Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo news 2012 #3

Pandas’ power to boost Capital economy by £28m

Edinburgh Evening News

Published on Saturday 7 July 2012

EDINBURGH Zoo’s pandas could be worth £28 million to the Capital’s economy over their ten-year stay, a new report has revealed.

The independent study commissioned by Scottish Enterprise found that the equivalent of 55 jobs could be safeguarded by the 
tourism opportunities related to the Chinese duo.

Tourists are also tipped to spend £20m in the rest of Scotland during trips to visit the pandas.

Hotels, shops, pubs and restaurants, taxi drivers and airlines are all set to benefit.

Eddie Brogan, director of tourism at Scottish Enterprise said: “The study shows there is significant scope to build on the interest the giant pandas have already generated to deliver substantial economic benefit to Edinburgh and Scotland.

“The report highlights a number of opportunities and new ideas about how to maximise the impact of the pandas’ popularity. For example, we believe there is significant further potential to attract family groups, particularly from outwith Scotland, to support the growth of tourism with the pandas as a key attraction.”
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Also, it appears galago have *not* left the collection, as I observed a number of them in their usual enclosure.
Click to expand...

Further to this observation on my last visit at the start of June, as of my visit on July 6th the galago *have* left the collection - demonstrating that zoogiraffe's information was indeed correct, just premature ;)
 
Nisha said:
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 :(
Click to expand...

They have had consistent matings and pregnancies since then, but have suffered neonatal deaths of all cubs. From what I understand, this also occured before the successful cubs.


At the zoo today, it was fun watching all three pygmy hippos playing in the 'moat' at the bottom of the hill.

Elsewhere, Mowgli was being very vocal to the female jaguar.
 
Davef68 said:
Elsewhere, Mowgli was being very vocal to the female jaguar.
Click to expand...
Is Mowgli the melanistic jaguar? If so, I was watching that behaviour too and hopefully have a few photographs. Unfortunately that area of the zoo was really busy and a number of people were hogging the windows.
 
SMR said:
Is Mowgli the melanistic jaguar? If so, I was watching that behaviour too and hopefully have a few photographs. Unfortunately that area of the zoo was really busy and a number of people were hogging the windows.
Click to expand...

Yes that's correct. I hope and think Edinburgh will be successful with the Jaguars. Chester's aren't breeding their's at the moment, and WHF haven't had success with their pair yet and they've been together for about six years (?).

Mowgli is almost certainly related to the male at Dartmoor 'Sovereign'. I am certain they have the same parents or same mother/father. However I'm not too sure.
 
Last time i was up i was talking to their keeper... originally they thought she was too young to breed at the moment..that it would be another year or two before they would be able to introduce them.. however they feel she is actually older than they first thought..and not only is he making all the right moves...but she is also... calling and being very interested in him. There was plans to put them together for a bit.. it would not surprise me if this has already happened because its been over 2 months since i was there.

They were both very interested in each other at the time. The tigers had also been introduced again the keeper informed me.

The Amur leopards however did not hit it off... well.. they did the first time they meet... then the second time didnt go so well...and the third time she practically went for his throat...and since then he wants nothing to do with her. I think the female amur leopard is very highly strung... so they are meant to be moving the male on and getting another male for her as they do not match.

Like i said this info is about 2 months old and things might have changed since then :)
 
Lesley4444 said:
Last time i was up i was talking to their keeper... originally they thought she was too young to breed at the moment..that it would be another year or two before they would be able to introduce them.. however they feel she is actually older than they first thought..and not only is he making all the right moves...but she is also... calling and being very interested in him. There was plans to put them together for a bit.. it would not surprise me if this has already happened because its been over 2 months since i was there.

They were both very interested in each other at the time. The tigers had also been introduced again the keeper informed me.

The Amur leopards however did not hit it off... well.. they did the first time they meet... then the second time didnt go so well...and the third time she practically went for his throat...and since then he wants nothing to do with her. I think the female amur leopard is very highly strung... so they are meant to be moving the male on and getting another male for her as they do not match.

Like i said this info is about 2 months old and things might have changed since then :)
Click to expand...

A similar situation to the South Lakes pair of Jaguars. The female is younger than the male however they've hit it off ever since they arrived. I hope things go well for Edinburgh.

The Tiger news is also very promising, thanks Lesley. I saw the female 'Baginda' for the first time at Terra Natura Benidorm about three or four years ago. She was very small Tigeress, having seen her since at Edinburgh she looks to have had better facilities to the ones at Terra Natura.

