Belfast Zoo Belfast Zoo

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Ostrava will receive a bull eventually when the cows have all integrated as far as I know. Yes we will indeed act as a retirement home for past reproductive age animals.A grass paddock would indeed be nice but we have no room for such plus we also do not have that kind of funding as im sure like many zoos we'd go round and make changes to all our exhibits!
 
I have never been to belfast. I understand the enclosure was something of a smallish 'grass' paddock for a while, before numbers increased and it had to be partitioned to allow for a bull, Sahib, and later Luka, and Jubilee. Will the outdoor paddock now be used as one assuming that the cow elephants you eventually recieve can be successfully mixed?
 
Yes that is the plan as far as im aware, the paddock is completely sanded now as we at one point had 6 elephants in it!
 
I just looked on isis, and it says Belfast only has 1 female sunbear. Did the male die?
 
... and what's the setup with the Spectacled Bears at present. When did they last breed. Are they likely to do so again.?
 
We still have two sun bears. We have 2.1 Spectacled bears, mum,dad and 12 yr old son. Our female was on a contraceptive implant for years as it can be hard to home young in decent zoos
 
So will you be re-homing the 12 year old, or just keep the female on the contraceptive implant?
 
We have no plans to breed so will stop the female from breeding and keep the son, unless we an place him in a good zoo.
 
Is your younger male hard to place because his bloodline is well-represented, or is it that Belfast are keen to only allow him to go to a decent home? As we have other UK collections actively trying to breed spectacled bears, I'm assuming it is because they are more important genetically?

A while ago, the female Sun bear was put on a diet so that she would lose weight. Do the sun bears show any mating behaviour, and do you hold out any hope of breeding from them?
 
Spectacled bears at Belfast(and elsewhere).

johnstoni said:
Is your younger male hard to place because his bloodline is well-represented, or is it that Belfast are keen to only allow him to go to a decent home?
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As there are only two mainland UK collections with Spec. bears(Chester & South Lakes) its a pity your 12 year old male can't be paired up with a female to make a third pair at another UK zoo. Do you think any other zoos know he could be available or is itentirely up to the studbook keeper who decides what happens to him? These are great bears and I'd really like to see them kept more widely than they are at present..
 
He isnt on a surplus list but the studbook keeper is aware of it. I dont think its a case of bloodlines, perhaps there is a greater demand for spectacled bears now than there was 12 years ago when our female was put on an implant. If another zoo in the UK wanted them I would say that it would be better for them to receive our old pair and us to keep the younger breeding pair as our enclosure is pretty large and we have the experience.
 
Belfast Spectacled Bears.

For many years Belfast was the only UK zoo apart from Jersey with this species. It seems a shame you have the bears but can't breed from them and have this unmated male. Still, I can see the reasons...

I'm sure a few more zoos might go into them in future. The new Zoo at Cromer in Norfolk is planning to specialise in South American fauna and already has Jaguar, so that's one possible place. Colchester Zoo is one that does well with 'unusual' species and might welcome them on board. Bristol's new environmental park(when it happens) could be another possible. Edinburgh too are fast developing at present with many new species exhibits.

Do you know the ancestry/source of your original pair?
 
I think off the top of my head leipzig and stuttgart but cant be 100%! I think bristol will keep brown bears rather than them and believe edinburgh were talking seriously about sloth bears. There are currently two males surplus in europe at the minute so im not quite sure what the position will be if all 5 potential breeding females currently in the UK have young and wether they could be succesfully homed. :confused:
 
Al said:
I think off the top of my head leipzig and stuttgart but cant be 100%! I think bristol will keep brown bears rather than them and believe edinburgh were talking seriously about sloth bears. There are currently two males surplus in europe at the minute so im not quite sure what the position will be if all 5 potential breeding females currently in the UK have young and wether they could be succesfully homed. :confused:
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Yeah, that could be a problem if too many bred at once. But Chester's female I believe is not pregnant this year. Two of the South Lakes ones may be, but two are not being bred from at present.

Do your Spectacled bears make a good exhibit? Are they active during visiting hours? The ones at Jersey always seem very visible, but Chester's sound rather the reverse....

Interesting about Edinburgh and Sloth Bears. From London's experience with this species I wouldn't expect them to make a very good exhibit...
 
I guess that's just it. Too many cubs and you start having to rehome them in less than ideal collections. Hopefully the safari parks will continue to support large carnivore EEPs and we will eventually see more bears in them.....otherwise where in the UK would house them? Amazon world?!

Wasn't Bristol going to have Sloth as well as brown bears? I think London and Edinburgh have radically different approaches to their collection planning....I can almost see the logic of London refurbishing the mappins as a mixed australian community...I imagine there will be some kind of raised platform into the enclosure, and visitors will see duirnal, active, activist-proof and aesthetically-pleasing animals active all day....
 
johnstoni said:
.I imagine there will be some kind of raised platform into the enclosure, and visitors will see duirnal, active, activist-proof and aesthetically-pleasing animals active all day....
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I imagine they will stare at the animals for a few minutes- the children will say 'look its Skippy(or similar)' and they will then move away again....
 
johnstoni said:
I guess that's just it. Too many cubs and you start having to rehome them in less than ideal collections. ...otherwise where in the UK would house them? Amazon world?!
...
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Amazon World is very small.

Some zoos which I can imagine could keep Spectacled Bears well if they wanted to;
Dudley/Twycross/Cromer/Colchester/Edinburgh/Bristol/Paignton/Marwell/Dublin/ Howletts & Port Lympne/Banham, even Newquay...I think any of these could build a decent enclosure for this species.
 
That was my point. It would be a shame if smaller collections without the real space or money to do it started building not-so-hot enclosures just to take extra bears.
 
Bristol has next to no space to keep them.

Shoudnt we worry about them breeding before we start thinking where to put them.
 
johnstoni said:
That was my point. It would be a shame if smaller collections without the real space or money to do it started building not-so-hot enclosures just to take extra bears.
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Disagree. Virtually all those zoos I mentioned could build a good enclosure for Spectacled Bears- maybe not at Dudley but most of the others aren't short on funds. Look at Twycross- building a new visitor centre & snow leopard enclosure, then Asian Lions etc. Their recent building has been of a far higher standard than previously... Cromer is to specialise in South American Fauna- a perfect location for this species. Colchester house many interesting species quite well, so does Paignton. Marwell's recent enclosures have been a much higher standard than previously. Howletts and Port Lympne probably hold the largest collection of big mammals in the Uk and have built some excellent enclosures recently. No need to be breeding loads of bears but any of these could potentially exhibit any current surplus...

Bristol- a small zoo but with plenty of cash- could easily build a top quality enclosure too if they wanted but space is a problem there, I'd agree.
 
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