Drusillas Park News from Drusillas

Anyone who is familiar with Drusillas will know that its success is due to the vast array of other attractions aimed at younger visitors.

However, since the current owners took over, there has been an increase in the number of species in the animal collection. While the Ann family previously pioneered some of the first themed exhibits in this country, along geographical ('Out of Africa') or taxonomic ('World of Owls') lines, the current owners have dismantled most of the previous exhibit zones to accommodate a larger number of species.

For example, the first recipient of the Universities Federation Animal Welfare award for exhibit design in 1987 was 'Beaver Country' (which later had 'Grey Owl's Cabin' added following a fundraising campaign, with an animatronic model of the historical character set inside a replica of his Canadian log cabin adjacent to the beaver exhibit) now holds Capybara and Mara alongside the original beavers, and the old cabin has been turned into a marmoset cage.

The 'World of Owls' exhibit, which took visitors through a network of hides, and into an replica of a barn that had supposedly been damaged in the 1987 hurricane and become inhabitated by a family of Barn owls, which were visible through glass and accessed their outdoor flight through the 'damaged' side of the barn, has now added an extra flight for Great Grey owls, while Diana monkeys now occupy the site of the old barn owl aviary.

While personally I don't think nowadays the exhibits really read other than a series of (well-designed) cages and enclosures for mainly smaller mammal species, I can see how they have gone in this direction as there was little room for expansion when the original owners sold up, but most of the zoo was already highly developed. The genius of the previous owners were the highly innovative use of everyday, commonly-kept species in exhibits that told stories, about their wild habitats, or their social behaviours. Some of this can still be seen in the older exhibits still standing, but while each new exhibit seems to be a perfectly reasonable addition or improvement, IMO the storytelling magic of many of the animal exhibits at this zoo came from the Ann family.
 
I don't think so, the zoo has been expanding in species (although very little physical expansion) in recent years. There are more exhibits now than ever before. The arrival of the ground hornbills is an indicator of a continuation of this trend; last year they introduced Fennc foxes.

Interestingly, the only place the hornbills could occupy would be an additional area not currently part of the public zoo site, unless they are replacing the snowy owls which are kept in the aviary to the right of the great grey owls. This is one of the few areas which have actually seen the zoo site extended with the addition of the great grey owls a couple of years ago.

The zoo last kept hornbills in around 1990 when their 'Life On Earth' evolution exhibit was revamped. A pair of red-billed hornbills occupied the current dwarf mongoose exhibit.
 
It says these Hornbills are a 'family group' which is a bit perplexing.

In 2006(?) Cricket hatched and reared about four young Hornbills, mainly handraised and mostly males.

Since then I think the adult female has died and the male(Jeffrey) was paired with a daughter. When I went a couple of month back I saw only the male and one immature(the female?) in the main Aviary. The male is very nervous, the female(?) tame as it was handreared.
 
Fair point although they have just demolished the invert house which was a shame and the fennec's just went into the old meerkat enclosure so as you say no physical expansion but maybe a continuation of rotating species with new ones when it suits?
apparently they have built a dwarf mongoose enclosure opposite the rodrigues fruit bats as well now and have tree shrews in the old mongoose enclosure.....
 
The fennec foxes actually went into the old Raccoon enclosure. When the last of the old brother-sister pair of Canadian otters died, the Raccoons (which had arrived the previous year) were moved to their old enclosure, with some adaptations made.

The meerkats have been in the same enclosure since around 1989, designed by a local school, on the site of the original penguin pool by 'Down On The Farm'. Previous to this, they were housed in one of a row of small cages facing the 'monkey walk' at the start of the zoo. They were never housed in the current fox exhibit, which was part of the Japanese Garden until a couple of years ago.

