Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo news 2012 #3

There is a sign up at cat row for a female Clouded Leopard. She must be from a UK collection as there is not a quarantine sign up.
Although the enclosure had a 'no animal in this enclosure sign'.

 

YAY! What a gem to enter the collection!

 

Any updates on whether this transfer is still expected to go ahead or not??

 

Who'd a thought a veggie diet would be o much more expensive.

 

have the darwins rhea moved in with the vincuna does anyone know whats in their old enclosure at front of the zoo

 

I think it's just one rhea in with the vicuna and the rest are still in the enclosure near the members gate?

 

Thank you for that and the Female clouded leopard is now on carnivore row

 

Artist impression of Penguins Rock has been released, Article also confirms that "a number" of additional female King Penguins are expected to join the current colony when they return from Birdland
Penguins p-pick up new £750,000 enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo - Top stories - Scotsman.com

 

Has there been any new births of chimps since the new house?

 

There has been three births since the new chimps arrived... unfortunately none have survived longer than ten days. They have all been produced by two of the new chimp who can from less than favorable background therefore didn't get the experiences to help their mothering instinct. Three of the new girls are pure western chimpanzees (the names at the moment elude me) so they have put one of the "original" hybrid chimp off her contraption in hope she becomes pregnant to "teach" the others.

The first infant born survived five days.. the first time mum carried it strangely... tho when they did a post mortum the baby did have milk in its stomach... i cannot remember the exact cause of death of this little one.

The second infant born was still born.. an this was to another first time mum.

The third infant was born from the first female and this time the infant lasted ten days.. however this time she was caring for it much better...she was carrying it better and was being more attentive and natural. However then came in one morning and found the baby on the floor and it was found to have died from a head injury. The keepers and vets really dont have any idea what happened to cause it.

So the prospect of having baby chimps in the future for edinburgh look good and i personally think it will be great for the chimps and their superb enclosure. I got this information from their Bundongo and Living links talks. Unforunately i didnt take a pen or paper that night so didnt manage to get down all the details but hopefully other members that attended that night might be able to fill in the blanks

 

They do need some babies growing up in the group to make it both socially more complete and for the longerterm future of the group too.

Does anyone know if all the(pure) Western females from the Dutch group are being encouraged to breed, or only some of them? Did one female from this group die, or was it a male?

 

There are three females from the new group that are being encouraged to breed. Two have since been pregnant since coming to Edinburgh Zoo... one has had a still born.. and the other has had two infants but both died at 5 then 10days. The third has not been pregnant as far as they know.

It was a male from the new group that was lost. He was having an op and died under anesthetic. He had alot of medical issues that were not known at the time and only picked up on post mortem. They were not known as these new chimps have laboratory backgrounds so their medical history is not well known

 

Oh and the zoo is also close today till atleast midday due to weather

 

Any idea why they aren't trying to breed from the other two? as I believe all of the newer group are pure Westerns.

 

As far as I know (what was said at the talk a month ago) these three are the only pure western chimps. So I am assuming that they have done genetic testing to figure that out the others were not pure? That wasn't mentioned.

 

AFAIK the whole group from Holland were supposed to be pure West Africans, but maybe as you suggest tests have since revaled that wasn't so. But its not too serious as it only needs two or three females to breed successfully to give them youngsters in the group.

 

More female king penguins is excellent news (though I know it was hinted at before)-I would love to see them breed at Edinburgh while I am up here. I am rather looking forward to having the penguin exhibit back in action, just a shame its looking like they won't all be back before christmas as previously planned. The new females with the increased chance of breeding makes up for that though.

Re the chimps-I agree I think it looks hopeful that there will be some breeding success in the next few years and it will be all the better if it is parent-reared youngsters, so good on the zoo for being patient with the new mums and giving them the chance to learn how to do it.