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Thursday’s episode of Animal Park states that the 3 castrated males “arrived” at Longleat ten years ago. Does anyone know where from, or is it the programme simply being loose with it’s language?
 
Panthera1981 said:
No more intrusive than the circumstances concerning the wolves I would say which, one could argue, was more prolonged and traumatic.

Clearly the keepers must have some say as to what can and cannot be shown. The death of the Red panda cubs a few years ago, for example, has never been mentioned and Thorn’s passing was only briefly acknowledged.
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I was surprised Burke's death wasn't mentioned and they also didn't seem to show the sloths at all this year.
 
Louisa was born in 2011 moved to the park later that year(I believe) and produced a litter in 2012(unsure how many) but they died either at birth or shortly after. She then had another litter end of 2013/early 2014 that were PTS along with her. Why Longleat ever took her in or was even allowed to breed her is beyond me. Jassera had a litter in 2009(inbred with her brother I believe) that died or were PTS. There were 28 lions in 2014 although I know that 5 of those have definitely died and 11 were rehomed since 2014, persumably more may have died
 
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Kates89 said:
I was surprised Burke's death wasn't mentioned and they also didn't seem to show the sloths at all this year.
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And both hippo deaths were mentioned as a throwaway line whilst discussing the giraffe. I did feel, as part of their “Legends” episode, they could have at least done a piece on the second hippo death rather than concentrating so heavily on Thorn.

And they STILL talk about Nico!:rolleyes:
 
Panthera1981 said:
And both hippo deaths were mentioned as a throwaway line whilst discussing the giraffe. I did feel, as part of their “Legends” episode, they could have at least done a piece on the second hippo death rather than concentrating so heavily on Thorn.

And they STILL talk about Nico!:rolleyes:
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In Longleat's defence, Nico is probably the most famous animal held at the park and one intrinsically linked to a lot of staff. It's strange there was so little focus on the hippos, especially considering they dedicated so much time last summer on them. But again, I would imagine there was far more keeper interaction with Thorn, and it feels like he is responsible for half the giraffes in Europe. I guess regarding the hippos, there's not much they could add that wasn't said last year, except maybe if they still plan to gain new hippos (which I have on good authority they do).
 
cerperal said:
In Longleat's defence, Nico is probably the most famous animal held at the park and one intrinsically linked to a lot of staff. It's strange there was so little focus on the hippos, especially considering they dedicated so much time last summer on them. But again, I would imagine there was far more keeper interaction with Thorn, and it feels like he is responsible for half the giraffes in Europe. I guess regarding the hippos, there's not much they could add that wasn't said last year, except maybe if they still plan to gain new hippos (which I have on good authority they do).
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We were told by a keeper it was unlikely they'd get new hippos as it would be hard to train them to like the boats/sea lions ect. Unless they are and they're gonna put them some else rather than the lake.
 
Kates89 said:
We were told by a keeper it was unlikely they'd get new hippos as it would be hard to train them to like the boats/sea lions ect. Unless they are and they're gonna put them some else rather than the lake.
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Interesting, they'd said on the previous series they'd like to retain the species and a keeper told me the same thing - mind you, that was September last year so before Spot died.

Would be a shame if they didn't at least corner off a part of the lake for them. Hippos can coexist (relatively) peacefully with crocodiles in the wild and surely sea lions can't be that much more annoying
 
Panthera1981 said:
Thursday’s episode of Animal Park states that the 3 castrated males “arrived” at Longleat ten years ago. Does anyone know where from, or is it the programme simply being loose with it’s language?
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They were definitely born there
 
cerperal said:
Would be a shame if they didn't at least corner off a part of the lake for them. Hippos can coexist (relatively) peacefully with crocodiles in the wild and surely sea lions can't be that much more annoying
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I think they might have to, for safety reasons. New younger ones might prove a danger to the boats, at least initially, if not accustomed to the surroundings like the two old females were.
 
Panthera1981 said:
And both hippo deaths were mentioned as a throwaway line whilst discussing the giraffe. I did feel, as part of their “Legends” episode, they could have at least done a piece on the second hippo death rather than concentrating so heavily on Thorn.

And they STILL talk about Nico!:rolleyes:
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It drives me mad how the presenters talk about Nico as if he belonged to them.

Althought tbf most of the programme drives me mad, I watch very much with fastforwarding.
 
Pertinax said:
I think they might have to, for safety reasons. New younger ones might prove a danger to the boats, at least initially, if not accustomed to the surroundings like the two old females were.
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Very true, my logic is that Longleat's previous hippos were all wild-caught and seemingly had little interest in the boats - however, health and safety has come a long way since the 70s.

I guess I'm just desperate for the number of collections with common hippos to at the very least stay the same.

JoB198 said:
It drives me mad how the presenters talk about Nico as if he belonged to them.
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I don't get that feeling from it, Ben and Kate are part of the furniture at Longleat and spent well over a decade interacting with Nico as close as the keepers do. They talk about Anne in a similar way (though I do wish she was mentioned more often)
 
JoB198 said:
It drives me mad how the presenters talk about Nico as if he belonged to them.

Althought tbf most of the programme drives me mad, I watch very much with fastforwarding.
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This was the very first series where I’ve not had to fast forward any of it. Really like that there are no longer any ‘coming up’ bits at the start, end or during.
 
cerperal said:
Very true, my logic is that Longleat's previous hippos were all wild-caught and seemingly had little interest in the boats - however, health and safety has come a long way since the 70s.

I guess I'm just desperate for the number of collections with common hippos to at the very least stay the same.


I don't get that feeling from it, Ben and Kate are part of the furniture at Longleat and spent well over a decade interacting with Nico as close as the keepers do. They talk about Anne in a similar way (though I do wish she was mentioned more often)
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I don't actually like them as presenters tbf. The best bits of the show for me are where it's just the keepers and the animals.

polarbear said:
This was the very first series where I’ve not had to fast forward any of it. Really like that there are no longer any ‘coming up’ bits at the start, end or during.
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They have definitely streamlined it. I'm just not always interested in all of it.
 
 
Kates89 said:
We were told by a keeper it was unlikely they'd get new hippos as it would be hard to train them to like the boats/sea lions ect. Unless they are and they're gonna put them some else rather than the lake.
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I think that line of presentation of Nile hippo is very much outdated and husbandry-wise a bit out-of-place. I wish they would make a serious effort at creating a state-of-the-art Nile hippo exhibit (away from the co-habitation with marine mammals (in sweetwaters...)!

jtrbmvcq said:
My bug bear is them still implying that the northern and southern white rhinoceros subspecies are separate species of rhinoceros!
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I wonder what good they can claim over the white rhino herd at Longleat over the last 2 decades in the first place. Absolutely nothing noteworthy, .... lest they have to admit the whole current breeding herd is a non starter. The window of opportunity on the eldest 2 cows has long since been lost) and with the youngest rhino it seems their bull Njanu is just not the one to have it ...!
 
Strathmorezoo said:
The Fennec Fox cubs born in April have been named Dot and Other, strange name but, the keeper's like it
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According to Animal Park, they were placeholder names when they were first hand-rearing them - Dot has a dot on his/her face, and Other doesn't
 
JoB198 said:
According to Animal Park, they were placeholder names when they were first hand-rearing them - Dot has a dot on his/her face, and Other doesn't
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Indeed, the names make more sense if you watch the latest series of Animal Park
 
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