Thank you for the info @ajmcwhipsnade 
ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo News 2024
- Thread starter Rosie183
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Lafone
Well-Known Member
Sounds a great day out! It will be interesting whether the hard standing is for the horses or turns into a car park, though the new fence posts in heaps suggest maybe it is for the enclosure.
Good to know the blue cranes are out in the enclosure again, though I had hoped to see the young red crowned crane back out on show again. The young crane was in there in between the blue cranes (and white stork) and the enclosure being empty for a few weeks. Hopefully that bird will pop back out somewhere else too and hasn't left or gone permanently off show. That space had Sitatunga in it before they moved down to the area on the opposite side of the rhino paddock, they used to be in the pond a lot too.
I must have missed the Red Crowned Cranes, don't think I saw them anywhere (though with somewhere the size of Whipsnade, it's easy to miss something!).
True, if you are not massively familiar it can be easy to miss something! You said you saw the langurs outside? They are next to the langurs at the opposite end to the langur house
Lafone
Well-Known Member
The adults are in the enclosure next to the langur / Babirusa area, on the road side of the new monkey forest entrance. So an easy one to miss particularly if going down the new path side. They weren't on the old map but have just snuck on to the new one.
Thanks both Am kind of used to that area feeling a bit more 'empty' (am thinking the vicinity of the enclosure that was signed for Hog Deer for years, but never saw a thing in there), and yes, taking the new path for Monkey Forest from opposite the tigers, must have just missed them nearer the road
Am kind of used to that area feeling a bit more 'empty' (am thinking the vicinity of the enclosure that was signed for Hog Deer for years, but never saw a thing in there), and yes, taking the new path for Monkey Forest from opposite the tigers, must have just missed them nearer the road
Thanks both
Ah the new path, I’ve never had to take that into consideration before! I’ll have to remember that for future reference. To be fair I’ve been used to 30+ years of no path there so i need to get used to it haha
Dr. Loxodonta
Well-Known Member
This female is still in Quarantine, she will be moved in with the male soon. I should have finished my report by the end of the week
Lafone
Well-Known Member
This female is still in Quarantine, she will be moved in with the male soon. I should have finished my report by the end of the week
There are two separate enclosures available for the Anoa in the new space - the macaques can access both of the areas via doors in their enclosure and using branches that have been placed to bridge the fencing at the bottom end of the enclosure - I would imagine the female will move into the second space to begin with before they do any introductions.
The Aspinall parks were always good in this respect. Not so much nowadays. On a personal level, I’d like to see Douc return to the UK.
The UK and US are definitely neglected their Old World monkeys with a few key exceptions, compared to lemurs and New World monkeys. London's hanuman langurs and white-naped mangabeys were both attractive and active monkey species that crowds seemed to love and were highlights of my visit - could easily see that success duplicated at other facilities if these species became more commonplace. Asian species seem to be doing especially poorly compared to the handful of African monkeys.
I suspect the failures of some major leaf-eating monkeys, like the Proboscis monkey, douc langurs, and perhaps the declining dusky langurs and red-crowned mangebey, has scared off investment in a family that may perhaps seem troublesome to manage, but it's a shame.
Glad you had a good time, although sorry to hear about some of the no-shows as I had luck with some of them... but it does sound like you saw more anoa! Sounds like an excellent visit.
I never saw the sea lion exhibit in life, but I will say - reaching that big empty space, I could almost immediately sense something was missing.
Dr. Loxodonta
Well-Known Member
This other enclosure will also generally be used for the other individual whilst there are no plans to breed.
I think you can draw a difference between e.g. Proboscis and Douc Langurs which are genuinely 'difficult' and scarcely able to maintain their numbers longterm when brought into European Zoos, and a species like the Dusky Langur. For example Twycross have kept and bred this species successfully for around 60 years though they have only two left now and its another species likely to disappear there. Mangabeys are much tougher, easier to keep species than Langurs and its something of a mystery why the Red-capped in the UK are not doing as well as e.g. the White-collared, I think its the poor composition of the groups rather than any difficulty in keeping them.
Beauval's (France) recent record with Douc Langurs is seemingly mirroring previous attempts at keeping groups longterm in Europe- they breed but do not really flourish with stillbirths and other deaths meaning the group doesn't expand.
I can see and appreciate the difference. I was only speculating that the fact there were multiple high profile failures of attractive species within the group may have been a factor in the overall lessened investment in the overall group. Yes, dusky langurs were easier to keep for a very long time -- but they are, like other langurs, disappearing regardless. Would definitely love to find out more about the mangabeys.
The present two UK holders of Red-capped (breeding) are Colchester and Paignton. Both have had them for some long time now but both seem to hinge on a single breeding female most of the time and the groups tend to remain pretty static at around four individuals. Colchester exchanged some females with Apenheul some while ago but currently I think they still have only around 2.2. at each location. Paignton also had several related females at one stage but when they got a new unrelated male
it ended in disaster as he killed at least one younger female and they soon went back to their original grouping.
White-naped are held at London, Howletts and (I think still?) Flamingo Park in Yorkshire. The groups at ZSL & Howletts in particular seem to do well. Despite the many and various critisisms of the Aspinall Parks, one thing they do well is allowing their primates to expand into good-sized groups, often larger than usually seen in UK zoos. I think if they had Red- capped Mangabey they would also be prospering there as well.
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Dr. Loxodonta
Well-Known Member
I had a nice first visit of the year to Whipsnade on Friday, I started off by heading straight to the new Monkey Forest Area, bypassing the Tiger Enclosure on the way to catch sight of how the renewed climbing equipment ect was looking.
