Thats great news!!! i really hope they get some hatchlings!!!
Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2012
- Thread starter Badgerman91
- Start date
Thats great news!!! i really hope they get some hatchlings!!!
Now this is really good news! Congratulations to the reptile keepers for getting some eggs out of them and hopefully we will be able to see some young Komodos soon.
Also, on the topic of zoo matings, on my last visit (which I have forgotten to report on), I saw the pair of bearded sakis mating- hopefully something will come of that as well.
Also, on the topic of zoo matings, on my last visit (which I have forgotten to report on), I saw the pair of bearded sakis mating- hopefully something will come of that as well.
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EDIT: Rather than tacking it onto the end of the previous post, here is some extra news:
Emily the white rhinoceros has been confirmed to be pregnant after a successful mating with new male Otto.
Colchester Zoo News: The pitter patter of heavy feet to be heard for our Rhinos at Kingdom of the Wild!
Colchester are finally reporting the arrival of the Francois' langurs- the male arrived from Twycross Zoo near the beginning of May and the new female came from Howletts. The pair have been mixed and are settling in well.
Colchester Zoo News: Francois langurs join collection
Emily the white rhinoceros has been confirmed to be pregnant after a successful mating with new male Otto.
Colchester Zoo News: The pitter patter of heavy feet to be heard for our Rhinos at Kingdom of the Wild!
Colchester are finally reporting the arrival of the Francois' langurs- the male arrived from Twycross Zoo near the beginning of May and the new female came from Howletts. The pair have been mixed and are settling in well.
Colchester Zoo News: Francois langurs join collection
Now that is excellent news!
(as is the Komodo eggs!) Fingers crossed that we have further good news from that in 12 months time. Well done to everyone at Colchester (both departments) for getting to this stage with both species
Re Arrival of the Francois Langurs(above);
A pity Colchester can't take on some Dianas too- they seem to manage their primates pretty well and allow some decent-sized groups to develop- well the Mandrills at least, but they've shown a reasonable degree of success with others like the Geladas, Colobus, Mangabeys, L'Hoest's guenon etc.
From what you have said I'm beginning to fear for the future of this species(Diana Monkey) in the UK now- even Howletts/PL currently seem to have only two rather middle-aged looking pairs plus one or two younger offspring.
A pity Colchester can't take on some Dianas too- they seem to manage their primates pretty well and allow some decent-sized groups to develop- well the Mandrills at least, but they've shown a reasonable degree of success with others like the Geladas, Colobus, Mangabeys, L'Hoest's guenon etc.
From what you have said I'm beginning to fear for the future of this species(Diana Monkey) in the UK now- even Howletts/PL currently seem to have only two rather middle-aged looking pairs plus one or two younger offspring.
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Good news regarding both Rhino and Langurs - it's taken them a bit of time to get Emily pregnant after Otto's arrival in November 2010, it's even better news that they have successfully mated rather than Colchester going down the A.I. road again. With the successful mating it means Colchester have more a chance or having a female calf rather than a probable 90% chance of a male calf.
Great news for colchester! Does anyone have any idea where the langurs will be placed within the zoo as surely they won't stay in "Chimp World" as it is going to be expanded???
All the contruction work within the zoo seems to be coming along quickly, does anyone know what they are doing to the area next to the display arena where there used to be horses,rats, and the chick incubation area? and also what they are building outside the main enterance?
Also on a recent visit did see the Giraffe were attempting to mate! So could be a "baby centre" down in the Kingdom of the Wild!! =)
All the contruction work within the zoo seems to be coming along quickly, does anyone know what they are doing to the area next to the display arena where there used to be horses,rats, and the chick incubation area? and also what they are building outside the main enterance?
Also on a recent visit did see the Giraffe were attempting to mate! So could be a "baby centre" down in the Kingdom of the Wild!! =)
Bit of news from the zoo;
-A female Andean condor named La Maya, arrived from Nurnberg Zoo, Germany in the early part of June 2012. La Maya has arrived in order to form a pair with our current male, Mannie, however, this will be a long process of mixing the two birds whilst they get to know each other and settle in each other's presence, and all mixing sessions will be closely monitored by their keepers.
