Blackbrook » Blackbrook Zoo

Blackbrook
13-06-2007

I'm going to Blackbrook in 2 weeks and am Eagerly anticipating the experience. I've been three times before. It has a wide variety of Softbills and Storks/Cranes. Has anyone Else been and what are yo're views on this little treasure?

13-06-2007

Hey mate
fill us in with what the place is like. Is it a birdpark, does it have any mammals at all?

13-06-2007

Well, It has started to phase the big mammals out. They used to have Capybaras and A tapir called Nesbitt but they all moved when the area was renevated earlier this year. They also used to have a male Lesser adjutant and a pair of yellow billed storks. I also believe that they've had painted storks and ground hornbills.
A nice area, They have:
Germain's peacock pheasant
Palawan Peacock pheasant
Grey Peacock Pheasant
Siamese Fireback
Crested fireback
Temminck's Tragopan
Satyr Tragopan
Three species of Eared pheasant
Swinhoe's pheasant
Great argus Pheasants
White crested Kajj
Silver pheasant
Lady ross's Turaco
Violet turaco
Great blue turaco
Pink eared duck
Lots more ducks including magellenic steamer ducks
Boat billed herons
Black necked Crane
Marabou Stork
White naped Crane
Maragui Stork
2 subspecies of Sandhill Crane
Wattled Crane
Red crowned crane
Blue crane
Black crowned crane
Grey crowned crane
Austrailian Sarus crane
3 species of new world Callithrids (2 Saginus and 1 callithrix)
Red legged seriama
Pied butcher bird
Luzon bleeding heart dove
Straw necked ibis
African spoonbill
Hadada ibis
Blue crowned pigeon
Iguana
Frilled lizard
Black spur winged goose
Spur winged goose
And sooooo much more......

14-06-2007

Blackbrook has just received 17 tamarins of 3 species, one of the red-handed tamarins had a baby a few days after she arrived. The other species are white-lipped tamarin and common tamarin (surely they mean common marmoset). They are from a collection on the south coast. No information as to where this is.

Also the vulture which escaped last August has been reported to have been in someone's garden in Consall which is about 5 miles away.

Blackbrook was the first collection in Britain to breed Marabou Storks.

I hope to go for a visit this summer, but I'm waiting for a good day weather-wise. I've been past on a train and there didn't seen to be much shelter. Unfortunately the railway line is now closed.

20-06-2007

In your list you mentioned two species of birds which I am very familiar with, the pied butcher bird and the pink eared duck. We have wild butchers living round my house, as would mist Aussies I suspect. And in a nearby dam are at the moment about 100 wild pink eared ducjs. They are very nomadic and will probably move on soon but it is great to watch them feeding. They are are not dabblers like many ducks but instead swim along with their beaks in the water, seiving out food. They are certainly beautiful birds and I think a more apt name for them would be zebra ducks.

21-06-2007

I believe the name pink-eared Duck is a bit of a misnomer- isn't the pink just a tiny spot behind the eye? Are the sexes similar? From the description they sound rather like our European Shoveler- an elongated flat bill for seiving through the water- shovelers use a side to side motion of the head when feeding as well.

The duck I'd really like to have seen alive is the Pink-headed duck from Assam- sadly now presumed extinct. The males(only) had a real PINK head and neck and chocolate brown body- a bit pochard-like but much slimmer and longer necked. I saw stuffed skins of them once at the museum in Bombay(Mumbai)

21-06-2007

Red handed tamarins are great, there is a group at the Cotswold Wildlife Park.

two guesses for a 'south coast' collection where they came from are;
1. Drussillas' zoo in Sussex, or 2. Shaldon Zoo in Devon.

Both of them have good marmoset/tamarin collections.

07-07-2007

Blackbrook was brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm Writing a review for my website, but I'll post it on here too.

09-07-2007

Where have the following species gone from Blackbrook:
Yellow billed stork
Painted stork
Tapir
Capybara
Port jackson shark

I have been told in Breif what happened to the male lesser adjutant, but could someone please clear it up for me.

Thanks

09-07-2007

I know twycross has just got a new tapir not so long ago, possable from there but not got a clue ??

09-07-2007

The balckbrook tapir was a female called nesbitt.

09-07-2007

tapir went to a private zoo cant remeber the name do they do a lot of film and tv work
the capybara went to a private breeding collection again not to sure where
and the portjacksons went to stapley water gardens sorry i cant be more helpful hey all left just before i took on the mammal and reptile side of the collection i will try and find out about the storks

09-07-2007

Thanks a lot. Will Blackbrook get anymore Giant marmots? There's only one left. I belive it's a female.

09-07-2007

sex is unknown they where brough as a trio about 13 years ago there is no plan to get another yet due to the age and that the small mammal block is hopfully getting completly rebuilt later this year

09-07-2007

What animas will be goin in there?