Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo News 2014

Some further information has been gleaned from the blog, including new otter, wallaby and lemur walkways.

This week we announced the big cat strategy for the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and I would like to take this opportunity in my blog to talk in more detail about it.

As you may know, various new species are entering and leaving the collections at Highland Wildlife Park and Edinburgh Zoo. The existing Big Cat Walkway at the Zoo is to be demolished later this year as it dates back to the 1920s and it is part of the original Zoo design. RZSS would prefer to develop enclosures more in-keeping with a 21st century conservation charity. We looked at the option of further modifications and expansion to them, but in the end felt removing the existing infrastructure was the only sensible option.

I will be very sad to see animals like the jaguars, Mowgli and Rica, leave Edinburgh Zoo. They are a species I love and they both have great characters, but their enclosure has come to the end of its lifespan. The creation of a new state-of-the art facility would cost a very significant amount, likely millions of pounds, and we have to be realistic; we believe that money has to be spent on updating infrastructures across the Zoo – for example for the sun bears and the rhinos. The jaguars will go to a new home with enclosures and possibly other partners so as to create an environment more conducive to their breeding.

With regard to Edinburgh Zoo’s Amur leopards, it was recommended at an earlier point in time by the relevant overarching species breeding programme that they move separately to other collections with new potential mates, as they had proved incompatible as a pair. This is a common occurrence in big cats and the female left earlier this year. It will be a new pair that makes their home at Highland Wildlife Park. The male Asian golden cat, will be moved to an off show area within the Zoo until a new home is found.

We are very excited about the new developments at Highland Wildlife Park – the new snow leopards and a brand new pair of Amur leopards – who will both hopefully breed. Private funding has been specifically directed to the Highland Wildlife Park for these species. The Park has the space and the topography to enable the best housing of the leopards in a first class fashion; it will give us the best chance of aiding the future of both species.

Back to Edinburgh Zoo’s cats, Roberta the Asiatic lion is slowly settling in after her arrival last week and has not yet been introduced to Jay. We hope they will form a breeding pair when they both fully mature. Tibor, the male Sumatran tiger, is another distinctive face we will all miss, but we have to go with the recommendations of the over-arching breeding programme and form a new pair with a new, more compatible male. We look forward to early confirmation as to when our new male is arriving.

We are in the initial stages of exploring the next generation of cat development at Edinburgh Zoo; potentially planned for 2016 and likely involving small cat species and/or a larger spotted cat species. This is still in the early stages though. Cats are really popular with our visitors and members, so we would love to bring them back in greater quantities to the Zoo, whilst working with the space and funds we have at our disposal. We will look to fundraise in the future.

I am also pleased to share with you other developments planned for Edinburgh Zoo. In the near future, we will be creating two new visitor experiences – a lemur walkway and a wallaby walkway. Other likely developments are turning the duck pond into an otter walkway. As you can see, there is a theme of immersing visitors in our experiences!

At Edinburgh Zoo we have an exciting diversity of species and so the challenge is to make sure they are all looked after in facilities that reach – and where possible surpass – contemporary standards, while maintaining a range of taxa. Quality of life must remain important, rather than simply the quantity of species and specimens. Our focus must also be more interactive, engaging areas with presenters and much improved interpretation which tells the story of our science based conservation work.

Plans are also being developed to introduce a new transport solution (an addition to the well-received mobility vehicle) which will enable visitors to travel to the Hilltop to ‘start’ their visit, adding value to the visitor experience and improving accessibility. It is intended that this new facility will be in place at some point in 2015.

Well I leave you with my extra update and hope our plans are welcome additions to both Edinburgh Zoo and Highland Wildlife Park.

http://rzss.wordpress.com/

 

aye they've gone intae full on damage control mode now seeing the response around the web. och, the otter walkway may be bad, if people frequently drop stuff intae the penguins ah can fair see them doing the same for the otters

 

If they had put that in the first bulletin, it might have mitigated some of the resulting comments.

 

aye at the meeting previously mentioned Chris only said that we "might" get some form of small cat in the future but that it would need to be thought about

 

Probably next to the Manatees..... (Thoughts - Cheetahs! )

Interesting they make the comment about the developments at HWP being funded by targeted donations - must have been comments about developing HWP at the expense of Edinburgh....

Wonder if that enclosure is going in the Sun Bear development mentioned. Maybe he's going where ever the margays were.

 

It says 'initial stages of exploring'- maybe starting yesterday...

One thing I would take issue with is the concept that to keep e.g. the Jaguars, they always have to built a new 'multi-million state of the art' exhibit. Other Zoos manage to exhibit species like this without resorting to that sort of expenditure. I do of course appreciate the dilemma of 'triage' in such situations-whether to Keep/Rehouse/Rehome etc but IMO losing a species like Jaguar often means it doesn't come back later. I also agree that the Asian Rhinos are probably uppermost in their minds for rehousing at the moment.

Yes,this latest blog does seem to have very much answered exactly the questions that were raised on here- even extending to the Land Train issue...

 

makes you think that they might be worried by all this

 

aye, whilst they're now where the Golden Cat was next to sun bears - which could be getting expanded potentially which aye would mean that the margays would be removed

 

There is a perfectly usable enclosure at the zoo for jaguar, that being the current Steller's sea eagle aviary, all that is required is indoor housing and a smaller holding enclosure.

 

Steller's sea eagle could easily be transferred to HWP and be kept within the remit and the bonus of the climate too.

 

at the same time there are a variety of other empty enclosures right now that could be repurposed without much effort to matchthe jaguar, most notably, the top half of the zoo has a number of empty exhibits that could be tuned to match the jungle environment - a lot of people are understandably upset that we are getting rid of both (as they are both popular) aye, as when without tae much difficulty we could keep one at least

 

Is that the one that's visible to the east as you walk down from the Lion house? I'm sure I spotted something small and spotty there last time I was up that way!

 

To be fair, I can't think of another part of the zoo that could be quickly and easily turned into a suitable home for Jaguars (Especially a pair kept separately) without losing another species.

A sneaky little part of me wonders if it's as much about getting rid of a source of aggravation in terms of complaints about the housing and behaviour (especially the pacing). Especially demolishing them quickly, as that prevents any reversal of the decision.

 

if i am thinking of the same one its an offshow area where the margays were kept

 

This obsession with the need to build multi-million pound enclosures is obviously a disease which is spreading! Another capital city zoo in the UK has been suffering from it for a while!
Earlier in the thread someone said Edinburgh would soon just have a few super exhibits and very little else.... Sounds familiar!
The New large spotted cats will almost inevitably be cheetah, since they would be cheap to house- A simple 8ft fence, a shed and maybe a few panes of glass, probably only a few thousand pounds.