Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo News 2022

Jude T said:
Does anyone know if Lianne (chimpanzee) is still carrying the stillborn?
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All the signs advising of this had been removed on my visit yesterday and I didn't see any chimps carrying a stillborn so hopefully she no longer has it.
 
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News from the zoo nights a couple days ago:

• The male Scottish wildcat has access to both enclosures

• the substrate was removed in the glass indoor area in the budongo for some reason
 
Quincey said:
Vets and keepers at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) are managing the first reported case of diabetes in a giant anteater at Edinburgh Zoo with a blood glucose monitor usually used on humans:

UK’s first diabetic giant anteater fitted with monitor used for humans | Edinburgh Zoo
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I'm unaware of the conditions in which the animal lives in, so I'm gonna ask you: do they have small/restricted access to an outdoor space? That's the only way I can think the animal could have gotten it, unless it's genetic, perhaps the animal is a young, could you answer this one too?

I read long time ago, on this forum, on a thread about articles and journals about zoos, that most Aardvarks in captivity suffer of obesity and many other complications that go along with them, most likely due to most of their exhibits being small and indoor because most are displayed in an artificial habitats, such as tropical houses and night houses, which limit the space and activity of the animals, could that be the case for the anteater?
 
Mickey said:
I'm unaware of the conditions in which the animal lives in, so I'm gonna ask you: do they have small/restricted access to an outdoor space? That's the only way I can think the animal could have gotten it, unless it's genetic, perhaps the animal is a young, could you answer this one too?

I read long time ago, on this forum, on a thread about articles and journals about zoos, that most Aardvarks in captivity suffer of obesity and many other complications that go along with them, most likely due to most of their exhibits being small and indoor because most are displayed in an artificial habitats, such as tropical houses and night houses, which limit the space and activity of the animals, could that be the case for the anteater?
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Nala, the Giant Anteater with diabetes, is 17 years old, which is considered geriatric for the species. It's likely this is an age related condition and not related to outdoor space. The 3 Giant Anteaters at Edinburgh have access to a large outdoor paddock which they make good use of.
 
Quincey said:
Nala, the Giant Anteater with diabetes, is 17 years old, which is considered geriatric for the species. It's likely this is an age related condition and not related to outdoor space. The 3 Giant Anteaters at Edinburgh have access to a large outdoor paddock which they make good use of.
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I thought they only had two.
 
Over 40 eight-foot-tall giraffe sculptures hit the streets of Edinburgh from today (1 July 2022) as part of Edinburgh Zoo’s much anticipated Giraffe About Town trail.

In partnership with Wild in Art, the trail aims to help the city recover after the pandemic and raise vital funds for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s (RZSS) conservation work in Scotland and around the world:

Citywide Giraffe About Town art trail hits streets of Edinburgh | Edinburgh Zoo
 
Visited the zoo again yesterday and there were a couple of things I noted.

There’s some development outside the sloth/armadillo building in the section where the parakeets used to be held. The small room next to the indoor binturong enclosure also had some sand, rocks, dog bowls and a couple of heat lamps in it however I didn’t see any signage or animals.

I asked the staff some of the questions that were asked on here about the stillborn chimpanzee. Lianne dropped the body last month and is doing well. She carried it for around 8 months I think and the person I spoke to said in the wild they can carry them for up to 3 years (which I’ve not heard before). Apparently the rest of the chimps reacted very well to it and just sort of left her alone and gave her some space, with none of them having experienced a stillborn before. Due to it being in a mummified state it wasn’t deemed a heath hazard for the other chimps and if it was the keepers would have intervened a while ago. I was told that during the last few months she viewed it more as an object that she’d carry rather than a baby, which reflects what I saw in April where she just carried it under her leg and didn’t particularly tend to it like a baby and apparently she’d sometimes get it confused with pieces of cardboard.

As far as the rest of the group go, regular swapping of individuals between the 2 sub-groups are still occurring however a full merging of the two groups won’t be happening for the foreseeable with Masindi still being quite young and vulnerable. The smaller group are getting outdoor access one or two times a week and are still being housed in the pod on the right (if you’re entering from the stairs).

Most animals had ice lollies and sprinklers and all pools were full due to temperatures yesterday.

I saw just about everything except the cassowaries despite visiting the enclosures multiple times - I noticed that all of the gates between the enclosures were shut.
 
Jude T said:
She carried it for around 8 months I think and the person I spoke to said in the wild they can carry them for up to 3 years (which I’ve not heard before).

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I very much doubt that, in tropical African temperatures a body would decompose long before that I am sure. I still think its strange they didn't take this stillborn baby away sooner, around the time she stopped carrying it very closely.
 
Female Grevy's Zebra, Azizi, arrived from Whipsnade earlier this month to bring the Edinburgh herd back up to 0.3, along with Daniella and Grace. I'm not sure what has happened to the 3rd female that Edinburgh had before Azizi's arrival.

Update - having checked the 2020 studbook, it would appear the previous 3rd female was Emily who would have been 26 this year, so I'm assuming she has passed away.
 
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I'm putting together plans for another visit to Edinburgh Zoo some time within the next few months, either near the end of this year or January/February next year. My last visit was in October last year, but there were a lot of no-shows that day and this was before Wee Beasties re-opened, so I've been meaning to get back up there for a while. I had a look on the animal section of the zoo's website and there are 27 species I didn't get to see last time, granted a lot of those are in Wee Beasties, but they also include things like the Visayan spotted deer and the lowland nyala. This will also most likely be my last visit to Edinburgh Zoo before the pandas leave, so whenever I do get there I hope I can get one last good view of them.
 
Jambi said:
I'm putting together plans for another visit to Edinburgh Zoo some time within the next few months, either near the end of this year or January/February next year. My last visit was in October last year, but there were a lot of no-shows that day and this was before Wee Beasties re-opened, so I've been meaning to get back up there for a while. I had a look on the animal section of the zoo's website and there are 27 species I didn't get to see last time, granted a lot of those are in Wee Beasties, but they also include things like the Visayan spotted deer and the lowland nyala. This will also most likely be my last visit to Edinburgh Zoo before the pandas leave, so whenever I do get there I hope I can get one last good view of them.
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Cool! Hope you see lots of species! BTW the ground cuscus are in the old crowned lemur indoors at the moment so don’t miss them!
 
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