Short news from European Zoos

12-04-2007

don't know what that is. I just type it in Google and up it comes...

12-04-2007

I use it for my Photos.

18-04-2007

Baby asian elefant at Hamburg Zoo (germany), she is healthy and appears to be female. Born last Friday 13 April.

Baby asian elefant at Cologne Zoo (germany), he is healthy and appears to be male. Born last Monday 16 April. Mother was imported pregnant a few months ago together with 4 other females of which 1 other is still pregnant...

If ur bored go and watch the Cologne Zoo elefant cam here:
Die WDR.de-Elefantencam im Kölner Zoo - WDR.de - Freizeit

A few weeks ago a very young mother asian elefant killed her first baby right after birth at Amersfoort Zoo (Netherlands). The grandmother, who was with her for comfort also attacked the child after it's mother panicked.

The mother was the first and only elephant ever born at Amersfoort after her mother was sent on breeding loan to Rotterdam Zoo. Since then the Zoo build it's own Bull-penn and now holds bull Sammy who was the father of the now killed baby...

19-04-2007

There are babies komado dragons at chester zoo. They went on show a week or so ago. Their mum became famous after a Virgin birth.

__________________
Jonathan Beilby-www.zooscene.co.uk

(Join the hornbill group-www.zoobeat.com/group.php?groupid=2)

19-04-2007

[quote=jwer;11517] a very young mother asian elefant killed her first baby right after birth at Amersfoort Zoo (Netherlands). The grandmother, who was with her for comfort also attacked the child after it's mother panicked.

This is very unfortunate- it does seem to happen sometimes with first time mother elephants in captivity- particularly when they haven't seen other calves in the group before...

At Twycross Zoo about eight years ago, two young female elephants were pregnant for the first time, both from mating with Chester's male elephant. With no other mothers or calves(or older elephants) in the small group, the staff were anxious about how they'd react when giving birth. So during the birth,the female was chained as a precaution. Staff were present throughout and immediately after delivery, the calf was put within her reach so she could smell, inspect and clean it,- but not trample it if she panicked. Fortunately she showed good maternal instinct so didn't have to remain chained long. The same procedure was carried out with the 2nd female a few weeks later- again with complete success. Both females rearered their calves perfectly.

I think that was a wise procedure given these were first time mothers.

19-04-2007

Chester's male (chang) has gone to Le Pal Zoo in France, to be paired with 4 females.

__________________
Jonathan Beilby-www.zooscene.co.uk

(Join the hornbill group-www.zoobeat.com/group.php?groupid=2)

19-04-2007

it seems like european zoos are starting to reverse the trend of this species dying out in captivity. theres a long way to go but it s positive news. even if a few babies get trampled along the way!

19-04-2007

[quote=grantsmb;11523] The consensus among the dutch zoo-followers is that chaining the mother up is cruel and does not belong in a good zoo, specially not with such an intelligent species.

My personal opinion would be that chaining the mother might sometimes make sense, but if an "experienced" mother who could aid it's better to try that (Amsterdam did so two years back and that went fine...). In the end, it was a good experience for both mother and grandmother and let's hope that the next time, they'll know a bit better...

And the EEP-Keeper (Rotterdam-Zoo director) is telling every Zoo to either contribute by keeping at least 1.3 or holding elderly females or bulls. Lately, this seems to be paying off more and more with a lot of new Elephant enclosures having been built, being built, or are going to be built on short notice.

19-04-2007

between all of us lets begin a list of european zoos who have either a-bred elephants recently or b-have adequate or new elephant facilities in which breeding could be anticipated.
ill get the ball rolling by nominating...
whipsnade as category A and B
and artis zoo in Amsterdam as a category A zoo

19-04-2007

[quote=jwer;11554][quote=grantsmb;11523]

My personal opinion would be that chaining the mother might sometimes make sense, but if an "experienced" mother who could aid it's better to try that...

And the EEP-Keeper (Rotterdam-Zoo director) is telling every Zoo to either contribute by keeping at least 1.3 or holding elderly females or bulls.

Yes, I agree but in Twycross' case, the two young pregnant females had no 'aunties' or older companions at all. In that case I think this temporary chaining was warranted- it was only used during the births and could have made the difference between successful birth and disaster.