At the start of the Monkey Forest Trail was some signage such as a map of the area (I wonder if this idea of having area maps will become more common throughout ZSL) and a bare stretch of land opposite where the emu are, is this just going to become wildflower meadow? I was thoroughly impressed by the looks of the new Babirusa/Langur Habitat, with the enclosure looking spacious and enriching for both Ungulate and Primate. The two male Babirusa and the small troop of Francois Langur were all outside, with one youngster throwing food at one of the babirusa .
The next enclosure, for the Sulawesi crested macaque, was even more impressive space wise, to the point where I had to squint to see the animals playing in amongst the shadows. There was not much visible enrichment/unnatural climbing structures which made the space seem more natural.
I liked the idea of having signage for the deer in the drive-through as when I do not bring my car, I have to miss out on seeing these animals. I did manage to spot a group of water deer from the pathway this time. The Lowland Anoa enclosure was rather open for my liking as they have a reputation for being shy and secretive. The bull seemed happy in his new enclosure, with a nice indoor space round the corner. Something I would like to pick out is every bench and fence along the anoa area was made from recycled plastic bottles.
From the viewing deck one could see that there was a fallen tree over one of the fences. This has apparently been done to make the enclosure more naturally accessible for the 10 (3.7) macaques.
The indoor quarters for the macaques were filled with ropes and branches and was very spacious.
After finishing the main area of Monkey Forest, I set off to Africa, in search of the young White Rhino calf. I decided to take the route through the aardvark house (a new area since my last visit) where the aardvarks, in a most unusual position, slept. The outside enclosure for the aardvarks was an amazing size, and I was slightly confused when this was compared to the size of the meerkats area! This had to be the largest enclosure for such a small animal in the U.K.
The Lions (who I had not seen before) were looking majestic as ever, despite cowering in the corner of there enclosure to avoid the wind. The White Rhinoceros crash was outside, an amazing sight, separated from Jaseera and her calf. Inside the Rhino House, tgere lay the young calf, only 3 weeks old, with his mother. Apparently both mother and son are doing well.
After leaving the adorable calf, I came across the Bongo house where (previously posted by @Crowthorne) the female anoa resided. This is due to the animal being in Quarantine, she will move to Monkey Forest soon.
On the way to the Penguins, I noticed not one not two but at least a dozen little wallabies jumping about and Irritating their mothers. The Rockhopper Colony seemed to be preparing nests so hopefully there will be chicks soon.
As I began the walk towards the Europe Section, I noticed a strange new building at the Bear Enclosure. I guess this has already been noted. It was nice to see the new bears in their enclosure interact with each-over. The Wolverine had just dug up a bone on our arrival and was running around its enclosure with the bone clutched in its mouth.
After a return to the entrance for a cup of tea, I headed to the Aquarium/Butterfly House buildings. The aquariums were, as always, amazing but what I found incredible was the amount of baby Turquoise Dwarf Gecko! How many do you count? The birds were out in the Butterfly House, where I overheard someone call one of the crowned pigeons a peacock 
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The indoor quarters for the macaques were filled with ropes and branches and was very spacious.
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Dr. Loxodonta
Well-Known Member
Then it was off to the elephants. The Asian Elephant herd was inside, feeding although one female could not reach the bale of hay. She then pulled a log over and attempted to stand on this to reach the hay. Lastly she resorted to leading over the young calf, Nang Phaya, and used her as a step! The poor little calf than watched as an older female dug up some treats, the calf gave it a go but instead ended up hitting itself with its trunk! The resident bull, Ming Jung, was resting in his enclosure.
Next I finished off the area of Asia that I had missed to reach Monkey Forest. At the bridge, over the Greater one-horned Rhinoceros paddock, there was a sign announcing that if one was searching for the baby rhino I calf, they should turn around to Africa .
A young yak calf was running around the field as I crossed over to the indoor quarters of the babirusa and langur (which I had previously missed).
The babirusa/langur quarters were inside the original Sloth Bear building, with the walkway seemingly original. The babirusa were on the ground,scratching at the trees in which the Francois Langur resided. Then, a large female crawled through into the room, a strange orange shape on her chest. The youngster was adorable, trying to snatch a pice of cabbage from its mother.
I lastly headed up to the Hippo House, where Tapon, the Pygmy Hippo splashed. Outside, Lola and Hodor were grazing before they were called inside where I could properly see their size. There was no sign of the Cheetah. Lastly I went through the Painted Wolf walkthrough where the Wattled Cranes were strutting about and out via the Eurasian Bison.
Thank you for reading and as always I hope this information was helpful.
.A young yak calf was running around the field as I crossed over to the indoor quarters of the babirusa and langur (which I had previously missed).
The babirusa/langur quarters were inside the original Sloth Bear building, with the walkway seemingly original. The babirusa were on the ground,scratching at the trees in which the Francois Langur resided. Then, a large female crawled through into the room, a strange orange shape on her chest. The youngster was adorable, trying to snatch a pice of cabbage from its mother
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Fantastic write up, glad you enjoyed the day!
Osedax
Well-Known Member
I hope they don't have a Painted Wolf walkthrough!
Thanks for the lovely write up.
Have to agree the Anoa enclosure seems a bit open. Like Bongo (and to an extent Okapi), I feel that they rarely get enclosures which truly represent the habitats they live in - dense forest with lots and lots of planting. This hasn't seemed to be a major problem for them in zoos, however.
Have to agree the Anoa enclosure seems a bit open. Like Bongo (and to an extent Okapi), I feel that they rarely get enclosures which truly represent the habitats they live in - dense forest with lots and lots of planting. This hasn't seemed to be a major problem for them in zoos, however.