Judging from facebook photos, it looks like the tigers have swapped sides now, with the cubs and mum in the larger area.
The tigers are alternating between the two enclosures; today, the cubs were in the smaller side. The leopard cubs were out and very active several times throughout the day; very, very cute. While standing at the window of the upper viewing over the sun bears, there was a sudden thud beside me, when a starling and a sparrowhawk crashed into it. They were both at my feet for a few seconds, obviously dazed, before the hawk flew off. I carried the starling out into a bush. Who needs the flying display?
A new female White Rhino arrived on 15th November. 14 year old Binta has come from Knowsley Meet our new arrival! | Colchester Zoo
The zoo have confirmed that the leopard cubs are 1 male and 1 female. The female is called 'Lena' and the male is named 'Luka'
the 4 male reindeer are back on display behind the old church in the off-show paddock which has been opened for Christmas via a narrow path down the side of the outdoor orang-utan enclosure. New female rhino is still being kept inside. she can be viewed from the slope windows inside in the back pen which use to be flossys bed. Two new cast bronze statues have been put in one for flossy and another for Rajang
Binta is slowly being introduced to the other rhinos she was out in the paddock for a while Saturday with Astrid then was brought back inside. Finally saw the female Fiji banded iguana in with the male. Tiger cubs are growing fast and look like mini versions of mum and dad. Patas monkey and Barbary macaque have been mixed together.
Colchester Zoo posted a review of the year on their website. I figured I would put it up and include some further information gleaned from this thread. Births - An aardvark and several rock hyraxes represented Afrotheria births this year - Primates had a very good breeding year, with births from the mandrill, gelada, L'Hoest's guenon, red-backed bearded saki, coppery titi (a first breeding for Colchester), squirrel monkey and ring-tailed lemur - The carnivores also had a good breeding year, with three Amur tigers, two Amur leopards, two red pandas, two bush dogs and two smooth-coated otters born - Ungulate births were represented by red river hogs (whose father was a new addition to the breeding programme from America), a blue duiker and a Kirk's dik-dik - Among the birds that bred were grey crowned cranes, rainbow lorikeets, a Victoria crowned pigeon and Humboldt penguins New species - The main new arrival was a group of Barbary macaques - Other new species that arrived this year that didn't receive a mention in the official review are Fiji banded iguana and at least six species of fish (rainbow sharkminnow, rosy barb, Denison's barb, Taiwan bitterling and two species of Lake Victoria cichlid) - Species labelled as arriving that I have yet to see include the Cuvier's Madagascar swift and African banded barb Deaths and departures - This year saw the deaths of, among other animals, 'Pippin' the chimpanzee, 'Fatgut' the Colombian black spider monkey, 'Juno' the pygmy hippopotamus calf and 'Meg' the shire horse - Also, this year saw the departure of the Mount Kilimanjaro colobus monkeys from the Colchester collection The official review is included here: A time for reflection… | Colchester Zoo
Visited yesterday & can definitely recall seeing a small shoal of the African banded barb in the new aquarium by the hippos. The aquarium also listed African lungfish but this wasn’t to be seen. The zoo was very busy yesterday too - the online offer of £10 entry seems to be working well for them.
On the 30th December, Colchester Zoo released news about the animal count for the coming year. They released news about this in early January 2019, so I will compare the species counts. Mammals - 70 species; net loss of 2 species from January 2019 Birds - 24 species; net loss of 15 species from January 2019 Reptiles - 32 species; net loss of 1 species from January 2019 Amphibians - 8 species; unchanged from January 2019 Fishes - 60 species; number not released in January 2019 Invertebrates - 28 species; number not released in January 2019 The news article about the new count is included here: Annual Count 2019 | Colchester Zoo
Not very impressive then! I appreciate the reason the bird number has declined, but don't approve of the decision to get rid of the display area!
There has been quite the focus on visitor attractions over the past couple of years (restaurant upgrades, new children play areas, sensory zone, the high ropes proposed development, the new entrance, etc) I understand the need to keep up with other attractions so some of this was required but this sadly seems to have affected the overall collection- I can’t see where the next “big”animal redevelopment would be?
Odd - the UK Forum page shows this thread as having 11 pages and the last post 30 minutes ago but when I click on it the last post is page 10 / 2 days ago. Anyone else having issues or is it just that posts have been removed or something?
I cannot see the issue myself, but it may be related to the fact we've moved the recent elephant discussion/speculation into a distinct thread.
