I think the female born in 2013 survived,they have had another birth since then that did not live,the last male which may well have come from Paignton died earlier this year.
'Bingo' moved to Marwell in 2011 and died there in 2013. Marwell's last male was called 'Gounzo', who as mentioned by okapis died early this year.
Yes, Bingo moved from Paignton to Marwell in 2010. His successor at Paignton was Blesk who sadly was PTS about 14 months later but not before siring Zac and his half-brother, Zola. Uri from Landau is the current stallion. Maybe we'll see some foals from him in the not too distant future.
visited today and saw a notice to say the female fossa has been moved to the Czech Republic. Norbert the Pygmy Hippo left during the week And 5 new otters have arrived from Chester Zoo
The female Fossa had been at Marwell a couple of years and had been of show for the last year had never been put in with the male at Marwell and guest its another species that will go.The last two Rhea have left the zoo.
The zoo have announced that the new Tropical house will open on the 26th of March 2018. They have also announced that Crocodile Monitors have joined the collection to be moved into the tropical house.
Some footage. Not much is said about it, but they've confirmed 27 different species will be on display. WATCH: First look at Marwell Zoo’s new £8m Tropical House
Considering many of the 27 species will be invertebrates, fish, reptiles & amphibians, that doesn't seem a very impressive number for a £7.8m 'investment'!!
I do not understand why 27 species of "invertebrates, fish, reptiles & amphibians" - from which you have excluded birds and mammals which will also be accommodated in the exhibit - cannot be an impressive number of species. Obviously Marwell is not going to over-state the initial stocking of their Tropical House as we all know these exhibits take a period to settle in and there will inevitably be changes and additions to the animals as the house becomes established.
I think you are missing the point! The exhibit cost £7.8m! From what I've read more than half the species won't be mammals or birds. It wouldn't cost very much to house a dozen or so fish, invertebrates etc, many zoos hold far more than that in little more than a shed, costing a few £k at most. This is not value for money, especially when many of the species will just be moved from existing areas of the zoo!
I repeat my observation that I cannot see why "only 27species" - whatever taxa they are - cannot comprise a worthwhile initial number for a new Tropical House of the size that Marwell is building. If Marwell had wanted "a shed, costing a few £k at most" "to house a "dozen or so fish, invertebrates etc." I am sure they would have done that, but I am certain that is not the case and they are building what is needed to improve its facilities for the future benefit of the Zoo. It is misleading to say that "many of the species will be just moving from existing areas of the zoo" because, apart from leaf-cutting ants and a few others, most are new species. While some of these have already arrived, that is recently and most are in quarantine or not on public view so, while technically these will "just be moved from elsewhere in the Zoo", they are new species for Marwell and the Tropical House.
I think there are some misapprehensions here. In the first place the article mentions the figure of a thousand fish: that's a cost of a few thousand pounds straight away (assuming that they aren't all guppies and zebra danios). Then there is planting, heating, lighting and filtration equipment, plus the cost of construction of tanks and at least one pool (shown in the video). An aviary for songbirds, on the other hand, just needs a frame and some mesh. The main cost is obviously the building itself. By comparison with a simple family home, all zoo buildings seem eye-wateringly expensive. There are several reasons for this: they are all one-off designs, which have to meet the needs of the animals, the staff and the public. They need custom-built heating, lighting, ventilation and waste management systems. They also need to be attractive and welcoming to encourage visitors to come to the zoo. I expect that one of the factors behind the decision to build this exhibit is the zoo's need to provide somewhere warm and dry for visitors during the winter and in bad weather at other times of year. I look forward to reading reports from ZooChatters when it is actually open.
Sorry we'll have to disagree that £7.8m is a good investment on something which may improve the zoo a little. They could add several large mammals ( ones popular with the public), plus loads of smaller mammals and plenty of birds (not forgetting the same number of additional taxa that's going in the tropical house, there are loads of former vivaria sitting unused around the zoo, either containing skulls or boarded up)for far less than they are spending on a house which will display a handful of mammals and birds plus the other taxa. With Marwell it always seems to be spend a lot(& boast about it), add very little!
It's also worth noting that according to the article it is the "size of two football pitches", which seems quite large (I googled it and pitches vary in size but an average size for one would be roughly 100 metres by 50 metres). The bigger a tropical house is, the more expensive it is going to be to construct and outfit.
Noone is disputing the size of it! The size is ridiculously big if it's only going to hold 27 species, half or more won't be mammals or birds! At £7.8m, this will possibly be the most expensive single zoo building ever built in the UK( only Monsoon Forest at Chester may beat it), in a zoo which loses a handful of mammals & birds every year( just look back this year!)They could improve the zoo far more for way less money in my opinion! But it's my opinion, I'm not interested in flash exhibits with hardly any animals! I'm interested in seeing more animals whatever their exhibit costs! This year, the Takin enclosure has become a staff car park and they got rid of the colobus to turn their enclosure into arguably the worst lemur '' walk-through '' in the UK!This zoo is not going to become a top 10 UK zoo again by adding a few species in a £7.8m development! With respect, when did you last visit Marwell, if you visited in the 70s/80s and then in the last 5 years you may understand my frustration & that of many others!
Me? I've never visited Marwell. I was merely adding a comment to gentle lemur's very apt explanation of why tropical houses are expensive to construct and fill.
Fair enough, but the issue wasn't whether tropical houses are expensive initially! Obviously they are! It's whether Marwell should spend this sort of money for what it is going to add- my argument is clearly no! 10 birds and mammals approximately for £7.8m is poor value for a zoo which has lost more than a quarter of its mammals in 10 years.
