Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts Wild Animal Park News 2012

People, they already operate several rehab centers in Jawa. This is an add-on to that. Zoos are often criticized for not doing reintroduction efforts when surplus or if breeding has been successful enough to have sufficient numbers to do so ... and now Howlett's does and you are all over them. :(
 
Joining the Walking with Lemurs experience are red-bellied lemurs, black and crowned lemurs.
 
kiang said:
Joining the Walking with Lemurs experience are red-bellied lemurs, black and crowned lemurs.
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Given the incorrect information i gave about the gelada baby in my post on page 1 & thinking both lions were female, its good to know my report was at least correct on the lemurs!!
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
People, they already operate several rehab centers in Jawa. This is an add-on to that. Zoos are often criticized for not doing reintroduction efforts when surplus or if breeding has been successful enough to have sufficient numbers to do so ... and now Howlett's does and you are all over them. :(
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I'm not one of the people who criticise zoos who don't reintroduce animals though.

I really think funds should go to animals in situ when they are already there. If there's a shortage of said animals in their native countries then reintroduction from zoos etc is a great idea.
 
I wonder how people will feel after reading Damian Aspinall's reasons for the recent spike in reintroductions - motivated, it seems, as much by his own anti-zoo feelings as by worthy conservation motives:

Why I'm letting the gorillas I love go free: Son of legendary gambler John Aspinall reveals he's releasing the animals from his family zoo back to the wild | Mail Online


I notice those feelings aren't strong enough to stop one of PL's bachelor gorilla groups moving lock, stock and barrel to Ouwehands Zoo in the next year...

I apologise now for linking people to the Daily Hate website. It's always difficult to get anything approaching 'truth' out of their articles, but it's being linked to by the Aspinall Foundation Twitter account, so we can assume it tolerably represents their views on the matter.
 
Maguari said:
I notice those feelings aren't strong enough to stop one of PL's bachelor gorilla groups moving lock, stock and barrel to Ouwehands Zoo in the next year...
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There will always be a high percentage of their animals that aren't suitable for release. Adult and adolescent 'zoo' gorillas are among them, so they would have to go to another zoo. Its no longer clear how many Ouwehands will receive from them, or which ones, as the oldest male group has pretty much fragmented now.:(
 
Pertinax said:
There will always be a high percentage of their animals that aren't suitable for release. Adult and adolescent 'zoo' gorillas are among them, so they would have to go to another zoo.
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Oh, of course. I just note that this is rather glazed-over in the article (and I wish this could have been a good-news pro-conservation reintroduction story rather than a publicity-hungry anti-zoo rant).


Pertinax said:
Its no longer clear how many Ouwehands will receive from them, or which ones, as the oldest male group has pretty much fragmented now.:(
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In which case someone needs to call Ouwehands and let them know - the entire construction site is covered in 'THE BIG FIVE' branding with multiple pictures of the five males in that group with names and birth dates! (see attached)
 

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Maguari;565744. said:
In which case someone needs to call Ouwehands and let them know - the entire construction site is covered in 'THE BIG FIVE' branding with multiple pictures of the five males in that group with names and birth dates! (see attached)
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Yes I think they haven't bothered to take all this stuff down. But one of those males is dead, and only three are currently still living as a group. I have recently heard that eventually Ouwehands will be able to take a lot of male Gorillas though- something like up to twenty?:eek:

Agree that press articles like that paint an over- rosy picture and ignore all the 'unsuitable' aspects of reintroductions.
 
Suddenly the whole idea of the reshuffle at Port Lympne, with certain places being out of bounds, and with these gorillas moving. Is this a sign that Port Lympne is in the future as Damian Aspinall says, closing down could be a very viable future do we think?
 
I remember Gerald Durrell saying that he would prefer it if the world didn't need zoos, as this would mean that there were no endangered species. Unfortunately, many species are endangered and zoos have saved a few from extinction, but this is a very small number compared to the number of species that have been kept in zoos.

I agree with mazfc that it is better to spend funds to preserve animals in their natural habitat. That was one reason why I was upset during London Zoo's presentation to encourage people to pay towards the £3 million 'needed' for Tiger Territory. Of this £300,000 would go towards helping preserve Sumatran tigers in the wild. The rest would go towards a big enclosure for tigers at the zoo. If the figures had been reversed, this may have helped save Sumatran tigers in the wild. There are about 250 Sumatran tigers in zoos and this subspecies has been saved from extinction. I joined the RSPB because of it paying towards preserving habitat in Sumatra. That is true conservation, not an expensive new enclosure for captive animals.

At least Damien Aspinall is putting his money where his mouth is and using it to send captive animals back to the wild. Whether this will be successful, I don't know, but zoos should be doing a lot more to keep animals in natural conditions to replenish natural populations. I get a bit tired of some zoos talking about conserving endangered animals while a large percentage of their stock are 'Not Yet Threatened' or are common in zoos and have already been saved from extinction.

Zoos should be looking more towards saving smaller species that could survive in small areas of natural habitat, rather than keep on promoting large ABC animals that would not survive in the wild, even if there was enough space for them. 'Meerkats United' showed that a relatively small mammal can become popular (too popular?) and there are many other small animals that could do with being promoted in order to save them from extinction. Hopefully 'Nick Baker's Weird Creatures' has promoted some of them and marketting departments at zoos should look beyond current crowd pleasers and accept that other species could be just as popular.
 
The males that are meant to be going to Holland are Bitono, Jah, Popa, Otana and Barney. The article that is posted above says that Djala's group at Port lympne will be leaving and moved to a protected reserve in Gabon !!!!!!.

