Personally - so do not take it personal
-, I would like to see the scimitars on a semi-arid steppe habitat closer to the other oryx species. Perhaps also enlarging the exhibit and housing for Arabian oryx.There goes your iconic …
Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoo News 2014
- Thread starter mhale
- Start date
Personally - so do not take it personal
-, I would like to see the scimitars on a semi-arid steppe habitat closer to the other oryx species. Perhaps also enlarging the exhibit and housing for Arabian oryx.There goes your iconic …
So it may not be the oryx, but yet another species IS leaving and no doubt there wont be anything new of significance!
Just to recap... the Oryx, rhino and Grevy`s will be all using the central paddock opposite the hall, the dividing fence which separated the rhino and oryx paddocks will be removed as I understand it. The houses will basically be on the same footprint as the current oryx, "new" oryx and Zebra house.
The Sebas Fruit Bats have also gone and I guess their house will become part of that new development. The bats went to Tropical World in Leeds.
The Servals will also leave the park, the remaining male will be going to Galloway Wildlife Park. The female died recently. The Bat-eared Foxes are another species that will be going in due course, they have been on the "to go list" for some time.
What will happen to the current rhino house
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
Is anything due to be arriving? It's not as if the Park is exactly small; 57 hectares, or 143 acres, makes it one of the biggest conventional zoos in the UK...
BongoHardwood
Well-Known Member
For anyone who's interested, the plans are available to view on the South Downs National Park Authority planning page (though I've had a bit of trouble opening the files sometimes).
Is anything due to be arriving? It's not as if the Park is exactly small; 57 hectares, or 143 acres, makes it one of the biggest conventional zoos in the UK...
Exactly what i would like to know! Another 4 mammal losses in no time, bringing the net loss to well over 20 in about 5 years! What will happen to the fox & serval enclosures? I suspect the ocelot will be next to go, as they haven't had a breeding or potential breeding pair for some time. The fossa is also unlikely to be replaced.
The news just gets worse & worse!
The Bat-eared Fox enclosure is to become another Red Panda exhibit. The Serval enclosure may possibly be converted for the Ocelots to use.
I don`t think there are any plans to bring in any major new species.
Well, that whole stretch of "South Road" from the old Rhino house to the entrance gate house was supposed to be all changed to a "wetlands area" (biome) because many of the exhibits down there have either gone, or are going, or are possibly planned to go in the future. The old lion house is empty of course, the Peccaries will probably go, along with the Takin, the Pudu went a while ago and the Kangaroos have gone. The Flamingos and hippos were to stay as part of the "wetlands theme". But this plan has changed many times since it was first talked about in 2010/2011.
It is more advanced than just being discussed, it has been designed and planned for etc and in the same location as it is now, No definite build date but is intended as one of the next big projects after the new Rhino/Zebra/Oryx exhibit so should be in next 3 years...
By the way it's the other way around, they still have the female and the male died a few months ago, the female will be leaving within next month or so.
Maybe, but still I will believe it when I see it.
What a shambles, ANOTHER red panda enclosure?! They had another one of those & stopped using it! The management haven't a clue what they're doing, at least spending millions on a new entrance has stopped being mentioned- there will be no visitors & no animals left at this rate. Forget the underwater pygmy hippo viewing, save the money & bring in some more species to make up for those lost or due to be lost. Marwell has been going downhill for 5 years & it appears it wants to fall further. Very sad.
If the need to continually keep getting rid of species was financial, i might understand it to some extent, but it can't be that. They keep finding money to make unnecessary 'cosmetic' changes to enclosures e.g cheetahs or the daft penguin ones, or building new ones for existing species, including the awful new coati area. If the money from carving up the collection is being wasted on these things, the zoo is only heading in one direction.
The money is also there for major developments for rhino & pygmy hippo. If they were building for new species which the zoo is lacking such as lions, bears , great apes or even elephants it would be more understandable, surely new species would be a bigger publicity draw than a new enclosure for an existing one.
London keep doing the same thing & haven't suffered, so maybe i'm just in a minority of one who thinks like this.
I've said it before, but if even more species are to be lost as stated, i think a Colchester membership is long overdue next year!
The money is also there for major developments for rhino & pygmy hippo. If they were building for new species which the zoo is lacking such as lions, bears , great apes or even elephants it would be more understandable, surely new species would be a bigger publicity draw than a new enclosure for an existing one.
London keep doing the same thing & haven't suffered, so maybe i'm just in a minority of one who thinks like this.
I've said it before, but if even more species are to be lost as stated, i think a Colchester membership is long overdue next year!
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
I can assure you that you're not the only one who thinks like this!
Not so sure about Colchester though; on the assumption that the Geoffroy's cats are not going to be replaced, that leaves them without any small felids at all. EAZA is out to reduce diversity I fear...
