I remember someone reporting seeing them out in the paddock sometime in the summer however they seem to have spent most of the time locked in the yard (understandable at this timeof the year) but I don't see why they should be on the yard in the warmer months.
I personally have NEVER seen them in the paddock. Every time I visited last summer, I hoped to find they had been given access to the grass, but sadly I have only ever seen them on the hardstanding
I don't know if they are supposed to share the paddock with anything, but there could be compatability issues. It's also possible that they are not very 'biddable', and are hard to get back in the stable once they are out in the paddock. This is based on anecdotal evidence from another collection.
There are indeed compatibility issues, with Chapman's zebras. The keeper told me that they would need to put a dividing fence across the paddock to keep them apart.
... but I guess the divided paddock still hasn't happened yet? It doesn't seem to show much forward thinking on Marwell's part to import them into a situation where they are just stuck in a hardstanding semi-permanently. What was envisaged originally for them?
Newquay's trio do go in their paddock and I think may have been mixed with Zebra there. I can understand the compatability concerns as W.t. Gnu can be aggressive, but they must have been advised of that beforehand. I do feel its wrong for grazing antelope to be denied access to grass like this..
Indeed. And with zebra being fairly sought after in other collections, why does Marwell persist in maintaining the chapman's group when they already hold two mountain and grevy's?
Mixing the hoofed stock at Newquay has been a long careful process. The wildebeest have been the most challenging to train to return to the yards and stable, they are nervous and aggressive. They have mixed easily with, lechwe, nyala and waterbuck. The zebra challenge their dominance over the paddock and the wilderbeest charge them but in two years there have only been a few minor scrapes. The most surprising failure is that they cannot be mixed with the ostrich, they attack it on sight! They ignore the white storks and crowned crane. The longest introduction was getting the zebra to accept the nyala, it took months but they ignore them now.
The stock is seperated during the winter to rest the ground.
