I can remember seeing 6 in there but that was some time ago (hillary crackers Virginia dawn plus two half grown calves). I think the paddock is bigger now
In the past the Decimus Burton Giraffe House has held a lot more than 3, upwards of half a dozen or even more if I remember correctly. Six visible in this old postcard.
quite bizarre. why would you deliberately want to provoke an animal to endanger you? would you consider that you need automatic doors to work with domestic horses? but you wouldn't want to stick a hot pin in one of them would you? so we are to base our safety concerns on how much we can provoke an animal
No, I've never discussed this with a keeper but it was stated at one of the ZSL meetings. There were certainly years when seven or eight giraffes were listed in the start and end of year totals in the ZSL Annual Reports (and there were probably more individuals than that during the year, counting recent calves). Yes, as "monster" commented the paddock is larger now than it was in the days of "Hilary", "Virginia" etc.
that's really interesting as I can't at the moment find any recommendations for stomatitis doors on any husbandry guidelines ( but feel free to correct me if anyone has seen otherwise!) so I wonder what might be driving this? seems a complete waste of money to me if they are planning to install these doors rather than breed. As you previously said they manege fine for 150 years previously!
No, I don't think there are any plans to introduce such doors. As "Dassie rat" has already commented, London Zoo doesn't need a male giraffe as there will be no plans to breed from the hybrid females.
No, not at all. The point I was trying to make (which was quite unnecessary because I had misunderstood you) is just the simple one that being kicked by a giraffe is potentially fatal, something that realistically can't be said of a cow or horse. I certainly wouldn't want to be kicked by a horse though
I tried that thought experiment. The giraffe want 'Pfft!' and flew around the empty space in my imagination as it deflated
No - this conversation has drifted off on something tangent, but I think I would be right in summarising that a bull giraffe is bigger, stronger, bolshier, and potentially more aggressive than a cow (as with any ungulate I would imagine).
nope wouldn't agree with that. in my experience the most dangerous ungulates by far are females with calves at foot. never had problems with males more than females except some of the Hippotraginae
I'm not suggesting you are wrong, but the female giraffe at London won't have a calf at foot, so this isn't relevant surely?
the question was whether male ungulates are more dangerous than females in general. and in general the answer is no. as for giraffes a female can kill you as easily as a male if you want to give it reason to, calf or no calf
For many years there was a dent in the tiles on the Giraffe House wall, where a (bull?). giraffe had swung its head at a keeper. The dent was covered with glass and labelled. For some reason it's not there any mire.
Not going to bother responding , as this whole daft argument about Bull giraffes at London isn't ' London Zoo News 2018' . London don't hold a bull and won't , not news though!
