Explanation from François Gay on the death of the two cheetahs : Less than a week after its reopening, the Doué-la-Fontaine Bioparc experienced a tragedy. Two of its female cheetahs died before the eyes of visitors. The autopsy revealed severe intolerance to a pest control given on the morning of the tragedy. Explanations and reaction from François Gay, director of the animal park. The Carnivore Crater is the great new feature of the Bioparc de Doué-la-Fontaine in 2020. After almost a year and a half of work, the site opened its doors in late December 2019. A few weeks earlier, an incident had mourned the inauguration of the site. Two lionesses refused to submit to the male, who consequently fatally injured them. An unpredictable accident that could just as easily have happened in a natural environment, as François Gay explains: “From the moment we let animals express themselves in large spaces and regain their instincts, we witness natural reactions , sometimes violent like the end of a reign ”or, in this case, a non-submission. A few months after this event, it was in the second space of the Carnivore Crater that a new drama took place. "On May 21, two of our cheetahs, the oldest in the group, died of acute poisoning in their park," said Bioparc to its Facebook subscribers. The Doué-la-Fontaine Bioparc presented a group of six cheetah females, three present for several years in the park and three newcomers. Following the ingestion of a antiparasitic on the morning of May 21, two of them, the oldest females in the group, presented symptoms of intoxication and died within 30 minutes, without the team of parc, helped by its director, can do nothing. A third female, also ill, was able to escape. The other three animals showed no symptoms. Why did some animals develop intolerance and others did not? The park has no answer. The same females had already been treated with this dewormer two years earlier as confirmed by the park manager. "We deworm our animals as soon as they have parasites in the faeces. It is not a preventive but a curative treatment. It is an unfortunate coincidence that this accident took place a few months after the lionesses died, but the two are unrelated. It is absolutely not related to the layout of the Crater. " The autopsies carried out the day after the deaths made it possible to send samples to laboratories. According to the park, the results confirmed Thursday, June 25, the role of the pest control in the death of the two animals. François Gay told us that there was a suspicion of this product following some side effects observed in other parks. A suspected toxicity now proven. Consequently, and to prevent other animals from triggering identical intolerance, all of the professionals in the French animal parks were immediately informed, as was the European coordinator of the species and his "vet-advisors". The Bioparc taken for scapegoat? Although the Bioparc spoke on its Facebook page and in the press on the death of these two animals, the case took a completely different turn on social networks. The anti-captivity animal protection association, Code Animal, and the 30 million friends association have pointed out the role of captivity in the death of these two cheetahs and in particular through a video made from 'images filmed on site by visitors. “On this video, everything is distorted and the words are false. Code Animal contacted us the day after the accident and I took the time to explain to them what had happened, but their goal was to make the buzz and play on the emotion aroused by this video. When we lose an animal, we are the first to be affected. [The park's press secretary told us that the second cheetah had died in the arms of François Gay, note.] We monitor our animals on a daily basis, we are constantly exchanging between European zoos to improve well-being of our animals. The Crater, which allows cheetahs to run over a large area, is our third version of enclosures for cheetahs. We are constantly seeking to improve their living conditions and enrich their daily lives. We have no lessons to receive from anyone, "reacts the grandson of the founder of the Bioparc In recent days, a lure game has been set up to allow animals to demonstrate their ability to sprint. The video in question - which we chose not to diffuse because it could shock the youngest of our readers -, raises all the same some questions. The association suggests that park staff were slow to respond and that no veterinarian was present at the park to save the animals. Two questions we asked the director of the Bioparc. “We have always communicated on the deaths of our animals, we are very transparent but this video is clearly truncated. It is not a trainer who speaks but a young man who comes regularly to the park, so he is not part of the team. We have two full time vets in the park. The accident took place over lunch, of course. But their presence would not have changed anything, the animals died in less than 30 minutes, it was dazzling. " What you don't see in the video footage is that the teams reacted very quickly after being alerted by a visitor. "The enclosure caretaker was in the aisle next door, it took her less than 10 minutes to enter cheetah territory for the first time and then get out to get a transport case to move the sick female. In the pictures, you can see me coming back with her to carry the animal in the crate. We took him to the building, but it was unfortunately too late. When we left the building we were warned that there was a second sick animal, so we decided to bring all the animals inside. " If the deaths of the two females remain shocking, François Gay regrets that they give rise to an anti-captivity plea "scientifically completely wrong" and deplores that associations use them to create "a case where there is none . " Suite au décès de deux guépards, le directeur du Bioparc s'explique
Has it been recorded anywhere exactly what this wormer was - and the details of the dosage? If not - could someone ask...?
For an answer to that particular query, I suggest you turn direct and professional to the zoo management of Doue la Fontaine themselves. Even, if I did not know, I would never share it on a public forum like this. Something about breach of trust and confidentiality et cetera.
Yes we will have to, as the UK Veterinary world is guessing... But, if it were public knowledge in another country, then there would have been no need to worry them - as it is I will ask our vets to contact them. There would certainly be no need to answer over a public forum, and I was not asking that you did - private contact is very simple.
