Just a bit of head and the snout were visible above the water so it was hard to judge its size exactly, but I wouldn't have said as big as that.
It is a very murky pool, out of all the enclosures this one had the worst visibility! Again... GUTTED!!
Excellent news, that - means I'll hopefully get 3 crocodilian ticks at Paignton! When I go, if confirmation hasn't arrived one way or another by then, I'll see if I can learn the provenance of this false gharial
Another thought has occured to me. Does anyone (I'm looking at you Gigit!) know if the mangrove monitors in Crocodile Swamp are due to move to Living Coasts? The latter already has some signage up about them in the underground section and they would fit the theme really well. just a thought!
Update on Philippine Crocs, Minky and Mork BeastEnders! How two Paignton Zoo crocs are living a soap opera | This is South Devon
I know that was probably just a typo, but I imagine there's loads of members here who are too young to know of Mork and Mindy, an late 70s/early 80s American tv comedy (a spin-off from a couple of the weirder episodes of Happy Days, oddly enough) starring Robin Williams as an alien named Mork living with an Earth girl named Mindy. Great show. Funny that the names would still be being used for animal couples today!
they are named Mork and Mindy. I think Nisha just spelled Mindy wrong by mistake (the article does say Mindy). I just thought the younger members might appreciate knowing the background to the names. Mork is a pretty weird name after all.
Some bits and pieces from today: 2 month old giraffe 'Otilie' was outside and had caught Duchess the elephant's eye. Duchess seemed fascinated, watching her (which she can do since her cataract operation) from as close as she could get, rattling the fence with her tusks and even trumpeting a bit. It's wonderful to see her with her new lease of life. Two female Mandrills from 'Eastern Europe' have been introduced to the resident trio and things look calm. I believe Pumbaa, the female Red River Hog who came from Chester, has died. Her two daughters seem to be thriving. The orangutans have been getting more enrichment recently. They have been waist-deep in straw and today they were wrapping themselves up in long lengths of paper. Tomorrow (15 November), Kumbuka, the ever more stunning gorilla, will be 15. My wish for him is that it will be his last birthday here and that he'll be a father in ZSL when he's 16.
Great to know Duchess is doing so well since her operation, i hope i get to see her again in the summer. Hopefully it wont be too long for Kumbuka now!?
Thank you for the update Gigit. If I am correct then Paignton now have 2.3 Mandrills. A really small group compared to other holders in the UK. Do you/anybody know where the two females came from? I do wonder if the addition of more females will encourage breeding if the EEP have recommended breeding.
It would be good to see a bigger group at Paignton. But like many Primates, Mandrills don't always take kindly to incomers and it can cause problems within a group when babies start to arrive. EEP recommendations for the Drill- a very closely related species, advise Zoos intending to start a group to use related females only, as otherwise a dominant female may attack and try to kill the young of subordinate (unrelated) females in order to further her own genetic line, a problem which doesn't occur in e.g. a mother/daughter(s) combination. Of course this isn't always possible but I don't know if Paignton may experience this problem in the future with their females coming from different sources. It didn't seem to be a problem when Chester added new females though, possibly because two female 'subgroups' may then have been formed.
That's right. The originals are 9 year old 'Jumanji', 7 year old male 'Akello' and 7 year old female 'Makemba'. Makemba and Akello share the same father, Brutus, but have different mothers. I think Jumanji and Akello had the same mother, Jumanji and his mother having come to Paignton from France. The two new females look roughly the same size as Makemba, maybe younger. I don't know anything about them yet.
Its also worth noting that all five of the Mandrills at Paignton aren't related to others in the UK, most of which groups stem from the London x Southport bloodlines.
David Attenborough and Bulu the orangutan I think there's a thread about David Attenborough's TV series '60 Years in the Wild' but a quick search hasn't revealed it, so I'll comment here as Paignton was Bulu's home for 16 years. She was responsible for my passion for orangutans. Episode 3 showed David Attenborough with captured male orang, Charlie, in Borneo. Charlie was destined for London Zoo where he was paired with wild-born Toli and they produced Bulu in 1961. Sir David was referred to as her grandfather by the keeper and he named her 'Bulu'. She was shown with him on a TV programme, looking rather bewildered. She went on to have 10 pregnancies with 7 live births, one in Paignton - 'Gambira' who is still here. She died at the venerable age of 47, the then oldest captive bred orang in Europe. I never understood why they didn't make more of her celebrity status, which would surely have interested those who weren't in the know. A wasted publicity opportunity.
Paignton zoo... I didn't realise Bulu was no longer around; she was one of the first Orangs I saw as a child. Does anyone know what happened to her younger brother Dan?
