Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo News 2019

Tim May said:
I think "Tembo" arrived at Colchester in 1998 so has been there a lot longer then ten years.
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Tembo came to Colchester as a result of the Chipperfield Cruelty case. He has been there a lot longer than ten years, I count 20. And yes, Jambo was is/one of the calves he sired.
 
I think it's more likely that they would let Tiga get over Rajang's death before they introduced another Orang. Given males are solitary in the wild I doubt there is a real issue about him being on his own.
 
I went for a long visit today to renew my membership card. These are the things of particular note that I saw:

Species Arrivals, Departures and Movements
- A bony-headed toad from Orangutan Forest is now in the Discovery Centre, replacing the sun beetles and tailless whip-scorpions, which have moved into the old Macleay's spectre tank which have in turn moved into the old Madagascar tree boa tank
- There have been quite a few changes to the aquarium in wilds of Asia: the clown loach, tinfoil barb and spotted archerfish remain in the collection, the green-spotted scat is absent and its signage has been removed, the tiger barb Puntigrus tetrazona have moved over from the slender-snouted crocodile pool and they have been joined by two species new to the collection - rosy barb Pethia conchonius and red-lined torpedo barb Sahyadria denisonii

Developments
- Went in to see how development has progressed on the new terrarium in the elephant house; it is much bigger than I first anticipated it being. It will be interesting to see what ends up moving in there

General Observations
- Went to see the 2:00pm animal demonstration - included in the show at that time were (in order) a serval, a Eurasian buzzard, an Asian brown wood owl, an Asian palm civet, two striped skunks and a ring-tailed coati
- Didn't realise it before, but it seems the binturong now have full access to the trees in their enclosure; I definitely remember at least some of them being hotwired a while back
- Saw the African wild dogs mounting and attempting to mate; the female seemed decidedly uninterested and just kept eating throughout the proceedings
 
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Zooreviewsuk said:
I think it's more likely that they would let Tiga get over Rajang's death before they introduced another Orang. Given males are solitary in the wild I doubt there is a real issue about him being on his own.
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As you say, males are solitary in the wild so I see no reason Tiga would miss Rajang (they had not been kept together for a long time since Tiga became adult) My point was more that visitors do not like to see single Apes in zoos, however mistaken they might be in assuming any 'loneliness' factor. Critisism is what zoos like to avoid.
 
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Without having to look outside the UK, Blackpool with currently non-breeding female Orangutans might be one obvious source of a female for Colchester, namely either(or both) of the sisters Cherie and Summer, which have not bred with their own male Ramon. Monkeyworld might be another source though I'm a bit confused about their policy when it comes to letting any of their(own) Orangutans go to another zoo. It seems to have changed rather with the ones that went to Spain(?)
 
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Pertinax said:
Without having to look outside the UK, Blackpool with currently non-breeding female Orangutans might be one obvious source of a female for Colchester, namely either(or both) of the sisters Cherie and Summer, which have not bred with their own male Ramon. Monkeyworld might be another source though I'm a bit confused about their policy when it comes to letting any of their(own) Orangutans go to another zoo. It seems to have changed rather with the ones that went to Spain(?)
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I thought the whole point of Blackpool bringing in a female Orang last year was to breed with Ramon ??
 
Zooreviewsuk said:
I thought the whole point of Blackpool bringing in a female Orang last year was to breed with Ramon ??
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It is hoped that Ramon will breed with either Jingga, Summer or Cherie, but he is still yet to prove himself as a breeding male which with time, shall hopefully come along, especially due to how genetically important he is!
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Developments
- Went in to see how development has progressed on the new terrarium in the elephant house; it is much bigger than I first anticipated it being. It will be interesting to see what ends up moving in there
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My thought on this is the African Rock Python to allow for the Pygmy Hippo enclosure expansion.
 
MagpieGoose said:
It is hoped that Ramon will breed with either Jingga, Summer or Cherie, but he is still yet to prove himself as a breeding male which with time, shall hopefully come along, especially due to how genetically important he is!
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Ramon should have bred with Cherie/Summer long before now...I think there is some problem. As you know males can be fertile as young as six/eight and he is now 20... several reasons are possible for the failure to date... he was a very weak baby who was handraised and that may have had some negative effect perhaps. Also he was added to the group as the youngest member and so may be psychologically dominated by the older females(possibly) I don't know if he mates the females, but he might breed with Jingga as she is a new, younger female though and therefore more likely to spark his interest...or is he just infertile perhaps?

I was a bit surprised they didn't take the opportunity to breed Cherie and Summer with Tuan when they were staying at Chester...explanation was to do with the uncertainty of the time of their return to Blackpool I believe.
 
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Zooreviewsuk said:
I thought the whole point of Blackpool bringing in a female Orang last year was to breed with Ramon ??
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It was. Probably to try him with a younger, fresh partner as the older sisters Cherie and Summer remain unbred by him after many years.(see above) Which is why I suggest a change of partners might help there. EEP decide the moves obviously but its often possible to identify potential ones in advance.
 
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Pertinax said:
It was. Probably to try him with a younger, fresh partner as the older sisters Cherie and Summer remain unbred by him after many years.(see above) Which is why I suggest a change of partners might help there. EEP decide the moves obviously but its often possible to identify potential ones in advance.
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A permanent move of either or both would be very helpful along with a reproductive evaluation of the male sooner rather than later
 
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