Colchester Zoo Zoo History?

ZooLeopard said:
no they arent cheetahs, they are the small cats that used to be at the bottom of the Hornbill hill i think.
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Yes thats where i remember seeing the Leopard cats, i think from memory they were labelled as amur leopard cats (not as in their larger cousins but the small species of cat!)
 
Bears

I can remember when I was little there being 2 Asiatic black bears and a Syrian brown bear. But when abouts did these bears arrive and when did they die?

Also I have a feeling the enclosure got refurbished in 1987 but is this defineately true?

What other bears did they have? I know at 1 point they defineately had atleast 2 brown bears. Here's a picture of them from 1966.http://www.zoochat.com/57/russian-brown-bears-114289/
 
They had an asiatic Black bear named Bruno who died in early 2000's i think. Also Susie the syrian Brown bear died before him in 1998? Not sure will have to ask someone at somepoint.
 
We never used to visit the bears!! It was awful, pacing and rocking in awful glass boxes! Very sad to see them.
The bears never seemed to have a decent enclosure they started off in an unsuitable one and things never improved for them, I feel Colchester really let down the bears, maybe it was a species they had no plans to keep again but they seemed to make do till they finally died out!!
 
Below I have found some articles on the net about Bruno the Asiatic Black Bear and some other news articles that people may find interesting.
 
 
Will definatley try to find out from the zoo for you ;)

Any other questions of a similar nature you need asking while I'm there just say.
 
Believe it or not, but the improved, enlarged, glass-fronted bear exhibits in 1987 were actually fairly good for their time, considering the RSCC only recently built a similarly-sized enclosure for its Sun Bears. Colchester held one elderly Syrian Brown bear, and the pair of Asiatic Black bears at the time these new enclosures were built.

To the best of my memory, they were built on the site of the two existing, smaller, wire bear cages that had previously housed a group of (all syrian?) brown bears on the left, and the black bears on the right. I think the other brown bears had all died out leaving the lone female by 1987. I think the new enclosures took in some of the sloping goat paddock to the right of the original bear cages, the remainder of which was used for the new sealion pool (now penguins) down the path.

The behavioural problems evident in the brown bear especially I would suggest came from a combination of spending years in the previous cages, and the fact that the new glass-fronted exhibits marked the advent of the end of visitor feeding (bags of pellets to feed the animals used to be available up until the early 80s), and therefore the bears couldn't spend their time begging. This is not to say that Colchester didn't attempt to enrich their environment with old christmas trees, scents etc, but it just wasn't enough to prevent the stereotypic behaviour all of the time.
 
johnstoni said:
To the best of my memory, they were built on the site of the two existing, smaller, wire bear cages that had previously housed a group of (all syrian?) brown bears on the left, and the black bears on the right. I think the other brown bears had all died out leaving the lone female by 1987. I think the new enclosures took in some of the sloping goat paddock to the right of the original bear cages, the remainder of which was used for the new sealion pool (now penguins) down the path.
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Thanks, in my 70s brochure there were 2 adult brown bears there 1 of whoom was looking overweght. They are phtographed feeding from something.

ZooLeopard did you even find out anything about the bears??:confused:
 
Most information about the bears, is listed on page two of this thread:

They had an asiatic Black bear named Bruno who died in early 2000's i think. Also Susie the syrian Brown bear died before him in 1998? Not sure will have to ask someone at somepoint.
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Zoo favourite Annie dies (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

New playmate for Rajang at Colchester Zoo (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester: Tiger killed in zoo tragedy (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester: Killer tiger could stay at zoo (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester: Essex girls on the loose from zoo (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester: New view of vultures (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester: Zoo staff mourn death of Buster (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)

Colchester: Zoo puts down Bruno the bear (From Clacton and Frinton Gazette)
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