Belfast Zoo Belfast Zoo News 2024

Al said:
The male spectacled bear ‘Spook’ passed away recently, he was quite an age.
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I genuinely didn't know. There was also signage about him so I assumed he was still there. It is quite sad and they probably won't be able to breed any of their bear species (unless they acquire a new spectacled bear or two more sun bears after Borah dies).
 
Embu said:
Sadly the time has come:(

Join us for a week-long celebration as we say farewell to our majestic Asian elephants, Dhunja and Yhetto. Don’t miss out on the chance for one last look at these gentle giants.
Dhunja & Yhetto, the Asian Elephants have been a huge part of the zoo family for over fifteen years and now they are to begin their move to their new home in Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem, Netherlands.
At Burger’s Zoo, the elephants, now in their senior years, will have the opportunity to join a herd of two other compatible, older female elephants, ensuring them the structure of companionship female elephants need, throughout the later stages of their life; and being EEP accredited, they will continue to receive the highest standard of veterinary and animal care that they are accustomed to at Belfast Zoo.
Starting on the 8th of July we will be hosting trunkloads of fun. Elephant themed activities, memory cards, elephant talks and daily screenings of "The Zoo" movie. Come along and say goodbye to our iconic mammals.
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How many elephants will be left after these 2 go?
 
Rohin said:
I genuinely didn't know. There was also signage about him so I assumed he was still there. It is quite sad and they probably won't be able to breed any of their bear species (unless they acquire a new spectacled bear or two more sun bears after Borah dies).
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It will be interesting to see what the next steps are. Neither enclosures are really built for the potential breeding of bear species going forward in the case of having incompatible males/females. Most zoos building for each species would have two outdoor areas. Bora and Alice are both golden oldies and will most likely enjoy their retirement years alone.
 
Al said:
The male spectacled bear ‘Spook’ passed away recently, he was quite an age.
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Oh! So sorry to hear about Spook! The spectacled bears are among my favourite animals in Belfast along with the sun bears. He was such a magnificent beast and he will be greatly missed for sure :(.
 
Al said:
It will be interesting to see what the next steps are. Neither enclosures are really built for the potential breeding of bear species going forward in the case of having incompatible males/females. Most zoos building for each species would have two outdoor areas. Bora and Alice are both golden oldies and will most likely enjoy their retirement years alone.
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It would be nice for them to perhaps take in surplus bears, seeing as the enclosures aren't bad for one or two individuals since the bears themselves are interesting to look at and a draw for visitors.
 
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Embu said:
Sadly the time has come:(

Join us for a week-long celebration as we say farewell to our majestic Asian elephants, Dhunja and Yhetto. Don’t miss out on the chance for one last look at these gentle giants.
Dhunja & Yhetto, the Asian Elephants have been a huge part of the zoo family for over fifteen years and now they are to begin their move to their new home in Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem, Netherlands.
At Burger’s Zoo, the elephants, now in their senior years, will have the opportunity to join a herd of two other compatible, older female elephants, ensuring them the structure of companionship female elephants need, throughout the later stages of their life; and being EEP accredited, they will continue to receive the highest standard of veterinary and animal care that they are accustomed to at Belfast Zoo.
Starting on the 8th of July we will be hosting trunkloads of fun. Elephant themed activities, memory cards, elephant talks and daily screenings of "The Zoo" movie. Come along and say goodbye to our iconic mammals.
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Does the zoo plan on bringing elephants back or is this an official phase-out?
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
How large is and what members are now in the Rothschildt's giraffe breeding herd?



I would be interested to know what the plans are for that entire portion of the zoo. Both the elephant and giraffe exhibits are outdated ....
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Hopefully the giraffes, zebras and ostriches will be able to take over the elephant paddocks. This might allow another species to be added to the mix as well.
 
Rohin said:
Hopefully the giraffes, zebras and ostriches will be able to take over the elephant paddocks. This might allow another species to be added to the mix as well.
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Nice idea but completely unworkable due to them being on different levels, so the elephant enclosure will be used for something else, I know that camel have been mentioned along with takin, but I believe that both those ideas are dead ducks now, so fully expect it to be something far less thrilling now at least for the paddock.
 
Rohin said:
I doubt they would bring elephants back since there is limited space for a proper paddock even if the nearby 'savanna' enclosure is emptied and connected.
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Given that Belfast city council hadn't got the money to upgrade what they already had to meet current standards they certainly haven't to build a completely new elephant complex, so once these two have left on the 24th that's it for keeping elephants at Belfast, interestingly they must be one of the few places with two defunct elephant houses still standing within the zoo grounds admittedly the public can't view one of them but it and the paddock do still exist, and that makes the current one look brilliant,then it was different times and things move on thank goodness.
 
Laboratory 7 said:
Nice idea but completely unworkable due to them being on different levels, so the elephant enclosure will be used for something else, I know that camel have been mentioned along with takin, but I believe that both those ideas are dead ducks now, so fully expect it to be something far less thrilling now at least for the paddock.
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Do you know why takin and camel won't work any more?
 
Laboratory 7 said:
Nice idea but completely unworkable due to them being on different levels, so the elephant enclosure will be used for something else, I know that camel have been mentioned along with takin, but I believe that both those ideas are dead ducks now, so fully expect it to be something far less thrilling now at least for the paddock.
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What about KuneKune Pigs or Golden Guernsey / Bagot Goats..? - they seem to be popular choices :rolleyes:
 
I don’t know if you can ever right of the larger abc’s from any zoo in the future how ever unlikely times, owners, investors, public persecution change look at polar bears they where dead and buried in the uk till YWP reinvented how to house and exhibit them in the Uk and this allowed them to arguably build a zoo around them as a star attraction and other zoos now following the trend
 
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