Chester Zoo A reflection of 2016 for Chester Zoo

Hello all as many of you are aware 2016 has been a fabulous year for Chester zoo and I was keen to see (now news is scarce at the end of the year) what you all thought of it. This will we a good formal debate and discussion and if you disagree please do not tear each other to shreds like Iblis does a horse leg, keep it nice and civil as we end a fantastic year for Chester zoo.

 

I will be doing this in different stages so that everything doesn't get cluttered and confused. So my first question for you all is: What was, in your opinion, the biggest birth of this year (Note that the Javan Gibbon and any other animals that bread before coming to Chester, do count)

 

Do births that occurred last year, but weren't publicised until this year, count? Because if so, I'm sure many people on here would agree there's a clear winner.

 

I imagine you are suggesting the tuatara birth in that case I'm not sure I believe the majority of us should decide on that.

 

I believe the Javan green magpies were born this year - if so I would say they are certainly the most important births of 2016.

 

That is certainly the biggest piece of news to come from the zoo,even if certain people within the zoo decided to keep it quiet for a quiet news day as they didn't think it was big news!So for the record the breeding of TUATARA OUTSIDE NEW ZEALAND is big news even if it did happen in 2015,all I can say is atleast people in New Zealand realised it was big news!!

 

Ok then, we will count the Tuatara. Reminder you can always choose the smaller species as well because their where not many major species breed in the zoo unlike 2015 which saw 3 tigers, two giraffes and an elephant all being born.

 

I personally have two: Gabe the black rhino due to the loss of Fara a few years ago and due to his importance in the saving of this endangered species and fellow ungulate Solo the Malayan Tapir a first for the zoo which had not bred the species before if memory serves me correct

 

Agreed it's a shame it was so over looked as many bird births are in my eyes unless you are a penguin.

 

No No I think it's been a brilliant year! Just in terms of the more popular and well known animals like ones I have said before there where not many births. Also I never thought I came off in that way @TeaLovingDave if I did I apologise.

 

So what in effect you mean is that they bred none of the Big ABCs,well sorry I can live without them give me a lbj any day and those have done pretty well even if some of them didnt survive and were never mentioned on here!!

 

To clear things up, I do believe Chester had a great year in 2015 but to me 2016 topped it through the new species they brought on show, the success of many less appreciated animals breeding and the overall zoo development. By no means do I think Chester in 2015 was bad because it wasn't 2016 just felt a little better to me because in my opinion more things happened around the zoo while last year most of it was geared towards islands which bare in mind I love but lets leave it at that. I'm just getting myself confused now haha.

 

May I suggest next time you visit the zoo you ask if you can borrow a JCB so you can keep digging the hole you are digging now.

 

Um ok...

 

I would prefer not to count the tuatara hatching for 2016. I would say that the recent hatching of the Chinese three-striped box turtle, Cuora trifasciata, is of equal significance to the success with the Javan green magpies so I would put them in joint first place. Of course there is a faint chance of even better news before the 31st inst. (but I have no insider knowledge about any such possibilities ).

 

Very True Alan, Satsuma's birth is very important as well, we can all hope for the birth of another animal in the 27 days but it feels unlikely (then again Inca was a late birth last year)

 

Actually I feel there is a birth we have all neglected thus far The 200 tarantula's this summer. A world first breeding of a species where little is known about them and though I'm not the biggest spider fan I would put these towards the top of the list as well because they are also endangered.

 

Not to open a can of worms of what we'd we'd like to see breed before the end of 2016, but i'm keeping fingers crossed for the Bermuda skinks...