Marwell Wildlife Marwell Zoo News 2015

News from Marwell a new male Fossa has arrived from Parken Zoo Sweden,the Giant Anteater Rojo is due to move to Belgium,and the female Cheetah Juba has died.

 

Rojo the Anteater has already gone- went on Wednesday. Also the young male Snow Leopard 'Ajendra' has now gone to France.

 

Marwell have now updated their website to a new and in my opinion, improved site!

 

Southampton Airport and Marwell Zoo have today announced plans for a new temporary zebra enclosure. The airport will soon become home to a herd of Grevy’s zebras while the zoo creates its brand new exhibit, Wild Explorers. Passengers will be able to experience a mini safari from the comfort of their plane seat – a world first.

For more information see https://www.marwell.org.uk/zoo/keep...herd-of-zebras-move-in-to-southampton-airport or search for #AirportZoo

 

April fools!!!

 

Would never have guested that,need to crack on with the new area.

 

I made my second brief visit of the year a few days ago.

Roofs are partly up for the new exhibit and some pathway has been created. I noticed a few uprooted trees and lots of large stones among the building materials.
Does anyone know what will happen to the area the rhino etc. are currently in? Rhino have been in the same place for what 20+ years?

Some work seems going on a few metres in front of the Sitatunga enclosure, not sure what it could be but hopefully not another hedge!

The new male Fossa was out in the right side of the enclosure, he looked eager to get into the outside area.

There was Cheetah either side of the enclosure, so I guess they've spilt the brothers up unless they've got a new female already?

Is something up with the Ocelot viewing area? I wonder if there is bad damage to the decking as the 'frost warning' bariers are still in place.

 

The Old Rhino and Kudu house will stay for the time being,was told they may use the Rhino house for Ostrich to be mixed in with the Rhino,Zebra,Oryx,they still have the two male Cheetah dont think they have plans for female,the younger Ocelot is due to move,to France I think.

 

My Marwell visit in mid-May 2015

Having visited Marwell Wildlife in the middle of May, I have a few questions to ask:

(1) There was no sign of the adult male Amur leopard called Akin. Is he still alive (he would have been coming up to 14)?

(2) Is the female snow leopard cub still at Marwell? I know she was due to leave for another collection?

(3) No sign of female fossa called Fiana. Is she still at the zoo?

 

I am visiting on Saturday, if anyone wants me to find out anything particular? Will definitely take photos of the new Wild Explorers exhibit, according to the park it is due to open on 17th July.

 

Not that much to report from my visit on Saturday, here's a few notes.

-Volunteer told us that they are planning on mixing the male and female Amur Tiger this summer, hoping they will mate. They have shown a lot of interest in each other through the mesh.
-Was also informed by the same lady that the male Giraffe is currently (temporarily I think) at Chessington with a bachelor herd, anyone know why this is?
-Ocelot viewing area still closed, couldn't see any from behind the barriers, are they still there?

Generally I enjoyed my visit, my first in 4 years, it was sad to see so many empty small enclosures that used to be occupied, like the ones in Aridlands and Into Africa. I can really see the need for more indoor areas, so I totally understand why the zoo is building a new tropical house, it seems much needed. It would be great if the zoo also invested in a nocturnal house, this could easily done in the area where the current tropical house is, assuming it will be disused once the new one opens. Or it might become something like a butterfly house, who knows!

Also, I don't think it has been posted on here, but the plans for the Tropical House are available online (http://planningpublicaccess.southdowns.gov.uk/online-applications/) if you search for Marwell. It seems the house will be home to bird, reptile, fish and a monkey species, the plans are quite hard to read. There is also a service area labelled 'other mammals' as well as 'primates' suggesting some other mammal species.

 

That's Kismet - he left for Chessington in January 2013 due to them having no room for anymore calves (they are at capacity now) and the fact one of his pure daughters was approaching maturity. The plan is/was to rehome the hybrid females and then source another pure male but 2 and a half years later, here we are

 

first post, long time reader

we visited today and we spotted:
* Flamingo eggs - at least 5, could be as many as 8/9
* 2 baby black and white ruffled lemurs
* 2 baby silver marmosets

The baby meerkats have grown up a lot in the 2 weeks in which we last went

 

As far as I know both ocelots are still there,the younger one was due to go to France but think it was called of,the older female has not been well,
the currant tropical house may just end up for plants,the new one sloths are talked about,as with the giraffes nobody seems to want to take the hybrid females,maybe Wild Place if it goes into giraffe will take them.

 

Thanks for the answers.

Forgot to mention the baby Silvery Marmosets. And that also explains why the B&W Ruffed enclosure was blocked off, I did wonder what was going on, shame I missed the babies by a few days!

 

Just finished my first visit to Marwell in almost two years and I am sad to say the place is still in decline in my opinion. I used to be quite a regular visitor but until I see definite signs of improvement I feel my visits will become less and less frequent.

Main things I noticed.

1) More empty enclosures. The takin and nyala have gone and one of the three major enclosures in World of Lemurs in now empty.

2) There were barriers preventing you from getting close to the sitatunga exhibit. I don't know if this means they are gone or not but I didn't see any when I walked passed.

3) The giraffes are no longer in African Valley. There are no longer any giraffe signs at the viewing point next to the café. They are now back in paddock they were in before African Valley opened. The valley is looking more and more like a white elephant as zebra, waterbuck and ostrich isn't going to show it off. It needed more animals to be added, not taken away. Does anyone know the reason for this?

4) Several animals have moved paddocks. Mostly because of the development of Wild Explorers.
- The scimitar horned oryx are now with the white rhino.
- There are now ostrich and grevy's zebra in with the roan antelope.
- The sable antelope are now next to the Somali wild ass.
- The mountain zebra are now in the paddock next to the leopards.
- The tapir are now in with the rhea and capybara meaning the pygmy hippos now have the semi-aquatic mammal house to themselves.

5) Wild Explorers looks interesting and will change the landscape of the park.
- The structure of the buildings and the walkway look to be complete (or very close to).
- The ongoing work appeared to be the building interiors, new paths, landscaping and enclosure fencing. A lot of rocks are being added, I couldn't tell if this is just part of the landscaping or barriers for containing the rhinos.
- The fence between the Wild Explorers site and the current rhino paddock appeared to be a new temporary fence. It looks like once Wild Explorers opens this fence will be removed and the current rhino paddock will be part of Wild Explorers.

6) The former Arabian sand cat exhibits now contain dwarf and yellow mongoose instead of additional meerkats. I was pleased to see this. Unless they have a strategy to redevelop an enclosure they should fill them with whatever suitable species they can obtain. In my opinion it looks so much better to have things filled with different species rather than empty enclosures or having the same species in several different places.

 

The Nyala and Sitatunga are still there,the Giraffe no longer go out in the valley area because to many people moaned they could not see them or get close to them until Marwell build housing close by they can not put any animals out there dont think its going to happen soon,there are no plans to put anything in the takin area.When Wild Explorers is open the temporary fence will be taken down,Ostrich will go in the old Rhino house,and mix with Rhino, Zebra, Oryx.

 

Thanks for answering my questions.

Do you know where the nyala are as there was a sign on their old enclosure (just down from the tigers) stating that it was empty?

I can't understand why they wouldn't have planned for animal housing when they built the African Valley. If people were complaining about not being able to see giraffes properly then maybe it shows that a 45 acre paddock is too big. Hopefully some of it can be redeveloped for some major new species, which in my opinion is overdue by a number of years.

I am sad to see the takin go. It kills of Roof of the World, which to me was the last major change that added something, scary to think that was now 10 years ago.

 

When I was there on the 9th they were still in there.