Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2012

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Walking Giants development


Colchester Zoo has opened their latest development ‘Walking Giants’. The new enclosure houses 3 out of the 4 world’s biggest tortoises! The three species of giant tortoises are, the Aldabra Giant tortoise, the Burmese Black tortoise and the African Spurred tortoise, which is also known as the Sulcata tortoise.

‘Walking Giants’ has a beautiful outdoor and indoor area for the three species of giant tortoise. Visitors are able to walk into the exhibit and view the tortoises in their indoor areas through a glass wall with the outdoor quarters planted with bamboo and other plantation to make the enclosure as naturalistic as possible.

The new enclosure was constructed to house the Aldabra Giant tortoise and the Burmese Black tortoise which were donated to Colchester Zoo, as well as to provide a new home for their existing group of Sulcata tortoises. ‘Walking Giants’ is located down on the Familiar Friends section of the Zoo replacing the old Kids Safari train. The new enclosure will be extremely energy efficient with a green roof and it is hoped that, in the future solar energy will help to power the new exhibit.

This enclosure has been developed in memory of leading aviculturist and friend of Colchester Zoo, Raymond Sawyer and is a fantastic new addition.
 
I went to Colchester Zoo on Thursday. Had a very nice day main points are all primate related.

Tiga I must say is now nearly the size of Rajang, both orangs were in the main indoor area with Rajang doing his usual people watching. Tiga went outside later and hid under a sack outside and was very hard to see!

Saw the Francis Languars and now know they will be moved into a refurbished lion tailed maquaqe enclosure and also the lion tailed maquaqes are moving in with the binterong and asian short clawed otters. I found out that the silver languar monkeys have all died out now at the zoo.

Finally Talia is getting quite independent now and is getting eager to explore and move around. All the chimps were outside except for Billy-Joe who was right up a hammock in the feeding and sleeping quarters. She did a poo and then she ate it up!!:eek::D
 
Chimpanzees and Orangutans.

Goretex said:
I went to Colchester Zoo on Thursday. Had a very nice day main points are all primate related.

Tiga I must say is now nearly the size of Rajang, both orangs were in the main indoor area with Rajang doing his usual people watching. Tiga went outside later and hid under a sack outside and was very hard to see!

Saw the Francis Languars and now know they will be moved into a refurbished lion tailed maquaqe enclosure and also the lion tailed maquaqes are moving in with the binterong and asian short clawed otters. I found out that the silver languar monkeys have all died out now at the zoo.

Finally Talia is getting quite independent now and is getting eager to explore and move around. All the chimps were outside except for Billy-Joe who was right up a hammock in the feeding and sleeping quarters. She did a poo and then she ate it up!!:eek::D
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I think you'll find that the Chimpanzee behaviour (Eating droppings, etc) is actually quite normal. I have seen it on multiple occasions at Chester Zoo.

I was also quite surprised to see recent photos of Tiga and his cheek pads seem to have grown quite rapidly. He is starting to take shape of a proper male Orangutan, he is at a similar stage to Raman at Blackpool.
 
Jordan-Jaguar97 said:
I think you'll find that the Chimpanzee behaviour (Eating droppings, etc) is actually quite normal. I have seen it on multiple occasions at Chester Zoo.
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Eating faeces(Coprophagy) is very common in Apes in zoos, particularly Gorillas and Chimpanzees. Despite suggestions otherwise, I think it is a feature of captivity only and doesn't occur in the wild where Apes are nomadic travellersand don't have contact with their droppings in the same way as in a static zoo enclosure.

You will often notice particularly in closeup photos of Gorillas' faces, a faint brown 'lipstick' marking, a sure sign of this habit.
 
Colchester Zoo

Dian Fossey describes wild Gorillas routinely eating their own faeces, especially on wet days when they were less active. Somehow it seems more acceptable with a relatively vegetarian species than with the more omnivorous Chimpanzee.
 
Colchester Zoo

Dian Fossey describes wild Gorillas routinely eating their own faeces, especially on wet days when they were less active. Somehow it seems more acceptable with a relatively vegetarian species than with the more omnivorous Chimpanzee.
 
