A so far un-sexed Francois' langur has been born to female Lu Lu. Rare monkey gives birth to ginger baby at London Zoo | Mail Online
Snakes - New arrivals From the members and supporters magazine Wildabout:- With a raft of new species arriving in the coming weeks and months, ZSL London Zoo's venomous snake collection is set to become the biggest in Europe. In a section at the end under Six of the best: The new arrivals - and why they're important to the collection it lists:- Inland taipan, Bushmaster, Mang Shan pitviper, McGregor's viper, European adder and Rhinoceros viper. When I was there briefly yesterday they had just about finished a couple of new enclosures, whether they were for these or others to move into to make way for them I don't know but they looked good.
That's a bit quick regarding the bat exhibit, where is it? I have heard talk of the east tunnel but it can't be that extensive I would have thought...
I would love this to be a true new exhibit but I've got a feeling there's a bit of spin. Is it by any chance the bat exhibit in the Nightlife part of Rainforest Life? I didn't see anything new when I went on Saturday other than the reindeer enclosure but then I didn't visit everywhere in my quick visit, Nightlife and the east tunnel included. It would be fantastic if it was new. I'm in London again this Saturday I might have to have another look.
The east tunnel has been closed for some weeks but it's being mended not turned into a bat cave – it's still open at weekends when more visitors are about. We (volunteers) haven't been told anything about a new bat location but the Halloween "trails" for kids will be in Nightlife, so I wouldn't be surprised if the "new" bat exhibit is there...
Two points: 1. The East Tunnel is very old, being built by Decimus Burton. I find it very hard to believe that the tunnel proper (maybe not its approach, part of the Meeting Room floor) would have any extensive redevelopment allowed. 2. Pteropus fruit bats do not roost in caves!! Why do we have to have these inane marketing stunts? Granted, at least Rodrigues flying foxes are endangered, which is more than can be said for the colony of brown rats installed in the first exhibit of the truncated Moonlight World.
What I should have said was:- I would love this to be a true new exhibit but I've got a feeling there's a bit of spin. Is it by any chance the bat exhibit in the Nightlife part of Rainforest Life? I didn't see anything new when I went on Saturday other than the reindeer enclosure but then I didn't visit everywhere in my quick visit, Nightlife and the west tunnel (where it has a bat cave in the masterplan) included. It would be fantastic if it was new. I'm in London again this Saturday I might have to have another look. So it sounds like my suspicion was right! By the way the east tunnel is listed.
ahh, im getting confused then. the west tunnel is the one where the bats are planned to go in the masterplan. sorry all :S
The new bat exhibit is going to be in the round house near the otters although there is no visable sign of it.
Its nice to see something actually happening insde the roundhouse, here's assuming that the lemurs will remain outside?, where will the aye-aye move too? Will it be moved on show inside the moonlight world finally?
Yes, just to confirm that the new bat "cave" will be inside the roundhouse and will be opening to the public this Saturday (staff and volunteer preview on Friday). The lemurs will still be there... but I don't know what has happened to the aye-aye/s (last time I went in there, there were two, but admittedly that was a while back).
All a bit odd. Flying foxes are about the same size as aye-ayes. I've never been given a reason why the latter were taken off exhibit. They certainly had no less space in the Round House than they have at Bristol, where they have bred...
Wasn't it confirmed some time ago that the zoo has aye aye in an off show enclosure in the Clore, there was a picture somewhere no?
Yes, its believed they may be in the offshow wing of the upper Clore, based on photographs seen Aye-aye | Flickr - Photo Sharing! I really don't know how old these animals are. If they are the original pair, they would now be in fairly advanced years. I was told the original male was a very nervous animal (I often saw him running small, repetitive circuits in the Roundhouse), and was not mixed with the female for a while, I assume for this reason. However one or both of the original animals could have been replaced. I don't think enclosure size was the deciding factor in whether these animals were suited to the building. Last time I saw them, I felt the heavy doors at either end of the viewing gallery, coupled with the hard walls and floors of the public gallery made for some rather harsh acoustics. Aye ayes are considerably larger than Rodrigues fruit bats, but I wouldn't say that makes the bats more suited to the roundhouse, unless of course they were given the outside enclosure as well.
