Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts news 2007-2008

tetrapod said:
Sorry, I didn't make myself clear. The wolves at Howletts are (as far as know) pure Iberian. Howletts received the wolves possibly before the Norfolk transaction. I know the carnivore keepers (Howletts) were very keen on getting into the Iberian program. As somebody already mentioned the Aspinall zoos always look to species that nobody else is doing much with.
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I think that was me...(the last bit)

So do you know where Howletts got the Iberian wiolves from? A Spanish zoo or wildlife collection? Do you know if they have bred from them at all yet(even unsuccessful breeding)? And whereabouts at the park are they kept?

Norfolk WP has sent away all its major animal species and is now operating as a 'Farm Park' as far as I know...
 
The start of this thread mentions iberian wolf cubs last year. ISIS reports 2.3 Spanish wolves at Howletts, with 3 cubs born in the last year. I think (from someone else's description) they are housed in one of the two former timber wolf enclosures, near to the sumatran tigers, as opposed to the one by the entrance.
 
johnstoni said:
The start of this thread mentions iberian wolf cubs last year. ISIS reports 2.3 Spanish wolves at Howletts, with 3 cubs born in the last year. I think (from someone else's description) they are housed in one of the two former timber wolf enclosures, near to the sumatran tigers, as opposed to the one by the entrance.
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I really want to see these when I next visit, hence the enquiry. I guess thats the enclosures behind the mansion that later held the Dholes?

I thought it was rather odd when they moved the(North American) wolves to the enclosure near the entrance, they are in an open 'Orchard' area now. The Dholes nowadays have a similar enclosure too but it seems to suit them better.
 
orang09 said:
wow geldas moved to howletts - now 3 zoos have these rare and threatned speacies - good to hear about the anteater and the wolves
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just what i thought, apart from colchester what is the other zoo?
 
oh yes i saw that yesterday, stupid me! where did the howletts and edinburghs one come from?
 
kiang said:
port lympne originally had their black rhino mixed with cape buffalo.
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for all primate spieces at howletts and port lympne, i would creat an open topped enclosures for all primates.
move all rhinos into african reserve

Whate hapeend to cape Buffalo, were did they go/come from?
 
I always thought that it was a great shame that all of Mr A's investment in Sumatran Rhino at Port Lympne never paid off. The 'Sumatra' house and adjoining paddocks were fantastic for their day, and Torgamba flourished there while he lived at the park. The loss of the 2 females was very bad luck indeed!!

The Guinea baboon group at Port Lympne has been split into 2. Less than half of the animals are still kept in the original 'holding cage' just before the main entrance adjacent to the original main gatehouse. The rest of the group have been moved to a new purpose built enclosure set between the woodland open colobus enclosure adjoining the black rhino paddock behind the 'sables' shed on the main drive, (just to avoid any confusion the 'sables' shed formerly housed sable antelope a decade or more ago, but was rebuilt to house black rhino). It was originally planned to mix the baboons with the black rhino (note the plastic spacers added to the rhino fence to accomodate the 'hot wire' required to keep the baboons in). However, when working on the road that passes through the paddock a JCB caused the road to subside and this would have allowed the baboons to escape. The plan has been put on hold until the road can be sured up.
 
Cat-Man said:
for all primate spieces at howletts and port lympne, i would creat an open topped enclosures for all primates.
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I wish they would!
But I don't think they have enough space - there are a great many groups of monkeys at Howletts. I don't think the open-topped enclosures that they are currently using/building would confine their gibbons either.

Alan
 
PJ said:
The Guinea baboon group at Port Lympne has been split into 2. . . . The plan has been put on hold until the road can be sured up.
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Thank you for that information. I saw the new house and arrangements you describe. I'll be very interested to see how well it works when it's complete.
BTW, do you know what they are building in the corner of the bison paddock at PL, just uphill from the fishing cats?

Alan
 
PJ said:
The Guinea baboon group at Port Lympne has been split into 2. Less than half of the animals are still kept in the original 'holding cage' just before the main entrance
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Why have they split the Guinea baboon troop into two? Was it so as not to have the cage empty?
 
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gentle lemur said:
I wish they would!
But I don't think they have enough space - there are a great many groups of monkeys at Howletts.

Alan
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There is Woodland behind the mansion where there are a lot of semi-derelict wood & wire cages. This area could be redone for primates using open air enclosures..

At Port Lympne there is a sizeable block of woodland in the area of the existing Monkey enclosures. I would like to see the Drills and Dianas in particular in open air enclosures of their 'new' design. They could perhaps add on to the existing old enclosures if need be. When I enquired about the Drills though they said there were no current plans to do this.:( perhaps in future though?
 
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Pertinax said:
There is Woodland behind the mansion where there are a lot of semi-derelict wood & wire cages. This area could be redone for primates using open air enclosures..

At Port Lympne there is a sizeable block of woodland in the area of the existing Monkey enclosures. I would like to see the Drills and Dianas in particular in open air enclosures of their 'new' design. They could perhaps add on to the existing old enclosures if need be. When I enquired about the Drills though they said there were no current plans to do this.:( perhaps in future though?
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The enclosures they have built so far are for large groups of monkeys (or mixed species); but even a smaller group would still need a much larger area than their current cage to give them the same amount of space, because of the width of the electrified barrier. They could put a couple behind the mansion at Howletts, but there is some private space there too (including a swimming pool) and they would have to fell a number of large trees. I'm trying to remember how many monkey groups Howletts keeps in the old style cages, I estimate at least 8 groups of langurs (more Javan, 2 spectacled, melalophos, 2 comata and mitrata) add the de Brazzas group and the pair of Heck's macaques and you need a lot of space - even if you leave the gibbons where they are.
That doesn't apply at PL of course because there is much more space there and I agree that the drills and Dianas would be good candidates for open enclosures. I think the drills would have to be on their own, but I wonder if they could find another species to double up with the the Dianas, as they keep de Brazzas with colobus?

Alan
 
I agree the strip of woodland behind the mansion at Howletts is very narrow- on reflection maybe not very suitable for this purpose as some trees would have to be felled(to create barriers) and they probably wouldn't want to reduce the boundary effect of the trees in that area. There is still scope there to do something though.

At Port Lympne there is the big block of underused woodland just asking for development as monkey enclosures. Again, as you say though, each time one of these open enclosures is made, some woodland gets lost. But I certainly wouldn't mind seeing at least one large block enclosed by an electric fence and given over to those Drills! In a large enough space you could probably keep Dianas with them too...
 
dianas, De brazzas, samango, colobus, drills and Guinia baboons could all share 1 enclosure!

P.S
What Happend to cape buffalo
 
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