Marwell has changed so much over the past 30 old years since it opened. Species come and species leave the zoo. Exhibits gone to make way for new ones. I was just wondering if you had any imformation on old exhibits or animals marwell used to have. Add your old favourite too!
Before my first visit in 1978 they had Sun Bear & Clouded Leopard. From 78, the ones i can recall that are no longer there: Asiatic Lion & Persian leopard, both in quarantine yard, roughly where Tropical House is now. Sumatran Tiger(held next to siberians where they are now) 'african' leopard Jaguar Lynx Hunting Dog European Bison Cassowary Walleroo Nilgai Blackbuck A bit later on: Black Rhino Maned Wolf Plenty of others i can't think of at the moment, plus the 20 plus species they've lost in the last 5 years.
Thanks for that can u remember what the lion, leopard and jaguar cage looked like,where it was in the park? Photos???
The lion moved from the quarantine yard to an enclosure Near where the peccary are, the house is still there, but the fencing removed after the anteater were temporarily held there a few years ago when they arrived. Jaguar, on the opposite side of the road to the current cheetah enclosure. The main leopard cage was roughly where the current one is , i think.
The general road/path layout hasn't changed much, though enclosures have been demolished or built around the park obviously
I visited Marwell shortly after it opened. I was blown away by the herd of scimitar-horned oryx grazing with Grevy's zebras in front of the house, as they still do. There was a good collection of antelope, including sable and nyala, which I hadn't seen in the UK before. As I recall there were also barasingha and hog deer. Beside the house there were two hybrid gorals, the first I had ever seen. I know that Mr Knowles had his Przewalski herd at the time, but I don't think they were on show, I certainly don't remember seeing them. Alan
Interestingly I think the first Nyala group may have died out entirely, and the large group they have now stems from a more recent importation. They also lost almost all of the first Grevy Zebra group females too- and those were immediately replaced by more. Afaik the Przewalski's Horses have always been on display publicly ever since they first opened- in the same paddock/area they are in now, though it used to be the whole area.
I too visited Marwell shortly after it opened and, like you, was very impressed by the mixed exhibit of scimitar-horned oryx and Grevy's zebra in front of the house. However, Alan, the Grevy's zebras are no longer kept in that paddock; the Hartmann's mountain zebra now share that field with the scimitar-horned oryx.
Yes, Marwell had a pair of black rhinos. The male 'Kes' was born at London Zoo; the female 'Katie' was born at Whipsnade. (They both had the same father.)
I remember seeing Kes as a very small calf at London( i have some poor quality photos somewhere), it must have been about 1978/9. I only recently learnt on here that he went to (& died at) Marwell.
As Tim said above, they were halfbrother and sister. They died within quite a short time of each other at Marwell as subadults (don't ask me the cause, I never really found out)- a great shame as otherwise they might have gone on to be another longterm UK holder of this species. They replaced them with the Whites of course.
I wonder why they changed them over? I think they only have either 2.3 or 2.4 Hartmann's and knowing this species' antisocial nature, probably not all together all that much.