-A new female red panda named Liwei arrived during the latter part of May 2012 from Beauval Zoo, France and is currently on show housed in the old red panda enclosure between the mixed exhibit binturong enclosure and lion-tailed macaques. This new female at present is too young for breeding, but in the future will be paired with our young male An An, who is at prime reproductive age. Colchester Zoo participates in the EEP breeding programme for this species, and we hope that this pairing will allow for breeding success in the not too distant future.
-A new male shire horse anmed Homer, arrived in June 2012 from World Horse Welfare. Homer will be off-show whilst he completes his quarantine and will then join Meg and Bruce onshow on a rota basis down at the Familiar Friends section of the park in the new stable area.
And also Colchester Zoo has passed the 50,000mark of holders of their gold & platinum cards!
-A female Andean condor named La Maya, arrived from Nurnberg Zoo, Germany in the early part of June 2012. La Maya has arrived in order to form a pair with our current male, Mannie, however, this will be a long process of mixing the two birds whilst they get to know each other and settle in each other's presence, and all mixing sessions will be closely monitored by their keepers.
-A new female red panda named Liwei arrived during the latter part of May 2012 from Beauval Zoo, France and is currently on show housed in the old red panda enclosure between the mixed exhibit binturong enclosure and lion-tailed macaques. This new female at present is too young for breeding, but in the future will be paired with our young male An An, who is at prime reproductive age. Colchester Zoo participates in the EEP breeding programme for this species, and we hope that this pairing will allow for breeding success in the not too distant future.
-A new male shire horse anmed Homer, arrived in June 2012 from World Horse Welfare. Homer will be off-show whilst he completes his quarantine and will then join Meg and Bruce onshow on a rota basis down at the Familiar Friends section of the park in the new stable area.
And also Colchester Zoo has passed the 50,000mark of holders of their gold & platinum cards!
Had a long visit today and manage to see pretty much everything. Lots of things to note, including:
- Both Francois' langurs were fully outside today and spending much of their time sat in close proximity to each other.
- There is a new baby colobus monkey in Out of Africa- judging by the still wet-looking fur and presence of both a keeper and a cameraman, it could have been born at some point overnight.
- Giant tortoise enclosure was having turf layed and watered today- it looks to be another of Colchester's recent good enclosures.
- Although the 'coming soon' sign on the golden mantella enclosure at Kingdom of the Wild has been taken down and the terrarium furnished, there seemed to be no frogs in residence yet.
- There are at least a pair of red-bellied lemurs in the old red ruffed lemur enclosure, viewable from the Tanganyika Bridge.
- The new female red panda and Andean condor were both on display today- the condor still looks rather young with her still-brown plumage.
- The time-frame for the new sun bear enclosure is Easter 2013.
- The Familiar Friends barn is being renovated as an 'exciting new exhibit' due to open in October 2012.
- Finally saw the Saharan uromastyx in the plated lizard and radiated tortoise enclosure.
- The weaver birds are beginning their main nesting period now, with several half-finished nests hanging around.
- Noticed that the mandrills were not shut in as they normally are, but were choosing to stay outside.
- There is a sign up saying that staff are hopeful that the spotted hyena female is pregnant, and so they are also leaving the off-show area open to allow her to choose where to give birth.
- One of the aardvarks has some sort of nasty-looking ulcer on its shoulder. Does anyone know anything about this?
- There is no sign of the silvery leaf monkeys in the mixed Asian enclosure and all signage has been taken down, which rather suggests they have left the zoo.
- Two of the giant anteaters were mixed together earlier in the day.
- The second female two-toed sloth has moved into the holding area for the World's Apart golden-headed lion tamarins.
- A Geoffroy's cat has gone back on display in the enclosure that previously held the three male L'Hoest's monkeys- they all seem to have left.
