Chester Zoo Chester Zoo News 2024
- Thread starter bongorob
- Start date
A real shame to wipe another part of the zoo’s history away.
The building has structural issues so there's not much choice - it was very much an improvised build to begin with so it's remarkable it's lasted as long as it has!
And remember - 'Always Building' has always been Chester's mantra. George Mottershead would, I think, be slightly bewildered at how many building from his time were still in use in 2024!
Listed on ZTL as new arrivals at Chester are two new lizard species and a new subspecies.
Frog-eyed Sand Gecko (Teratoscincus keyerrlingii)
Leptein's Spiny-tailed Lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia leptienii)
Middle Eastern Short-fingered Gecko (Stenodactylus doriae)
The Sailfin Lizard is now listed as Sulawesi Salifin Lizard (Hydrosaurus doriae)
Frog-eyed Sand Gecko (Teratoscincus keyerrlingii)
Leptein's Spiny-tailed Lizard (Uromastyx aegyptia leptienii)
Middle Eastern Short-fingered Gecko (Stenodactylus doriae)
The Sailfin Lizard is now listed as Sulawesi Salifin Lizard (Hydrosaurus doriae)
olhl.animal.photography
Well-Known Member
Will these new lizards come on show do you reckon?
Any idea which chimps was born to babu and Meg and how many chimps they have had all together ?
These all came from the Sharjah Breeding Centre For Endangered Arabian Wildlife, UAE.
As usual, some interesting new species (hopefully to come on show!).
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Babu had the following surviving offspring:
0.1 Mary (1958-1963)
0.1 Viv (1959-1962)
1.0 Zig (1961-unk)
0.1 Polly (1961-1964)
0.1 Sarah (1963-unk)
Meg had the following surviving offspring:
0.1 Lulu (1958-1960)
0.1 Sylvia (1960-unk)
0.1 Jeannie (1961-1978)
1.0 Jack (1962-unk)
1.0 Jack (1964-1966)
1.0 Tammy (1967-1968)
1.0 Wilson (1968)
0.1 Sue (1970-1975)
1.0 Jerry (1976) Sent to Zootopia 1979
0.1 Mandy (1977)
0.1 Gemma (1979-1980)
0.1 Poppy (1984-1991)
Please also note: Chester Zoo with a significant population of Yemen origins' Arabian gazelle and a successful program over decennia ultimately allowed that population to go on phase out and eventually die out (BIAZA did have a specific ex situ conservation breeding program for this species) completely.
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Quite a lot of the fish and inverts now on show in the aquarium are fairly straightforward 'trade' species or native marines anyhow, with a lot of the more interesting stuff either already off show (Malagasy Cichlids, Bermuda Killis) or also on display elsewhere in the zoo (Omani Blind Garra, Goodeids). I hope however for the retention of the remaining important on-show species such as Bandula Barbs and Chilingali Cichlids.
They were discontinued because of doubts about their subspecies ancestry. I would suggest a generic population is better than none…..
Interesting how standalone aquariums seem to be increasingly rather taboo for modern zoos, with the same reasoning for their removal (cost,structural). A similar, rather more extreme, example being London
I'm not sure they're taboo as much as just very expensive to build, so they're not being replaced as they age. A shame, as you say, but Chester already has more fish exhibits outside the Aquarium than London has, so we can take some comfort there..!
It's worth bearing in mind that had the financial crisis not intervened then ZSL would by now have a huge aquarium in Docklands and the life expired London Zoo aquarium would have closed a decade sooner. Chester's situation is slightly different - and I have this from the horse's mouth - in that with Blue Planet on the doorstep it is difficult to make a business case for replacing the existing aquarium, whereas scattering fish tanks through other exhibits is relatively cheap and thus easy to justify.
Yes, I am / was well aware of this conviction on the part of zoo animal management.
However, having had intimate knowledge of their origins and having a good knowledge base on the genetics of Arabian gazelles this view was incorrect. All gazelle from the breeding program were captured in Yemen locally and part of a Gazella population unique to the country and SW Saudi Arabia.
At the time, there was great contenten over a Gazella bilkis (which the UK sub-population was not at all) and the G. arabica tag was later put on a different taxon from the greater part of Central and north Saudi up to Eastern parts of Saudi, UAE and Oman.
Phase out or discontinuing a species ex situ program is not always based upon solely animal management issues. I would have much favored that this particular population would have been exported out to KSA to be part of their gazelle program. To this day the centers in Taif and Thumamah maintain G. erlangeri and others. Further, the Thumamah center was more or less THE site for genetics research and re-classification of all Arabian gazelle species.
The irony being that, as far as I know, it was eventually determined that a) Arabian Gazelle was indeed a valid taxon and b) the captive population had been pure.
Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
I think that the original group was divided between Chester and Dudley, I can remember seeing two old animals at Dudley early. 1990s
Cotton-top tamarin twins have been born:
Twin monkeys born in Chester Zoo give boost to efforts to protect endangered species
Twin monkeys born in Chester Zoo give boost to efforts to protect endangered species
Yes, I can personally attest to this as I investigated with a geneticist working at the time in the UK on the Arabian gazelle species that this is and was the case. It continues to boggle my mind and absolutely .... speechless how anyone may have missed vital information. That vital information was all in the erstwhile BIAZA studbook.
Correct: Both Chester (large herd) and Dudley Zoos (smaller breeding herd ..) were the last holders. Blackpool and Malton Zoo earlier kept the species too.