Yorkshire Wildlife Park Yorkshire Wildlife Park News 2020

With this announcement from Marineland:

'Rasputin and Flocke have had four babies in five years so the manager of the breeding programme wants to keep them as a breeding pair if we can. So for now, Rasputin will go to Doncaster but we hope in a few years Flocke will go to Doncaster too.'

– DAMIEN MONTAY, ZOOLOGICAL DIRECTOR AT MARINELAND

I wonder if Marineland intends to stop displaying polar bears. Since Flocke and Rasputin are a proven breeding pair, surely it would make more sense for Rasputin's move to be temporary and bring him back once the cubs have been moved on so they could breed again. Housing a breeding female at YWP could also cause problems with the other boys, I'm aware they would most likely house the two (Rasputin and Flocke) in the rehabilitation reserve (what was the brown bear enclosure) as they originally intended to do with the female from Mexico (Yupik, although she was past breeding age), they would still all be able to smell each other.

Marineland may also choose to continue with one of the three cubs although this does mean acquiring another animal to breed from/with. Also, Rasputin was on his own during the period in which Flocke was raising Hope from 2014 and YWP has displayed polars since, and intended to well before, then so the option to, at least temporarily move him, was there.

Not that having a female polar bear at YWP wouldn't be a good thing but logistically it may be difficult. I am aware that many of the keepers would like to see more polar bear exhibits mimic project polar by moving away from concrete and glass etc. But, I suspect the manager of the breeding programme will have the final say. By then some of the other boys may have been moved themselves to contribute to the breeding programme.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nod
Last thing for now, at least:

From agreeing the transfer, getting the paper work in place, and then physically moving Rasputin has taken a month - an unusually fast timeline. The timing was designed so that he would arrive in the UK before 31st January, due to uncertainty about whether Brexit would affect the administrative process.
 
katinakalinakaterina said:
With this announcement from Marineland:

'Rasputin and Flocke have had four babies in five years so the manager of the breeding programme wants to keep them as a breeding pair if we can. So for now, Rasputin will go to Doncaster but we hope in a few years Flocke will go to Doncaster too.'

– DAMIEN MONTAY, ZOOLOGICAL DIRECTOR AT MARINELAND

I wonder if Marineland intends to stop displaying polar bears. Since Flocke and Rasputin are a proven breeding pair, surely it would make more sense for Rasputin's move to be temporary and bring him back once the cubs have been moved on so they could breed again. Housing a breeding female at YWP could also cause problems with the other boys, I'm aware they would most likely house the two (Rasputin and Flocke) in the rehabilitation reserve (what was the brown bear enclosure) as they originally intended to do with the female from Mexico (Yupik, although she was past breeding age), they would still all be able to smell each other.

Marineland may also choose to continue with one of the three cubs although this does mean acquiring another animal to breed from/with. Also, Rasputin was on his own during the period in which Flocke was raising Hope from 2014 and YWP has displayed polars since, and intended to well before, then so the option to, at least temporarily move him, was there.

Not that having a female polar bear at YWP wouldn't be a good thing but logistically it may be difficult. I am aware that many of the keepers would like to see more polar bear exhibits mimic project polar by moving away from concrete and glass etc. But, I suspect the manager of the breeding programme will have the final say. By then some of the other boys may have been moved themselves to contribute to the breeding programme.
Click to expand...

From what I have heard, Rasputin is already on his way/may have already arrived at YWP.

As far as your speculations go, I wouldn't be surprised if the plan is for Marineland to go out of polar bears entirely, but it does seem to currently be the trend for a lot of places with polar bears to move their males on once the females are pregnant/have given birth. Ouwehands is a perfect example of this.
In the wild, male polar bears are miles more social, this is why a lot of bachelor groups have been succesfully set up. I could see the zoo using Nissan, and maybe Nobby, as breeding males, but doubt they'd use Pixel (Victor's grandson, who is massively overrepresented). Bear in mind (no pun intended) that Highland Wildlife Park keep their two adult lads Arktos and Walker together in one enclosure, and their female Victoria in another enclosure quite some distance away in the park (essentially on the other side of the pedestrian area). So theoretically the system at YWP could work if they do end up also receiving Flocke, they could just rotate which males get to be with Flocke.
 
ShonenJake13 said:
From what I have heard, Rasputin is already on his way/may have already arrived at YWP.

As far as your speculations go, I wouldn't be surprised if the plan is for Marineland to go out of polar bears entirely, but it does seem to currently be the trend for a lot of places with polar bears to move their males on once the females are pregnant/have given birth. Ouwehands is a perfect example of this.
In the wild, male polar bears are miles more social, this is why a lot of bachelor groups have been succesfully set up. I could see the zoo using Nissan, and maybe Nobby, as breeding males, but doubt they'd use Pixel (Victor's grandson, who is massively overrepresented). Bear in mind (no pun intended) that Highland Wildlife Park keep their two adult lads Arktos and Walker together in one enclosure, and their female Victoria in another enclosure quite some distance away in the park (essentially on the other side of the pedestrian area). So theoretically the system at YWP could work if they do end up also receiving Flocke, they could just rotate which males get to be with Flocke.
Click to expand...

Haven't had the chance to visit Highlands but I suspected that would be their set up. I suppose it depends who they are allowed to breed Flocke with, also available homes once they are old enough to move on, at the minute the breeding of the tigers and the leopards are on hold due to stud book recommendations, I was also told that there is an issue with housing Siberian tiger cubs as a lot of collections are preferring to hold Sumatran tigers these days.
 
Embu said:
Would there be any chance for Yupi to ever move from her concrete pit to here?
Click to expand...
Nisha said:
Yupi has since died.
Click to expand...

Originally, the rehabilitation reserve was built to house Yupik away from the boys. I cannot remember exactly why the transfer fell through but I think it may have had something to do with the mayor of the town deciding she could not be moved because she was too much of a tourist attraction. The park then acquired the brown bears. Sadly Yupik died in November 2018 at approximately 28 years old.
 
According to a post to one of the YWP fan groups on Facebook (with photos), there are now Swamp Wallabies in the wallaby walkthough (mixed with the Red-necks). It's a personal post so I won't post the link but another nice addition!
 
Maguari said:
According to a post to one of the YWP fan groups on Facebook (with photos), there are now Swamp Wallabies in the wallaby walkthough (mixed with the Red-necks). It's a personal post so I won't post the link but another nice addition!
Click to expand...
I wish soos would diversify away from the regular Parma & Co. wallabies
 
Judging by several photos on Facebook, Ares and Julie appear to be inhabiting the same outdoor enclosure and they seem to be getting along fairly well.
 
Spoiler was published on their Facebook page 7hrs ago with just a sound from their new arrival. They will announce tomorrow what the species is but I suspect(along with most of the comments) that due to the bellowing, they now have koalas!!!!!
 
They are indeed Venezuelan Red Howler Monkeys, taken from a photo of an information board on facebook. It's nice to see the park invest in more primate species, I believe the new head of animals? has a background in primates so there may be more in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top