ZSL Whipsnade Zoo Whipsnade; 2012 and beyond
- Thread starter Nisha
- Start date
More good news for the 'wild wild whipsnade' development, 3 moose calves & hopefully 5 lynx kittens in 2 years. I hope the wolverine will be the next breeding success.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Hopefully at least one of these kittens will be female...
Do you/anybody know where the adult pair came from and also how old the new cubs are?
Hopefully at least one of these kittens will be female...
Do you/anybody know where the adult pair came from and also how old the new cubs are?
Sorry can't help, it was stated at a feed/talk i went to late 2011, & pretty sure they came from different European countries, but can't remember where!
I went to zoo nights this evening for the first time.i don't usually go as i object to paying extra as a member(colchester's late openings are free), but as i got 50 % off for early booking i decided to go this year.
I enjoyed the experience, as did many others, it was busier than i can remember seeing it.
I avoided the circus acts & bands etc, but was impressed by the value of the food festival & amount of stalls, it probably cost half the amount i pay on the rare occasions we eat in the cafe.
The highlight for me was seeing the tiny lynx kittens for several minutes before the mother dragged them off into the nettles, probably anxious about the large crowd that was gathering!
The wolverine talk/feed was good, and they appeared to enjoy playing to their audience & were seemingly posing for photographers! The brown bears seemed to like the attention too.
I got there at 430 & headed in the direction of the hippos due to talks i wanted to go to later & was pleased to see all 7 active for the first time ever! In countless visits over the last few years i have never seen a pygmy hippo in the outdoor pools, but the male was swimming around, while the youngster was grazing in the next paddock and the mother was in the indoor pool. Hoover & Nigna were bathing side by side in the smaller outdoor pool & seemed to be getting on ok. Lola & hula were indoors.
Was also good to see the moose twins apparently doing well and the sloth bears were more active than usual, though that was probably because they were waiting to be fed at the talk.
The young bongo seemed fine and was quite content to let the mother wander away across the paddock. There was a gemsbok in the end stall of the bongo house.
I only saw one rockhopper penguin, as has been the case on all 4 visits this year, but i know others have reported seeing more during that time.
Overall though it was a successful evening personally and for ZSL!
I enjoyed the experience, as did many others, it was busier than i can remember seeing it.
I avoided the circus acts & bands etc, but was impressed by the value of the food festival & amount of stalls, it probably cost half the amount i pay on the rare occasions we eat in the cafe.
The highlight for me was seeing the tiny lynx kittens for several minutes before the mother dragged them off into the nettles, probably anxious about the large crowd that was gathering!
The wolverine talk/feed was good, and they appeared to enjoy playing to their audience & were seemingly posing for photographers! The brown bears seemed to like the attention too.
I got there at 430 & headed in the direction of the hippos due to talks i wanted to go to later & was pleased to see all 7 active for the first time ever! In countless visits over the last few years i have never seen a pygmy hippo in the outdoor pools, but the male was swimming around, while the youngster was grazing in the next paddock and the mother was in the indoor pool. Hoover & Nigna were bathing side by side in the smaller outdoor pool & seemed to be getting on ok. Lola & hula were indoors.
Was also good to see the moose twins apparently doing well and the sloth bears were more active than usual, though that was probably because they were waiting to be fed at the talk.
The young bongo seemed fine and was quite content to let the mother wander away across the paddock. There was a gemsbok in the end stall of the bongo house.
I only saw one rockhopper penguin, as has been the case on all 4 visits this year, but i know others have reported seeing more during that time.
Overall though it was a successful evening personally and for ZSL!
Anything happening as far as white rhinos is concerned?
BongoHardwood
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since a post on this thread so here is some of the latest news on births from the past month:
0.1 Waterbuck born around 1 month ago
0.1. Sitatunga
0.0.1 Saki Monkey
0.0.1. Grévy's Zebra
1.0.3 Scimitar-Horned Oryx - Latest calf, a male, born this week. I'm not too sure about the others' sexes...
?.?.?. Cheetah cubs born 9.5 weeks ago. Only noticed them for the first time today! There were at least 2 but I couldn't see properly so there may be more! I have no idea of sexes.
Well you'll be pleased to hear that all three are female!
