Living Coasts Update Just a quick update: Auk chicks have fledge - tufted puffin and common guillemots are now out and about and looking after themselves. African penguin baby boom - there are lots of young penguins around on the beach. Macaroni penguins are finishing up their moults and looking fantastic. Oscar the young male seal has made his way to Spain. There is a white spot puffer fish in the aquarium now.
I went to bird world and they still have some free flying macaws,but their flamingos were all clipped as were the pelicans.I do hope if paignton takes the step to allow its big birds such as flamingos to be fully winged it catches on,they breed so much better look at longleats some zoo wait ten years plus for their flocks to breed so well and they have only had their chileans for about 5 I think anyway,of course them feeling secure and being in a big group helps. I wish twycross would of netted their new flamingo lake as they have still not had any chicks hopefully next year cross fingers.
Ape House I see from Paignton's website that a local Royal Marine sergeant has donated 90ft of climbing rope from his gym and commando slide to occupants of the ape house - not the arboreal, built-to-climb orangutans, but the gorillas. Just getting this off my chest I know the young gorillas climb a lot, but they do always seem to be first in line for any enrichment that's going. The orangutan showden looks empty in comparison to theirs!
Baboon Rock? Hi all. Does anyone know if the proposed new build of Baboon Rock will begin in the New Year? I think the tentative plan was to knock down the Rodent City and small mammal house (ex mandrill and Orangs). Keepers told me 2 years ago that the existing Baboon enclosure would become a 'Himalaya' themed exhibit? Years ago the now Barbary Sheep quarry was ear-marked for the Baboons or a domed rainforest exhibit - then the building/planning permission started to run out and an enclosure had to be built....on that note, the sheep are amazing at climbing those cliffs and most visitors miss them completely! Also......any other developments i.e. new Binturong enclosure near the Rhino House? Thanks.
I would be sorry to see the Baboon Rock go, as it's a good exhibit that seems to work well for its inhabitants. Agree with the remarks re Barbary Sheep; this is a species that could be squeezed out by 'novelty' species, and the UK population needs watching. A classic zoo animal that I would hate to lose.
According to ISIS there are now only three UK collections holding Barbary Sheep- West Midlands, Dudley & Paignton. Paignton are listed as having the least, only 0.4, if that's correct then they could fade away there.
All Barbary sheep in the UK are zoo mix (vis a vis some other species too). It might work if zoos were commiting to keeping Barbary sheep if pure-bred ssp. where acquired ... On the continent there are several zoos with known pure-bred stock (incl. Lybian and Saharan ssp.). The species in the wild is in a precarious state so a re-investment into a rare ungulate and caprid be a nice surprise ... It would be worth investigating any North African collections or those from the Middle East. I personally know of nice Atlas/Morocco origin pure-breds in UAE ... f.i.
The Barbary Sheep at Dudley are normally (young ones) sent abroad to help collections abroad and very rarely they will have a male swap with a zoo abroad so as to keep the breeding programme going. Not sure if the other zoos do the same though anyone with info would be gratefully recieved
Basically, I don't know. However, the sign outside the zoo about their progress towards their target of £1,500,000 for the new baboon enclosure shows that they've only raised £100,000 so far. Also, in November they announced that, due to the economic climate and fewer visitors last year, they would have to cut back on plans and projects. I don't know if this includes the baboon and binturong enclosures; the latter looks the same as it did when trees were planted in it some time ago.
Its supposed to be falling down. I believe its concrete overlaid onto some sort of framework. I can see the Binturong exhibit going ahead though-a much cheaper build.
Paignton Zoo Thanks Pertinax. I'm naiive enough to think that if a thing looks like rock, then it's rock & indestructible. Poor old Baboon Rock; poor old Mappin Terraces.....
I've known the Paignton baboon rock ever since it was built. Like you I never queried its construction and I only found out about its hollow nature just a few months back. Unlike a white tiger, this is an example of a genuine 'fake'.
To the left of the path leading past the Swamp Monkeys towards the Ape House, behind the Rhino House.
Do you know which other species are involved and whether this has been a problem with other captive herds (US and Australia)? I realise that the global captive population is probably mixed subspecies and heavily inbred, but wasn't aware that they could hybridise.
I think KB means that Barbary sheep in the UK are a mixture of races, and that this applies to some other species too- rather than that Barbary sheep have been hybridised with other species. The ones at Paignton and Dudley certainly look 'pure' Barbary Sheep IMO.
@ALL I did mean that the current majority (around 95-95%) of Barbary sheep were breed irrespective of subspecies in the past and consequently are a zoo-mix of ssp. quite similar to the issue we have with African lions in European zoos. Some institutions, most notably the desert research station in Almeria has been at great pains to establish pure-bred bloodlines of various subspecies of the Barbary sheep. Sadly, only very few zoos have ever taken them to task by bringing these into their collection(s) even though most, if not all, Barbary sheep subspecies (from the sub-saharan Western, the Libyan, Tibesti and Tassili) are quite gravely at risk or even critically endangered. I was - hence - just deploring the apparent lack of interest in the species as anything but a nice hinterland exhibit ...
The Barbary Sheep at Dudley are pure as they are part of a European Breeding Programme I also think the ones at Paignton are also, I am not sure about the one at the West Midlands Safari Park though will have to check on them
Zooterliste is showing the following holding Barbary Sheep is there any update on these Trotter's World of Animals & Africa Alive
