Work being done today to smooth out the rock work on the retaining walls. There were too many cracks and uneven surfaces and deemed a risk of the macaques escaping. So, a team has been brought in to re-surface the effected areas.
I was told the zoo employed free-climbing experts to assess if it was possible for the orangs to scale their high retaining walls! Apparently they are deemed safe.
Sulawesies are a good lively group at Chester but I wonder what % of their time is actually spent outside in their existing enclosure. Its likely to be similar here, so could this be an apparently empty area a lot of the time?
The group has been reduced to about a dozen now, which may make the move a little easier. I haven't seen them outside much recently, although in the past when the group was larger, they were usually some outdoors.
I have rarely seen them outdoors, although I hear they used to venture out regularly....must be unlucky?
I hope they do random scatter feeds outside to encourage them to use the area as often as possible. It's a very large space for regular 'no shows'.
I think there will be a lot of 'spot the xxxx' as, apart from the warty pigs, the enclosures are very large with restricted views or the inhabitants notoriously difficult to see, even in their current smaller exhibits. I suppose this adds to the 'exploration' idea that visitors have to really search for the animals as they would do in the wild. I like this idea but most visitors will not have the patience or inclination.
I think there will be a lot of 'spot the xxxx' as, apart from the warty pigs, the enclosures are very large with restricted views or the inhabitants notoriously difficult to see, even in their current smaller exhibits. I suppose this adds to the 'exploration' idea that visitors have to really search for the animals as they would do in the wild. I like this idea but most visitors will not have the patience or inclination.
I think there will be an element of that at the start, but as the vegetation in the enclosures grows and the group size builds up, I think the macaques will show pretty well - perhaps assisted by an occasional handful of peanuts from a boat. Like the orangs, they will also be visible inside the Monsoon Forest. I agree that you will be very lucky to see every species from the boat, but I think that the anoa and the banteng will be as reliable as the warty pigs.
Like so many Primates in Zoos, where all the resting, grooming etc is done in the warmth and security of indoor accomodation, interspersed with much shorter periods of more intense activity e.g. foraging, outside.
Scatter feeds is a good way around that, to tempt them to show more outside, except that they can't be done all the time.
