Chester Zoo Big news at Chester zoo 2008

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I doubt it would say "unforeseen circumstances" if it was building work, unless a fence came down or something similar. I have a feeling it is related to the pregnancies...
 
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It could be damage for the recent storms, but I would guess they have a baby giraffe,
 
A couple updates, popped in today.

The house is closed due to a new arrival in the giraffe house born to one of the purebred giraffe's on sunday. However the baby giraffe was underweight and also didn't suckle for two days, so the keepers have stepped in and are hand raising the newcomer.

I got the impression they were not quite expecting the calf soon.


Mandrills,

Looks like they have three new madrills and are currently seperated from the current group at the zoo. I dont know whether anyone else knows anything more on that!

Okapi's

Apparently Mbuti is trying to mate stuma, but hes trying from everywhere but behind her :rolleyes:
 
Re: Mandrills. It's good that more have arrived, I felt that the group seemed quite small recently...

Relatively good news about the Giraffe, let's hope the hand-rearing is successful!
 
'unforeseen circumstances' was an accurate description then....

Mandrills, mandrills, mandrills- please can someone find out where the newcomers came from, are they all females to the improve the sex ratio of the group I wonder? thanks.:)
 
Pertinax said:
'unforeseen circumstances' was an accurate description then....

Mandrills, mandrills, mandrills- please can someone find out where the newcomers came from, are they all females to the improve the sex ratio of the group I wonder? thanks.:)
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From what i could tell, they all seem to be female.
 
That would make sense. Maybe they came from Colchester who have the biggest group in the UK. Colchester is also where the two adult existing females(mother and daughter) came from.
 
How are the mandrills doing anyway?

How many have been born in the past few years?
 
The current group of mandrills have bred these young

1999 (1 did not survive)
2000 2.0 (1.0 dns)
2001 2.0.1 (2.0 dns)
2002 (2 dns)
2003 0.1.1 (1 dns)
2004 (1 dns)
2005 1.0
2006 1.1 (0.1 dns)
2007 not sure as I've seen reports of a youngster on one of the forums, but don't remember it myself.

So the survivng births appear to 3 males one female and one unsexed

Previously a male was born in 1937 and another male in 1967.
 
I think the reason there are so many 'd.n.s' on Bongorob's above list is that one female(can't remember if its the mother or daughter) won't rear her offspring- possibly she kills them at birth ( a habit very difficult to prevent). So effectively there's only been one breeding female in the Chester group- until the arrival of these new ones...
 
Cheetah enclosure plans

I made my first visit of 2008 yesterday. The new bridge is partially complete and the ramp up from the ruffed lemurs and old lechwe/new cheetah paddock is blocked by a temporary barrier. These plans are attached to it - click on the photo to open the large version in the Gallery.

[photo=2477;557;Chester019_004.jpg]Cheetah Enclosure Plans[/photo]

There hasn't been much done to the enclosure yet and the section of walkway across the paddock and then across the footpath has not been started.

No developments at the butterfly house site yet either, but a small digger was parked next to the corner of the paddock (which still holds a Manchurian crane).

Alan
 
So hopefully the group will grow in size with the new females. I was wondering why so many babies seemed to die.
 
The cheetah exhibit will be fantastic, they are beautiful animals.

I never saw them in their old exhibit, but I did see the serval. Any plans to bring these back to Chester?

I aslo have a few more questions:

Are the Zhou's box turtles coming on show?
What is happening with the zoo's four eyed turtles?
Are the Babirysa moving back into the cattle house soon?
Are the Warty pigs getting a new enclosure?
When is the next Okpai Arriving from Stugart?
 
Mandrills

bongorob said:
So hopefully the group will grow in size with the new females. I was wondering why so many babies seemed to die.
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Yes. A keeper told me about this- I think its the daughter who won't look after babies.

The only problem they could have now is if the two original females try to prevent the new females from breeding by attacking their infants.

In Drills and Mandrills, the Apha female in a group will always allow her own daughters to breed, but may practise infanticide on the offspring of unrelated females(preserving her own genetic interest). So be prepared for trouble ahead.... they may need to split them for successful breeding.
 
Fodders said:
Are the Zhou's box turtles coming on show?
What is happening with the zoo's four eyed turtles?
Are the Babirysa moving back into the cattle house soon?
Are the Warty pigs getting a new enclosure?
When is the next Okpai Arriving from Stugart?
Click to expand...

I think someone has already posted that the turtles will not be placed on show. Zhou's box turtles can be seen at Whipsnade.

The babirusa should be getting their old enclosure back, the warty pigs should be moving to a new enclosure, but I don't know where or when.

The okapi should arrive when Chester resumes importing ungulates. Again I don't know when this will be, hopefuly it will be soon.
 
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