Went for a brief visit today as the crowds were horrendous, and these are my observations of the day:

- The tortoise enclosures are very attractive, with the smaller enclosure housing the four African spurred tortoises and the other housing the new pair of Aldabran giant tortoises (there was no sign of the Burmese browns)
- The golden mantella sign has been removed from the enclosure at Kingdom of the Wild and replaced by Tanzanian red-legged millipedes.
- No sign of either the baby hyaena or the crowned pigeon chick, although I did manage to see the adult hyaena active briefly (which counts for something, surely)
- There are at least four yellow anacondas now living in Worlds Apart
- A very new family of Essex pigs have arrived, with very tiny piglets
- The spurred tortoise enclosure is going to be redeveloped in the near future
- Work is continuing on the sun bear exhibit and seems to have stopped on most of the other new areas (the Familiar Friends barn)
- The baby colobus is becoming more independent and was playing around away from the mother
- The red-bellied lemurs were confined to their indoor enclosure
- Finally saw the domestic ferrets in Familiar Friends (including a bright orange individual that made me think they had acquired a Siberian weasel)
- Finally saw all four residents of the Kingdom of the Wild reptile display- giant plated lizard, Saharan spiny-tailed lizard, pancake tortoise and radiated tortoise
- There were some loud squeaks coming from the smooth-coated otter nest box, presumably belonging to the cubs born in May
- And finally, new species in the form of at least two European spur-thighed tortoises have moved in next door to the giant tortoise exhibit. There is another tortoise that looks like a Hermann's, but I cannot be sure.
 
My notes from yesterday:

-Sun beetles that used to be on display in kingdom of the wild are now in the discovery centre and have replaced the chilean rose tarantula.
-The new sloth appears to be living in with the golden headed lion tamarins in worlds apart.
-All of the viewing windows of the yellow anaconda exhibit have been replaced with mesh.
-Saw the crowned piegeon chick which was larger than I was expecting.
-New sun bear enclosure is having the indoor quarters constructed.
-Lion tailed macaques are back in their old enclosure at wilds of asia, so I am assuming they have had trouble integrating them with the binturong and otters.
-New tortoise enclosure is nice, think I saw the burmese brown tortoise which was in the indoor pool. If it is a burmese brown then it is mixed with the pair of Aldabran tortoises.
 
Went on a long morning visit today, here are some notes from the visit:

- There are a pair of Burmese brown tortoises living in with the two Aldabran giant tortoises
- Finally saw the hyaena cub and crowned pigeon fledgling- hopefully this will be the beginning of more success with these species
- Still haven't seen the new otter youngsters; there were five of the adults active around midday
- The red-bellied lemurs were again confined to the far indoor area (you can just see them through a small window)
- The entrance 'news' signs have been removed and replaced with a giant sand termite mound/giraffe sculpture as part of the zoo's Stand Tall anniversary
 
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Does anyone know what they are doing at the old familar friends barn and the old tortoise house?? Nothing listed on website under the future developments part...
 
According to Facebook, a group of 9 Chilean flamingos arrived from Birdland to bring the current group size up to 29. Another group of 9 is due to arrive later in the year to bring numbers up to 38- the moves have been done to promote breeding.
 
bats

Badgerman91 said:
Does anyone know what they are doing at the old familar friends barn and the old tortoise house?? Nothing listed on website under the future developments part...
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apparently the familiar friends barn is going to be turned into a walkthrough bat enclosure
 
sasha242 said:
apparently the familiar friends barn is going to be turned into a walkthrough bat enclosure
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What has happened to the gliders? A shame if they've been moved off show for another bat enclosure, there are plenty of them around!
 
According to Facebook, the yellow-banded poison-dart frogs have produced three separate batches of frogspawn, that are now all at different stages of development. The young are all currently off-show.
 
A couple of bits of news from today:

-Red Titi Monkeys have arrived at the zoo, and are currently housed in the original south american walkthrough indoor area.
-The red bellied lemurs have also swapped enclosure with the blue eyed black lemurs, offering far better views of the red bellys.
 
According to a photo posted on Facebook, there are now a pair of new blue crane chicks over at the Edge of Africa.
 
I went to the zoo last Saturday. It was all going well and oh my does Tiga look like Rajang now only Rajang has longer hair. Both orangs were shut outside and Tiga was on the ground eating from a container and Rajang was near the door. Then later on Tiga went up onto one of the boards and Rajang ate from the same container on the ground. On a side note i think they need to hurry a bit to get the sun bear enclosure up and ready.
 
Went for a spur-of-the-moment visit today, so here is the news and observations.

- The pair of red titi monkeys are in with one of the sloths in Worlds Apart (I was surprised by just how big they are).
- The blue-eyed black lemurs are back in Out of Africa- presumably the red-bellied lemurs are back in their original enclosure although I didn't see them.
- Managed to see the pair of blue crane chicks mentioned above.
- There was a small group of helmeted guineafowl mixed in with the elephants.
- The hyaena cub stayed underground, but I did however manage to see the two smooth-coated otter cubs.
- The baby colobus monkey is beginning to develop some adult colours.
- The spur-thighed tortoises weren't in their current enclosure and all signage for them has been removed.
- Progress has been made on both the new bat exhibit and notably the sun bears- the main outline for the indoor enclosures and what are presumably viewing areas have been done.
- There is an exhibition on elephants and the ivory trade in the Discovery Centre.
 
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