Colchester Zoo Some intresting information for my visit

M

monkeyworld

Well-Known Member
1. Cynthia the white rhino is 2 weeks overdue
2. Troy the zebra may be moved out of the zoo due to rowdy behaviour
3. Flossy the rhino has a very bad leg injury
4. Zola, Tanya and Opal were all in one paddock today which was nice to see
5. Lili and Isha came into both public feed sessions and i was lucky to feed isha and get some photos of them.
6. Baby giant anteater is still not sexed but has a name but at the moment escapes me
7. One of the female kudu also had bad injurys on her body
8. Work is rapidly progessing on the aardvark encoulrse and the amur leopard
9. Still have not seen the new male amur leopard sayan .. has anyone ??
10. 3 Mandrills pegnant and due anyday
11. Colchester zoo are also not breeding their ostrich
12. A keeper today at the otter feed is hopefull that their female otter will fall pregnant soon

That's about all the news apart from that a nice day at the zoo.
 
What exactly has Troy been up to ?!!

..... and do you know how Flossy injured her leg ?
 
I do not know how flossy injured her leg but i do now that troy the zebra has been as she used the term "rowdy" due to chasing many of the animals around the exbit this behaviour was shown today when he chased centry for at least 10 mins up and down the exhibt and doing this gets all of the other animals going. This then means the zebra have been taken out of the exbit and keep in the metal area and the point of the exibit is that all of the animals co-exist and not for certain species to be kept seprate. I hope this helps.
 
Thanks Monkeyworld. It's a shame the zebras have had to have been separated as you describe. I wonder what's prompted this behaviour ? ....... over lots of visits I've often seen the zebras racing about together but not actually chasing or bothering any of the other species at all.

I'm going to the zoo tomorrow and will ask a keeper if there's one about (about Troy and Flossy).
 
Zebras, especially the stallions, are notorious for being rude/rough/violent with other species in mixed species savannahs. There are zoos which keep their zebras in seperate exhibits because of this. Zebras are also well-known for killing antilope calves.
 
Thanks Yassa, I didn't know that (..... which is why this forum is so great for sharing information and learning new things). I think the popular perception of zebras is as cute, gentle creatures ...... not ones which'd kill a calf. Why would they do this ? ...... for sport ? ..... or perhaps to get rid of competitors for food ?
 
Tomorow I'm off to Colchester Zoo for the enrichment day. Is anyone else coming?

I have been before and its very good. Both for adults and for children of pretty much all ages. Its fun and you see your enrichment being placed in the enclosure.

I first went on 1 of these 5 years ago. Fist Small Mamals, then the Chimps and the Orangutans, then carnivores and this year Elelphants.

Are there any questions that anyone would like me to ask?
 
Goretex said:
Tomorow I'm off to Colchester Zoo for the enrichment day. Is anyone else coming?
Click to expand...

I'm going but not participating in one of the activities :(
I'm hoping there may have been a Rhino born overnight, but being 2 weeks over due I don't think it's looking good, although I'm hoping to be proved wrong ! :o
 
Visited for 3 hours this afternoon
Rhino's: baby born this morning :D unsure of the gender and it will be off show for 2-3weeks
A new male is arriving in mid October from Knuthenborg in Denmark! :)
Kingdom of the wild paddock extension has finally started
Saw Troy the Zebra chasing either Lily or Isha and this caused all the other animals to start running.
Saw Sayan the new Leopard for the first time and the new enclosure seems to be progressing well. :cool:
 
Thanks, great news about the baby rhino!!
What is the "Kingdom of the wild paddock extension"? Which species will benefit?
Were the 3 female elephants together again as someone reported a few days ago (the last years, it seems Zola has been mainly with the bull, seperated from the other females).
 
Yassa said:
Thanks, great news about the baby rhino!!
What is the "Kingdom of the wild paddock extension"? Which species will benefit?
Were the 3 female elephants together again as someone reported a few days ago (the last years, it seems Zola has been mainly with the bull, seperated from the other females).
Click to expand...

"kingdom of the wild paddock extension" is making the Giraffe/Rhino/Zebra/Kudu/Ostrich/Crowned Crane enclosure slightly bigger.

Yes the Female elephants were all together again today.
 
Roz said:
Visited for 3 hours this afternoon
Rhino's: baby born this morning :D unsure of the gender and it will be off show for 2-3weeks
A new male is arriving in mid October from Knuthenborg in Denmark! :)
Kingdom of the wild paddock extension has finally started
Saw Troy the Zebra chasing either Lily or Isha and this caused all the other animals to start running.
Saw Sayan the new Leopard for the first time and the new enclosure seems to be progressing well. :cool:
Click to expand...

