Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2011

I'd say it's a good thing that they've been moved as the Colobus in that enclosure seemed to sit in the tunnel all day, not providing much of an exhibit. How many extra are there as I have never been able to get a good count of numbers for the EOA group?
 
I wouldn't say that from my expirence the black and white colobus monkeys were active and were breeding well in that enclosure.

The other enclosure is much smaller and I hope they don't stay there. Also surely there'd be problems because why else have (had) 2 groups???:confused:
 
Apollo and Etosha were moved to the enclosure at out of africa to encourage breeding :) I don't think there were any social issues, its just that they weren't breeding at out of africa.

Also, in other news, a comment that the zoo have put on the facebook page says that they plan to build an enclosure for jack the new male Cheetah, so that both Cheetah can be on display at any one time :D
 
The female smooth coated otter has given birth, according to a sign outside the enclosure, that's why only one adult was out when I went.
 
ZooSam said:
Some recent news from Colchester (as of this weekend):

- The Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs have moved from the old Spider Monkey enclosure on Hornbill Hill to the former Colobus Monkey enclosure in the Edge of Africa area;
- The remaining Colobus Monkeys have moved in with the breeding pair and offspring in the Out of Africa exhibit;
- The Ring-tailed Lemurs do have access to the two trees furthest from the lake, and have also had a new climbing structure; which is similar in style and shape to the Mandrill one;
- 10 Humboldt's Penguins have moved to London Zoo, leaving 25 at Colchester, split 12/13 between the two pools;
- The female Smooth-Coated Otter is in the late stages of pregnancy according to a sign on their enclosure.

And finally, there's a new climbing frame in the process of being built for the Geladas! Two new male Geladas have also arrived.

Phew, sorry it's so long, but there is always something happening at Colchester Zoo...
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The new arrivals named 'Bosso' and 'Bruno' arrived on 5th May from Edinburgh Zoo. Male Bosso is the older of the two and will most likely become the new breeding male within the group.
 
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Wish I could go to the love your zoo week 28/5/2011 to 5/6/2011! but i can't ;) (sound like orville!)
The 'Zoo Nostalgia Display – 9.30- 17.00 Discovery Centre (found opposite Iguana Forest and next to Kalahari Capers) ' looks really interesting!!

I saw that about the Komodos on facebook can I ask a probably daft laymans question!?

What effect does the immaculate conception of komodo dragons have on the breeding programme?
(I will try to explain my point!) Komoda A & Komodo B breed and make baby komodos AB but what effect does baby komodos AA have on the gene pool? :confused:
 
This may sound like a silly questions as i do not know alot about Gelada Baboons,but havent they just had a young born in the group,and wouldnt the new males be terrortrial and kill the youngest offspring?
 
karenZOO said:
What effect does the immaculate conception of komodo dragons have on the breeding programme?
(I will try to explain my point!) Komoda A & Komodo B breed and make baby komodos AB but what effect does baby komodos AA have on the gene pool? :confused:
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In a nut shell if they do hatch out any baby Komodo dragons from the eggs and they only contain,the DNA of the female they will all be males and as far as the EEP program,for the species is concerned they will be of NO use at all to it as they will only be allowed to be used as DISPLAY ONLY animals,on the other hand if they have DNA from 2 Dragons they will be very usefull young Dragons to the EEP.Given the number of young males that Chester and London have had that are DISPLAY ONLY animals,lets hope they aren't the same,as there cannot be many more homes for Male Komodos that cannot be used in the breeding program.
Hope that helps with your confusion:)
 
Thank you Zoogiraffe thats a very clear explaination :D

Surely if the egg splits to fertilise the egg they should be able to tell if its immaculate or not by DNA testing an egg (obviously if they have been mixing the komodos for breeding)

If not surely scrambled komodo egg for breakfast would be the sensible option? :D Do many of these 'display only' komodos end up in private hands?
 
zoogiraffe said:
In a nut shell if they do hatch out any baby Komodo dragons from the eggs and they only contain,the DNA of the female they will all be males and as far as the EEP program,for the species is concerned they will be of NO use at all to it as they will only be allowed to be used as DISPLAY ONLY animals,on the other hand if they have DNA from 2 Dragons they will be very usefull young Dragons to the EEP.Given the number of young males that Chester and London have had that are DISPLAY ONLY animals,lets hope they aren't the same,as there cannot be many more homes for Male Komodos that cannot be used in the breeding program.
Hope that helps with your confusion:)
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You may know something about the EEP's preferences I don't, but why aren't the parthenogenetically-produced males considered suitable for breeding?

They're genetically identical to their mother, so aren't inbred, and they're certainly capable of breeding (the evolutionary function of this is presumed to be that if a female finds herself in isolation, breeding with her own clones is better for the species' survival than no breeding at all!).

Is it to do with the particular females that produced them?

Obviously it produces a large number of young males, and will skew the sex ratio and lead to spare males (which will likely be display-only), and of course we don't want it to be the main form of reproduction long-term, but unless I'm missing something then at least one offspring out of each clutch could be very useful to the EEP. It preserves the genetic makeup of their mother into another generation and effectively gives an extra chance to breed from her second-hand, as it were!

And even if not, the 'spare' males are surely ideal for training new holders with 'less valuable' animals.
 
jordan-12 said:
This may sound like a silly questions as i do not know alot about Gelada Baboons,but havent they just had a young born in the group,and wouldnt the new males be terrortrial and kill the youngest offspring?
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I wouldn't say that's a silly question. However, it depends on how old the latest baby is at to whether its in any danger. Also, if these new males aren't adult (which I think is the case) they won't be very territorial yet. But yes, a new adult male Gelada would certainly be a threat to any small babies.
 
Pertinax said:
I wouldn't say that's a silly question. However, it depends on how old the latest baby is at to whether its in any danger. Also, if these new males aren't adult (which I think is the case) they won't be very territorial yet. But yes, a new adult male Gelada would certainly be a threat to any small babies.
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Thanks for clarifying that Pertinax the youngster was born on the 21st February i think to Mena and Junior.
 
zoogiraffe said:
Its because they only have the DNA from one animal!
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Yes, but given that they would be being outbred with normal sexually-produced females I find it hard to accept they should all be written off altogether as breeding animals given the overall low reproductive rate in captivity.

The EEP has better info than me, of course, but bear in mind that the offspring of a parthenogenesis-produced male and a sexually-produced female has theoretically 50% genetic material from one individual (its paternal grandmother) , and 25% each from two others. Although you mightn't want to breed this animal immediately with another descendant of parthenogenesis, it's hardly disastrous. It's a similar effect as one generation of inbreeding - as though a male elephant mated his own daughter for instance. ;-)

However, even if the EEP are happy that they are getting enough breeding to mean they can avoid the slight hit to diversity, these animals are still hardly useless, given the training and publicity value.
 
jordan-12 said:
Thanks for clarifying that Pertinax the youngster was born on the 21st February i think to Mena and Junior.
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A baby that age would certainly be in danger from a new adult male. Maybe that's why they've got a couple of younger ones in. Does its say/ do you know what sex the February baby is?
 
eggs

Komodo dragon eggs have just been discovered in the enclosure and are now being incubated! :)
 
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