Port Lympne Wild Animal Park Port Lympne 2013

Martin Smith said:
Hahaha! Funny that he exhibited damn near zero interest whilst his old man was alive!
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The cynic in me thinks that this is the real reason behind his conservation and zoo-closing ideas. Running 2 zoos must cost a fortune and he'd probably prefer to spend his money on things he's interested in rather than those he's inherited.

I certainly wouldn't want to come across that humanised tiger once it's been released into the wild!
 
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The sad thing is, he doesn't need to pose..... he owns a couple of world class establishments with keepers at the top of their trade.... if he just stfu and concentrated on release projects he'd get away with the occasional publicity pic and non-pc comment, as his dad did....... and everyone loved the old rogue for it!!
Sounds very much like he's trying way too hard to emulate his old man but overdoing it, so that Joe Public ends up thinking you're a hypocritical twat rather than the lovable relic who's sometimes dreadful outbursts you tolerate because of the terrific things he did.
 
Brum said:
And from what I can gather, Sammy is extremely important to the EEP as his genes are unrepresented. That's if I'm thinking of the right rhino though, he is the one from Japan(?) right?
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Sammy will only move once he has covered I think Kitani at Chester,and until that has happened he stays at Chester!
 
Shorts said:
It'll be interesting to see how his logic applies when either park transfers animals to other zoos in the future (surely transferring animals only sustains other zoos which is not consistent with his "close down zoo" rhetoric).
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That is the interesting thing- transfers From Howletts/PL to other Zoos, mostly on the basis of longterm 'breeding loans' have been taking place, and still are, quite routinely in recent years under his reign- Gorillas to Belfast, Twycross, France, South America & S.E Asia, and recently Germany and Denmark also, Black Rhino to Chester & Paignton and now another to Rotterdam , Lions to Belfast, to name but a few, yet all this against a background of how terrible these places are.:confused:
 
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IanRRobinson said:
More seriously, I do begin to wonder if those species held at Howletts and Port Lympne should be realistically written off from their studbooks. The prospects of long-term collaborative breeding do look problematic.
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But as I mentioned above, despite all his anti-zoo rhetoric, the interesting thing is that they do, almost routinely nowadays, make transfers of animals to other collections, more so now than was ever the case in Aspinall Snr's day.- They may still, for the most part, retain ownership of most of those specimens, but they are infiltrating into mainstream populations- while living under awful conditions- according to him.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Just a shame that the man at the top seems to hold those visiting his collections and others in some contempt, calling us misguided in our enjoyment of them, and calling any other collection claiming to be involved in conservation liars!
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Ah, but its okay for him to enjoy animals- but not anybody else.;) They'll even take your money at the gate of his parks and he'll still be critical of the reason for your visit.

Regarding conservation- it is surprising that he seems unaware (or perhaps he chooses to overlook because they don't fit his 'model') of the many and varied conservation programmes/release schemes many zoos are involved with nowadays, that's not to mention some of the 'classic' species that have already in the past been saved from extinction by the work of Zoos/captive breeding.
 
Pertinax said:
Ah, but its okay for him to enjoy animals- but not anybody else.;)

Regarding conservation- it is surprising that he seems unaware (or perhaps he chooses to overlook because they don't fit his 'model') of the many and varied conservation programmes many zoos are involved with nowadays, that's not to mention some of the classic species that have already in the past been saved from extinction by the work of Zoos.
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Perhaps Mr. Aspinall could consult with the gentleman who supports London Zoo and all the good work it does in education and conservation, and ask his opinion of good zoos. This gentleman described Mr. Aspinall's late father as more right wing than Norman Tebbit, despite this they got on very well, indeed he spoke up and gave evidence in favour of John Aspinall and his zoo when he was in trouble with local authority licensing, and when John Aspinall died he left this gentleman a sum of money in his will for his election campaign to be Mayor of London, Mr. Ken Livingstone is his name.
 
gentle lemur said:
George (Gideon) Osborne is the son of the Sir Peter George Osborne Bt. I think James must be his uncle. You can check with Debrett's if you really wish :rolleyes:

Alan
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John Aspinall's mother married Sir George Osborne. He was the father of Sir Peter, father to the Chancellor, and James.

Whilst the latter remained close to his half-brother, to repeat what I posted earlier
..I..very much doubt if Damian and Gideon (George Osborne's real name!) are buddies. Their fathers fell out spectacularly, according to the Brian Masters biography, which would hardly have made the story up. Indeed, I have wondered if Osborne's thinly disguised dislike of green issues isn't a reaction against his uncle.
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zoogiraffe said:
Not at the moment he does have 1 son at PL.Problem is he only likes one female at Chester and they want her pregnant before he leaves on-loan!
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You have just answered in advance my next query which was- why is Sammy going to PL if he only has one offspring from the Chester females?;)
 
orangutan said:
Has female Emmie also moved with Kibi and baby to howletts?
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From the European Gorillas thread, the answer is yes. They are in the oldest run of cages where the oldest females live- but as these can be partitioned, I suspect they may be adjacent rather than actually with them.(Not sure on the latter though).
 
Nisha said:
BBC News - Gorilla stuck in Kent pines for family in Africa
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When I first read this headline, I had visions of a Gorilla trapped in a pinewood at Port Lympne...:rolleyes:

Presumably she was so near her due date that when the group finally moved to Gabon, they didn't dare fly her over too. I hope they can get her back with them-Djala would undoubtedly accept her and the baby and there isn't much other future for her at the Parks while she has a young infant.
 
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