The Zoo's Aldabra giant tortoises has been transfered to the past cheetah's enclosure. They will have a lot more space and a lot more sun there. Security Check Required
After visiting Beauval 2 days ago and left it with a bit of an empty feeling, I couldn’t put my finger on what was missing. @lintworm described it one day later as missing a “soul”, which I liked. Two days later, I think I found Beauval’s mojo. It has been stolen and added to Doue’s soul. Where I said I had a hard time judging Beauval, Doue is also a bit though. The reason is that it is much smaller than I had anticipated. @snowleopard once used the adage “doing things right or not at all” once, I believe for Apenheul, but it would work here as well. This means Doue is not a big hitter, nothing massive, not the 10 hour, wear your feet down, endless list of mindblowing species. It’s almost modest and understated. But where every exhibit is already decent or better, I feel two exhibits show the zoological world what can be done (or indeed, should be done). Both are aviaries. The first exhibit (also more or less the first exhibit in the zoo) is a massive african aviary. It’s called the okapi sanctuary, but the more you are in it, the more you realise the okapi serve as a beautiful backdrop for an impressive bird spectacle. Free-roaming Hamlyns monkeys form the icing on the cake. Heavily planted, well stocked with an impressive species list (african open-billed stork, goliath heron, giant blue turaco, etc). The second exhibit is what’s being hailed as Europe’s largest aviary. Although I’m not sure about the title, it sure is big. According to the signs, it contains about 500 birds of 35 species and it is a sight to behold. The fact they took the effort to make sure all species are south-american, really strokes my Zoo-nerd heart (even though they all come from a huge range of different habitats, so it still doesn’t make sense, I still like it). Hyacinth macaws, turkey vulture, king vulture, peruvian pelicans, humboldt penguins, chilean flamingo’s, parrots, ducks and two mammals (pudu, armadillo) for good measure. The fact that Doue is situated in an old quarry helps with the atmosphere. And instead of fighting it, Doue uses it to it’s advantage where it can. That is in less exhibits than I hoped, but still in a good amount (rhino’s, giraffes, european aviary, large aviary, snow leopard and mountain goats). The rest of the park is (more than) fine. Quite a few decent monkey islands (3 different gibbon species, 2 spider monkey species, roloways, all fine). The most noteworthy exhibits left are for Andean bear mixed with squirrel monkeys and the snowleopard-quarry. Both could rival Zurich imo. Two nuisances. First, the old cheetah exhibit is still empty, but I’m sure they’ll fix that soon enough. Second, lions are boring creatures. They make very handsome rugs, but that’s about as much use you can get out of them. The lions have a decent enclosure in the center of the zoo. Piece of grass, two dull rugs, fine. The park then excavated a very large, very impressive quarry-like exhibit in their expansion. And stuck another 2 boring rugs in them if you like lions, this exhibit is as impressive as they come. Great to see a park raise the bar on how mammals can be mixed with birds (idea since stolen by Rotterdam and Beauval, at least) and how birds can be kept with more dignity in captivity. One last remark from my 1,5 year old daughter. Would it hurt you to put at least 1 decent playground and a few slides in? Cheers.
The old cheetah exhibit is not empty as there are about 15 Aldabra's giant tortoises in it from small to large. It's surprising you didn't see them. Moreover the turtles are labelled. In the next few months a greenhouse will be added for winter and the exhibit will turn into walkthrough. The lake of children playground is known by the owner and some ideas are on the desk.
I really love Doué's aviaries ! But I don't like the african one (Sanctuaire des Okapis) as much as did a few years ago. They had problems when introducing new birds in 2016 and none of the turacos here at the time survived. Without the 5 species of turacos, I have the feeling this aviary lost a part of its "soul" and many colours There are tortoises in the old cheetah exhibit. I like the new one. I'm not a fan of the new lion exhibit. Neither am I of the 2017 extension (Fantômes de l'Himalaya). It's...huge, square, I have the feeling of being crushed. It's for show, it doesn't look like the "natural" and more immersive areas you have in older parts of the zoo. I prefer the new lion exhibit at la Boissière du Doré. A huge savannah, and it also give new points of view on the 2 african plains with lots of herbivores, more actives so always something to see. Same problem with a second, old enclosure with an old lion, but in the 2 zoos it won't last. When the old lions won't be here anymore, the areas will be used to do something new (new bigger tiger enclosure at la Boissière du Doré, at Doué la Fontaine I don't know).
I did indeed miss some more turaco in the aviary, the only species left is Great Blue Turaco. Now Hammerkop are the dominant species, which feels a pity for a rainforest aviary. But that is really just complaining at a very high level... I kind of liked them, but I could imagine why you would not like them, it seemed like a nod to the mining past to me. For the animals the enclosures are great though. The new Lion enclosure makes one ask the question whether enclosures can be too big and untill Doue gets a group of 10-15 Lions, this enclosure is too big. But the landscaping is so much better than the square open field with a very fake Lion King rock in Boissiere, that it is still the better enclosure for me...
Could it be that the guenons were predating the turacos? I know other combinations of turacos with guenons ended with a very expensive meal for the monkeys.
Owl-faced Guenons are supposed to be one of the most vegetarian guenon species, feeding in the wild mainly on bamboo and second on fruits. Kingdon only mentions insects as non-vegetarian food, but also states that a lot is unknown of this species in the wild...
I talked to a keeper last year about the turacos. He told me that turacos are very sensitive birds, and that the cold was the reason they died.
The turacos were all fighting together and there was a lot of deaths in consequence. Here the owl-faced guenons are not on show during birds breeding period. I don't know if they eat eggs or just ennoy the birds.
Sounds like they should try again with only one smaller turaco species then.... That would enhance this aviary (as would adding Duiker again...)