Finally, the baby common hippo Hula now has access to the outdoor paddock and pool. All 4 were out today in the sunshine
0.1 Waterbuck born around 1 month ago
0.1. Sitatunga
0.0.1 Saki Monkey
0.0.1. Grévy's Zebra
1.0.3 Scimitar-Horned Oryx - Latest calf, a male, born this week. I'm not too sure about the others' sexes...
?.?.?. Cheetah cubs born 9.5 weeks ago. Only noticed them for the first time today! There were at least 2 but I couldn't see properly so there may be more! I have no idea of sexes.
Hopefully at least one of these kittens will be female...
Well you'll be pleased to hear that all three are female!
Finally, the baby common hippo Hula now has access to the outdoor paddock and pool. All 4 were out today in the sunshine
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
It's been a while since a post on this thread so here is some of the latest news on births from the past month:
0.1 Waterbuck born around 1 month ago
0.1. Sitatunga
0.0.1 Saki Monkey
0.0.1. Grévy's Zebra
1.0.3 Scimitar-Horned Oryx - Latest calf, a male, born this week. I'm not too sure about the others' sexes...
?.?.?. Cheetah cubs born 9.5 weeks ago. Only noticed them for the first time today! There were at least 2 but I couldn't see properly so there may be more! I have no idea of sexes.
Well you'll be pleased to hear that all three are female!
Finally, the baby common hippo Hula now has access to the outdoor paddock and pool. All 4 were out today in the sunshine
Excellent news on the Cheetahs. The third successful breeding in the UK to my knowledge, do you know the parents of these? Would be interested to see if they got the other females breeding. Are they keeping the cubs from 2010? I think it's worth mentioning your great updates, so thanks very much Adam.
I assume you mean this year (though I'm not keeping track and wouldn't know) rather than ever?
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
Or success in breeding the subspecies Acinonyx jubatus soemmeringii, previously bred at Whipsnade in 2010 and at Chester?
Ah, thanks for the clarification. Personally I struggle a bit with the concept of Cheetah sub-species given the extreme evolutionary bottleneck the species went through (I think) about 10,000 years ago.
Shorts, ... loads of species went thru a genetic bottleneck (including Homo sapiens). Genetically and morphometrics wise there is an extreme variety in cheetah from southern, eastern, north-eastern or even Asian ranges. The earlier notion based ONLY on cheetahs originating from southern Africa could do little else other than to subscribe to the fact that these are largely a single conservation unit. This however does not go for the ones up north or east into Middle East and Eurasia.
So, are you saying that the sub-species existed, in different geographical locations, immediately post bottleneck as opposed to the divergences having occurred thereafter? That's fairly straightforward to understand (I think I may have been misled by over-simplified summaries of the situation).
Thanks for your expansion of the point. For clarification I do accept the sub-species exist (obviously worked out by people way, way, way smarter than me in their field), I just had problems getting my head around it given the short time from the bottleneck -wrestling with the wonder of nature I suppose (I also struggle with the idea that the universe is expanding and infinite at the same time
).
the thing with "all cheetahs are genetically identical" came about because only cheetahs from part of the overall range were DNA tested and the results - showing they were all very very similar genetically - were applied to all cheetahs even though several populations weren't included in the original samples. The study was somewhat flawed from the start. It seems African cheetahs did go through a bottle-neck (or rather, more likely, a series of separate bottle-necks because there are genetic differences between African populations) but the Asiatic cheetah had been separated from the African cheetahs by something like 30-70,000 years (the African bottle-neck occurred somewhere between 6000 and 20,000 years ago), and genetically are easily distinguished from the African subspecies.So, are you saying that the sub-species existed, in different geographical locations, immediately post bottleneck as opposed to the divergences having occurred thereafter? That's fairly straightforward to understand (I think I may have been misled by over-simplified summaries of the situation).
