Manatees In UK Zoos?

B

bugs

Well-Known Member
Have Manatees ever been kept in the UK?

Also does anyone know what the latest plans are to keep manatees in the planned Bristol National Conservation Park or as part of Edinburgh Masterplan?

Finally how easy would it be to keep this animal in the UK? Would there be the same legal/ethical issues that prevent dolphins being kept in captivity in this country?

Bugs
 
London Zoo Kept Manatees in the past. If I remember correctly they have been housed in the aquarium and also in what is presently the Blackburn Pavillion (in one of the three circular pools that were built to house crocodilians).

Westminster Aquarium also held Manatees as did the Manchester Aquarium (both in the 1870s). I have a feeling that there may have been one or two other Aquariums that exhibited them in the latter part of the 19th Century: Glasgow? Brighton?).

There have been rumours in recent years of one or two major collections adding them to their inventories. Hollywood Towers? Colchester? the planned new collection at Glasgow?
 
I remember reading about African manatees kept in London at the end of the 19th century (1870s?); they didn't last long, though.

Although the general husbandry of manatees isn't too difficult (at least in comparison to other more demanding species), it's quite pricey (size of enclosure, heating, filtration, food...). The legal issues here should be pretty much the same as in the rest of the EU. And about the "ethic" issue: luckily, the 'dolphin hugger' fraction of the anti-zoo lobby doesn't seem to be very interested in manatees-see Nuremberg Zoo...
 
Sun Wukong said:
I remember reading about African manatees kept in London at the end of the 19th century (1870s?); they didn't last long, though.

Although the general husbandry of manatees isn't too difficult (at least in comparison to other more demanding species), it's quite pricey (size of enclosure, heating, filtration, food...). The legal issues here should be pretty much the same as in the rest of the EU. And about the "ethic" issue: luckily, the 'dolphin hugger' fraction of the anti-zoo lobby doesn't seem to be very interested in manatees-see Nuremberg Zoo...
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly London kept West African manatee in 1875, died after 4-5 weeks. The only place in the world to keep this amazing species now is Toba Aquarium in Japan I think. They imported a pair not that many years ago.
 
@kiglezi: I could imagine that some African institutions might keep African manatees-but that'd probably just be a temporary thing...
 
I think the NWCP are still keen to get manatees; they're the animal featured on the site banner. What's the chances of Biota! getting them when it eventually opens?
 
Manatees in the UK

To the best of my knowledge, only three places in the UK have ever kept manatee:-

London Zoo
Brighton Aquarium
old Westminster Aquarium

Tim
 
The first manatee to reach London Zoo alive was in 1875 and it came not from west Africa but from Demerara in South America. It survived just five weeks.

The next in the UK arrived in Glasgow in 1878, from where it went to London by train and was housed in the Westminster Aquarium. It was dead by the end of the same year.

The third came to London Zoo in March 1889, again from Demerara, and it survived until the end of July.
 
Manatees in UK Zoos

Yesterday I posted the following:-

To the best of my knowledge, only three places in the UK have ever kept manatee:-

London Zoo
Brighton Aquarium
old Westminster Aquarium

Since then, I was very interested to read the post about manatees in the old Manchester Aquarium.

I would very interested, please, to learn any further details

Many thanks

Tim
 
I have a London Zoo guide from the 1930s which says they had a pair of manatees in the Aquarium. Species unknown, but probably West Indian. The book Zoo Quest to Guyana by Sir David mentions aquiring a manatee, which also lived in the Aquarium, in the 1950s. That could have been West Indian or Amazon.
 
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