Cereopsis / Cape Barren goose : Hamerton : 08 Feb 2015

Cereopsis novaehollandiae.

Huh, I think I may have missed these when I visited today. Where abouts in the collection are they?

They're in a paddock between the vulture aviaries and the marmoset house. Judging by the platforms within it, it will be a cheetah enclosure in the not-too-distant future.

Cheers. The set-up for cheetahs they have/will have is really impressive. Are the signs saying that other zoos struggle to breed them because they don't have the right numbers/facilities accurate?

It's certainly true that breeding of cheetahs has been more successful when there are multiple animals from which pairs can be put together, and when there is an opportunity to mix things around with those pairs. It is also true that, at Hamerton, such an opportunity exists - there must be at least four or five separate cheetah enclosures there.

However, it is not true that "other zoos" are not able to do likewise. While there are a number of cheetahs kept in a way that makes their breeding less rather than more likely, there are also places at which the husbandry of the species is focused very much on breeding - most notably at Whipsnade and (further afield) at Fota.

I like Hamerton a great deal, but it is one of the place's less attractive habits that, at times, they can be dismissive of, and sanctimonious towards, other zoos. This is seen on the in-zoo pedagogic signs, and also in the responses to posts on Tripadvisor, where there is a definite attempt to suggest that they are 'better' than other zoos because they do not cater to desires of visitors with any sort of animal shows (there's a rather barbed comment about birds of prey flying demonstrations on the tiger signage, for example). When they happily display multiple meerkats, and white tigers, I'm not sure that this holier-than-thou attitude can be justified.

I got chatting to their photographer, although it may be an unofficial role and I will never forget the sheer disgust on his face when I mentioned that I frequently visited Whipsnade.

Yeah, this has been discussed in the relevant forum previously.

Thanks for the explanation. According to a sign I saw yesterday there are currently four enclosures with a further three to be built, one of which is the paddock in this photo.

I had a nice time yesterday but sadly missed quite a few of the rarities. I'll definitely be going back when the Malayan Tigers arrive. I agree with you about the tone of the signs but it is very much overlookable in the grand scheme of things.