Chester Zoo News from visits 2012

[karoocheetah]

I think this discussion has probably been put to bed now, but I feel responsible for starting it with my post last week...As someone who has been on walk and talks and the EAZA behind the scenes I have never disclosed any 'off the record' information and would never want to post anything that could be interpreted as 'harmful speculation'. The only comment I made last week which could be considered inappropriate was the elephant pregnancy speculation. Just to confirm this was posted based on a comment made by a keeper to me in front of approx 15 other members of the publicm - and the comment was 'we are waiting confirmation'. It was not told to me in private and therefore I did not feel I was betraying his confidence by posting it on here. Also, to recap my previous post - the only reason I asked was that it seemed obvious to me that one of the elephants was pregnant. When an animal is clearly showing like that I don't think it does any harm to mention it on a public forum!!

Fair enough - agree 100% that comments made generally to the public are fair game for posting and discussion. I certainly wasn't suggesting you 'blabbed state secrets' from W&T's far from it - I was initally agreeing with SMR but posts got caught in the crossfire. Anyway public knowledge is precisely that so fill your boots I say.
I must admit though that for an elephant to be showing as pregnant I've only ever noticed it in the later stages - like Tara at Twycross where you could actually see the calf moving as you watched her - which was on the 12th Feb - 6 weeks or so ago - making the recent still birth doubly tragic. Anyway I digress..