ZSL Whipsnade Zoo Whipsnade 2014 #2

The lone male is presumably the last survivor of the old London Zoo stock. This herd must have been very inbred having had (afaik) very little or no out-crossing over the years. So females from Holland are a welcome arrival. Hopefully they will thrive and multiply. Good to see another positive move like this too. Whipsnade is certainly experiencing a bit of a renaissance stockwise at present.

Just a personal whim, but a mixed exhibit of Nilgai and Blackbuck, together with Axis Deer, would be lovely to see on Round Close as a backdrop for those having lunch.
 
Just a personal whim, but a mixed exhibit of Nilgai and Blackbuck, together with Axis Deer, would be lovely to see on Round Close as a backdrop for those having lunch.

Ive always liked the idea of mixing the gaur with the blackbuck and nilgai.Would that work, or are there issues with housing gaur in mixed exhibits? I'm aware they have problems on pasture, hence a bran-based zoo diet.
 
I have always been a fan of blackbuck, always such smart looking animals. Exciting to hear that there maybe some Emperor Tamarins arriving.
 
Blackbuck do seem to be making something of a "comeback" in UK collections. They are a superb zoo exhibit. The potential of creating new genetic bloodlines of Blackbuck in the UK are certainly a reality, if other collections all co-operate. For instance Heythrop (private) have now got a very sizeable herd of Blackbuck.
 
Heythrop Blackbuck

For instance Heythrop (private) have now got a very sizeable herd of Blackbuck.

Do you know if Heythrop's came from Cotswold by any chance? Given the two places are quite close and Cotswold's 'disappeared' a few years back.
 
I believe this is a complete new group that arrived,within the last 18 months.I am pretty sure the original group that was at Heythrop died out a few years ago,some of these animals may well have come from CWP.
 
6 female Blackbuck have arrived from the Netherlands, currently in quarantine. The plan is to eventually mix them, and the lone male, with the Nilgai.

Tentative plans are underway to bring in Emperor tamarin (a personal favourite!) and Rockhopper penguin.

Work has now begun on the new butterfly exhibit.

6 female Blackbuck. it's like Welcome to Whipsnade and let's hope after their quarantine since after arriving from the Netherlands the introduction with male goes well.


Did you say Rockhopper Penguin Panthera?
 
Work on the new elephant barns begins in January/February.

Hanuman langurs will shortly be arriving. However, these will go into the off-show facilities as the group will be forming part of London's new lion exhibit.
 
Sadly, these will be sensu lato Hanuman Langurs as opposed to the true stock.
 
Sadly, these will be sensu lato Hanuman Langurs as opposed to the true stock.

Quite. :rolleyes:

Going back to "in my dreams" mode, a nice group of a purebred form of Semnopithecus - maybe a bigger northern taxon like S.hector- might be a nice companion species to Axis Deer, Nilgai and Blackbuck in Round Close.
 
Sadly, these will be sensu lato Hanuman Langurs as opposed to the true stock.

From where will these come up to the Dunstable Downs?

I agree it would be better to have pure-bred stock and supporting a wider European objective for maintaining Hanumans. Perhaps the last WAZA conference in Delhi may have provided added impetus to amalgamating better cooperation between EAZA and the CZA-Indian subcontinent zoo community and securing cooperation for the benefit of a range of "Indian" species in general (be they gaur, Hanuman langur, nilgai, blackbuck, sambar, bharasingha, dhole, Asiatic lion, Bengal tiger (that was an erstwhile plan for a satellite population to the Indian subcontinent ...???), dhole et cetera ... and that is just the mammals)
 
Sadly, these will be sensu lato Hanuman Langurs as opposed to the true stock.

Am I right in thinking that sensu lato means everybody will call them Semnopithecus entellus, but really they aren't even pure to species level? If that's the case, why list them as Semnopithecus entellus in the first place as opposed to labelling them truly as Semnopithecus. sp?

The other listing I notice this on is lesser mouse deer, if if isn't pure surely it should be listed simply as 'mouse deer' - have I mistaken the term sensu lato?
 
Am I right in thinking that sensu lato means everybody will call them Semnopithecus entellus, but really they aren't even pure to species level? If that's the case, why list them as Semnopithecus entellus in the first place as opposed to labelling them truly as Semnopithecus. sp?

