[*]The present elephant house might perhaps be converted to house either gorillas or chimps
If the Elephants were ever to leave, their House would be an obvious site for a conversion to take all those Chimpanzees. It could be done with far less expense than creating a new building, which sounds like it won't happen anytime soon, so that might represent the only way they ever get a single colony together.
For the small 1.3+ baby Gorilla group, they don't need that amount of space- but the Chimps do.
However, as has been pointed out, losing the Elephants would be another major drawcard gone, though keeping four females of breeding age without (successful) breeding has been a long term critisism of their elephant set-up. I believe one of the older females(Tonzi or Minbu) is already considered post reproductive, a pretty poor state of affairs in a not-so-old female, and quite possibly due to changes to her system connected with lack of regular breeding. The others could follow suit if the months and years continue to pass by with still no changes made. The record since the first natural breedings with Chester's bull, has been abysmal.
Its been suggested they might replace these cows with young males, but is that likely to happen?
Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo news 2013 #2
- Thread starter vogelcommando
- Start date
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Well it was rumoured on and off for quite sometime under the previous director,that the might go out of Elephants or keep an all male group,but then again she told somebody that wrote a book that they had Okapi arriving within 5 years,back in 2009 I believe so in that case they should arrive next year,but wait a minute they have not approached the studbook about even possibly keeping them,so thats not going to happen!
With Twycross you are never quite sure what will happen next,like after they appointed themselves The World Primate Centre,they turned down the chance to keep 1.1 Golden-bellied Mangabey and 3.0 Drills as they didn't fit the zoo's collection plan!!!
Got to disagree with your perspective on this I'm afraid.
Whilst the odd smaller zoo has problems, most have found their own path to facilitating continued operations and seem to be based on an even keel financially.
To be honest I think it's the medium collections that face bigger challenges moving forward as, unlike the smaller collections which people accept as they are (often making allowances for their size/situation), they face more pressures to continually change/improve. That said I'm sure they'll pretty much all rise to the challenge, after all they seem to have done so over the last couple of decades -very few significant zoo failures/closures.
Finally, I'd be careful guessing/asserting that the general public want more glitz -some might, but others are equally charmed by collections that are either small, quirky, local or perhaps more small child-friendly collections. For instance in Germany and the Netherlands there are a fair number of what you might term "super zoos" but there's also a large amount of smaller zoos that seem to have no problems attracting visitors to survive.
Pathetically attempting to make this post a little more "on thread" I'd point out that Twycross' historically impressive visitor numbers seem more to do with being a local zoo, with little competition, which many seemingly fairly undiscerning members of the local public have a huge amount of affection for (rather than it being any kind of "great zoo" over the last decade).
As I understand Noor Jahan is currently pregnant by means of A.I.This would have been done before the zoo moved over to P.C. for the elephants. Is it possible or not to practice A.I. on elephants when the animals are under protected contact?
Good point too- which I for one have no idea but I would have thought it was still possible if the animal is properly trained for the procedure.
Yes, I overlooked NJ and believe she is currently pregnant (2nd time).
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
No it wasn't would have been a new pair to the UK!That wouldn't by any chance be the non-breeding pair at Port Lympne would it?
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
It was done before the change,and as far as I know nobody has tried to use AI in PC!
I imagine it would be quite a test for the trainer, and also that it would require a specially designed PC area.
Alan
Its a pity Port Lympne didn't get them then, a second pair added to the existing ones might have stimulated some breeding....
zoogiraffe
Well-Known Member
Funny you should say that but Port Lympne,turned some females down from the same source after get the place to jump,through all sorts of hoops doing various tests to make sure they were fit and health to move to the UK!
Weird but that's rather typical of Howletts/PL sometimes seemingly erratic decision-making.
Died of old age a little while ago.
4 young meerkats at Twycross :
One, Two, Three, Four! Four Little Meerkat Pups for Twycross Zoo - ZooBorns
One, Two, Three, Four! Four Little Meerkat Pups for Twycross Zoo - ZooBorns
Talking of Meerkats, according to the zoos website, the Meerkat enclosure is being extended and updated.
mazfc
Well-Known Member
There's certainly room round there. Much needed too, and shouldn't break the budget.
went down today
meerkat enclosure is well underway
work also started in old wildcat enclosure, looks like steel netting gone up on top
borneo longhouse has re-opened looks like several new support posts
just as a side note does anyone know what happened to kerry havent seen her in a long time
meerkat enclosure is well underway
work also started in old wildcat enclosure, looks like steel netting gone up on top
borneo longhouse has re-opened looks like several new support posts
just as a side note does anyone know what happened to kerry havent seen her in a long time