The zoo has announced that its railway has now carried its six millionth passenger. Quite an achievement!
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo News 2022
- Thread starter Lafone
- Start date
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Good landmark indeed - all round between the new elephant calf, the nice BBC feature on the animal weigh and a good rail milestone it’s been a good whipsnade week!
Very busy Bank Holiday, the site looks very tired (the majority of the animal signage is faded and/or shot to pieces) but that’s probably more to do with the extremely hot weather of the past few monthes rather than any lack of investment…probably.
Aardvarks very showy but saw no porcupine.
Elephant calf looking very robust and healthy.
Some construction work going on at the White rhino.
I’ve not watched it for a few years but the bird team put on an excellent demonstration at the Birds of the World arena.
Aardvarks very showy but saw no porcupine.
Elephant calf looking very robust and healthy.
Some construction work going on at the White rhino.
I’ve not watched it for a few years but the bird team put on an excellent demonstration at the Birds of the World arena.
Was at whipsnade today too.
First one ostrich has gone so 4 not 5.
More meerkat have recently joined but the sign said they still need to be introduced to the current Mob
Again no sign of porcupines, and lion personally looks very lonely all alone but no plans for any more till he goes back to Blackpool zoo.
Elephant calf was a big attraction she looks well.
Currently it’s Donna, baby and Kaylee in one enclosure and Karishma and Elizabeth in other only because Elizabeth is being too boisterous with new calf so till she is older they are keeping her apart from her.
Couldn’t see Cinderella the bear,
Enjoyed both birds of the world shows.
could see work being done on old sea lion enclosure, so that’s a potential for new animals to arrive next year.
First one ostrich has gone so 4 not 5.
More meerkat have recently joined but the sign said they still need to be introduced to the current Mob
Again no sign of porcupines, and lion personally looks very lonely all alone but no plans for any more till he goes back to Blackpool zoo.
Elephant calf was a big attraction she looks well.
Currently it’s Donna, baby and Kaylee in one enclosure and Karishma and Elizabeth in other only because Elizabeth is being too boisterous with new calf so till she is older they are keeping her apart from her.
Couldn’t see Cinderella the bear,
Enjoyed both birds of the world shows.
could see work being done on old sea lion enclosure, so that’s a potential for new animals to arrive next year.
Rajang-GOAT
Well-Known Member
Where was Lucha or did you not see her? Perhaps maybe I was right about her being separated from the others, but why...
Where was Lucha or did you not see her? Perhaps maybe I was right about her being separated from the others, but why...
She might've just been somewhere out of view. I'd imagine she'd be in with Kaylee, Donna and the calf, as there's no reason to keep her seperate from them.
That’s concerning behaviour. Given her closeness to Kaylee, I’d have assumed that would have extended to her descendants. It may be they have to remain seperated until the calf is more robust - with regards to Lucha and Elizabeth, but it’s similarly a shame the six year old cow isn’t fully integrated so she can be learning from this experience via assimilation.
They’ve made the right decision of course in prioritising the calf’s safety and long term, full integration will surely be achieved.
That’s strange as, when I was there, Lucha was with Kaylee and Donna, and was babysitting the calf whilst Donna fed or allowing the calf to play in the sand mounds. The calf slept most of the time underneath Lucha, it was Karishma and Elizabeth who were separated.
That's interesting to hear.
I do recall Lucha being close to Emmett too, so it seems she just gets along well with bulls in general.
A lot of females do tend to knock over babies (especially juveniles), but it's normally mum who protects the calf from the others. Donna, being young, and pretty much a first time mum is obviously new to this, but hopefully this is providing her with a valuable experience for the next time she gives birth.
Lucha has also never had a calf of her own which may add to her boisterous behaviour. I don't believe she was like this with any of the other calves; although it probably comes down to the mother; Kaylee, Azizah and Karishma were very protective of their little one versus Donna who seems to be quite unsure and less protective of the calf.
You both apparently went on the same day so if you saw Lucha with Kaylee, Donna and the calf, than maybe she wasn't in with Ming Jung?
Lucha's been around many calves before, and i've never heard of such behaviour from her, so I was rather interested to hear she had been separated. It's reasonable for a boisterous juvenile like Elizabeth; but not a fully grown cow like Lucha who's had experience around calves in the past.
To confirm, from my observations:
Ming Jung in Bull paddock.
Karishma, Elizabeth in middle sand paddock-Karishma very keen to get to Ming Jung!
Kaylee, Donna, Lucha and calf in main grass paddock.
I thought the plan was to establish a group at Whipsnade, then move them back to Blackpool?
I would also add that there’s no interpretation for this male at the exhibit. It was nice to see the effort made by the zoo explaining the Africa Alive Pride’s residency but they’ve done nothing for this male. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to know if there was a lion there at all!
Rajang-GOAT
Well-Known Member
This is very weird.. I only mentioned it because one of the cows seemed to be separated in the video of Donna giving birth, Now there is mixed signals with what is going on with Lucha.
Well i've just watched the video; and your right, Lucha was separated at the time of the birth. This is interesting. Potentially she's injured, or been rough around calves in the past, hence the separation this time around.
Lafone
Well-Known Member
Yes agree that’s surprising when they had such a lot of good info on the holidaying lions. Given lions are a big species for Whipsnade (or have been in the past) it does seem very quiet.
The keepers had mentioned when doing a lion talk (to a very large group of school children so not on the quiet information or on the basis of being asked an individual question just to be clear on ‘zoo news’ etc, I just happened to be there when they came through) the intent to get a female in and establish the pride there, this was a little time ago though so perhaps plans have changed?
Possible reasons. 1. Its only one Lion so not 'worth' them doing an explanation. 2. Plans are still not finalised as to what will happen for him, so no signage.
I believe this is this same set up we saw today but Apologies as I don’t know their names lol but the baby is fantastic x
I'd imagine they'd probably wait a bit longer before reintroducing Karishma and Elizabeth, once the calf has grown a little bit more; but it would be vital to ensure Elizabeth is introduced ASAP to learn important mothering skills that she otherwise, hasn't witnessed previously. Obviously Whipsnade have hope here that Karishma will conceive soon (if she hasn't already) and Elizabeth will be able to be present and learn from that experience before having a calf of her own.