Not surprised about the caiman, they had 6/7 when I last visited which seemed more than most collections. Good to hear about the paca transfer, hopefully if the pairing works well then we might see more of this species in UK collections!
I still wonder how long term the loan will be if the AW is actually in deep economically bad waters due to Govt. activities on Corona virus.
I would also like to know how Montpellier has been doing with spectacled caiman? What are the plans with crocodiles here?
I have the same concern but I suppose the brexit date was a dead line the zoos have to deal with ! I am not sure there are plans for crocs here
It's maned wolves time in France with another birth. Montpellier welcome two pups. Sex is not known for the moment.
The 2 Maned wolves were born Dec. 29 2020 and are now starting to explore their enclosure : https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=201469235073429
Some recent press articles showed than the zoo is collapsing. There are some major issues with security rules and building maintenance that led the City of Montpellier (zoo's owner) to reduce the collection and closed some areas of the park. So one third of the enclosures are now not visible and (including the greenhouse that are too expensive to refurbish) a lot of animals have left the zoo : major part of the greenhouse's animals, takins, sable antelopes, lynx, hunting dogs, otters...and more are to come (it is said that the white rhinos will leave soon to enlarge the giraffes enclosure, and the only brown bear). According to the article the problems came from the origine with a lack of authorization at the opening of the park which was never resolved and a lack of investments during the whole zoo history. Citizens seem concern by this terrible situation and a press company put a petition online to save this free zoo : Sauvons le zoo de Lunaret à Montpellier : déjà près de 20 000 signatures récoltées (already 20.000 signatures) The major office said they are concern too but they need to think about a new project to ensure the future of the zoo as they can't pay to refurbish the park as it was. Zoo de Montpellier : secteurs fermés, vétusté, sécurité, le parc s'est enlisé dans les difficultés Zoo de Montpellier : les trois rhinocéros et l'ourse brune en partance
It was the case but only for the greenhouse. One of the problem is that the park is free from the beginning and a lot of citizens (including them with difficult conditions) were happy to visit few times a year. A hard choice !
The zoo started to put down the lemur house and the old small tropical house which were non longer usefull.
Bastet, a female cheetah born in the zoo in 2018 gave birth to a first litter of 1,2 cubs last october 20th. Father is Akin. According to the article only 8 zoos in Europe bred the species this year. Montpellier has now 9 cheetahs + 3 cubs. Zoo de Montpellier : trois nouveaux guépards sont nés, ils se portent bien
This zoo is going down every day : the staff will be on strike every saturday due to different problems at different levels. According to the press release, 70 % of the animals have already left the zoo Montpellier : préavis de grève les samedis au zoo de Lunaret
Horrible news! 70 percent of the animals have already left the zoo? Then it seems to be only a question of time until the zoo will close completely. Are there any (public) actions to safe the zoo? For me, Montpellier Zoo has a lot of potential (space, climate, location within a bigger city, along a route to Spain and within a touristic area). So sad, seeing it going down
Those are genuinely sad news... I really hope I ever get to visit it, but things don't seem to go right...
You're right @zoomaniac and, some times ago, french zoonerds were expecting a lot from the Zoo. If I remember well, there was a petition put online by a local newspaper but I don't know if it was successful or not. From what I know, the major office will not closed the zoo but they want to downsize it to a more likely wild animal park/care center in line with their conviction. We will know more when the new master plan (requested by the major office) will arrive.
