Has there been anymore news on if the African Hunting Dog was indeed pregnant??
Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2013
- Thread starter DesertRhino150
- Start date
i thought they were all male?
i thought they were all male?
Didn't look it, unless one is having an identity crisis and reassignment surgery
no i am pretty sure they are males
Went on a visit today- here is what I noticed:
- The saki monkeys both seemed to be showing huge interest in something on the other side of the keeper door; whether the baby is possibly still there I don't know
- Orangutan Forest was open, although much of the area is now scaffolded and the coral reef tank out-of-bounds
- Saw both the yellow-margined box turtles in Orangutan Forest chasing each other around on the land- only the second time I have ever seen them there
- Wild About Animals theatre has now closed completely ready for renovation as the lorikeet walk-through
- Sun bear exhibit continues to progress well, with the indoor climbing frame now half complete, the 'bile farm' display now in place and more signage added (about the zoo's two individual bears); the outdoor area has now also had more bamboo, grass, some ferns and a palm of some variety added too
- Both red panda cubs were out and active
- Akio the baby pileated gibbon was also active and investigating his mother next door; she seemed to show some interest in him too
- For the first time in a very long while managed to see the Eastern box turtle that lives in Iguana Forest
- In the Kingdom of the Wild paddock there seemed to be a truly enormous vegetable (pumpkin or butternut squash) that looked almost to be zebra-sized
- Finally, the undercover picnic area by Stanway Hall (near Iguana Forest) has been fenced off, lined with straw and is now occupied by a trio of rather magnificent reindeer
- The saki monkeys both seemed to be showing huge interest in something on the other side of the keeper door; whether the baby is possibly still there I don't know
- Orangutan Forest was open, although much of the area is now scaffolded and the coral reef tank out-of-bounds
- Saw both the yellow-margined box turtles in Orangutan Forest chasing each other around on the land- only the second time I have ever seen them there
- Wild About Animals theatre has now closed completely ready for renovation as the lorikeet walk-through
- Sun bear exhibit continues to progress well, with the indoor climbing frame now half complete, the 'bile farm' display now in place and more signage added (about the zoo's two individual bears); the outdoor area has now also had more bamboo, grass, some ferns and a palm of some variety added too
- Both red panda cubs were out and active
- Akio the baby pileated gibbon was also active and investigating his mother next door; she seemed to show some interest in him too
- For the first time in a very long while managed to see the Eastern box turtle that lives in Iguana Forest
- In the Kingdom of the Wild paddock there seemed to be a truly enormous vegetable (pumpkin or butternut squash) that looked almost to be zebra-sized
- Finally, the undercover picnic area by Stanway Hall (near Iguana Forest) has been fenced off, lined with straw and is now occupied by a trio of rather magnificent reindeer
At 7:30 today, it was found that five of the zoo's six timber wolves had escaped from their enclosure. One returned immediately of its own accord and was tranquilised, two had to be shot because of their location and the time required to tranquilise them and one remains on the loose. Police are now assisting in locating the last animal.
Wolf escapes from Colchester Zoo...another two shot after five get out of damaged enclosure (From Gazette)
As an aside, did anyone ever find out what happened to the escaped red river hog?
Wolf escapes from Colchester Zoo...another two shot after five get out of damaged enclosure (From Gazette)
As an aside, did anyone ever find out what happened to the escaped red river hog?
IanRRobinson
Well-Known Member
Not a good story. How did the fence come to be damaged?
the red river hog did not escape but got into the keeper area. the wolves are being held in the jackal compound until the damaged has been fixed.
Latest Statement from the zoo: Thoughts are with them over the sad turn of events 
Latest statement: Keepers devastated by loss of wolves
At 7.30am on Tuesday 26th November, it was discovered that the perimeter fence to Colchester Zoo’s wolf enclosure had been damaged and five of the six timber wolves had left the enclosure. It is not known at this stage how the damage occurred despite the fence being routinely checked on a daily basis.
One of the wolves returned immediately of its own accord and one was darted and recaptured. Unfortunately, an anaesthetic dart takes 15 minutes to take effect and may not work at all in a stressed animal so two wolves that had left the perimeter of the zoo had to be shot. They are wild animals and in an unpredictable situation they would have posed a risk to the public.
The remaining wolf has now been located and very sadly also had to be destroyed.
