Short news from European Zoos

06-04-2007

any news about london's clore rainforest outlook opening yet???

06-04-2007

have i got this right? since 2004 london zoo has built...
2004-komodo dragons, happy families, penguin exhibit
2005-meet the monkeys, african bird safari, small mammals in casson pavilion, tiger exhibit reno
2006-african safari, butterfly paradise
2007-clore rainforest outlook and gorilla kingdom

06-04-2007

Yes, but be aware not all of these are completely new exhibits- some are refurbished/altered existing buildings. The 'African' area is centred round the existing Decimus Burton Giraffe/Okapi houses on the Cotton teraces and there have been considerable changes around the buildings, but is not a new area built from scratch. The new Clore Rainforest again I believe is within the existing building. 'Meet the Monkeys' is probably new. Gorilla Kingdom is a completely new build obviously.

I am due a visit there this year so could update later.

07-04-2007

well i left england in december 2005, so everything completed up to then i know about. the penguin exhibit is situated on the old flamingo exhibit, the squirrel monkeys exhibit is new, sits on land where maned wolves lived previously.
african birds safari, a new exhibit on site of old crane paddocks.
phots would be good.

07-04-2007

You've probably been to ZSL more recently than I have, in fact...

12-04-2007

When I went to London about 4 weeks ago the Gorilla exhibit had not been opened. But You could peer through the fence. We saw the male gorilla on the Island running around. It looked excellent

12-04-2007

I've found plenty of photos of the London gorillas posed on internet since the new 'Kingdom' opened last week. The female Zaire is still heavily plucked-she has phases of this, when she has been stressed e.g. by the death of her silverback, perhaps living in the quarantine cages in the hospital for many months during the construcion phase has made her do this again. Now they have a splendid new environment, it will be interesting to see if she lets her hair grow again.... (zoo check got on her case a few years ago because of her hair plucking and 'rocking' which was a direct consquence of the silverback's death and having no male in the group. At the same time Zaire also became the dominant female in the leaderless group)

For all the readers in Oz, 'Zaire' at London Zoo is the older full sister of Melbourne's silverback Motaba. She has only one offspring but genetically her line is well represented through other siblings in other zoos.

Gorilla Kingdom looks good. They hope the male will breed with the new female Effie. She came from Leipzig where she was disruptive in their group. She has had two offspring previously at Berlin, but doesn't mother-raise them. London's male is wildcaught, no offspring, a bit suspect in the mating department.

12-04-2007

Maybe London zoo could get some advice from Howletts as to How to breed gorillas.

12-04-2007

London Zoo and Howletts are not good friends.. it goes back a long way but John Aspinall never liked the London Zoo set-up. They don't trade animals either, London go to other zoos for new stock, but usually not to Kent. It seems odd when there are seventy gorillas down there, but London's new female had to come from Germany....

London last bred Gorillas back in the 1980's. The main problem is they've never had enough animals to make a decent breeding group and some of them haven't been any good for breeding anyway so things just haven't worked out well.

Maye now it will change, but they may need to add additional animls at some stage.

12-04-2007

I get Fed up of London zoo. When Chester got their Komodos they weren't metioned but years after when london got their it was national news.

12-04-2007

That's because its in the capital.

12-04-2007

Yes I suppose. I've only been twice. Once when I was very young and then about 4 weeks ago.

12-04-2007

hay can we get a link to ya pics plz?

12-04-2007

Type in 'Flickr Photos tagged with Gorilla' and up will come hundreds of Gorilla photos taken by different people.. Then type in the search box 'London Zoo Gorilla(s)' and the most recent London pix will come up- the newest ones are from the new openair Kingdom exhibit. If you put in the plural(Gorillas), a few different pix may come up too.

You can do it for any animal species, any zoo anywhere.

12-04-2007

Can you do it on Fotopic?