- Saw Tiga the Bornean orangutan outside today for the first time and actually managed to spend more than a passing moment watching him drag one of the enormous pieces of wood around the enclosure.
- The unthinkable happened today- I saw both species of crocodile actually move!
- Watched both one of the animal theatre performances and a bird display- in the theatre a pair of Patagonian conures, a pair of yellow-backed chattering lories and a trio of meerkats were the animals and in the bird display a Turkmenian eagle owl, a pair of Harris hawks, a steppe eagle and most bizarrely, a flock of helmeted guineafowl were the performers.
- Although I am no professional zoologist, one of the meerkats and one of the rhinoceros iguanas looked very round- hopefully that could mean something in regards to breeding.
- A very curious thing I noticed was the signs for the tamandua adoptions noted three individuals- Small and Inti (the previous pair) and Alves, who I have never seen mentioned on here or anywhere else. Could this mean that the old pair are possibly off-show with this other tamandua being on-show?
- Both Francois' langurs were fully outside today and spending much of their time sat in close proximity to each other.
- There is a new baby colobus monkey in Out of Africa- judging by the still wet-looking fur and presence of both a keeper and a cameraman, it could have been born at some point overnight.
- Giant tortoise enclosure was having turf layed and watered today- it looks to be another of Colchester's recent good enclosures.
- Although the 'coming soon' sign on the golden mantella enclosure at Kingdom of the Wild has been taken down and the terrarium furnished, there seemed to be no frogs in residence yet.
- There are at least a pair of red-bellied lemurs in the old red ruffed lemur enclosure, viewable from the Tanganyika Bridge.
- The new female red panda and Andean condor were both on display today- the condor still looks rather young with her still-brown plumage.
- The time-frame for the new sun bear enclosure is Easter 2013.
- The Familiar Friends barn is being renovated as an 'exciting new exhibit' due to open in October 2012.
- Finally saw the Saharan uromastyx in the plated lizard and radiated tortoise enclosure.
- The weaver birds are beginning their main nesting period now, with several half-finished nests hanging around.
- Noticed that the mandrills were not shut in as they normally are, but were choosing to stay outside.
- There is a sign up saying that staff are hopeful that the spotted hyena female is pregnant, and so they are also leaving the off-show area open to allow her to choose where to give birth.
- One of the aardvarks has some sort of nasty-looking ulcer on its shoulder. Does anyone know anything about this?
- There is no sign of the silvery leaf monkeys in the mixed Asian enclosure and all signage has been taken down, which rather suggests they have left the zoo.
- Two of the giant anteaters were mixed together earlier in the day.
- The second female two-toed sloth has moved into the holding area for the World's Apart golden-headed lion tamarins.
- A Geoffroy's cat has gone back on display in the enclosure that previously held the three male L'Hoest's monkeys- they all seem to have left.
- Saw Tiga the Bornean orangutan outside today for the first time and actually managed to spend more than a passing moment watching him drag one of the enormous pieces of wood around the enclosure.
- The unthinkable happened today- I saw both species of crocodile actually move!
- Watched both one of the animal theatre performances and a bird display- in the theatre a pair of Patagonian conures, a pair of yellow-backed chattering lories and a trio of meerkats were the animals and in the bird display a Turkmenian eagle owl, a pair of Harris hawks, a steppe eagle and most bizarrely, a flock of helmeted guineafowl were the performers.
- Although I am no professional zoologist, one of the meerkats and one of the rhinoceros iguanas looked very round- hopefully that could mean something in regards to breeding.
- A very curious thing I noticed was the signs for the tamandua adoptions noted three individuals- Small and Inti (the previous pair) and Alves, who I have never seen mentioned on here or anywhere else. Could this mean that the old pair are possibly off-show with this other tamandua being on-show?
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
Do Colchester now have 1.2 Red Pandas? I know they had the male (Ex Warsaw (?) ) and the female 'Lushan' from Chester (?) I was wondering if they still had her.
