Five Sisters Zoo Park Five Sisters news 2014-2017

T

Tunanta

Well-Known Member
OK, so cheating a little as we're not quite into 2014 yet, but it seemed a bit silly to post this in the 2013 thread. It seems there are a lot of plans for the coming year at Five Sisters and as I have posted previously, the same guy who was doing the tropical house refit before the fire is doing a lot of the new enclosure designs and posting updates on them on another forum here:

New Zoo Displays, Commercial Project - Page 50 - Reptile Forums

That thread is pretty huge and has some of his other projects too (so quite interesting for anyone wanting to know more about enclosure creation in different settings) but for anyone who doesn't fancy wading through it all the plans seem to be:
- walkthrough aviary for waders & softbills (about 1/4 acre)
- new meerkat enclosure on site of old tropical house with observation buidling
-new tropical house for Easter, which will be extended the following year

There are dates of completion for each stage, but they seem to be outdated already as there have been some delays, so looks like they are still working on the aviary at the moment.
 
From facebook-the first of the birds for the new African aviary have arrived-sacred ibis-at least 8 from the pictures.
 
According to the zoo's Facebook page, a pair of female arctic wolves are due to arrive soon from Sosto Zoo in Hungary.
 
Again from the zoo's facebook-the wolves are on their way, spending the night in Belgium before arriving tomorrow.
 
This was posted on the zoo's Facebook page this week.


IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
We have been asked if we would be interested in rescuing three ex circus lions who are currently being held in the same centre that Suzy, Carmen and Peggy, the ex circus bears were held. They have been unable to find a suitable home for them across Europe and we may be the Lions' last hope.
We are not appealing directly for donations as we are only too aware of the fantastic response we received to the Bear Rescue fund and the Fire Fund, and it wouldn't be fair to ask the public to help again.
We have to inform the Belgium Centre very soon if we are able to offer the three lions a home and we feel we should at least post on here and see if there is any support available.
We are currently already over committed with the new reptile house, and soft play which is soon to start to fund this on our own.
We are looking at the possibility of raising funds through Corporate Sponsorship and Animal Adoption etc. We also currently hold a large collection of mixed garden plants and ornaments which we are selling this weekend. This could make a good start for the "Lion Rescue".
Please remember we are not asking for donations but if anyone knows of any Companies who may wish to help please let us know.
We will keep you all posted if we are able to carry out this rescue, but as always we will give it our best shot.
Please share this post to reach as many people as possible.
Thankyou.
Brian & Shirley Curran
 
Does anyone know how much land five sisters have to play with? I visited this summer and there didn't seem to be much spare room within the current fencing to fit lions in but do they own more land beyond that?

As an aside apologies for not doing a proper report, I meant to but life has been busy-if anyone has specific questions I can try to answer them & I did take lots of photos of enclosures I will try to upload soon. As a very general overview I found myself a bit disappointed by some of the newer (post-fire) enclosures and felt overall the place does still have a bit of a garden centre feel (the garden ornaments & fake corals in the otter enclosure may be responsible for that) but some of it was pretty good-the bears is still great & the new wolf enclosure is also a good size with nice features and we managed to spend a full afternoon there no problem. The new meerkat enclosure is massive but a bit empty feeling (just sand and a pile of rocks in the middle) and contrasts oddly with the raven enclosure which was very small and dark (I personally really disliked this enclosure). There was a lot of this-some species in enclosures that were larger than typical for them which was nice to see but other species seemed stuck in quite small spaces for their size/lifestyle (even when the enclosure was new), but I guess this is possibly a result of lots of the newer enclosures having to be made quickly after the fire so they may slowly get upgraded over time.

Update: I have uploaded the first handful of photos. Will do the rest as soon as I can.
 
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Rescued circus lions offered home at Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian

BBC News - 4th October, 2014

A West Lothian zoo plans to provide a new permanent home for four lions which were confiscated from a French circus.

