Longleat Safari & Adventure Park Longleat Safari Park News 2013

5 Chilean flamingos are being hand reared.

Keepers play mum to flamingo chicks at Longleat Safari and Adventure Park | This is Somerset

 

Chief Exec suspended pending an investigation
Chief executive at Longleat Safari Park mysteriously suspended from his post with all the locks on the estate office changed | Mail Online

 

Holy crap

Wth? What's happened? I mean, many of my contacts said the guy was dodgy but I never thought anything of it.

To be continued...

 

I have decided to start a new thread regarding David Bradley's dissmassal.

http://www.zoochat.com/38/david-bradley-suspended-post-338556/

 

Anyone got any goss on Longleat? To me, I feel as if its turning into a theme park like Chessington

 

The following statement was released on Longleat's Facebook today regarding the planned Elephant Sanctuary:

Under new management Longleat Safari & Adventure Park is conducting a review of all current and future projects. As part of this review we are bringing in expertise from third parties to look at the wider Estate.

The elephant sanctuary forms part of the review and Longleat wants to look at what is best for Anne, best for the elephants that will potentially come here and what is the best use of the money and resources kindly donated to Longleat for this project.

We are taking a much more professional and objective view with the aim to future proof the elephant sanctuary and ensuring it meets all of its objectives.

We recognise the need for an elephant sanctuary in Europe and we are committed to developing this concept: however this project is not just for Anne but other elephants in similar situations and we need to ensure that once built it can deliver on its promises, its full potential and ensure the long term welfare for elephants in need.

Longleat is currently in the process of organising a workshop with elephant experts covering a range of fields. This workshop will endeavour to bring together the stakeholders that have been on board with the project since its conception as well as introducing new individuals with recommendations on best practice to ensure that we can deliver the best in elephant medicine, rehabilitation and husbandry for elephants in need. We will be looking at all the options available to us and base our decisions on evidence based best current practice in combination with expert advice on elephant natural history and biology.

Jon Cracknell, Director of Animal Operations, said, “Longleat is committed to the long term care of Anne and continues to work hard to ensure she has the best opportunities available to her considering her health. We understand people’s frustration in that Anne doesn’t have a new facility as yet, we just want to make sure when she does it meets her needs and those of her kin that need help or a new home to see out their days. An elephant sanctuary should be just that: a sanctuary based on the values and ethics that are recognised by our colleagues in the USA

 

Well it's good to hear, but it does sound a bit of a stalling or pacifying announcement, I wonder how many compliants there has been to bring about this clarafication? plus how much is the review going to cost? and how many other european elephants are likely to need a sanctuary? yet Anne is still alone.

 

where will it be ?

 

When they say colleagues in the USA hope they dont mean the sanctuary in California PAWS this is not a good facility for elephants and i dont think the one in Tennesee is much better .

 

Longleat has an Elephant, but no purpose built Sanctuary, Noah's Ark has a purpose built Sanctuary, but no elephants (yet).

I imagine 'Anne', the single Longleat elephant, would actually benefit more from another elephant as company now, than continuing to be alone waiting for fancy housing sometime in the future.

 

' Under new Management ' would seem to imply that the previously suspended Chief Executive has now departed ?

 

Sounds very much like it.

 

My thoughts precisely From tethered alone in a bran to standing alone in a field isn't so far different in my opinion. I still fail to see why they chose to place her there myself without as much the smell of another elephant.

 

I never thought I'd say this but I personally think that Anne may be better off at NAZF. They have a purpose built house, other elephants in the pipeline (possibly! ) and their keepers and their set-up are specifically designed/trained for arriving elephants. Never thought that Longleat would be over taken by such an establishment but having seen Elephant Eden for myself this niggling feeling won't go away.

 

Its true..they have the building already done, and they are more likely to get other Elephants(?) now long before Longleat ever do.

Longleat talk about the need for an Elephant Rescue Centre in Europe, but there's already a brand new one ready and waiting not many miles away. Noah's Ark may have funny ideas but the housing and environment for her could still be a lot more suitable.

 

Longleat have taken quite a PR bashing on Faceook. The Daily Mail helped run a campaign in which hundreds of thousands were donated, and we have all seen stalling tactics over the last 18 months. I have seen Anne over the last 18 months and she does look a lot healthier, and im sure she is getting fantastic care, but I too agree, may be NAZF could be a better environment for Anne with the impending arrival of their African Elephants.

Perhaps longleat will prefer a new breeding herd, which may draw in more visitors if there were births.

Did the Roberts family surrender all rights to Anne, or is Longleat just looking after her on behalf of the family?

 

I do not think that the EEP / EAZA will allow for that. Secondly, there is the herpes transmission issue (affecting Asiatic elephants more than it ever does the Africans whom have some form of immunity to it).

 

It is surely a good idea to check that the plans are sound, but Annie is so old that she doesn`t have more TIME if they want her to see another elephant ever again. If they can`t provide that ASAP (say by mid-2014 at the latest!!) they must look for a new place for her. I`d love to see her in Belfast Zoo - they take post-reproductive asian females and have a free spot since Jenny died.

Noah`s Ark would be a good idea also if they were committed to rescued asian elephants - but from what is on their homepage, it seems they want a breeding group. Old, rescued females with lots of health issues and often social problems do not mix well in a breeding group, and now it seems they go for african elephants and again aim for breeding.

I can`t imagine that they will take non-breeding females from problematic backgrounds AND have a breeding group with a bull at the same time.

 

That is very true, I think they will only have room for one or other. They seem to have publicised several different scenarios- breeding/rescue etc but it will come down presumably to what Elephants they get first which currently still(?) seems to be Africans for breeding. In that case Longleat's intention to have a 'rescue centre' would not be duplicated and therefore more plausible.

But I still think company for Anne should be Longleat's immediate priority- whether that means moving her to a suitable zoo(e.g. Belfast) where she could get it, or bringing in at least one other Elephant themselves. Of course they might not prove compatable, but they would at least be seen to be doing something.

 

Belfast or Blackpool do seem like they would have been better places for her.

I can't help but worry about the future of Asian elephants in Europe We have seven bulls at Emmen and now three at Whipsnade. I'm not sure that there are going to be ten zoos all in need of a bull in 5-10 years.

If Longleat were willing to have a bachelor herd that would probably more useful than a sanctuary, especially in the long-term.