Edinburgh Zoo Edinburgh Zoo News 2014

They were doing well until they got shunted out the old gorilla hous einto a corner of the lion enclosure to make way for the pandas.

 

The remaining leopard will be leaving(not sure when), as will the clouded leopard I believe

 

I might have a chance to pop into Edinburgh Zoo on Saturday and thought I might concentrate on their birds. I thought I knew most of what they had but went on their website to check and have a few comments:

Aviaries at the top of the rhino enclosure - Bali Starling, Lady Ross's turaco, Socorro dove.

Last time I saw these aviaries they were fairly devoid of life and certainly didn’t have any of these species?

East aviaries behind the sun bears - Malayan great argus, Ocellated turkey (young female), Red-fronted macaws.

I’m not sure which these aviaries are?

Flamingo Enclosure - Chilean Flamingo, Scarlet ibis, Illiger's macaws.

I've never looked at this exhibit closely, so do they have Illiger’s macaws?

African Aviary - East African Crowned Cranes, Vulturine Guinea Fowl, Madagascar teal, Lilac-breasted roller, Violet turaco, Hamerkop, Kirk’s dik-dik.

From recollection the view into this aviary is fairly limited so does it contain all these species?

Australasian aviary at the koala exhibit - Green-winged doves, Red-sided eclectus parrots, Victoria crowned pigeons, Crested pigeons and Nicobar pigeons.

I’ve been up to see the Koalas a few times but don’t recall any aviary?

Aviary at the west end of the Monkey House - Ocellated turkey (adult breeding pair), Thick-billed parrots.

Again I’m not familiar with this aviary?

The website also says that the Steller’s sea eagle enclosure can be found between the African Aviary and the enclosure housing the swamp wallabies and the Stanley cranes. Do they have Stanley cranes?

It also says that the Giant anteaters can be found at the north end of the park and they share an enclosure with the Maned wolves. I know the Maned wolves are gone but what about the Giant anteaters?

It also says that the Guinea baboon enclosure can be found opposite the Monkey House, on the west side of the park. I’ve never seen the Guinea baboons, are they still there?

They also mention that Sclater's lemurs share an outdoor enclosure with Mongoose lemurs and ring-tailed lemurs and that the enclosure is in the middle of the park, just to the southeast of the Mansion House. Again I’m not familiar with this enclosure.

 

A lot of those aviaries were correct until fairly recently. I think the rhino walk aviaries still do have those species, although there has been some movement in recent months & it is hard to tell in winter as many stay inside mostly. Argus pheasant pair is now in that strange, slightly hidden enclosure near the ladies toilets and the store rooms/keepers changing rooms just along from the rhino walk. There have also been parrot movements recently, with some cage swapping so I can't remember who is where just now.

The east aviaries behind the sunbears-that does pretty much describe where they are-along from the top outdoor viewing area for the bears towards a staff house-though they are quite dark and often fairly empty recently, not sure what is there right now-at least one parrot species I think. I had heard these were being emptied to be removed/revamped at some point, but that was a while ago.

Flamingo-they do have Illiger's macaws (or did recently), but again I think these were involved in the movements, and some parrots may even be off show now. The aviary they were in is separate from flamingo aviary & is by the saki walkthrough entrance-there is definitely some parrots in there, but not sure which species.

African aviary-yes it has (had) those species, although I can't remember seeing the turaco or roller recently so could have moved? The aviary can be viewed from 2 sides and you can see into some of the indoor areas too so worth going all the way around it to have a good look if you can find the right paths!

Australasian aviary-as TLD says this went when they did the koala revamp. The eclectus definitely left the collection, no idea of the crested pigeon. The rest are in brilliant birds.

Monkey house-last I visited (few weeks ago) this aviary was off show and the birds had been removed to allow the barbary macaques to use it after problems with their normal outdoor area. If you want to check it out you have to go to the end of the path along the outdoor monkey house viewing-it is at the very end, tucked around a corner.

Don't forget the duck ponds/storks if you are focussing on birds-there is a fair few species in that area now. Plus the rheas & cassowaries.

The stanley cranes left quite a while ago.

Giant anteaters are still there, up on the hill.

The guinea baboons have just left.

The lemur enclosure-the sclaters are gone now I think (male died, female moved elsewhere-or is due to go if not). Ring tail group recently arrived so I assume they are the main occupants of this enclosure now. I'd be grateful if you could track down the mongoose lemurs if you get a chance? The enclosure is quite big, on route from main entrance to budongo, right near the member's entrance from the car park. The indoor house is not that imposing though, but does have a big viewing window. As well as the main enclosure there is a triangular shaped cage at one end (with access to main area)-if you follow the overhead tunnel this leads to another house-this is where the sclaters was-if they have gone I'm not sure what is there now.

Hope this is helpful (& mostly correct as I've done it off the top of my head on my tea break).

 

The illiger macaw enclosure looked rather devoid of life the last time I visited (mid-january), and also the window the the left of the cage was boarded up, but I'm not sure if that window was for the macaws

 

Thanks for taking the time to respond to everything Tunanta. Will certainly have a look for those Mongoose lemurs.

 

So we can add Ring Tails to the list of species Edinburgh got out of because they were too 'common' but have now returned (see Meerkats)

 

Article about the first Banteng calf born at Edinburgh :
Zoo News Digest: Zoo Welcomes First Beautiful Baby Banteng

 

They have had a couple of ring tails in the enclosure behind the Discovery centre for a while - at least a year I think.

Clouded Leopard isn't on the list (was it ever? - a search found Guinea baboons moved to 'old animals', but they are off the list now)

 

visited yesterday and spoke to a keeper and currently 2 (but potentially all 3) asian golden cats will be leaving the collection they are hoping to turn their current home into an enclosure to house a female sun bear for breeding.
on a happier note the male amur leopard seems much more relaxed now his neighbour has moved back to helsinki

 

Any idea where the golden cats will be going to?

 

Female sunbear was always on the cards, but sad to see the Golden cats leaving (however elusive they are!). Does seems strange that they would move them on to make use of the enclosures next to the Sun bears when there are still gaps on 'carnivore row' after the wolverines and now leopard have gone (and I beleive the male Amur is due to be moved on as well)

 

Choosing my words with care, Edinburgh's CEO does not seem to be a lover of lower profile species.

I just posted this elsewhere, but it seemed appropriate to fit in here as well

 

Doesn't seem a lover of carnivores in particular and now even more appear to be on their way out!

 

Hello all. Managed to visit the zoo today. It was pretty busy. Not really got any news. Will put some pics in the gallery shortly of progress on new meerkat enclosure for anyone interested-it is bigger than I was expecting.

I also checked on the lemurs-TLD and the website are quite right-female Sclater's lemur is still there for now but seems mongoose lemurs are gone (or off-show). The ring tails in the main lemur enclosure are a new group-they arrived last month and I counted at least 6. They other ring tails (the show/education ones) are still around, in the sort of off-show enclosure near the geladas.

Other than that just lots of signs of breeding, especially amongst the birds with the penguins all nesting (& most of the rockhoppers moved to the same enclosure as last year), a green wing dove with young in brilliant birds & lots of courtship displays elsewhere & I got great views of a lovely wild & fairly tame Goldcrest which was nice. Oh & the jaguars were both very active/vocal-a volunteer said they have recently been spending time together.

Just remembered I also noticed the smew have grown in number there are several of them in the duck ponds aviary now-mostly red headed so female or juveniles (original 2 are males).