Chester Zoo More news at Chester

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I have heard the Bornean orang-utan female Donna is going to move from Dvur Kralove to Chester in near future (There is a partial recontruction planned at the ape house in DK to start this year).
I do not know a lot about Donna, only that she is wild caught, and she never reared any of her offspring, only a male Dahi (*1998) has been saved by hand-rearing (after 7 months he was joined with her again, and he lives now in Madrid), all other died at the age of few days/months.
 
It is GREAT news about the writhed hornbills, but is there any news regarding the wrinkled hornbills?

I'll shake up a bottle of fanta and hope the effect is the same!

As Mrs Overall would say "Oooh I am pleased!"
 
Jana said:
I have heard the Bornean orang-utan female Donna is going to move from Dvur Kralove to Chester in near future (There is a partial recontruction planned at the ape house in DK to start this year).
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Interesting...

Is this a temporary move whilst the house is rebuilt or is it a more long-term move? If it's temporary, then how long do you expect her to stay at Chester.

Chester's current females may be pregnant (this rumour has died down recently though...) so if Donna is present during the births, she may pick up some tips from Martha and her daughters. Martha appears to be a very capable and experienced mother so her experience may rub off on Donna.

On the other hand, she may be the female who is being paired with Sibu, which makes everything I wrote before irrelevant... ;)
 
CZJimmy said:
On the other hand, she may be the female who is being paired with Sibu, which makes everything I wrote before irrelevant... ;)
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I suspect(but I could be wrong of course) they will try her first with Sibu but if it doesn't work maybe she will then join the group. Sibu isn't good with females- he seems either hostile or indifferent to most he's been introduced to at Chester, Barcelona and Apenheul. Finding a female to make up a compatable pair successfully with him could be difficult.
 
CZJimmy said:
Interesting...

Is this a temporary move whilst the house is rebuilt or is it a more long-term move? If it's temporary, then how long do you expect her to stay at Chester.

Chester's current females may be pregnant (this rumour has died down recently though...) so if Donna is present during the births, she may pick up some tips from Martha and her daughters. Martha appears to be a very capable and experienced mother so her experience may rub off on Donna.

On the other hand, she may be the female who is being paired with Sibu, which makes everything I wrote before irrelevant... ;)
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Honestly to say I do not know if it is temporary or long term, but I will try to find it out.

I have less hope Donna could improve her muther skills wathing other females giving birth. She has lived for many years together with other female Zaneta, and Zaneta has brought up at least 3 infants without problems during this time (Nona, Batu and Besar). Donna does care about her youngs, she feeds them and carries them, but not perfectly. Her last boy Raya (*2006) died at six months due to malnourischment and pneumony.

I have gone through some annual reports and googled a little bit regarding Donna and she looks like a very interesting personality. She is considered with distance the most clever animal that has ever lived at this zoo (acc. to director), she is a night mare for the veterinars (she is excellent in catching narcotic shots in flight), she is a challenge for the keepers (she mauled a keeper some 2 years ago) and for exhibit designers (she has escaped repeatedly during the years). On the other hand she is very human oriented, she comunicates a lot with visitors, she loves painting on paper, she knows how to use screw caps, keys etc. She even waits after the birth of her babies till the keepers come to work in the morning and put them the umbilical cord? through bars so they can cut it out.
 
Jana said:
she is a challenge for for exhibit designers (she has escaped repeatedly during the years).
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She could make a good team with Sibu then. ;) He has not actually escaped(yet) but I believe he specialises in damaging his enclosures- at Barcelona he began to take the cage apart I think.
 
It sounds as if my visits to Chester are about to become much more interesting. I missed the previous orang utan escape by two weeks.
 
bongorob said:
It sounds as if my visits to Chester are about to become much more interesting. I missed the previous orang utan escape by two weeks.
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I didn`t saw him on top of the building from the old car park,as they had already shut the zoo and were slowly moving poeple out of the zoo,when i arrived so a had a drive round to the old car park to see if i could see any thing,strange thing was although the zoo was shut you could stillwalk down the bridle way that runs down the middle of the zoo.
 
bongorob said:
It sounds as if my visits to Chester are about to become much more interesting. I missed the previous orang utan escape by two weeks.
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I would much rather meet 'Puloh' strolling down the path toward me than 'Sibu'- I can tell you that.;)
 
I've only just noticed some of the zoo's planned imports for 2008. Mainly because I received all the CD info on paper today.

Additional Okapi are expected.

The Small Mammal Breeding Centre should open during the year, having been put back by 12 months. This will result in an increase in Murids at the zoo including Arabian Jird (Meriones arimalus) and Cretan Spiny Mouse (Acomys minous).

Work is ongoing to acquire many more species of Asian freshwater turtles, and Boelen's Python (Morelia boeleni) should be coming.

Unfortunately it is planned to hold all these animals in off show exhibits.
 
That's a shame. Where do you get all this info from? and what cd/notes are you talking about? is it something that members get?
 
The CD was included with the NEZS Annual Report, available to all senior members. The info is also now on Chester Zoo's website.

Chester Zoo - Annual Report 2007

The information featured in my last post can be found on page 139 of the appendicies.
 
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