Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2016

Pertinax said:
Regarding the Mangabeys, there should be seven, or six if the younger male has been relocated. They aquired three new females for the group only last year although when I saw them they were still being kept as two seperate groups (3 & 4 respectively). I would not think they have started to dwindle yet.
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The enclosure that held the 3 is being demolished as part of the chimp area redevelopment I think.

Something else I forgot to mention was that I heard the Madagascar Road train driver say that after the Wolf enclosure, the next 3 contained African Hunting Dogs, so I guess that's it for the Jackals!
 
pipaluk said:
I was there today too, something that bothered me was that I only saw 2 mangabey and 3 Colobus, do you remember seeing more than that?
I'm worried both are going the way of the Patas Monkeys which gradually dropped in numbers. There were 6 or 7 of both last year.
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I will admit I didn't stop to look at the mangabeys, but I did notice there were only three colobus.

If it is true that the jackals are gone, then that would be an even greater shame. The number of species disappearing from Colchester compared to the number arriving seems really high at the moment.
 
The jackals are not going anywhere. They have actually been moved temporarily so the new wolves can move into their until they have been mixed. As soon as the wolves are together then the jackals will return.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Went for a long visit today - here is what I noticed:

- Coppery titi monkeys are now permanently in the South American walkthrough and now occupy the tamandua indoor area; their old enclosure has been linked to the pied tamarin enclosure
- A pair of grey crowned cranes are mixed in with the dik-diks in Edge of Africa; I couldn't see any sign of the demoiselle cranes
- The blue cranes are currently off-show
- There is a new wooden 'hide' overlooking part of the elephant enclosure; not entirely sure what the point is to it
- Definitely still five rhino - the two adult females and the two calves in the main outdoor paddock and Otto still confined to the hardstand with a moving crate in with him
- Only four maneless zebra visible - I'm guessing the couple that recently arrived at Blackbrook came from here
- The marine aquarium in Kingdom of the Wild now houses African moony fish, emperor angelfish, clown triggerfish, lionfish, snowflake moray eel and new spotted porcupinefish
- The enclosure that formerly housed the second Nile monitor now houses one of the radiated tortoises
- The moat around the old leaf-cutting ant island has been drained and the black mollies removed
- All four of the aardvarks were awake and active outside in broad daylight - there must be ice-skating in hell tonight!
- Saw all four Visayan spotted deer and at least three Visayan warty pigs still mixed in the main enclosure, so they haven't given up on the mix just yet
- I saw at least four baby ring-tailed lemurs in the Lemur Island troop
- The red pandas have been separated - one is in their old enclosure still viewable from the bridge
- The Chilean flamingos are off-show while a number of new arrivals settle in
- As mentioned, two of the aquariums by Penguin Shores have been removed completely and concreted over (the Amazon freshwater and marine aquaria) leaving only the butterfly goodeid aquarium now
- The Iguana Forest walkthrough now houses green iguana, Philippine sailfin lizard, yellow-footed tortoise and both Eastern and yellow-margined box turtles
- Macaw Rock is now empty - the birds in question are now being used in a bird show
- The new chimp complex is open - the actual indoor chimp enclosures seem largely unchanged, although there is new educational material and the slender-snouted crocodile enclosure is probably double the size, with a small outdoor area and an off-show area (I saw both crocodiles, but they still seem to be settling in, and spent most of their time hidden in the overhang in their pool)
- The slender-snouted crocodile pool also has a shoal of nine cichlids (I couldn't tell what species) - time will tell how many remain next time I visit

Feel free to ask any questions, and I'll try and answer them.
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Lucky to see the Aaardvarks i never ever ever see them awake lol!

As another poster has said colchester does seem to be loosing a lot of species recently. Why board up the fish tanks for example
 
visited sunday only 3 zebras out in the paddock and no sight of them inside!! not sure where the others have gone .
 
On a visit today noticed signage stating that the King Vultures are currently sitting on eggs...so fingers crossed!
 
