Fota Wildlife Park Fota Wildlife Park News

The 2021 Annual Report for the Zoological Society of Ireland is now on Dublin Zoo's website:

https://www.dublinzoo.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Dublin-Zoo-Annual-Report-2021_web.pdf

In the section for Fota, it mentions in the animal inventory that the male drill died sadly. I don't think the drills have ever bred in the three years they've been in Fota, so I wonder if they're planning to get a new male in if they haven't already. One of the Francois' langurs is also said to have died.
 
The 2021 Annual Report for the Zoological Society of Ireland is now on Dublin Zoo's website:

https://www.dublinzoo.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/Dublin-Zoo-Annual-Report-2021_web.pdf

In the section for Fota, it mentions in the animal inventory that the male drill died sadly. I don't think the drills have ever bred in the three years they've been in Fota, so I wonder if they're planning to get a new male in if they haven't already. One of the Francois' langurs is also said to have died.
A new drill arrived a few months back.
 
Had a nice visit up in Fota today, with sunny weather making it worth the visit. A few things of note:
  • It seems they now have a male Visayan spotted deer, which had what appeared to be bony stumps on its head from which the antlers would develop. Fingers crossed that we will see breeding success with this species in Fota!
  • There are mountain chicken frogs in the tropical house again after they went out of them in 2021 (see annual report on Dublin Zoo's website). I saw two of them on my visit.
  • I also saw what appeared to be a species of quail living in with the elongated tortoises. I believe they're Harlequin quails due to the bold black markings on the face and head, but Zootierliste doesn't list Fota as ever having had a quail of any species.
  • There was netting over much of the Humboldt penguins' enclosure to keep them safe from bird flu, though the penguins still have access to their (un-netted) pool.
  • As I was heading for the exit, I saw a young giraffe calf that looked like it had been born recently, among most of the other giraffes just outside their house. Fota will probably announce this new calf soon enough.
  • I also had a look at the construction works for the new education complex - the planned opening date is October this year if the signage was anything to go by.
 
The 2022 annual report of the Zoological Society of Ireland is now available to view from Dublin Zoo's website: https://www.dublinzoo.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Dublin-Zoo-Annual-Report-2022-Digital.pdf

From the Fota section of the report, the following updates are worthy of mention:
  • Three Fota-born female European bison were released into the wild. Two of these were transferred to the Wilder Blean project as part of the plan to reintroduce the species to the UK. The third bison went to the Shahdag National Park in Azerbaijan (via Tierpark Berlin).
  • The remaining male Francois langur went to London Zoo in exchange for a male Francois from London, along with two females from Twycross.
  • The new male drill arrived from Saarbrucken Zoo (Germany).
  • The male Visayan spotted deer I saw back in May came from Liberec Zoo (Czechia), along with a female from Munster (Germany).
 
When there in July I saw numerous maras roaming around the park so they must have gained a new large group. On the census they list just 1 or 2.
I believe when they added the male Drill the females attacked him and he escaped by jumping to an adjacent island. They all seem to be getting on fine now.
 
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