Seeing that scene again is very emotional for me. I almost cried when I saw them in their new enclosure for the first time . It is just so much better than what they are used to. The females from Thailand are especially happy about the new waterhole, while the older females really enjoy the sand. News from the danish zoos: - Aqua Freshwateraquarium just opened a new enclosures for nutrias. - The following zoos just got new websites: Copenhagen Zoo, Givskud Zoo and Scandinavian Wild Animal Park.
1. So, true!!! The new exhibit is a true Elephant Conservation Center with so many essential facilities for the elephants now which were seriously lacking before. Despite Kobenhavn Zoo's good breeding record, I always thought that the high infant mortality had something to do with the less than ideal facilities. I see 5 elephants on film. I suspect that is matriarch Ida, her companion Inda, the two younger Thailand elephant females Surin and Kungrao and Ida's latest calf Gandhi (born 20/3/2006)? Am I correct: the bulls Chieng Mai and Tonsak live separate lives? Toddy, any indications yet that the younger Thailand imported females are displaying breeding behaviour with the magnificent bull at Kobenhavn? Will the bull now be totally separated from the matriarch herd (as this would be more natural) and the females in oestrus travel to him to be mated? Do Kobenhavn have protected or free contact with the eles? 2. Mighty fine that new websites are coming up!!! Sadly, no parallel information in even just the one foreign language (my understanding of Danish is ok, but I can never fully understand the news items as that would entail me studying over a dictionary for ages). Perhaps, you can suggest management at Kobenhavn, Give and the Scandinavia Park to improve this situation somewhat?????
The new house will be such a massive elephant theme, with so many exhibitions about elephants that you can't avoid learning something just by passing through. The thing that I like most about the house, is how bright it is with the huge glass domes as roof. You are right. But it's actually Inda who is the matriarch of the herd and the biggest of the females. Ida is the breeding female. Kungrao is easy to know due to her high forehead. Also, Surin is slightly smaller. The males and females live seperated, unless when they are supposed to mate. There are three outdoor enclosures. One for the females, and two for the males. Then Chieng Mai are let into the females enclosure when Ida is ready to mate. I think it is the plan is for the females from Thailand to mate with Tonsak when he is ready, since Chieng Mai's genes are already well representated through Irma and Chang. Copenhagen now uses protected contact, but has used free contact up until the elephants moved. Personally, I think they should have continued with free contact. Well, Givskud Zoo and Scandinavian Wild Animal Park have pretty good sections in english, while Givskud even has some information in swedish, norwegian, german and dutch. Don't know what happened with Copenhagen though...
I just added a new photo collection to my gallery-site with photos of the elephants in Copenhagen and pictures of the main enclosure. Enjoy!
Toddy, Thanks for all of your great reports (and pictures) from your nation's zoos. IF I were to plan a trip to Denmark, please tell me, WHICH of your country's best zoos could be considered among the 25 to 50 best zoos in the European Continent?
If anyone can help me, I'm putting together a database with statistics of some of the world's top zoos. Essentially, I need the annual attendance figures for the following Danish zoos: Odense Zoo, Copenhagen Zoo Can anyone help me? Is there a good internet source where these can be looked up?
From the Yearly Report of 2008 from each zoo: Copenhagen: circa 1 400 000 (For the 10 years before, the annual visitors numbered circa 1 200 000. The increase for 2008 is explained by the opening of the new elephant exhibit). Source: http://www.zoo.dk/BesogZoo/OmZoo/~/media/Files/Aarsberetning 2008.ashx Odense: circa 430 000 (Around the same number as the last 4-5 years) Source: http://files.zite3.com/data/files/118/1030/0/AArsberetning 2008.pdf
24th of February female amur tiger should arrived to Odense (from Ostrava). Darja, born in June 08, should be paired with male Igor.
