I'm very interested in the African palm civet here. As far as I know, it is one of only two in a 'proper' zoo (the other is at Poznan, and has been there since the mid 90s at least).
The species is fairly common in the wild - but not often seen due to its nocturnal habits - and I have seen several specimens in captivity in Tanzania. It's a fascinating animal, with its taxonomic status open to question. It would be excellent to see more in zoos. Does anyone know where San Antonio's came from? I think (although I may be wrong) that the one in Poland came from a sailor who had been keeping it as a pet.
This looks to be a diurnal exhibit. Is the animal ever visible?
And what's with all those pipes in the ceiling? It looks a little industrial.
I'm very interested in the African palm civet here. As far as I know, it is one of only two in a 'proper' zoo (the other is at Poznan, and has been there since the mid 90s at least).
The species is fairly common in the wild - but not often seen due to its nocturnal habits - and I have seen several specimens in captivity in Tanzania. It's a fascinating animal, with its taxonomic status open to question. It would be excellent to see more in zoos. Does anyone know where San Antonio's came from? I think (although I may be wrong) that the one in Poland came from a sailor who had been keeping it as a pet.
This looks to be a diurnal exhibit. Is the animal ever visible?
And what's with all those pipes in the ceiling? It looks a little industrial.
I got outstanding photos of the civet. 'Outstanding' is a strong word but I use it because when I first saw the exhibit, I thought something like "This rarity will be impossible to photograph". The civet was sleeping on the top of the log in the exhibit but at one point raised its head for several minutes. Those I used to shoot pictures better than I could ever have hoped for with the help of my camera's 'night' function; they'll be going on Zoochat in a little while.
It is not a diurnal exhibit as such, kind of between nocturnal and diurnal exhibit (not sure if you understand me Sooty) if I remember correctly (I was there in September)
The pipes are indeed nothing for the eye, but don't let that fool you, Africa Live is fantastic (even if the building is a bit cold on the inside)
I believe the civet is one of the animals being held temporarily by the SA Zoo for the Moody Gardens in Galveston. Their exhibits were flooded by the big hurricane a couple of years ago, so they had to ship out much of their fauna while they are in the process of repairing and rebuilding their rainforest habitat. The Africa Live! exhibit were the civet resides was originally built to exhibit elephant shrews.
