The rather small but nice private collection "De Paay" in the Dutch town Beesd last year rather remarkably acquired greater Grisons (Galictis vittata) from an animal dealer. Now they found a pair of Chacoan- or dwarf Mara (Dolichotis salinicola), presumably from the same animal dealer. With both species they are the only holder in Europe (that I know off, on show, at least). The mara was seen and identified by a Dutch Zoo enthousiast and confirmed by the park itself. Cool little animals, now i REALLY need to visit...
Unfortanetly, the dwarfmara's past away last year. So is probably the only grison they have left. However there are some new animals in the paay; a pair of yellow-throated martens, a pair of caracals, and a pair of red-footed falcons!
Visited today De Paay ( first time for me ) and saw 2 mammal-species new to me ( don't happen to often ) : The Greater grison ( Galictis vittata ) from which Rupicola feared it no longer was at De Paay is still there althrough behind the scenes ! A friendly keeper showed us this animal and told us also they had obtained a second Grison. Although the ordered animal was a Grison it proofed to be a specimen of the other Grison-species, the Little Grison ( Galictis cuja ) ! This one seen and photographed of course as well althrough the pictures proofed at home of a very bad quality ! The animals are kept seperatly and was at the moment trying to obtain at least one more to make up at least one pair. On the enclosure in which they will be showed to the big public - maybe not the right expresion because we were the only visitors at the park from 11.00 AM to 15.00 PM - several persons were working so it will hopefully finished soon.
Next to the Grisons they also have a nice collection of owls, cranes, yellow-throated martens, keas ( hardly any left in the Netherlands ) among others !
Have you spoken to the owner? They is some rebuilding being done at the moment, and there are some plans for new exhibits, some species will leave, and there might be some new species coming in. The caracals and yellow-throated martens are new this year, the martens come from Best zoo. You already posted some photos of the grisons, they will be back on show later this year when the marten exhibit is finished. There are some other very interested species to see though, they have red-footed falcons, don't know if you've seen them? And they have a pair of giant squirrels, but they are very shy!
3 red-footed falcon. One pair should have been in the park but I didn't see them, a third single specimen was in the same building in which the Grisons are kept and this one I did see. Didn't see the Giant squirrels
Ah, I didn't know that haha. This is my "home" zoo. I volunteer with some things at the paay, very nice people! So they have both species of grison, I will be back later this month so, I will have a look then. It's funny as that small private zoo tend to get more rarer species than the bigger zoos. As said above, the squirrels are very shy, which can be a little bit frustrating. I will post a photo later on, the got a male last year, which was kept behind the scenes for a long time(I got a photo there) and they recieved a female squirrel this year.
If you are able to see them, see if you can get a good photograph of each of them - it would be interesting to look at the two photographs and compare the species! As I have said before, galitictine mustelids are a particular interest of mine, and are much too rare in collections for my liking.
I visited this collection a few days ago. The Greater Grison is currently on public exhibit, the Lesser Grison is held behind the scenes. The owner has not yet been able to find other animals to make up pairs. Also currently behind the scenes is a Screaming Hairy Armadillo (Chaetophractus vellerosus).
Visited this very intresting collection on Saterday Oct. 18 ( = yesterday ) and made some intresting observations. - Common marmosets had young ( born beginning of October ) - in two cages more or less behind the scenes 2 Civets were kept seperatly. On the photos I made of them collegue ZooChatters have indentified them as being African Civets. The boy who showed them to us told they were not getting along very well with eachother but lets hope this will change in the near future ! - The Grison on display didn't want to display to much and I only saw his ( or her ? ) head sticking out of the small doorway ! If I find some time one of the coming days, I will write a little review about De Paay.
Do you have any idea from where the civets came? Are they WC, or bred in Europe (or elsewhere)? A very welcome addition, certainly.