GB
 
Maguari said:
I wonder how people will feel after reading Damian Aspinall's reasons for the recent spike in reintroductions - motivated, it seems, as much by his own anti-zoo feelings as by worthy conservation motives:

Why I'm letting the gorillas I love go free: Son of legendary gambler John Aspinall reveals he's releasing the animals from his family zoo back to the wild | Mail Online


I notice those feelings aren't strong enough to stop one of PL's bachelor gorilla groups moving lock, stock and barrel to Ouwehands Zoo in the next year...

I apologise now for linking people to the Daily Hate website. It's always difficult to get anything approaching 'truth' out of their articles, but it's being linked to by the Aspinall Foundation Twitter account, so we can assume it tolerably represents their views on the matter.
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Oh crikey - reading this really does make me feel rather unwell (and not only because of the newspaper from which the article stems).

I loathe the arguments of the anti-zoo lobby - obviously - but, if their beliefs are held sincerely, I respect those who make such arguments. But this is just appalling - not least because DA sounds so flippant in what he says about zoos, and there is that real smell of hypocrisy to it all.

That Durrell thing mentioned above - that he longed for the day when all zoos could close - is just nonsense. If keeping an animal in captivity is cruel, then the animal's rareness does not make it less cruel; if it is acceptable to "deprive" an animal of its "liberty", then it is no less acceptable if the animal concerned is relatively common. The implication of what these numbskulls say is that zoos are cruel, but it is a cruelty worth allowing for a greater good. This, to me, is the worst argument of all: if they sincerely believe that it is wrong to maintain captive animals, then they shouldn't do so.

I was vaguely contemplating a trip to Howletts tomorrow, given the rare appearance of the sun. I think I might pass, and head to somewhere that is happy to be what it is....
 
sooty mangabey said:
I was vaguely contemplating a trip to Howletts tomorrow, given the rare appearance of the sun. I think I might pass, and head to somewhere that is happy to be what it is....
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I really would be interested to know what the staff 'on the ground' at Howletts and Port Lympne think of this. Can't imagine I'd be very happy in this situation.
 
Also noted from that article that three Black Rhino (Grumetti, Zawadi and Monduli) are being shipped to a reserve in Tanzania today.
 
mazfc said:
I'm not one of the people who criticise zoos who don't reintroduce animals though.

I really think funds should go to animals in situ when they are already there. If there's a shortage of said animals in their native countries then reintroduction from zoos etc is a great idea.
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In the case of the langurs and gibbons the story has been that most are in captivity and first we require secure habitat. Something the JAF has a.o. been working on for the Indonesian government for the last few years. There is no harm in having some well socialized primates from the zoos in Kent to be released with langurs and gibbons emanating from captivity and having gone through the process of rehabilitation. I do not see the difference there and JAF is doing in situ work full stop.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
In the case of the langurs and gibbons the story has been that most are in captivity and first we require secure habitat. Something the JAF has a.o. been working on for the Indonesian government for the last few years. There is no harm in having some well socialized primates from the zoos in Kent to be released with langurs and gibbons emanating from captivity and having gone through the process of rehabilitation. I do not see the difference there and JAF is doing in situ work full stop.
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I think we will have to agree to disagree. Full stop :D ;)
 
GorillaBoy said:
The article that is posted above says that Djala's group at Port lympne will be leaving and moved to a protected reserve in Gabon !!!!!!.
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First time such a (group) relocation has ever been attempted. I wonder if it will be successfull but actually think it is a good idea and certainly worth trying. If it is successful I wonder if it will lead to them relocating some of the other Gorilla groups back to Africa in the future?

Moving out Rhinos and Gorillas like this also helps to preclude the need for them to build yet more accomodation, which saves them vast sums of money. But the far reaching consequences for the Parks and their future direction remain unclear from all this, would they shrink or even close(?) in the future, though presumably the larger proportion of species they keep will still have to remain in captivity longterm so maybe they'll just carry on as before.

The part about 'disliking all zoos' etc is a bit hypocritical as nowadays they do animal exchanges/movements with other more conventional zoos. He says Howletts and PL are still prisons but 'nice' ones, rather a blanket statement I think, as I wouldn't call the Elephant accomodation at either park better than many other zoos, in fact its worse than some, nor some of the smaller cat and primate cages. But its interesting to see the photo of DA with the silverback gorilla 'Kifu', it proves he/they do still go in with them, though I think Kifu's group may nowadays perhaps be the only one that gets this sort of treatment, though I'm not really sure on that. As the 'first son' of a 'first son' (Kijo being the first Gorilla ever bred there) and being such an approachable favourite, then I imagine Kifu and his group won't be following Djala's to Africa in the foreseeable future.
 
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The relocation of the gorilla group will be challenging , as it will not be possible to 'teach' them how to live in the wild , as has been done with all previous younger individuals who could be worked with closely . As Djala is not safe with humans , I wonder if an enclosed area of forest will first be used to acclimatise the group to semi-wild living . I could not imagine just letting them go .
 
Bele said:
The relocation of the gorilla group will be challenging , as it will not be possible to 'teach' them how to live in the wild , as has been done with all previous younger individuals who could be worked with closely . As Djala is not safe with humans , I wonder if an enclosed area of forest will first be used to acclimatise the group to semi-wild living . I could not imagine just letting them go .
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I guess they will have to be in some sort of enclosure to start with. The advantage of this is if they can get the adults to re-adapt as a group, the younger members will automatically do so though their elders. And there will be no need for teaching orphaned babies to try and live wild without proper group support etc.

The downside is they cannot interfere or help them in the same way as is possible with the handraised younger ones, but overall I think this is a better way of trying this.
 
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