Colchester Zoo Colchester Zoo news 2022

Colchester Zoo have released a news article about their annual animal count. This is the fourth year where the numbers of each animal group have been included.

The number of species in the zoo at the start of 2022 was (with previous years in brackets):
Mammals - 68 (69 in 2021, 70 in 2020 and 72 in 2019)
Birds - 19 (21 in 2021, 24 in 2020 and 39 in 2019)
Reptiles - 34 (unchanged from 2021, 32 in 2020 and 33 in 2019)
Amphibians - 7 (8 in 2021, 2020 and 2019)
Fishes - 47 (55 in 2021, 60 in both 2020 and 2019)
Invertebrates - 9 (19 in 2021, 28 in both 2020 and 2019)

The article about the count is included here:
A Year in Numbers | Colchester Zoo

I must say, it's disappointing to see that, apart from reptiles, every single group of animals has had a decline in number of species held since last year.

One other bit of news mentioned in the article is that there are three crested wood partridges - only two were both visible and mentioned in the zoo magazine a couple of months ago.
 
I see that ex-Paignton orangs, Mali & Tatty, have star billing in the article, along with a photo of Tatty. They rarely get a mention on Colchester's FB page - I thought they might make more of having such charismatic orangs.
 
Having visited today to renew my pass, I was surprised to find that all signage for the 'cubs' has been removed from the tiger exhibit. But there were clearly 2 young tigers (the males?) in the small enclosure and I suspect their mother taiga in the larger one. Does anyone know what are left? Anouska and Taiga were the only signs left
 
I was wondering what birds had left Colchester and today, while checking the full list of studbooks that Colchester participate in on their website*, I noticed that they are no longer part of the ESB for Darwin's rheas - they were still listed there when I checked a couple of days ago.

Has anyone seen them recently? I imagine if they are not gone already, they soon will be.

* The full list can be found here: Sustainable Zoo | Breeding Programs at Colchester Zoo
 
DesertRhino150 said:
I was wondering what birds had left Colchester and today, while checking the full list of studbooks that Colchester participate in on their website*, I noticed that they are no longer part of the ESB for Darwin's rheas - they were still listed there when I checked a couple of days ago.

Has anyone seen them recently? I imagine if they are not gone already, they soon will be.

* The full list can be found here: Sustainable Zoo | Breeding Programs at Colchester Zoo
Click to expand...
They were still signed on Sunday but I didn't see any!
 
pipaluk said:
They were still signed on Sunday but I didn't see any!
Click to expand...

I too didn’t see any on Sunday or on my previous visit- another bird loss which is a shame!

On another note, following my visit on Sunday I forgot to mention that the Burmese Pythons have been returned to their redeveloped enclosure in the ‘Wilds of Asia’ building, the emerald tree monitor has also returned although that enclosure appears to have not been altered. This just leaves the aquarium in this building to be restocked.
 
Colchester Zoo have now released a news article about the work done on Wilds of Asia. All the species had updates to their enclosures, although not all are obvious:

- Burmese pythons have had the biggest upgrade, with an enlarged land area, a larger pool (with underwater viewing) to encourage swimming, a new waterfall and stream area and a combination of ultraviolet and natural light systems to encourage plant growth.
- Green tree monitor has had the heating system re-piped to increase the flow of temperature.
- Freshwater aquarium has been reconfigured to improve the flow of the filtration system, ensuring the water remains of higher quality.
- The lion-tailed macaque indoor area also had an update.

An article about the development (including a video of the pythons in their new enclosure) can be found in the link below:
Wilds of Asia | Colchester Zoo

By blowing up one of the images of the aquarium, I can see that the Boeseman's rainbowfish and, I think, a second species of rainbowfish from Australian Rainbows have moved over:
https://www.colchester-zoo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Wilds-of-Asia-Building-2-1024x768.jpg
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Boeseman's rainbowfish and, I think, a second species of rainbowfish
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Looking at the photo, it's Melanotaenia praecox, the Dwarf or Neon Rainbowfish. :)

EDIT: Plus what appears to be a Rainbow, Red-finned, or Ruby Shark - Epalzeorhynchos frenatum. :)
 
Maguari said:
Looking at the photo, it's Melanotaenia praecox, the Dwarf or Neon Rainbowfish. :)

EDIT: Plus what appears to be a Rainbow, Red-finned, or Ruby Shark - Epalzeorhynchos frenatum. :)
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Thanks! I remember that the dwarf rainbowfish also used to be in the Australian Rainbows pool. The rainbow sharkminnow, as Colchester call it, was kept in the Wilds of Asia tank before it was redeveloped.
 
