ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2012

I am not a regular visitor to ZSL London (unfortunately) and was thinking is the young female Asian Lion 'Abi' still kept with the pride?:confused: I haven't seen any photos of the ZSL London pride all together for a while now.

Think you mean Rubi (daughter of Abi)

Yes, they certinley were kept as one pride and afaik this hasn't changed
 
Yes, I saw them this week, all five: Lucifer and Abi, Rubi, and the most recent cubs (now more or less fully grown). They looked great and were very active, bounding about and cuffing each other.

There are some nice new parrots just inside the "children's zoo" (over the coati drawbridge and turn left). Six conures, very cheerful and noisy.
 
There are some nice new parrots just inside the "children's zoo" (over the coati drawbridge and turn left). Six conures, very cheerful and noisy.

Don't suppose you took note of the species?
 
Sorry, Dave, didn't think to. They look most like the green-cheeked variety (when I look at pictures online). I'll check next week for sure and let you know.
 
The outside areas look promising. Landscape wise and otherwise the same cannot be said now of the interior building. I would seriously do away with those cemented deep moat barriers and extend the interior stalls to the visitor public viewing areas. Fingers crossed there!

I'm not sure how much they would be able to do inside due to architerctural preservation rules. The inside is such a mish-mash, I would just fill it with bamboo and tropical plants and have some displays about South East Asia's ecology and culture, maybe some aviaries in the spare stalls. I do hope it's fully integrated with the rest of this area rather than being an after-thought.
 
Sorry, Dave, didn't think to. They look most like the green-cheeked variety (when I look at pictures online). I'll check next week for sure and let you know.

No worries :) just random curiosity as to whether it was a new arrival or just a reshuffle.
 
No worries :) just random curiosity as to whether it was a new arrival or just a reshuffle.

They are Patagonian conures - they're in the aviary which formerly held Malayan black hornbills. Their food bowl is quite high up, which is nice because you can easily see the conures' colourful undersides.
 
They are Patagonian conures - they're in the aviary which formerly held Malayan black hornbills. Their food bowl is quite high up, which is nice because you can easily see the conures' colourful undersides.

Nice - I'll have to double check my photos from late October just in case I saw them then and didn't realise it, as this would be a tick ;)

I don't even particularly care for parrots of the non-Kea kind, but it's always nice to find out you saw something new.
 
I'm pretty sure they were new arrivals since last week, so you'll have to go back again for your "tick"!
 
Haha, I won't be in any hurry ;)

Now, if London were to get kakas or kiwis, it might be a different story ;)
 
I will be doing the zookeeper for a day at London. Does anyone know what animals I will be meeting? I'm hoping for the advarks and okapi.
 
The last one I heard about featured tigers, giraffes, penguins, meerkats, ring-tailed lemurs, anteaters, bearded pigs and spider monkeys, though I'm sure the keepers vary the schedule according to need. When are you going? Let us know how it goes!
 
Thanks for the information. I'm taking part on the 4th of December. I am really looking forward to it.
 
Thanks, it appears the pool is nearer the path than i remembered from seeing elephants in it 30ish years ago!

The path is where the moat was, so yes, it will actually be nearer to the public area than when the elephants occupied this site.
 
They are Patagonian conures - they're in the aviary which formerly held Malayan black hornbills. Their food bowl is quite high up, which is nice because you can easily see the conures' colourful undersides.

Some of the early press for Animal Adventure suggested this exhibit was designed to house Quaker parakeets. I'm not sure why this never happened, but I felt the aviary to be too small for a large hornbill species (unless they are taken out as part of the flying displays?), so a smaller parrot species that will at least use the mesh sides and ceiling to climb is IMHO an improvement.
 
Here (if I manage to attach the pic successfully) are three of the six Patagonian conures - not a very good photo as they are so lively and I had limited time! - but enough to give you an impression.
 

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Camel Enclosure

It doesn't look like they've got a lot more to do for the Camel Enclosure. Where there looks like there is no fence (the Casson side) there are in fact two lower fences with a moat in between. Whether they would move in in the spring, by Christmas or before is most probably a different matter though.

I've added another photo to show the moat.

The camel who moved down to Whipsnade a while ago, Naomi/Noami has now gone back to London :)

Will the camels be in their new enclosure from today then?!:)

Ooh I couldn't say whether that's the case! It suggests it will be soon though doesn't it!

Any weekend camel sightings then?! ;)
 
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