Banham Zoo Banham Zoo News

I was at Banham on Sunday and the penguin enclosure looks to be coming along well, looks great tbh. The only other penguin walkthrough I have seen is at South Lakes and that was more of a door into pen situation rather than an actual walkthrough as this one will be.

I was impressed with the amount of crows all nesting in the woodland! Was lovely to watch them with chicks.
Both the animal show and the bird show were very good also! Probably the only place in the UK with a serval in its show?
 
stubeanz said:
Both the animal show and the bird show were very good also! Probably the only place in the UK with a serval in its show?
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The serval in the show was definitely one of the highlights of my visit last year! So impressive and really showed off their agility and natural behaviours well I thought!
 
From their facebook page.....

Our tiger cubs, Yeva and Xenia, settled into a new home this weekend just opposite our main tiger enclosure as they have temporarily taken up residence in the Sri Lankan leopard enclosure. Our female leopard, Kali was moved off show accommodation temporarily to enable us to transfer the cubs to this enclosure. In the wild, female tigers encourage their young to disperse to form their own territory’s between the ages of 18 – 24 months to lessen the competition for available food. At 22 months old we were starting to see signs of this behaviour happening between Sveta and the cubs, so took the decision to separate them from their parents. The cubs will now be held in this enclosure until we receive a transfer recommendation from the studbook keeper which should be any day. We will be sure to keep you posted on any news..
 
So this penguin walkthrough will just be a boardwalk in the exhibit and restricted contact? I'm asking because I haven't been to Longleat since their new penguin exhibit opened and there are videos/pictures of the public walking amongst penguins, which to me I find a bit dodgy as penguin bites REALLY hurt and come up in massive bruises, it gets worse when they are moulting and in breeding season. Seems as though penguin walkthroughs are becoming more popular.
 
A Two-toed Sloth is expected to arrive from a UK zoo shortly and move into an enclosure in the Eureka! house. Perhaps Jeff from London Zoo?
 
ISOE2012 said:
So this penguin walkthrough will just be a boardwalk in the exhibit and restricted contact? I'm asking because I haven't been to Longleat since their new penguin exhibit opened and there are videos/pictures of the public walking amongst penguins, which to me I find a bit dodgy as penguin bites REALLY hurt and come up in massive bruises, it gets worse when they are moulting and in breeding season. Seems as though penguin walkthroughs are becoming more popular.
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From what I saw of the building work 3 weeks ago, yes a boardwalk through the exhibit, it did look very good and their is netting enclosing it from above, so I assume they will also be adding some other birds maybe Inca tern for example.
 
stubeanz said:
From what I saw of the building work 3 weeks ago, yes a boardwalk through the exhibit, it did look very good and their is netting enclosing it from above, so I assume they will also be adding some other birds maybe Inca tern for example.
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It's planned to be African birds (to match the penguins); spoonbills were one possibility mentioned. We asked about the same thing at the Bartlett Society event there back on the 9th.
 
The young Tigers are on the move to Denmark and Italy: Quote from Banham's Facebook page

We had hoped to give our followers more notice but you will hopefully understand that the logistics of moving animals across Europe is complicated and fluid and often final confirmation of a transfer comes at the last minute but we can now confirm the new homes for our young tigers.

Xenia is leaving us for Knuthenborg Safari Park in Denmark but will first undertake 30 days quarantine in Copenhagen Zoo. We have been asked to transfer her quickly to assist with the logistics of the transport company so, subject to veterinary tests being satisfactory, she will leave us at some time during the week commencing the 8th June 2015.
Yeva will be leaving us for Parco Zoo Punta Verde in Italy around the middle of June.

Both Knuthenborg and Punta Verde are EAZA members and are therefore, members of the European Breeding Programme for this species.
We would like to thank everyone for their continued interest in our tiger cubs. We have been very lucky to have had the privilege to work with them for the last 2 years and we are delighted that they are going to new collections where they will continue to be part of the breeding programme for this endangered species.
 
A few notes from my first visit today, mostly in response to questions on the previous page.

It is Spoonbills in the Penguin Walkthrough, along with a duck species I didn't note down. It felt a bit empty as all the birds were either in the water, which takes up a surprisingly small amount of the exhibit, or in their nests. Definitely seems like they could add another flying species, although I can't remember the gauge of the mesh.

I overheard the train driver saying that it will be California Sea Lions in the new enclosure in 2017. Are there plans for what the exhibit will look like released yet?

1.1 Pied Imperial Pigeons arrived from Chester on June 3rd and are on display in Animazing Oasis. All the glass has been given a temporary white smear treating until they learn where it is.
 
FunkyGibbon said:
A few notes from my first visit today, mostly in response to questions on the previous page.

It is Spoonbills in the Penguin Walkthrough, along with a duck species I didn't note down. It felt a bit empty as all the birds were either in the water, which takes up a surprisingly small amount of the exhibit, or in their nests. Definitely seems like they could add another flying species, although I can't remember the gauge of the mesh.
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The ducks are White-faced Whistling Ducks.
 
New cheetah, Shaka

There is a new male cheetah, Shaka - brought over from Africa Alive in early May, it being hoped he will help to generate a patter of little paws. He was hand-raised I gather and is very friendly. Unfortunately the only way to get a decent photo (without wires) is through the window of his bed/dining room whilst he is being fed - because he likes people he stays near the fence when outside making it impossible to defocus the wires. For the same reason, after he has eaten but before he is let back out he will come right up to the glass to say hello! I asked could a glass panel be put by the compound itself as with all their other seven cat species (of which I now have splendid photos) and also made this suggestion on their visitor response form.
 

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banham.tiger said:
Two new sri Lankan leopards are due to arrive shortly.
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We visited a couple of weeks ago and they were already there, but being kept separate. Going back next weekend so hopefully they've been introduced to each other now...
 
Cali went to a zoo in France, can't remember which one though, will check next weekend.
 
Giraffe Puzzle, (b. 1996 at London) who recently arrived from Africa Alive died on 19th of October
 
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