ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2014

Just walked past the old Tiger/Pygmy Hippo enclosure.
There's a sign there for Cheetah!
 

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tennisfan said:
Not aware if its been mentioned before but I notice the 2014 animal inventories are now on the ZSL site

Animal inventory | Zoological Society of London (ZSL)
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Downside with the new format for the inventories is that it only records the state of affairs on 01/01/2014, without noting births, deaths and departures in the previous year; as such, without a copy of last year's inventory it is difficult to spot the more obscure departures and arrivals, for instance those in the reptile and amphibian collection. One thing which is starkly obvious is a drastic reduction in the number of venomous species held by the collection; purely going by memory it appears that in the past year the collection has gone out of the following species, some of which had been held in relatively high numbers:

Bothriechis supraciliaris
Bothriechis lateralis
Bothriechis nigroviridis
Bothriechis schlegelii
Bothriechis aurifer
Vipera berus berus
 
SuperBen said:
Just walked past the old Tiger/Pygmy Hippo enclosure.
There's a sign there for Cheetah!
Click to expand...

Interesting!

I can only assume they're temporarily holding excess stock from another collection (Whipsnade?). I don't think cheetah have done very well in the past at London, though someone correct if I'm wrong. They can't be part of the new lion development can they?
 
Panthera1981 said:
Interesting!

I can only assume they're temporarily holding excess stock from another collection (Whipsnade?). I don't think cheetah have done very well in the past at London, though someone correct if I'm wrong. They can't be part of the new lion development can they?
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If they are Whipsnade's then the Latin name on the new signage is incorrect..
 
Panthera1981 said:
I don't think cheetah have done very well in the past at London, though someone correct if I'm wrong.
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One reason I've been cited for that in the past is that they don't like the proximity of Lions( obviously in the wild they try to avoid them as Cheetahs are much more timid by nature) but they seem to be doing it again here if this is correct.
 
Pertinax said:
One reason I've been cited for that in the past is that they don't like the proximity of Lions( obviously in the wild they try to avoid them as Cheetahs are much more timid by nature) but they seem to be doing it again here if this is correct.
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I overhead a keeper/worker saying they "won't be here for too long"
I believe I'm right in thinking that that particular enclosure will be demolished anyway soon, when they make the new lion area.
 
Pertinax said:
One reason I've been cited for that in the past is that they don't like the proximity of Lions( obviously in the wild they try to avoid them as Cheetahs are much more timid by nature) but they seem to be doing it again here if this is correct.
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So London is up to the dizzy heights of 4 cat species again, if only very temporarily! I wonder whether the cheetah have been brought in to compensate for the removal of the lions for a while, when work starts to change their existing enclosure.
I still think it's a shame the tiger enclosure will be demolished, cheetah are reasonably suited to it, as its lack of height is no good for larger more arboreal cats.
Cheetah didn't breed anywhere other than Whipsnade until the 70s, did London seriously attempt to breed them after that anyway?
If it isn't a breeding pair, i don't see the close proximity to the lions would be a major problem & after all Whipsnades are breeding fairly close to their lions.
 
pipaluk said:
So London is up to the dizzy heights of 4 cat species again, if only very temporarily! I wonder whether the cheetah have been brought in to compensate for the removal of the lions for a while, when work starts to change their existing enclosure.
I still think it's a shame the tiger enclosure will be demolished, cheetah are reasonably suited to it, as its lack of height is no good for larger more arboreal cats.
Cheetah didn't breed anywhere other than Whipsnade until the 70s, did London seriously attempt to breed them after that anyway?
If it isn't a breeding pair, i don't see the close proximity to the lions would be a major problem & after all Whipsnades are breeding fairly close to their lions.
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I don't think London ever seriously attempted breeding Cheetah. Even thirty years ago I can remember thinking that another species would have been more suitable for their enclosure (presently occupied by Francois' Langur). Quite why Snow Leopards, in particular, were never acquired strikes me as odd.

Having already taken up time I didn't have to spare discussing the (non) development of Whipsnade, I really feel that my beloved would like me to desist , just this once, on telling the world what I think about the redevelopment of the Lion Terraces...:rolleyes:
 
It's always struck me as odd that ZSL have never pursued the idea of keeping snow leopard-they'd look fantastic on the Mappins and well suited to Whipsnade!
 
]It's always struck me as odd that ZSL have never pursued the idea of keeping snow leopard-they'd look fantastic on the Mappins and well suited to Whipsnade!
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David, you will get me into serious trouble soon!! :p
 
I think snow leopards would look good anywhere. Do you think ZSL think they are overrepresented in zoos? Or are they too expensive to keep? Difficult to obtain?
 
stulch said:
I think snow leopards would look good anywhere. Do you think ZSL think they are overrepresented in zoos? Or are they too expensive to keep? Difficult to obtain?
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I've certainly visited, and worked, in places you wouldn't expect to keep snow leopard and they work very well and straightforward to look after. Maybe it's an over-representation issue but I can dream! Or maybe convert the Mappins into a jungle them and put jaguar in there!
 
stulch said:
I think snow leopards would look good anywhere. Do you think ZSL think they are overrepresented in zoos? Or are they too expensive to keep? Difficult to obtain?
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Heaven knows what ZSL management think. They're certainly not hard to obtain - held in 94 collections within Europe, according to zootiereliste (ZootierlisteHomepage) and they seem to breed in some fairly utilitarian accommodation. Personally I think they're magnificent animals that any quality zoo should hold.

However, where would you be able to put them in two years' time? There is nowhere suitable at Whipsnade now, and there will be nowhere suitable at London when the Lion Terraces' redevelopment takes place. This is exactly the sort of charismatic species, not held currently, that seems unlikely to reappear given current policies.
 
IanRRobinson said:
However, where would you be able to put them in two years' time? ... there will be nowhere suitable at London when the Lion Terraces' redevelopment takes place. This is exactly the sort of charismatic species, not held currently, that seems unlikely to reappear given current policies.
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The north bank?

P.S. Are you now in trouble? :)
 
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