Orangutans With Miri's departure for Rostock, Twycross now hold just 4 orangs - Batu, 35 year old Kibriah, Maliku and Molly. To pick a random year from the past, in 2004 they held 8. I wonder if fewer orangs is their new policy? Will Molly be the next to leave in a few years? Moving Batu rather than his daughters might seem more logical. But as he already has 5 surviving offspring from his time at Twycross (as well as 2 still births and tragic Beau), and is quite low on the mean kinship list, he's probably not a zoo's first choice.
How old is Batu? I hope they would not bring in any more before they get better accommodation, it's adequate for them but more would be too many. Didn't know about poor Beau
Batu was born in 1989. Beau died in an incident in the moat at Blackpool in 2007 (his mum, Gigit, died in Paignton in 2005)
At our latest walk-and-talk at Chester, Tim Rowlands made the point that older orangs can react very badly to moves. He favours moving subadults whenever possible. Alan
Molly will probably leave unless a new male is arriving. If a new male arrives it's more than possible that they'll keep Molly and Maliku as the breeding females (And also possibly Kibriah unless they feel she's too old). It's also possible that they could breed from Maliku again but would have to wait until Molly is weaned in five (?) years.
I'm glad they're taking that into account now. Moving animals is obviously a very complicated business.
I think Twycross will be happy to just keep this reduced number of Orangutans. Its sufficient for the exhibit and means they do not have to go to the expense of extending or upgrading the enclosure (although it does really need it.)
I think its at least as much connected with the individual, as with its age. Subadults like the male 'Walter' in Germany who refused to eat after a transfer until he was returned home, can also become terminally depressed too. Twycross' 'Batu' was another subadult who reacted badly to his transfer, from Germany, hiding on a shelf for several months before eventually adopting normal behaviour, though he must at least have been eating! On the other hand when his son 'Tiga' moved to Colchester, he seemed to take the move in his stride.
Demo and Mali had the advantage of coming to Paignton from Munster together and didn't appear to have any problems settling in. In fact, Mali soon became the dominant orang!
Lions Arrive.... Ready? Set! Roar! The Lions Return? I got all excited thinking it was real flesh and blood lions! still, these will be nice to look at too.............
Snow Leopard cubs both due to leave during the 2nd week of October Snow leopard cubs leave home | This is Leicestershire
The new owl aviaries are open with Spectacled, Ural and Great Grey Owls. They look much nicer, but I can't help but feel the text still slightly over-sells them! Twit-Twoo New Owl Exhibit at Twycross Zoo!
As of Spring 2012*: One going to France and the other to Germany. Which collections hasn't yet been revealed or who's going where *Disclaimer: Plans do change and they might well of since the original "France and Germany" post was made back in Spring....
Had a quick cold and rainy visit today, but a few bits of news to report. The coati have arrived. They were so fast scuttling around that I couldn't actually count them, though I think that there were at least 5 or 6. They are currently in quarantine, in the old gibbon nursery block, on the end next door to the fabulous Smiler (gibbon for those who are privileged to know him). They were certainly putting on a good show even in the rubbish weather. Their new enclosure is coming on well. The pool has been filled in and tree trunks built up, plus the wall is being prettied up a bit. It looks surprising large without the sealions in it. I think it will be a nice exhibit. I lived the owl aviaries. Lots of room in each and just 3 species. (Spectacled owl, Ural owl and great grey owl). The main shell is the same, but the front has been rebuilt, and the back wall wooded. Each aviary is much bigger and higher. The whole area feel different. Noticed there were some kind of (possibly) tamarins off show behind the owls. I thought they might be the red handed tamarins, but I'm just speculating as I really only saw they were dark coloured. Also saw both Kirks dik dik - a first for me. Really enjoyed seeing them. The bat eared fox was on a tunnelling mission - digging very deep near the back of their enclosure. The penguin walk looked finished, though the bit that they will be walking to was surrounded by very standard 'crowd control' metal railings. Hope this is just temporary as it looked awful.
Can you conclusively state for the record that the claims that it was White-nosed the zoo were getting are - as we all suspected - complete and utter cobblers?
