1:0 Grevy's Zebra arrived from Woburn called 'Fonsy', He will join 2 females in the Roan Antelope paddock
4 Painted Dragons and 3 Curly-Tailed Lizards have hatched and are on-display in the 'Fur,Feathers and Scales' exhibit alongside the Partula snails.
Holding I think 5 male Ring Tailed Lemur,3 Black Ruffed Lemur born at Marwell,pair Crowned Lemur,and one Gentle male Lemur,plus the 2 Green Peafowl.
A nice variety of lemurs?! Any chance they will enhance it with Madagascan bird species? (the green peafowl is a bit of a downer ..)
Yes, nice variety, but these are all species which had their own enclosures and more space elsewhere in the zoo! I'm afraid I don't regard cramming these in the former king Colobus / Diana monkey enclosure as progress! As usual at Marwell, a ' new' exhibit with no species gained whilst at least one lost! Same old story
Yes I believe "Fonzie" was born at Marwell, so has returned, but as such can only breed with certain mares.
It is rather confusing as there are two Grevy's zebra stallions in the studbook with similar names: "Fonzie" and "Fonzy". To add to the confusion both of these zebras spent time in Cologne Zoo. The “Fonzie” that was born at Marwell in 1997 died in 2012. I believe that the “Fonzy” Marwell recently received from Woburn was born in Paris in 2007.
A second female also gave birth but the it was stillborn.A group of Cusimanse are due to arrive.Saki monkeys,Tamarins,Marmosets are now in former Lemurs areas with Squirrel Monkeys due to follow.
Apparently there is just a single green peafowl (a male) in Lemur Loop. No mention from the education team about a second one. It spends most of its time in the corner of the exhibit, all I saw was a pair of legs... I doubt that as a species of will do that well in the enclosure, prying lemur hands and chicks don't mix well. The roof is up on the new tropical house, seems like a couple of species from the current tropical house may end up moving over.
Had a lovely day at Marwell yesterday - the little Somali Wild Ass foal was laying down on some straw on the hard stand so we got a good view. Absolutely adorable and seems to be doing well. Lots of mowing / tree cutting maintenance work taking place in the bigger of the tiger enclosures - all tigers in the smaller enclosure. One of them sat at the top of the waterfall playing with the water. I have been somewhat disappointed by Marwell over recent years (for the same reasons as everyone else) but I will say that it does at least feel like they are making some progress since Wild Explorers came to fruition. It was my first look at the new tropical house building work and I am quite impressed by the size of the thing. Lemur loop is fine - nothing spectacular in terms of the actual exhibit but it has some interesting species. The mixed exhibit of the smaller monkeys that have moved into the older lemur area was also more appealing than I'd expected. I also like the style of the new signage and I don't have any issues with the new map. One thing that stands out though is the utter failure of the 'Valley Field' - it doesn't even get a mention on the map and just doesn't seem to have worked at all. It feels like 'Wild Explorers' is what that field should have been...
Oh and we didn't even see the peafowls legs - but apparently it was in the top back corner as per Dormitator's visit.
I was pretty much lying down when I saw it The Valley Field was so much better when it had the African theme, people seemed to respond much better to it as well. Now people, if they even see it, glance at it then walk off looking non-plussed. The Asian theme is really neat, it's just a shame that it isn't implemented well, lacking the density and diversity needed to make it really shine. The more I hear about the tropical house and it's implications for the current house the more excited I am for the future of Marwell.
It sometimes surprises me that SB keepers allow duplication of names like this, which can lead to confusion obviously. It is similar with other species too- gorillas being a good example. Maybe they just don't notice when the animals are being registered.
After my last visit last year, I vowed I wouldn't visit Marwell in 2017, but against my better judgement, I visited today as I was driving by on the M3 anyway. Highlight for me were the Lesser Kudu out in the paddock. Also the Somali wild ass foal. Good to see Cusimanse back too, in the enclosure on the lawn that once held dwarf mongoose & more recently meerkat ( what else!). New Lemur step in, whilst quite well planted, is one of the smallest & worst lemur walkthroughs I've seen for space( though not species held). At least a third of the old Colobus /Diana monkey cage is given over to the public viewing space. Too much space wasted in the public indoor area too. Not happy to see a wooden fence around the old Ocelot enclosure either! I only had just over 2 hours to spend there & to be honest that was enough! The place was packed, but everyone seemed more interested in the lego models ( mostly of Mammals Marwell have never held!) Basically, no sign the place is on the up, in my opinion anyway!
I made a similar pledge to myself - I just can't face the disappointment of a visit, nor the pall of depression that such a visit would inevitably engender. Reading your comments, I think I will stick to that pledge, for a year or two more at least....
