ZSL London Zoo Anteater walks...

J

James27

Well-Known Member
From the ZSL website:

Boyfriend and girlfriend, Bonito and Sauna, who sleep for around 18 hours a day, will now go for a stroll every weekday at 5pm

Interesting... Does this mean they're planning on walking the anteaters around the zoo?
 
I'd imagine so.

Walking them just after the zoo has closed seems like a great enrichment device because the scents of the visitors will still be "fresh" in the zoo, so the anteaters will be intrigued by this I guess.
 
I guess it would. Just seems like a really unusual idea to me :-s
Wonder how they would stop them running off...
 
Ha now that would be interesting!
I actually remember seeing animal magic years ago, and they walked an anteater on that. Weird how I was only thinking about that yesterday...
 
I think the anteaters were showing some stereotyping when I was last there- a real shame. I guess this'll hopefully counteract that, and give them something to think about.
 
Yeah, I just commented on a gallery photo. Stereotypic pacing seems awfully common in giant anteaters.
I don't think I've ever seen them not pacing, as the ones in London, Berlin and I think Howletts all do.
 
We had a lead for the guinea pigs, but our guinea pigs kept escaping from it!

I wonder what they actually meant by that article; something like the penguin parade at Edinburgh?
 
ashley-h said:
Yeah, I just commented on a gallery photo. Stereotypic pacing seems awfully common in giant anteaters.
I don't think I've ever seen them not pacing, as the ones in London, Berlin and I think Howletts all do.
Click to expand...

My guess is that like big cats, they travel long distances when foraging for termite mounds out on the Pampas- so again like cats, they pace in captivity- or alternatively, like cats, they sleep a lot.
 
That's great - really progressive thinking, and they really needed that, having seen them pacing in the house.
 
They don't leave the enclosure. At 5pm the keepers walk out across the paddock with their food and they wake up and follow them. The keepers then give a short talk while the anteaters feed right in front of the public. The pair have raised 6 young and the female now has a contraceptive implant. She has quite bad arthritis from carrying two lots of twins on her back.
 
That's not a walk, that's a waking up lol.
Misleading advertising :(
I didn't know the London anteaters bred that well though.
 
I think we all do :-S
I blame the advertising :)
 
ashley-h said:
That's not a walk, that's a waking up lol.
Misleading advertising :(
I didn't know the London anteaters bred that well though.
Click to expand...

Just sidetracking for a minute, I remember the story of the first anteater born in that exhibit. A visitor won a naming competition and decided to name it after the then Arsenal FC player, Gilberto (because of the Brazilian link). The player apparently visited quite alot and called it his "hairy little brother"!
 
Ha, cute!
They are amazing animals, I want more zoos in the UK to exhibit them, as well as Tamanduas :)
How many UK collections actually have either of these species?
 
Giant anteaters are everywhere now, compared to just london around ten years ago. Before that, until the start of the 90's, only London and Kilverstone kept them (when the runs were opened up into paddocks in the stork and ostrich house London stopped keeping them for around 12 years, and obviously Kilverstone closed). I think you can see them at Amazon zoo world, edinburgh, marwell, howletts, London, colchester......

Tamaduas looked like they were going to become well established for a while, now they are all the sothern subspecies with the exception of a northern at howletts and another animal of another subspecies at Amazon zoo world. Only a couple of zoos now seem to have pairs, if ISIS is to be believed, and I don't think there has been any breeding for a little while. I do know that RSCC acquired at least one, either to quarantine for colchester or to keep themselves. Their website list them as keeping this species but they don't show up on ISIS.
 
If you go back a bit further they were not that uncommon in British zoos. Chester had a pair for many years (where the rabbits/goats are now) which never bred. Twycross had a pair which did breed but the young did not survive.
 
Shame about the Tamanduas not being more common.
Just out of interest, do they have to be exhibited in a nocturnal house? I've seen the one in Newquay zoo who is, and I've seen photo's of the one at the RSCC who isn't.
 
I don't think the IOW tamaduas are in reverse-lighting scenarios, in fact I would doubt any of the UK collections do this. However, howletts have an OUTDOOR enclosure for theirs, and they spend a great deal of time sleeping outside on branches in during the summer. I don't really see the justification for keeping this species permanently indoors. US pet keepers seem to talk their pet tamanduas outside for walks with their dogs.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top