Fantastic news about the baby! :D:D:D Do you mean a new rhino or giraffe from Denmark sorry?
 
Great news about the baby rhino !

When I went yesterday I asked about Flossy's leg injury but was met by blank looks ??!! ...... admittedly the keeper I asked was apparently a giraffe/elephant keeper but she said she'd have usually heard about a bad injury - so that was helpful (not).

Roz ..... where did you see Sayan ? I only ask because I saw a leopard in the main enclosure (not the quarantine) who seemed far more active than usual, who kept coming practically right up to the window at the top of the enclosure by the stream. Have never seen either do that before and I wondered if it was the new one.

I noticed a lot more 'Who's Who' bios posted up too ...... elephants, giraffes, amur tigers and penguins. The more info the better, and great for kids to try and identify the individuals. I did find the elephant info slightly misleading though as it stated the bull was in a separate paddock to "the left". Left being relative of course to where you happen to be standing at the time and as there was identical info boards up at at least 2 entirely different locations, it wasn't clear where you were supposed to be looking. It also didn't make clear that he's effectively off show though you can sometimes glimpse him through the trees.

I didn't see any zebra trouble yesterday though I did overhear a keeper telling someone else that it's easy to identify Troy as he's the only one who kicks. All 5 giraffes were at the feed ....... Lily didn't want to leave the area after and took quite a bit of coaxing to go back. Was lovely to see all 5 together. The latest edition of Zoo Matters I picked up said that Isha has taken a shine to Koife and vice versa. It also said (before today's arrival) that although the mother and baby rhino will be off show, a webcam is going to be fitted in their indoor enclosure so visitors can see them (from the indoor seating area on the top floor of Kingdom of the Wild). Was thinking of going Wednesday and that's an extra reason now, apart from the bliss of deciding what I want to see without considering anyone else !
 
- I saw Sayan in the quarantine enclosure (old bear cages), in the aquatic zone
- I though Flossie's injury looked particularly bad too and that she was limping heavily
- I only found out that the baby was born this morning through a keeper (there is no sign up yet), and asked about the cameras/monitors and she said that they will be up in the next few days (birth happened quicker than they expected)
 
My day at Colchester Zoo!:D:eek:

I was the only person who was actally doing the Elephant enrichment. I actually went in the Elephant house itself. The enrichment was putting hay (of which was left overs to what the elephants had already had) into a sack then hideing the food in with the hay. Tieing avery tight knot in the sack. Apparently the Elephants don't have to untie it they can smash it open. there were 2 of these and a barrell with branches put into it and food put in.

Later on in the day we hung it up (me holding the ladder steady) and scattering the food. After Elephant training Tanya and Opal went over to feed they mostly gathered the scatytered food and also eventually the other forms of enrichment of which Tanya used more quickly than Opal.

Chris was the main keeper doing it with me although Mike a more senior keeper was also there and Claire the head keeper was cleaning the house. The keepers were very good.

I'm pleased to hear about the new baby Rhino. It had been kept so secrut even the Elephant keepers didn't seem to know about this. Opal's pregnency is going well and they are hopeing to breed with tanya again (although no short-term plans). Finally its nice to hear that "Kingdom of the Wild" has finally been extended and I think from what it sounds like from the keepers it will be a lot bigger. There are no plans to extend the Elephant paddock owing to the inconvenient location but they are planning to bridege it so the Elephants will have acsess to the whole paddock not just parts of it.
 
Oh and by the way my mum and sister were doing enrichment for the Lemurs. There were other people doing that and they had a lot although when they put it in they didn't take much notice of it. Although when we went home we went past the Lemurs following the elephants and we went and they were making use of it there.

The Chimps were having lods of fun with their enrichment which even had a face of Gordern Brown on it:eek:.

My grandparents were there that afternoon and they saw a lot of the animals having there enrichment includeing me helping with the Elephant enrichment. When they saw "Orangutan Forest" they thought it was a very good enclosure and they saw Rajang and Tiga the latter for the 1st time. I'm sure they had enrichment made for them but I didn't see that.

I will be uploading photos of what happened today and also of previous enrichment days.
 
Roz said:
I saw Sayan in the quarantine enclosure (old bear cages), in the aquatic zone
Click to expand...

Thanks Roz ..... it must have been one of the 'old' leopards I saw then - it was supposed to have been recently fed when I saw it, but with all the activity, I wonder if its meal had been delayed ?

Goretex said:
The Chimps were having lods of fun with their enrichment which even had a face of Gordern Brown on it
Click to expand...

....... hopefully the chimps were jumping up and down hard on it then !!
 
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