Howletts Wild Animal Park Howletts Wild Animal Park News 2017

Visited again today. Some updates:

- Again, no sign of Salome and the calf in the rhino paddocks
- Coco has been separated from Masa's herd once more and both Masa and Tammi's herds had been put in together to form a super-elephant herd of 12. Coco seemed a bit put out by this but spent his day flinging sand to brighten his mood.
- Saw the Iberian wolves (sorry @Pertinax )
- The honey badger cub is indeed still at the zoo. Saw the male Tyson being fed and then as we were walking past the female Beebee's paddock we spotted the cub running after her. It's almost as big as her, but a bit chubby and much younger-looking.
- Saw 26 out of 28 gorillas; all of Djanghou's and all of Sammi's groups, plus Baby Doll, Sidonie, six out of Ebeki's seven (missing Kiju, the youngest of this group) and four out of Kifu's five (missing the big man himself Kifu). Sammi's group seem to have calmed down a lot more, though the girls still avoid Sammi. He was much calmer though, so here's hoping this is a step in the right direction.
- Black lemurs in the lemur walkthrough now, as well as the ruffed, red-bellied and crowned individuals
- Managed to spy a sneaky Heck's macaque from the Woodland Walk in the offshow enclosure! There's definitely still one then, though my other half was sure she could see another one just below the one I spotted.

 

Also here are my best efforts at a (relatively) accurate inventory.

Western lowland gorilla 9.19.0
Silvery gibbon 4.7.3
Siamang 1.0.0
Gelada 1.4.2
Eastern black-and-white colobus 3.5.2
Sumatran surili 1.1.0
Heck's macaque 1.1.0 (offshow)
Sulawesi crested macaque 2.4.0
Lion-tailed macaque 8.17.0
Dusky langur 4.4.0
Javan langur 4.8.0
Francois' langur 1.2.2
De Brazza's monkey 1.3.1
White-naped mangabey 2.2.0
Red-bellied tamarin 1.1.0
Pied tamarin 1.1.0 (offshow)
Black lemur 1.2.0
Crowned lemur 3.2.0
Red-bellied lemur 3.0.0
Black-and-white ruffed lemur 2.2.0
African wildcat 0.1.0
Pallas' cat 2.2.2
Serval 0.1.0
Ocelot 0.1.0
Fishing cat 1.0.0
Honey badger 1.1.1
Snow leopard 1.1.0
North Chinese leopard 2.1.0
Indochinese clouded leopard 4.6.0
Barbary lion 1.1.0
Sumatran tiger 1.1.0
Siberian tiger 0.2.0
Tiger 0.1.0
Eurasian wolf 1.1.0
Iberian wolf 1.1.0
Dhole 0.0.29
African elephant 3.10.0
Black rhino 1.3.0
Brazilian tapir 1.2.0
Greater kudu 0.5.0
Eastern bongo 1.3.2
Red river hog 1.1.8
Blackbuck 1.18.0
Nilgai 1.9.0
Axis deer 1.23.0
Hog deer 1.6.0
European bison 1.3.0
Southern pudu 1.1.0 (unsure if kept??)
Giant anteater 1.1.0
Capybara 0.0.12

 

Does your Lion-tailed Macaque tally include the small separate group in the Woodland Walk?(about 8)

Iberian Wolves- despite never seeing them I think they may still have more than a pair at Howletts though could be wrong on that.

Blackbuck/Axis Deer- previously several males in these groups- either they've changed the ratio management or some were out of view maybe.

 

I wonder if he's really proved easier to integrate than Matadi who they quickly sent away, to Antwerp. Despite their initial reservations Matadi was added to the Antwerp females quite easily and seems to have been fine ever since.

 

My lion-tailed macaque tally does indeed include the group in the woodland walk I counted 10 there and 15 in the main group.

There were just two doing patrols of their enclosure so for now I'm assuming they only have a pair, would be happy to be proven wrong though!!

They may have more, I only saw one male blackbuck and one male axis deer though.

Oh he definitely hasn't. Last time we were there he was chasing and bullying Mali and, where possible, Tebe. He had inflicted some bite wounds on Mali, and hit Tebe a couple of times, but no more than that since Tebe proved to be a very fierce lady and chased him off!
I would definitely not say they are integrated, they aren't. Whenever Sammi is in the row of cages that Baby Doll lives in at the end the girls are in the big cage opposite, and if he's in the big cage they're in the row of cages or indoors. I think they've got a bit further though, since he isn't chasing them around anymore.

 

Thanks for the update. Maybe Matadi didn't really need to leave in such a hurry then.

 

I wouldn't put Sammi out of the running just yet, he's learning which is good haha

The trio have the big cage neighbouring Djanghou's and the row of cages opposite with the exception of Baby Doll's end one and the end one closest to Djanghou's side.

The issue they are currently facing is introducing the new females (confirmed to be Masindi, Boula and Affy from Djanghou and Kouillou's groups); they may have to swap Sammi's group with Ebeki's group to allow for Masindi and Affy to move over to Sammi's without Djanghou kicking up a fuss upon seeing his daughters in a neighbouring and separated group. If more females Mali's sort of age join then hopefully she'll be more relaxed.

 

I'm sure they will settle down eventually (but then I think Matadi would have done too...) and as you say if the other three younger females are added that should help too. Tebe will no doubt be the boss of the females though. Swapping the two groups over would be quite an undertaking, despite the relatively short distance involved.

 

Black-and-white ruffed lemur 2.2.0

Not that it makes a difference (and that is a top effort at a survey), but it's 1 male and 3 females. The pied tamarins also had 2 babies last Spring, I'm not sure of gender. There are a few more 'Sulawesis' as well.

In all my times walking past the pudus I have never seen them. Iberian Wolves I have about a 10% success rate.

 

Thank you! Can I ask where the pudus actually live?

 

No worries. They're (apparently) between the lion-tail macaques and tapirs.

Another siamang should be there fairly soon too.

 

Ok cheers

 

Do you know how many they still have nowadays?

 

I don't sorry, I've not seen more than one at a time.

 

How is the new snow leopard enclosure?

 

Open-topped and used regularly by their pair it seems far nicer than their old one

 

Is this the first Francois langur born at Howletts?

Rare Francois' langur born at Kent zoo

 

As far as I know it should be - any doubt about the article?

 

Baby honey badger born just over a year ago has been sexed; it's a girl and is called Tembe (father is Tyson and mother Beebee)

 

Visited today, a few updates.

- The elephants have been split so that the elderly cows (Masa, Shibi and Tammi), male calves (Mchumba and Impi) and female calf (Mirembe) are in one group and everyone else (bull Coco, cows Jara, Jama, Uzuri and Etana, and female adolescent Juluka) are in one. This is likely to get breeding out of the younger cows.

- All 28 gorillas were outside today. Females Masindi (born 2006) and Affy (born 2009) have been moved in with Sammi's group from Djanghou's group. They had been living with Tebe and Mali for three weeks, but today was day two of introductions to Sammi. Lots of action as per usual and the girls still avoid him. The end enclosure has been screened off to prevent Djanghou from throwing a wobbly seeing his daughters separated from his troop.

- Sad primate news; the last pair of Sumatran surilis have died, meaning the species is no longer present in Europe. The Heck's macaques are definitely still around though (confirmed by a keeper).

- The Javan langurs who used to live between the ocelot and the mansion drive have been swapped with one of the De Brazza's monkey groups, so the langurs are now next door to the Iberian wolves.

- Finally found where the pied tamarins live, won't say where though as they're meant to be offshow.