End of an era Announcement via Facebook that Amur Tiger, Gamin has been PTS this week aged 14 due to arthritis
Sad news, but not entirely unexpected. If Bela has left or is leaving for Blair Drummond soon, that leaves Marwell with no tigers, possibly for the first time
Both Snow Leopard cubs are due to leave for Italy on Monday (10th December) They will be off show from now until then,
It is a hard guess on my part. Both Parco Natura Viva, BUSSOLENGO and Zoo Punta Verde, LIGNANO have snow leopards.
You're right, they do have Snow Leopards at Natura Viva, I saw one adult when I visited. Looking at the map refreshed my memory!
Visited for the first time in 4 months yesterday, and sorry to say very little of excitement to report! The new walkthrough aviary should be ready for easter as advertised, but plenty to do yet, and it appears smaller than i expected. Larger tiger enclosure empty, assume the new female was hidden away outside in smaller one, as wasn't inside. The snow leopards were still seperated, but active for a change. What struck me most was the number of empty cages, paricularly primate ones. It will be interesting to see the stock list in a few months. I know myself and others have gone on about a diminishing collection, but yesterday it struck me that 6 species of callitrichids have left or gone offshow in the last couple of years, only cotton top tamarins that i saw! I know Marwell's never been great for primates, but added to potto,diana monkey, mouse lemur, that makes 9 losses & no new species of primate on show in less than 5 years! I didnt go near the encounter village though, maybe some are held there? Also noticed tree shrew enclosure marked as empty, not sure if that's a seasonal move though!? There are still at least 2 vicuna in a small yard opposite the tigers, which has been screened off for a year or two, it seems a waste to hide away species in an already diminishing collection!
Arabian Oryx Something i forgot to add was that there were 4 arabian oryx in the former gemsbok yard on the left as you walk to african valley( cant remember if thats where they were in the summer). Someone asked how many they had on another thread recently.
Rothschild Giraffe calf, Dubaku has been PTS following a short illness. He was born at Marwell on 13th October
No suprises then. The primate collection, like so many other things there, has been on the decline for some time now.
