Southport Zoo in Lancashire was famous for its success in breeding Mandrills, many having been sent to other zoos both in UK and elsewhere. But when it closed down there were still two groups numbering about 10-15 animals. Where did they all go? The owner,Doug Petrie, planned to start a new zoo in Yorkshire and he kept some of his Southport animals,when he moved. Did that include the Mandrills. One pair or trio from Southport were acquired by Trotters World of Animals, but does anyone have any information about the whereabouts of the rest?.
okay, they've been breeding. I wonder if any were added to the original group from the ex Southport stock though. I believe their originals(2.1 or 2.2 ?) came from Jerusalem but are descended from Vienna stock.
As we have a number of new members, I'm redrawing attention to my quest to find out where all the Mandrills from the closed -down Southport Zoo went to. Anyone know? One small group went to Trotters Animal Park but the rest are still 'unnaccounted for'
The website for trotters world of animals Trotters World of Animals : animal park in the lake district, animals, keswick, attractions, attraction, uk
does anyone here know the names of the mandrills at chester zoo or any where one of my favourite animals !
I am pretty sure no primates went to the Yorkshire Dales Falconry Centre, which is the collection the Petries went on to own. I understand they were unable to get a license to expand the raptor collection to allow other animals to be housed there. This blog is by an ex keeper at Southport, it doesn't say where most of the mandrill went but is pretty interesting all the same. Internet webmaster, Zookeeper of 20 Years
Its strange that such a famous and large group of Mandrills(actually toward the end it was two groups I believe) should disappear like that. Maybe a lot of them were sent abroad- certainly no UK collection has shown a sudden increase in their Mandrill groups. Most of these do contain Southport blood to some degree already, from animals bred at Southport in the past. Trotters World of Animals did acquire a pair or small group directly from the closure of Southport, so far they are the only ones I can trace.
Howdy, found this forum via a traffic referral link in my stats. We did have 2 groups of Mandrills at Southport, Our original ones which we had been breeding since the late 60's and in the early 90's we brought in another breeding group from the US. When the zoo closed down indeed we sent some to Trotters, the ones that were left went to a private collection in the UK. The private collector is in the film/tv business, he trains animals to be in films and commercials, he already had a small group of mandrills, ( A commercial featuring his mandrills was on Brit TV a year or so back, I think it was for colgate, anyway it was a toothpaste advert), he required our breeding group to expand his own. All other primates at Southport were sent to either, Trotters, Cefn-yr-erw, and this private individual. hope that helps
Yes, that's really interesting information. You've solved a mystery for me... I know of the private collector you mention. Do you know approximately how many Mandrills went from Southport to his set-up? It must have been quite a large number? Thanks agai for the info...
Sorry I can't remember exactly how many we sent him its been over 4 years, but it would have been in the region of 8 to 10 animals I believe
That would have been about the right number, given that three(?) others went to Trotters World of Animals. Am I right in thinking at least one, maybe more, of the ex American-bred ones(the male?) went to Trotters- so some of that newer bloodline is still in the mainstream zoos?
Definately the male from the US side went to Trotters and I believe if my memory is right it was some females from the UK side and the private individual had US bloodline female (1 female + young male) and whatever was left from our UK side (Mix of young females and young males )
At Trotters they call their male 'Charlie' but the two males from the US were 'Mica' and 'Bill' so maybe they did a name change. One of the US females was (i think) 'Mickey' and the other 'Opal' Does that ring any bells? Trotter' s Mandrills(Charlie x ?) have bred at least one baby, perhaps more now. The private collector group must be growing too, I imagine.
Thats correct with the names, We bought them back from Chicago Brookfield zoo in around 1989 Mica and Mickey went to Belfast on loan and we kept Wild Bill and Opal, Sadly Wild bill died around 1993-1994 leaving us without a breeding male, I believe Belfast were going out of mandrills or we had asked for them back at around that time because we took back the Belfast group which at the time consisted of Mica, Mickey and 1.1 offspring and intergrated them into the group with Opal who also had an one offspring. We built them another enclosure along side the UK bred mandrills, unfortuantely Mica for whatever reason did not take to Opal and over a period of a few months subjected her to a lot of bullying which resulted in Mica picking her up and throwing her against the concrete walls, her face was smashed in, teeth broken, etc before the vet could get in she died from the stress and shock. Which left us with Mica and Mickey and the offspring, over the years they bred more. Mika died unexpectedly from arthritic septicaemia in 2000. One of Mika's male offspring took over the breeding of the US side a few years later when he had become sexually mature. From there Trotters took that US male and UK females and private indivdual took US females and offspring + what was left on the UK side. So Trotters definately has a US+UK mix bloodline giving them a new bloodline to run in the UK. ( But not Mica or Bill because they had died ), Charlie is probably a name they gave him, I cant remember a beasty being named as charlie in our collection.
Thats all such interesting information. I actually never got to Southport to see their Mandrills but found a good photo somewhere showing the two group enclosures side by side. I also have an old UK Mandrill studbook that runs out just about the time the 4 US animals arrived... So from all this, Trotters 'Charlie' is without doubt a son of Mica x Mickey. The private guy could still have 'Mickey'- she would be the last survivor of the 4 imported from USA. Its good Trotters have the US bloodline in their stock. Most other Mandrills in UK (apart from South Lakes) are from straight London x Southport bloodlines. Incidentally, was it you who wrote the article on the Southport Mandrills which was in IZN some years ago? Many thanks for this information.
