Twycross Zoo Twycross Zoo News 2021

The Otters were quite old.

He was on his own.

 

Regarding the information panels relating to the individual great apes, staff at the zoo told me years ago that these had been removed to be updated, as no-one could easily ID the apes from the old photos. By 2019, I was told the information had been removed because they didn't want visitors learning the names of the individuals as they would call to them, and confuse them into thinking they were being called for a training session.

 

At one stage half the panels in the(older) Gorilla House related to ones that had died. Maybe that was another reason they removed them all eventually.

 

Would still be strange for both to die together though, no? Hoping it wasn't an accident - and hopefully they get more otters in. A pretty standard species, but a highlight nonetheless!

 

well thats what i thought, they were elderly otters so im just assuming they passed on, it was eerily quiet walking past their empty enclosure, i hope they do keep some sort of otter specie,always a pleasure seeing them

 

I remember back one year in the 90s seeing Pelicans temporarily using the Otter pool the last time Twycross had no Otters.

 

Perhaps they will wait to replace them if they intend to and give them a new enclosure in the new development area

 

Visiting twycross on Saturday, just got a couple questions:
1. Is the Borneo longhouse open?
2. Has the path from the bottom of the giraffes round to the owls opened (last time I visited there was a very inconvenient gate in the middle of the path)?
Thanks

 

Hi, when I went last week the Borneo longhouse was closed. The path from the owls to the giraffe was open.

 

Many thanks

 

Anyone know what is currently in the Borneo longhouse used to like going through the exhibit?

 

I am a huge TZ fan and I rarely have anything negative to say...but... Oh my word, I wish they would just demolish the horrific ex chimp row, Green Mile cages. Although slightly better with Amur Leopards in, ( rather than pairs of chimps,) it is still a 1960s monstrosity. In addition to this, the leopards in their look absolutely demented, pacing and circling around non-stop. House them properly, or move them on and get rid of the "enclosure" once and for all.

 

I think the larger side of it is actually alright for the leopards, the smaller side is borderline adequate but as long as they regularly swap them over I suppose it’s alright. What I worry about is when they keep one in the snow leopard offshow area because that’s small and concrete.

 

Twycross is stuck with the 3 females and the male due to brexit and a current lack of new amur leopard enclosures across the UK and Europe doesn't help. They have no where else to keep the category 1 carnivore and are doing all they can in the current climate. I agree the enclosure is unsuitable but its better than some other leopard enclosures in Europe. Its unfortunately going to stay as it for the foreseeable future as there's no mention in the 2030 masterplan. Let's hope other collections can take the daughters soon !

 

I was wondering how many are there still. I really dislike that enclosure, but I think someone mentioned before that Amur leopards (or leopards in general) appear to get inferior setups compared to other big cats, although that may only be from the visitors perspective.

 

It looked kind of OK when the chimps first moved out and they converted it. Now, it is just hideous and I question the welfare of the animals there; unusual for TZ, as I always consider them to have a good welfare standard, but I appreciate they are doing their best.

 

I believe one of the leopards, possibly the mother is being housed in the off-show snow leopard enclosure from what I have seen posted elsewhere.

 

We were told by a keeper last yr that one of the daughters was kept of show as she was a bit of a bully to the other

 

Yes , the mother is in the concrete snow leopard off show been there for a while now. Daughters are typically in the end two (nearest the Grange) but are between the paddocks to avoid direct contact with eachother and dad.

 

Gosh. If it is the fencing you can see in the background of the snow leopard habitat, it looks absolutely tiny