Planckendael Planckendael News thread

[KevinB]

Some bird news from Planckendael published this week.

There are 77 occupied European white stork nest in Planckendael's colony this year, which is a record. One nest was filmed with five chicks in it.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=683442082473124

The female wrinkled hornbill is sitting on an egg and has been plastered into the nesting cavity in the behind the scenes bird breeding center.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=3171338276263894

 

[KevinB]

The matriarch of the elephant herd at Planckendael, Dumbo, was sadly found deceased in the exhibit this morning after a few weeks of illness with weight loss and blindness in one eye. Dumbo was born in the wild in India around 1972 and came to Antwerp in 1976 (although the article and the zoo communication said Dumbo was 50, which is incorrect unless that date is wrong).

HLN - Planckendael verliest olifant Dumbo
ZOO Planckendael

With a coronavirus crisis closure of two months only just giving way to a limited reopening and now this 2020 is shaping up to be a pretty bad year for Planckendael, sadly.

Dumbo is an animal I will not forget lightly. She was the largest Asian elephant cow I've ever seen, she was huge and quite impressive (estimated at around 4600 kilograms at her prime). I have added two images of her from the gallery below.

Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) Dumbo (Nov 18th, 2018) - ZooChat
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) Dumbo, 2019-05-31 - ZooChat

 

[Elephantelephant]

The matriarch of the elephant herd at Planckendael, Dumbo, was sadly found deceased in the exhibit this morning after a few weeks of illness with weight loss and blindness in one eye. Dumbo was born in the wild in India around 1972 and came to Antwerp in 1976 (although the article and the zoo communication said Dumbo was 50, which is incorrect unless that date is wrong).

HLN - Planckendael verliest olifant Dumbo
ZOO Planckendael

With a coronavirus crisis closure of two months only just giving way to a limited reopening and now this 2020 is shaping up to be a pretty bad year for Planckendael, sadly.

Dumbo is an animal I will not forget lightly. She was the largest Asian elephant cow I've ever seen, she was huge and quite impressive (estimated at around 4600 kilograms at her prime). I have added two images of her from the gallery below.

Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) Dumbo (Nov 18th, 2018) - ZooChat
Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) Dumbo, 2019-05-31 - ZooChat

That's very sad news. RIP dear Dumbo.

 

[KevinB]

New climbing structures have been installed on the bonobo island at Zoo Planckendael. This somewhat silly video shows Planckendael staff testing the structures before letting the bonobos go ape on them.

I'm a little surprised these people are not wearing face masks in an ape in these times though.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=245082836564150

 

[KevinB]

This past Saturday, May 23rd, 2020, I visited Planckendael for the first time since January 11th 2020 and for the first time after the park was closed for over two months on government orders to contain the coronavirus crisis. I really enjoyed being back.

Below are some things that I noticed and feel are valuable to report on here on ZooChat. I hope to add pictures to the gallery at some point to further illustrate these.

• Hygiene and social distancing measures are in order throughout the park. The entrance area has painted white lines on the ground indicating the distance that should be maintained as well as crush barrier fences to guide visitor movement. There are many spots with mandatory hand disinfection stations and lots of signage reminding visitors of social distancing and hand hygiene. Face masks are mandatory in all buildings, indoor viewing areas and walk-through exhibits (even outdoors) and in the restrooms.

The restaurants and playgrounds remain closed, but take-away food is available and can be eaten in areas where sitting is allowed with respect of social distancing. Most visitors are fairly disciplined with the measures, but keeping the distance is sometimes challenging and not everyone does it well all the time. And some areas still get relatively busy.​

• It seems Planckendael has taken the great white pelicans out of its collection, leaving only Dalmatian pelicans on that pond. The sign for the great white pelicans had been removed and I only saw Dalmatian pelicans.
• The Chilean/South American aviary that saw birds escape from large tears in the netting in February was open to visitors again, but only the non-flying birds (flamingos, penguins, steamer duck - which I sadly didn't see this time - and black-necked swans) were still in the aviary and on show. I saw the damage to the netting and it is very extensive, in fact way bigger than I expected it to be based on reports at the time of the unfortunate event.

