First major news of the year... Male Amur Tiger, Altay (born 3/8/08) will be departing in the next few weeks according to the park's Facebook page. No info on where he's going yet or the destination of his brother and sister (Altai and Sayan)
Twins elephants have been born, unfortunately one did not survive http://www.guideandgazette.co.uk/news/excitement_over_twin_elephant_calf_1_1
This is about the baby Gelada birth: Keepers at Howletts Wild Animal Park are celebrating the birth of their first ever Gelada baboon. Howletts is one of only three other zoos in the UK to breed Gelada baboons meaning this birth is a first for Kent and a significant achievement for the conservation of this rare primate. The birth is made even more special... because mother Sereba, aged 16, had a previous history of killing her infants before arriving at the park. The as yet unnamed and unsexed infant was born on the 4th of December and joins father Agolo, aged 14 and female Jima, aged 22.
Bison birth: Keepers at Howletts Wild Animal Park have welcomed the arrival of a European bison calf. The female calf was born on the 17th January to mother Izelda and father Bransk after an eight and a half month gestation period. The calf has been named Izabella and now, at four weeks old, keepers hope she will shortly be going on public display in her outside enclosure.
Female elephant Stavit recently gave to a female calf named Juluka, in other news Masa male calf has now been given the name of Mchumba - the herd now stands at 16. However Jums is set to be moved in order for him not to breed with his daugthers espically Umna - for this reason the herd is currently spilt in two, the elephant keeper said that the herd do not like to be spilt up in the slightest. Younger elephants in the herd have also been earmarked to be moved to Port Lympne allthough was unable to gage which ones. Does any-one else know?
Baby Gorillas something Pertinax might be intrested in; The first infant was born on the 31st of January to mother Sanki and father Djanghou. The infant is a male and has been called Jouki. The... most recent birth was to mother Jubi and father Kouillou on 22nd of February. While they are still not certain of the sex keepers believe the infant is also a male and he has been called Bou.
I visited Howletts on the monday of last week. There were indeed lots of gorillas, some of the groups were being fed. They were fairly active, one of them slid down one of the slides (nice to know an eccentic apparastus is being used.) Indeed lots of monkeys I thought the newer enclosures were really good, I certainly admire the fact that most of the monkeys at Howletts you can't see them at Colchester. I was pleasantly surprised by the size of the elephant herd, there was atleast one young one. When was he born? I'm glad that even though it's a big elephant group their exhbit has still remained grass coverd. BTW this was my first visit in 6 years to Howletts.
The youngest calf was born to Masa the matriarch on the 25th January 2011 he was a twin unfortunatly the other one died,glad you enjoyed your visit.
Did you notice if there was a male Gorilla in the group nearest the entrance to the Park? This was 'Kijo's group until he died a few years ago and they've since held off adding a new male until the smallest young in the group, born after he died, is/are older. But they must add a new male sometime...
There was as it happens here's a photo below of the male and this was in one of the gorilla enclosures near the entrance (I took it):
Thanks for your reply Goretex. I am pretty sure that is 'Kifu' (son of Kijo) who lives in the 2nd enclosure- I am basing this on the fact that in this photo the divided section of the enclosure is to his left, not to his right. My guess is there is still no male in what was his father's group(nearest the carpark).
From the park's facebook. Primate Keepers at Howletts Wild Animal Park are celebrating a baby boom as four... Dusky langurs arrived in just two weeks. Howletts is one of just three other zoos in Europe to house Dusky langurs and with 19 animals the park cares for the biggest collection of this primate in the world. The infants were born between 31st of March and the 17th of April to four different family groups and all except one are believed to be female.