Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo News 2018

We had a lovely visit to Colchester yesterday - the two tamandua were both very active out in the enclosure first thing which was a suprise as I'm not sure we ever saw the old inhabitants awake! Also got a good view of the new male leopard who is currently in the enclosure that doesn't have the big viewing window at the bottom. He seemed very relaxed and settling in well.

One thing from the day was disappointing though - the 12:00 'display' was AWFUL. They had a young female keeper doing the 'narration' and it was just hopelessly not engaging. Loads of people left half way through. She was too quiet, elocution rubbish and I don't think she looked at the audience once. One of the other keepers wrangling the animals also looked absolutely livid which didn't help.

In the interests of adding to our Zoochat Challenge total we actually went to all three displays. The 14:00 display was much much better as the normal guy was presenting - and the 15:30 display was ok with another younger guy taking the mic who did a reasonable job.

I know eveyone has to learn - and filling the time while the animals don't necessarily do what they are supposed to is a real skill - but I hope they can improve quickly. I can't stress enough how bad the first attempt was...
 
I think if I worked at a zoo that’s probably the one role I would least like to have to fulfil - give me poop scooping over public engagement any day.
 
beccasunbear said:
I think if I worked at a zoo that’s probably the one role I would least like to have to fulfil - give me poop scooping over public engagement any day.
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Me too - but if you are going to have displays, you need someone who can hold a crowd leading them.
 
I like to think that, despite hating social situations where you have to comply with "normal" social conventions (ie not witter on and on about zoos and animals all the time), public engagement would be a strength of mine if I worked on the education team in a zoo. I think being a teacher prepares me well for this sort of activity and being able to witter on and on about animals would be a dream! Now if I could just find a zoo to employ me with teacher qualifications instead of animal qualifications, I'd be set.
 
BeakerUK said:
I like to think that, despite hating social situations where you have to comply with "normal" social conventions (ie not witter on and on about zoos and animals all the time), public engagement would be a strength of mine if I worked on the education team in a zoo. I think being a teacher prepares me well for this sort of activity and being able to witter on and on about animals would be a dream! Now if I could just find a zoo to employ me with teacher qualifications instead of animal qualifications, I'd be set.
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I thought this would be quite a fun opportunity when I volunteered at two zoos, but it turns out that most of the engagement I was able to get involved in was along the lines of, where’s the nearest toilet, where can I buy food, how do I get on to the boat ride, unfortunately - it turned out that hardly any visitors actually wanted to stop and have a conversation.
 
Snippets of news from a visit yesterday;

-0.3 female Grey Wolves have arrived and are hoping to be mixed with the current Male soon to start a breeding pack (information from the train driver). The Male is currently in the enclosure that held the jackals so unsure of where these have gone
-Colobus/Patas enclosure looks near completion
-Next to new colobus/patas is another development which has a concrete hide and also approx 6 tall bits of wood in the ground which looks like it could be the start of a climbing frame so unsure of what is this for as I was under the impression the colobus and patas were to remain mixed together.
 
Female Blue Crane arrives at the zoo;

“On the 19th April we welcomed a female Blue Crane to join our male Cecil! The female has already mixed well with Cecil and the Blue Duiker who she shares her home with at the Edge of Africa. The Blue Crane is the national bird of South Africa and are Classified as Vulnerable (VU) by the IUCN Red List.”
 
On a visit today there was a floral arrangement with a picture of an elephant in a photo frame outside the bull elephant enclosure with no other signage or informationand I could only see one elephant which I believe to be the cow (Zola). There were no keepers around to ask but I fear the worse for Tembo...wondering if anyone can confirm?
 
Went for a visit this morning. This is what I noticed on my visit:

Species Arrivals and Departures
  • It was excellent to see the new Gariau forest dragon Hypsilurus magnus living in the reptile display just along from the chimpanzees; I didn’t see the spiny turtle that shares the exhibit.
  • The Komodo dragon that lived opposite the rhinoceros iguanas in Worlds Apart has left the collection and been replaced with a South American yellow-footed tortoise.
  • The two female Komodo dragons in the Heart of the Amazon terrarium are being crate-trained in anticipation for them to move on.
Births
  • There don’t seem to be any new births that haven’t been reported here yet – managed good views of the young saki, mangabey and ring-tailed lemurs while the bush dog pups (and their parents) eluded me.
Developments
  • The binturong and small-clawed otters are back in their refurbished enclosure; the old scarlet ibis aviary that the otters temporarily moved into is now home to at least one surplus pied tamarin.
  • One of the two patas and colobus enclosures at Lion Rock has been netted over. The other still seems to need a lot of work to get it up to the level of the first exhibit.
  • The African cichlid aquarium that was near the pygmy hippo exhibit has been completely removed. The cichlids remain in one of the big aquariums in Koi Niwa, although what will become of them now I don’t know.
  • The leaf-cutting ants are now allowed back onto their island – I haven’t seen them able to access it for a couple of years now.
General Observations
  • All four elephants (Tembo the bull plus three cows) were all present and correct; I saw the wreath as well by the bull paddock and was wondering if it was simply a commemoration to Rosa, the cow elephant who died back in 2007.
 
From the zoo's facebook page;

On the 16th May Colchester Zoo welcomed a female Greater Kudu called Nakia. She has joined our male Cedric and our female Kumu and is settling in nicely. She will also be sharing her home with our other African species.
 
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