We have obviously had a devastating day and would be grateful for your consideration. We have nothing further to add at this time
Latest statement: Keepers devastated by loss of wolves
At 7.30am on Tuesday 26th November, it was discovered that the perimeter fence to Colchester Zoo’s wolf enclosure had been damaged and five of the six timber wolves had left the enclosure. It is not known at this stage how the damage occurred despite the fence being routinely checked on a daily basis.
One of the wolves returned immediately of its own accord and one was darted and recaptured. Unfortunately, an anaesthetic dart takes 15 minutes to take effect and may not work at all in a stressed animal so two wolves that had left the perimeter of the zoo had to be shot. They are wild animals and in an unpredictable situation they would have posed a risk to the public.
The remaining wolf has now been located and very sadly also had to be destroyed.
We have obviously had a devastating day and would be grateful for your consideration. We have nothing further to add at this time
I wondered what the helicopter kept passing over head was for, it wasn't the police one but another version, possibly TV cameras, as it looked the same type the Royal family lease it was passing over some of the woods on the estate I work at on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I wonder where they found the poor thing. It's sparsely populated to the west of the Zoo but the town center isn't far to the east. Sounds very odd regarding the fence,tampering maybe?
GillP
Well-Known Member
Awful, so terribly sad for all concerned.
Some of the ignorant comments on the zoo's Facebook page are absolutely appalling and must be rubbing salt into the wounds of any Colchester staff reading them - and especially any staff directly involved.
Clearly there'll be an enquiry ...... depending on its outcome, that might be the time for recriminations then if the zoo is found to be at fault in any way.
Whatever people may think of the zoo's aesthetics, one thing that's always impressed me is the obvious commitment and care shown by its staff towards the animals in their care. I very much doubt any of them will be anything except shocked and devastated and the nasty remarks aimed towards them are totally unnecessary.
I'd have thought that once the animals were outside the zoo, what happened would have been pretty much out of the zoo's hands as surely there are procedures for this sort of thing in place designed to protect the public. Whilst we all know that wolves usually shy away from humans etc etc I don't suppose there was much, if any, leeway in recapturing them due to the risk they posed - however small that might be in reality.
I've read remarks from people saying they won't visit the zoo again which is ridiculous. I'll keep visiting - it's "my" zoo - and I feel very attached to it. I wouldn't knowingly support any zoo if I didn't believe it was professional.
So sad. You also wonder about the effect on the pack .... how the remaining three are reacting, whether or not the pack leader was lost etc.
Some of the ignorant comments on the zoo's Facebook page are absolutely appalling and must be rubbing salt into the wounds of any Colchester staff reading them - and especially any staff directly involved.
Clearly there'll be an enquiry ...... depending on its outcome, that might be the time for recriminations then if the zoo is found to be at fault in any way.
Whatever people may think of the zoo's aesthetics, one thing that's always impressed me is the obvious commitment and care shown by its staff towards the animals in their care. I very much doubt any of them will be anything except shocked and devastated and the nasty remarks aimed towards them are totally unnecessary.
I'd have thought that once the animals were outside the zoo, what happened would have been pretty much out of the zoo's hands as surely there are procedures for this sort of thing in place designed to protect the public. Whilst we all know that wolves usually shy away from humans etc etc I don't suppose there was much, if any, leeway in recapturing them due to the risk they posed - however small that might be in reality.
I've read remarks from people saying they won't visit the zoo again which is ridiculous. I'll keep visiting - it's "my" zoo - and I feel very attached to it. I wouldn't knowingly support any zoo if I didn't believe it was professional.
So sad. You also wonder about the effect on the pack .... how the remaining three are reacting, whether or not the pack leader was lost etc.
went today for the first time in about 6 years I'm embarrassed to say, Just for a look around really, the F. Amur leopard was very active and posed nicely a stride the tree trunk in her enclosure. this exhibit looks much nicer than the photos on zoochat, especially since the planting has grown in. it looks larger too. The male in the other enclosure was very active but has some odd behavioral problems, he could obviously smell the female, and climbed up to the rest area at the top and roared. Sadly this was spoiled by the bloody annoying "musak" that is piped every where and the sound effects in each indoor area really grate, I had forgotten how bad it was.
