Sorry to pick on you, foz, because this is a common thing, but I really hate this idea that because the general public don't necessarily get excited about an animal it has no place being there. Part of the role of zoos is to show people animals they're not aware of. If people think 'just another sheep' rather than 'wow, the ancestor of our farmed sheep' then the zoo's interpretation needs looking at, not necessarily the animals.
That said, there have been many questions previously about the purity of BNC's Mouflon...
Sorry to pick on you, foz, because this is a common thing, but I really hate this idea that because the general public don't necessarily get excited about an animal it has no place being there. Part of the role of zoos is to show people animals they're not aware of. If people think 'just another sheep' rather than 'wow, the ancestor of our farmed sheep' then the zoo's interpretation needs looking at, not necessarily the animals.
That said, there have been many questions previously about the purity of BNC's Mouflon...
I agree with you alot could be done to make the mouflon more exciting then the park currently does. However, in my stupidity i didnt make this clear in my initial post, my concern is more with the parks land use. This is one of the largest (if not the largest) enclosure in the park, and escpeically for such a small zoo i do think it could be better used then it currently is. I have no quarms about holding the mouflon or the other sheep species here, I just feel this enclosure could be put to better use ...clearly down to my personal opinion.
Foz,
do you care to expand on what could be put in the bigger areas of BNC baring in mind what they already have and ruling out anything too big which wouldn't fit in with the scheme of things already here..........
Depends on what you mean by what would 'fit in with the scheme of things'. You could do alsorts, its no big deal, another antelope species, a social large monkey (such as mandrills..if fencing was improved)...But i dont want to get into 'dream zoo' territory because its all hypothetical - I highly doubt that i would ever own the place or have the resources to do everything i would want to do.
Depends on what you mean by what would 'fit in with the scheme of things'. You could do alsorts, its no big deal, another antelope species, a social large monkey (such as mandrills..if fencing was improved)...But i dont want to get into 'dream zoo' territory because its all hypothetical - I highly doubt that i would ever own the place or have the resources to do everything i would want to do.
I've been thinking and since this is next to the Sitatunga paddock then maybe Addax would be a good addition, not a large species, endangered and not uncommon in zoos. Then maybe move the Mouflon to the old wallaby paddock and move the other domestic sheep in with the Soay... Don't think that's to unrealistic AND definitely not stepping into "dream zoo" territory!
