im suprided to see marwell continue with hybrid giraffes. chester started phasing them out in 2004 and they only have two females at the moment. back to animals not seen in the UK. id like to see Thompsons Gazelles, Jabirus, Bontebok, Jamses Flamingoes, Giant Pandas (obv not gonna happen any time soon though), Japanesse Cranes and a few more aswell.
Slimbridge still have a group of James's flamingoes. I don't think they've ever bred though, so the group might be getting smaller in number...
james's flamingo can be seen at slimbridge but it is a very old group, zoo berlin has the only captive breeding group in the world, i take it you mean siberian crane rather than japanese crane (red crowned crane) a few years back chester were talking of bringing them in.
yes they have a breeding group of andean flamingo, slimbridge also has a breeding group of andeans as well with a chick born last year, they were the first collection in the world to breed andean flamingo
There are also hooded cranes, Whooping cranes and African openbills that need to be brought in. I'm thinking that chester should bring in the African openbill, for an african themed exhibit, near the okapi house. There will be a new house there, and there could be free flying turacos, openbills and waterfowl. This would be a big project to undertake, but I think that it would be really popular. There would have to be some nice interpretation (signs), so that the visitors know what the species are and how they are linked with conservation. Chester should be bringing in another okapi very soon. It was the Foot and mouth and Blue tounge restricitons that were stopping it.
Chester do want to become involved with Siberian Cranes, for some unknown reason it hasn't happened yet. One reason I was given was the non availability of spare stock in Europe. It seems a bit strange. Also they looked at Lammergeier about 10 years ago, I heard that they were turned down becuase they asked for Bearded Vultures and someone connected with the breeding programme objected to the use of this name.
that is very small minded, considering that they breed fairly well in europe i am surprised that here are none in britain.
Chester has had so much sucess with red crowned cranes that they should have a try with them. i'm not sure where they'd keep the lammergeirs....
Marwell's original Giraffes(a group of about five) were imported from the wild- I think they were probably Baringo. However, they later acquired breeding males from other zoos- the ill-fated 'Victor' from Whipsnade was one, so the group are now hybrids. I'd like to see them replaced with Reticulated, as everybody else(bar Whipsnade) seems to concentrate on Rothschild's nowadays.
Lammergeier at Chester could go into Europe on the Edge, or one of the aviaires alongside the kestrels which currently show snowy owls and a spare rhinoceros hornbill. Or they could have a brand new aviary.
It is not likely Lammergeier will come to the UK any time soon. The EEP breeding programme is quite well established on the mainland and new holders are not sought after. The only new breeding centers to acquire lammergeiers are those that are directly linked to in situ release. Spain has opened 2 further centers recently after Guadalentin (which has been operating for a while). In 2006 and 2007 the first bearded vultures from the captive programme were released in the Sierra de Cazorla mountains, effectively making this the newest location for a reintroduction effort. In future the programme is looking more at reintroduction efforts in Crete, Greece, the Balkans and SE Europe.
Are you hoping for some at Highland Wildlife Park by any chance, Kiang? They'd be an ideal collection for them to join- fits perfectly into their plans.
