Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens Cotswold Wildlife Park news 2007-2008

The purple-faced langurs will come from Belfast Zoo.

I think it was on the Belfast Zoo thread bu I can not find the message anymore though (source: Al). Perhaps Al can confirm this once more. :confused:
 
yep jelle, they certainly did come from belfast along with two young female crowned cranes! the collection will definately evolve if all their plans go ahead!:)
 
Will they be getting anymore, so that they can start a breeding group?

These species are becoming like Warthogs, red river hogs and red pandas; zoos are starting to want to get them!
 
Hornbill- I'd dispute your above statement about Red Pandas. They've been very popular in Uk zoos for as long as I can remember and there are relatively few collections that haven't got them. But you're correct about the other species. I think its partly a question of 'trends' but also species like Red River Hog appear to breed pretty freely so surplus quickly become available.
 
Having visited the park recently, I am very impressed by the direction it seems to be taking with the introduction of more unusual species. Previous to my most recent visit, probably 15 years ago or more, the collection seemed to be predominantly llama/wallaby/etc based. It was very pleasing to find Jaguarundi, Purple-faced Langurs, Striped Possoms, Cus cus, Blue Turaco, Sifaka, Mongoose Lemur. The re-fit of the reptile house is a vast improvement on the narrow, gloomy corridors and the new lemur walk-thru was a great addition. I still feel its a shame that more space is not devoted to the animal collection, however, it has been arranged so sympathetically to surroundings and it is very refreshing to see a zoo that has resisted the temptation to go down the commercial sponsorship route. Its also fantastic to be able to get so close to the animals, something completely impossible in the larger zoos with high visitor volume like chester or london. I look forward to seeing how this place evolves!
 
Having visited the park recently, I am very impressed by the direction it seems to be taking with the introduction of more unusual species. Previous to my most recent visit, probably 15 years ago or more, the collection seemed to be predominantly llama/wallaby/etc based.
I agree. Since its inception Cotswold maintained a rather ordinary collection for a very long time-about its first thirty years of life... then suddenly a few years back it started aquiring more unusual species and the trend has continued, so it is now becoming far more interesting as a result.
 
otswold has always been well worth a visit as its always had a much under rated Reptile and Amphibian collection,along with a very good bird collection,but now i agree the rest of the park hadn`t changed for years but over the last few years things have realy started to happen,i for one cannot wait to see the new aquarium or the arrival of the Giraffes and Wolverine at the park,i feel its the beginning of very exciting times for the place.
 
arrival of the Giraffes and Wolverine at the park,i feel its the beginning of very exciting times for the place.

I guess the Giraffe will go in the main paddock with the Zebra and Rhino? They could add a few other species here too- Ostrich, a gazelle or antelope species perhaps? I think there is space to enlarge that main enclosure too if they needed to, in the direction of the camels...
 
Although some posts here describe the place as formerly quite uninteresting, I think they did start off pretty well, there just seemed to be a lull from the late 80's until recently...but they always stood out in my mind for the reptile collection, and for the fact they were breeding Great hornbills and black storks, not to mention the thompsons gazelles. Maybe they'll bring some african gazelles back to the collection?
 
Although some posts here describe the place as formerly quite uninteresting, I think they did start off pretty well, there just seemed to be a lull from the late 80's until recently...

They have always had good reptile and (particularly) bird collections. What didn't grow much was the mammal side- which always had a rather empty feel as if they could house more animals/species than they actually had. At one time they had Grevy zebra(before the Chapman's) and the Thompson's gazelle went too. I'm sorry the Blackbuck have followed suit.

Things have changed radically in the last couple of years though and I'm hoping for more larger mammal additions too.
 
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the reason they got rid of the blackbuck was due to them losing a lot of calves to foxes but could a fox take a blackbuck calf unless it was very young??

Does anyone know if they are going to introduce any male wolves into the pack at cotswold because at the moment i think its only 4 female wolves that came from longleat?
 
does anybody have pictures of the hogg island boas from cotsworld as the one i saw didnt look like a hogg island to me
 
Isis is showing 15, with 4 born in the last 12 months (don't know if that includes the latest 2 births). It would be good to see peccaries spread to a 2nd UK collection, but it's not a threatened species so I don't know whether any of the more conservation-minded zoos would be interested.
 
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