I saw this keeper position advertised on Zoo News Digest and was intrigued... 'An Animal Keeper required for specialist private collection. A position has become vacant for an experienced hands on Animal Keeper to oversee a small private collection near Lostwithiel in Cornwall. Working with a significant collection of Malagasy Carnivores, Clouded Leopards, Cheetah, Hyena and various birds, reptiles and primates. We are located in a rural area deep in the countryside, with only small villages and towns nearby. It would suit a person who like to work in a quiet, personal role without having to deal with day to day public duties. The Ideal candidate would be have good communication skills, excellent hygiene standards, happy to work alone, is self motivated and ideally has previous experience working with small and large Carnivores. diet preparation, grounds and enclosure maintenance and gardening is also a significant part of the role, so an interest in horticulture is of benefit. You must be flexible in your working hours and bank holidays and weekend work is generally required as part of this role. A full UK or EU Drivers License is required. Salary dependent on experience' Does anyone have any more info on this 'private' collection?
Based on the animals alone (as I have no knowledge of UK geography), it sounds like this is the collection of Todd Dalton, the owner of the Rare Species Conservation Centre when it was open. He fancies Malagasy carnivores and clouded leopards especially.
There were plans to open a Bodmin Moor Wildlife park a few years ago. I used to follow them on Facebook but things went quiet. Maybe that's it.
I believe I follow someone involved with this facility on instagram... I'll do some digging *Update* Its Todd Dalton himself that I follow on Instagram - If anyone has instagram and would like to follow him, his username is neofelis1976. Lots of pictures of his animals, current developments and enclosures. Hope this was helpful.
Query resolved, it's Todd Dalton's new place, pictures of newly arrived Cheetah on Insta, thanks Thomas...
Upon looking at Daltons Instagram page he has reported only moments ago that the first captive birth of a Grandidiers Mongoose has taken place at his facility. Congratulations to him! Instagram post by Todd Dalton • Sep 7, 2017 at 8:05pm UTC
Does anybody ever ask the question - how does a person with a private collection end up with so many species that are either non-existent or incredibly rare in captivity? [Note: I won't compile a list but anybody familiar with RSCC would understand]. How is he obtaining Madagascan carnivores that aren't in captivity in Madagascar and not working with a captive breeding program? This guy seems to have a revolving door of species that he keeps for a while, maybe breeds, sells/off loads to somewhere else (if he loses interest) and then tries (and succeeds all too often) to obtain the next new species. His links with conservation (during RSCC days) appeared to be pretty tenuous and those with other zoos limited.
it has been questioned by a few people (I think I've done so in the past, and I think I've read you also saying the same) - but it immediately gets shouted down by "Todd's great! He's doing the best thing ever!" I don't think there's really any question about "how" though. Presumably he is simply buying the animals through dealers in the countries of origin.
I had a private tour of RSCC in late winter before it opened to the public for its last season (which of course during my visit we did not think it would be the last). Todd was very generous with his time and information and a genuinely nice guy. (I still have an RSCC cap that he gave me even though I offered to pay for it and it is a treasured momento). Personally I am glad to see that he is operating at a new location and I would look forward to a visit if and when I return to England.
what species do you consider to have already passed through this revolving door? Those that were moved on when the RSCC closed, or are there others?
He opened and closed twice already and every time a significant part of his collection ended up in other zoos. So yes it seems to become a revolving door. And I think Chlidonias is right he seems to have no problems in using dealers and of course other zoos seem to have no problem to let him do it and then take animals they are interested in afterwards. Having a zoo license in combination with financial resources should help him in the country of origin, but having that license should give him as well the responsibility to do conservation and it seems the owner takes are very narrow interpretation of that (breeding is conservation) which is/should be questioned. And we zoochatters do seem to be less critical when a facility of good standards let us see animals we did not expect to see in captivity.
Another aspect is that Todd has always had very good connections with some overseas rescue sanctuaries, in South East Asia and elsewhere, which is how he obtained some stock for RSCC like his original pair of Malayan Sun bears etc etc.. so this is another reason why he can and does find the unusual species for his collections.
When I visited RSCC I was shown a future small cat area (that never came about). It was reported there were connections at a rescue facility in range (as mentioned above) to import flat headed cat and marbled cat. I can only hope against all hope that it still might happen in Cornwall.
He has interest and connections with local rescue centers and breeding institutions in Asia and Africa. His Balabac Chevrotains came from a local breeding centre in the Philippines. This way the species established itself in the recent years in Europe. I hope this new location of his collection succeeds. And going to fantasy thread, I hope there will be more similar rich enthusiasts interested in new species. For example somebody interested in antelope (some rancher in Texas?) who might import hirola from the rescue reserve in Tanzania, and import live mountain nyala, not trophies... Dream on. Unfortunately, zoos have little interest in bringing new species to Europe and smaller mammals. There were discussions on this forum before.
As far as this species goes, the issue is not lack of interest from zoological collections, but lack of willingness to export the species on the part of the Ethiopian government.
I think this is unfair to zoos as we have seen some very interesting animals appear in European collections the last couple of years. Including some small mammals (Eastern quoll, Bear Cuscus and the soon to arrive Bilbies to name three of them). But zoos have to consider several things when importing new species; It should be sustainable when they import animals. Both in- and ex-situ. This means you need to bring in larger groups of founders and that multiple zoos need to be involved. This makes things more complicated. And ideally there should be a conservation motivation for bringing in the animals in. This includes building in-situ relationships and is quite time-consuming. And zoos do have limited resources and is the second reason why zoos focus on limited amount of species. And the cooperation between zoos does mean that we seem to get more homogeneous zoo populations. And if the former owner of the RSCC is bringing in animals I hope it is with a bigger plan, where the species he brings in benefit from the importation through research, funding or other in-situ support. The fact is that doing it as a single institution makes this harder. As a zoo-geek I am excited about some of the species he brought in, but at the same time I think we need to be critical and ask what is the added value for the species with importing them.
