Twycross news 2012 » Twycross Zoo

30-01-2012

Sorry my English skills have been a little poor lately.

30-01-2012

I'm not sure how your're defining 'hasnt been used for a while'' but they were in the grass paddock today having a high old time. Nor Jahan in particular was having fun climbing up and down the banking after those must have stems of grass and was very pleased with herself.

On another note - saw the martens today for thefirst time - they are marvellous. Very lively, chasing about and totally stunning.

30-01-2012

I was chatting with the team leader of elephants at another zoo this week and we were discussing how little we'd seen the elephants at Twycross actually using the grass paddock.

My experience as been the same as zoogiraffe's, namely that they're hardly ever seen there. Would anyone know - or care to speculate - why that is?

30-01-2012

I'm willing to speculate that they want to keep the grass trimmed yet in piece. I hate to point out the obvious but Twycross seem to have an obsession with "garden lawn" grass! Look at the ape/camel/paddock/any primate enclosure... Seriously what's wrong with a bit of foliage? Other less visited places can manage it, why can't the World Primate Cemtre do it?

30-01-2012

The Elephants would be very heavy on an area like that if given constant access. It would look completely bare like Chester's after a while. My guess would be they only gave them occassional access to allow the grass to remain lush so when they do use it, they can feed from it, without removing/uprooting the grass and exposing the topsoil. I suspect its more for the elephant's benefit than the 'look' of it, or some of both.

30-01-2012

How can some zoos win with some people on here if the grass is long the enclosures are scruffy and uncared for if the grass is short then people have ago about it being too short and if there is no grass at all then it's bare and why isn't there any grass or foliage.

Can somebody please explain why some zoos enclosures are great with very short grass and others aren't.

By the way I am not a lover of Twycross just want to know why it's ok for some zoos and not others?

30-01-2012

I think you'll find in this case its the opposite, the aim is to keep the grass cover thick and not allow the elephants to pull it all up as they would quickly with too much access. With limited access they won't ruin a useful food source, apart from keeping the green appearance of the paddock. Its a different issue from the mown lawns in the primate areas I think.

30-01-2012

At least there's some logic to this, the primate enclosures are a different kettle of fish entirely. The paddock would definitely be destroyed if the elephants had full access to it as it's not large enough for grazing elephants.
@adrian1963 I think the problem with twycross is that if the grass in the primate enclosures was longer then it'd encourage foraging and other more natural behaviours, which is far better than watching the great apes sitting there bored.

30-01-2012

Just to add that Nayan is also related to Tara...

Sithami - (Thi X Chang)
Nayan - (Sithami X Upali)
Tara - (Tonzi X Chang)

So Tara is Nayan's half Aunt

30-01-2012

You are correct, One piece of good news from Twycross today, Happy Birthday to Tommy, eighteen years old today

31-01-2012

Tommy? Human? Animal? Phantom Friend?

31-01-2012

No, Tommy is not a phantom friend, he is a real friend, and you know what Tommy is.

31-01-2012

couldn't resist

Tommy is one of the Chimps for those who might not know!

31-01-2012

Thank you. I had no clue.

31-01-2012

This picture is amusing me no end, I guess he's grown a bit since I last saw him but he'd surely still need a ladder, he's not 2 until July