That is correct, fortunately no chimp was harmed in either incident, if it happens again, and I sincerely hope not, they might not be so lucky and the unthinkable may take place. It has crossed my mind today that inexperienced staff may have some connection, as nearly all of Molly Badham's old hands are no longer at the zoo.
The original report said one chimp got into a 'service area'. This update says all eight were involved. From the Chimps that are named I think this is the old Gorilla House? (the one near the Elephants where they have recently covered the outside enclosure.) I also presume the 'rehousing' was perhaps moving them from one side to the other within the building? Apart from the main inside space,there are just three or four small(?) offshow dens on each side of the house and an adjoining service area, which as far as I remember, is only secure from the public outside by a locked door. So potentially I think this could have been more serious than they are making out.
Could Maz or any of the Twycross regulars confirm which house these chimps live in, is it the original old gorilla house next to Norton Grange or the newer ex gorilla house, (Joe's), next to the elephant house. Yes, I see that the zoo originally stated that one chimp was involved, and later stated that eight animals were involved.
It was just on the Radio news again. I guess Twycross welcome the free publicity, even for this, as after all, nothing actually happened. People may make be tempted to make a visit to see the 'chimps that (nearly) escaped'.
Yes it's the group in the old Gorilla house (on the left hand side as you stand looking at the indoor playroom).
The house nearest the Elephants then? Were they just moving them to over to the other side for some reason do you think?
I really can't get my head round that bit. Mongo, noddy and coco are in the other side so there's not really anywhere to move them. Unless they were just moving them out of the playroom for cleaning etc and it just went wrong.
ah right. I think I took 'rehousing' rather too literally- as you said, maybe it just meant moving them betwen their onshow and offshow areas. What does it look like with a roof outdoors? Are they using it(both sides) yet?
On a side note I would like to see the visitor numbers over the coming weekend, as I would imagine with all the free publicity, they will do very well as long as the weather stays nice!
Yeah because the old staff were really good at moving round chimps; they were in the partners and groups all of the time!
Well personnaly I would rather have a keeper with 25+ years of working with chimps,than the 5-10 years experience that they have now at Twycross,as nothing beats experience when something goes wrong!!
Very true, The way they treated the whole situation did seem the 'Molly Badham Way' with ice cream! No tranquilizers or guns just sweet treats.
Using food treat lures to get them back into the enclosure was probably their initial approach. Had they got out into the Zoo I'm sure they would have had tranquiliser guns, or real guns, ready to shoot them with.
I think the perfect situation is having a mixture of keepers with a variety of depth of experience. You can't get experience without being there after all, but you do need people to show you the way
I like this approach, better to keep the chimps conscious if they aren't presenting immediate danger, because as they were altogether, you'd have to knock them all down before you could in and check on them. Very dangerous to the chimps.
Just a pity none of the keepers that worked at the place when I was involved with the TZA are left at the Zoo then,as they did have plenty of experinece,and they have all left within in the last 4 years!!!!!!!
