Safaripark Beekse Bergen Safaripark Beekse Bergen

A great choice and good replacement. Does fit the general African theme of the park very well.

 

Likely 2 from Royan / La Palmyre at least, as they were in the temporary primate holding area back in August...

 

A Southern white rhinoceros calf has been born at the Beekse Bergen on Wednesday October 7th. This was the first calf born in several years at the Beekse Bergen. The calf is male, was born from mother Sofie as her first calf and has been named Ravy. Things seem to be going well with mother and calf. He will be on display to the public starting coming Monday.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=271152237379996

 

Video of the birth posted on Safaripark Beekse Bergen's YouTube channel.

 

Female Sofie was herself born in Beekse Bergen in 2015 and she is primiparous.

It is quite possible the other breeding female Dounia might be pregnant too (but without confirmation locally ... this remains speculative for now). I do wish they expand their breeding group as I am pretty sure their older homegrown female cows will sadly never breed. Perhaps these 2 can be relocated to the non-public safari part of the park to free up space (they already hold a bachelor herd up there).

 

Some observations from this weekend:

* L'Hoest monkeys don't have access to their enclosure yet. They can however be seen from some distance in the cages at the back of the enclosure.

* Seal is visible in the park as well (a group lives in "Bahari", a pool at the Safari Resort), saw one in the pool next to the T-crossing spotted hyena - "Ngorongoro" - road between the Resort and the park.

* New born rhino can be seen in the stable (the only building that is open, rest is closed due to covid-19).

* They are restructuring the enclosure for greater kudu that borders the eastern waterway.

* Beekse Bergen claims to have Nubian giraffes (it would be unique for Europe), but I think it's Rotschild's (the mentioned distribution on the signage fits the Rotschild's better than the Nubian).

* First time that I saw bears, otters and foxes combined. It seemed to work quite well.

* Bus doesn't drive due to covid-19, boat is still an option next to walking and your own car.

 

Both the giraffes in "Ngorongoro" (park) as "Serengeti" (resort) were signed as Nubian. The ones of "Masai Mara" (resort) were signed as giraffe (Giraffa sp.). I will put some photos in the gallery.

 

Didn't some taxonomic and/or genetic studies consider the Rothschild's giraffe to be conspecific with or an ecotype of the Nubian giraffe, rather than a different subspecies? Perhaps they are using that taxonomy at the Beekse Bergen.

 

I just looked it up, that could be the case, Beekse Bergen using the outcome of that 2016 study.

 

In that case am I correct in saying that all individuals of this subspecies in Europe are of the Rothschild's ecotype, but with the "Nubian" scientific name Giraffa camelopardalis camelopardalis?

 

That is unlikely to be the case as the rationale for separating into 4 species is pretty strong.

 

There has actually been another recent study that has taken into account historical distributions and some old museum specimens and they found that what was considered camelopardalis is actually much more range-restricted and most of the "Nubian" Giraffes are actually properly called rothschildii again. To add more confusion they found angolensis to be a junior synonym of giraffa, so the Angolan Giraffes should be called giraffa and what was until now giraffa would correctly be called wardi. They also find a new extinct subspecies in Senegal (senegalensis)

Giraffe taxonomy is chaotic and it seems best to be patient until the two big clusters in Giraffe research (Paris & Frankfurt) reach consensus

First insights into past biodiversity of giraffes based on mitochondrial sequences from museum specimens | European Journal of Taxonomy

 

Thanks for the update AWP! Did you see the otters with the bears and foxes? In my visit 2 weeks ago the otters were signed next to the red panda enclosure, although I didn’t see them there, neither did I see them with the bears and foxes. I also saw the baby rhino, through the windows, as their indoor enclosure was closed 2 weeks ago.

 

According to the map the otters are in the red panda enclosure, so I was looking there but didn't see them. On my second round in the end of the afternoon I saw a group in the enclosure for sloth bears and corsac foxes. Otters and both sloth bears were quite active, I put a photo in the gallery.

For those who want to see the baby rhino: the rhino stable is open during two time frames (don't remember when, could 11-12h and 14-16h or something like that) and the stable is located at the edge of the Afrikadorp, at the side of the elephants and behind a little shop for stuffed animal toys.

 

Another banteng was born recently a female named Ylona, the offspring in the quoted message turned out to be a male and is called Arthur.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGjtJTZKxEl/
Safaripark Beekse Bergen verwelkomt banteng Arthur | Beekse Bergen

 

Recently 2 Sable antilope-calves were born at Beekse Bergen :