Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo News 2018

MikeG said:
Your wish is my command :)
Colchester currently has 2.1.1 mangabeys; the unsexed youngster was born on 12 December.
The mother is 'Suna', who came to Colchester from Munster in 2013.
The two males are: 'Sputnik', born at Hannover - came to Colchester in 2004
and 'Kanye' - born at Colchester in 2007.
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The zoo has now told me they have 3 Mangabeys- mother,father & baby. But I'm not sure if that's incorrect info or whether your source(ISIS?) is slightly out of date now?
 
Pertinax said:
The zoo has now told me they have 3 Mangabeys - mother,father & baby. But I'm not sure if that's incorrect info or whether your source is slightly out of date now?
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The zoo's information is correct: I've discovered that the older male, 'Sputnik', died earlier this month, so they now have 1.1.1
 
This Phillipine Deer news also explains that they haven't bred one for ten years( mother of this fawn being born there in 2008). I wasn't sure they had ever bred them before but apparently so.
 
MikeG said:
The zoo's information is correct: I've discovered that the older male, 'Sputnik', died earlier this month, so they now have 1.1.1
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And if I remember correctly, Sputnik and the original Colchester breeding female were the parents of the current breeding males at both Colchester(Kanye) and Paignton(Yengo) making them full brothers and the genepool in the UK very limited.
 
Went for a long visit today; here are some of the things I noted:

- Went to see what the mammal living in the scarlet ibis indoor area was; turns out that is where the pair of Asian small-clawed otters are living while their enclosure is being renovated
- Heart of the Amazon remains closed due to a birth; personally I cannot imagine it being anything but the bearded saki monkeys
- There have been some changes to the Discovery Centre (not least that the room has been divided in two with a new wall) and its animal inventory; the Sabah thorny stick insects have replaced the emperor scorpion and the stick insect enclosure now houses West African giant land snails; the Macleay's spectre stick insects have replaced the young Madagascar tree boa, their former enclosure is home to the sun beetles and tailless whip-scorpion and their enclosure in turn is home to Madagascar hissing cockroaches (there is a second enclosure for these in the Kingdom of the Wild house)
- A review for Colchester last year mentioned 'small turtles' in the water of the lorikeet walkthrough; today's visit saw no turtles but I did notice that three species of rainbowfish are now signed - the Boeseman's, banded and Australian dwarf
- Saw all of the recently-born young animals mentioned recently - the tamandua, blue duiker, Philippine spotted deer and cherry-crowned mangabey
- Building work by the lions and on the new reptile house has progressed since my last visit - I do have to wonder how big the reptile house is going to be by the chimps; it seems a lot of space is being saved for external landscaping and only the former mangabey indoor area has been renovated for now
- Saw the Asian palm civet in the 12:00 animal performance - my first time seeing this species and I was surprised by how large it was (I was expecting something a little larger than a ferret rather than the cat-sized animal that emerged)
- The giant Asian pond turtle is back in the aquarium at Orangutan Forest (the fish are yet to rejoin it) and the green tree monitor is now also on-show - I hope they bring in another tree monitor as currently the single male is a little lost in the large exhibit
- One thing I noticed is that there is no sign of Akio the young pileated gibbon; although the gibbons are signed in the Wilds of Asia building I couldn't see any sign of him (the indoor area for this enclosure is hardly massive and has no real hiding spots, the door to the outdoor enclosure was shut and the two adults had access to both indoor areas in the main gibbon housing as well as the outdoor enclosure)
 
Thanks for confirming what the 'mystery' animal was, shame it wasn't something more exciting!

I didn't see Akio last week either.
 
I've spoken to someone who saw him on New Year's Day, so if something has happened it must have been fairly recent.
 
A planning application was submitted earlier this month to build a new toilet block (Tiger Toilets) and establish a new picnic area near where the tigers housed.

Interesting enough the application form has “Colchester zoo-Phase One improvements...” so seems as though the zoo has an active plan it’s pushing through so will have to watch this space!
 
Went on another long visit today, somewhat cold and damp but still very busy. Some of the things I noted on my trip are:

Species Arrivals and Departures
- There are at least seven scarlet skunk cleaner shrimps Lysmata amboinensis now in the reef aquarium in Orangutan Forest.
- The Amazon fish tank in Worlds Apart now only holds three species - the sailfin pleco Pterygoplichthys gibbiceps, the delphax cory Corydoras delphax and the pearl cichlid Geophagus brasiliensis; the demon eartheater are no longer present and all their signage has been removed.

Births
- Saw the baby red-backed bearded saki; the mother was showing a lot of interest in it and spent most of the time I was watching grooming it which is an improvement on their last offspring.

Development
- The external cladding of the new reptile house by the chimps is largely done and the boardwalk is being built; again it seems tiny and I cannot imagine it having more than half a dozen small reptile species or just a single larger one.
- One of the new monkey enclosures by Lion Rock has had its climbing frame added; I'm still a bit unclear how many enclosures there are going to be and what they will contain - I have variously heard that there will be enclosures for colobus and patas monkeys and also that they will just be for the colobus.
- It seems that the freshwater turtle display in Orangutan Forest is remaining as it is, as all four of the signed fish are now back in the display as well - the newly redone backing is still shiny white and looks like the sort of artificial concrete ice polar bears used to be kept on.
- Of the three large terraria in Kingdom of the Wild, the one closest to the main access door is home to a pair of radiated tortoises again. The other two terraria remain under development.

General Observations
- It seems there are now just four squirrel monkeys left in their half of Heart of the Amazon.
- The pileated gibbon adults had access to both their own indoor area and the area formerly used by the youngster Akio.
- Had my first ever view of one of the adult Tanzanian tailless whip-scorpions that live in the Discovery Centre.
- Haven't seen any of the bony-headed toads in their terrarium by Orangutan Forest for several visits now.
 
Unfortunately, there is no indication at all of what's happened to him - I looked around for any signage regarding him to no avail.
 
Badgerman91 said:
A planning application was submitted earlier this month to build a new toilet block (Tiger Toilets) and establish a new picnic area near where the tigers housed.

Interesting enough the application form has “Colchester zoo-Phase One improvements...” so seems as though the zoo has an active plan it’s pushing through so will have to watch this space!
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Sorry about this, but it has to be asked: are the Tigers going to use these toilets at the same time as the visitors?
 
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