Cool you can still see the size difference between mom Marge, younger female Maggie and little Bart. Now we just need to figure out how to tell the girls apart while they are visibly different. Guess the males arent on display yet. Both are supposed to be castrated. Enjoy baby Bart while you can because he will be it for babies.
None are on display yet, but are being held in one of the Eurasia paddocks, supposedly off-exhibit but you can see them behind one of the Przewalski paddocks.
Also I believe it is 3 castrated males and two females and today I heard that the reason you can only see 4 is that one of the males has some urinary tract problems and is off-exhibit (do not know where).
The former giraffe exhibit where they are going is still not finished (close to a year so far). Last Friday the visitor area there was torn up and this Friday it looks exactly the same as then. Mid-morning on a good-weather day, no one was working there.
It is three males and the two females. Marge, Maggie and Bart came first. I don't know that Bart has been castrated yet but wouldn't be surprised if he was. The two bulls arrived in the fall. No word on their names but my guess is Homer and some other Simpsons character.
And Mr Wrinkly do we really expect any kind of progress with construction? Nothing goes according to plan when construction is involved. Frankly I'm surprised the giraffe exhibit was finished last year.
I agree that zoos 'shouldn't' have domestics (I certainly am not bothered about them) and that they waste space for wild animals...
But having said that, domestics do attract visitors, especially petting zoos with families so they are no more of a waste of space than a play area for example and I realise that they bring more visitors and so more money which justifies zoos having them.
I typically like to see a well-kept farmyard area - preferably with local rare breeds, which I always like to see - rather than domestics stuck in in between the wild displays. It gives a means for kids to get closer to some animals and, as Laughing Dove says, is a good 'family-friendly' yet still 'animally' attraction. I'm not averse to a few domestics out and about, but on the whole I'd rather they were 'contained' in the farmyard! Tierpark Berlin, which does have its domestics spread out, remains my favourite domestic display, however - perhaps a paradox, but bear in Tierpark has a) the space and b) the scope of wild collection for the 'proper' zoo animals not to feel overwhelmed.
That said, Ankole/Watusi are fantastic animals - and an 'African farm' can work just as well as a local-themed one.
Oh I was disappointed too when I found out the zoo was getting watusi. I wanted something, anything else, were the zoo would at lease be making a contribution to a species. Breeding wasn't necessary. Even holding a bull herd to free space at other zoos for breeding would have done. I really had been hoping for addax, gemsbok, gerenuks or even a gazelle mix.
That being said the zoo is in a sticky place right now. It's still not part of the AZA... stupid city council... so getting a new species from them was going to be hard. I believe initially the zoo wanted something else but plans fell through because of the AZA problem. There are limited options for the zoo to pick up new species from other CAZA zoos. Secondly the border can be a problem with hoofstock. What comes up could take forever to get back down. We have had some difficulty in placing other hoofstock back in US zoos in the past because of strict laws at the border. That makes it a little harder for the AZA to place some species in Canada. Not impossible but harder. Thirdly I think an opportunity to get the watusi just came up and the zoo had a big empty exhibit so they jumped at them rather then wait for the AZA.
Hopefully once the barn is done they will consider exhibit mates that do have conservation value.
