Burgers' Zoo Burgers' Zoo News 2022

A separation enclosure... for *hog deer*? Those are cool as hell! Why would that not be exciting?

 

Don't get me wrong, I like hog deer as much as the next guy. It's just a shame we didn't get a new species as we had hoped

 

More likely that this is just temporary, there have been enough hints there will be something new eventually.

 

Lot of news from my visit today!

News from Bush:

ALL the red-rumped caciques have built nests over the former manatee enclosure and are very visible! (They were quite hard to find for a while)

The orange-fronted fruit doves have had a chick!
(Bonus news: I FINALLY saw the fruit doves in Bush, meaning I only need to see one more bird before I've seen ALL of them)

Desert:

The bighorn sheep enclosure is completely finished! It looks amazing, even though there are no animals yet. This also means the whole desert is accessable again!



Park: the jackals are now indeed gone, but no construction has started for the leopards

Still no news near the reindeer

An improvised log path has formed near the mangrove to keep children from wandering off the path, as some foliage has been removed


The temporary flamingo aviary has been expanded

The blue-winged kookkaburras have been moved from the galah aviary to the argus pheasant aviary, and the argus pheasant has been removed (possibly behind the scenes)

The chimpanzee viewing hut is finally open again

Mangrove: last week's update was correct, the dirt has been added onto the path to fix the holes

 

What is the one bird you haven’t seen?

 

The chestnut-backed ground thrush are the last birds I need, I've already completed the desert and mangrove collection

Though I also still need the Montserrat whistling frogs, House geckos, Allison's anolis and white-headed gecko. After those I'll have seen every free roamer

 

Actually it's the opposite, they just planted seeds there for the '''bijenweide'' bee meadow

 

and that area is getting a huge insect hotel that is partially created by the guests that participate in the BuurNatuur event that is coming up

 

From Munich, a grey reef shark arrived at the shark-tank in the Ocean. She moved to Burgers because her tank in Germany was getting a little small for her. Personally, I'm very happy with the addition of a new larger species in the shark-tank.

 

Visited the zoo today;

- The grey reefshark is really as large as they said, sizes up well with the blacktip shark, easy enough to distinguish however given the blacktip shark has a very large straight pointed dorsal fin where the grey reefshark can be easily identified by the shorter stumped dorsal fin.
Currently the head injuries are also very visible and make a additional point to ID incase you are uncertain.
It swam very beautifully and active in the tank, hoping it will make speedy recoveries with the head injuries.

- The socorro dove I mentioned earlier is still sitting on her nest. Which raised a question to me; why?
According to the signage right infront of the nest as well as google say that the incubation time is about 2 weeks give or take.. My report of the eggs was on the 22nd of March .. So that's about a month ago now.
How could this be?

- Lots of plants in bloom, Bush, Desert and Mangrove looking stellar! Even some of the flora decorating the Park and Rimba are in bloom now.

- The LEGO Ocean Bricks event is being set up (I presume not done yet) as various lego statues are already put in place, some still lacking a info-signage on the species, but the builds look beautiful and detailed. Loved to see these scattered around the Park regions of the Zoo.

for example this (unsigned but presumeably) Vaquita

Vaquita - Lego Ocean Bricks Event by Ursus posted 21 Apr 2022 at 10:14 PM

 

The prairie dogs and porcupines have arrived!



Five female prairie dogs and one male, one female porcupines. More prairie dogs will probably be added later

 

Given the presence of a male prairie dog they might also intend for the group to expend naturally.

While I personally wished they had used the space for a rarer or more typically desert species, from what I have seen the exist does look very interesting and quite superb.

 

Prairie dogs might be common in zoos, but they're also a huge visitor magnet, and hopefully they'll really up the popularity of the Desert. And porcupines, though not endangered, are not held anywhere else in the Netherlands.

I'll still be on vacation for a little while, so if one of the other locals (Maybe Ursus or Anubite?) could take a photo of the new signage, that'd be appreciated. I'm very curious!

 

Sorry, I worded my post wrong. A bachelor* group of five female prairie dogs. And a breeding pair* of porcupines

 

Any idea where the prairie dogs and porcupines arrived from?

 

We know that the prairie dogs came from Blijdorp zoo and the porcupines came from Germany, though we don't know what zoo specifically

 

The porcupines came from ZOOM Erlebniswelt in Gelsenkirchen

 

I just returned from my shift so was able to hop by, the signage are currently temporarly. They show pictures of both species with the species name and that is it.

 

Aweful picture but the prairidogs are already digging tunnels everywhere. The porcupines have (for now) chosen the highground of the enclosure near the stables to settle. While the 5 prairidogs (1.4) are all over the place.



Here you have a shot of a prairidog butt going into one of the many tunnelsystems already

 

A spinster group then.