Chester Zoo Chester Zoo News 2023

Jennings said:
A couple of observations from a visit on a rather wet Wednesday of last week:

  • The other fish in the Amazonas aquarium do not appear to have taken kindly to the arrival of the piranhas and were bottled up around the edges of the tank. They may settle in but the overall impression was not terribly good.
  • Much amplexus among the Lake Titicaca frogs, so let's hope for a successful breeding season.
  • The new access path to Islands has not been constructed to the Zoo's usual high standard and was badly flooded.
  • A pair of Little Grebe have nested in the monkey moat, close by the Mandrills.
  • In Monsoon Forest, a Crowned Pigeon was on eggs in a precarious nest directly above the path.
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The frogs were still at it on the Thursday as well, leading to some awkward moments for parents of young children, heard a lot of ‘they’re hugging’.
 
Charlie Simmomds said:
The frogs were still at it on the Thursday as well, leading to some awkward moments for parents of young children, heard a lot of ‘they’re hugging’.
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I think they just do it all the time, i have not been, when they haven't been hugging

Plus the new path is new and any issues will surly be rectified
 
Sorry if this has already been confirmed
Is there any news on if the Bongo and Sitatunga are staying at the zoo as they weren’t included in the Africa expansion, might they be moved closer to the Okapi?
 
No news, no. Just speculation and old plans.

The mountain bongo EEP is coordinated at Chester so I personally doubt the species will leave, but we'll have to wait and see.
 
Benmad1994 said:
Sorry if this has already been confirmed
Is there any news on if the Bongo and Sitatunga are staying at the zoo as they weren’t included in the Africa expansion, might they be moved closer to the Okapi?
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The next big project after Heart Of Africa, is a Congolese / Central African project which will cover the areas of the Tropical Realm, Chimps, and Giraffe paddocks. At a recent event this was confirmed that this would be the next project.

So this will be improvements for the Chimps who are likely to move to the Giraffe area, and then Okapis, Bongos, Sitatunga, River Hogs and Forest Buffalo having newer exhibits. No one knows exactly what it will all entail, or time frames, and there has been no mention of any new species for this area when it was mentioned recently.

So, I would imagine that given they have a young female, and a male over at holding (Bongo) and also have several Sitatunga, that there would be no plans to move them on, but also, it is unclear if they will return to the main zoo before the project planned after HOF is complete.
 
I'm really going to miss the Tropical Realm. Oh, I know it's antiquated, and expensive to heat, and too dark for proper plant growth, but I found it magical when I first visited the zoo in 1986 and I find it magical still. I hope the Forest Zone plans involve some sort of like for like replacement.
 
Tropical House was great when it opened, now it's old and past its best. My regret is not being able to remember the birds of paradise.
 
In 2022 Chester bred 522 male; 255 female; 333 unsexed Jewel Wasps. One episode of The Secret Life of the Zoo implied that this species is hard to breed.

With 1110 babies I bet the zoo is glad they are not easy to breed. Otherwise they would be overun with them. :eek:
 
bongorob said:
In 2022 Chester bred 522 male; 255 female; 333 unsexed Jewel Wasps. One episode of The Secret Life of the Zoo implied that this species is hard to breed.

With 1110 babies I bet the zoo is glad they are not easy to breed. Otherwise they would be overun with them. :eek:
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Breeding is very easily regulated; they need Periplaneta cockroaches to lay their eggs on, and typically 1 larva per cockroach successfully emerges.

Wait til you see the Bermuda snail numbers ;)
 
J C said:
It’s not every day you see a monkey with a knife Shocking moment monkey wielding a KNIFE tears around UK zoo
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If it's in The Sun, remember to take each and every word with a very large pich of salt, particularly in the silly season. The monkey did not wield the knife, it investigated it. The monkey did not tear round the zoo, it was always in its enclosure.

To illustrate the point. The next headline says
SNAKE ALERT Urgent warning as 12 dangerous SNAKES are spotted on the loose in UK area.
When you read on, it turns out the snakes are adders seen in Consett, Stanhope, Battersby and near Edmundbyers, which covers area from the west of Sunderland to Whitby!

 
A similar occurance a few years ago in a suburb of Stoke. Killer snake roaming the streets was the sort of headline. A grass snake had been seen near to some allotments. One person interviewed by the local paper said he thought it sould be against the law to keep pet snakes. Another said it was definatlely a dangerous adder, he'd seen the yellow patch behind the eye.

A few years later, another (or maybe the same one) was 'terrorising' visitors to a local medical centre. It was curled up by a wall and hissing at passers by. Obviously letting them know it was there, to avoid been trodden on.

My thoughts are they were female grass snakes which had laid eggs in compost heaps.
 
I remember a story in the Metro, where a driver saw a snake in front of her. She thought it was a toy snake until it stuck out his tongue. The RSPCA identified as a non-venomous corn snake. I wrote into the Metro to say that the driver was lucky it wasn't a deadly venomous windscreen viper.
 
gentle lemur said:
If it's in The Sun, remember to take each and every word with a very large pich of salt, particularly in the silly season. The monkey did not wield the knife, it investigated it. The monkey did not tear round the zoo, it was always in its enclosure.

To illustrate the point. The next headline says
SNAKE ALERT Urgent warning as 12 dangerous SNAKES are spotted on the loose in UK area.
When you read on, it turns out the snakes are adders seen in Consett, Stanhope, Battersby and near Edmundbyers, which covers area from the west of Sunderland to Whitby!
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True, but the story was also reported in the mail so I just chose the lesser of two evils
 
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