ZSL Whipsnade Zoo ZSL Whipsnade Zoo News 2024

Nice to see the confirmation, and from Chester as well! I had to check the animal inventory because I thought three seemed like a lot. Apparently they had ten at the end of 2023! :eek: Certainly, the group never felt so big to me.
 
Fallax said:
Nice to see the confirmation, and from Chester as well! I had to check the animal inventory because I thought three seemed like a lot. Apparently they had ten at the end of 2023! :eek: Certainly, the group never felt so big to me.
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It's incredible how well banteng have bred in this country, between Chester and Marwell. Should Whipsnade continue this success, it will be incredibly impressive to see a herd of banteng on the downs!
 
Tim Brown said:
Not one of the above species is particularly endangered,and seeing as conservation holds the whip hand with the ZSL (and all other major British zoos),it is perhaps wishful thinking (though Moose did re-appear a few years ago and Wild Boar became exhibit-worthy again).Nothing wrong with an enthusiast dreaming, but I feel that EEPs,TAGs and the like will be more likely to determine future collection planning.
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I also kind of wish Whipsnade would replace domestics like Yak and Camels with other species but guess they are stuck with what they have and these species were originally kept to bulk up the Asian area, though the Yak now occupy their own paddock.
 
Pertinax said:
I also kind of wish Whipsnade would replace domestics like Yak and Camels with other species but guess they are stuck with what they have and these species were originally kept to bulk up the Asian area, though the Yak now occupy their own paddock.
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The passing off of domestic Bactrians as 'critically endangered' and domestic Yaks as 'vulnerable' is one of my pet hates in zoos and is sadly all too commonplace, and obviously it would be lovely to see wild Bactrians and Yaks in zoos. My understanding though is that each species is only kept in one facility - Camels in a breeding centre on Mongolia and Yaks at Xining Zoo - so I doubt there's much chance of either appearing outside Asia in the foreseeable future.
 
I think it would be a shame to lose the yaks in particular as they are hard to find in zoos and fun to watch.

Both the camels and yaks are signed as domestic so I don't believe any deception is taking place.

I agree there's a great oportunity to teach about species domestication.
 
Jennings said:
Not on the Whipsnade website. At least, not the Yaks. Yak | Whipsnade Zoo
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Strange, they are definitely signed as domestic in the zoo itself. Weird oversight as the new ZSL website fixed most of the mistakes on the old one. The camels are noted as being domestic on the website and they made a point of saying it during the press release for the new calf too

I agree it would be a shame for either yak or camel to leave. The camels are lovely to see in such a wide exhibit, and at least for me are fairly ubiquitous with that area of the zoo. The yaks are, as mentioned, fairly rare in zoos and they definitely add to the theming of that area of the zoo. They're great fun to watch as well.

This is where I insert my usual comment about replacing them with sloth bears.

If Whipsnade did want to go into more varieties of cattle, Berlin Tierpark is soon to lose their Cape and Congo buffalo for the northern-white rhino breeding centre. Wishful thinking but who knows
 
Its not that I object to the presence of domestics like the Yaks and Camels. Rather that I look around Whipsnade and see how many species they could keep/ used to keep additionally are missing, while the herds they do have are mostly a tiny shadow of what used to be there. They have the paddock space to include much more. Because they don't, the presence of the domestics seems more obvious somehow.
 
Pertinax said:
Its not that I object to the presence of domestics like the Yaks and Camels. Rather that I look around Whipsnade and see how many species they could keep/ used to keep additionally are missing, while the herds they do have are mostly a tiny shadow of what used to be there. They have the paddock space to include much more. Because they don't, the presence of the domestics seems more obvious somehow.
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To a point I agree with this but with some exceptions, notably the zebra, are any of the herds truly that small? The rhino crash is huge and with so much hoofstock in there too it doesn't really matter if there's only a handful of each, the giraffes are very healthy, as are the elephants, the entirety of Passage Through Asia seems to have more animals than modern Marwell and even smaller groups such as the waterbuck and bongo are intended to breed at some point. Whipsnade is so huge that unless you have a 10,000 strong herd of wildebeest, it will always look a little empty. Maybe 5 years ago I'd have shared your view but things feel like they're on the up in terms of species number and variety, best shown by the banteng arrival.
 
