littleRedPanda
Well-Known Member
Is the American Bison normally visible down the hill form the penguins? I walked down there on Sunday and noticed a blank sign frame on the fence.
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo 2019
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Yeah it's been around for ages, I feared age may have caught up.
Yeah that's the sigh I noticed was blank
Doesn't sound good then, that is the enclosure , which also has Prairie Marmot , which were also signed not that long ago
I'm sure someone a while back mentioned about the bison being moved to another zoo, maybe that's what has happened?
I asked one of the keepers today.apparently the bison was euthanased due to age related health issues. A few months before his 20th birthday apparently. it was stated on here a while ago that he was to be rehomed and i said at the time nobody would want him. quod erat demonstrandum.
How sad. End of an era. At least he is not suffering now
Perhaps the Bison didn't leave because it was ill, doesn't prove anything I would suggest!! Does it really matter, Whipsnade no longer hold American Bison, so you weren't right or wrong!!! It's bad news for Whipsnade anyway
Lets not start spreading rumours. The sad fact is an animal had to be put to sleep. It seems silly to say but I felt I had a connection with the Bison as I always made a point of going down to visit. For me this is as hard as the people on the Dudley Zoo forum talking about the sad death of Inca the Asian Black Bear. Lets not argue about who is right or wrong, just remember a beautiful animal that is no longer with us.
Animal inventory
As posted on the London thread, the annual stocktake has been put online. It's been a few years since my last Whipsnade visit, so not sure how much is new news, but it looks like they are down to one (male) Sloth Bear now?
As posted on the London thread, the annual stocktake has been put online. It's been a few years since my last Whipsnade visit, so not sure how much is new news, but it looks like they are down to one (male) Sloth Bear now?
littleRedPanda
Well-Known Member
Ursual was put to sleep last September...it looks like they are down to one (male) Sloth Bear now?
Whipsnade Zoo 2018 [ZSL Whipsnade Zoo]
The slow decline of the many of the medium- sized/large African ungulates like the Bongo//Impala is starting to annoy me slightly..
Some of the Asian ones too if I’m honest.
I do wonder if they’ll acquire another sloth bear, or possibly send Colombo off and invest into another species. It would be nice to have a few Sloth bears around though. I’m aware however that introductions between sloth bears often can be very nerve-racking and tense, so maybe it would be best to acquire an entirely new pair.
Some of the Asian ones too if I’m honest.
I do wonder if they’ll acquire another sloth bear, or possibly send Colombo off and invest into another species. It would be nice to have a few Sloth bears around though. I’m aware however that introductions between sloth bears often can be very nerve-racking and tense, so maybe it would be best to acquire an entirely new pair.
Whipsnade is the only holder of the Sri Lankan subspecies of Sloth Bear with the rest of Europe keeping Indian. Their animal is also unable to breed. If anything, a new pair would be best.
~Thylo
~Thylo
I too am beginning to worry about the direction Whipsnade is heading (almost along Marwell lines), one Roan, 2 greater kudu (I only saw one the other week) , the female Pygmy hippo who raised 2 calves after developing a mouth tumour appears to have now died, I hope a new female will arrive soon! In recent years, the Lechwe, Thomson gazelle, moose, onager have gone. None of this is impressive!
Whipsnade has the potential , but seems sadly to be in decline, I think they'll have to wait for the male Sloth bear to die before bringing in more bears, though his mother had a separate enclosure in the woods behind the house and separate indoor housing, so a new pair or more likely same sex bears could be added there.
Frustratingly most of the birds also remain offshow!
I don't understand why they bother to import species like Thompson's Gazelle or Blackbuck only to fail with them. Okay, if the new/recent Tommies died, that's bad news. unavoidable perhaps But the Blackbuck they have failed to add a new male after three years...last October they sent a male Swamp deer to Knowlsey, and could easily have got a male blackbuck delivered by return, but no... The Moose, Onager and Axis deer were bad losses also. So many species either gone or reduced to tiny number. Nothing like the Whipsnade of old!
To be honest I don't think we can blame the zoo for this as much as we can blame ZSL in general. The sentiment I've always heard is that Whipsnade always gets the short end of the stick, is denied most of what they ask for, and constantly has money ripped from them for London. Just look at the elephant exhibit v Land of Lions fiasco.
~Thylo
~Thylo
What actually happened to the Thomson’s gazelles?
They were in a paddock at the back of the bongo paddock, sharing the same set of stables.
I know they had one breeding male, two breeding females and later that year a male fawn called Larry was born there (2014). He did have to be hand-reared, but was quickly integrated back into the group.
They were also purposely acquired for breeding but nothing was reported about them dying from an illness or anything like that.
They were in a paddock at the back of the bongo paddock, sharing the same set of stables.
I know they had one breeding male, two breeding females and later that year a male fawn called Larry was born there (2014). He did have to be hand-reared, but was quickly integrated back into the group.
They were also purposely acquired for breeding but nothing was reported about them dying from an illness or anything like that.
As far as I'm concerned they come under one umbrella- ZSL for both collections. Whipsnade maintains the species which by and large London hasn't the room for. I'm not talking about one winning out against the other over funding for major exhibits here. Its more a case of seemingly being unable to maintain some of their stock in properly organised groupings any more and loss of diversity.
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They evidently died for some reason or other. 1.2 is a very small number to start with and so only a couple of deaths means the potential of the group is defunct. They previously held a decent-sized self -sustaining herd of Tommies for many years, perhaps why they decided to import some more, but seemingly not enough in number to succeed with them.
The impala, blesbok, thommies and blackbuck returned to the zoo because there had been frequent complaints from visitors about the numerous empty paddocks. The final nail in the coffin for the thommies was that, at the point of their paddock being refurbed, Whipsnade purged their groundskeeping staff and outsourced to agency. Thus, the gazelle never made it out of quarantine.
I agree with Pipaluk’s concerns. The last few visits have felt worryingly empty with a seemingly growing move towards the commercial. It’s coming to the stage that I’m genuinely considering whether to renew my Fellowship.