Saw the baby Komodo dragon and gibbon, the sun bears were active too and came right up to the glass and walked along the narrow edge liking the whole time, in close up the fur looks like velvet. You can now see the indoor and upper part of the new enclosure. the indoors looks odd, I suppose it must have a very deep substrate planned as the ubiquities stream/waterfall is very high off the floor.lts of fake rock that doesn't look to bad except it seems to have a plastic finish, it should weather in OK in time.
The wolves are back home, but looked a little unsettled a table of tributes has ben set up beside them with photos of the lost ones, and the cards and letters as well as flowers people have sent.
No sign of hunting dog pups, but there was a bit of tension and aggression between 2 of them the third one moved away warily.
Baby rhino looked fine and was out in the paddock, only saw 2 female elephants and the bull in his own paddock, keepers have free contact and walked through the enclosure scatter feeding with the cows walking behind.
Patas monkey area is still just a tunnel, only 2 left as far as I could see. A lot of the other animals I remember have either gone or moved and i didn't find them, fishing cat was always a good one for me as was Geoffrey's cat who was more active in the old set up behind Stanway hall than it was in the new one, in fact I couldn't see it/them Both Amur tigers were active, no one seamed to realize that they actually walk under your feet to get in and out of the race beside the indoor areas. I know it would be expensive but a glass floor at that point could be very interesting addition.
The orangs were on show but inside, the roof and interior still full of scaffolding. Couldn't see the bony headed toads sadly due to misted glass, Also no sign of the Golden mantellas in the Africa display, but the tank was a little to dry for my liking, I used to breed these and I don't think they like dry substrate sticking to them, more misting is need there, after all they are only the size of a thumb nail and being bright orange usually they stand out.
Sadly the batteries gave out on my camera and the glass on this cloudy day reflects very badly, I will try to pick out the best of the shots that may be of interest. Most of the animals were indoors and the glass was Rather steamed up from the inside, I counted at least 3 sloths, in 2 different sites. but if the windows aren't steaming up, they have a very fine gauze over some of them that makes photographing with a bog standard digital job like mine tricky.
A new guide book is out called Colchester Zoo Year of The Bear 2014 souvenir book about 10 inches by 8 inches 75 pages. I met a couple who said they were on zoochat and he had taken one of the photos of the sun bears used in the book.
well hope this is of interest to some one.
dean
Saw the baby Komodo dragon and gibbon, the sun bears were active too and came right up to the glass and walked along the narrow edge liking the whole time, in close up the fur looks like velvet. You can now see the indoor and upper part of the new enclosure. the indoors looks odd, I suppose it must have a very deep substrate planned as the ubiquities stream/waterfall is very high off the floor.lts of fake rock that doesn't look to bad except it seems to have a plastic finish, it should weather in OK in time.
The wolves are back home, but looked a little unsettled a table of tributes has ben set up beside them with photos of the lost ones, and the cards and letters as well as flowers people have sent.
No sign of hunting dog pups, but there was a bit of tension and aggression between 2 of them the third one moved away warily.
Baby rhino looked fine and was out in the paddock, only saw 2 female elephants and the bull in his own paddock, keepers have free contact and walked through the enclosure scatter feeding with the cows walking behind.
Patas monkey area is still just a tunnel, only 2 left as far as I could see. A lot of the other animals I remember have either gone or moved and i didn't find them, fishing cat was always a good one for me as was Geoffrey's cat who was more active in the old set up behind Stanway hall than it was in the new one, in fact I couldn't see it/them Both Amur tigers were active, no one seamed to realize that they actually walk under your feet to get in and out of the race beside the indoor areas. I know it would be expensive but a glass floor at that point could be very interesting addition.
The orangs were on show but inside, the roof and interior still full of scaffolding. Couldn't see the bony headed toads sadly due to misted glass, Also no sign of the Golden mantellas in the Africa display, but the tank was a little to dry for my liking, I used to breed these and I don't think they like dry substrate sticking to them, more misting is need there, after all they are only the size of a thumb nail and being bright orange usually they stand out.
Sadly the batteries gave out on my camera and the glass on this cloudy day reflects very badly, I will try to pick out the best of the shots that may be of interest. Most of the animals were indoors and the glass was Rather steamed up from the inside, I counted at least 3 sloths, in 2 different sites. but if the windows aren't steaming up, they have a very fine gauze over some of them that makes photographing with a bog standard digital job like mine tricky.
