Highland Wildlife Park Highland wildlife park news 2015

kiang

kiang

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15+ year member
Abridged from the blog, looking ahead to this year;

Early 2015 will also see the arrival of a female polar bear at Highland Wildlife Park. Her large enclosure has been completed and is ready to house the new arrival. This will be a very significant move and will, we hope, help towards securing the future of this species, which is threatened by habitat destruction and global warming. If she settles quickly into her new home, introductions to one of the polar bear males may happen as early as April. It is still incredible to think that we may even have polar bear cubs as early as December at Highland Wildlife Park. The last polar bear cub born in the UK was 23 years ago.

Highland Wildlife Park also is likely to get a new male European grey wolf this year and a new female wolverine. The snow leopard enclosure that we announced towards at the end of last year is likely to be completed by early summer, with a male and female arriving from the European breeding programme before this date. In addition we have high hopes for a new pair of European beavers we established at the Park last year, with kits perhaps being born as early as May.
 
From the blog; We have just received approval from the Indian Central Zoo Authority to send them another two female satyr tragopans for their conservation programme in Darjeeling. One bird hatched in the Highlands in 2014 and another is from a World Pheasant Association member.
 
Fantastic news about the female Polar Bear & Snow Leopards. They seem to have happened very quickly. Can't wait for our annual visit later in the year!
 
Indeed, this collection appears to be going from strength-to-strength!Shame I don't live closer.

Where was the last polar bear cub born? And, blue-sky thinking, are there plans to expand beyond the park's Eurasia theme-Rockies, Andes or Ethiopian highlands perhaps?
 
are the males / female going to be moved across to each other once the female is settled so they can breed
 
Panthera1981 said:
Where was the last polar bear cub born? And, blue-sky thinking, are there plans to expand beyond the park's Eurasia theme-Rockies, Andes or Ethiopian highlands perhaps?
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I think the last polar bear born and raised in the UK was at Edinburgh zoo.

I spoke to Doug Richardson a few years back about the vicuna group and there were no plans to extend the collection beyond the all male group of vicuna into new world species.

A male will be introduced to the female in her enclosure.
 
Bwassa said:
Fantastic news about the female Polar Bear & Snow Leopards. They seem to have happened very quickly. Can't wait for our annual visit later in the year!
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One Snow Leopard will come from Marwell when the enclosure is ready.
Brilliant news about a female Polar Bear!
 
Monday, should see the arrival of Victoria a female polar bear from Aalborg zoo.
 
kiang said:
Monday, should see the arrival of Victoria a female polar bear from Aalborg zoo.
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...and she's left Aalborg this afternoon :) not long to go now

Bit of background on Victoria - she was born at Rostock in December 1996 before going to Aalborg in 1998. Since then she has been one of their breeding females and has produced several cubs in the past
 
Pertinax said:
Nisha said:
...and she's left Aalborg this afternoon :) not long to go now
By remarkable coincidence there seem to be two Polar Bears in transit to the UK today, one to each of the two 'Polar Bear' Parks. How strange is that?
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Not necessarily a coincidence - quarantine vans (which any animal under rabies restrictions has to be legally moved in) cost several thousand to hire at a time.. So quite often the transports will be shared with several animals from different zoos entering the UK together in the same vehicle which halves the cost if two zoos co-operate. In this case it would be quite easy for them to dock into Hull tomorrow, drop off the male at Yorkshire before going upto the Highlands with Victoria
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Nisha said:
So quite often the transports will be shared with several animals from different zoos entering the UK together in the same vehicle which halves the cost if two zoos co-operate.
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Thanks for the explanation. I did think it was an extreme coincidence but hadn't twigged what has probably happened.:o
 
Full article on new female polar bear here: Highland Wildlife Park ?

UK’s Only Female Polar Bear to Arrive in Scotland
Wednesday, 25 Mar 2015

The Highland Wildlife Park is delighted to welcome Victoria the female polar bear on Wednesday 25 March to join resident males Walker and Arktos, with the hope of hearing the pitter patter of polar bear cub paws in the future.

Polar_Bear_Victoria.jpg

Victoria is arriving from Aalborg Zoo in Denmark, but was originally born on 12 December 1996 at Rostock Zoo in Germany, and will be the only female polar bear currently in the UK.

Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections for Highland Wildlife Park, said:

"We are delighted to welcome a female polar bear to the Highlands. Victoria will need to settle in, but visitors should be able to meet our new arrival in a couple of weeks. Her enclosure is completely separate to Walker and Arktos', as male and female polar bears live separately in the wild. During the polar bear breeding season, which general falls between March and May, we will gradually introduce her to Arktos and the two will stay together until the two hopefully mate, when the male will be returned to the bachelor enclosure.

"A great deal of thought and planning has gone into developing Victoria's enclosure. It is a large area featuring a large pond and plenty of natural ground for her to explore. In addition to the main enclosure, there is an adjacent smaller holding enclosure with its own pool that will initially house the male until the signs are right for the introduction. This extra enclosure allows us to also use a visiting male from another zoo, should the breeding programme recommend it, and we are not aware of any other polar bear breeding facility that has this degree of flexibility.

"A polar bear has not been born in the UK for many years and we hope that our novel approach to enclosure design and the correspondingly unique husbandry regime will quickly translate into success. The birth and rearing of polar bears cubs will be of real value to the regional breeding programme, help to highlight the plight of polar bears in the wild, and will be incredibly positive for Highland Wildlife Park."

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has a history of designing state of the art polar bear enclosures that meet the animals' needs to the highest level possible. Animal experts from the Park have since been invited to consult and advise on other polar bear enclosures both in the UK and around the world.

Last September 60 military personnel arrived in the Highlands to help the Park's 'Works Team' create the visitor access to Victoria's new home. The Engineers from 71 Engineer Regiment and a contingent from the South Dakota National Guard kicked off the project with the construction of a 300 metre (984ft) walkway out to the one hectare polar bear enclosure on the south west side of the Highland Wildlife Park. The project has been a massive undertaking and included work on four separate construction areas, digging in over 200 posts by hand that were up to six metres high.

Victoria has previously given birth to cubs in 2008. Milak, her first cub, became an online sensation when hundreds of thousands of people from 75 countries around the world followed the early days of the cub's life whilst still in the maternity den. It was one of the first times that webcams were able to show what life is like with a mother and a newborn cub. Last December, at natural dispersal age, Milak was transported to Zoo Saint-Félicien in Quebec as part of an exchange to augment the Canadian captive polar bear programme.

The last female polar bear to live in the UK was Mercedes, who died at the old age of around 30 years old in April 2011. The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, alongside a generous benefactor, saved Mercedes from certain death in Canada in the early 80s when she came to live at Edinburgh Zoo, before later in life moving to live in the radically different enclosure at Highland Wildlife Park where she was eventually joined by the young Walker.

Visitors to Highland Wildlife Park will be able to meet Victoria in early April.
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Well spotted. I guess I just imagined that it said last female in a UK zoo, especially as they have normally made the distinction in pretty much all the previous polar bear press releases.
 
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