Hamerton Zoo Park Hamerton Zoo News 2017

Nisha

Nisha

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
White Tiger, Blizzard has passed away: Statement from FB

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of White Tiger Blizzard yesterday evening. Blizzards health had taken a turn for the worst over the last few weeks and was not responding to medical treatment, so the decision was taken to put him to sleep.

Blizzard arrived at the Zoo in 2000 and along with his mate, normal coloured Ladybelle, quickly became the star residents, doubling the zoos attendance in just one year. They will both remain in the hearts of all who worked with them and with our regular visitors.

Blizzards paddock will remain empty for the time being
 
Some recent news from the parks website:

New Meerkat Mountain

We are delighted to welcome back Jason and the guys from Koda Creative to start work on our new 'Meerkat Mountain' enclosure, which is planned to be open by the summer. Our meerkats will move from their old pens where hundreds of babies have been born and reared over the last few years, which are now living in other Zoos all over Europe. When the meerkats have moved, we plan to revamp and alter their old enclosures to house potoroos and armadillos.
Work continues on our new 'Australia Walk-About' aviary - and a new house, display and viewing area for the flamingos and cassowaries - both of which we hope, will be open for late spring or early summer.

Bush Budgies

Following the arrival of our flock of Wild Australian Zebra Finches, last year; lots of babies have doubled its size. More birds have just arrived which will join the finches in a large walk-a-bout Australian Aviary currently under construction and due for completion by the summer. These next birds are a flock of 30 wild Budgerigars, or 'Bush Budgies', from Bristol Zoo; they are the ancestors of our domestic pets, but always bright green, and about half the size. These are the first of 4 new species of parrot-like birds due to arrive at the Zoo during 2017

International Relocations

The first half of 2017 will see a number of new and very special animal arrivals, expanding the Parks collection considerably. Huge amounts of planning, permits, quarantine, flights and other details challenge our freight agents, Vets and our own office. Sometimes it can take years before everything falls into place. Hamerton born animals will also be traveling to several countries, and the first group of five Marmosets (the progeny of two of our family breeding groups) have already moved to Johannesburg in South Africa, where they have quickly settled into quarantine before their onward journey to the destination zoo

Hamerton Zoo Park - Animal Park Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
 
From facebook:

There has been a stable fire at the zoo this morning. We will be closed until the situation has been resolved. We hope to open again this afternoon. We will post updates as we have them.
 
Latest update - Park will be closed for the rest of the day. Stable block (the one opposite the parrots) has been destroyed, however the Animals were rescued before the fire took hold and luckily they (and the staff) are unhurt
 
Zootierliste lists their other pairs as A.b.binturong, so also pure!

I wonder, would this be the first and only import of A.b.penicillatus in Europe (if they are indeed that subspecies, as claimed on the website)?
 
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Vision said:
Zootierliste lists their other pairs as A.b.binturong, so also pure!

I wonder, would this be the first and only import of A.b.penicillatus (if they are indeed that subspecies, as claimed on the website)?
Click to expand...

ZTL says alot of things that aren't always correct for UK collections!
 
zoogiraffe said:
But only one of which is pure,I believe the other pairs are zoo Binturongs.That is a very nice move and I will visit once they are out of
quarantine!
Click to expand...

Vision said:
Zootierliste lists their other pairs as A.b.binturong, so also pure!
Click to expand...

zoogiraffe said:
ZTL says alot of things that aren't always correct for UK collections!
Click to expand...

Until recently ZTL listed both non-subspecific and nominate individuals at the collection, something which matched my understanding of the situation (that the individuals already present at the collection were zoomix but that a pure individual had arrived a year or so ago and had since been off-display) - however at some point, someone appears to have deleted the entry for non-subspecific Binturong and merged the information which had been entered there into the listing for nominate. This means that the entry claims the collection has held the species since 2016 but includes sightings from several earlier years in the references :P

However, I presume from what @zoogiraffe says that the story I had heard was incorrect and that a pure nominate individual never *did* arrive - in which case the ZTL entry is doubly-incorrect! I suspect the individual who made these edits is the same one who:

a) moved Southern Aardwolf into former holdings having heard that an individual died a few years ago, not having bothered to check whether or not this was their last individual (it wasn't)
b) deleted the listing for Oncilla when they went off-display
c) deleted the listing for Canadian Lynx and replaced it with a listing for European Lynx.

As ZG said, ZTL makes a lot of claims for the UK which are either plain wrong or very out-of-date :P not helped by idiots like that!
 
On a brighter note, the news regarding these new Javan Binturongs is very interesting indeed - and it will be even more interesting to learn how this taxon looks different to others I have seen!
 
Shorts said:
Shouldn't that read "if it looks different"? :D
Click to expand...

True :p but given the fact the other ssp I have seen *do* look different from one another I would be surprised if this one is identical to one of the others.
 
I noticed a couple of baby Ring Tailed Lemur today :) And the Flamingo are clearly visible, but the pathway etc are not finished yet.
 
The identity of Hamerton's Binturongs is arguably a matter of taxonomy. There doesn't seem to be any consensus on subspecies, but if Palawan Binturong (A. b. whitei) is the only population to be separated, then all "zoo" Binturongs would be A. b. binturong.
 
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