Belfast Zoo Belfast Visit Updates

Nisha said:
Some good news!

Belfast finally took delivery of 1:2 Rothschild Giraffe last week. The male is a three year old called Finn who traveled from his birth place at Fota WP. Also joining him is two year old Daisy from Givskud, Denmark and completing the trio is a handreared female called Sandsteen from Dublin. The herd now numbers 1:2 Rothschild and 0:6 Hybrids.
Belfast Zoo. News and events. Latest news.
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Belfast now have 1:3 Rothschild Giraffe. Female Neja arrived in November 2008 from Aalborg and is a pure Rothschild. The herd now stands at 1:3 Rothschild and 1:4 Hybrid - I believe the young hybrid male is castrated, i think he was one of the three giraffe born in 2007 - the last time Belfast had a giraffe birth.

But definately these arrivals are great for the zoo, whose Giraffe herd has always been so impressive, especially with the recent addition of the raised giraffe viewing platform. Hopefully the more flexible blue-tongue restrictions will allow Belfast to import more hoofstock....
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
I would assume the hybrid herd will now be retired ..?
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It would make space for them to leave once homes can be found. Shouldn't be hard though. Blair Drummond have already pledged to add to there current herd of 0:4 later in the year and if YWP's plans for a herd go ahead (end of 2011 or sometime in 2012) then they could also take some in to start with.
 
26/02/11

Yea it has been a while.
Well I from what I can remember there wasn't much I learned that day. I noticed that the emperor tamrin enclosure was under re-construction and Ring-tailed lemurs were free-roaming again....well a few.
There were a lot of no shows that day too. Didn't see the tigers, or the giant anteater, nor the wild dogs or cheetahs etc. You get the idea.



8/03/11

The new tamrin enclosure has been redone and now holds 3 bearded Sakis 1.3. If I'm right, there are 2 at Colchester and one somewhere in France. Only 6 in Europe. Male has been seen mating with one of the females so hopefully babies within the year. Bearded Sakis are a first for me!

Tree surgery is happening around the avenue walk so as a result, the anteater has been moved up the zoo and is with the warty pigs. Didn't get to see him but he's there apparently!

New addition to the avenue walk and zoo are two Darwins Rhea! Two young ones who are lovely! Never seen them before so it's a first!

Finally saw both the tigers, lazily lying about in the sunshine! :D
FTW!

The 3 new giraffes seem pretty happy and have settled in well. They were pretty interested in some people who were on the elevated path. :P

Sloths seem to have been removed from the rainforest house for some reason

Cafe is closed for renovations, not sure what is going on or what is changing.

I didn't see the pelicans as I usually did. They must have been hiding sleeping or something.

uhm....hum....found out some other stuff too....not sure if I should mention them though so I shall zip it, zip it real good.

lets see....trying to think of anything else...I guess I'll just edit if I recall anything else :)
 
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Belfast Gorilla Changes.

Mr Saxon said:
Gorillas have been having a few problems recently. A new female was brought in ....
She is recovering/recovered now which is good to hear.
Another female has died though of an illness I believe.
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Could somebody elaborate on the above please?

1. Is the newly arrived female 'Kwanza' from Vallee de Singes in France- or a different one, and is she currently with the group again now?

2. Which female has died- Delilah or Kamili? Presumably Delilah(?) as she was old. Is there a cause of death and a date as well?

Thanks in advance.
 
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Pertinax said:
Could somebody elaborate on the above please?

1. Is the newly arrived female 'Kwanza' from Vallee de Singes in France- or a different one, and is she currently with the group again now?

2. Which female has died- Delilah or Kamili? Presumably Delilah(?) as she was old. Is there a cause of death and a date as well?

Thanks in advance.
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Will hopefully be heading on monday, will try and find out...
 
Pertinax said:
2. Which female has died- Delilah or Kamili? Presumably Delilah(?) as she was old. Is there a cause of death and a date as well?

Thanks in advance.
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Kukuma passed away after an illness last month, PM results are not yet back.

Also there are no plans to disband the 'hybrid' giraffe herd, at least until a new stud book keeper has been appointed and consulted
 
easytigger said:
Kukuma passed away after an illness last month, PM results are not yet back.
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Thankyou for the information. As it was originally mentioned a female had died, and Kukuma was male, I didn't think of him. That is sad but I'm pleased to hear 'Delilah' is still going strong.
 
Kukuma was, I think, an experimental animal- he did prove its perfectly possible to keep a castrated male Gorilla longterm in a social group. But its interesting very few other males have been castrated since(there is another one at Gaia Park?) and kept like this- presumably because this op. is irreversible and so the male can never be used for breeding- so bachelor male groups have become the norm instead.

Is the new female back in with Gugas/Kamili/Delilah?
 
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Belfast Zoo

Showing my ignorance of Gorilla ''Who's who'', but..that's not Delilah from Bristol is it?
 
FBBird said:
Showing my ignorance of Gorilla ''Who's who'', but..that's not Delilah from Bristol is it?
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It certainly is!:)

Delilah moved from Bristol in 1992, around the time they closed the 1975-built Ape House there. She went on to have two or even three more babies at Belfast but none of them survived more than a few months, after that they contracepted her to prevent further breeding.

She is now 48, one of the oldest in the UK outside of Howletts and 'bongo' at Twycross.
 
Despite being one of the UK's earliest breeding females, I think Delilah lost a baby or two at Bristol. If I've got my facts right, she reared at least one, as she later had a baby by him. Any comments, Pertinax?
 
FBBird said:
Despite being one of the UK's earliest breeding females, I think Delilah lost a baby or two at Bristol. If I've got my facts right, she reared at least one, as she later had a baby by him. Any comments, Pertinax?
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Delilah had a disastrous breeding life. She was the mother of Daniel, the first Gorilla raised( 2nd one born) in a UK Zoo and she had a total of five babies at Bristol Zoo;

Daniel born 1971 -mother-raised.
Rebecca. born 1975. mother raised/died aged 2 and a half.
Naomi.born 1977 removed after several months and handreared. stunted as adult. died at Belfast.
Benjamin born 1979. died as infant.
Jeremiah. born 1984. handraised. died as adult-non-breeder, also at Belfast.

She reared Daniel(with some keeper help) but after that her babies didn't prosper.The last one, Jeremiah, was definately a product of a mating with her adult son 'Daniel' He(Jeremiah) was later found to have webbed toes and strabismus/ bad cross eyes as an adult.

Diet, management regime and housing were all far from ideal in that era, which I believe contributed to this sorry record, although interestingly she couldn't rear her later babies at Belfast either. She has just one living descendant-her grandson 'Nasibu'(son of Naomi) at Lisbon Zoo(no breeding yet.)
 
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Belfast's former elephant Vishesh has given birth to a male calf at Ostrava Zoo in the Czech Republic.
 
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