South Lakes Wild Animal Park South Lakes news thread 2015

My apologies if my lighthearted comment caused any offence.

However, I think the Gills have faced much harsher criticism on here than that, and the otters are clearly not reading this.
 
zoogiraffe said:
I saw it before they boarded the windows up because they kept losing the cubs!
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Reading the article 'Otter Joy, Giant Otters in Captivity' as posted above by BCS, it emphasises that failure rates in captive breeding are high, and that complete privacy away from sight, sound etc of people and any disturbance is necessary to successfully rear the cubs. Possibly this is the main reason the South Lakes pair have not been able to rear any young from several litters? 'Lack of milk' may be caused by other stress too e.g. lack of privacy.

I would think handraising is very difficult. Presumably they would have to use something like a puppy-rearing type formula which would not necessarily be suitable for Otter pups' digestion. And a silence about them now seems to indicate they have lost them.
 
South Lakes have exchanged their flock of Caribbean flamingos with Beauval zoo in France in return SL has received their flock of Chilean flamingos.
 
South Lakes said via Facebook: "Last weekend we exchanged flamingos with Zoo Parc Beauval in France. It was very warm and spring like and they were happy to get out of the transport boxes even though they were fully cushion lined ! We took our Caribbean flamingos to them and we brought back their Chilean flamingos. In the photo the Chileans are the group in the distance. All went well and our beautiful new flamingos are acclimatising in their new purpose built flamingo house in our SAFARI ZOO. The reason for the swap was that we do not have a conservation programme with Caribbean Flamingos but we do have a very strong conservation programme with Chilean flamingos in Northern Peru." ....
 
bigcat speciali said:
South Lakes said via Facebook: "Last weekend we exchanged flamingos with Zoo Parc Beauval in France. It was very warm and spring like and they were happy to get out of the transport boxes even though they were fully cushion lined ! We took our Caribbean flamingos to them and we brought back their Chilean flamingos. In the photo the Chileans are the group in the distance. All went well and our beautiful new flamingos are acclimatising in their new purpose built flamingo house in our SAFARI ZOO. The reason for the swap was that we do not have a conservation programme with Caribbean Flamingos but we do have a very strong conservation programme with Chilean flamingos in Northern Peru." ....
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Welcome inter-zoo cooperation.

BTW: what are the breeding results over the last few years with flamingos at South Lakes? And: are they pinioned or not? :confused:
 
Is Gaya one of the antiquorum or one of the hybrids? I don't know the names off by heart :p
 
Ah, okay - the question then is whether the calf is a hybrid ;)
 
TeaLovingDave said:
Ah, okay - the question then is whether the calf is a hybrid ;)
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That is as yet anybody's guess around here!

Female Gaya is actually the last and third female to give birth at South Lakes for the first time. As for ye not knowing all your giraffe names your are fully excused here …


BTW: Anybody know when the planned move of the antiquorum group to the new savannah / area will be?
 
An update on "the Tiger who went on holiday"

For the past few weeks Padang our male Sumatran tiger has been in our quarantine units whilst we have re built our tiger facilities so we can handle more Tigers in one much larger enclosure. . Now the facility is in the very last stages of completion he will be returning, we will post details as soon as he is moved the 200m back into the new "Way Kambas Tiger Reserve" for our visitors who are wanting to come and see him. We hope to have all the other tigers in within the next few months

One of those new Tigers will be a young female from Arnhem

On a different note, the new Giraffe calf is another male: Now named Melman
 
D.Gill keeps on saying that his giraffe are all African. However, following testing of many giraffe it was shown that they were antiquorum in 2007. D.Gill continues to insist they are peralta. He has also tried claiming that peralta are the only valid subspecies of giraffe, if that is said to be true. So until D.Gill can show otherwise by studbook etc then taking his word for it is a poor show. D.Gill does have a very poor rate of survival of giraffe in his care. Also, the giant otter pups are now classed as dead, so Gill now moves on to his next pet project.

"Our new West African Giraffe baby, Melman as Hari named him !
Born This Sunday , Mothers Day in the UK. Cute.... but important. In the Wild this sub species of Giraffe was nearly lost forever. In 2005 there was only around 60 of these wonderful animals living in the wild in a small area of Niger. We have been working with our loyal partners Bioparc Doué-la-Fontaine since that time with a very dedicated team in a difficult region of the world to protect them and educate the locals to value them alive. The success of this project is second to none, one of the best conservation successes ever recorded with now over 450 West African Giraffes alive in the wild . We are proud to be working in such a decisive and positive way in the wild and making a huge difference for wild animals through our animals here in SAFARI ZOO."
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D.Gill does have some balls. Here we have the man asking for people to send in pictures of Bactrian Camels so he can use them for his education department? Can he not seek out copyright free images on the web? Can he not ask his staff to help? Or is that to much like hard work for the soon to be Tory candidate?

"I am looking for some images of Bactrian Camels for our education department - if anyone has any good shots without barriers/fences/signs and would not mind sharing them with the world it would be very much appreciated. I'd need as high a res as you have please."
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South Lakes are stating that they were the first UK Zoo to reach the European Standard Quarantine regulations. Is this true?

Also. D.Gill is seen taking his flamingos out of their travel crate, the method of handling is dreadful and not in keeping with best practice. It also shows that the birds are not clipped. Again, the pictures show a man who is driven by ego.

"Last weekend we exchanged flamingos with Zoo Parc Beauval in France. It was very warm and spring like and they were happy to get out of the transport boxes even though they were fully cushion lined ! We took our Caribbean flamingos to them and we brought back their Chilean flamingos. In the photo the Chileans are the group in the distance. All went well and our beautiful new flamingos are acclimatising in their new purpose built flamingo house in our SAFARI ZOO. The reason for the swap was that we do not have a conservation programme with Caribbean Flamingos but we do have a very strong conservation programme with Chilean flamingos in Northern Peru."
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"Today our new Chilean Flamingos had the first taste of Northern England air..... after their arrival last week . Here are a few of them.... . We test every bird that arrives here and follow strict health and veterinary protocols before allowing them into our SAFARI ZOO. Our zoo is a fully accredited European standard quarantine zoo and we are proud of this high standard. In fact we were the first zoo in the UK to reach that standard many years ago."
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bigcat speciali said:
South Lakes are stating that they were the first UK Zoo to reach the European Standard Quarantine regulations. Is this true?
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I don't think it is.

He is consistent in breeding giant otters, every cub born there has died.

I can't remember South Lakes breeding flamingos.
 
The European Quarantine regulations are more than 20 years old and many zoos in all EU member-states comply with them so I m surprised he even brags about it. It is basic health policy for your zoo.
 
bigcat speciali said:
Also. D.Gill is seen taking his flamingos out of their travel crate, the method of handling is dreadful and not in keeping with best practice. It also shows that the birds are not clipped. Again, the pictures show a man who is driven by ego.
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I winced when I saw that photo.

It seems as though other people didn't approve either as some people had commented on it, but the comments have been removed.
 
South Lakes 2015

The newly arrived Flamingos are supposed to be Chilean. The one being waved about as it was taken out ofthe crate is a Caribbean.
 
FBBird said:
The newly arrived Flamingos are supposed to be Chilean. The one being waved about as it was taken out ofthe crate is a Caribbean.
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I think the photo is of them putting the Caribbean flamingoes into the crate, not taking them out.

But yes, just a dreadful way of doing it.
 
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