Jersey zoo » Durrell (Jersey) Zoo

Jersey zoo
05-09-2007

Would any of you Uk guys have been to the Jersey zoo in resent times? I know they were doing a lot of work with many rare species there a while back but I dont seem to hear that much about the place these days

05-09-2007

I am a member of Durrell Wildlife Preservation Trust, and us members don't get much information either. They stopped producing the Dodo around 7 years ago, the annual report which replaced it does not include a stock list, or much about animals in general. They seem to be concentrating most of their efforts on in-situ conservation. They still have the world's only captive Round Island Boas which are breeding well.

I'll look for some newsletters and see if there is anything worth posting. I haven't visited since 1989.

05-09-2007

Cheers Rob, I hope things are going well for them

05-09-2007

I think they have been experiencing financial problems in recent years. A friend visited last year and said it wasn't much changed from a previous visit.
Also I believe they sold off the 'Les Noyes' keeper training centre and applied to build some holiday flats on adjacent land that they own.

They have rebranded it 'Durrell' rather than 'Jersey Zoo' nowadays, in an effort to focus on its founder more. Also they have marketed it more aggressively for all sorts of outside enterprises(like team-building extercises) and got fund-raisers in but I don't know how successful this has been so far.

06-09-2007

Some land was sold (raising £252000) and more common species have been brought in.

Extracts from the 2006 Annual Report

The Darwin Initiative, sponsored by the UK Government has made grants for projects in Assam, Galapagos and Mauritius, runing from 2006-2009.

The marketing division had a lot of success in 2006.

Total income for 2006 was £4827000 and total expenditure was £5474000.

Chicago Zoological Society and Fota Wildlife Park made grants to the Durrell Wildlife Trust.

Captive bred Mauritian Fodys were released on to Isle aux Aigrettes

The trust had a net loss of £29000 in 2006, down from a total of almost £1000000 over the previous few years.

The report did not include any information on the collection in Jersey.

06-09-2007

I have only ben once, in 2006 It was a very nice place, but there seemed to be something missing from it. I couldn't see many of the animals, as most were hiding. quite a dissapointment when they have 3 stunning wrinkled hornbills.

State of Jersey Zoo
06-09-2007

I find it somewhat peculiar that the Durrell Institute has been so .. uhm silent lately. If you look at the zoo website not many news items are included. It almost seems that they have stopped breeding endangered species from islands habitats - their strong point to begin with.

Jersey has always championed the unusual, smaller, uncommon and sometimes unjustly deemed unattractive species. But the very fact that f.i. they have been quite successful with breeding Madagascar spider tortoise Pyxis planicauda or Madagscar teal Anas bernieri seems not to be advertised at all. Also their overseas conservation work seems to attract less attention in the media.

Bigger zoos like Chester with their Islands in Danger exhibits and in situ conservation projects have somehow stolen Jersey's thunder. A shame I think .... for such a nice place!

Bongorob, can you keep us up to date on developments at Jersey?

06-09-2007

I hope things are ok with them they have put so much work into so many rare species over the years

06-09-2007

Any idea what species they might be?

As several people have commented, the website seems to ignore what is happening in the Jersey collection nowadays. A lot of the 'news' section now seems more relevant to some sort of industrial company than a zoological collection...

06-09-2007

Small passerine birds e.g. Fairy Bluebird, small-clawed otters and ring-tailed coatis off the top of my head. I'll post a species list later. This policy could be to gain experience with commoner species before bringing in their endangered relatives. In the past they have considered a rescue programme for Marine Otters (Lontra felina).

07-09-2007

Here is a list of species held by Durrel Wildlife Trust, January 2007. It's from ISIS and I don't know how up to date it is.

Attached Files

Jersey Zoo.txt (5.2 KB, 44 views)

07-09-2007

Sorry, I forgot to list the invertebrates. So here they are

West African Giant Snail (Archachaita margarita)
Raiatea Tree Snail (Partula faba)
Moorea Tree Snail (Partula mooreana)
Moorea Tree Snail (Partula taeniuata nucleola)
Madagascan Hissing Cockroach (Gromphadorhina portentosa)
Macleay's Spectre Stick Insect (Extatosoma tiaratum)
Giant African Millipede (Archispirosterptus)

07-09-2007

there's quite a lot of common species in those lists!

07-09-2007

Jersey always seem to have a generic explanation for anything in their collection which is not endangered, which is that they are perfecting husbandry methods on a more common species before switching to a similar, rarer one. This has been stated with reference to coatis, short-clawed otters, and meerkats among others, but with the exception of the Narrow-striped mongoose, they never seem to acquire anything to replace these animals.
With the Howler monkeys, these are simply described as a 'model' species to represent endangered wild relatives. I think this is how the collection at Jersey will develop now, as the conservation work of the organisation gravitates further away from ex situ captive breeding, especially for mammals and larger birds, while the zoo site is required to generate revenue rather than deplete funds. I guess most people don't care about paying to see critically endangered reptiles and amphibians so much.

07-09-2007

Yes, I'd imagine that is the reason for any commoner species- as 'practise' species for rarer relatives. I'd be surprised if they ever deviated from their 'endangered species' mission by adding common species for any other reason.