Chester Zoo The Islands development - planning, development and build (2012-2015)

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I agree with SMR that 10 years is an absolutely unrealistic lifetime for a multi million pound building. But after that sort of period it is quite realistic to look to repair and upgrade individual exhibits. It has been done with the jaguar house at Chester, so I would be surprised if something similar will not happen to RotRA when the opportunity arises (after all orangs are much more destructive than jaguars). The open air enclosures probably won't need much attention, provided the vertical poles are structurally sound. But the indoor enclosures may need new floors and I would like to see some of those swaypoles. I wonder whether it will be worth replanting one of the wired outdoor enclosures.
To respond to Pertinax's point, the fact that the Zoo wishes to build new accommodation for Sumatran orangs shows their commitment to working with this species and to improving conditions for the Borneans as they are proud of their work with both species.

Alan
 
RotRA would be greatly improved if the old Ape House were demolished and one, big outdoor island created using the space currently occupied by it, the old southerly island (still hidden behind the fence), the babirusa/otter enclosure (the mix doesn't work and the zoo doesn't need more pigs/otters) and the lawn adjacent to it.

The biggest current problem to my mind is the lack of decent outside viewing, which would also alleviate the bottleneck inside the house.
 
SMR said:
the zoo doesn't need more pigs/otters
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Says who? The pigs are one of the best bits of the zoo nowadays - a properly diverse suid collection is still a rare thing.

As for whether the mixing is working, that's a matter for the keepers - it seems they feel the risk is too great so fair enough.

EDIT: Also, if they were to get rid of any of the pigs I'd rather it weren't one of the very few breeding pairs of Babirusa in Europe that got uprooted!
 
Maguari said:
Says who? The pigs are one of the best bits of the zoo nowadays - a properly diverse suid collection is still a rare thing.

As for whether the mixing is working, that's a matter for the keepers - it seems they feel the risk is too great so fair enough.

EDIT: Also, if they were to get rid of any of the pigs I'd rather it weren't one of the very few breeding pairs of Babirusa in Europe that got uprooted!
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I concur -they're possibly one of the rarest species in the zoo and one of the species I feel the zoo needs to keep for babirusa to have any future in Europe at all.

As to whether or not the mix is working, a few of us were discussing this last night and we were very universal in believing that this one recent issue can only be a case of unfortunate bad luck, considering the mix has been working well enough for the last 4 years or so. If it happens again maybe the mix needs to be looked at, but ANY mix can result in one off accidents [including mixing individuals of the same species].
 
Javan Rhino said:
As to whether or not the mix is working, a few of us were discussing this last night and we were very universal in believing that this one recent issue can only be a case of unfortunate bad luck, considering the mix has been working well enough for the last 4 years or so. If it happens again maybe the mix needs to be looked at, but ANY mix can result in one off accidents [including mixing individuals of the same species].
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after remarks on the other Chester thread about facial injuries being sustained by one of the animals in the enclosure, SMR said "The otters are indeed currently off-show in order to separate them from the babirusa due to at least one fatality." All in all it sounds like a very good reason not to continue the mix.
 
Maguari said:
Says who? The pigs are one of the best bits of the zoo nowadays - a properly diverse suid collection is still a rare thing.

As for whether the mixing is working, that's a matter for the keepers - it seems they feel the risk is too great so fair enough.

EDIT: Also, if they were to get rid of any of the pigs I'd rather it weren't one of the very few breeding pairs of Babirusa in Europe that got uprooted!
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I'd be inclined to agree - all of the pigs are popular with the visitors and are real characters, never mind the fact that the Babirusa are seriously endangered, I'm more than happy with the pig species currently at Chester and wouldn't like to see any of them leave.
 
As I say - regarding the mix I'm happy to leave that in the lap of the keepers as they have the full information on what's been going on - for all we know this isn't the first problem.

But I would be very sorry to see any of the pigs, and particularly the Babirusa, shipped out.
 