The other listing I notice this on is lesser mouse deer, if if isn't pure surely it should be listed simply as 'mouse deer' - have I mistaken the term sensu lato?

In both cases it's because what was formerly considered as one species (S. entellus / T. javanicus) has been split into multiple species - meaning that the zoo population is a hodge-podge of possibly pure animals, hybrids between the new species and animals of completely unknown provenance.

'Sensu lato' just means 'in the broad sense' - in the case of the chevrotain they zoo population can be considered Tragulus javanicus (sensu lato). 'Sensu lato' in this case therefore means 'one of (or a hybrid of) the species that used to be called by that name, not the species currently named this, but we are not currently sure which'. This is slightly different in meaning to calling them just Tragulus sp., which would suggest that they could, for example, be Tragulus napu or Tragulus nigricans - which we know they're not.

In the case of Semnopithecus it's a little different because all the species in that genus used to be part of S. entellus, so there is no real difference in what animals the two versions would refer to - but 'sensu lato' conveys a bit more meaning as to why we don't know their identity. ;)
 
In both cases it's because what was formerly considered as one species (S. entellus / T. javanicus) has been split into multiple species - meaning that the zoo population is a hodge-podge of possibly pure animals, hybrids between the new species and animals of completely unknown provenance.

'Sensu lato' just means 'in the broad sense' - in the case of the chevrotain they zoo population can be considered Tragulus javanicus (sensu lato). 'Sensu lato' in this case therefore means 'one of (or a hybrid of) the species that used to be called by that name, not the species currently named this, but we are not currently sure which'. This is slightly different in meaning to calling them just Tragulus sp., which would suggest that they could, for example, be Tragulus napu or Tragulus nigricans - which we know they're not.

In the case of Semnopithecus it's a little different because all the species in that genus used to be part of S. entellus, so there is no real difference in what animals the two versions would refer to - but 'sensu lato' conveys a bit more meaning as to why we don't know their identity. ;)

Thanks for explaining Maguari, it's always been a term that had confused me as to the difference :)
 
Going back to "in my dreams" mode, a nice group of a purebred form of Semnopithecus - maybe a bigger northern taxon like S.hector- might be a nice companion species to Axis Deer, Nilgai and Blackbuck in Round Close.

Although not really suitable for the regional theming, being a Sri Lankan endemic, I personally would prefer a nice big group of Semnopithecus vetulus to once again be found on our shores :p coincidentally, and infuriatingly, the same private collection in South Africa which took more or less the entire European population of this species also took the entire European population of pure S. hector when London and Krefeld chose to go out of the taxon in 2009/2010

From where will these come up to the Dunstable Downs?

Hodenhagen, I suspect :) as this is the collection with the most animals in Europe to my knowledge

In the case of Semnopithecus it's a little different because all the species in that genus used to be part of S. entellus, so there is no real difference in what animals the two versions would refer to - but 'sensu lato' conveys a bit more meaning as to why we don't know their identity. ;)

Well, not quite - the aforementioned S. vetulus and the Nilgiri Langur (S. johnii) have never been part of S. entellus. The other complicating factor, of course, is that the post-split species most often called the Hanuman Langur is S. dussumieri rather than entellus - so if the London animals were indeed pure Hanuman they still may not be the latter taxon!
 
Well, not quite - the aforementioned S. vetulus and the Nilgiri Langur (S. johnii) have never been part of S. entellus.

Pah - those Johnny-come-latelys aren't proper Semnopithecus...

I really can't get used to that change. And anyway, if I recall, they weren't in Semnopithecus when entellus was split. :D
 
Pah - those Johnny-come-latelys aren't proper Semnopithecus...

I really can't get used to that change. And anyway, if I recall, they weren't in Semnopithecus when entellus was split. :D

I can definitely see the likeness now that I have seen both "entellus" and vetulus in person, so I am in favour of the split ;)

The really tricky bit is where the hell Capped Langur (Trachypithecus pileatus), Shortridge's Langur (Trachypithecus shortridgei) and Gee's Golden Langur (Trachypithecus geei) truly belong, as genetically speaking they are firmly within Semnopithecus if one looks at the mitochondrial line, but within Trachypithecus if one looks at the Y-chromasome data.
 
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