ZSL London Zoo ZSL London Zoo News 2024

I’d say especially since Kiburi has arrived the bond of the girls and the confidence in Effie has grown and I think she’s doing a good job to date she’s just has a more laid back style

 

Do you know what the current situation with younger female Alika is? e.g. is she contracepted at present perhaps- or not?

 

I don’t know about her .. I forget she’s now at age where she can breed I still think of her as a youngster.
Stud book will probably decide if she’s breeding or not I’d imagine but I’ve never asked

 

Effie is consistently engaging with her infant when she sets it down - and, as Tankyboi says, will pick the baby up if any of the other gorillas get too close. I was chatting to somebody in a ZSL uniform who said this was the first time he’d seen Effie put the baby down, so this may be a new development (although it’s also possible he had confused Effie for Mjukuu, who didn’t set her infant down once in the time we were there).

I still don’t think you’re off-base for being concerned, though.

I should have been clearer in my initial post, but my reason for relaying that anecdote was partly because I found it noteworthy that Effie (who, to reiterate, is engaging well with her infant) set the infant down and stepped away from them briefly - but especially given the events that followed, with Mjukuu immediately swooping in with clear intent to grab Effie’s baby. Yes, Effie does seem to want to raise this infant herself, and yes, she’s appropriately protective of them being taken from her. I suspect, like you, that my concern is less for her maternal abilities, and more how her style of parenting will fare alongside Mjukuu’s much (much) stronger instinct to carry not just her own infant, but any other infant in the vicinity.

 

I saw that happen too on a recent visit

 

X

Oh mjukuu definitely does have the much stronger and natural instinct in raising young but Effie does seem wanting to raise this one her self which is great. I have watched Effie watch n copy mjukuu so she’s learning from her to be a better mum

 

London Zoo’s Bicentenary (2026)

Ahead of their bicentennial year (2026), London Zoo are planning an exhibition and are asking the public to submit anything of interest:

Launching our national appeal for history | The Zoological Society of London

We are asking the public to submit everything from vintage zoo toys and historic tickets to correspondence and maps, enriching our understanding of our own history.

Notable artefacts already in the archive include a first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, a limited-edition bear-shaped soap from the 1940’s which was produced by Cullingfords to mark the birth of baby Brumas the polar bear at London Zoo, zookeeper uniforms from decades past, and a decorated ostrich egg, painted by an unknown artist, to mark the opening of Whipsnade Zoo in 1931.

 

I wonder whether this exhibitionwill be staged in the old Reptile House.

 

The Mindanao Water Monitor is back on show in the side enclosure at the entry to the komodo house.

 

I was going to say Brumas was born in the 1950's, but I checked and she was actually born in November 1949, so right at the very end of the 1940's. But in my mind she was really a '50's bear...

 

How long was it off show? I don't remember seeing it on my visit in 2022.

 

It was previously on-show in the old reptile house, prior to its closure.

 

Blackburn pavilion spruce up mentioned last week was I suspect more about the general (new) bird signage and messaging rather than the species/enclosures themselves. Example of new signage shown

 

May I ask where this was taken? The Asian Fairy-bluebirds have been in the first, larger walkthrough since their arrival, and the Splendid Sunbirds in the smaller second walkthrough, which would suggest one of them has moved? Unless, of course, this is a more general sign near the entrance listing the inhabitants for the entire house.

On a personal note, I am rather fond of those signs. Previously, a Victorian-style font has been used so as to fit the theme and ambience of the house - a nice idea, but it was almost illegible at times. This is a big improvement.

The Mindanao Water Monitor was onshow right up until the Reptile House's closure, so its strange that you missed it. Along with the Reticulated Python vivarium, to which it was immediately adjacent, its enclosure was the largest in the house, and could be found to the left side of the central 'island' of vivariums.

Very happy to have the water monitors back on-display. Always a highlight of visits to the old Reptile House, and I was somewhat nervous that the plans of putting it on-display near the Komodos may not go through. I have always thought the Komodo Dragon House was one of many missed opportunities at London to fit in more interesting species within one building, so to have a new reptile moving in there is very good news indeed.

 

To address Kalaw's question the Asian Fairy bluebirds signage appeared in both walkthroughs today.

 

People think of "Brumas" as a 1950s polar bear because the publicity generated by this famous polar bear cub resulted in London Zoo having more than three million visitors in 1950; the highest ever annual attendance of any UK zoo.

 

For a month now, maybe more, the camels have been separated. Initially, I presumed this was so the ribby looking one could get fed more, but they both seem to be in good condition now and yet they're still separated. Anyone know why?

Also, something was going on this morning, with a trailer being towed in the giraffe enclosure (normal livestock trailer, not something that would carry a giraffe). Didn't have the time to ask what was happening, so asking on here.

 

Is there a different yard for the camels to separate or is one kept indoors while the other outdoors?

 

One stays in the run attached to the house, and the other’s in the main enclosure.

Not great photos but you can see what I mean hopefully.

 

And this was the camels yesterday
together.