Latest news from Linton Zoo's website: Congratulations to Shannon and Tanya our Brazilian tapirs on the birth of their latest calf a beautiful and healthy female born on the 2nd June 2010. The new calf, yet un-named is baby number 11 for this very successful pair, we think this must be a record for a pair of captive born tapirs! Tanya and Shannon are now both in their twenties and continue to be the perfect parents.
A young male Red Kangaroo named Bruce has arrived from Blackpool zoo and Collared and Mongoose Lemur have had young.
Linton Update: As has been said, the twelth calf has been born at Linton Zoo! After a shakey start mum and baby are doing well, and are now all out and about in the paddock. Many other developments around the Zoo include (as seen by signs around the zoo) are a new Kangaroo enclosure (house is being built as we speak) and two new lemur enclosures have yet to be furnished in due time. It's definately build build build at the moment!
indeed just curious as to why they are doing the campaign for them if they arent planning on getting any seems a bit pointless why campaign if you dont have it other zoos arent following suit so it cant be a biaza campaign also linton would be a lovely place for them in the countryside
Intriguing, whilst I have known zoos do campaigns for animals they don't keep they're ususually connected in some way. I also know at least one bear charity has been historically, at least, open to relocating rescued Sun Bears to the UK. Time will tell, though the campaign might be the very first tenuous steps at building a relationship (i.e. don't hold your breath). Sun Bears are probably easier to keep, in terms of required enclosure sizes and robustness, than some other bears and would make a good addition to Linton's collection but, again, time will tell.............
Visited today & was disappointed not to find a new sun bear enclosure under construction! They wont be arriving any time soon, altough I would suggest the older of the existing 2 lion enclosures would be ideal in longer term
I hadn't been for over a year, so there hd been one or two changes. There is a new building under construction, next to the old bear cages (opposite the tamarins) and although this would be large enough for indoor bear accomodation, there is insufficient space around it for the outside enclosure. I cant believe for a second the old cages would be considered adequate in 2012! At a guess I would suggest it may be for a smaller mammal, possibly a primate or maybe binturong will be returning, they were very successful with these previously.I'm assuming the elderly one they had left on my last visit has now died. The new lemur enclosure near the tamarin enclosure has sign stating it will be completed soon, it looks like it may be shared by the white collared & the gentle lemurs as they both have cages joined to it currently. I was pleased to see the old emu area has now been occupied by 3 Red Kangaroo & 2 Red Knecked Wallaby after standing empty for about 5 years. The new mongoose lemur enclosure by the outside cafe area is a nice touch. No sign of the clouded leopards, again! The snow leopards were together and seemed to be getting on well. There are several empty spaces, cages and piles of rubble, I suspect further developments are planned. There is plenty of space for a sun bear enclosure. The horse paddock would be the obvious place, they have already started to get rid of the domestic animals by building the new lion enclosure & before that the lemur breeding centre on former paddocks, so we'll just have to wait and see. Another observation, the baby tapir seemed to be limping quite badly & dragging one of its bck legs, hope its nothing serious!
Having sat around all day & been on zoochat for an hour or so, i was becoming more frustrated that the weather had scuppered my whipsnade visit for the 2nd time in a fortnight, so as there was a break in the rain, i decided at 230 to make the short trip to Linton. My main hope was that i may finally see those clouded leopards! Very little had changed since my last visit, no progress om the lemur enclosure opp the snow leopards, though the inhabitants in waiting (in the small cages adjoining)were very active,especially the western grey gentle lemurs,i hadnt realised there were 3! There wasnt much progress on the new building opp the tamarins either, but i did notice what looked like a hatch for a fairly large animal! They must be planning to build an outdoor enclosure where the old bear cages were though,which havent been demolished. Noticed the toucan has gone from its new cage,along with the sign. Only saw 1 red kangaroo with the 3 red knecked wallaby plus joey,are the others still there? Only the one porcupine too. Only new species were kookaburra now in an old owl aviary. There were also at least 2 parma wallaby young. Waited til 5 but still no clouded leopard!
Binturong have joined the collection in the form of a single male who has gone on show for the first time today. No information given on where he came from but is called Billy if that helps anyone place him?
I know Edinburgh Zoo had a male binturong called Billy (they now have a male called Ali who arrived from Faunia Zoo, Madrid in May 2012) so I have asked Linton Zoo on Facebook if he has come from there.
I rather suspect this is indeed the binturong from Edinburgh, as he was due to leave the collection as soon as they found somewhere that wanted to go into the species - a new male binturong arrived at Edinburgh about 2 or 3 months ago, in the hope that he may have more breeding success with the female already in the collection.
Linton has held Binturongs since the 70's, so it not welcoming a completely different animal to the collection, more of bringing them back! The last female died a couple of years ago, so since then a new enclosure has been built, and Billy has now joined!
