Actually only one pair and they are currently completing quarantine at Whipsnade before being transferred to London with London sending some wild dogs as replacements. BennettL
IF any wild dogs are being sent to Whipsnade, they are not 'replacements' for the quarantine Asiatic Lions, which are held offshow!
Strictly 2016 news, but a giant anteater has been born , she is a female and is currently being hand reared. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=878554908847635
Thanks for posting this. Good that the tree Kangaroo is still at London, presumably back in its original enclosure, why they can't remove the no entry sign & open up that corridor is still an irritation. I notice Whipsnade still have 7 Francois Langurs, shame they can't be put on show somewhere!! Also, the numbers of Mara & Chinese Water Deer seem incredibly low, it must have been a harsh winter!! Only 2 muntjac left too
It appears that in the last year, the collection has gone out of Mangshan pitviper (Protobothrops mangshanensis) but acquired Central American bushmaster (Lachesis stenophrys) and Ethiopian mountain adder (Bitis parviocula). It is probably too much to hope that either of the latter will go on-display, given the fact that the March's Pitviper have never gone on-display in the 5 years or so they have been in the collection, but given how unusual both species are there is nothing to be lost in crossing one's fingers!
The Zebu are in the children's zoo two light brown ones only saw them for the first time last week they must be very new to the collection
Pipaluk, the corridor round the tree kangaroo leads into the education area which doesn't have a door. It would be very distracting to have visitors wandering about when a class is in progress.
The zebu arrived approx July 2016 from Small Breed Farm Park, Hereford. I think they are brother and sister called Brody and Maddie
Some rainforest updates from a brief visit this morning: Recently the Rainforest walkthrough had dwindled to very few species as a result of multiple things (last pope cardinal in there has passed away recently, curassows moved out because of bird flu, only Ria the adult female tamandua left due to the deaths of the male and the baby, not sure why they happened though, so moved to vets for safety, and two golden-headed lion tamarin females moved offshow as well to be introduced to the other pair but introductions failed and the females were ousted by the emperor tamarins so they were in the enclosure by the indoors for the lemurs). This left four emperor tamarins, two red titi monkeys, two Linnaeus' two-toed sloths, two large hairy armadillos and three red-footed tortoises. In an effort to rebuild the species list of the Rainforest, the lion tamarins are now in a side enclosure (between the family of three narrow-striped mongoose and the solitary individual) with a mesh front in an attempt to do a soft release back into the biome, and the armadillos have been moved out recently to be replaced by Ria (so it appears that they must have had something to do with the deaths of male Dante and the baby). The tamarins seemed to be doing well, grooming the emperor tamarins through the mesh. So if all goes to plan, and the curassows are brought back after the bird flu epidemic is over, then the biome will look like this: Bearded emperor tamarin: 3.1.0 Golden-headed lion tamarin: 0.2.0 Red titi monkey: 1.1.0 Southern tamandua: 0.1.0 Linnaeus' two-toed sloth: 1.1.0 Northern helmeted curassow: 2.0.0 Red-footed tortoise: 1.2.0
Oh I hadn't heard about the tamandua deaths, that really is sad, I always made time to visit the baby to see how it was growing I hope they can get another male and try breeding again
Neither had I until today to be fair @Crowthorne!! But at least the armadillos, which do appear to be the cause of at least one the deaths, have been moved now.
How were the armadillos responsible for the tamanduas' deaths? It seems odd that a fairly benign ground-dwelling creature could kill or injure a medium-sized, largely arboreal animal. Or was it an infection of some sort?
