Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo News 2013

The king penguins are home

 

Koalas to get new enclosure

Edinburgh Evening News - 27th March, 2013

A redesign of the koala enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo will start after Easter.

The overhaul will be designed to bring visitors closer to the Australian marsupials, with an open-plan walk-through area to be created.

Renovations will be finished in time for summer, but the koalas will be off display while the works are completed.

The changes follow the introduction of a female koala to the zoo last month.

Zookeepers are hopeful Alinga, who turns two in May, will successfully breed with the enlosure’s male koalas, Goonaroo and Yabbra.

Alinga arrived at the zoo in style last month when she was given her own seat by Lufthansa German Airlines, which flew her in to the Capital from Duisburg.

Edinburgh Zoo has hosted Queensland koalas for the past eight years. It is the only zoo in Britain to house the eucalyptus-eating animals.

And the koalas have Australian neighbours – with swamp wallabies and a cassowary also resident in Edinburgh.

 

The kings are back, but only 5 of them, (including the famous Sir Nils Olav)
surely there are plans in hand to bring in more?

 

I think they have long been trying to get more kings, especially females (think they're all male now), but finding anywhere willing to give them some is less than easy! There have certainly been news stories about wanting females.

Rockhoppers have eggs again-fingers crossed everyone.

 

17 of the Guinea baboons are now at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

 

Nice that some of them have a new home at last.

Penguin parades have begun again and Scottish wildcats have access to outdoor enclosure in big cat row.

 

since when have edinburgh had wildcats? and is it in place of the wolverine?

 

I posted about their imminent arrival earlier in the thread (after a visit to highlands wildlife park-the keeper doing the wildcat feed revealed the kittens (thought likely to be hybrids) were moving to edinburgh in a few days).

Their enclosure is sort of squeezed into the row-its not a wolverine enclosure (have they gone yet?). No idea if they are planning on keeping them longer-term though.

 

thanks. The wolverines where meant to leave Edinburgh for HWP in 'easter' which is annoyingly vague

 

Last time i spoke to the keepers (which was a week ago) the clouded leopard female was still very much alive... just VERY shy and nocturnal...and i WILL get a picture..somehow...lol... Seemingly Barry the guy that does the talks has seen her.

Was told she was very young so hopefully with age she will become braver

 

Visited the zoo on sunday as was up in scotland for the weekend:

Was impressed by the panda exibit thought they managed the crowds very well and the guide was very impressive too. shame you dont get to see them for longer but can undertand why. Decent enclosure too.

The most impressive thing was the penguins, a great exbit and great to see Kings. Does anyone know how many penguins they have in total and will all 3 species mix in future or wil the rockhoppers stay seperate?

However bar the chimpanzee's and a few others i felt a lot of the zoo was quite outdated and many enclosures could do with improvement. E.g the Rhinos could be improved and the koola was quite basic. A lot of wire fencing too.

A decent zoo with some star quality species but overall i would still say a zoo like colchester is far more modern with a better quality of exibits.

 

It's over 100 penguins total but don't know exact values. Rockhoppers are just separate so they focus on breeding + hopefully have some success, they should be back in penguins rock after breeding season is done.

 

Visited yesterday, sunny but cold!

Wildcats are in the big enclosure at the western end of Carnivore row (Facing you as you reach the top of the zig zag path). Only one was visible, sleeping at the top of the big tree, obviously enjoyed the sun as it was stretched out, looking just like our moggie at home!

Looks like there has been a reshuffle of the Asian Golden cats again - only one now in carnivore row, the other two enclosures in the small mammal house next to the sun bears (or at least labelled as such as neither had a cat that was visible, nothing new there!) Does Edinburgh have 2 or 3 these days?.

The 'new' one is the enclosure that used to house the Aardwolves - no sign of them, have they died/left the collection?

The Golden Cat on carnivore row was visible in it's barrel sleeping, and we actually saw it wake up, throw up a furball and go back to sleep! Most active I've seen one for a while!

All the other cats were active as well, except the elusive Clouded Leopard, and the Wolverine was especially active. - I suspect it was near feeding time!

Also noted as 'missing' were the Kookaburas (Destined for the new Koala exhibit?)

Pelicans are back out the old sealion pool, and it looks like some extra fencing has been installed!

Penguins Rock is a good improvement on the existing enclosure, the ability to see and get close to the birds is appreciated. How long the water remains crystal clear remains to be seen!! The Penguin Parade took place, with 5 gentoos and 4 kings taking part (One of the volunteers said it was the first time the Kings had joined since coming back). There were a lot of Gentoos (More than 20) that were late arrivals so didn't get to walk.

In fact there were two parades - the gentoos went at running pace and were back in the enclosure before the kings had even reached the top of the 'Y'. The kings took it moe sedately!

Noted that there are still some rockhoppers in the 'old' enclosure - presumably those who have laid eggs?

Barry was mentioned above - I do hope the management at RZSS realise what a huge asset he is - his enthusiasm and knowledge shines through, and my kids love him! He even remembers them from visit to visit.

Interestingly the former Heck Cattle paddock is now listed as a 'development area'

Was reminded of this yesterday when looking at Budongo - the entrance to Budongo was designed with this plan in mind to be the first thing people saw after entering the zoo. The effect is somewhat lost now, unless you are in the car park!

Interested to note the balcony onto the outdoor enclosure in Budongo was open yesterday, not seen that for a while.

 

I will be there in about a week and I am a cat fanatic. I just want to know what kind of prize ZooChat is going to award me if I get a good shot of the clouded leopard?

 

To answer some of Dave's points:

Kookaburas I think left a while ago but I'm not 100% sure I'm remembering correctly, no idea what's happened to aardwolves, shame if they've gone.

Were there rockhoppers in penguin rock? I was told the rockhoppers were all in the separate enclosure to encourage breeding (they actually moved them all to penguin rock, then moved back the males so they could start nest building and then moved the females back a few days later to try to get them all excited about breeding) and then they will go back to penguin rock at end of the breeding season. I hope they have some success this year.

Sadly the volunteer was misinformed-the king penguins made an appearance on the first official penguin parade on good friday-there are pics on facebook but lovely that you saw them out anyway.

And some news-female panda is expected to be in season within the next 10 days according to facebook & the zoo will be trying AI as well as giving them time together.

 

They have left the collection!

 

Some in the Penguins Rock side pool (with the door closed), some in the 'old' enclosure by the carnivores. They always looked happier/more active in the 'old' one!

Zoogiraffe - thanks for confirm about the Aardwolves - pity, as they were interesting little creatures.