Communityzoo
Well-Known Member
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo...__DESIGN___ACCESS_STATEMENT_PART_2-336902.pdf
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo...L-MASTERPLAN_1_OF_2_ANIMAL_HOUSING-336872.pdf
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo...__DESIGN___ACCESS_STATEMENT_PART_1-336901.pdf
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo..._ARRANGEMENT_2_OF_2_ANIMAL_HOUSING-336873.pdf
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo...L-MASTERPLAN_1_OF_2_ANIMAL_HOUSING-336872.pdf
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo...__DESIGN___ACCESS_STATEMENT_PART_1-336901.pdf
http://planningpublicaccess.southdo..._ARRANGEMENT_2_OF_2_ANIMAL_HOUSING-336873.pdf
Not so sure about Colchester though; on the assumption that the Geoffroy's cats are not going to be replaced, that leaves them without any small felids at all. EAZA is out to reduce diversity I fear...
And not all that many small carnivores full stop! It was before my time, but it is a shame Colchester - a collection which has always had a pretty hefty collection of felids and small carnivores - has diminished thus.
Still a damn nice place.
I can assure you that you're not the only one who thinks like this!
Not so sure about Colchester though; on the assumption that the Geoffroy's cats are not going to be replaced, that leaves them without any small felids at all. EAZA is out to reduce diversity I fear...
Glad i'm not the only one! It drives me mad because every time there seems to be a new post after a few weeks gap, it's always a casual announcement about another species lost ( or in this case about 6!) and then someone getting very enthusiastic about a new development for an existing species- and seeing no harm being done!
The loss of the Geoffroys Cat at Colchester is very disappointing, i agree, but probably the only other small cat loss in 5 years was the Pallas Cats(before that, sand cat, margay, fishing cat in the last 10 or so), but in that time Marwell will have lost 2 cat species so far, along with well over 20 other mammals. At least Colchester have added a few others in the last 5 years: sun bear, smooth coated otter, pileated gibbon from the RSCC for starters. Definitely a need for a new small cat species at Colchester, but the zoo is in far better health than Marwell.
I'm playing Devil's advocate here (I rue the reduction of species as much as anyone), so don't pillory me.
From a pure business perspective I can see Marwell's logic. They have very little serious "large general zoo" competition in the area so they can quite easily get away with reducing species that Joe Public won't miss -gate receipts won't change and feeding, vet and (possibly) staff costs will reduce.
Twycross is in a similar position re local competition and has followed a similar path (Marwell are shedding "just another antelope"* where Twycross are losing "just another monkey" from visitor perspective). An extensive range of hoofstock will unfortunately not impress most of the general public -does anyone really think they'd lose a noticeable number of visitors if they didn't (heaven forbid) have three zebra species?
Personally, I just hope there is some underlying plan (maybe they're taking a step back to make a leap forward). It's entirely possible (in their own mind at least) they're getting everything up to scratch before planning anything really substantial -arguably commendable (if the alternative is to do some good new species exhibit whilst the rest of the park has sub-standard areas, Exhibit A, Twycross).
Re prior comments, I personally think lions (boring to me) and bears (not boring to me) would be great additions in the future in terms of bringing in more visitors. So would elephants or great apes but the investment to do those species well is so substantial (and potentially de-stabalising) I can't see that ever happening.
To be honest I've not visited Marwell for too long a time but should be visiting on the way to the Isle of Wight in the next couple of weeks. I'll try and start from a neutral standpoint and report my opinions then.
*I know they've lost more than antelopes.
From a pure business perspective I can see Marwell's logic. They have very little serious "large general zoo" competition in the area so they can quite easily get away with reducing species that Joe Public won't miss -gate receipts won't change and feeding, vet and (possibly) staff costs will reduce.
Twycross is in a similar position re local competition and has followed a similar path (Marwell are shedding "just another antelope"* where Twycross are losing "just another monkey" from visitor perspective). An extensive range of hoofstock will unfortunately not impress most of the general public -does anyone really think they'd lose a noticeable number of visitors if they didn't (heaven forbid) have three zebra species?
Personally, I just hope there is some underlying plan (maybe they're taking a step back to make a leap forward). It's entirely possible (in their own mind at least) they're getting everything up to scratch before planning anything really substantial -arguably commendable (if the alternative is to do some good new species exhibit whilst the rest of the park has sub-standard areas, Exhibit A, Twycross).
Re prior comments, I personally think lions (boring to me) and bears (not boring to me) would be great additions in the future in terms of bringing in more visitors. So would elephants or great apes but the investment to do those species well is so substantial (and potentially de-stabalising) I can't see that ever happening.
To be honest I've not visited Marwell for too long a time but should be visiting on the way to the Isle of Wight in the next couple of weeks. I'll try and start from a neutral standpoint and report my opinions then.
*I know they've lost more than antelopes.
I think you probably have a point about the competition locally, there is none, which is possibly why Marwell remains stable.
However of all the zoos i visit regularly( annually at least), Marwell has seen by far the most rapid decline in its mammal collection, far worse than Twycross over the last 5 years, despite the loss of its giraffe, lions & sealions(at least several new species have been added) in the same time scale!
I can't imagine what would be said on here if Chester lost a 3rd of its mammals in the next 5 years!?