2 Madagascan crested ibis have been hatched and are now around 3 weeks old in the Kirindy aviary at the zoo. https://www.facebook.com/DurrellWildlife/posts/10152921037162041
From Tokyo with Love... a long awaited female Aye-Aye is due to arrive in Jersey from Ueno this weekend Tokyo's Ueno Zoo is sending an endangered lemur on an extended romantic vacation to the British Isles. Ala, a female aye-aye, will spend her "extended break" at a facility where it is hoped she will enjoy a fling with a male of the species. The loan for breeding purposes is intended to preserve the genetic diversity of the primate, which is native to Madagascar. “We hope that Ala gives birth to healthy babies and will deliver happy news to us,” a Ueno Zoological Gardens official said. Ala is set to leave Japan on Sept. 10 after Ueno Zoo clinched a deal with the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, based in Jersey, an island in the English Channel. The aye-aye is a small, nocturnal primate found only in the rainforest of Madagascar. It is about 40 centimeters long and has a long tail and big ears. The species faces a high risk of extinction because of deforestation. According to Ueno Zoo, 51 aye-ayes were being kept at facilities worldwide as of August. Ueno Zoo is the only rearing facility in Asia which has successfully bred aye-ayes--with seven successful pregnancies. The zoo currently keeps four male and five female aye-ayes. Ala was born at Ueno Zoo and is a shade over 6 years old Love is in the air for rare lemur heading from Tokyo to British Isles - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun EDIT: Nisha's 5000'th Zoochat post
Choughs in Jersey The reintroduced population of Red-billed Choughs on the Channel Island of Jersey is now 22. Eight birds bred at Paradise Park were recently released and seven are still around. Two pairs are thought to have laid eggs this year and a single bird fledged, named "Dusty". This is the first chough fledged on the island in over a century. This was the first year when we had birds old enough to breed.
Great news about the Red-billed choughs ! Hopefully next year more birds will start breeding and with more experience I hope they will become more succesfull in raisng young !
We are thrilled that the choughs bred this year, especially since so few of the birds were old enough to breed. In all four females were seen carrying nest material and two made nests, in quarry buildings. The birds are supplementary fed and return twice daily to the release site for food. It is an incredible sight to see 22 birds flying in a flock.
More on the Jersey Red-billed choughs : First Jersey chough chick born in about 100 years is male - BBC News
Some fantastic news to start 2016 with; the first successful breeding of Spectacled Bear within the United Kingdom (for a given definition of United Kingdom) since the early 1990's. https://www.facebook.com/DurrellWildlife/videos/10153208941632041/?fref=nf
Fantastic news Congratulations to Jersey on this achievement Hopefully the start of better times for Bear breeding in the UK (for all species)
What great news! Does anyone know if there is a general period for baby bears to remain off show? I'd love to pop down there next week, but suspect i'd be too early EDIT: "another few months" Ooh, I can be so lazy and impatient
bear cubs are tiny when they are born - just a few hundred grams - and are blind. Their eyes don't open for several weeks. They grow quite fast, but wouldn't usually be leaving the nest den until around three months, give or take.
Thanks Chlidonias. I think I really ought to know these things, but I was just a little excited last night on reading the news.
According to ZTL, Durrell received a pair of Javan green magpies from Chester, meaning they're the third collection in Europe to house this species!
A Livingstone's fruit bat was born 1st March. There are currently 62 in the European population, spread between Durrell, Bristol & CERZA.
Encouraging news; potentially 6 new young bred in the zoo and six from three nests from the free-flying birds at Sorrell. If all survive to fledging, that would be a dozen more young birds. This may mean they don't need any more from Paradise Park this year, and I wonder how many the Northern cliffs of Jersey can actually sustain?
