The aye-ayes must be ancient by now, and unless I've missed his replacement at some point, the male is not a suitable animal for display. He used to stereotype quite a lot in the presence of visitors, so I'm assuming this reduced once they were brought off-exhibit. I'm pleased they've got the relative privacy of the off-show wing of the Clore. Given they're no longer in a reverse-lighting enclosure, I'd hope they'd have access to one of the outdoor enclosures at the back of the building. Given London has experience in their husbandry now, perhaps they will be one of the first to receive new animals in a few years if the Duke University export restarts breeding at Jersey.
Regarding the aardvarks, if indeed they only hold one, this could be on account of them having had two females until now, rather than due to a death. I'm not sure they didn't think they had 1.1 when they arrived as young animals, so perhaps a male is due to arrive at some point.
Regarding the wild dogs, I remember someone on here alluding to there being at least one litter born that wasn't successfully raised. The enclosure is relatively good, but disturbance from the passing narrowboat (parties, tours, engines) and towpath literally feet from the enclosure is a variable the zoo can't control, including after hours. If the numbers are dwindling with no successful rearing, perhaps the supposedly temporary arrival of the cheetahs this year seems less random. It's not as if wild dogs could not be housed well at Whipsnade.
Has anyone seen the hummingbirds since the comment about them having gone from the bird house? They would have been unlucky to have lost all three, perhaps they are trying them offshow this year having had no successful breeding so far (in contrast to the sunbirds).
Someone mentioned the gibbons being inbred. I'm aware they are a hybrid animal mixed with a white-cheeked animal. What's the story with this pair? For years there was a thriving group of lar gibbons, then they tried them on Bear Mountain and they suddenly disappeared from the zoo. How did ZSL come to hold a pair of different species, one of which is a hybrid?
While I don't believe the story that the hippos are being 'reunited' in order for them to breed, I do wonder what the reccomendation is from the EEP that has resulted in them being housed without any breeding for so long, they must be of low value overall to the programme. Pygmy hippos often breed in fairly basic conditions, so I can't imagine the previous enclosures being the only obstacle to breeding.
Regarding the Lion redevelopment, it's a good thing that they're going to focus on their in situ vulture conservation. I think even if the captive birds don't breed (going on the lack of success with vultures elsewhere in the zoo), the importance of using them to highlight ZSL's work outweighs this.
Clearly ZSL are going to attempt to secure Hanuman or some subspecies of tufted langur for the lion exhibit. They have a long history successfully breeding grey langurs and only a few recent years without any. To the average visitor, London zoo is crawling with monkeys! There are more areas in the zoo where monkeys or other primates are kept, compared to 20 years ago, even if overall there are less species. I imagine at least one of the primate species to leave the lion terraces will return, I can't for example see London deciding to stop holding gibbons permanently, but any new enclosure will likely be a 'small-scale upgrade', rather than something major, I'm sure. The old dog cages which were originally in the plans for Tiger Territory as an offshow outdoor cubbing enclosure may still be redeveloped at some point, but I would imagine London want to have redeveloped most of the main eyesores before bringing back any species that don't have immediate marketing power (eg. reindeer).
I include myself in this, but in terms of the sort of detail discussed on this site, I often wonder what a surreal experience it must be for London Zoo keepers to read threads of this kind, if they ever do.
Looking at the new 'Tiger Territory' recently I was thinking of that huge wasted airspace with nothing using it.
Please. Pretty please.
