ZSL Whipsnade Zoo Whipsnade 2014 #2

stulch said:
So I make it ZSL have got eight or nine projects in the pipeline following on from their best financial year ever.
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So we have the Lions and Lemur walk-thru at London and the Elephant house, Entrance, Butterfly/Crocodile building and future Aquarium and Reptile sections.

Plenty to look forward too!
 
ZSL

ajmcwhipsnade said:
So we have the Lions and Lemur walk-thru at London and the Elephant house, Entrance, Butterfly/Crocodile building and future Aquarium and Reptile sections.

Plenty to look forward too!
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Up to nine or ten by my reckoning now:-

(Starts) November
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Entrance (Whipsnade Zoo)

For Easter 2015
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Lemur Walk-through (London Zoo)
Aviary? (London Zoo)
Redeveloped Amphitheatre (London Zoo)
Elephant Cow Barn (Whipsnade Zoo)

2015
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Butterflys/Crocodiles (Whipsnade Zoo)

For Easter 2016
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Land of the Lions (London Zoo)

2016
------
Aquarium (Whipsnade Zoo)

2017
------
Reptiles (Whipsnade Zoo)

(Plus another project at London Zoo?)
 
Yassa said:
As Kifaru Bwana mentioned, the way to build up an elephant group is through concentrating on one maternal line, keeping all female offspring and exchanging the bull every few years to avoid inbreeding.

That way, the problems in Whipsnade and Woburn can be solved. That Aziza and Kaylee are in their 30'th isn`t a problem. That`s prime breeding age - female elephants can easily breed until their mid-40'th, which means 15 more years to reproduce for both of them. They can both have serveral daugthers in that time frame. The worst you can do when building up an elephant group is getting impatient and bringing in too many unrelated females. Experience in so many zoos has shown that that will only cause fighting and elephants that need to be kept seperate from each other.

Emmet will need to leave soon, I agree. And Woburn desperately needs to let Raja go, too, to bring in a male who does breed. It is difficult to place bulls that havn`t bred yet, but thanks to the good-working asian elephant EEP, not impossible. Then I`d move Emmett to Woburn since that is so close. Then Whipsnade can bring in a new, unrelated, mature bull who can breed with Donna and all adult females.
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It may not be quite so straightforward, but the main obstacle to the herd being constantly maintained as a whole would appear to be the Mya/Kaylee problem. Surely it would be possible to move Mya elsewhere? The rest of the herd are often kept together with her separated anyway.
There is also a need to replace Emmett I agree, before he sires any more male calves at Whipsnade.
 
pipaluk said:
Surely it would be possible to move Mya elsewhere? The rest of the herd are often kept together with her separated anyway.
There is also a need to replace Emmett I agree, before he sires any more male calves at Whipsnade.
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Its a pity perhaps they can't keep her as a companion for Emmett, so he is not on his own for most of the time. I suppose she would be upset at seeing but being seperated from her female companion though.

Regarding male calves- a fresh bull might do just the same....
 
I think moving Mya would be a terrible idea. It seems she is deeply bonded with Aziza and Karishma and loosing them would be traumatic for her. And I don`t think that Whipsnade would be able to keep the rest together full-time for very long. If you look at what happened in other zoos, elephant herds with multiple, unrelated breeding females break apart sooner or later and usually sooner once a dominant female dies or is sent to another zoo. My guess is the subgroup of Kaylee/Lucha works because Lucha has no offspring, and Mya/Aziza/Karishma work because Mya has no offspring and Karishma is still very young. It is extremely unlikely that Aziza/Kaylee/Lucha/Karishma would get along permanently if they spent more time together.

But the most important change for the welfare of the elephants would be to stop the free contact program ASAP and change the management to protected contact. It is unbelieveable that Whipsnade is still training their elephant calves to do circus tricks using circus methods = heavy use of bullhook. I seriuosly wonder that no AR group has targeted them for that yet.
 
Yassa said:
I think moving Mya would be a terrible idea.
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I don't think it would be good either. If they did so it could create more upset than benefit for all of them. They may not have one single group but the relationships are complex as you say, and it seems to work the way they have it, albeit though not having them all together at one time. I presume this idea isn't a reality anyway and they have no actual plans to move any of them.

If they moved to protected contact that would be the end of the daily outings in the Park which they obviously view as something of a draw for visitors, among its other perceived benefits.
 
If Mya is to stay then I suspect that they will just carry on as they are with the herd split in two part of the time & Mya on her own for the rest! It's unfortunate that Donna (the only female in the last 5 births) is in the 'wrong' group i.e the opposite one to the 2 cows who are currently breeding.
 
Emmett is Whipsnade's only adult male and he''s a breeding bull and he's now 23 years old and he's a father to all the calves at Whipsnade. The Free Contact is only permitted with the female elephants and calves because he's elephant that the keepers don't share the same space with as it's always a barrier between the keepers and Emmett.
 
Was up at the Zoo this afternoon and had a cool time. Managed to get a look at the Thomson's Gazelles and attempted to take photo's but I don't think they will come out well as you cant get close to them.

Got as close as I have to the Blesbok and also enjoyed seeing the Impala again using the paddock well.

If I get around to downloading the photos I will upload.
 
Yassa said:
And Woburn desperately needs to let Raja go, too, to bring in a male who does breed. It is difficult to place bulls that havn`t bred yet, but thanks to the good-working asian elephant EEP, not impossible. Then I`d move Emmett to Woburn since that is so close. Then Whipsnade can bring in a new, unrelated, mature bull who can breed with Donna and all adult females.
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Very unlikely Raja will move - certainly not anytime soon. Progress is being made at Woburn.
 
On the subject of breeding, I'd say the two most pressing areas for breeding would concern the Amur tigers and White rhino. I've been fortunate to see many 'zoo babies' at Whipsnade however tigers, sadly, are not one of the them!
 
well,well, well. After all this time finally a baby Elephant at Woburn. It appears to be female too-the article refers to 'it' for several paras then changes to 'she' or 'her' at the end.:confused:

Same question as KB's though; AI or natural mating?
 
I've just had my first visit to Whipsnade, lots of big animals, lots of walking. Glad I went but prefer collections with smaller "more interesting" animals and more birds. Still, glad I went.
 
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