Thanks for your expansion of the point. For clarification I do accept the sub-species exist (obviously worked out by people way, way, way smarter than me in their field), I just had problems getting my head around it given the short time from the bottleneck -wrestling with the wonder of nature I suppose (I also struggle with the idea that the universe is expanding and infinite at the same time
Kifaru Bwana mentioned the human bottle-neck as well, and there's an interesting recent article I saw a few days back on that subject: Blogging the Human Genome: Why do we have two fewer chromosomes than our closest primate relatives? - Slate Magazine
@Shorts and @Chlidonias, we probably would like to expand on the issue. What troubles me sometimes is that the understanding of - admittedly complex matter - genetics, morphology and taxonomy remains rather low, even in circles that one would expect to (be able) to understand these concepts better.
Having said that, on cheetahs .. it will be interesting to see what transpires re. the genetics of the populations from North Africa and Middle East in the entire Africa - Asia debate. A recent paper purportedly put North Africans closer to Asiatic ..
On the concept of the ever expanding and infinite universe ...: hey there is more like you @Shorts. Allthough having the benefit of a well versed and astute local astronomer to assist us with breaking into Planetarium stuff is somewhat helping to leap a few boundaries!
Having said that, on cheetahs .. it will be interesting to see what transpires re. the genetics of the populations from North Africa and Middle East in the entire Africa - Asia debate. A recent paper purportedly put North Africans closer to Asiatic ..
On the concept of the ever expanding and infinite universe ...: hey there is more like you @Shorts. Allthough having the benefit of a well versed and astute local astronomer to assist us with breaking into Planetarium stuff is somewhat helping to leap a few boundaries!
Any idea who is the attendant female with the new cheetah cubs?
Whom was she bred to?
Whom was she bred to?
BongoHardwood
Well-Known Member
I do not know the specifics of the individuals, however I was told that this birth was not planned... I'm waiting to see if they do some sort of press release on it then we should know.
With regards to what happened to the previous cubs, all I heard was that I think 2 were sent away somewhere but I'm not sure where!
With regards to what happened to the previous cubs, all I heard was that I think 2 were sent away somewhere but I'm not sure where!
BongoHardwood
Well-Known Member
An update from this week:
1. I managed to have a closer look at the cheetahs this week. There are 7! A lot more than I thought there were last week. They were all running around and being very cute, so worth a visit for cheetah fans.
2. Young camel Izzy is being introduced to the herd gradually by staying adjacent to, but not in with, them at night.
3. Young gaur Odin is weaned and all three are now mixed in the paddock again during the day.
4. Zebra foal is doing well and is already looking so big!
5. Unfortunately due to a serious complication during childbirth, the sole female blackbuck had to be put to sleep. It is a real shame that in going through something that would increase the herd size it actually led to the reduction of the species to just one male. Unless the decision is made to get in some new animals, it looks as though this may be the end for blackbuck at Whipsnade
Out of interest, what other zoos have blackbuck in their collections?
6. Construction of the new Hullabazoo play barn seems to be going well. Unfortunately it's not the animal development that would excite us all but I'm sure it will improve the zoo overall.
That's all I can think of at the moment!
1. I managed to have a closer look at the cheetahs this week. There are 7! A lot more than I thought there were last week. They were all running around and being very cute, so worth a visit for cheetah fans.
2. Young camel Izzy is being introduced to the herd gradually by staying adjacent to, but not in with, them at night.
3. Young gaur Odin is weaned and all three are now mixed in the paddock again during the day.
4. Zebra foal is doing well and is already looking so big!
5. Unfortunately due to a serious complication during childbirth, the sole female blackbuck had to be put to sleep. It is a real shame that in going through something that would increase the herd size it actually led to the reduction of the species to just one male. Unless the decision is made to get in some new animals, it looks as though this may be the end for blackbuck at Whipsnade
Out of interest, what other zoos have blackbuck in their collections?
6. Construction of the new Hullabazoo play barn seems to be going well. Unfortunately it's not the animal development that would excite us all but I'm sure it will improve the zoo overall.
That's all I can think of at the moment!
A shame to lose yet another species from Whipsnade. Two or three females added could still rejuvenate them there but will they bother?
Without the help of ISIS, the following are from memory only;
West Midlands(biggest herd)
Longleat
Chester
Knowsley?
Howletts/Port Lympne.
Dublin?
Others?
Blackbrook keep them mixed with nilgai!
According to Zootierliste Exmoor and Yorkshire Wildlife Park keep them and so do Heythrop.