Had a good few hours' visit to Colchester today. The one major new thing that I noted was that there are at least two blue duikers in a separation enclosure at the back of the renovated blue crane exhibit (opposite the mandrills). I visited the enclosure three times during the day, and saw them on two occasions. They are not currently featured on any signage. Also one of the two duikers only has three legs.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Had a good few hours' visit to Colchester today. The one major new thing that I noted was that there are at least two blue duikers in a separation enclosure at the back of the renovated blue crane exhibit (opposite the mandrills). I visited the enclosure three times during the day, and saw them on two occasions. They are not currently featured on any signage. Also one of the two duikers only has three legs.
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The duikers have been at the zoo for over 12 months, just never been visible before.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Had a good few hours' visit to Colchester today. The one major new thing that I noted was that there are at least two blue duikers in a separation enclosure at the back of the renovated blue crane exhibit (opposite the mandrills). I visited the enclosure three times during the day, and saw them on two occasions. They are not currently featured on any signage. Also one of the two duikers only has three legs.
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They arrived back in 2013; nice that they have finally been spotted!
 
quick trip this afternoon,
1. only one female Slender-snouted crocodile on show sign up saying there showing aggression to each other.
2. Pembe has now left the collection, otto was out in the paddock.
3. work still carries on with the chimps enclosure
4. red pandas are still split up one in the old enclosure and one in the new
5. the young Komodo dragon area windows is now boarded up
6. zoo only has two male red-capped mangabey left in the collection
 
4ways NAP said:
quick trip this afternoon,

6. zoo only has two male red-capped mangabey left in the collection
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Do you know why and what happened to the others? It was only a year or so ago they imported three new females to add to their existing group of 2.2. What has gone wrong?:confused:
 
I am pretty sure that the 3 females of the 1.3 mangabeys that arrived recently in Apenheul are from Colchester.
 
Yassa said:
I am pretty sure that the 3 females of the 1.3 mangabeys that arrived recently in Apenheul are from Colchester.
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Yes, this was reported previously and didn't make any sense to me. I'm wondering if they had problems integrating them at Colchester, which is why they were sent away again, unless they were just being held at Colchester for Apenheul, but that doesn't make much sense either.

Colchester seem to have gone from a reasonable group of these, to almost nothing now.
 
Pertinax said:
Yes, this was reported previously and didn't make any sense to me. I'm wondering if they had problems integrating them at Colchester, which is why they were sent away again, unless they were just being held at Colchester for Apenheul, but that doesn't make much sense either.

Colchester seem to have gone from a reasonable group of these, to almost nothing now.
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This is a worrying trend at Colchester, the Colobus are down to 3 as well from about 7 last year! The Zebra numbers are falling....

They currently have 7 komodo dragon enclosures, which I think is excessive!
 
4ways NAP said:
quick trip this afternoon,

1. only one female Slender-snouted crocodile on show sign up saying there showing aggression to each other.
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I personally think it is high time that Colchester substituted one of their female crocodiles for a male. After all, they are a Critically Endangered species, and the new enclosure is such a massive improvement on the last one. That could also free up the second female for somewhere else to try breeding them - Crocodiles of the World certainly managed to look after them well enough, perhaps they would like one of them?

4ways NAP said:
6. zoo only has two male red-capped mangabey left in the collection
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Was this just in the main 'Mangabey Forest' enclosure (I'll admit I didn't stop to look on my last visit)? Definitely saw one in the second managabey enclosure (by the chimpanzee development) although the walkway to view them was blocked off.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
I personally think it is high time that Colchester substituted one of their female crocodiles for a male. After all, they are a Critically Endangered species, and the new enclosure is such a massive improvement on the last one. That could also free up the second female for somewhere else to try breeding them - Crocodiles of the World certainly managed to look after them well enough, perhaps they would like one of them?
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The problem is that the vast majority of Slenders in European collections are either Emmen-born or descended from Emmen stock - as such, unrelated males may be hard to obtain.
 
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