This is not going to be an easy fix at all - I think they will basically have to change most if not all the netting. This will not be easy to do and very expensive, so it remains to be seen when it will happen in this financially challenging times.​

• Several scarlet and black-faced ibisses from the South American aviary that have returned to the park and/or have been recaptured are now temporarily housed in the European aviary, which is the aviary in which the beaver exhibit is located and previously only housed owls and waldrapp in terms of birds. Other returned or (re)captured birds such as inca terns and ducks are presumably housed behind the scenes at the moment.
• I noticed the sun conures flock was only about half as large as it was some months ago, so perhaps they have split the group and moved some to the parrot aviaries at Antwerp.
• The new climbing structures on the bonobo island are quite impressive - they are large and there are many. It looks a lot like a forest, minus the leaves. It looks to me like they might have used some of the poplar trees cut down for the Barbary macaque exhibit to built these structures.
• Next to the bonobo island the former African playground area has been replaced by a pool of water with a ship-like structure, which will become a water-oriented play area once they can reopen those. Nearby a building has been erected and dressed up to represent a Congolese customs post. I'm not a huge fan of how this area now looks. I believe the story behind this was that this area represents the port of Kinshasa, where you arrive on your expedition to see bonobos.
• Mhorr gazelles have arrived to replace the impalas in the savanna exhibit. They currently only have access to a small, temporarily fenced off pen next to the holding building. I did not see any outside. Planckendael does have quite a nice Northern African arid collection in this paddock now, with Kordofan giraffes, addax and Mhorr gazelle.
• Koala male Maka has returned from Antwerp to Planckendael.
• I saw at least two juvenile glossy ibis in the aviary near the Visayan warty pigs (which I did not see).
• I saw and heard lots of white stork activity and saw several of the many nests had several chicks in them. I think 2020 might become a pretty good stork year.
• It was quite strange to not see Dumbo in the elephant paddock anymore.
• The construction of the new orang-utan building seems to have mostly or entirely ground to a halt. Some work has been done. The entrance decorations on the Asian greenhouse and climbing structures on the macaque and gibbons islands were removed and the islands' moats have been pumped dry. The concrete base of the macaque island moat has already been removed and their house has been demolished. Lastly a deep trench has been dug into the bamboo forest area between the Asian greenhouse and the lions.

However all this seems to have happened at least some weeks ago and there were no obvious signs of active recent progress. With the massive financial from two months of closure it remains to be seen whether the orang-utan project will be able to go ahead at all now, and I think at the very least there will be a substantial delay in its realization. They likely had to pull the plug on some investments and projects, and it seems they chose to prioritize ongoing developments at Antwerp, where construction is still ongoing (see appropriate topic). The Asian greenhouse was already closed at the beginning of the year, but as far as I could see it still had its vegetation in it and hasn't otherwise seen any change yet.​

I have already made a reservation for another visit in June.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

How many mhorr gazelle do they have now?

 

[KevinB]

How many mhorr gazelle do they have now?

I haven't yet seen any information on the number of Mhorr gazelles anywhere.

 

[KevinB]

A new male Kordofan giraffe, named Matombu, has arrived at Planckendael. He is only 2.5 years old currently and according to the keeper in the clip he won't be able to breed until he is around 7, so it will be quite a few years still until there will be giraffe foals at Planckendael again.

Hopefully by that time they can also acquire another breeding female or two to grow their herd again. It used to be a pretty nice herd, but quite a few animals have moved or died recently, sadly.

 

[Penshet]

Said giraffe male was already outside with the rest of the herd today - I counted 5 animals total, and none inside the giraffe barn.

The inca terns (around 25) are in the Australian aviary. The Penguin walkthrough was closed today, I assume for repairs to the net.

 

[KevinB]

Said giraffe male was already outside with the rest of the herd today - I counted 5 animals total, and none inside the giraffe barn.

The inca terns (around 25) are in the Australian aviary. The Penguin walkthrough was closed today, I assume for repairs to the net.

I did not see any inca terns in the Australian aviary on Saturday, so either I missed them or they have only been released earlier this week.

I believe they said 18 inca terns escaped in February and about ten or so have seen been returned, so either some must have not escaped, they have bred some recently or they have received terns from elsewhere.

The closure of the walk-through might also mean that some more birds have returned or been sighted on park grounds, of maybe they are just inspecting things for a future repair. In any case I welcome the repair of the South American aviary, but I think it will be neither quick nor easy of cheap.

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Said giraffe male was already outside with the rest of the herd today - I counted 5 animals total, and none inside the giraffe barn.

The inca terns (around 25) are in the Australian aviary. The Penguin walkthrough was closed today, I assume for repairs to the net.

Natural life tables wise male giraffe become sexually active at 7-8 years, however they do attain sexual maturity much earlier at 4-5 years of age. Technically speaking giraffe bulls may start to breed much earlier given the captive confinement and environment.

Any idea which (French) zoo the new Kordofan giraffe male arrived from (Doue, Pelisanne, Sigean)?

