Chester Zoo Small news at Chester Zoo

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I'm sure the meerkats have had smaller enclosures. I first remember them in the old small mammals house, and later I think they were in the camel house. It seems a strange decision to move them to an enclosure which seems to be inferior. Also, I can't see a problem with having the rhinos adjacent to the meerkats, nor the construction of the aviary next door. I'm puzzled by this decision.
 
bongorob said:
I'm sure the meerkats have had smaller enclosures. I first remember them in the old small mammals house, and later I think they were in the camel house. It seems a strange decision to move them to an enclosure which seems to be inferior. Also, I can't see a problem with having the rhinos adjacent to the meerkats, nor the construction of the aviary next door. I'm puzzled by this decision.
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Am also am confused :confused:, I can only see to possible answers

1 - There splitting the group
2 - Temproary move to beable to build the Aviary

I also concur that I doubt they will knock down the Meerkat enclosure, as the paddock is big enough as it is.
 
I was told that once the Hornbill aviary was built the remaining paddock would house the recently arrived porcupines. Obviously if that was the case then the Rhino would not be using that area! Has anyone else heard that?
 
I'm sure that the meerkat group is all related, ie: mother and offspring (as said on Zoodays) so no proper breeding should have took place, but in my opinion, meerkats are more of a 'pets corner' species these days, as they are not a threatened species, no necessity to breed them, just a species that visitors expect to see at a zoo, so maybe their move to the other side of the zoo reflects this. The meerkats never really utilised all of their spacious enclosure anyway, so where one species fails, another may utilise it better maybe?
 
Went to the member's day today and made some notes of what I found and what had changed:

- monorail is closed for repairs until February
- the rhino calf is very cute! he was suckling well and followed his mother everywhere.
- Ema is on course with her pregnancy, due to give birth in May
- the old Lechwe paddock is being turned back into a rhino one. One of the the tree had been wrapped in rope, so i presume it is a scratching post and there were lots of boulders
- the 'new' meerkat enclosure appears just to be a seperation. Only one meerkat was in there.
- Tejas is still a celebrity. He has a picture on the lion enclosure of him in France
- the new tiger indoor area looks very good (camo paint, hanging branches and woodchips) and the floor-to-roof window is an improvement on the previous one.
- no signs on the squirell cages outside the elephant house
- baby spotted deer
- butterfly house exterior looks near completions
- the congo buffalo calf looks well
- the male Visayan Pig has been put back with the female and piglets
- a new playground on arara lawn
- one emu was shut inside
- there is an edward's pheasant in the elephant house hornbill aviary
- there are poetry extracts around the zoo from an Eleanor Rees.
- the new roof on the croc enclosure is to keep the heat in during the winter

(also posted in the member's day thread)
 
The meerkat move is permanent, another specimen was due to be transferred today. There were 2 in the old enclosure. The intention is to start a new breeding group in the new enclosure.

The Chestnut Thrush is now on exhibit in the old bird house and the Javan Whistling Thrushes and Madagascan Fodys are now labelled in the Tropical Realm. A new species in this building is Death's Head Cockroach. The Fiji Iguanas looked nice, didn't see the crocodiles.

The Mesic Four-striped Grasss Mice in the Okapi House have been replaced with Spotted Grass Mice.

The anoas have died and there are no plans to replace them.

A male tiger is expected early in 2009, the studbook keeper is working on it.

CZJimmy is right, the rhino calf is cute, and very popular.

Recent births are
1 Congo Buffalo
1 Colombian Black-faced Spider Monkey
3 Mandrill
2 Geoffroy's Marmoset
Banggai Cardinal Fish
Charocodon 'Abraham Gonzales'

new arrivals
5 Anderson's Salamander
 
Oh i also forgot to mention, the tarantula enclosure in the tropical realm looks like it has been redecorated since my last visit. It's more of a desert setting in that tank now than it appeared before

There were also 2 very young lion-tailed macaques and the male was mating another female while i was there.
 
CZJimmy said:
There were also 2 very young lion-tailed macaques and the male was mating another female while i was there.
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This group has been hugely successful for a species which is normally regarded as a slow breeder(long birth interval) in captivity. The founder stock was just 1.2 ( one female Reme was born at Edinburgh but I seem to remember she was attacked several times very badly by a male there and had to be removed, the other came from Colchester) and the current male is possibly now breeding with several daughters(unrelated to him) born in the Chester group. It helped that six out of the first seven babies born in the group were females.
 
