Can anybody tell me any past animals that used to be kept at Banham Zoo ever since it opened in 1968?
Schomberg's Penguin Guide to British Zoos (1970) says it is a small collection of monkeys and an aviary, the main purpose of which is to interest customers at the farm shop at Grove Farm. Mr Schomberg considered it not to be a zoo in the accepted sense. How things must have changed.
Chimps The chimpanzees kept at Banham were a very old pair, long past breeding age. Cage was quite small as well. They were moved to Kessingland some years ago where I think they still live in retirement.
Hamlyn's Owl-faced Monkey though sadly no longer. They weren't from the early days of the collection however. Banham has come a long way, being nowadays an attractive 'small' zoo(size wise) with an intersting layout and many good exhibits.
From what I remember of old maps, personal memory and from being told what Banham used to have... Ostrich, Chimpanzee, Sun Bear, Dingo, Raccoon, Coati, Mueller's Gibbon, Binturong, Toco Toucan, Dwarf Crocodile, Green Iguana, Silvery Langur (or whatever its called), Fennec Fox, Crowned Lemur, Red Colobus, Wooly Monkey, Fishing Cat... I currently volunteer at Banham Zoo so I'll see if I can get a copy of past animals kept at Banham.
From the book Wildlife in Brtiain it says that the first animals you come across were Sun Bears,Dingo's and Wolves aswell as mentioning the great collection of Primates it had such as the famous Woolly Monkey group - Am i right in saying these are no longer kept at the park? The book Animals on View says that there were plans for a lion enclosure and that it was a shame as Banham was housing a collection of the rarer animals - These plans never made it to development and Banham for quite some time especially in the 1980/90's had Snow Leopards as their Big Cats something that the writer in the Good Zoo Guide says was a fantastic idea. Hope this helps.
Banham's woolly monkeys were owned by a German man named Herbert Dornbrack. He arrived with his monkeys in 1971 and left to go to Penscynor, and somehow ended up at Loch Lomond via Devon. The woolly monkeys eventually went to Apenheul. Several months ago Bele appealed for information about Herr Dornbrack, there seems to be almost nothing written about him. In 1996 Banham kept Hamlyn's Guenon L'Hoest's Guenon Kikuyu Colobus Monkey Silvery Leaf Monkey Siamang Müller's Gibbon Cheetah Amur Leopard Cat Rusty-spotted cat Ocelot Geoffroy's Cat Snow Leopard Grevy's Zebra Formosan Sika Deer Hungarian Woolly Pig Screw-horned Sheep Rove Goat Grey Gentle Lemur Ocellated Turkey Gough Island Moorhen Greater Roadrunner Crested Screamer Hammerkop Reef Heron Straw-necked Ibis Northern Helmeted Curassow Striped Owl African Wood Owl Tengmalm's Owl Hawk Owl Yellow-faced Amazon Parrot Dwarf Crocodile (presented to London Zoo in 1948) And many other species
Yes , as you went in the entrance the Malayan Sun Bears lived in a green mesh cage on the left , a male "Bruno" and , I believe two females , all were ex-pets kept privately as cubs originally as far as I know. Another species , rarely seen these days was an Indonesian Giant Squirrel , three Patagonian Sealions and some Melanistic Leopards.
Would be difficult as not all animals have been transferred onto ARKS, it is a huge job and so we have concentrated on EEP species as I am sure have many other collections and add historical information into the system as and when we have time.
