species have died off/left, but not been reported on here, such as the yellow mongoose and the capybara
Three Caracal are now in the indoor section of the old tiger enclosure. A breeding pair and a youngster. Pair can currently be seen.
From their website 15/12/2018 A further series of new enclosures and improvements are planned at Hamerton Zoo Park for 2019 and the coming years, as part of our continuing development. These plans include enclosures which will be used on a rotational basis, and another paddock similar to those currently used for the Lynx and Servals, to house South African Caracals. Sometimes called the Desert Lynx, these handsome cats are not actually closely related to the true Lynxes. Our Caracals have been imported from South Africa and are the pure southern sub-species. For the winter they will be living in the barn section of our original tiger enclosure, and are already using the large new space. Later, we plan to use part of the old tiger paddock for the Caracals, and the majority of it for another new species due to arrive next spring. As all of these new animals arrive others will move on, as mentioned previously on this thread. Our Zoo's collection of animals is continually evolving and changing, which we hope will always make for an interesting visit. Those few species which do move away, such as the Capybaras which left almost three years ago and the Coatis much more recently, are commonly seen in zoos and have no conservation importance, and will have already been replaced by others which need our help and are often a little different! 19/12/2018 2018 really has been a fantastic year! A whole range of new animals have arrived at Hamerton Zoo Park, with so many unique to our Zoo. It is doubtful that any other Zoo has seen such a wide range of important new arrivals in just ten months! Much of the planning for these moves has taken up to five years, and the actual timing of arrivals is often largely outside our control. Close contact with the other Zoos involved is obviously of critical importance; but the bureaucrats who control the permits for such shipments, especially long distance imports, often have no concept of time, interest in animal welfare or the concept of breeding programmes - so as soon as permissions and paperwork are in place, we must be ready to move very quickly. The arrival of two Black-headed Pythons today from London Zoo, whilst still of course being carefully planned, was thankfully a much more relaxed process. Our animals are babies, born at Regents Park last year, and still quite small. When fully grown this very distinctive snake can reach lengths of up to 8 feet, and in the wild is found in northern Australia.
I used to say that Hamerton and Chester were tied as my favourite zoos, but Hamerton has been number one for some time for me. I am not sure any other zoo announcements so often make me so excited!
Now I'm curious as to what new species is going to be joining the caracals in that area. It's exciting to know that the ongoing influx of new animals is not yet over at Hamerton.
I have only just found this forum this week! I saw two of the Caracals this month in the covered barn that used to be the tiger enclosure. Am hoping to visit again this week (I'm only just down the road so go really often). I managed to get a photo of one of them but as it was a dark day and he/she was inside its not the best! I have it on my instagram feed @helenblack_animals.
