Whipsnade Report » Whipsnade Zoo

26-08-2008

For such huge animals they seem very elusive...I can only presume they will return to their old paddock shortly- from the rhino house opposite the Giraffe? They are/were much easier to see in their old paddock.

27-08-2008

I'm going on 11th October. If no one else has posted any pics of the gaur by then I'll try to take some.

27-08-2008

Did anyone have an anwer to my questions?

1. I saw there was another female with the adult male, who was this and are they trying to breed her?

2. At the original site of the cheetahs a pair still remain, a board says they are moving to another collection, does anyone know where?

27-08-2008

The female who was with the bull Emmet was probably Mya; she is not coming along with one of the other females, Kaylee, and she is not taken out of the enclosure for walks (because she killed a keeper in London). When the others are taken out for a walk or when they are put in one enclosure to socialize, Mya stays with Emmet.

27-08-2008

Are you on about cheetah's here? If so I thought there original cheetah's were moving on to WMSP, also they were to recieve a group of females of the new sub-species. Which half were due to go to chester once there qurrantine period was up.

Am sure I read this all on the boards here, but hopefully someone will confirm this or correct me.

27-08-2008

The enclosure close to the Entrance to the Park? There were no Cheetahs in it a couple of months back, it was empty,- so possibly they are new additions and currently in transit.

27-08-2008

WMSP had about 6 cheetahs when i went about 2 weeks ago (roughly)

27-08-2008

yes pertinax it was the entrance exhibit and it said that they were due to move on to a new collection in the coming weeks, i assumed this was the original pair they had in the first place!

Also thanks Yassa and Taun

28-08-2008

Nope, can't have been. When I went not only was that enclosure empty but the only sign was to say they were now living in the new exhibit.

28-08-2008

Just got back from a very long visit today!

I'll post a comprehensive review in another thread soon, so i'm not hijacking Tigerlemurguy's own thread.

Some points though

- There were indeed two cheetah in the original enclosure close to the entrance
- 6 cheetah are visible in Cheetah Rock
- The Gaur (well at least 2 of them) are in the old enclosure by the Indian Rhinos (i've got some pics to post as well!)
- Kaylee the elephant is pregnant, one of the keepers mentioned it during 'elephantastic'
- Roopa is currently living alone in the old rhino accomodation, whilst Hugo and the mother/daughter pairs use the new house.
- No sign of Ben (the old male hippo). His enclosure was empty and the two females used the enclosure by the bridge.

28-08-2008

Gaur- if you saw two, which was it, the mother and calf? Which was missing- the male? He could still be in the Black rhino area, perhaps.

Glad to hear the new Rhino house now has a full complement. But sadly I don't think Roopa will ever see inside it.

Hippo Ben. Hope he hasn't died. He was there in June- in the smaller outdoor pool nearest the bridge, the two females were in the bigger/lower enclosure & pool. Did you know he was born at Chester- either their first or last calf, I can't remember which, but one of very few surviving.

28-08-2008

Ben was the last calf born at Chester if my memory serves me correctly.

28-08-2008

I think it was the mother and calf gaur that I saw.

There wasn't any sign of Ben, the doors from the house to the lower paddock were closed and I stayed outside the hippos for a while (unless of course the calf from a couple of years ago has moved on and the two I saw were Ben and the other female)

28-08-2008

Its possible the male Gaur is still at the black rhino house then.

Re the Hippos; the 'calf' was still there in June- its nearly as big as the mother, I forget its name (Ema?) but the mother is 'Nigna' Its possible its been moved in the last few weeks(the previous calf was moved at about this age) and what you saw were the adult pair back together again, but we need to find the answer to this somehow.

28-08-2008

The calf's name was lola I think, but yeah I'd be interested to see what has happened with the hippos.