In respect of the Anteater enclosure - the old penguin exhibit will be demolished to allow a second paddock to be built allowing both the male and female to be outside at the same time. At the moment they have been asked not to breed them, so they keep the male inside during the day, allowing him outside access at night.
On the 6th September, a young kinkajou was born at Amazon World. It is the fourth time the park has bred the species. Information (and pictures) are on Amazon World's Facebook page.
Baby Ocelot born 26th August revealed yesterday. Soon to be moved on show, gender unknown as of now. Info on Amazon World's FB.
Solarna the Linnaeus' Two-Toed Sloth has passed away after 15 years at the park. He fathered 5 babies with his mate Amber over the years. Facebook post from Amazon World: “It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of a much loved member of our animal family. Solarna our beautiful male Two-toed Sloth has sadly died. Solarna came to the zoo in 2003 and every keeper that had the pleasure to know him fell in love straight away. Solarna is missed greatly by Amber and all of his keepers that are privileged to have worked alongside him.”
Two bits of fairly recent news: 1) Two male Six-Banded Armadillos were born at the park on 16th March to mum Amaya. Currently on show. 2) Isla, a six year old Brazilian Tapir passed away from an illness on the 2nd of April, she was born at the park.
A baby Linnaeus Two-Toed Sloth was born in June. From Facebook: "BABY ALERT!! ❤️ Staff are extremely excited to announce the birth of our 16th baby Linnaeus Two Toes Sloth. This new addition to our nocturnal section is the first Sloth to be born under the watchful eye of Twilight Keeper Joe. Joe had to wait patiently for a few weeks for this beautiful baby as mum Inti was showing off her baby bump early in March but wasn’t quite ready to introduce her new addition until late May. Born during the day This is the 9th baby for our pair Maya and Inti and at only a month old has already started tasting solid food and is already adventurous as it likes to climb around off of Inti and sometimes hitches a ride around the enclosure on dad Maya! It soon makes its way back to mum when it’s ready for a snooze and some milk. This youngster will stay with mum for the first year and a half before we prepare it to move to another zoo somewhere in Europe. We hope all our Facebook fans enjoy these cute photos!" And A baby Ring-Tailed Lemur was born on 4th of June. From Facebook: "BABY ALERT! ❤️ We are extremely excited to announce there’s a new addition in our Lemur Walkthrough. Born on the 4th June to mum Hira and Dad Tim the little baby, now a month old has been very popular with all our visitors. It won’t be long before our little baby is bouncing around the Lemur walkthrough."
Another baby Linneas’ sloth born. FB: BABY ALERT!!! ❤️ We are extremely excited to announce the birth of a baby Sloth. Inti who lives in our Twilight area gave birth on the morning of the 18th August to this gorgeous baby. Now at 6weeks old the youngster can already be seen off of mum exploring its enclosure, Inti is never far away tho!! This baby is the 18th Sloth to be born at the Amazon World Zoo Park and we’re sure you’ll agree it’s a beautiful new arrival at the zoo! Also from throughout the year: Two new Capybara’s arrived from Planckendael, a pair of female sisters. Four Bali starling chicks were born over the summer. Male Sloth Lento moved to the zoo from London Zoo in May to be paired a female already at Amazon World Young two-toed Sloth Reggie moved to Dudley Zoo in July Mr Capy the capybara was put to sleep in June Another two Yellow Armadillos were born in early May 6 Young Male Bennett’s Wallabies moved to the park from Manor Wildlife Park in April
Not fully unexpected given the current stagnation climate. Surely, it is another feather in the Crown of Johnson's unlikely partying bunch in Westminster. So much for that non event Zoo Fund MoP talked and balked about earlier! I do wonder: Where are the motions and interpellations to Government in Parliament on the state of zoos, culture, science and education et cetera? Who is leading the charge? Why no public outcry and outrage at this sorry state of affairs?
A bit of a retrospective - Of the 13 species of toucan formerly constituting the largest collection of toucans in the UK, these birds were never actively bred, which has since dwindled the collection to have only a single Plate-Billed Mountain Toucan as the remnants. As far as I know, the bird is still at the collection today. Similarly, it seems that the aforementioned porcupine has not been in the collection since 2013~ish. As I have heard, the Quetzals, Crested Quetzals, arrived at the collection in 2003 as a breeding pair, but they would never do so. Only the female was left 3 years afterwards, with the ever-small population of the quetzals in the collection completely dying off by 2011. As far as I know, no pictures of the male exist, with only few pictures taken of the female of the pair. From what it seems, the armadillo collection seems rather stable somewhat, at 4 species strong, with only the Nine-banded Armadillo absent.
The zoo’s only Giant Anteater (Ernst - born 15/12/04@Wilhelma Zoo, Germany) has been put to sleep after suffering with arthritis. Also some Black and Gold Howler Monkey News - 0.0.1 baby was born to the pair in July, however the father (Ambito) passed away in May so it is now just the mother (Brooks) and her offspring. They are now housed with 6 squirrel monkeys. A pair of Pygmy slow Lorises were born on 22 June to parents Ramina and Lapek. The pair of red pandas (Xiao-Xing and Bert) also gave birth to a single male cub back in early June, but the cub died shortly after birth. The male (Bert) has also recently been suffering with an unknown illness.
I visited here again in late August this year. Couple points that I'm not sure have been mentioned yet: 1.) They had a very new flamingo chick in the aviary by the ocelots, parents were sitting on nest so chick was very easy to miss. 2.) The paca has been moved outside next to the coatis, there is just the one female. 3.) The penguins had left the collection due to complications with avian flu. The exhibit was empty, but a notice was up stating that the zoo intended to redevelop the area as a larger aviary for their latin American birds, to replace their current exhibit.
Storm Eunice Heavily damaged the Red Panda Enclosure and slightly damaged the roof of the Amazon house.
I remember I read some time ago how at one time AWZ' exhibits were not of naturalistic landscape, but built to resemble a Mesoamerican Temple. Do any such exhibits remain today?
