ZSL Whipsnade Zoo animals past and present

as found in the 1963 whipsnade guidebook it mentions the following animals :sorry if some have already been mentioned

  • shetland ponies
  • pigmy cattle
  • guinea pigs
  • white tailed gnu
  • white bearded gnu
  • northern waterbuck
  • thomsons gazelle
  • spekes sitatunga
  • eland
  • nilgai
  • bushbaby
  • pigmy marmoset
  • woolly monkey
  • rhesus monkey
  • gibbons
  • polar bear
  • brown bear
  • kodiak bear
  • lion
  • tiger
  • leopard
  • snow leopard
  • northern or common lynx
  • caracal lynx
  • servals
  • puma
  • bactrian camel
  • llama
  • guanco
  • ankole cattle
  • dexter cattle
  • chartley cattle
  • yak
  • cape buffalo
  • anoa
  • american bison
  • muntjac
  • fallow deer
  • spotted deer
  • hog deer
  • swamp deer
  • sika deer
  • red deer
  • wapiti deer
  • pere davids deer
  • virginian deer
  • moose
  • chinese water deer
  • indian elephants
  • cottons giraffe
  • baringo giraffe
  • reticulated giraffe
  • hippo
  • pigmy hippo
  • new forest pony
  • donkey
  • pigmy donkey
  • tarpan
  • asiatic wild ass
  • grevys zebra
  • common zebra
  • grants zebra
  • bennetts wallaby
  • indian rhino
  • black rhino
  • white rhino
  • brazilian tapir
  • malayan tapir
  • prairie marmot
  • alpine marmot
  • beaver
  • fat dormouse
  • crested porcupine
  • agouti
  • patagonian cavy
  • soay sheep
  • californian sea lion#
  • manx loghtan sheep
  • mouflon
  • wart hog
  • collared peccary
  • vietnam pot bellied pig
  • striped hyena
  • brown hyena
  • husky dog
  • dingo
  • wolf
  • raccoon dog
  • red panda
  • cranes
  • cattle egrets
  • geese ducks and swans
  • flamingos
  • ostrich emu and rhea
  • parrots macaws cockatoos
  • peafowl and turkeys
  • pelicans
  • penguins
  • storks
  • native birds
  • missipi alligators
  • giant tortoise
  • european pond turtles
  • boa constrictors
  • nile crocodile
  • pythons
  • axolotls
 
Kongoni, or Coke's Hartebeest, were also kept at Whipsnade in the 1960s. I don't know if they bred there though.
Also Jaguars, Bontebok, Blesbok, Spectacled and Asiatic Black Bears, South American Sea Lion, Adjutant Storks, Lappet-Faced and Ruppell's Griffon Vultures,and Impala have also been in the Whipsnade collection over the years. The collection seems to have been most diverse during the 1960s.
 
The first animal escape was by a wombat. I'm pretty sure they have had African Elephants as well as Asian and kept one of the only herds of American white tailed deer outside of the USA at the time. Giant Panda was evacuated during the second world war for a time to Whipsnade
 
zebedee101 said:
I'm pretty sure they have had African Elephants as well as Asian
Click to expand...

A number of African elephants have, indeed, been kept at Whipsnade over the years, including ‘Jumbo III’, a male forest elephant, during the 1970s and 1980s.

zebedee101 said:
and kept one of the only herds of American white tailed deer outside of the USA at the time
Click to expand...

White-tailed deer bred at Whipsnade several times during the 1960s.
 
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Chester Zoo magazine in the 1940s published news from Dublin and some British zoos.

Whipsnade was listed several times.

Bred during 1941 were whooper swan, Shetland Pony and Donkey x Shetland Pony

Bred during 1942 were Brown bear (7 cubs), Bactrian Camel and for the first time in the park, Lions. A notable arrival from London was Giant Panda Ming.

Bred during 1945 were Paradise Shelduck, Chapman's Zebra, White-tailed Gnu, Red-breasted Goose and Pere David's Deer.

London Zoo news included the arrival of 3 Kagu in 1941, bringing the total number of specimens up to 7. It also said they would probably be the last kagu to arrive at the zoo, because the species was almost extinct.
 
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Pertinax said:
Interesting that Chillingham Cattle are on the list. These are reputedly so wild I have no idea how they would have transported them from Northumberland, or then kept them in closer confinement. I know they had the Chartley Cattle but those are more domesticated. Are you sure about Chillinghams?
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Hello all. Long time reader, first time poster, and all that.

When I was last at Chillingham, about ten years ago, I asked the guide about the Whipsnade beasts: he confirmed that they had been there but had not bred successfully. Interestingly, he also said that the Dowager Countess of Tankerville had vowed that none of the herd would ever again be sent to zoos because she was convinced that the animals loaned to ZSL had been 'experimented upon'. What was meant by this and what evidence there was, I have no idea.
 
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