Chester Zoo Chester's history in Rare Animals

Writhedhornbill

Writhedhornbill

Well-Known Member
In the past Chester has held many species, and in this thread, I'd like to find out some of the rarer species that Chester ahs held over the years. I beleive that they once held Gurney's pittas and Ribbon-tail astrapia. Neither of these species are represented in zoos at Present.
 
They have been many rare and unusual animals exhibited during Chester Zoo's history. Some which I remember are Giant Coot, Wilson's Bird of Paradise, Saltwater Crocodile, Crocodile Lizard, Red-bellied Pademelon and Varied Lorikeet.
All these have been within the last 30 years.
 
My Parents have seen Giant coots in the wild. I've only seen them on the flight of the condor TV documentary. I believe Gladys porter zoo keeps them.
 
I found them to be very interesting. They arrived in 1974 and were wild caught. They lived for about 3 years in the old flamingo enclosure which was where the underwater viewing for penguins is now. They did try to make a nest by placing a few twigs and water plants on the pool but that was as far as they got. I don't know why they died.
 
Don't forget the Eastern Lowland Gorillas... Chester originally called them 'Mountain Gorillas' but that was the recognised term in those days. Mukisi(m) and Noelle(f) arrived from Africa about 1960, they were obtained from the animal trapper Charles Cordier. Both grew to maturity in the Tropical House, their outside island being where the Red River Hog's area is now. At one stage they suffered from poor coat condition but later improved. They never bred though Noelle, who became increasingly obese, at one stage had a much publicised 'pregnancy' which left the zoo with red faces when she produced nothing. They said it was a 'false pregnancy' though my own opinion is it was just wishful thinking.

After Noelle died, Mukisi lived alone for many years before being sent to join the small Eastern Lowland group at Antwerp Zoo. Sadly he didn't breed there either and died only a few years ago.
 
If I remember when Noelle died (I think it was 1975), Tel Aviv Zoo had two female eastern lowland gorillas. Chester asked if they could have them, but nothing came of it because each zoo was reluctant to move its animals to the other. I've got pictures of 'pregnant' Noelle, she did grow awfully big.
 
Yes, I remember something about that. Actually there's doubt whether Tel Aviv ever had any female Eastern Lowland gorillas. One, called Josepha(or Josephine) was later sent to Oklahoma in USA to be paired with their Eastern Lowland male 'Mkubwa'. I visited there and while 'Mkubwa' was a definite 'Eastern', the female Josepha was equally definately a Western Lowland- though nobody admitted it! They were incompatable anyway and never bred.

Noelle at Chester got very,very fat, while Mukisi stayed in good, fit condition. Its a pity he didn't breed at Antwerp.
 
id like that. especially the gaur, with whipsnade only having an old pair, thee will soon be none in the uk.
 
Also back to rare animals at chester zoo, they used to have Sloth Bears, Broad Nosed Gentle Lemurs, Echidnas, Drills and Lears Macaw
 
i would love to see gaur as a breeding animal back in this country the only zoos to have bred them were port lympne and london, i think the majority of animals in europe are in some way related to animals bred at zoo berlin.
 
ZooMania said:
Also back to rare animals at chester zoo, they used to have Sloth Bears, Broad Nosed Gentle Lemurs, Echidnas, Drills and Lears Macaw
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The most likely of these to re-appear in Chester Zoo would be the drills.
 
if they went ahead with the mixed lemur exhibit they may consider the broad nosed gentle lemur.
 
Yes, but the zoo hasn't bred from the aloatran gentles yet, and so may want to get a breeding pair of those before they can conside getting a species that is much rarer in captivity than the aloatran.

The zoo's pair of aloatran lemurs are not able to breed, so I think that they'd like to swap. Jersey does sometimes send rubbish animals to other zoos, they like to hold lot's of a species and then give other zoos the old, ill, or not reproductivly active ones. Saying that, London seems to have lot's more sucess with Gentle lemurs than Jersey.
 
will the lemur exhibit go ahead, what news of the addax and gazelle, the fmd restrictions have been dropped today, the antelope saga is turning into a soap opera.
 
The addax are not coming I don't think. Some keepers were never that keen. I don't know about the Gazelle or Lemurs. Sorry.
 
what new species are we likely to see in the future and what can you tell us about the new aquarium, "origins", i believe it will be called. what is the theme, freshwater? i can't see chester investing in a seawater aquarium with the blue planet aquarium jst down the road.
 
Chester did actually have to help Blue Planet quite a lot when it first opened, as they had no idea how to look afetr sand tiger sharks, and their first lot died. The species that they show are nice, but not conservationally relevant. Chester had a brilliant Seahorse breeding record so I imagine that it will have a balance between. There may also be some freshwater pearl mussels, as Chester supports a programme for them.
 
kiang said:
i would love to see gaur as a breeding animal back in this country the only zoos to have bred them were port lympne and london, i think the majority of animals in europe are in some way related to animals bred at zoo berlin.
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As with the Babirusa, the captive gene pool of this species is now worryingly small, and it will come as a surprise to me to see any new Gaur enter the UK unless exchanges are done with Indian zoos.
 
How exactly is this walk through going to look like, personall i think its much better for the animals to live on islands.
 
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