Paignton Zoo Paignton Zoo News 2017

Giant Panda said:
Paignton has achieved a world-first breeding of the Summers' poison frog. Congratulations to all involved.

Devon zoo celebrates breeding critically endangered frog - AOL UK Travel
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The species of frog in the illustration is only display in one of the new exhibits near the back door of the Amphibian Ark. It was not labelled when I last visited, but Gigit had already posted a photo in our Gallery last week.
Amphibian Ark, May 2017

Amphibian Ark, May 2017

  • Media owner Gigit
  • Date added
  • Comments 2
 
My visit today provided a few answers to questions discussed in previous posts.
gentle lemur said:
You won't have any problem seeing the speckled pigeons in the Brookside aviary, they are the only birds in there at the moment, except for the African eagle owl!
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That was an exaggeration. There are still a few sacred ibis and little egrets in the aviary plus green peafowl. But the eagle owl is still there too.
Gigit said:
I wondered if it was there for pest control?
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Have a gold star. Well done! As I was watching the owl today, a stoat ran round a tree trunk and stopped almost at my feet and looked at me for a moment, as stoats do, then it ran away. In about two minutes it came back, as stoats do, and then ran away again. I told the ladies on the information desk, and they explained that the owl was there to deter the stoat. I don't know if the stoat saw the owl, as it was looking at me: on the other hand I'm pretty sure that the owl saw the stoat, but it didn't do anything. I suggested that they might need a bigger owl - although on second thoughts I'm not entirely sure that would be entirely safe for the public.

On the topic of poison frogs:
Gigit said:
The new tanks with black backgrounds containing tiny frogs are very good.
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Gigit said:
I believe the tanks have been labelled now.
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I think the new display is now more or less complete and it looks very good indeed. On the left had side are 2 rows of small tanks for 8 small to very small species ('thumbnails').
Top row
Fantastic p f, Ranitomeya fantastica
Mimic p f, Ranitomeya imitator, 'Varadero' morph
Brazil nut p f, Adelphobates castaneoticus
Strawberry p f, Oophaga pumilio
Lower row
Blessed p f, Ranitomeya benedicta
Sira p f, Ranitomeya sirensis, 'Tingo Maria' morph
Mimic p f, Ranitomeya imitator, 'Baja Huallaga' morph
Summers' p f, Ranitomeya summersi see photo above, the only endangered species here.

On the right hand side are larger tanks for larger species, which are more commonly seen
Golden p f, Phyllobates terriblis
Pleasing p f, Ameerega bassleri
Maranon p f, Excidobates mysteriosus
Blue p f, Dendrobates tinctorius "Azureus"

I hope to post photos of some of these frogs shortly. My favourites are the strawberries, which are the most active and proper little posers and the pleasings, which are medium sized, active and a species which I had not seen before.
 
gentle lemur said:
As I was watching the owl today, a stoat ran round a tree trunk and stopped almost at my feet and looked at me for a moment, as stoats do, then it ran away.

On the topic of poison frogs:
Fantastic p f, Ranitomeya fantastica

Pleasing p f, Ameerega bassleri
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I didn't realise how rapacious stoats are until watching Springwatch. Hope the owl is successful.

I'll peer more closely at the frogs. I remember my disappointment on finally seeing the Beautiful mantellas and finding that they weren't overly beautiful. I hope the Fantastic and Pleasing poison frogs are living up to their names! But all those I've spotted so far are very attractive.
 
Visited today. There's a male Cheetah now, guess he arrived recently he was in with one of the females, not Isantya the other one.

Bit of drama with the Maned Wolves. Was watching them at about 4pm, watching the pups pouncing about. Could hear trees tracking in the background. Presumed it was workers cutting down branches nearby. Then there an almighty crack and a massive branch fell from one of the tree by the Wolves house. The branch was still partly attached to the tree and so rested in the enclosure and over the house. The pups bolted whilst Milla and Tollock came to investigate. Bit of a worry as they could of possibly climbed up the branch and got out, but only into the off show enclosure of where the keepers come in. Luckily they both just sniffed the end branches & leaves. Someone ran to alert a staff member. Two litter pickers heard the crash and came to investigate they radioed for help in within a minute there was keepers and gardeners on hand. Took half an hour to cut the branch free. The pups kept away as did dad. Milla was a bit more curious and kept coming up to watch the keepers/gardeners at work, She roar barked a bit which was great to hear as I've found the Maned Wolves to be fairly quiet.

Anyway a bit of an interesting visit but great response from the keepers/gardeners. But I do wonder what caused the tree to fall, for there are more along the Wolves enclosure. And luckily it wasn't the Tigers or Lions enclosure that it happened to.
 
Drago said:
Visited today. There's a male Cheetah now, guess he arrived recently he was in with one of the females, not Isantya the other one.

Bit of drama with the Maned Wolves..
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Cheetahs - I understand that Isantya recently moved on and male, Kitwana, arrived. I don't know any more than that.

Maned wolves - very exciting :)
 
Drago said:
Bit of drama with the Maned Wolves. Was watching them at about 4pm, watching the pups pouncing about. Could hear trees tracking in the background. Presumed it was workers cutting down branches nearby. Then there an almighty crack and a massive branch fell from one of the tree by the Wolves house. The branch was still partly attached to the tree and so rested in the enclosure and over the house.
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One of the pups was enjoying the fallen branch today, an unexpected bit of enrichment. It was in amongst the leaves and then tried to creep up through them towards a wood pigeon on the ground. It flew away before the pup could pounce.
 
Gigit said:
I'll peer more closely at the frogs. I remember my disappointment on finally seeing the Beautiful mantellas and finding that they weren't overly beautiful. I hope the Fantastic and Pleasing poison frogs are living up to their names! But all those I've spotted so far are very attractive.
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I'm pleased to report that the Fantastic and Pleasing poison frogs do indeed live up to their names, imho. I do like a metallic looking or glittery frog. The hi-vis Goldens are lovely; in fact all of the new species are. Such intricate designs on such tiny bodies.
 
Gigit said:
One of the pups was enjoying the fallen branch today, an unexpected bit of enrichment. It was in amongst the leaves and then tried to creep up through them towards a wood pigeon on the ground. It flew away before the pup could pounce.
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I'm guessing they might of left the branch in the enclosure as enrichment. It sure was big. Luckily it caused no damage to the enclosure. The only fright at first was they'd climb up it and get out. But Milla & Tollock which sounds like the cub were more interested in the large amount of leaves at the end. They were walking in and out amongst the leaves the whole time sniffing about until the keepers/gardeners came in. They clearly saw it as enrichment themselves rather than a ticket out of their enclosure!

Shame that Isantya has left. I thought she was quite a pretty Cheetah, especially with her black ear. I'm guessing they will attempt to breed, especially as Kitwana was in with Jasari(is that her name)? Hopefully they will be Cheetah cubs in the near future...
 
Drago said:
Shame that Isantya has left. I thought she was quite a pretty Cheetah, especially with her black ear. I'm guessing they will attempt to breed, especially as Kitwana was in with Jasari(is that her name)? Hopefully they will be Cheetah cubs in the near future...
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Jahzara, I think. Fingers crossed for success this time.
 
Drago said:
The only fright at first was they'd climb up it and get out. .
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With those long stalk-like legs and also being members of the dog family, I doubt that would be possible for them- most species of dogs etc never climb. There are exceptions as Gentle Lemur points out below- Grey Fox is one, and European Red fox another.
 
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