Twycross Zoo Twycross zoo

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CZJimmy said:
a brick house is a given;) only joking, but what I meant by "design" was they've shown some initiative by proposing a rotation exhibit
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If I was a Dhole, I might be very frightened at finding Lion scent every other day in my enclosure... still, I'm sure I would quickly get used to it and my stress levels would drop away to nothing again..
 
taun said:
Who knows what they have design? Maybe another brick house similar to what they create for their gorillas? :rolleyes:

Has anyone seen any plans?
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I think they will probably do something Okay for the Lions & Dholes, after all, the refurbished Tiger enclosure for Leopards is absolutely fine- a totally turnaround for a Tywcross enclosure..

Ugly Brick buildings are reserved for the Apes, Elephants etc...;)
 
I may have missed this from elsewhere in the thread but does anyone have any details of any in-situ conservation work that the 'world primate centre' is involved in? Even if we ignore the sometimes questionable breeding history for many species and the uninspiring housing, it always surprises me that Twycross does not appear to involve itself in any meaningful conservation activities outside its own boundary fence (or even inside its fence depending on your viewpoint!). I'm not convinced that simply displaying a primate stamp collection really justifies the rebranding. I'd like to be proven wrong on this as historically of course, Twycross has contributed an awful lot towards our knowledge of primate care and hand rearing. I tend to view the extent of a zoos in - situ work as a measure of its commitment to real conservation and on my last visit I can't recall seeing any mention of anything (apart from the usual non specific, vague claims to be 'helping conservation' in some way or another) Can anyone enlighten me???
 
Theloderma said:
Even if we ignore the sometimes questionable breeding history for many species and the uninspiring housing, it always surprises me that Twycross does not appear to involve itself in any meaningful conservation activities outside its own boundary fence (or even inside its fence depending on your viewpoint!).
I don't know of any conservation projects which Twycross is involved in, though most zoos nowadays make this some sort of priority on their Agenda. That doesn't mean there aren't any of course, just I'm not aware of them...

There was some publicity very recently about field work they were going to be involved with wild Bonobos- which of course raised adverse comments on here about their current own overcrowded Bonobo situation.
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Twycross Zoo - International Conservation projects

The 2006 Twycross Annual report tells of the launch of the Twycross Zoo Conservation Welfare Fund . It lists a number of projects supported in 2006 - 8 abroad and 2 at home . Grants to these projects totalled £32,323 .

Only 2 of the projects are directly primate related , others include Africat , Amphibian Initiative , Amur Leopard project.
 
You beat me to it Bele. More details from the latest Trustees Report:

The Conservation Welfare Fund was launched in early 2006. Initially one million pounds of the Charity’s reserves was set aside to generate funds, from interest and from donations, which will provide grants to wildlife conservation and/or welfare projects nationally, internationally and in house. In 2007 £62,000 of grants were awarded and at 31 December 2007 £1,132,933 was retained
in the fund.
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Leaving aside the fact that 2006 is astonishingly late in the day for a zoo to launch a conservation fund, £1 million at least represents a sizeable commitment. Of the grants given for in-situ conservation in 2007 the largest was £11,000 to a Bornean orang-utan project, but this came from donations, not the conservation fund.

The conservaton fund gave grants for projects in Thailand, Vietnam (gibbons), DR Congo (chimps and bonobos), Cameroon (chimps), Ecuador, Russia (Amur leopards), Madagascar and Uganda (chimps). No single grant exceeded £3,000.

They also funded a couple of local projects to conserve water vole and otter habitat in Warwickshire and Leicestershire.

Twycross are way behind many other UK zoos in terms of in-situ conservation. Jersey, ZSL, Chester, Colchester and Edinburgh all do much more. Hell, even the much-maligned South Lakes does some very impressive work with Sumatran tiger projects.
 
I assume that the 2007 Annual report has now been produced Chris , I requested a copy a while ago but it was not then available .
 
Thanks Chris . Apart from the detailed animal report there is probably more information here than in the Annual report , if it is produced this year .

I picked out 2 items that really pleased me - the latest white-cheeked gibbon is being mother reared , and quote ' Plans also include the demolition of the old Chimp Houses with the chimps being rehoused in a new Ape Cognition Centre ( whatever that is ) to be built in the area next to the Gorilla Enclosure ' .
 
Twycross Chimp plans

HOORAY!!! Thank god for that, it IS a start. :):)

... but I'm still skeptical about just how many of those chimpanzees, particularly the oldest ones, will eventually be put together in one single group?
 
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CZJimmy said:
It's good too see Dholes getting a prominent exhibit in a UK zoo and it's even better to see Twycross showing a little bit of creativity in the proposed design of the new enclosures (there aren't any rotation exhibits in the UK are there?)
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When you get down to Howletts you will see a perfectly functional regular breeding pack of dholes in a classic linkmesh fenced paddock.

I'm not hugely convinced by the rotational enclosures, having dealt with enough animals that refuse to enter nightquarters (just so you can clean the exhibit) would throw the whole idea out the window. Interspecies stress is not to be dismissed easily. It would be interesting to compare the breeding records of animals kept in rotational exhibits versus traditional ones.
 
tetrapod said:
Interspecies stress is not to be dismissed easily. It would be interesting to compare the breeding records of animals kept in rotational exhibits versus traditional ones.
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That was my initial thought- see above. I would think Dhole would be really stressed by lion scent in their enclosure. I don't think there are any Dhole in the Gir Forest in India, but if there are and they come across Lions, they can simply flee to another area.
 
Bele said:
Thanks Chris . Apart from the detailed animal report there is probably more information here than in the Annual report , if it is produced this year .

I picked out 2 items that really pleased me - the latest white-cheeked gibbon is being mother reared , and quote ' Plans also include the demolition of the old Chimp Houses with the chimps being rehoused in a new Ape Cognition Centre ( whatever that is ) to be built in the area next to the Gorilla Enclosure ' .
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Going next sunday will see if they have produced an annual report,if they have i will pick some copies up.
 
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