Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoo News 2024
- Thread starter UngulateNerd92
- Start date
I would have preferred for it to have been someone from inside the industry. Catman does make a valid point that there aren't going to be many people with that experience.
I like it though that she sounds like a long term regular visitor. Hopefully she would have been disappointed by the decline under her predecessor.
I like it though that she sounds like a long term regular visitor. Hopefully she would have been disappointed by the decline under her predecessor.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
I think you could and obviously should have animal experts in the team but the main roles for this sort of CEO will be fund raising, leading on forming and delivering strategic plans, marketing and running the business at scale. She has a relevant degree and interest and a background in running a profitable business. There’s not going to be an infinite pool of animal managers who also wants to and are able to manage a major business. Few industries can’t benefit in some ways from others. For me the key is whether she listens to her experts when making decisions about the collection from an animal point of view but then she’d be a bit silly not to.
Alwaysevergreen
Well-Known Member
Whilst what you say is true, it is why I personally would like to see three senior directors when it comes to a Zoo.
A COO / COD who has at least some history in the field, or willing to learn, or a passion for the industry and happy to seek guidance from those in the industry.
A CFO / CFD, who will handle the financial side of the business, analysing budgets and for this you want someone with a successful history in business
Finally, a CMO / CMD, who will purely have the task of marketing and fundraising, as well as social media which is vital in this era.
It is very rare that you will come across a candidate with all three, and therefore the appointment of a purely animal based CEO could lead to business issues and lack of ideas and presence, but then when you focus on business and that level, it's normally the animals that get the poor position.
Most major companies, may have a CEO, but they will almost certainly have directors / managers who are experts in their field below. Whether a lot of zoos do this, I am unsure.
Having worked closely with a number of marketing / fundraising teams within zoos over the last couple of years, some of them have absolutely baffled me how they have a role in that area, given of ideas they have, and how they have very little modern day grasp.
Hopefully this will be a great appointment for Marwell and the zoo can thrive again, but it will all come down to the team working with her.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
I agree those are all essentials. Coming from her background I’d hope she’d advocate for and want those roles around her particularly in marketing and fund raising and visitor management and the animal roles are crucial so a real expert in that area is needed to complement the team.
HelloCrossy67
Well-Known Member
The annual animal audit has just begun! Will be curious to see the collection's changes between both now and a year ago under Cretney, and now and a year's time under Read!
The Inventory for 2023 has been released.
At the start of 23 Marwell held 138 species; as of 24 a net increase has been seen with now 145 species in all.
Mammals saw a net increase of one, and the impressive numbers of some mammals already brought up is noticeable - 5 bongo, 5 okapi, 5 dik dik, 6 river hogs, 9 banteng. All the same a lack of a male plains zebra is evident, and small numbers of kudu, gazelle, Arabian oryx etc continue to hang on. Otherwise little of note.
Birds are down by one - from 32 to 31. One interesting thing I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere was the acquisition of bush thick knee. Hopefully this starts an interesting chapter where the bird collection is concerned.
Not entirely unexpectedly - reptiles were the biggest winners of 2023 with a net increase of 4. Fish amphibians and invertebrates are all up by one.
Looking good!
At the start of 23 Marwell held 138 species; as of 24 a net increase has been seen with now 145 species in all.
Mammals saw a net increase of one, and the impressive numbers of some mammals already brought up is noticeable - 5 bongo, 5 okapi, 5 dik dik, 6 river hogs, 9 banteng. All the same a lack of a male plains zebra is evident, and small numbers of kudu, gazelle, Arabian oryx etc continue to hang on. Otherwise little of note.
Birds are down by one - from 32 to 31. One interesting thing I haven’t seen mentioned anywhere was the acquisition of bush thick knee. Hopefully this starts an interesting chapter where the bird collection is concerned.
Not entirely unexpectedly - reptiles were the biggest winners of 2023 with a net increase of 4. Fish amphibians and invertebrates are all up by one.
Looking good!
HelloCrossy67
Well-Known Member
Super positive overall, with an increase of mammals. However, Its worrying to see the low numbers of a lot of species, as dillotest0 says. Not only of hoofstock, like the Oryx, Zebra, Roan Antelope, Kudu etc. But even of staple species like Meerkats!
Further, does anyone know of the plans for the 2 siamang in the "Eco Island" currently?
Further, does anyone know of the plans for the 2 siamang in the "Eco Island" currently?
Here's a link to Marwell's inventory, Rob
Animals at Marwell Zoo Hampshire | Marwell Wildlife Zoo in UK
Animals at Marwell Zoo Hampshire | Marwell Wildlife Zoo in UK
I think it could be last male was three years ago, and the females are getting old, like the Lesser Kudu, and Beisa Oryx need to bring animals in from Europe, I hope that happens, another female Banteng is due to give birth soon no stopping them.
This would be immensely disappointing. A travesty, even.
Marwell were once well known for their wonderful hoof stock collection including a range of rare antelopes and 3 species of Zebra?, What happened?
I do think lack of interest is part of the problem. Zoos in the States have been invested long with the Arabian Oryx - but I think that history's parallel in Europe is with the Scimitar-horned. Eitherway both are excellent animals for highlighting the role of zoos in conservation. And I do think that the current setup would work if there were a larger programme in the UK - but Marwell being the only one, now limited to a herd of 3 is a bit sad to myself. Though I don't know what success Marwell had with the species in regards to breeding
It’s easy to look back on the old days with rose tinted spectacles (and iirc somebody on here did a comparison between the number of species they had a few years ago and twenty years ago and it hadn’t dropped as lot as many as people thought) but it does certainly feel like Marwell has lost some of its magic in that area.
It’s still one of the best hoofstock collections in Britain but it certainly seems like it’s lost a lot of rarities. Because I’ve visited marwell so much I’ve made the assumption that certain species are relatively common in zoos (like the Arabian oryx amongst others) but in fact aren’t, and I’ve just been lucky enough to see them so often at Marwell! It’s a sad state of affairs because the husbandry of these species is relatively simple compared to some others, and the site is so well set up for them.
I do think part of it is the herd sizes - six Grevy's Zebra is good but it's a bit of a sorry comparison to the 18 they had at the end of 2005. Though that is to say that for what animals Marwell had in great quantities all those years ago others were in more paltry numbers even back then - Mountain Zebra are arguably in a better situation now, okapi and rhino were roughly the same situation and you can make the point that animals like bongo as they are now were only somewhat more abundant way back when. Though of course there are the herds which disappeared entirely during the Cretney years; waterbuck in particular. But the newer hooved mammals are doing very well for themselves. It's really a mixed bag methinks. The Dorcas Gazelle and Arabian Oryx still lingering are still excellent species.
Marwell still has a range of rare antelopes and 3 species of zebra. So nothing "has happened".