Five Sisters Zoo, at West Calder, aims to raise £150,000 to build a new enclosure for the animals.

The lions were seized by Belgian officials in May because the country's law forbids the use of wild animals in circuses.

The four big cats had previously been confined to a cramped circus trailer.

The circus was performing in the city of Luik, in French-speaking Belgium, when government officials seized the trailer and took the lions to a rescue centre.

The trailer was found to be in poor condition with large pieces of metal jutting out and holes in the floor.

The exact history of the lions is not known, but they are believed to be about six years old.

They are thought to have been born in captivity and sold to the circus at a young age.

They are larger than normal and have no manes as a result of being castrated.

A spokeswoman for Five Sisters Zoo said: "Having identified a suitable two acre site in the zoo, the aim within a six-month period is to have raised £150,000, built a suitable enclosure and bring the lions to live permanently at the zoo."

Three years ago the zoo launched an appeal to rehome three former circus bears.

A purpose-built woodland enclosure was completed within six months and the bears arrived early in 2012.

The spokeswoman added: "Eighteen months on, the bears are thriving and it was only a matter of weeks after their arrival that their natural bear behaviours started emerging.

"They are about to successfully hibernate for the third year."

Last summer a fire killed all the animals in the zoo's reptile house and an otter.

Fire investigations were inconclusive although suspicious circumstances were ruled out.

A former soft play area is being converted into a new reptile house.
Click to expand...
 
From facebook-the new tropical house, named The Lost Kingdom, is opening to the public on 13th December. It is being opened at 12 noon by Angela Constance (who google tells me is an MSP)
 
Photos of new tropical house are on Facebook. They are behind schedule so it is open but no animals. Looks fairly standard reptile house so far.
 
1.1 Lar Gibbons have arrived from a collection in Sweden this week

The rescued lions (mentioned elsewhere in the thread) are due to travel to Scotland in September all being well
 
I recently visited and was very impressed by the new reptile house (going by the absurd name of "Lost Kingdom").

It's one of the bigger such houses in the UK in terms of size and species held (definitely in the top ten but not top five). While most of the species are fairly common there are a few oddities and all enclosures were spacious and well furnished. It was great to see some juvenile alligators swimming in clear water though I wonder what the plans are when they grow up (an enclosure that could just about hold one adult had seven or eight thirty inch juveniles). There were also some non-herps in terms of mammals, birds and inverts -a real treat.
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Any oddity highlights you can recall?
Click to expand...

African Pygmy Dormouse, Mediterranean Chameleon, Purple Grenadier, Green Mantella, Pacific Parrotlet, Crocodile Monitor.

Not necessarily unique and some, I understand, fairly common in the private sector* but not that common in zoos either.

*This is a bit of a theme throughout.
 
Nisha said:
The Lions are due to leave Belgium tomorrow morning: They are then expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday

Four lions - confiscated from French circus - set to become mane attraction at Scottish zoo after being rescued from Belgian sanctuary - Daily Record
Click to expand...

I haven't been following this story but surely the newspaper article is nonsense. It claims wild animals are band from French circuses which I don't believe is the case. Also, I read somewhere that Luxembourg wanted to ban circuses with animals but under EU rules was unable to stop circuses from neighbouring countries from visiting. Admittedly I read this some time ago so things may have changed.
 
Belgium banned wild animals in circuses in 2013. The way I read the article was that a French circus went to Belgium, where the lions were confiscated.

FOUR lions are being transported to a zoo in Scotland from the animal sanctuary in Belgium where they have been cared for since being confiscated from a French circus.

Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, West Lothian, has raised £150,000 over the past 12 months to build a new two-acre enclosure for the male lions.

The zoo's owners have travelled to Belgium to begin the process of transporting the animals, and they are expected to arrive in the early hours of Monday.

The lions were seized by government officials there in May 2014 because the country forbids the use of wild animals in circuses.
Click to expand...
 
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