Pertinax said:
Its not that I object to the presence of domestics like the Yaks and Camels. Rather that I look around Whipsnade and see how many species they could keep/ used to keep additionally are missing, while the herds they do have are mostly a tiny shadow of what used to be there. They have the paddock space to include much more. Because they don't, the presence of the domestics seems more obvious somehow.
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Lafone said:
I think it would be a shame to lose the yaks in particular as they are hard to find in zoos and fun to watch
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The yak herd makes an impressive display and there's no doubt that the yaks are very popular with the visitors so, yes, it would be a shame if they left Whipsnade. Personally, though, I'd much rather see the onagers that used to be kept in that enclosure.....
cerperal said:
To a point I agree with this but with some exceptions, notably the zebra, are any of the herds truly that small? The rhino crash is huge.....
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But there was a time when Whipsnade's white rhinoceros herd numbered more than twenty individuals.
 
Tim May said:
But there was a time when Whipsnade's white rhinoceros herd numbered more than twenty individuals.
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But that's simply not realistic in a modern zoo, it's all well and good saying that herds were larger back in the day but with the progression of welfare and husbandry a lot of those numbers are no longer achievable. For a modern zoo, Whipsnade has a large, breeding herd of rhino in an outstanding exhibit. I don't think you'd see so much behaviour if the field was utterly rammed with horned pachyderms.
 
Tim May said:
The yak herd makes an impressive display and there's no doubt that the yaks are very popular with the visitors so, yes, it would be a shame if they left Whipsnade. Personally, though, I'd much rather see the onagers that used to be kept in that enclosure.....

But there was a time when Whipsnade's white rhinoceros herd numbered more than twenty individuals.
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I couldn't figure why they got rid of the Onagers. Naturally there was an empty field after that, which is presumably why the Yak moved in there from the Asian plains.

The White Rhinos numbered 22 at their height(or maybe more with the early calves) I think that was over the top rather, and wouldn't want a return to that but its not rhino numbers I'm complaining about, though I'm sad they no longer have Black. More the bovid,antelope and (to a lesser extent) deer.
 
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cerperal said:
But that's simply not realistic in a modern zoo, it's all well and good saying that herds were larger back in the day but with the progression of welfare and husbandry a lot of those numbers are no longer achievable. For a modern zoo, Whipsnade has a large, breeding herd of rhino in an outstanding exhibit. I don't think you'd see so much behaviour if the field was utterly rammed with horned pachyderms.
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I think the White rhino group numbers half a dozen and that is fine in this day and age. But numbers of some of the other ungulates are very low in comparison with what they once were, or absent altogether. Whipsnade does lack the diversity it once had but you could say that for many zoos these days. Visually a group of half a dozen or more is far preferable to odd trios and singles. A dozen is even better and a really big herd, better still.
 
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Pertinax said:
Its not that I object to the presence of domestics like the Yaks and Camels. Rather that I look around Whipsnade and see how many species they could keep/ used to keep additionally are missing, while the herds they do have are mostly a tiny shadow of what used to be there. They have the paddock space to include much more. Because they don't, the presence of the domestics seems more obvious somehow.
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Oh, I don't mind domestics, and it's especially good that Whipsnade has a substantial collection of rare breed sheep and goats, but you're right about the sadly denuded hoofstock herds. The fact that as of the 2023 inventory the place is down to a mere 0.2 Blackbuck and no longer has any Axis Deer or Arabian oryx at all is especially sad.
 
HelloCrossy67 said:
Blackbuck seem to have dwindled out everywhere!

Only 2 females at Longleat aswell.
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Yes, it seems everywhere apart from WMSP have had a huge decrease in such a nice species, does anyone know why? Also, when did the third female at Longleat pass (or am I wrong in thinking there was a third female?)
 
Dr. Loxodonta said:
Yes, it seems everywhere apart from WMSP have had a huge decrease in such a nice species, does anyone know why? Also, when did the third female at Longleat pass (or am I wrong in thinking there was a third female?)
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There were definitely 3 females during my most recent visit in September of last year. They usually hang around the pond and hides at the far end of the monkey exhibit so they're often easy to miss anyway
 
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