 

[KevinB]

Natural life tables wise male giraffe become sexually active at 7-8 years, however they do attain sexual maturity much earlier at 4-5 years of age. Technically speaking giraffe bulls may start to breed much earlier given the captive confinement and environment.

Any idea which (French) zoo the new Kordofan giraffe male arrived from (Doue, Pelisanne, Sigean)?

After a little research I found out that Matombu was born at Pelisanne/Parque Zoologique de La Barben in November 2017.

The breeding at age 4-5 will be dependent on the giraffe mares accepting the advances of an adolescent/subadult bull. Even in the bull breeds early, new giraffe calves at Planckendael will still be about 4 years away.

 

[KevinB]

On Friday June 12th I visited Planckendael again, for the second time after the lockdown and the closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Below are some things that I noticed and feel are valuable to report on here on ZooChat.

• The social distancing, hygiene and public health measures are respected relatively well, but there are some people who sadly refuse to follow the rules, use their common sense of be respectful. I really hope that is not going to be a source of trouble for zoos in the future.
• I saw the Mhorr gazelles that arrived recently for the first time, they have three individuals. I do not know nor could I see what genders they are and whether it is a breeding group or not.
• I saw large juveniles in many of the white stork nests. There hasn't been official communication about the number of chicks yet I believe, but I think it might be a very good, if not record-breaking stork year.
• There didn't seem to have been any change or progress with regards the orang-utan project since the second half of May, so presumably this project has been halted and postponed, hopefully the project has not been scrapped altogether.
• There are still several scarlet and black-faced ibis in the European aviary that have been recaptured/have returned from the South American aviary escape, and additional signage had now been installed, suggesting they will remain in there for a while.
• I saw a group of about half a dozen recaptured/returned inca terns in the Australian waterfront aviary.
• I noticed that the netting of the South American aviary has been largely repaired since my May visit. The flying birds had however not yet been returned to this aviary, and the repairs didn't seem to be permanent repairs or guaranteed to be able to withstand a new storm event. The signage for the ibis and inca terns had now also been removed, so I don't think these species will be returning to the aviary in the near future.
• Pied imperial pigeons have been added to the Australian waterfront aviary, I saw three.
• The weaver bird aviary, near the African village, the Grévy's zebras and the Cape porcupines, according to signage now also holds Congo peafowl. This would be the first time in years this species has been on show at either Antwerp or Planckendael. The weaver bird aviary is however rather open and it seems to me to be ill-suited for a shy forest species like the Congo peafowl. In any case I did not see any.
• They now have a female black lemur living with one of the males they had previously.
• Two collared hill partridges have been added to the demoiselle crane and peafowl aviary near the lion exhibit.
• One of the Bactrian camel calves born earlier this year was in a separation paddock with its mother and I noticed some bandages near the top of its front legs, suggesting the calf has recently undergone some kind of veterinary treatment.

With regards to pictures: I must admit that I am having some trouble with this part. Shamefully I have not even completed basic processing on the pictures from my visits to Antwerp and Planckendael in May, let alone done any of the work for gallery postings. It just seems that during the lockdown

 

[KevinB]

I apologize for posting that message without completing the last paragraph and for not noticing that in time, so here it is:

With regards to pictures: I must admit that I am having some trouble with this part. Shamefully I have not even completed basic processing on the pictures from my visits to Antwerp and Planckendael in May, let alone done any of the work for gallery postings. It just seems that during the lockdown, when I no longer had any new zoo material to post nor the desire to process any old material, I lost my photo-processing and gallery posting habits and filled up that time with other activities. It is hard for me to change habits and to adapt activity plannings, so I am struggling with working photo-processing into my daily activities again, and it is likely it will take substantial time before I get going with those things again. I am however going to try my very best to get back to posting images in the gallery.

 

[britishzoofan]

I am however going to try my very best to get back to posting images in the gallery

I would just like to add having scrolled through the gallery in past weeks and looking at spreading the Best Enclosure threads to other countries in the future, Belgium and Netherlands enclosures are best represented of any country in the gallery (better than UK even). This is a large part due to your photos so thank you and I do hope you continue to post photos, especially of new developments.

 

[KevinB]

I would just like to add having scrolled through the gallery in past weeks and looking at spreading the Best Enclosure threads to other countries in the future, Belgium and Netherlands enclosures are best represented of any country in the gallery (better than UK even). This is a large part due to your photos so thank you and I do hope you continue to post photos, especially of new developments.

Thank you very much for your nice comment, it is very much appreciated.

I am definitely planning to return to posting in the gallery, it is just going to take some time before I can make the necessary changes to get the work done that is required to do process photos and post them to the gallery.

