I was at Linton Zoo today. After several visits to the quoll exhibit, and after waiting patiently for a long time, I finally managed to see all three quolls sitting by the window of their indoor accommodation. Unfortunately they were not in a good position for photography but I will return....
I've been a couple of times since my post, and have still yet to see them so I'm jealous! Did you see any of the white collared Lemur babies?
No, unfortunately, I didn't see the young white-collared lemurs. I spent so long wating for the quolls to show themselves that I didn't manage to see the complete collection....
Wow, that's serious dedication (given the collection's not massive and the grounds modest). "My name's Tim, and I'm a quoll-aholic"
I saw 2 last weekend, but this is a much better shot than I could've got! Saw month old white collared lemur twins in the cage roughly opposite the snow leopards
It's difficult to get photos while they're still inside, what with the fence, reflections and the fact I'm a bit short I didn't see any Lemurs in those enclosures, only the Tamarins a little further along.
In addition to the one-month-old White Collared Lemur twins opposite the Snow Leopards, an additional one-week-old youngster is just about visible in the main Lemur Breeding Centre. I had no luck with the Quolls today.
We probably crossed paths today, I popped in on my lunch break (12:45-13:30). I caught a glimpse of the tail of the youngster in yhe Lemur centre. Had no luck with the twins...or the quolls
The hope is the quolls will be moved to their new enclosure this week. Relatively new species is blue crowned laughingthrush. There are plans to start build on a new snow leopard enclosure later in the year.
I should think so too. I'm generally a fan of Linton, but their current Snow Leopard facility is woeful to say the least.
Always rember that funds are hard to come by in these smaller family run zoos and improvements will always be made when they can. One good thing in regards to the current enclosure is that being split directly in half, no animal is compromised when it comes to breeding. The male may have to be kept away but he can still have the same equal space as the female. I look forward to the new enclosure and if the new binturong enclosure is anything to go by, it should be a good one. Linton saves on the visitor thrills and theming, all the effort will go into and rightly so into the environment created within the enclosure. Fingers crossed it wont be long until we have snow leopard cubs at linton once again.
I can't disagree with this (assuming it's the same one that was there five years ago and therfore has been for well over a decade). Whilst I accept your point to some extent it does raise the (perhaps rhetorical) question, "how long is it acceptable for animals to be kept in a "sub-standard" enclosure"? It's a difficult one, is it acceptable for a zoo to house an animal in a poor enclosure with no realistic chance of significant improvement any time soon and is it more acceptable if they're breeding an endangered species. I wince when I see a poor enclosure but realise the solution is not straightforward. For instance, sending animals to another zoo is not always possible (Dudley's Orangs) and euthanasia isn't really an option -the result is that many a collection is likely to (perhaps) necessarily hold an animal in a poor enclosure/situation until it dies (e.g. Twycross' "Green Mile", now thankfully gone). The litmus test is arguably, does a zoo replace an animal that dies in a poor enclosure with another one (for themselves or the public) -I'm not sure how this would apply to Linton as they seem to have had a bad enclosure for more than a Snow Leopards typical lifespan?
