it was fantastic news about planning for the giraffes and their enclosure and it will be the first time they've been at Twycross since 2012
Chimp ECG : TWYCROSS ZOO: vets become first to record chimpanzee ECG without anaesthetic | Burton Mail
Well this could not have been done without the dedication of the Animal Trainer and the keepers for caring on the training (positive reinforcement)
Visited yesterday and it appears the coatis have been separated from the bush dogs and moved to an old primate enclosure near the crowned guenon. I did think it was an unusual mix so I assume it didn't work out ?
Further details have been revealed about the new Gibbon house: Planning permission has now been granted for it Funky new gibbon house set for Twycross Zoo - Hinckley Times
I wish it said 'Funky New Chimpanzee House given go ahead.' . Will be interesting to see if this can house all of the Gibbons they intend keeping within their current large collection of them, or whether there will still be the older housing for some as well.
As I'm too lazy to find out - how many species of gibbon do Twycross still hold? Remarkable that a zoo keeps more than two species these days.
Five at the present time: Agile Gibbon (Hylobates agilis) Lar Gibbon (Hylobates lar) Northern White-cheeked Gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys) Pileated Gibbon (Hylobates pileatus) Siamang (Symphalangus syndactylus) Until the past year, they also held a single Eastern Mueller's Gibbon (Hylobates muelleri muelleri) which has since passed away.
Cheers for that. Are all in breeding programmes? I' know the last three are EAZA, but is there a need for maintaining lars and agiles bar ticking over?
All are EAZA studbook taxa. Lar are doing well enough to maintain their numbers, but Agile are rather diminishing - as such I am unsure whether they are even being bred at "ticking over" levels.
The published plans for the new house show indoor accommodation and outdoor islands for four groups of gibbons. To prepare the site, the current gibbon house and the colobus house beside it will be demolished and the paddocks behind them will be used as well. Unless more gibbon accommodation is planned at Twycross, some groups of gibbons will be moving on. Alan
Given they normally live in pairs with offspring, this will presumably allow for a more simplified arrangement of four breeding pairs/families to be kept- one of each of the four species- Lar, White-cheeked, Pileated & Siamang(?) (with Agile being phased out?) and not more. I don't know how many they have of each at present, but there are quite a number overall.
I would personally think that pileated, the white-cheeked and siamang are maintained. Not so sure about the lars ..., esp. since the implication from communication of the plans is that a fourth species is to be brought in ... at a later date! I myself suspect silvery or moloch gibbon will enter the collection (this having another direct link to in situ recovery program in Indonesia, alike with pileated and siamang elsewhere). Whereas some lament that no other species are benefiting right now (the other great ape species), I would rather have it that the out-dated current gibbon enclosures are torn down and replaced with something more naturalistic and replicating their habitat in the wild. I am convinced that they may well consider retaining more than the four breeding groups in off-show locations. However, it is unavoidable that some of the good number of each species mentioned above will be redistributed to other zoos within the European region. This is a policy also being followed at other collections (Zuerich with pileateds ... et cetera).
!. Yes, as long as the new enclosures give them adequate space for brachiation etc. Open enclosures and islands, especially where there aren't any natural trees already, (as here) do tend to reduce this and more than once I've seen a modern exhibit which looks 'nice' but is actually less functional for the animals climbing-wise than a cage-style structure it replaced (can apply with Orangutan too) However, lets hope they do a good job here. 2.'Offshow locations'- I don't think they really have any, not as permanent living space anyway. It would mean keeping some still in the older Primate housing - which does seem to be disappearing gradually here now.
