Dartmoor Zoo Dartmoor Zoo News

johnstoni said:
I was sure Dartmoor had a greater flamingo, unless the two there were one greater and one chilean and then the greater died?

Porfell is an interesting collection, they have caracals, a genet, zebra, ocelot, lemurs and callitrichids.
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Dartmoor did originally have both Greater and Chilean Flamingos which were bought from ravensden in the early days-the remaining chilean that has gone to paignton must be well over 30 years old! Ironically Dartmoor never used proper flamingo feed or had any housing at all!

I would also be interested if the pink backed pelicans are still there? 3 came from flamingo park in 2000.

They did have pink backed pelicans before this including the famous percy from plymouth zoo. It is on the front of one of there old guide books. pelicans also escaped from dartmoor in the 80s some being spotted in the bristol channel!
 
Just a note on the flamingo feed, since the take over by the Mee's and since getting in qualified staff both flamingos were fed Mazuri flamingo diet.

The greater flamingo died of old age and the chilian flamingo was moved to Paignton Zoo for obvious welfare reasons.
 
the zoo has installed two webcams on their meerkat enclosure, which are actually quite good as the meerkats are very...showy. Althoguh I would love tos ee webcams on the jaguars, bears (there aren't any particular rarities at the zoo).


Dartmoor Zoological Park

And a while back it was reported they had got a new puma, is there any development on this?
 
Anyone know when the wallabies they mentioned coming on thier blog are arriving.
 
I visited a few days ago and it appears that the porcupine enclosure has been demolished, there is now only a bare patch of ground left. I thought this odd as it's not long since they built the new bit :s.
 
@jacks zoo in answer to your question the 2 Pink Backed Pelicans were killed by Bens dog, the same dog also killed the Greater Flamingo. The surviving Chilean Flamingo was indeed sent to Paignton.
 
Thats awful, i actually collected those pelicans from flamingo park when i worked at dartmoor. No wonder they never answered when i asked what had happened to them.

No one from the park has denied this statement, and there are at least 3 people on zoo chat that work there.

:(
 
I also used to work at Dartmoor, so can confirm that this information is true. Said dog also mauled a female Bennets Wallaby, and distressed a tapir (ronaldo) resulting in it breaking a leg and eventually dying.

The dog however is still alive and well and still living in the park.
 
Robin, I'm not being rude in anyway I'm just curious; Why did you join just to post in this thread?
 
Gentle Giant said:
His dog should be put down!:mad:
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I don't want to start an arguement, but I do find that a bit steep. It's a natural thing for a dog to do (chasing, hunting).

IMO, it's irresponsible dog handling on the owner's part, not the dog's fault. Ben Mee shouldn't have had the animal off the lead or better yet, outside of a secure garden well away from the other animals.
 
Robin said:
I also used to work at Dartmoor, so can confirm that this information is true. Said dog also mauled a female Bennets Wallaby, and distressed a tapir (ronaldo) resulting in it breaking a leg and eventually dying.

The dog however is still alive and well and still living in the park.
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This is all a load of rubbish!! The wallaby died due to ingesting a thistle which ruptured its stomach, post mortem confirmed this. The tapir was introduced to a capybara, which didn’t go to plan as he jumped a fence and broke his leg landing on the other side. The pelicans died of general old age and the flamingo unfortunately broke its wing.

We have recently made some staff redundant due to restructuring of the park and its staff. A person by the same name (Robin) was one of these people. If this is the same Robin then we feel this is just an attempt to bring the zoos name into disrepute.
 
The pelicans were young birds, why would they have both died at the same time? Certainly not from old age. And why after my repeated questioning about the pelicans have you only answered now that robin has made this statement?
 
I, and the other keepers, do not live on zoochat and therefore cannot answer questions straight away, nor do we feel we have to, as other members have also responded ie. tigger, in an earlier post stated that keepers had told him the pelicans had died of old age. I thought that had answered the question and therefore did not need another response of the same nature.

I will now confirm that I personally, picked up the last pelican from the lake (it was so unwell it allowed me to do this without a fight) and was there when it was taken to the vet, only for it to die on the way! A post mortem revealed nothing other than old age to the bird and that was put as the cause of death. It could not have been the dog as it had no access to the enclosure to get to the pelican.
 
Thank you both DZP and jaguar 1 for your explanations on what happened to the pelicans and I do hope that some of the allegations on here are not purely made out of spite for being made redundant. Having recently done the keeper for the day at Dartmoor it was very apparent that the keepers were working as hard as they could to improve and had some great plans for the future, it’s just a shame that the park seems to receive so much negative comment on here sometimes.

P.S Anyone who is considering doing keeper for the day at Dartmoor it is well worth the money.

(DZP any news on when the wallabies are coming, and any update on the new Vervet enclosure)
 
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