Wapiti are great- maginificent creatures, but then I'm a deer freak really.... You should see them rutting in the wild e.g. Yellowstone or somewhere, that call is called 'bugling' and is marvellous when its heard in the right setting. I'm sorry hardly any zoos, at least in Uk, keep them anymore( because they're not endangered) Its odd too that all the different races of Red deer( that includes Wapiti) not only have different a different appearence, but they have different rutting 'voices' too(includes the smaller red deer races too.) E.g. the Indian Hangul looks and sounds very different from the European Red Deer.
I too miss the wapiti, I would like to see more species of deer than I already have (about 10). I had hoped to have been to Edinburgh by now to look at the white-lipped deer but the bad weather has caused me to postpone my visit. I know someone who has been to Woburn Deer Park in the autumn and seen the rutting stags, he said it was wonderful.
western plains in dubbo has a nice herd, though i belive they may be the only zoo to o so, a few years back they got a new male for new bloodlines, i belive from a private holder maybe?
You don't know what happened to Chester's Wapiti do you? I think I suggested before they may have gone to Flamingo Park(who may still have some) but that's only a guess. The last two zoos with them otherwise would ave been Whipsnade and Chester. Woburn- have a great display of deer- 9 or 10 species- I've seen everything they have there except possibly the Rusa. Its great in the Autumn, but if you go in July, the Pere David's are rutting then(not in the autumn) and all the females(several hundred) gather together in one enormous herd with a few stags wandering around in the middle with huge tufts of grass on their antlers- quite bizarre. The stags are iron grey- coloured from mud- wallowing, while the females are all buff. And their rutting call-a very odd gurgling noise- it sounds rather like water running down a drain. Woburn also have some colour varieties of Fallow Deer which don't occur anywhere else- silverblue(very pale) and particoloured. The only White-lipped deer I've seen were the ones that were at Rotterdam. My personal favourite deer species would probably be 1. Swamp and 2. Brow-antlered Deer, followed by other such as Axis, Fallow, etc etc.
...... and unlike Hornbill, I've always liked the name 'Wapiti'(much prefer it to 'Elk') and i think it aptly describes their proud appearance- I believe its an American Indian name but I don't know its meaning though....
There's fair number of them in New zealand on deer farms, but I guess import restrictions wouldn't allow or exchanges/imports between NZ/ OZ. Does Australia have deer farms like NZ.?
I'm not sure now but I think Chester's wapiti went to a private collection. The word wapiti is a Shawnee Indian word meaning white rump. I've never used the name elk because it is a different deer in America than in the old world. I always say Wapiti and Moose. I've never thought about my favourite deer, so I'll make a decision now and say it is the Pere David's. The ones I've seen are Axis Deer Bactrian Wapiti Burmese Brow-antlered Deer Chilean Pudu Chinese Water Deer Formosan Sika Deer Hog Deer Indian Muntjac Indian Sambar Michie's Tufted Deer Pere David's Deer Philippines Spotted Deer Red Deer Reeves' Muntjac Reindeer Swamp Deer Wapiti Also (though not a true deer) Siberian Musk Deer. I may have seen Moose, but when I first visited Whipsnade I was 3 years old, so I don't remember anything about it. There is a large population of deer around where I live, though I have never seen one I know many people that have.
That's a pretty good list.. I'm racking my brains but I don't think I can better it, apart from the White-lipped Deer.. Where did you see the Bactrian Wapiti- somewhere in Europe? Wapiti and Moose are the correct terms, Elk being the Eurasian equivalent of 'Moose' Its use in USA started, I think, as hunters' slang. I do dimly remember the Moose at Whipsnade, I believe now it was the moose which inhabited the same enclosure as is used nowadays by the Reindeer. If the Wapiti weren't in it then they were in another enclosure nearby which has since disappeared.
Bactrian Wapiti are at Edinburgh, they had 0.3 when I first saw them in 2005, they bred a few last year and currently have 2.6. I forgot to include Fallow Deer on my list.
Bactrian wapiti aren't a species i would have expected Edinburgh to have- there must be someone there who's interested in deer....
When I went to Edinburgh in 2005 I was talking to a keeper who was looking after the takin. She said the curator was very interested in unusual ungulates and he was looking to see what they could bring in which was not already represented in the UK. She told me serow were expected, which have now arrived. Other Artiodactyls they have acquired recently have been White-lipped Deer Bawean Deer Lesser Kudu Blue Sheep (now at Highland Wildlife Park) Markhor (which were only represented by elderly animals at Blackpool, originated from ZSL I think). Highland Wildlife Park are exhibiting Moose and Forest Reindeer.
The lesser Kudu are with the Grevy's zebra and Nyala in the sloping paddock near the top of the zoo. The blue sheep were at Edinburgh last time I went, so the move must be Fairly recent.
Lesser kudu are rare in british zoos As are Mount apo Lories Broad nosed gentle lemurs I belive white fronted lemurs are only kept at blackbrook. Then there are Black mambas at london. London also kept a boomslang, but I belive it is dead.
Then there are soo many fish that are only kept at one institution. And sub-species of poison dart frogs. And basically all invertabrates and lower vertabrates seem to be spread around zoos, with only one zoo from each country keeping them.
Does anyone know the origin of the UK White-fronted Lemurs. Chester obtained theirs from Ravensdan, but thought they may have been hybrids and they left the collection.
ours came from dr bourne dont know if thats how you spell it? he had a large collection and we got a part of it. as far as i was told ours where though to be some of the only pure white-fronts in the country. how ever for what ever reason these have been reduced to a family group so i think its time to contact the stud book keeper and see about getting new bloodlines.
