Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2011

I don't know what plants are in Rajang's pond .... but the ones in my small pond at home tend to die right back in winter but always grow back again in spring / summer.
 
I dont think this has been mentioned;

An Essex pig sow recently arrived in the collection from Jimmy's Farm in Suffolk and on Thursday 10th February she gave birth to a litter of 9 piglets!

Mum and the piglets are all doing well and can be seen playing and scampering around their enclosure within the Familiar Friends section at the bottom end of the zoo.

Pay them a visit and watch them being fed during their daily feed at 12.30pm.
 
Had a very quick visit yesterday .... both Rajang and Tiga are shut out of the main indoor area as Tiga had apparently found a stone outside earlier in the week and used it to smash the end pane (which is now boarded up).
 
I dont know if i should of started a new thread or not but any way another birth:

The group of gelada baboons grew on the 21st February with the birth of a new baby! Born to mum, Mena and dominant male, Junior, the baby has been sexed as a male and is healthy and doing well.

This new offspring is the fifth successful birth to Mena and Junior and brings the number in the group up to eight, with four females and four males.
 
Some things I noticed on a visit on Saturday:
- Saw the pied tamarins for the first time- they are such great monkeys to watch.
- Southern ground hornbills and white-nosed coatis have switched enclosures again.
- A majority of the animals (lions, sun bears, giant anteaters, tamandua) were active today.
- Noted the name of the giant flower beetles in the discovery centre (Mecynorrhina torguata).
- It seems as if further decoration has been added to the Asian Minor spiny mouse enclosure.
- I cannot see it being long until the Wilds of Asia opens- all the enclosures seem nearly complete.
- Only saw one binturong in the mixed Asian enclosure today- not sure what has happened to the others.
- A baby yellow-margined box turtle has moved into one of the terrariums in Orangutan Forest.
- I noticed that the millipedes, assassin bugs and reed frogs were all absent from Kingdom of the Wild- not sure what has happened to them.
- Saw at least a pair of the Eastern pygmy marmosets in the small monkey enclosure at Leopards at Ussuri Falls.
- Blue cranes and Amur leopards were both calling- two of the best sounds of the zoo.
 
Got a letter this morning - because my daughter adopted him - to say that Junior (the Gelada) has now been transferred to Besancon Zoo in France, don't know when exactly this took place.

On the advice of the EEP he's now been retired from breeding and will apparently join a group of males there. The letter also states they'll be receiving two young males from Edinburgh in the near future and that one of these will then become the new breeding male.

Sorry to see him go though we'd been prewarned .... he was such an impressive animal. Slight gripe in that it would have been nice to know dates so my daughter could have said 'goodbye' to him before he went ..... am not looking forward to breaking the news, but I guess such are the perils of a young child adopting an animal !
 
GillP said:
Sorry to see him go though we'd been prewarned .... he was such an impressive animal. Slight gripe in that it would have been nice to know dates so my daughter could have said 'goodbye' to him before he went ..... am not looking forward to breaking the news, but I guess such are the perils of a young child adopting an animal !
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It's quite odd that Colchester let you adopt an individual - most zoo adoptions run on the species as a whole for just this reason (though I remember getting the equivalent letter when the Sable Antelope went from Chester!).
 
There are adopter plaques all over Colchester for individual animals. To Colchester's credit they rang me when I applied to renew the adoption to warn me of Junior's departure. I also know that when animals have died in the past, they call adopters to tell them first before making the news public. I think it's quite nice you can adopt individuals actually ..... kids like visiting 'their' animal, though inevitably the cuter and more high profile animals get adopted most. For example, loads of people have adopted Rajang.

Now I just have to get her to decide who she'd like the adoption transferred to !
 
GillP said:
There are adopter plaques all over Colchester for individual animals. To Colchester's credit they rang me when I applied to renew the adoption to warn me of Junior's departure. I also know that when animals have died in the past, they call adopters to tell them first before making the news public. I think it's quite nice you can adopt individuals actually ..... kids like visiting 'their' animal, though inevitably the cuter and more high profile animals get adopted most. For example, loads of people have adopted Rajang.

Now I just have to get her to decide who she'd like the adoption transferred to !
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It is certainly good that it's transferred :) - I have one question though, can you literally adopt any individual, or is it chosen from a select few higher profile individuals?

I imagine adopting individuals works really well so that children especially are interested in 'their animal' - however I imagine it being awkward if adoptions can be for individuals that are naturally short lived or move on to other zoos quickly. However, for species such as orangs and eles I can see it as a good thing, I know one or two individuals at Chester I would adopt :)
 
So far as I know there isn't a list to choose from - you simply state the animal you want to adopt. I actually think it isn't a bad thing even if animals are naturally short lived - or move on - it all helps kids understand life cycles and the ways of zoos after all.

Have just had floods of tears after the school pick up but have explained how Junior's daughters will be mummies one day and they need a father who they're not related to etc etc.
 
Javan Rhino said:
I imagine adopting individuals works really well so that children especially are interested in 'their animal' - however I imagine it being awkward if adoptions can be for individuals that are naturally short lived or move on to other zoos quickly. However, for species such as orangs and eles I can see it as a good thing, I know one or two individuals at Chester I would adopt :)
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A lot of adoption plaques at my local zoo don't refer to individual animals, maybe because the form you fill in doesn't give you the option. However, I have two plaques up in memory of orangutans, one of whom I'd adopted while she was alive. I'm doing it because the zoo didn't want to commemorate their lives themselves, but I had to put up a fight to be allowed to hand money over to them! It gives me a lot of pleasure to walk past the plaques and know that the orangs haven't been forgotten. It's not just for children :)
 
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