I believe he is, they said they thought that he would be going in a few weeks or so. He doesn't like electric fences, hence why he bit it in his old enclosure on the safari drive. It might have changed, but that is what I heard today, maybe it hasn't been decided yet?
The indian desert cats from port lympne have passed away, and I believe a Owston's Palm Civet is now in that enclosure.
A great arrival but near to bugger-all chance of seeing it during the day I was able to see the male hyena in question through similar means last year; was very pleased to see the species but equally pleased at how helpful and accommodating the head keeper was!
Unfortunately one of the female black footed cats has died. This leaves just a male and a female at Port Lympne, the last in Europe!
Sad to say, this suggests the species will not be around much longer. This time last year there were 1,1,2 at Port Lympne and 1,1 at Ree Park. At least one of the Ree Park animals later went to Port Lympne, so this means that at least three - possibly four - animals have died there in 12 months. The reason, I rather suspect, will be the fatal kidney disease amyloidosis which has wiped out the European population in very short order over the past decade - eight collections have lost the species since 2005 despite a few imports of fresh blood in an attempt to weed out the condition. Matters are, of course, made worse by the fact that animals with the condition tend to die at roughly 3 to 5 years old, and as a result few captive pairings have lived long enough to breed more than once, if at all.
Yes a keeper mentioned the kidney disease, such a shame for the species! He said they have started to mix the male and female at times but nothing as of yet. The enclosure at Port Lympne isn't the greatest though, however they DO hope to upgrade it along with a fishing cat enclosure in the next couple of years.
On FaceBook a nice clip about the birth of 3 Fossas has been released : https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10152279669053093&fref=nf
The website has been updated recently. The Brown Hyena has come off the website, does this mean Martes has left to prague? The website has also taken off the Indian Desert Cats that passed away. Does anyone know what's happening with the African Elephants there, heard that 2 of them are moving to Noah's Ark?
After speaking to staff there, the move of these two elephants will bring an end to elephants being held at the park.
Yes permanently. They're going to focus the elephant efforts at howletts with a new facility and turn the section at pl over to black or GOH rhino.
What a waste of all that space. And a missed opportunity as well; the UK could do with a bachelor facility for elephants.
From what i was told by a keeper a couple of years ago, the facilities at PL are not optimal for elephants - steep hill, windswept etc etc. The sand paddock turned to a bog in winter a was rarely used. The main paddock under the elephant lodge was als quite steep and the elephants rarely went to the top of it. The flatter land at howletts should be much more suitable for elephant husbandry.
One of the small cat keepers, Fiona Fern, is fund-raising for a new glass fishing cat enclosure. The plans look like it will be a very nice exhibit. Port Lympne has a really nice small cat collection, and it will be nice to see some glass viewing there as appose to their current small cat enclosures which are mainly chain link. https://www.justgiving.com/Fiona-fern/
I'm quite glad to hear this. The location isn't really suitable and the buildings are either archaic or tumbledown(or both). I don't think its ever been a good area for elephants, full stop. Black rhino could use the slope okay. Indian rhino are flat plains/marsh dwellers- the hillside area would really be equally unsuitable for them as for Elephants, though the flat land at the bottom(Romney Marsh) end of the park would suit them very well.
Actually half of the old fishing cat enclosure has a viewing window and the other half has a stream which looks so natural that I think it's authentic. I think it's one of the nicest small cat exhibits that I've seen in the UK. Of course that doesn't mean that it couldn't be improved. Alan
Hi Folks - I`m visiting both Port Lympne and Howletts for the first time next week - does anyone have any advice re best times to see animals , any off show that can be seen , "hidden" enclosures etc in fact any advice at all would be useful and much appreciated . Cheers
For Port lympne, small cats are best late in the afternoon, I often stay around Carnivore Territory till closing time. Apart from the Scottish Wild Cat and Black Footed Cats, all the small cat enclosures are relatively near each other. Big cat viewing is relatively easy all day, a part of the park that is quite well hidden are large carnivore enclosures that are very near the entrance. As you are coming out of the gift shop/entrance, turn right and follow the path and there are some Barbary Lion, Amur Tiger, Cheetah and Wild Dog enclosures. The "Bengal" tiger/lion enclosures down at carnivore territory tend to be harder to see their inhabitants. They have lots of small cats off-show at the moment, and I'm not 100% sure if the brown hyena is still there, if he is, then you need to book to see him. Port Lympne is much steeper than Howletts, which means walking around it for a day can get very tiring. The ratels at Howletts, on all of my visits, tend to be active for a lot of the time but more so in the afternoon. I find animal viewing at Howletts much easier, with the exception of small cats, mainly due to there being more glass enclosures. Are there any other animals you are particularly keen to see? Hope this helps
That`s very helpful thanks - just wanted to make sure I don`t miss anything then kick myself afterwards !! Particularly wanted to see the small cat collection so useful to know best times to catch them ... I`ll do some searching through the posts on here as well and note anything that sounds worth bearing in mind - the aerial views ( maps ) on here are interesting and will go and see if I can download maps to either or both the Aspinall collections as well so I can do a bit of homework ( btw I already know about the combined ticket ) . Cheers