Maguari said:
But I would be very sorry to see any of the pigs, and particularly the Babirusa, shipped out.
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I just had a look on Zootierliste, and I can see why you're happy with Chester -- four species of pig, yes?

But no peccaries? What's that about? They should get some of those Chacoan ones :D
 
Chlidonias said:
I just had a look on Zootierliste, and I can see why you're happy with Chester -- four species of pig, yes?

But no peccaries? What's that about? They should get some of those Chacoan ones :D
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Yup, four species (one of which, the Visayan Warty Pig, I saw for the first time at Chester).

I'll probably be proved wrong in short order but only Berlin leaps to mind as having a better suid/tayassuid collection in Europe (though I'm sure there are others that equal it).

And re: peccaries - yes, yes they should!
 
SMR said:
The biggest current problem to my mind is the lack of decent outside viewing, which would also alleviate the bottleneck inside the house.
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But would that improve things much? How much time do the Orangs spend outdoors- in my experience they favour the indoor enclosures rather like Gorillas- at Chester I saw Puluh venture outside, do a quick circuit of the enclosure and go straightback indoors again. That seems generally the norm if they are given free choice.
 
Would be great if Chester overtook Berlin as the Pig capital of Europe. Wouldn't mind if they had an equally comprehensive collection of rarer Deer species as well, but more than the two species they have is probably asking a lot in this day and age where the general public's requirements largely drive collection planning.
 
Maguari said:
Says who? The pigs are one of the best bits of the zoo nowadays - a properly diverse suid collection is still a rare thing.
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Which is fine, but multiple groups of the same species gets rather predictable. Retaining the babirusa would be the priority, over multiple groups of wathog, for example.
Pertinax said:
But would that improve things much? How much time do the Orangs spend outdoors...
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A considerable amount in the northerly outdoor enclosure, but they're difficult to see there and like sitting on the ground. They're seemingly scared stiff of the otters that cohabit the waterfall enclosure so spend less time on the ground there, but can often be seen using the frames.
 
Pertinax said:
Would be great if Chester overtook Berlin as the Pig capital of Europe. Wouldn't mind if they had an equally comprehensive collection of rarer Deer species as well, but more than the two species they have is probably asking a lot in this day and age where the general public's requirements largely drive collection planning.
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Chester have three species of deer - Burmese Brow-antlered, Philippine Spotted and Chilean Pudu. Still well down on what they had in the past, but not as bad as just two! (and to my mind they kept the best three!)
 
SMR said:
A considerable amount in the northerly outdoor enclosure, but they're difficult to see there and like sitting on the ground. They're seemingly scared stiff of the otters that cohabit the waterfall enclosure so spend less time on the ground there, but can often be seen using the frames.
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The all female group of otters that resided in the waterfall enclosure left the zoo some time ago.

The group of otters that were in with the babirusa are currently in the second netted enclosure (nearest to the exit) of RORA and can be seen if you look closely.
 
The waterfall enclosure and the Babirusa enclosure are connected for the otters alone by a pipe that runs underneath the exit ramp for RoTRA- in the past I have seen them go from one side to another that way.

Of course it's possible it's been closed off but I don't know if that's the case,
 
That was the case when they just had the all female group, but as far as I'm aware it was closed off once one of the females was paired up in the Babirusa side, leaving females only in the Orang side.

There was talk of opening it up again to the breeding group so they could go from either side, but I'm not sure if this happened.
 
Pt123 said:
That was the case when they just had the all female group, but as far as I'm aware it was closed off once one of the females was paired up in the Babirusa side, leaving females only in the Orang side.

There was talk of opening it up again to the breeding group so they could go from either side, but I'm not sure if this happened.
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Ah I see - thanks - I did get some cracking photos of them chasing each other in the waterfall last year.
Along with a photo of the gibbon and an otter not seeing eye to eye too
 
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