Chester Zoo Chester's Philippine spotted deer

Writhedhornbill

Writhedhornbill

Well-Known Member
I am very fond of the Philippine spooted deer. They are one of the nicer species of deer. Chester has kept them for many years now. There is a group near the bat cave and new Indian rhino exhibit and one off show near the old Lechwe paddock, where the addax will be.
I worked with them for a day last summer. It was the group near the lechwe I went to feed. They seemed to be very shy and they only came close to us when we fed them. Is that what all captive deer do?


According to ISIS they have 6 males and 5 females.
 
No. Some of the larger species are far less shy/nervous. Never let anyone talk you into going into an enclosure with male deer anywhere near the breeding season. They can be extremely dangerous, particularly a male that has been handreared. Some species are less nervous of people naturally than others. Sika and Axis/Chital are two species which seem relatively unafraid, whereas Fallow deer are very timid.

Do Chester still have Swampdeer/barasingha- if so how many, if not where did they go to? These are the most beautiful of all the deer in my opinion.
 
They left in 2003. They used to be housed in the asian plains area, with the blackbuck and burmese brow antlered deer. For some reason they left the zoo. I don't know how many they had, I'll search up about it, but as far as I know they never bred.
 
I suspect that they let the Swamp deer go in favour of the Brow- Antlered which are better suited to their paddock size and also rarer too, and they didn't want two rather similar species of deer living together. I would be interested to know where the swamp deer came from and went to,(unless put down...) if you can ever find that out from their records(not an easy task)
 
I don't know. Usually it will say on an annual report or in a magazine. For instance I know that Kata Kata and Jeremy went to a zoo in France.
 
The swamp deer arrived in 1997. Three females only, Two male and one female fawns were bred but none were reared, the deer were all pregnant when they arrived. No stag was ever received. The only other swamp deer I know of at Chester were two in 1976 which spent a few weeks in the Camel House, (actually where the Gaboon Vipers are now), I can't remember what sex they were. That's all I know about them.

While on the subject of deer Edinburgh have recently received a pair of white-lipped deer and a male Kuhl's deer. I can't wait to see them.
 
Interesting about the Swamp deer. I reckon they 'lost out' in favour of the Brow-Antlered deer but that's only a guess.

White-lipped Deer stags are very impressive, their complex, many tined antlers seem to grow almost vertically upwards from their heads, rather than with a backward slant/direction like most other deer species.
 
No, that's Wapiti(Elk) Chester used to have a small herd of them too, a long while ago.

White-lipped deer is also called Thorold's Deer. They come from Tibet and are very rare in Zoos. San Diego has some, Rotterdam did a few years ago but doesn't anymore. i don't know where Edinburgh have obtained theirs from.
 
Yes, Patrick. That's it. I searched up white tailed deer on the internet. Beautiful animal. If they breed.....Some for chester!!!
 
I doubt that white-tailed deer will ever come to Chester, they are not endangered. It is also easier for European zoos to keep deer native to Europe and American zoos to keep American deer. It saves time and money.
 
Sorry!! Typo. I meant the thorold's deer. It would be good for edinburgh to breed som and then pass on some to Chester. Even if it does mean getting rid of the Pere Davids.
 
You may be lucky. The Pere David's have been without a male for several years now and it would seem that Chester Zoo is phasing them out.
 
bongorob said:
You may be lucky. The Pere David's have been without a male for several years now and it would seem that Chester Zoo is phasing them out.
Click to expand...

That doesn't surprise me at all. Pere David's are no longer a high priority for zoo-breeding. Quite a few Safari Parks have herds of them nowadays too, so Chester probably don't want them any more- I imagine the remaining females will disappear shortly...

Any one know if Edinburgh are trying to get additional Thorold's deer from anywhere? One pair isn't going to reproduce very quickly...
 
Edinburgh's White-lipped (or Thorold's) Deer came from Berlin Tierpark. The Kuhl's Deer came from Poznan Zoo. They hope to import more specimens of each species. Also new is a male Turkmenian Markhor to keep the single Kuhl's Deer company. 1.2 Markhor are living at Highland Wildlife Park.
 
Last edited:
Are all the new deer and goat species moving to the highland park? I heard Mercedes the polar bear may move there in time.
 
No, Kuhl's Deer will not be moving. The White-lipped Deer will move but not in the near future. The Japanese Macaques are to depart shortly, but will be replaced with the second of three groups to be quarantined in Edinburgh. Don't know about the bear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top