Twycross Zoo Baikal Seals at Twycross Zoo

[Bele]

This follows on from the thread on breeding Patagonian sealions which was judged to be wandering off topic .

All information extracted from Twycross Zoo Annual Reports .

A group of 3 Baikal seal arrived in 1987 . I do not have earlier reports so do not know if this was the first importation . One of these died in 1987 .

A further 2 arrived in 1988 .

In 1989 3 died , 2 suddenly from acute septicaemia , leaving 1 .

In 1991 7 arrived , 1 died , leaving 2.5 . Another died in 1992 leaving 2.4 .

A further male died in 1994 . The remaining 1.4 lived on until 1998 when they all took ill at the end of March and died very rapidly . Cause of death was thought to be Morbillo virus .

 

[johnstoni]

Together with the equally shocking record of 'bad luck' with the Patagoian sea lions,in the last 25 years this zoo has hoovered up 12 Baikal seals and 7 Patagonian sea lions with no successful rearing of any pups. Its sort of shocking that, after losing 4 out of 5 Baikal seals, they just imported a load more, rather than considering that the little round pool and lawn enclosure might not be sufficient housing for this species.


Have they never considered going out of pinnipeds rather than managing the ESB for the latter? (I'm not expecting anyone to know that).

 

[RTB1987]

I always felt sorry for the seals because they just seemed to have a pond almost, i'd say it was more suited to ducks than seals. It would have been nice to have given them something a lot bigger a bit more appropriate

 

[John Dineley]

I always felt sorry for the seals because they just seemed to have a pond almost, i'd say it was more suited to ducks than seals. It would have been nice to have given them something a lot bigger a bit more appropriate

As this is a new thread I am reposting a link to photos of the seals:

http://www.zoochat.com/41/twycross-zoo-pinnipeds-baikal-seal-140370/

As far as other places displaying them I recall that when I was working in the Netherlands in the late 1970s Bergan ann Zee had a small aquarium with Baikal seals. They were later moved to the now closed dolphinarium at Zandvoort. No idea of what happened to them after that.