Port Lympne Wild Animal Park Port Lympne 2015

3 Grevy zebra stallions are being shipped from Port Lympne to the coastal 680 hectare Decan Sanctuary in Djibouti . Here they will act as ambassadors for their species in a country which is part of their home range .
Source - Daily Telegraph article .

 

Article about the Grevy zebra move :
Zebras make 5,800-mile Africa move - BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

 

Is this the first time Grevy's have been returned to Africa? (even if not to the wild)

Do PL have other Grevy's e.g. a male/female group?

 

No, the Deccan project is more or less a French zoo consortium sponsored operation. Grevy zebra as well as Somali wild ass and beisa oryx have been sent here previously.

I guess Port Lympne may get either a breeding group or retain a bachelor herd capacity or even both?!!

 

A quite amazing announcement from Port Lympne, 25 African hunting dogs have been born at the park, bringing the total of dogs at the park to a mind boggling 43 animals split between 5 packs.

BBC News - Rare African wild dogs make public debut at Port Lympne

 

Does that make them the biggest holder of the species?

 

I assume that pretty soon Port Lympne will announce some pack members will travel to East Africa for reintroduction projects. And none to soon too!

 

Another article about the African wild dogs :
One, Two, Three Litters of Puppies! - ZooBorns

 

A male drill was born towards the end of 2014 .

 

Port lympne website has been updated with the following:

Elephants gone from their 'animal' page

Indian Desert Cats and Black Footed Cats have gone from their small cat page

Brown Hyena removed from the dog page

If anyone has been to PL recently and could answer the following that would be really helpful:

- Are the wolves on-show still? The wolf enclosure last time I went was occupied by cheetahs, and wild dogs next to them.

-Are there any snow leopard on show? I know Marta died, and Blizzard was off-show last time I was there.

- How many wild dog enclosures are on-show now?

Thanks a lot

 

A pair of snow leopard are on show as you walk towards basecamp in what was the Scottish wildcat enclosure last year. Didn't see any wolves anywhere at pl but there are some at howlets. From memory there are three wild dog enclosures on show, one at the top near lions,tigers and cheetahs and I think two on the safari. The black-footed cat enclosure was a pile of ash last week.

 

Just got back from Port Lympne, updates with small cats:

Carpathian Lynx- 4 (All on-show)

Caracal-0 (recently passed away)

Pallas Cat- 2 (All-on Show)

Scottish Wildcat- 6 (3 females on-show. Pair off-show by Elephant Camp. One off-show behind Caracals)

Rusty Spotted Cats- 11 (2 on-show by primate walk, 1 next to fossas, rest off-show)

Clouded Leopard- 3 (1 on-show on primate walk, 1 behind the main on-show enclosure. 1 near the entrance next to the new pinewood accommodation)

Fishing Cat- 7+ (not sure exactly home many)

Margay- 7+ (not sure exactly home many)

Ocelot- 1

The wolves have passed away now. Their old enclosure , by the entrance, now has 2 cheetahs. The enclosure next to that now has a female wild dog with one eye, and 3 pups.

There were lots of wild dogs in the off-show enclosure down by where the brown hyenas were, and there were 2 more next to the carnivore territory cafe.

Today they moved out some of their blackbuck which are heading to Parc Des Felines.

They are going to move the last elephant out. One of the keepers said the last she heard was that they were possibly looking at getting bears (potentially spectacled) and Indian rhino to replace the elephants leaving, but she wasn't entirely sure what the plan was.

 

So thats the Iberian wolves then? What a shame, another species lost.

I'd dearly love to know what the long term plans are for PL. So much has been altered or lost in the last 10 years, I dont think it knows what it wants to be! When the keepers are unclear as to future direction that sounds a worry to me.

 

I think PL released their Iberian wolves a while ago and only Howletts keeps them now.
The last time I went they had timber wolves in an enclosure near the entrance

 

That timber wolf enclosure now has 4 wild dog in one sector, and 2 cheetah in the other. I've updated my annotated map here

 

Thanks for that zootiger - it's a very interesting map. Quite nice to actually see the off-show holdings too; this isn't everyday information. It's a real shame to see just how much the collection's diversity has plummeted over the past few years.

Also, the civet is an Owston ' s (palm) civet.

 

Ah yes you're right!

 

Yes it's a shame that they have lost so many species recently. Indian desert cat, black-footed cat, caracal, brown hyena, timer wolf, Iberian wolf all gone! And soon elephants will be added to the list soon

 

That's a lot of carnivores missing, I didn't realise they had lost their Hyena??