Five Sisters Zoo Park albino skunk

tropical wings in essex have also had a litter with 2 albinos i think?
aswel as chocolates and lavenders there are also a few tans in the uk and maybe some apricots aswel.
stu
 
I assume that the five sisters management are able to exhibit such an amazing collection of small mammals because they are independent of BIAZA or any charitable trust and see no ethical barrier to buying from private keepers. There are very few avenues into the british zoo population these days for species now largely in private hands, hopefully the civets and springhare will breed well and start to show up at some of the bigger collections once again.
 
johnstoni said:
I assume that the five sisters management are able to exhibit such an amazing collection of small mammals because they are independent of BIAZA or any charitable trust and see no ethical barrier to buying from private keepers. There are very few avenues into the british zoo population these days for species now largely in private hands, hopefully the civets and springhare will breed well and start to show up at some of the bigger collections once again.
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Actually many of the larger zoos don't have to many ethical qualms about obtaining stock from private sources. Many species of parrots, fish, inverts, plus sugar gliders, polecats, red squirrels and countless domestic stock are sourced from private owners. Obviously one hopes that they are reputable.
 
Yes and no. If a zoo want to obtain something, it usually will if it can do so without attracting negative publicity. Also these days so many species move around without being bought/sold, certainly the charitable zoos don't really have any budget to purchase stock in the way they would have done a few decades ago. I think today it is avoided where possible, and as staff, in some zoos, you are encouraged to avoid revealing how animals entered and left the collection unless it was as part of a breeding programme between zoos. Domestic stock are a whole different matter.
 
johnstoni said:
Yes and no. If a zoo want to obtain something, it usually will if it can do so without attracting negative publicity. Also these days so many species move around without being bought/sold, certainly the charitable zoos don't really have any budget to purchase stock in the way they would have done a few decades ago. I think today it is avoided where possible, and as staff, in some zoos, you are encouraged to avoid revealing how animals entered and left the collection unless it was as part of a breeding programme between zoos. Domestic stock are a whole different matter.
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If the species are part of a recognised breeding program then chances are that individuals are swapped rather than exchange of money. For bog-standard display or education species then money may change hands. The fact is that these species are not the ones that grab media attention and so the public are not aware of (or care) how the animal entered the collection.
 
According to the Channel 5 tv listings, what I assume is the skunk birth will be featured on Michaela's Zoo Babies on the 21st August.

"Gizmo the skunk surprises everyone with her litter of kittens when she produces a very rare baby"
 
I'm sure wherever you have worked, that has been the case. In my experience, it is not best practice to sell or buy animals where alternatives exist. This has some, if minimal, effect on what is held for certain taxa....if a psittacine, or a rodent species are available from other EAZA collections on loan/exchange/ESB transfer, it is unlikely a collection will seek out a different species from a private breeder for a given exhibit.
 
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