Interesting news regarding the Hyenas, if more collections took them on then maybe we'd have more breeding if Colchester's female is pregnant.
Re: Tamanduas
I'm sure they had a pair (1.1) Small and Inti. I believe one has left/died but nothing confirmed as to which is the case. I'm sure that 'Alves' is the young male Giant Anteater born to Zurai and Gilberto.
There are indeed 1:2 red pandas- the current pair are still together in their Wilds of Asia enclosure and the new female Liwei from Beauval Zoo is in their old enclosure near the lion-tailed macaques.
"The Familiar Friends barn is being renovated as an 'exciting new exhibit' due to open in October 2012"
Does anyone know what this exciting new exhibit will be?
Does anyone know what this exciting new exhibit will be?
Good news on th return of the Geoffrey's cat,but not such good news re: progress on the sun bear enclosure!
The bears will have been at the zoo well over 2 years by the time they are moved from their 'temporary' home in the old orang building. I find it unacceptable that during that time, several other new enclosures have been built or redeveloped, lemurs,giant tortoise & now familiar friends to name just 3.
Perhaps if they'd directed all their resources to the sun bears, the enclosure would have been ready easter 2012!!
I know there will be excuses about cost, but they found the money for all these other developments that were not as urgent.
The bears will have been at the zoo well over 2 years by the time they are moved from their 'temporary' home in the old orang building. I find it unacceptable that during that time, several other new enclosures have been built or redeveloped, lemurs,giant tortoise & now familiar friends to name just 3.
Perhaps if they'd directed all their resources to the sun bears, the enclosure would have been ready easter 2012!!
I know there will be excuses about cost, but they found the money for all these other developments that were not as urgent.
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No idea, but my outside (and probably wrong guess) would be bats.
It's funny, when I was looking at the redevelopment I was thinking (and hoping) along exactly the same lines.
I think that's a little harsh given you've no idea what financial and other logistical problems they may have to overcome -the delay may have nothing to do with costs and you're assuming the progress on the various projects is mutually exclusive which it might not be (i.e. imrpovements elsewhere may not necessarilly be to the detriment of the bear enclosure's progress).
Animals being in temporary enclosures quite a while is hardly new on the UK zoo scene (think of those species being held off show in various places, sometimes for years) and it's not like their current housing is particularly poor (not perfect I agree, but entirely adequate and more spacious than their previous home(s)).
A little harsh, probably. I'm not in the habit of slating Colchester, as i rate it very highly amongst uk zoos, but this just seems to be dragging on. There may well have been logistical problems like those with the potential for uses of the old white tiger area mentioned earlier in this thread
As for the adequacy of the current cage, i would say its now one of, if not the poorest enclosures in the zoo in relation to the inhabitants. I personally don't remember the RSCC one being worse, though the conditions prior to there were no doubt far worse.
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We'll have to agree to differ a bit here. I'm not saying it's great but I don't think it's particularly poor, for the interim, either. It's not a bad size (the footprint, especially considering both areas of the enclosure) and it's got a reasonable amount of climbing/exploring opportunities. It's definitely bigger than RSCC which had the benefit of looking bigger/better from having an open top (I'll admit the roof at Colchester doesn't do much for the general feel/aesthetics of the enclosure.
Thankfully there's not too many below par enclosures at Colchester though I'd argue the Patas Monkey and definitely the Pygmy Hippo are "worse".
I think your comments on the RSCC enclosure may well be right, it probably did look more spacious due to being open topped, which is probably why the Colchester one seems so cramped. I still don't think its befits the inhabitants status as England's only sun bears, but hope the new enclosure will !
Perhaps my criticism is driven by fears that bears being kept in sub-standard enclosures may lead to their disappearence from our zoos again like the 80s, if pressure groups try to shame them.
Funny that after posting i thought of the pygmy hippo accomodation, which although not unacceptable is probably well below average in my opinion,having seen all the others apart from S Lakes.