Newquay Zoo Newquay Zoo News

I visited Newquay again yesterday. The Gems of the Jungle exhibit is looking very well although some of the stock has been moved around: the blue-crowned hanging parrots are now in the separate aviary by the entrance and all the scissor-billed starlings are in the smaller aviaries rather than the main flight. I saw a blue-crowned laughing thrush on the nest in the main flight and I think the Sumatran laughing thrushes in a separate aviary have a youngster. There was another brood of young Sumatran laughing thrushes in the aviary beside the hornbills, and I also saw young black-necked stilts, blacksmith plovers and a zebra waxbill. Young mammals include squirrel monkeys, ring-tailed lemurs, kusimanse and meerkats. I'm sure I have missed a lot more.
The old fossa enclosure is still empty and the tortoise exhibit beside the entrance is being renovated.
The best news comes from the Tropical House where 11 long-nosed vine snakes have bee born. This is probably the first UK breeding for this species.
Newquay Zoo & animal wildlife park, Newquay, Cornwall, South West UK
Two smaller snakes were on show with the adults, so I think these may be part of this brood. I will post a rather poor photo soon.
 
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It was great to see the Javan Green Magpie in Gems of the Forest and the Owstons Civets so active during my Saturday visit.
I did think the bird aviaries near the Native species area (far end of the farm) were very small?
The lion and macaque enclosures look very dated now and probably need addressing - makeovers or change of species?
The old Fossa exhibit will not become a new animal enclosure, it will be flattened and the space used for corporate entertainment.
Does anyone know if their Fishing Cats have bred?
 
There's quite a bit of news on the zoo website that I haven't seen mentioned here that may be of interest:

- Three male waxy monkey leaf frogs have come from Sparsholt - the zoo is looking for a female with aim of successfully breeding them, something that has not been done anywhere in Europe before.
Newquay Zoo & animal wildlife park, Newquay, Cornwall, South West UK

- Two male coppery titi monkeys have arrived from Blackpool Zoo and La Vallee des Singes, sharing the island with the Geoffroy's marmosets near the tapir enclosure.
Newquay Zoo & animal wildlife park, Newquay, Cornwall, South West UK

- A pink-headed fruit dove chick has been hand-reared; it will be introduced to the Gems of the Jungle exhibit in the next few months.
Newquay Zoo & animal wildlife park, Newquay, Cornwall, South West UK

- A male six-banded armadillo has been born and is being hand-reared; it is the first of the species to be born in the UK this year.
Newquay Zoo & animal wildlife park, Newquay, Cornwall, South West UK

- A new lowland nyala calf has been born; it is now visible in the African Savannah exhibit.
Newquay Zoo & animal wildlife park, Newquay, Cornwall, South West UK
 
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I had a quick visit to Newquay yesterday, returning from Paradise Park in Hale. I particularly wanted to check out the Javan green magpies in Gems of the Jungle, so I didn't try to see everything. The magpies seem to have settled well in the separate aviary beside the exit door. The male is from Prague and looks quite blue in colour; the keeper said that they don't colour feed their birds, but he is starting to show the effect of colour feeding at Newquay. The female is from Chester and beautifully green. By comparison with the unpaired birds that were on show at Chester, they seemed noisier and when the male approached the female I saw her fluttering her wings, which might be a positive sign.
I also spotted a few more new arrivals. In the other small GotJ aviaries I saw a pair of silver-eared mesia and a male rufous-bellied niltava (housed with the female that I saw last year), plus a pair of Brahminy mynahs (or Brahminy starlings if you prefer) in the main flight. In the Tropical House I was surprised to see a Cuban grassquit, it seemed to be collecting nest material, so I hope they have a pair.
The wiring of the old fossa exhibit has gone and the path past the fishing cat enclosure was blocked off to give room for a digger to work, it looked as if the front part of the enclosure will be remodelled.
 
I enjoyed another visit yesterday. I saw lots of Cuban grassquits in the Tropical House, with blue-headed laughing thrush and brahminy starling fledglings in GotJ and well-grown black-necked stilt chicks in the aviary near the fishing cats. There was also a very small slender loris clinging to its mother's belly in the Nocturnal House.
 
Spent a couple of hours here the other day. I always like Newquay, an interesting little Zoo with, for its small size, an interesting and varied collection. I failed to see the Fishing Cats or Palm Civets this time but saw most of everything else. I hadn't realised the Javan Green Magpies are so rare in Zoos, I was told that in Europe only Chester, Newquay, Prague and one other(forget where) have them. I failed to see them at Chester earlier this year as the exhibit was closed, so here they were a first for me. I counted four Cuban finches in the tropical house, but my favourite, the white-headed bulbul(?) wasn't there anymore I don't think. One downside at Newquay is the range of old ugly monkey cages, it would be good if they could redesign that section. Good news (see above post) that they propose a new Lion enclosure, IMO its seriously too small. But if they rehoused the adjacent Lynx they could then double the Lions' area by joining and incorporating both enclosures, maybe that is the plan? But otherwise its a nice little Zoo nowadays. Will post a few photos in the gallery.
 
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Pertinax said:
I hadn't realised the Javan Green Magpies are so rare in Zoos, I was told that in Europe only Chester, Newquay, Prague and one other(forget where) have them.
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Jersey and Waddesdon, according to Zootierliste - though it seems only Chester and Newquay have them on show currently.
 
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