Crocodilians in UK zoos

kiang

kiang

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
With the hatching of the Morelets crocodile at the Cotswold wildlife park and yacare caiman at the Blackpool zoo, the proposed arrival of Phillipine crocodiles at London and Chester zoos, and the building of the new crocodile house at Paignton, the future is looking very exciting for this group of reptiles in the Uk.
Can we have a few gharials please.
 
My favourite crocs are Gharials, I've seen the pair at San diego and they are magnificent. They'd fit in with any asian exhibit wouldn't they really? I'll try and dig out some pictures of them and upload them on the gallery.

Jersey also have the dwarf caiman don't they? I remember seeing them last year, and although I loved the housed I hated their tiny exhibit!

London has the chinese gators, and I think that the rare species conservation centre wants them too!

What species are paignton planning to Keep?
 
what are peoples views on the brown caiman at blackbrook? they where signed as spectacle caiman at knowsley but identified as browns when they came to us? anybody know more or where knowsley may have got them from?
 
In terms of smaller crocodilians, The Jungle zoo at Cleethorpes have a few Spectacled Caimans - they've recently given them a new enclosure that looks really nice, a VERY big improvement on their old one.

There is also one Nile Crocodile left at Natureland at Skegness, they used to have three but the others died off.

Mablethorpe Seal Sanctuary used to have one animal but she died this year sadly. :( The label used to say Spectacled Caiman but later this was changed to Yacare Caiman... another mistaken identity perhaps???
 
Stapley water garden have spectacled caiman.
Chester have dwarf african crocs, but plan to get Philippines.
Do Edinburgh have any Crocs?
 
Edinburgh used to keep a pair of West African Dwarf Crocs but these have now gone to Five Sisters Zoo Park.
London no longer keep Chinese Alliagators they left within the last few weeks,so as a result they only have Cuviers Dwarf Caiman for the time being.
Paradise Wildlife Park does still have a Chinese Alliagator as far as i`m aware.
Thrigby Hall has Salt-water Crocs,American Alliagator and Mugger,they are also currently holding a group of Spectacled Caiman for the new Zoo at Cromer.
As for the possible Brown Caiman their is a possible test you could do to try to find out Brown Caiman are suppose to change colour with a drop in temperature but not sure how obvious this would be.
 
I think the Chinese alligators at London went to Rotterdam, Edinburgh have plans for crocodiles in their masterplan, species unknown, are Whipsnade and Bristol still breeding their African dwarf crocs, and reading an old edition of zoo from IZES Jim Clubb at Heythrop a few years back was looking to get gharial. Does anyone know when the Phillipine crocs are arriving in Britain?
 
kiang said:
Does anyone know when the Phillipine crocs are arriving in Britain?
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At the moment, they are in a sort of quarantine state i Crocodile Zoo in Denmark. They are being monitored to see how they are recovering from their long trip, before most of them gets shipped of to other european zoos, such as London and Chester. I have seen the small Phillipine crocs myself, and they are just marvelous! :D
 
Sure i do. When i was there, the owner was so kind to open their terrarium, so i could get some nice pics. Here you go :)

The first three pics are of the crocs, and the last is the pair at Crocodile Zoo's exhibit.
 

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They are so amazing! There will certainly be some info on my site when they arrive at Chester!

Is that exhibit their permanent exhibit?
 
Yes, until they get bigger. The exhibits in Crocodile Zoo may not look like much, but there is more to them than the eye can see, and René Hedegaard (the owner) is one of the leading croc experts in Europe. Crocodile Zoo has had many breeding results with difficult crocodiles and other reptiles.

But the zoo is too small, and in a few years (five or so) a brand new Tropical Zoo centered around crocs will open. They are planning to keep all 23 crocodile, alligator, gharial and caiman species there. They currently keep 21 different species, and are therefor the second largest Coczoo in the world when it comes to species, only surpassed by San Augustine in Florida.
 
What species do they keep, and what is their success like?

Do you know what happened to Zurich zoo's Siamese crocodiles? They had a breeding pair in 2005, but know they have 2.2 philippine crocodiles.
 
Here is a list of the species the currently keep:

Caimans
Cuvier's dwarf caiman (Paleosuchus palpebrosus)
Smooth-fronted caiman (Paleosuchus trigonatus)
Spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus)
Broad-snouted caiman (Caiman latirostris)
Red caiman (Caiman yacare)
Black caiman (Melanusuchus niger)

Alligators
American alligator (Alligator mississippipiensis)
Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis)

Crocodiles
African dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis)
Mugger crocodile (Crocodylus palustris)
Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer)
Siamese crocodile (Crocodylus siamensis)
Slender-snouted crocodile (Crocodylus cataphractus)
Morelet's crocodile (Crocodylus moreletii)
New guinea crocodile (Crocodylus novaeguineae)
Philippine crocodile (Crocodylus mindorensis)
Australian freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnsoni)
Saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)
Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus)
False gahrial, or sunda gahrial (Tomistoma schlegeli)

Gharials
Ganges gahrial (Gavialis gangeticus)

So the only species missing are:
American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus)
Oricono crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius)


They have had breeding results with several of their reptiles, and though I can't name them all, here are some:
Cuban crocs (still young)
Broad-nosed caimans (sent to Burgers Zoo)
Green anaconda (just hatched in August)

Another succes story is about the slender-snouted crocs. They originaly came from Aalborg Zoo, but after their exhibit had been renovated, they would not eat for a year. Aalborg Zoo thought that they would never eat again, and eventually starve to death, but then they were moved to CrocZoo, and now live happily there, eating and mating.

I dont know what happened to Zurich's Siamese crocs, but their Phillipine crocs are from Crocodile Zoo.

Hope this is usefull info ;)
 
kiang said:
and reading an old edition of zoo from IZES Jim Clubb at Heythrop a few years back was looking to get gharial.

Over the years Jim gets offered alot of different species some he takes others he doesn`t these were one of the later due to the fact he had nowhere to put.You are quite right about the Chinese Alliagators they have gone to Rotterdam.I believe Bristol have split the breeding pair of West African Dwarf to stop any further breeding.Not sure what Whipsnade are doing with theirs.
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We have some HUGE Saltwater crocs at Aust zoo, I think some of the biggest are around 1000kgs.
 
I think Whipsnade have also stopped breeding crocodiles, but I can't confirm this. The pair are still together in the Discovery Centre.
 
Writhedhornbill said:
What species are paignton planning to Keep?
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I've heared somewhere that paignton was gonna keep false gahrials. But i don't know whether that was a fact or a rumour...

How many philippine crocodiles were imported by the Crodocdile zoo? (i amuse they were imported?) And to which zoos will they be moved?
 
Paignton's big False Gharials left the collection when the old tropical house was demolished.

The Rare Species Conservation Centre has a Chinese Allgator. It was imported into this country from a breeder on the continent by a pet shop in Cambridgeshire.
 
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