Pertinax said:
This group has been hugely successful for a species which is normally regarded as a slow breeder(long birth interval) in captivity. The founder stock was just 1.2 ( one female Reme was born at Edinburgh but I seem to remember she was attacked several times very badly by a male there and had to be removed, the other came from Colchester) and the current male is possibly now breeding with several daughters(unrelated to him) born in the Chester group. It helped that six out of the first seven babies born in the group were females.
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Just to build on this point...

I was in Monkey Islands yesterday and thought that it surely must be one of the most successful exhibits in Chester's history?

- It's a massive improvement on the previous monkey house
- very stimulating for the monkeys (wood chips, logs)
- excellent visitor interpretation (soundboards, dexterity game etc)
- a seemingly excellent breeding record for every species except the guenons (who were never a proper group anyway)

There seems to be a number of youngsters born every year and the lion-tailed and sulawesi macaques have massive groups now and the mandrills and spider monkey groups are increasing regularly as well...
 
CZJimmy said:
Went to the member's day today and made some notes of what I found and what had changed:


- the old Lechwe paddock is being turned back into a rhino one. One of the the tree had been wrapped in rope, so i presume it is a scratching post and there were lots of boulders

(also posted in the member's day thread)
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Sorry, I'm a little out of the loop. I've not been on the forum in a while, and not been to the zoo in ages. What has happened with the lechwe? Am I right in thinking the Pere David's have gone and the lechwe live across there? Also, may I ask, are the Przewalski's still in there usual home?

Thanks,
 
^Chris^ said:
Sorry, I'm a little out of the loop. I've not been on the forum in a while, and not been to the zoo in ages. What has happened with the lechwe? Am I right in thinking the Pere David's have gone and the lechwe live across there? Also, may I ask, are the Przewalski's still in there usual home?

Thanks,
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Yeah, the deer went to West Midlands (or Knowsley - it's a safari park and was mentioned in another thread). The Lechwe have moved to that paddock and the Prez horses are still in their paddocks.
 
CZJimmy said:
Yeah, the deer went to West Midlands (or Knowsley - it's a safari park and was mentioned in another thread). The Lechwe have moved to that paddock and the Prez horses are still in their paddocks.
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Thankyou that's what I presumed.
Did we ever find out what that mystery ungulate that Zoogiraffe was teasing us with was?
 
CZJimmy said:
I was in Monkey Islands yesterday and thought that it surely must be one of the most successful exhibits in Chester's history?
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I think the indoor enclosures are among the best I've seen for large Monkeys. The outdoor islands are great for the Monkeys (though the Liontails & Mandrills in particular don't seem to use them much) but from a visitor perspective they are not so good as too far away with the water moats. If they were surrounded by high glass windows/walls instead of water moats I'd rate them even better.

I'm presuming the rhino calf is really a 'he' as you mention?
 
Pertinax said:
I think the indoor enclosures are among the best I've seen for large Monkeys. The outdoor islands are great for the Monkeys (though the Liontails & Mandrills in particular don't seem to use them much) but from a visitor perspective they are not so good as too far away with the water moats. If they had high glass windows/walls instead of water moats I'd rate them even better.

I'm presuming the rhino calf is really a 'he' as you mention?
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Yeah the keeper confirmed the calf was male, but is still not named.
 
CZJimmy said:
Yeah the keeper confirmed the calf was male, but is still not named.
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Thanks. Its good the birth and early days have gone well. Hopefully Ema's will be straight forward too.

Do you know if the 2nd Tsavo female Manyara does really have a problem regarding breeding from her?
 
Pertinax said:
I think the indoor enclosures are among the best I've seen for large Monkeys. The outdoor islands are great for the Monkeys (though the Liontails & Mandrills in particular don't seem to use them much) but from a visitor perspective they are not so good as too far away with the water moats. If they were surrounded by high glass windows/walls instead of water moats I'd rate them even better.
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With that thought in mind, it would be nice to keep the moat, but have glass viewing for visitors from the building side (like for the spider monkeys but bigger windows) , with the monkey access to the islands by overhead tunnels. I agree that is the only grumble about the building, otherwise a very successful exhibit.

...talking of which, are the Campbell's Guenon still there? I thought I heard something about them going?
 
^Chris^ said:
...talking of which, are the Campbell's Guenon still there? I thought I heard something about them going?
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They weren't there yesterday and the I couldn't see their sign either...

Which reminds me, does anyone know why (or where) the squirrels have gone from outside the elephant house (no junglefowl in those exhibits either)?
 
i didn't think there were any guenons any more they have spider monkeys, lion tailed macaques, mandrills and celebes crested macaque
 
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