Bristol Zoo (Closed) Bristol Zoo historic inventory

Cobi

Cobi

Well-Known Member
Does anyone know if there are historic stocktake/inventory reports available anywhere?

I haven’t been able to find any.

Perhaps this could also be a useful resource for people to list any significant species or individuals and when they were held at the Clifton zoo site.
 
I don’t mean to sound snarky but I am sure ZTL might have some things under former holdings.
 
The excellent book 'The Zoos of Great Britain and Ireland' by John Tuson has a section on the impressively long list of first UK breedings for mammals and birds that occurred at Bristol Zoo Gardens over the years. Not an exhaustive list of historic animals (like @PossumRoach says, ZTL former holdings is your best bet for that), but a very useful and interesting resource that I feel is relevant enough to the matter at hand that I should post it.

Mammals:
1881 - Indian Grey Mongoose
1886~ - American Black Bear
1934 - Chimpanzee
1952 - Common Squirrel Monkey
1958 - Black Rhinoceros
1966 - Okapi
1968 - leucistic Tiger
1971 - Western Gorilla
1971 - Sumatran Orangutan
1978 - Linnaeus' Two-toed Sloth
1978 - Emperor Tamarin
1979 - Geoffroy's Tamarin
1979 - Persian Leopard
1982 - Red-fronted Lemur
1986 - Large Flying Fox
1989 - Allen's Swamp Monkey
1989 - Sumatran Tiger
1990 - South American Fur Seal
2006 - Merriam's Kangaroo-rat
2017 - Eastern Quoll

Birds:
1966 - Rufous-necked Wood-rail
1967 - Tasmanian Native-hen
1969 - Scarlet Ibis
1972 - Victoria Crowned-pigeon
1973 - Straw-necked Ibis
1973 - Burmeister's Seriema
1976 - Yellow-collared Macaw
1981 - Merrill's Fruit-pigeon
1982 - Green-and-white Zone-tailed Pigeon
1986 - Sulawesi Ground-dove
1988 - Chestnut-naped Imperial-pigeon
1992 - Peruvian Thick-knee

Not sure how many are also European or even captive first breedings, but I suspect a fair few are.

Looking at how common some of those species, such as the tamarins, gorilla or Scarlet Ibis, have become well-established in UK zoos, I suspect that BZG (which I should start calling it so as to distinguish from what is now known as 'Bristol Zoo Project') is in large part responsible for this.
 
="Kalaw, post: 1577654, ]

Looking at how common some of those species, such as the tamarins, gorilla or Scarlet Ibis, have become well-established in UK zoos, I suspect that BZG (which I should start calling it so as to distinguish from what is now known as 'Bristol Zoo Project') is in large part responsible for this.
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Certainly for gorillas at least, this is far from the case. No gorillas currently in zoos in the UK are descended from Bristol Zoo's. Although having the first breeding in the UK, the zoo's subsequent survival rate with babies was dire until new management techniques came into use with the opening of the Gorilla Island. Before that most of the infants that were born to several females, died. Despite many pregnancies, these females mostly have no living descendents today. Even Delilah, the mother of the first baby to be born and reared in the UK, herself has only two descendents, both in Lisbon Zoo. While in the current group at Bristol, only one individual(Afia) is descended from any previous breeding at the zoo.

On a brighter note the story with the Sumatran orangutans is more positive. There are descendents at Chester and a few in Europe also.
 
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I’d love to see BZP commit to Sumatran orangutans again in the future, just Chester and Jersey with breeding groups in BIAZA. Did BZG have Pygmy hippopotamus? Or am I misremembering? They certainly had a good record with aye-ayes.
 
jtrbmvcq said:
I’d love to see BZP commit to Sumatran orangutans again in the future, just Chester and Jersey with breeding groups in BIAZA.
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It was mentioned on their plans at one stage but not sure that is still an intention longterm. Plans at BZP do seem to change rather and I don't think the current situation with the old site helps financially either. So even if stilI intended, I wouldn't expect any Sumatran Orangs there for some years yet.
 
Kalaw said:
1971 - Western Gorilla
1971 - Sumatran Orangutan
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This was a bumper year for the zoo regarding Ape births. Two baby gorillas were born (both male) but the first one, in March to mother 'Caroline' only lived about 10 days. During that time the other pregnant female 'Delilah' managed to kidnap the baby but it was successfully returned to its mother. Delilah herself then gave birth a few weeks later in April, to 'Daniel' who became the first baby Gorilla successfully raised in the UK.

During the same year the Sumatran Orangutan pair 'Henry' & 'Anne' also produced their first baby 'Oscar' who needed to be handraised. He was actually the first successful birth of this species in the UK as Edinburgh had an unsuccessful birth to a Sumatran pair previously. 'Oscar' was later sent to Chester where he fathered 'Emma' & 'Subis' who are both still at Chester Zoo.
 
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