and if it went well try and get soem for them selves but the scottish ran out of money to get gorrilas but they still sounded hopefull theyd get some. The reptile house was closed with a sign up saying it was moving to the childrens planet area. Must be virtually the oldest part of the zoo. Last tiem i visted theyd moved alot of the animals on but there must still be soemthing in there as i could here water flowing. There's a questionaire in the coffe shop asking what animals youd like to see flamingoland get so they must still be open to the idea of expanding
Thanks for your report, nice to know they're doing winter opening again, I must try to get up there.
This doesn't ring (currently) true to me. There's really only one Scottish zoo (Edinburgh) that, in my opinion, would potentially keep Gorillas anytime in the near future and they're nowhere near having anywhere to put them. That said it could be a very old story still doing the rounds (say pre conversion of old Gorilla house for Pandas). I spoke with a keeper at Flamingoland who said there had been rumours of Gorillas but this was about eight years ago!
This doesn't ring (currently) true to me. There's really only one Scottish zoo (Edinburgh) that, in my opinion, would potentially keep Gorillas anytime in the near future and they're nowhere near having anywhere to put them. That said it could be a very old story still doing the rounds (say pre conversion of old Gorilla house for Pandas). I spoke with a keeper at Flamingoland who said there had been rumours of Gorillas but this was about eight years ago!
Indeed - this could even be a 10 year old story floating around from the final days of Glasgow Zoo in 2002-2003.