Pafos Bird and Animal Park Pafos Bird And Animal Park news thread

Nisha

Nisha

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Arrivals during the past 12 months have included a pair of Amur Tiger siblings, a pair of Small Clawed Otter and a female Reticulated Giraffe from Dvur to join the parks resident male Giraffe...

Recent births:
Golden Lion Tamarins
Red Kangaroo
Red Handed Tamarins

News and events pafoszoo
 
The resident male giraffe's name is Achilles. Seems a good sized adult bull. Origins ... beats me.

The female is referred to as being called Eleni. However, no female reticulated by that name at Dvur. Only 4 contenders at Dvur (2 from 2006 and 1 each from 2009 and 2010).
 
vogelcommando said:
Re-introduction an handraised Amur tiger ??? :

Paphos Zoo tiger goes wild to boost population - Cyprus Mail
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Correct, it seems they claim to have a project with the Russian Svertsov Institute on tiger reintroduction. Their website - stichtingleeuw - observes they have 4 pure-bred Siberian tigers, said Afrodite as well as male Vladimir and females Valesca and Bohdana (the latter 3 should be siblings of one and the same litter). No historical info on them.

Edit: the tigers Vladimir, Valesca and Bohdana were litter mates' born in April 2012 in Tierpark Stroehen. Can anyone provide additional info on their purity and importance to the Siberian tiger EEP (or not)?

The Svertsov Institute Russia program is furtively discussed here:
Breeding programme - Stichting Leeuw

The other perhaps unnoticed - and noteworthy - part is their breeding results for blue-throated macaw (20 hatched till date) and red-tailed black cockatoos (2 chicks hatched).

For the blue-throateds this is a great breeding achievement and I agree it would be nice if some of the captive-bred birds might be sent back to Bolivia to augment the wild flocks there.

Is it correct the local blue-throated population has recovered to 400 birds now?
 
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Nisha said:
a female Reticulated Giraffe from Dvur to join the parks resident male Giraffe...
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Kifaru Bwana said:
The resident male giraffe's name is Achilles.
Click to expand...

Kifaru Bwana said:
The female is referred to as being called Eleni
Click to expand...

Very sadly, Eleni has died during childbirth along with the calf, so Achilles is left by himself.

In other news, on my last visit, I remarked a new enclosure being built with murals depicting Sun bears. However, it seems in that place they have made an exhibit for hornbills. Any new on that from any recent visitors to the park?

Otherwise, they imported Striped hyenas recently, origin unknown I think.
 
vogelcommando said:
The Striped hyenas gave already birth to triplets but the mother didn't accept the cubs. They are now being hand-raised.
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The breeding success is great but it's a shame the mother rejected them. It's strange that almost every single Pafos carnivore birth has to be hand-raised - it's on the verge of being suspicious. They make quite a bit of money of the 'Come and take a picture feeding the baby tiger thing', so I wouldn't be surprised if from time to time the mother 'rejected' the cubs. :(
 
A few more updates - African wild dogs and cassowaries have joined the collection, while the lioness gave birth to (I think) two cubs, who were unusually not 'rejected by the mother' under suspicious circumstances as is normally the case with the zoo...
 
Southern white rhinos appear to soon be the newest addition to the zoo's collection, with the wild dogs and hyenas now also added to the map just above the waterfowl area.
 
Another note just to say that the website now lists the zoo as having Philby's partridge, one of two zoos in Europe now with the species along with Zoo Koki in Spain.

The zoo now has an enviable Phasianidae collection (ten holders or fewer underlined, two holders or fewer bolded):

Blue-eared pheasant, Common pheasant, Greater Bornean crested fireback, Edward's pheasant, Elliot's pheasant, Golden pheasant, Grey peacock pheasant, Himalayan monal, Kalij pheasant, Koklass pheasant, Lady Amherst's pheasant, Satyr tragopan, Siamese fireback, Silver pheasant, Cheer pheasant, Barbary partridge, Cypriot chukar partridge, Crested partridge, Grey partridge, Philby's partridge, Black francolin, Bobwhite quail (cubanensis), California quail, Chinese painted quail, Erckel's francolin, Grey-breasted francolin, Green peafowl, Indian peafowl.

I reckon that's around third in Europe after Walsrode and Plzen...
 
Update from my two visits this last week:
  • Three new giraffes (1.2) are going to be arriving soon from Africa to join Achilles. They will be separated at first so that they can grow accustomed to each other. I understood that the shipment was taking a long time due to several complicating factors, but that the giraffes would arrive within a few months.
  • I saw 5 lions (the mother and father, their first child (1.0) and two much younger cubs which were in separation with their mother. The older male cub is getting along very well with his father but soon he'll be too large to stay and will probably move abroad.
  • The hyenas were very active indeed - mother was walking around with her pups (one of whom was quite aggressive towards her) and the male was trying to keep well away. There was a small squabble at one point but nothing serious. The good news though is that the pups have apparently been accepted by the mother, although I only saw two of the advertised three.
  • The reptile house is having a pretty hard time - around 9 different terraria with Reticulated pythons in some form or another - Asian water monitors appear to have left, Black whip snakes were off-show, no Cyprus or Dahl's whip snakes any more, not so many cobras, a Dwarf crocodile in a completely unsigned exhibit....
  • Warthogs, Sun bears and White rhinos appear to be coming soon to the collection and Red river hogs and wild dogs have just arrived, so the collection is definitely growing in terms of larger mammals.
  • Grey-breasted francolins were two elderly females who died of old age recently, so didn't get to see them - Great-spotted cuckoos are just rescue animals who come in seasonally. The California quails listed on ZTL were actually Gambel's quails and the zoo now holds large numbers (30+) Arabian partridges.
  • Hoofstock have basically vanished - Gemsbok, eland, oryx, mouflon all gone and their exhibits empty - hopefully replacements can be found.
  • Ocelots were invisible as ever, lynx only seen very fleetingly on first day - Caracal active but hard to spot.
If anyone visits in the near future, I have a whole load of advice so do let me know.
 
Nice plans for giraffes (South African ones ... i guess), white rhino, sub bear and river hoge.

Just curieus their hoofstock collection is getting low. Perhaps a change of tack with North African gazelle and antilope?
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Nice plans for giraffes (South African ones ... i guess), white rhino, sub bear and river hoge.

Just curieus their hoofstock collection is getting low. Perhaps a change of tack with North African gazelle and antilope?
Click to expand...

Good thought - at this point in time the zoo is thinking in a rather short term manner - something I can understand given this is what places like Beauval etc. did to get where they are now. I've talked to the son of the owner at length on issues like these and the focus, despite his obvious interest in rare and novel species, is on getting crowdpleasers in at the moment, whether or not it causes slight deterioration elsewhere. As we didn't discuss the hoofstock, I don't know what they plan to do with that area but I could easily see either more Sub-Saharan or North African species coming in as you say, just not sure of the timeframe.
 
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