Its interesting to me that they have tree shrews again, do you know what species? If they are housed where the dwarf mongoose were, they will actually be on the exact site of the original Common tree shrew exhibit in the old 'Life on Earth' room, which was literally a room , and had the feel of a pet shop, but was innovative nonetheless. Later, when 'Life On Earth' was rennovated, and this exhibit held Red-billed hornbills (and later touracos) the zoo kept Lesser Tree Shrews, which I'm pretty sure were bred at Thrigby, in the small glass-fronted exhibit now home to pygmy marmosets.

The dwarf mongoose will benefit from an outdoor exhibit. Either it will be near the awful (but admittedly not aimed at adults lol) tellytubby exhibit for rabbits, or again on new land at the back of the bat exhibit, not far from where I think the ground hornbills will be.
 
Yeah they had two groups until recently the large group at the top as you describe...... aren't the raccoons are still in their enclosure (your right where vic and bob the old canadian otters were)?? but the in between them and the foxes (the pair did breed which is cool but the offspring did not survive) are the prarie dogs which used to be one large enclosure until it was split to house the surplus meerkats - can't remember the ratio but their was 6 within the last year but now obviously they are not in there. .

do you remember in recent times they also housed red handed tamarins and a green iguana in that old mongoose exhibit also so forever changing around the species as the park evolves.
tree shrews are the northern's (Tupaia belangeri) i believe but not 100% on that
 
A pair of Red-Bellied Lemurs called Swali and Awa have arrived from Cotswold Wildlife Park. They have taken up residence in the Lemurland walkthrough enclosure with the existing group of Ring-Tailed Lemurs.

Also the Sulawesi Macaque enclosure is to be refurbished.
 
This is really significant. Drusillas is generally not known as a collection geared towards breeding difficult and/or endangered species, having been developed primarily as an eductional children's zoo.

Am I right in thinking that the only other successful rearing of a Fennec fox was the single pup at Colchester in 2008? Did this animal actually survive?

It intrigues me that, when tamed, this animal is bred as a house pet in the USA as if a breed of miniature domestic dog. It does say a lot for interacting with the animals you keep. I hope the days of keeping Fennecs in reverse-lit indoor glass boxes are behind us. As more and more UK collections attempting to keep this species give them access to daylight and fresh air, maybe there will be more success with breeding these animals. However it is interesting that it seems to have been discovered that they will thrive with access to outdoor enclosures, whereas the same definitely isn't true for Sand or Black-footed cats.
 
There are private breeders in the UK, and also individuals in the pet trade. I am aware of where to get one if I fancied one, not that I do, just saying they're easy to come by.
I have no idea why zoos can not get results here? There's two things I can think of that are different, the pet trade usually hand rears to bond them to humans early. I'd assume this is the same as the British fox where they love humans in the first 6 weeks, but if not given human contact, for example in wildlife rehab situations, they grow out of it at 6 weeks and can't be tamed later. This shouldn't be an issue in zoos
Those who keep young with mum, even if mum is tame, warn not to disturb her at all, even a loud noise can startle her into eating the young.
Maybe zoos are just getting too involved with them?
 
The Drusillas animals are subjected to a very busy flow of young visitors which follow a one-way, compact trail through the zoo area itself. The Fennec fox exhibit is only metres away from the Railway train and the huge play area which is almost as large as the zoo itself. Possibly such exposure to noise may have desensitised their foxes to disturbance?
 
Drusillas is my local zoo but I have not been there for years (mainly due to the rediculous entry fee, lack of cats, apes or any large zoo animals as well as the fact that I would worry about what people thought of a man standing on his own in whats essentialy a childrens playground with a small zoo attached,:( anyways!)

Where abouts is the fennec fox enclosure? Is it close to the porcupine and yellow mongoose exhibit?
 
It's just after the raccoons and the prairie dogs, near the otters and before the walk-through lemurs and the coatis. The children's playground comes immediately after the coatis.
 
Do they have another male in the group who could be the father then? Does anyone actually have the details of how many they hold currently? Thanks :)
 
For a long time they had just four(adult) males living as a bachelor group. That has obviously changed now with the arrival of the females but I don't know the current composition of their group or whether it has been split into two.
 
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