The current zoo has no hawks, eagles, kites, ospreys or falcons, so their return to the collection would be welcome - provided they weren't confined to small cages.
Asked exactly that question on Saturday while on my visit and the reply was a little vague as to if they are going to have any other birds of prey other than Owls. So I won't be holding my breathe for the near future but you never know.
I often miss both species of orangutan and also the African hunting dogs to the point were I do not even know how many of each species they actually have, could anyone tell me how many Sumatran and Borneo’s orangs the zoo have aswell as African painted dogs. I also miss the Agouti and dusky pademelon, also how many giant otters does the zoo have
I may be misremembering, but did Chester have hyena - in the early 60s? Would be a very welcome exhibit.
I remember striped hyaena in the enclosure beside the Kamchatka bears, where the off-show Scottish wildcats are now. I have some bad photos of the pair mating, which must have been from the early '70s. I'm sure that we can rely on bongorob to supply the details.
That'll be the one(s). Anybody know where they were kept? I've a vague recollection of near the old Brown Bear exhibit (later Condors).
I remember striped hyaena and spotted hyaena in the first (most southerly) pen in the dog range. though not at the same time. In one of the old Our Zoo Newses there is a report of the zoo having a single African Hunting Dog and a single Spotted Hyaena. They were housed together to see how they would adapt to each other. They didn't. I have records for both species at chester Striped Hyaena (Hyaena hyaena) 1938-1955; 1970-1975 Spotted Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) 1949-1970; 1975-1979
It is nice to see the word "hyaena" spelled properly; I don't like the way the first letter "a" is normally omitted these days....
That must have been a pretty unusual idea, I wonder how the process went? "We've got these two savage species but only one cage. Any ideas?" "Well they're both from Africa, look similar, let's try them together!" ....................... 2 days later .............................. "Any volunteers to clean up the blood?"
