lechweoryx
Well-Known Member
I take it that the zebra would be the dominant species if they were to be mixed. Is the paddock large enough for the two species to have there own space if they wanted to get away from the other species?
Marwell Wildlife My Monthly Updates 2011 #1
- Thread starter Zambar
- Start date
- Status
I take it that the zebra would be the dominant species if they were to be mixed. Is the paddock large enough for the two species to have there own space if they wanted to get away from the other species?
Its not huge but probably sufficient for both to share it. Places like Artis Zoo(Amsterdam) keep(or kept) Black Wildebeest and Grevy Zebras together in a similar or smaller sized area.
If there's a problem a simple dividing fence between their two hardstanding areas would give both species a (smaller) paddock- I cannot understand why they have still not done this. Similarly with adding proper swinging/brachiation facilities for the Siamangs. Another summer comes round and still no changes.
If there's a problem a simple dividing fence between their two hardstanding areas would give both species a (smaller) paddock- I cannot understand why they have still not done this. Similarly with adding proper swinging/brachiation facilities for the Siamangs. Another summer comes round and still no changes.
Black wildebeeest do have a reputation for being aggressive sometimes. But other zoos in europe keep them successfully as mixed exhibits and I think probably Newquay do with theirs also. I don't think concern over mixing is any excuse to confine them permanently like this. I would prefer to see them moved to housing where they could access a paddock, even if not with other species. I don't understand why Marwell went to the trouble of importing them if this is how they intended to display them longterm.
Even better- send them to Newquay and reunite the two pairs again!!
Even better- send them to Newquay and reunite the two pairs again!!
Im glad that Marwell did get the Black Wildebeest back but i hate seeing them always shut in on the hard stand. if they are worried about mixing them could they not let them out on different days to the zebra.
Also would the young female need to be moved on soon as she is getting older and still in with the male
Also would the young female need to be moved on soon as she is getting older and still in with the male
Jordan-Jaguar97
Well-Known Member
I emailed Marwell about two-months ago and the young female is to be moved sometime this year.
lechweoryx
Well-Known Member
Was the plan to just keep a pair or to build up a herd? They will need more unrelated females if a herd is going to grow.
No idea. But with the current situation they can't keep a 'herd' though of course they are much better exhibited that way. I think this was a short-sighted acquisition if they can't manage them any better than this.
I wonder if the young female will go to Newquay, or elsewhere. Probably the Newquay and Marwell original pairs are related as they arrived together from the same(?) source.
I wonder if the young female will go to Newquay, or elsewhere. Probably the Newquay and Marwell original pairs are related as they arrived together from the same(?) source.
lechweoryx
Well-Known Member
I believe both pairs were originally from the same herd.
Phooto
Member
Enjoyed reading back through these updates, I've noticed that while Marwell always announce their births, they don't often announce the deaths.
On a visit last Saturday, a keeper told me when I asked where he was, that Boomer, the male Ostrich who fathered six chicks last year had died. I always made a point of seeing him when I visited, it felt like we were friends. Does anyone know when he actually died?
Anyway, some pics from Saturday are here - Marwell Zoo
On a visit last Saturday, a keeper told me when I asked where he was, that Boomer, the male Ostrich who fathered six chicks last year had died. I always made a point of seeing him when I visited, it felt like we were friends. Does anyone know when he actually died?
Anyway, some pics from Saturday are here - Marwell Zoo
Just put up photos in the gallery of yet more baby capybaras, and the fast progressing meerkat enclosure. Funny how when the meerkat enclosure becomes unsuitable, Marwell can get a new one funded, planned and built within a few months when other exhibits take a couple of years, and yet the welfare needs for wildebeest and gibbons of a fence and some ropes is still unanswered...
Well said-this is a point I've been banging on about for ages-there seem to be some very skewed priorities within the Marwell management-how much would it cost to sort out the much maligned Siamang enclosure and give those poor antelope some grazing space?-so many animals have been thinned out there's plenty of space now.
The species is unfortunately to be phased out of the collection in due course so they won`t be doing anything with them for now.
He died in May.
johnstoni.
Well-Known Member
What was the point in them acquiring this species in the first place? Or it is connected to the new management?
sooty mangabey
Well-Known Member
I really wouldn't count on it!
For a decade or more now, Marwell has seemed a rudderless ship, bobbing around on the ocean without any real sense of what it is doing or where it is going. Our successful zoos have - like it or not - a very clear feel for what they are and what they're doing. This is not the case, I feel, with Marwell. The excellent point made by Zambar above, regarding the meerkat enclosure, is wholly germane here. The farcical fannying around with the reptile house and the area around it also speaks of a place over which no-one has any great sense of vision. This half-hearted approach to the wildebeest is more evidence of this.
Despite its many positives - and they do still remain - I don't think Marwell is a very nice place to visit nowadays. I certainly don't recommend it to non-zoo friends when they ask where to go. It's shabby, lacks coherence, and is under-developed. Again, people may not like Colchester, for example, but look at the amount of development which has been undertaken there in the past decade or so - and with a similar visitor number to that which is enjoyed by Marwell.
To be fair, think what animal is very popular with families at the moment... meerkats? Thats the most likely reason they are giving them a new enclosure because they are one of the biggest drawers at zoos at the moment, if Marwell are able to advertise 'New Meerkat Experience' or whatever, then they are likely to have a big rise in customers. Longleat have just built a walk through Meerkat enclosure, its obvious they are great money makers. I'm not trying to support Marwell and say its the best move but from a business perspective its a good marketing move. Perhaps with the money generated from them they will start improving other enclosures?
My thoughts exactly...
I suspect that the current critisisms of Marwell stem from the fact its nowadays run by 'committee' and with no real vision or direction except for running it as a 'zoopark' commercial operation.
If the Black Wildebeest move I hope its to somewhere where they will be kept under better conditions. My own preference would be for them to join the other three at Newquay, but accept that is perhaps unlikely.
johnstoni.
Well-Known Member
If they did end up leaving Marwell as suggested, it would be nice for them to go somewhere that would regularly exchange calves for unrelated animals in order to build up a group. I would favour Woburn with its superior ungulate accommodation.
I get sensible collection planning - as sad as I was to see the gemsbok leave after so many years and, despite being the more striking-looking of the two species, I still applaud the decision to concentrate on Arabian oryx as a conservation teaching tool. However, by the same logic, you would think Marwell would have sent its Chapman's zebras which are very common in captivity (yet still in demand as are all zebra) elsewhere, if only to let the wildebeest, a grazing species, access a paddock while they remain in the collection. With Hartmann's and Grevy's zebra already in the collection, there is no reason at all for the continued need to exhibit Chapman's zebra at the park.
I strongly suspect the lack of adjustments to the gibbon exhibit is because anything they do to make the structure more suitable for brachiation would detract from the overall 'look' of what was an aesthetically very developed exhibit.
I get sensible collection planning - as sad as I was to see the gemsbok leave after so many years and, despite being the more striking-looking of the two species, I still applaud the decision to concentrate on Arabian oryx as a conservation teaching tool. However, by the same logic, you would think Marwell would have sent its Chapman's zebras which are very common in captivity (yet still in demand as are all zebra) elsewhere, if only to let the wildebeest, a grazing species, access a paddock while they remain in the collection. With Hartmann's and Grevy's zebra already in the collection, there is no reason at all for the continued need to exhibit Chapman's zebra at the park.
I strongly suspect the lack of adjustments to the gibbon exhibit is because anything they do to make the structure more suitable for brachiation would detract from the overall 'look' of what was an aesthetically very developed exhibit.
- Status