Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts Wild Animal Park News 2014

3 Red-bellied Tamarins, that were kept off-show, are now on public display in the old snake enclosure by the entrance to the gorillas exhibit
 
So what's this macho going-on's with the staff going in with the big cats and other animals, apart from the immature feeding of their own ego and that of Aspinal, just what goes on in the minds of such daft unreasonable if not potentially unlawful practices. It is bad enough the staff posting their ego-trips on their own Facebook pages and on Youtube, but for an employer to actually feel that it is necessary for the owner and staff to do so when it is both wrongful, daft, goes against normal risk assessments and health & safety practices as well as licencing. Given that the employer of both parks have had previous deaths and injuries because of this daft ego-trip macho nonsense, then it makes no sense.
 
Nisha said:
A Gelada has recently been born (unsexed so far)
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Now a sulawesi crested macaque too.

No one's mentioned their crowned lemur baby, he's now 4 months old and is fully independent. The crowned and red-bellied lemurs have now been joined in the walk-through by a black & white ruffed.

White-naped mangabeys have also arrived and gone on public view.
 
bigcat speciali said:
goes against normal risk assessments and health & safety practices as well as licencing.
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Presumably this is being done out of hours and sight of the public. I thought that some years ago this was all stopped here, at least with the Carnivores, due to Zoo legislation etc. Old habits die hard though and the culture of these parks has always involved this sort of contact in the past, though I didn't know it was still going on now.
 
Lemurs said:
White-naped mangabeys have also arrived and gone on public view.
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Another new species. From Europe perhaps? So they are still adding species, despite the mantra about wanting to 'close down the parks' and release the animals in the wild, Nice idea but which is obviously an impossibility for many of the animals they have.
 
Presumably. The mangabeys are completely new additions, the red-bellied tamarins were already in the park but not on view.

Regarding tigers and keepers going in - as far as I know it’s only with the young female Siberian with the bad leg, by the lemur walk-through. She was rejected by her mum, hand reared and so is used to the couple who go in.
 
Woodland walk. I haven't seen them yet but am there on Saturday so will be able to report back properly afterwards.
 
Thnkyou Lemurs. If you are going again Saturday, maybe you could have a look at a couple of other things for me too;

1. Is the 'newest' Gorilla group(Ebeki's) nearest the Car park still split up or are they together as one group now?

2. What changes, if any, have been made to the older Gorilla enclosures in the kitchen garden area, and does Djanghou's group use both the big ones at present?

3 The sex of the newest baby Gelada (if at all possible;)) and their total now. I think it is 7 -1.4+2- but not certain.
 
There's something a bit fishy about those photos- 'Djalta'( born 1998) must be 16 years old now- the one in the photos doesn't look like an adult male of that age.:confused:

I just don't get the 'barbaric ethos' mantra. I cannot see how e.g. the rather ancient wood and wire Drill's cage at Port Lympne is any less 'barbaric' than many Primate cages in other 'zoos'. And no Drills bred at Port Lympne have, or are likely to be in the near future, returned to the wild as they are part of an EEP programme, in fact 0.2 bred there are now breeding at Munich Zoo, which manage the European Drill population. So for this species at least, what is the difference? And talk of the varied diets etc they provide them(and they undoubtedly do so) could have been taken from thirty years ago-another 'same old' mantra.

The fate of the killed Gorillas seems to have been watered down rather. No fresh news has been forthcoming in recent months and its unlikely there will be any now. They must be deciding on the future of what's left of the group too.
 
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He certainly doesn't look like Kumbuka who's just had his 17th birthday, maybe more like Paignton's 12 year olds. I don't think the book will hold many surprises.

I've just made the mistake of reading the comments below the article and am having a 'stop the world, I want to get off' moment :eek:
 
I have been sent an email from them trailing this 'reunion'- in which it says it was '23 years after she first met them'-that's a mistake as the first Gorillas she was placed with as a baby were not these, as Djalta is only 16, making that not possible( even the Mail article didn't say that). I don't know which the other Gorilla mentioned is, as 'Bims' isn't listed as an official name, but presumably its a same aged one. The Gorilla in the video/photos looks more like 8-10 years old.
 
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Pertinax said:
I have been sent an email from them trailing this 'reunion'- in which it says it was '23 years after she first met them'-that's a mistake as the first Gorillas she was placed with as a baby were not these, as Djalta is only 16, making that not possible( even the Mail article didn't say that). I don't know which the other Gorilla mentioned is, as 'Bims' isn't listed as an official name, but presumably its a same aged one. The Gorilla in the video/photos looks more like 8-10 years old.
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Or maybe its Lord Lucan in a gorilla suit! Y'know Aspinall Senior had to get rid of him somewhere!;)
 
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