Chester Zoo Chester Zoo Discussion and questions 2023

bongorob said:
I once saw a real police officer in Chester Zoo, only one dat though. I have noticed the zoo security look like police.

In 1978 I was stopped by the zoo security man while I was looking at the Arabian Gazelles which used to be opposite the Monkey House. I was the only visitor in the area at the time. He explained that he was investigating reports of someone trying to beak the locks on the paddocks and assured me that I was not a suspect. We ended up having a nice chat about the zoo.
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In your defence, your only crime at a zoo, specifically Chester in this instance would be the failure of counting bongo. :p
 
Charles said:
Which lemurs are in which enclosures at chester?
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In the lemur walkthrough there is the following species:
  • Ring-tailed lemur
  • Red ruffed lemur
  • White-belted black-and-white ruffed lemur
  • Crowned lemur
  • Black lemur
There is also more ring-tailed lemurs on the Lemur Island, where they are mixed with red-bellied lemurs. There is more black-and-white ruffed lemurs in an enclosure along the canal opposite the painted dogs.

As for other species, the aye-ayes are in the Tropical Realm, the Coquerel's sifakas are in an enclosure next to the lemur walkthrough, and the Alaotran gentle lemurs are in a small enclosure along the canal opposite the camels and onagers.
 
At the end of August/September they moved 1 red bellied lemur to the walkthrough, as he was getting picked on when living on the island.
The keeper told us. I didn't see it at the time. Unsure if it's still in the walkthrough now or not.

And there's also 2 black lemurs next to the alaotran gentle lemurs.
 
Fallax said:
In the lemur walkthrough there is the following species:
  • Ring-tailed lemur
  • Red ruffed lemur
  • White-belted black-and-white ruffed lemur
  • Crowned lemur
  • Black lemur
There is also more ring-tailed lemurs on the Lemur Island, where they are mixed with red-bellied lemurs. There is more black-and-white ruffed lemurs in an enclosure along the canal opposite the painted dogs.

As for other species, the aye-ayes are in the Tropical Realm, the Coquerel's sifakas are in an enclosure next to the lemur walkthrough, and the Alaotran gentle lemurs are in a small enclosure along the canal opposite the camels and onagers.
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Thats a very impressive list of lemurs
 
Chester has kept the following lemur species (as far as I know)

* denotes bred at Chester.

Lemuridae (typical lemurs)
Lake Aloatran Gentle Lemur (Hapalemur alaotrensis) * 2004-present
Broad-nosed Gentle Lemur (Prolemur simus) 1962
Ring-tailed Lemur (Lemur catta) * 1934; 1948-present
Ruffed Lemur hybrid (Varecia variegata x V.rubra) * 1984-1990
Black and White Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata variegata) * 1990-2011
Belted Ruffed Lemur (Varecia variegata subcinctus) * 2017-present
Red Ruffed Lemur (Varecia rubra) * 1991-2013; 2019-present
Black Lemur (Eulemur macao macao) * 1934; 2018-present
Mongoose Lemur (Eulemur mongoz) 1934
Crowned Lemur (Eulemur coronatus) 2019-present
Brown Lemur (Eulemur fulvus) 1934
White-fronted Lemur (Eulemur albifrons) * 1985-1995
Red-fronted Lemur (Eulemur rufus) 2012-2017
Mayotte Brown Lemur (Eulemur mayottensis) * 1980-1985
Red-bellied Lemur (Eulemur rubriventer) * 2019-present

Daubentonidae (aye-aye)
Aye-Aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) 2014-present

Indridae (indris and sifakas)
Coquerel's Sifaka (Propithecus coquereli) * 2021-present

The White-fronted Lemus may have been hybrids.
The Mayotte Lemur is a disputed species.
 
Moorhunhe said:
At the end of August/September they moved 1 red bellied lemur to the walkthrough, as he was getting picked on when living on the island.
The keeper told us. I didn't see it at the time. Unsure if it's still in the walkthrough now or not.

And there's also 2 black lemurs next to the alaotran gentle lemurs.
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I didn't know about that red-bellied lemur, I haven't seen it there. Forgot about those other black lemurs though.
 
Does anyone know the current alphas/ names of any of the painted dog troup? Last i saw on slotz kamana was alpha female but that was quite a while ago
 
Anyone know what ever happened to the sturgeons in the sunken garden fountain? Not a part of the zoo I go down to very often but can't say I remember the last time I saw them and ZTL has them in former holdings.
 
Lafone said:
The problem with the article and indeed the born free video it’s about is it uses examples from nothing more recent than 2000 and most of it concerns the 1960s or 1970s. The born free video is about an elephant who died let alone was kept many years ago.

Most people would agree there was some poor practice in zoos years ago, what the article does is distort / ignore any change.

If the Guardian wrote a comparable article on almost any subject and acknowledged nothing from the last 20 odd years it would be just as invalid. That they don’t (imagine an article on other social issues such as racism in the U.K. where the entire base of evidence was from 1970) suggests this ‘opinion’ piece on zoos was just lazily written. It’s the token ‘support a good cause’ article and the journalist plainly couldn’t care less.

The comments are interestingly balanced and many are pro zoo or at least pointing out the ancient anecdotes in the article itself are indeed ancient.

Can’t see anything ‘elitist’ in it myself it just looks like the journalist googled ‘born free says zoos bad’ and summarised their views based on practice from a different time.

On this occasion the Guardian isn’t educational and has constructed fiction. But mostly that’s what newspapers do.
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Re: the Guardian "On this occasion" .... and on EVERY occasion!
 
I presume you mean when it opened in 1964 as the Tropical House, rather than when it ‘re-opened’ a shadow of its former self as Tropical Realm? My favourites when new were the Eastern and Western Lowland Gorillas, Pygmy Hippos and Echidna.
 
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