A new guide book is out called Colchester Zoo Year of The Bear 2014 souvenir book about 10 inches by 8 inches 75 pages. I met a couple who said they were on zoochat and he had taken one of the photos of the sun bears used in the book.
well hope this is of interest to some one.
dean
Bizarrely six wolves escaped in October 1986 too, though then all were recaptured apart from one which was shot by a gamekeeper after he found it tangled in barbed wire in nearby Birch.
Political correctness and litigation mania was not so prominent in 1986. Tough for Colchester but they probably had no other option as even if one of the wolves had growled at a human or pet dog, the lawyers and tabloids would be champing at the bit.
The term "political correctness" is a lazy, over-used and, in this case, mis-used slur. How is it politically correct to kill a wild animal which is a potential threat to the public? It's not far removed from arresting someone suspected of being a terrorist on scant/circumstantial evidence which most people don't have a problem with.
Over-reaction might be a better term (arguably in some of both cases above), though personally I think, sadly, the zoo reacted in the best/only realistic way possible. Whilst I doubt a single wolf would be fatal to an adult human that doesn't mean this incident couldn't have resulted in human injuries. Even if that possibility was far-fetched* the zoo has a moral/ethical duty to protect the staff and public to the best of their abilities -I think they made the right, hard decision.
Would you preferred they tried to capture them all alive and take the small, but real, risk that someone got injured -that would not be good for Colchester Zoo or zoos in general.
*similarly it's far-fetched a person's house would set on fire any time soon but the consequences are so appalling if it did I'd imagine most people would take out house insurance to protect against a tiny, tiny risk.
Obviously many things have changed since 1986, the way in which these incidents are handled has in this case is one of them, and I feel the zoo had little choice but to regrettably take serious action in this case, though it is just a little worrying that Wolves escaping from Colchester is still an on-going problem, perhaps they need to make sure they rectify the situation completely, nothing against the zoo itself , but they do need to take a long hard look at the wolf enclosure for the future. Wolves are notoriously good at digging their way out admittedly, but surely twice is more than just bad luck.
Is it confirmed anywhere that this is what happened? (It is what I presumed also).
In fact in the book o the history of Colchester zoo brought out for the 50th anniversary wolves escaped twice in 1986 the biggest escape was of 6 four remaining in the zoo 2 others getting loose one a hand raised cub returned of it's own free will the other caught up in barbed wire was shot by a game keeper. I don't know about the first instance, but the second was caused by heavy rain washing away the foundations of the enclosure. Personally i have never liked the wolf compound at Colchester it hasn't enough room for such active animals, and the steep slope is begging for a tunneling out
Personally I only consider it an "escape" if the animal leaves the zoo when- I think I'm right in saying -The DWA act calls for an armed response, but I may be wrong on that. If the animal is still in the zoo it is still contained so long as the zoo is closed of course.
In fact there have been numerous reports lately of Cattle etc escaping and been shot by police, one recently out side a school, the owner said he could round the cow back up, but he was over ruled on safety grounds.
There were other escapes to the book states including a bison called naturally Bill, who trampled through local gardens before succumbing to tranquilizer dart and hauled back home.
We live in a risk averse society with everyone covering their backs, someone must be at fault thats why we have blame direct lawyers advertising on TV all day long. I don't know what Stanley Holloway and his little boy Alfred would make of it all today
Personally I only consider it an "escape" if the animal leaves the zoo when- I think I'm right in saying -The DWA act calls for an armed response, but I may be wrong on that. If the animal is still in the zoo it is still contained so long as the zoo is closed of course.
In fact there have been numerous reports lately of Cattle etc escaping and been shot by police, one recently out side a school, the owner said he could round the cow back up, but he was over ruled on safety grounds.
There were other escapes to the book states including a bison called naturally Bill, who trampled through local gardens before succumbing to tranquilizer dart and hauled back home.
We live in a risk averse society with everyone covering their backs, someone must be at fault thats why we have blame direct lawyers advertising on TV all day long. I don't know what Stanley Holloway and his little boy Alfred would make of it all today
I have to agree there. Visually they are a good display as you see them level and below you through glass but its really too small an area for half a dozen or more wolves.