Hybrid giraffe Victor (b.22 July 2010), the son of Fiona (b.30 Nov 2004), died at Banham on 5 October 2017 (euthanised due to an ulcer on his leg). As Banham and Africa Alive are the Zoological Society of East Anglia (ZSEA) they often exchange animals. Cheetahs go to Banham to breed (at least they hope they will) and return to AA to have cubs as AA has a more suitable enclosure space for them. I assume that giraffes Mahiri and Zuri have moved to Banham as a controlled breeding measure and may, at some stage, return to AA. However, moving giraffe even a short distance is a costly process, as it involves specialist vehicles, so they may stay at Banham if they are not required for the breeding programme. Zuri is probably excluded from breeding as she was hand-reared.
I may have misunderstood this but why would hand rearing a giraffe exclude her from the breeding programme? Obviously if she's a hybrid or over representation of bloodlines I get why but other hand reared animals have become successful parents........
Mahiri and Zuri are reticulated, they may not currently want to breed from these two, the hybrid male at Banham is neutered so they could have just been moved there temporarily. They have received a male from ARTIS (Jengo (d.o.b. and parents unknown)) which indicates that previous male Kimoni has either been moved or has died. I believe Kimoni was the father of Zuri and the female calf born to Kiara in 2014 whose name I am unsure of. Given that they do intend to breed giraffes in the future they may decide to move Mahiri and Zuri back at some point, depending on how Kiara and her daughter react to Jengo. Also, I do not know how many giraffes they can hold, a lot of facilities these days can hold a large number of animals but prefer to hold a smaller number so that they can be separated if need be.
I also don´t know more infos about Jengo - would be great to find out more as we know. Kimoni ist the father of Zuri (2013) and Kibibi (2014) - Also would be great to here what really happend with Kimoni.
I think the move of 2 purebred reticulated F giraffe from AA to Banham is a no brainer. (but then the whole Giraffe EEP has come to a bloody stand still) Male Jengo would be a purebred reticulated.
Ah ok - so the info of Kimoni is right - my last photos of him are from 2014 Are your sure about the birthdate of Jengo - i only know that there was a birth 07.11.16 the male died some days later.....another birth was 16.11.16 thought thats Obi - mother Iwana but not sure about Jengo or Obi
Babies during the lockdown: Serval Milia gave birth to a single cub on mid May. This is her second litter. A male and a female red river hogs were born on May 16th. They were born to dad Kinshasa and mother Rosie. There is another female in the group named Rebecca so the red river hog number at Africa Alive stands at 2.3 individuals. On Mid June, 5 meerkat pups were born. This makes 8 babies born during the lockdown. Africa Alive!
In sad news that hasn't been announced, the male drill passed away a few months ago and the park no longer hold golden bellied mangabey.
This is not good news...they are one of only a few holders of Drills in the UK. Will they continue with them, having presumably still got one female + offspring...? They bred the first Golden-bellied Mangabey EVER in the UK. Have they lost one? Where have the others gone to I wonder?
Hopefully they might get a new male Drill once the infant grows up and moves on. The golden bellied mangabeys is a real loss to the collection. They had mother and son, not sure where the moved to.
I've asked them about the whereabouts of the Mangabeys. Like as not they've joined a European group, rather than Port Lympne's.
Few births at Africa Alive recently: 2 yellow mongoose born on 4th July. 1 King colobus born on 8th July. 2 blesbok born in June, adding to 1 born back in Feb.
A pancake tortoise (named Pedro) hatched at Africa Alive on August 11th. Information comes from the park's Facebook page.
