If my inference from the map is correct, their enclosure is being temporarily occupied by the zebu?
Either that or they’re yet to move them. Thank you, I thought it odd that they’d put a “coming soon” sign in an occupied enclosure. Hoping they take advantage of that paddock’s size and bring in another large ungulate species.
Joining us from Hertfordshire Zoo are Jozini, Maneno, Rocket and Kobi, and from... | By Banham Zoo | Facebook
Yes - absolutely. At the end they were worth a huge amount of money. The Dutch race (L.d.batavaus) locally know as the Giant Fire Butterfly, which the breeding programmes and past re-introduction attempts in Cambridgeshire/Huntingdonshire (one of which was not continually assisted and was successful for many decades) is identical in habits, feed requirements and appearance. There is debate as to whether the two should have ever been separated at all. A smaller darker sub-species of Copper with different breeding habits and habitat requirement is found across much of mainland Europe.
Its interesting how a species like Silver Studded Blue needs a reintroduction in one part of the country- while in others e.g. on the Dorset heathlands at some sites there are myriads of them in a good year. Then on Portland (an island in name but not quite) there is another distinct subspecies which is adapted to a different habitat, calcareous grassland, though this subspecies is now in trouble I think. A lot of these butterflies seem to require meta-populations- a number of colonies spread around an area- in order to survive longterm. When these go, and only isolated colonies remain, they are in trouble. Perhaps how the Large Copper went too, apart from over-collection that is.