Camperdown Wildlife Centre Camperdown update

They did on my visit in August and were just adding the were adding the finishing touches to there new enclosure although I do not believe they have moved to the new enclosure yet

 

Dudley have sent their three youngsters born in 2015

 

Update on why Camperdown has been closed for the last few days:

The Wildlife Centre will remain CLOSED today (Sunday 31st Dec)
On Friday morning our troop of lion-tailed macaques lost one of their young members who sadly passed away. Lion-tailed macaques are a highly social species and as part of their natural grieving process have been guarding and preening this youngster which will help the whole group come to terms with their loss. We hope you understand that the closure of the Wildlife Centre recently, to allow our macaques time to carry out this process, is the right decision for our animals. The closure today will lead in to the new year holidays where we will reopen on Thursday the 4th January. Many thanks to everyone who has passed on their concerns during this difficult time.

 

Wow, that's a new one to me (I've never known a zoo close for such reasons before). The cynic in me wonders if it's coincidental that it extends a bank holiday break whilst the less-cynical part of me wonders if it's because there were problems with the animals or complaints* on Saturday.

*I wonder if the public didn't like the spectacle of the mother dragging it's dead infant around (saw similar with Gelada at Edinburgh earlier this year -not pleasant, but part of nature nevertheless)?

 

Visited today for the first time since October 2016, the park was looking great in the cold and frost.

I was impressed with the Lion-tailed Macaque enclosure, this is the enclosure immediately in front of you as you enter the park, previously home to the Ring-tailed Lemur troop if I recall correctly. They have constructed new climbing frames for the Macaque's and the enclosure is a great size. The Macaques seemed settled and were showing no signs of distress following last weeks events.

Elsewhere in the park I seen the most active Scottish Wildcat I have ever witnessed, was really fantastic seeing it roaming around it's enclosure in all it's glory. This was followed by active Lynx and Wolves, again brilliant to see them on the go. The Amur Leopard cat was showing well too, although it never moved from atop it's box it was constantly alert. The Lar Gibbons put on a great vocal performance right at midday, amazing to listen to them harmonise with each other.

The park is renovating a few enclosures at the moment, I'm looking forward to seeing what species they will be bringing in to stock them.

Overall a brilliant visit to a tremendous collection that is always aiming to improve, I'm looking forward to my next visit already

 

Camperdown have announced the arrival of the following species:

• Indian crested porcupine
• Long-nosed potoroo
• Kea
• Silvery-cheeked hornbills

 

Brilliant, it's great to see the place becoming "more exotic" at a fairly speedy and accelerating rate (making up for lost time?). I'm sure it'll reap the benefit of higher visitor numbers as a result.

 

A reply by the centre on a Facebook comment indicates that the porcupines, potoroos and hornbills are all from the now-closed Tropical Wings Zoo.

 

Brown bear passes away at wildlife centre after 30 years

 

Really annoys me that this place closed as a zoo.

 

Isn't it a zoo now though?

 

Do they have any other bears now, or was she their only one?

 

They still have 1:2 which arrived last year

 

Thank you for confirming.

 

Camperdown have announced that as of today they have achieved full membership status of EAZA.

 

6 Wolf cubs have been born.

Camperdown Wildlife Centre

 

From Facebook:

Let us introduce our critically endangered blue-throated macaws! They have been off show since arriving and we have been working on renovating an aviary in the zoo for them. We are on track to moving these gorgeous birds outside in a few weeks time:

Camperdown Wildlife Centre

 

2 Rhea chicks have hatched:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=697356630831671

 

0.0.1 Lar gibbon was born on Tuesday:

Security Check Required

 

I visited a few weeks ago and was fairly impressed. I think lots of the enclosures could do with a lick of paint or a few extra branches. I like the ocelot, hyacinth macaw, turaco and swinhoe's pheasant enclosures especially. I think the Swinhoe's pheasant aviary is a little underused. It is also home to some guinea pigs but it (and the neighbouring golden eagle aviary) could be a cool Himalayan aviary. The macaw aviary was the most impressive I've ever seen. Huge and well planted, with plenty of flight room and things to destroy

The bird-of-prey aviaries were closed so I missed those and the ocelot, wildcat, lynx, ring-tailed lemur and hawk-owl were no-shows. Plus I couldn't find the deer so I don't know if they are still there.

Does anyone know which species of tortoise lives with the turacos? I foolishly didn't take a picture of the sign as I normally do