Hamerton Zoo Park Hamerton news 2021

A pair of young Carter's rock geckos (also known as scorpion geckos, Pristurus carteri) have arrived at Hamerton. The captive-born youngsters are still off-show as they settle in, but it is hoped that later in the year they will be able to move in with the Egyptian tortoises.

More information can be found in the link below:
Hamerton Zoo Park - Animal Park Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

Hamerton is the third collection in Europe to house this species, and the only zoo in the UK keeping them, according to Zootierliste.
 
Visited yesterday, work coming along nicely on the bird loop and the new building. Cassowary chick very active and adorable, black & white ruffed lemurs and civets occupying some of the quoll enclosures, with a quoll in the forest enclosure. Always nice to see Bert the aardwolf:). In other news, the ringtail possum is back in the marmoset house, with squirrel gliders occupying their old home, and there are now flaps to lift on the echidna/cuscus enclosure.
 
News report on Hamerton's website today - see here

"29/09/2021 - Groups of Red-handed Tamarins have moved to another zoo abroad, along with two Servals. Another Serval, a Tayra, Otter and Grison are waiting for permits to be granted before leaving us. A female North American Ringtail is due to arrive from the USA soon, and a number of birds expected too. A female Little Bittern has just arrived as a mate for our widowed male, along with a female Blacksmith Plover, a new species for the Park. These birds will move into our Ibis aviary as soon as their legal isolation period is completed."
 
News report on Hamerton's website today - see here

"29/09/2021 - Groups of Red-handed Tamarins have moved to another zoo abroad, along with two Servals. Another Serval, a Tayra, Otter and Grison are waiting for permits to be granted before leaving us. A female North American Ringtail is due to arrive from the USA soon, and a number of birds expected too. A female Little Bittern has just arrived as a mate for our widowed male, along with a female Blacksmith Plover, a new species for the Park. These birds will move into our Ibis aviary as soon as their legal isolation period is completed."
Any of those species coming to oz?
 
Over the next week or two, part of the park (the access from the entrance of the park to the central bird block) will be closed off. This will not take any animals off-show, but will allow work to begin on erecting two new enclosures for the ringtail and striped skunks.

The male ringtail is soon to be joined by a female - the move had been planned for this year's breeding season but was slowed down by bureaucratic delays. Hamerton Zoo Park is the only foreign participant for the AZA ringtail breeding programme.

This new building area is just one of fifteen separate building jobs on-hand at the moment - none have a specific planned finishing date and will be completed as and when they can.

More information can be found in the link below:
Hamerton Zoo Park - Animal Park Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
 
Hamerton Zoo Park is the only foreign participant for the AZA ringtail breeding programme.
That sounds pretty interesting. I know that Hamerton is a respectable facility, but I recall that the AZA population isn't really the best, so I do wonder if sending animals to outside the US really is a good idea.

I also wonder what's preventing Burgers from participating the ringtail SSP.
 
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A pair of young Carter's rock geckos (also known as scorpion geckos, Pristurus carteri) have arrived at Hamerton. The captive-born youngsters are still off-show as they settle in, but it is hoped that later in the year they will be able to move in with the Egyptian tortoises.

More information can be found in the link below:
Hamerton Zoo Park - Animal Park Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire

Hamerton is the third collection in Europe to house this species, and the only zoo in the UK keeping them, according to Zootierliste.

Pristurus are a great little gecko species, I have bred them in the past. Odd to hear about them being in a zoological collection, they are kept in private collections.

Excited to hear about the Ringtail, I have seen the ones at Burgers. Need to pop to Hamerton and Exmoor now, haven't been to Hamerton for a year or so and never been to Exmoor
 
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This will not take any animals off-show, but will allow work to begin on erecting two new enclosures for the ringtail and striped skunks.
This work is now complete and the path is accessible again, the enclosures look pretty decent and quite a departure from Hamertons regular style.

Visited yesterday (04/11) with @cliffxdavis and @pipaluk and we had a grand old time despite the temperature, had glorious sunshine though so can't fault the weather too much. There's been no major changes since my last visit bar the Squirrel Gliders going in the Ringtail Possum exhibit and the Ringtails being moved to the tamarin and marmoset house, and the peep holes added to the Echidna/Cuscus enclosure which really helps with viewing, unfortunately both species remained hidden...

Also the Zoo Museum is open and currently features a display on the Auckland Zoo with model animals, some of those models certainly bring on a bit of nostalgia and generated quite a bit of conversation between us as well. Quite well done and a novel addition to this place.

Don't think I'll be back this year but will definitely try and return before too long, hopefully to see the Ringtail exhibit occupied. :D
 
This work is now complete and the path is accessible again, the enclosures look pretty decent and quite a departure from Hamertons regular style.

Visited yesterday (04/11) with @cliffxdavis and @pipaluk and we had a grand old time despite the temperature, had glorious sunshine though so can't fault the weather too much. There's been no major changes since my last visit bar the Squirrel Gliders going in the Ringtail Possum exhibit and the Ringtails being moved to the tamarin and marmoset house, and the peep holes added to the Echidna/Cuscus enclosure which really helps with viewing, unfortunately both species remained hidden...

Also the Zoo Museum is open and currently features a display on the Auckland Zoo with model animals, some of those models certainly bring on a bit of nostalgia and generated quite a bit of conversation between us as well. Quite well done and a novel addition to this place.

Don't think I'll be back this year but will definitely try and return before too long, hopefully to see the Ringtail exhibit occupied. :D

Great review @Brum ! Looking forward to see this place one day !
 
Also the Zoo Museum is open and currently features a display on the Auckland Zoo with model animals, some of those models certainly bring on a bit of nostalgia and generated quite a bit of conversation between us as well.

Do you know why this features Auckland Zoo ? Is there a connection with NZ somewhere?
 
I'm hoping to visit Hamerton for the first time on Sunday (which I'm very excited about). Can anyone give me an idea of how accessible it is for a wheelchair user please? I can't seem to find an access statement on the website which is quite unusual.
Thank you.
 
I'm hoping to visit Hamerton for the first time on Sunday (which I'm very excited about). Can anyone give me an idea of how accessible it is for a wheelchair user please? I can't seem to find an access statement on the website which is quite unusual.
Thank you.
From fairly recent memory, it’s quite a flat site, you should be ok
 
I'm hoping to visit Hamerton for the first time on Sunday (which I'm very excited about). Can anyone give me an idea of how accessible it is for a wheelchair user please? I can't seem to find an access statement on the website which is quite unusual.
Thank you.
It is pretty flat (the only party with little incline is up towards the bears but it's only a slight rise) with tarmac paths all round and ramps into the Outback Aviary and loos. The hardest part is probably the car park as it's rougher ground but the disabled spaces are right by the entrance.
 
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