The Amur Leopard pair, the female preferably needs to be moved on. If a new male is to arrive and she takes a disliking to him then the current male 'Skodje' was/will be moved on for no reason. I know the EEP will select a new male rather than a female.
 
The long term plan is to move the Amur leopards to Highland Wildlife Park when funds allow, the area to the left of the café (looking south) being the prime candidate.
 
SMR said:
The long term plan is to move the Amur leopards to Highland Wildlife Park when funds allow, the area to the left of the café (looking south) being the prime candidate.
Click to expand...

This has been the plan ever since they arrived I believe. However you say "When funds allow", they have since spent a lot of money on a new Musk Oxen exhibit as well as several new things. So I wonder how long it will take before they eventually are moved up to HWP.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
This has been the plan ever since they arrived I believe. However you say "When funds allow", they have since spent a lot of money on a new Musk Oxen exhibit as well as several new things. So I wonder how long it will take before they eventually are moved up to HWP.
Click to expand...

I assume it may even be 2013-2014 before Amur leopards may be relocated. I would suspect the male might go in the end (as females are more valuable to the program) since it is turning out they seem incompatible.
 
Visited Edinburgh for the very first time today. Been top of my list of British zoos to visit for years now, and on the whole I think my expectations were met. Certainly it was an outstanding collection, which was perhaps only letdown by the quality of some of the exhibits. Most of the newer ones were of a great quality though. I have no real interest in chimpanzees (like most of ZooChat from what I’ve seen) but Budongo was definitely the highlight for me. Equally I loved Living Links, and the Sun Bear exhibit also seemed to be of good quality.
Generally I wasn’t very impressed by the row of carnivore enclosures. They were fine for the smaller species, but seemed really unsuitable for the larger cats. I’d say the same for the Indian Rhinos and the sealion by the entrance, though I’m aware that the latter is not a long-term species for the collection.
It was the collection itself that impressed me though. So many species I’ve either never seen before, or have only done so once or twice. I was half expecting the pandas to be nothing but sleeping balls of fur – but both seemed fairly active. The koalas not so much admittedly. Other highlights included a surprisingly active golden cat, the goral, geladas, buff-cheeked gibbons, maned wolves, anteaters, banteng, and frankly the list could go on.
I was disappointed at not being able to see the penguin parade admittedly, and therefore the king penguins themselves, and I got a little short on time at the end so had to skip the monkey house and a few bird exhibits, but at least I have an excuse to visit again fairly soon I suppose.
On the whole I really enjoyed the zoo though. I was exhausted by the time I left (why must so many zoos be built on hills?) admittedly, but it was worth it.
 
The cat row exhibits are actually a lot larger than they seem, and being built on a hill with viewing windows at the bottom really doesn't help with the negative perception. In terms of planting they're excellent though, and I can think of a lot of newer exhibits that are significantly worse - the Amur leopards at Twycross for example.
 
SMR said:
The cat row exhibits are actually a lot larger than they seem, and being built on a hill with viewing windows at the bottom really doesn't help with the negative perception. In terms of planting they're excellent though, and I can think of a lot of newer exhibits that are significantly worse - the Amur leopards at Twycross for example.
Click to expand...

I agree with you there on all accounts. They have held several Big cats in the 'Cat row' with Snow Leopards and Eurasian Lynx being only some of them. I think that they're better than Blackpool's and having not seen Twycross' it seems that their's is bad too.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
I agree with you there on all accounts. They have held several Big cats in the 'Cat row' with Snow Leopards and Eurasian Lynx being only some of them. I think that they're better than Blackpool's and having not seen Twycross' it seems that their's is bad too.
Click to expand...

The carnivore row is probably better than first impressions suggest, but when i went the tigers were held there temporarily swapped with the jaguars & they certainly appeared too small for them, but probably ok for the leopards & certainly wolverine & ratel that were there then.
Saying they are better than blackpool's lion/tiger enclosures is probably a bit unrealistic though!
For me Edinburgh is probably the best collection in the UK, certainly for its rarities. I thought the monkey house was probably the worst, most dated part.
 
ZooMania said:
Other highlights included a surprisingly active golden cat, the goral, geladas, buff-cheeked gibbons, maned wolves, anteaters, banteng, and frankly the list could go on.
Click to expand...

I thought all the goral had been sent up to HWP?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top