Rotterdam Zoo Blijdorp News 2021

Update gorillas and lions in Diergaarde Blijdorp:

The gorillas and lions which were tested positive on covid-19 last week, are doing much better. The gorilla group is almost back to normal, the animals have not been given any supporting medication for a few days now and they are eating well. Bokito is behaving like a real family man again and intervenes when necessary to keep the family calm. The lions are also almost completely recovered. Lalana is still a bit calmer than usual, but at times she is just as fierce as usual. There is good hope that the animals will be fully recovered soon. It is not yet known when they will be able to be seen by the public.
 
MennoPebesma said:
Update gorillas and lions in Diergaarde Blijdorp:

The gorillas and lions which were tested positive on covid-19 last week, are doing much better. The gorilla group is almost back to normal, the animals have not been given any supporting medication for a few days now and they are eating well. Bokito is behaving like a real family man again and intervenes when necessary to keep the family calm. The lions are also almost completely recovered. Lalana is still a bit calmer than usual, but at times she is just as fierce as usual. There is good hope that the animals will be fully recovered soon. It is not yet known when they will be able to be seen by the public.
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Good news for both of the animals.
 
Some short news bits:
-Elephant Fahim has yet to move. Last thing I heard is that its been postponed to "early december"
-A new hyena seems to have arrived, no further details yet
-The white-naped mangabey enclosure next to the zebras is being refurbished
-Birth of one Visaya warty hog

Some older factoids from the September publication of 'Vriendennieuws', which was recently put online:
-Arrival of one "gecko", species unknown, who was found by the harbour customs in a package from Singapore. Its been released in Amazonica
-A second white-backed vulture was born this year. It was sent to Avifauna where it was raised by a Rüppells vulture.
-Birth of a plum-headed parakeet this year, though its father died. Also the birth of one common eider at Bass Rock and four cownose rays.
-The last female blacknose shark in the Zoo has died, presumbaly due to old age. A real shame, considering we finally had some offspring in these recent years.
-The Rotterdam Zoo is looking at potentially breeding blue skates and flapper skates in partnership with the WWF and ARK Natuurontwikkeling for release into the North Sea.

Source + minor mutations: Kort Nieuws
 
Some news from the Dutch zoo magazine "De Harpij":

- Last summer, two California sea lions were born, a male and a female.
- The male mhorr gazelle has left for Zoo Planckendaell. There are now five females left in Blijdorp.
- On Bass Rock two puffins have hatched. One hatched in the incubator and the other with the parents. They are both females. The guillemots also hatched three females.
 
MennoPebesma said:
Some news from the Dutch zoo magazine "De Harpij":

- Last summer, two California sea lions were born, a male and a female.
- The male mhorr gazelle has left for Zoo Planckendaell. There are now five females left in Blijdorp.
- On Bass Rock two puffins have hatched. One hatched in the incubator and the other with the parents. They are both females. The guillemots also hatched three females.
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I would like to point out that the Harpij sometimes has questionable accuracy. The puffins for example, my sources indicate its actually just one female.
Also, the mhorr that left was Arie, a male born late 2020 to Sipke and Jengo. Jengo died before Arie was even born, so in reality the mhorr herd has been without breeding male for more than a year now.
 
Blijdorpenaar said:
I would like to point out that the Harpij sometimes has questionable accuracy. The puffins for example, my sources indicate its actually just one female.
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The news items in de Harpij are written by the zoos themselves, so everything that is not correct is written by them. In addition, there is of course a certain amount of time between the sending in of those reports and the publication of the magazine, so in the meantime things may have changed.
 
Written by zoo keepers, to my understanding. As a writer for Vriendennieuws I must say that they don't always get the fine details right whahah, especially when it's not actually their departement. That being said, I do always enjoy the Harpij, it gets some nice exclusive bits of news sometimes.
 
In an email to the members of 'Vrienden van Blijdorp' it was announced that they want to start saving for a 'megaproject' next year. Up to 2023, as an association, they want to contribute one million euros to renewing and significantly improving the habitat of the elephants in Blijdorp. We will read more about this in the upcoming issue of Vriendennieuws - which will be sent out soon.

I'm curious how big the improvements will be. Personally, I always thought the original proposal in the master plan last year to incorporate the bongo exhibit in the elephant exhibit was very strong. Although I do wonder whether this is not a bit too 'mega' for Blijdorp to implement. In these financially trouble some times..
 
Haasje said:
Personally, I always thought the original proposal in the master plan last year to incorporate the bongo exhibit in the elephant exhibit was very strong.
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The bongo? Are you sure about that? I think it would be very odd to include the central African Bongo's in their South/East Asian section
 
Blijdorpenaar said:
I wrote a short article on what we might expect from the new elephant project. My apologies to non-Dutch readers, though you can still look at the pictures I guess :) Diergaarde Blijdorp: ruim baan voor de olifanten, dat is de droom
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I think it's good that they're expanding the elephant enclosure. But I would also be really sad to see some of the other animals go, especially the rhinos and bongos.
Conservation aside, those are animals we don't see much of in Dutch zoos, while Asian elephants are kept in nearly every larger zoo
 
When I first saw the plans to drastically expand the enclosure, I was also kinda sad to see yet more species disappear. Since then Ive started to mind it less. Even in the more ambitious scenarios it would only be the bongos, Indian rhino's, camels, crested macaques and red-crowned cranes, and frankly if they were able to house the elephants together with one other species and maybe create a small new exhibit off the side, that would compensate for it quite nicely already. My only fear is that the zoo will hold back too much over finances and that it becomes an awkward patch of grass that doesn't blend in nicely with the surrounding 1990s enclosures. Frankly I feel like we've hardly seen ambitious new (outdoor) enclosures ever since the giraffes got their new place in 2009. I hope they can turn it around (or at the very least have plans to patch it up a bit if the financial status improves later on).

@Anubite true, but I figured Id share it nontheless, as there may be zoochatters who arent quite up to date on whats been proposed so far.
 
Blijdorpenaar said:
... it would only be the bongos, Indian rhino's, camels, crested macaques and red-crowned cranes, and frankly if they were able to house the elephants together with one other species and maybe create a small new exhibit off the side, that would compensate for it quite nicely already....
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The only bit concerns me. It is quite a few unique species there you'd let go just for elephants. Though Blijdorp (to me) feels very financially unstable so less species might be a good way to go, to have less costs around the park. I do think that Burgers' Zoo is outphasing the Dusky Langur cso moving the Macaques to that enclosure over there could still work for both parks.

Though from what I read is that they want to keep the swamp the way it is, due to refurbishing costs are too high?
So maybe that area is saved anyways
 
Dustin1999 said:
A Kemp's sea turtle (lepidochelys kempii) has been transfer to Blijdorp from Reptile Zoo Iguana.

DPG Media Privacy Gate
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To add to this: This is a temporarly animal in the collection and will be released back into the wild once fully recovered. There is rumours for it to go on show for a short while, but no guarantees as the animal's wellfare is priority
 
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