Edinburgh Zoo Tyson moves!

Simon McGlary

Simon McGlary

Well-Known Member
No, nothing about boxer Mike Tyson, instead Edinburgh Zoo's charismatic ratel, Tyson! The maintainence staff will be having a celebratory drink tonight as Tyson left today to head down to Howletts. I've seen clips of the Howletts honey badger on YouTube and could only think 'What a calm animal!' Just wondering if Howletts have been advised of Tyson's enclosure destruction habits?
 
Howlette enclosure was being renovated 3 weeks ago. i was a bit disapointed because the ratels were nearly my favs on a previous on my previous visit.
 
Good to see Howletts will be getting more ratels, I hope they continue to keep them for a long time yet. On the other hand, it means they're now the only UK collection with them and I'm sure the Edinburgh folks will miss him.
 
Have Howletts very old ratels died ? Hope they will be able to find a young female to pair with Tyson .
 
Bele said:
Have Howletts very old ratels died ? Hope they will be able to find a young female to pair with Tyson .
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ISIS lists Howletts as having one female, so now they have a pair again. The only ones in the UK. There are very few elsewhere either. It would be difficult to find a younger female is my guess.
 
Why would Edinburgh part with its only ratel? Unless there is so little prospect of others being acquired that this is a breeding loan?
 
this is wonderful news , exactly what i was hoping for , that Howletts would continue keeping ratels
 
My avatar is the old male ratel at Howletts. They were the first collection in the UK to breed them.
 
i have some old photographs of my trips to the Aspinall parks in the 80s and 90s , some of them are pictures of ratels and the chimpanzees and panthers , i will try to scan them and post them
 
johnstoni said:
Why would Edinburgh part with its only ratel? Unless there is so little prospect of others being acquired that this is a breeding loan?
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I think that is it. They had 1.0. Howletts had 0.1. Both had little chance of acquiring others so they have made a pair from these last two. Breeding may be doubtful if the female is too old though.
 
johnstoni said:
Why would Edinburgh part with its only ratel? Unless there is so little prospect of others being acquired that this is a breeding loan?
Click to expand...

Edinburgh were unable to source a female to match up with Tyson.

By moving him on frees up an enclosure long term for the 'Big Cat row'.

Speaking to the carnivore keepers recently, a bit of movement is expected with all the residents there ie. a female wolverine due to move on to another collections soon followed by the Amur Leopards going to Highland Wildlife Park.
 
Any movements planned for the Sumatran Tigers or are they still waiting on the studbook holder?
 
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