On 19th December a new Kirk's dik-dik calf was born at Colchester Zoo to mother Daenerys and father Demetri. It is the sixth calf born to the pair and is a female that has been named Carol.

Some information about the origins of the parents as well - Demetri came to Colchester in September 2016 from Antwerp Zoo while Daenerys originated from Berlin Zoo and arrived in November 2016.

More information can be found in the link below:
Tiny Arrival | Colchester Zoo
 
DesertRhino150 said:
I was wondering what birds had left Colchester and today, while checking the full list of studbooks that Colchester participate in on their website*, I noticed that they are no longer part of the ESB for Darwin's rheas - they were still listed there when I checked a couple of days ago.

Has anyone seen them recently? I imagine if they are not gone already, they soon will be.

* The full list can be found here: Sustainable Zoo | Breeding Programs at Colchester Zoo
Click to expand...

The zoo only have the one rhea left and due to it bully the Joey the young alpaca it has been removed and is currently living in the spotted deer off show paddock
 
I went for a morning's visit to Colchester Zoo today. These are my notes:

Species Arrivals, Departments and Movements
  • Although it was not visible, the aquarium by the dart frogs in Worlds Apart is now listed as holding a spotfin porcupinefish
  • Another change with the crested wood partridges; a male has now arrived but I could only see a single female today
  • The aquarium in Wilds of Asia has been redeveloped and houses the following species: rosy barb, red-lined torpedo barb, rainbow sharkminnow (all originally in Wilds of Asia), Boeseman's rainbowfish and dwarf rainbowfish (moved over from Australian Rainbows)
  • Also, I'm not sure if it was supposed to be in there or not, but there was at least one large cockroach in the Solomon Island skink enclosure in Heart of the Amazon - it was either two (one dark and the other bright yellow) or a single one that had shed its skin

Developments
  • The Discovery Centre is still closed; although the tanks were still present all were empty and the most recent zoo map has removed all reference to the Discovery Centre, including the labelled tarantula and snail - it makes me wonder if the place will continue holding animals
  • The Fiji banded iguana enclosure is empty and being renovated; the zoo says they are off-show
  • A sign up by the old piranha aquarium in Worlds Apart says it will become part of the new Penguin Shores upgrade, but the work has been delayed due to Covid-19
  • Some vegetation has been removed from the empty African wild dog enclosures, near the viewing areas; hopefully that is the precursor to something moving in
  • I have to say that the Burmese python upgrade is excellent - it takes up most of what was the left-side indoor area for the lion-tailed macaques and allows the pythons to stretch out to their full length; one of the pythons was very active, swimming in its new large pool
  • Chimpanzee Lookout was closed today - there was no indication as to why this was the case.

General Observations
  • I saw a fire skink for the first time in Kingdom of the Wild; they seem to have dug out a warren of burrows on the right-hand side of their terrarium
  • I also saw a red-bellied lemur for the first time since they moved into the Lost Madagascar walkthrough back in 2014
  • The warthogs now have access, via a pair of gates, into the two fenced-off patches of trees in the middle of their enclosure; they were spending a lot of time in there pulling off and eating dead leaves
  • There were only two aardvarks on show in the main display den
  • Had a count of the cherry-crowned mangabeys - there was a large male and three smaller ones that I imagine are females
 
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DesertRhino150 said:
  • Had a count of the cherry-crowned mangabeys - there was a large male and three smaller ones that I imagine are females
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Could be the adult pair and two younger subadults though- not sure on the current sexes but its often 2.2. Since Colchester started keeping this species some years ago now, they've usually had a group of four, though there have been several breedings and exchanges, but the number stays static.
 
From visit on 6/2/22 I find out that
- zalika the hippo calf has joined marwell
- lottie the rhino will move as soon as a move becomes available
- The 4 aardvarks are being kept separate as little jaja is a handful for the others so hes living with puq.
Afer the Male is still going strong at 31 yrs old
- tatyna the only remaining tiger cub will remain at colchester for the foreseeable future
 
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