 

[KevinB]

Two Chacoan peccaries have been born at Planckendael recently, according to the Facebook post linked below.

ZOO Planckendael

I did see - and forgot to mention earlier - that I did see a Chacoan peccary piglet in the holding paddock off the main exhibit. Another thing that I forgot to mention is that the lesser flamingos, normally housed in the African waterfront aviary, are currently housed with the Chilean flamingos in the South American aviary. It is not entirely clear to me why that is the case - perhaps they are hoping the lessers will breed when housed with much more other flamingos?

 

[Jarne]

• They now have a female black lemur living with one of the males they had previously.

Both the male (Oreo) and the female are new animals that arrived a couple of months back. The previous old male (Sparky) has been send to another zoo in Eastern Europe, I thought it was somewhere in Poland. The other two males that have lived in Planckendael have been sent earlier (a year or two ago) to Antwerpen where they have left too now.

 

[Gorilla Gust]

On Friday June 12th I visited Planckendael again, for the second time after the lockdown and the closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Below are some things that I noticed and feel are valuable to report on here on ZooChat.

• The social distancing, hygiene and public health measures are respected relatively well, but there are some people who sadly refuse to follow the rules, use their common sense of be respectful. I really hope that is not going to be a source of trouble for zoos in the future

i visited the park today, until 1/7 the park allows visitors to enter between 8h and 18h. Between 8h and 10h it was lovely, i really enjoyed the peace and quiet, almost no visitors! Just you and the animals. After 1/7 the openinghours shift to 9h and 19h.

After 11h the peace was gone, and i also noticed that many vistors didn't wanted to follow the directions from the park. On several points this was a problem, crowed sections (which you were forced to follow) and only a few mondmasks. All other precautions and cleanliness are very good in the park.

With more stewards and signs (for the main route/ direction) this can be improved quiet rapidly i think. Hopefully this will be better in the weekends.

 

[KevinB]

i visited the park today, until 1/7 the park allows visitors to enter between 8h and 18h. Between 8h and 10h it was lovely, i really enjoyed the peace and quiet, almost no visitors! Just you and the animals. After 1/7 the openinghours shift to 9h and 19h.

After 11h the peace was gone, and i also noticed that many vistors didn't wanted to follow the directions from the park. On several points this was a problem, crowed sections (which you were forced to follow) and only a few mondmasks. All other precautions and cleanliness are very good in the park.

With more stewards and signs (for the main route/ direction) this can be improved quiet rapidly i think. Hopefully this will be better in the weekends.

During the visit above I also noticed that after 11 AM the park did become a lot busier and visitor behavior became a lot more problematic.

I fear that it will actually be worse in the weekends as there will be even more people in the park than on week days - and now that the summer holidays will soon be upon us, the number of people booking a visit will likely be even higher, especially on week days as people have time off from work.

Unless there is something I do not yet know or haven't yet heard, honestly I do not see them placing more signage or employing more stewards to encourage observation of social distancing and safety measures. Are they actually working on improving anything? And even if they did it might not help - a lot of people just don't listen to or follow any kind of Covid-related advise or rules anymore, not even if it is from the government of the police, let alone from stewards or other staff at a zoo.

It concerns and disturbs me to a great degree that so many people do not find it necessary to follow the social distancing guidelines and safety rules. This kind of behavior makes zoos an elevated risk area for transmission of Sars-CoV-2/Covid-19. I had really hoped that things would be different and better, but unfortunately humans are being humans and messing everything up and being selfish idiots, as usual.

Honestly I very much doubt that it is actually safe and responsible to visit zoos right now, and I fear that the common sense thing to do right now might be to not visit zoos as long as this virus is still with us - and given the relaxations of the rules likely will soon be with and around us even more. However much I love zoos and want to visit them myself and see them visited by others right now, I don't see how I can in good conscience visit or encourage others to do so knowing what I know now.

Although to my knowledge I do not belong to any high-risk categories, nor do any of my family members other than my grandmother, but I am still extremely scared of Covid-19. Even previously healthy young people can get very bad or even fatal cases of Covid-19. Even if you catch a "mild" case of Covid-19 that does not require hospital admission you have a very high chance of being ill for months and/or being damaged for life. And if you do have to go the hospital you have a large chance of leaving the hospital in a coffin or with life-changing heart and lung damage. This is an extremely dangerous virus that should not be played around with. And going to the zoo right now, or in fact anywhere you do not absolutely have to go, to me seems to perhaps be playing around and taking risks a little too much. If you catch Covid at the zoo you'll probably never be able to go the zoo again.