Interesting Twycross still have no bull of their own, nor have the two females which bred (Tonzi and Mimbu), been sent elsewhere for breeding again. A third younger female (Noorjahan) hasn't been bred. One of the two female calves, now eight years old(Karishma) was sent to Whipsnade last summer as she was throwing her weight about at Twycross.

I'm not clear what Twycross's future plans are for their elephants- they are in an unusual situation of having four young females, two of which have bred successfully once- yet still have never had a bull of their own... . So they are in Glyn's Category A, but not really category B.

19-04-2007

[quote=glyn;11555]between all of us lets begin a list of european zoos who have either a-bred elephants recently or b-have adequate or new elephant facilities in which breeding could be anticipated.

Okay- UK- Chester(Asian) A & B. Colchester (African) A & B. Howletts(African) A& B Port Lympne(African) probably B (no bull last year). Dublin (Asian) B. Twycross(asian) A but probably not B!
Knowsley(African) A/B. Woburn(asian) B. Whipsnade (asian) A & B.

Europe- Cologne/Koln(asian).B. Emmen(asian) A & B. Rotterdam(asian) A & B.
Vienna(African) A. Must be several others in Europe but I can't remember.

19-04-2007

Chang is the father of the two calves born at Twycross, after their mothers were sent for mating to Chester. He also bred with his own halfgrown daughter Sithami in the Chester group, and their female calf is Sundara. I believe the latest male calf born in November is the first fathered by the new herd bull- Upali.

19-04-2007

- Amsterdam (asians, received a pregnant female from Rotterdam who gave birth and now holds a young bull, B).
- Ouwehands Zoo Rhenen (Africans, recently completed female exhibit with 0.2, bull-pen nearing completion and anticipating receiving a further 1.1, B),
- Safaripark Beekse Bergen (Africans, had one miscarriage sofar with 1.5 with all reasonably young females, B)
- Amersfoort (Asians, young bull coming at age slowly, allready got the lowest female in rank pregnant and still needs to conquer the higher ranked females, A+B)

- Copenhage Zoo (asians, currently constructing large elephant enclosure allready breeding, A+B)
- Hamburg Zoo (asians, recently opened large enclosure and had a calf, A+B)
- Leipzig Zoo (asians, recently opened large enclosure and not sure if they bred there yet, B)
- Berlin Tierpark (asians and africans, A+B)
- Wuppertal Zoo (Africans, A+B)
- Basel (asians, A+B if i'm correct)
- Antwerpen (recently acquired bull on breeding loan, hoping for pregnancies, about to build a large enclosure at their open range facility Planckendael)

Bound to be a few more (Zurich too if i'm correct) and a few more zoo's are planning on building a new facility like Praha Zoo (who allready hold a bull and two or three females...). Duisburg, Dvur Kralové and Monde Sauvage also hold breeding groups of africans but nothing seems to be happening there sofar, i don't know about Hodenhagen Safaripark but that park isn't participating in EEP's afaik...). Paris bred in the past, don't know their current situation...

As far as i know, Zoo Elephant - Asian Elephants at the Zoological Gardens of the World is very up-to-date about asian elephants worldwide...

20-04-2007

paris zoo-i visited ther ein october 2005. there old asian elephant exhibit is empty, in fact, many of their exhibits were empty. from what i could tell it consisted of alot of concrete shaped to look like rocks and boulders, and a sloping moat, and shaded by trees.
im not very good at speaking french, but from what i could piece together both at the zoo, from the donation boxes and zoolex this place was on the brink of closing. a renewal plan and funding agreement has since commenced, happily, so maybe this zoo will return to being worthy of the french capital. despite the run-down atmosphere, exhibits for giraffe, penguin and some hoofed animals were outstanding, in fact the zoo policy seemed to be one of closing the worst down. now they sit empty, the concrete flaking off the fake walls, but at least the animals now live in the better environments. this place even had giant pandas in the not-too recent past!

20-04-2007

First of all, Paris has two zoo's namely the Jardin des Plantes and the Bois des Vincennes. The one you visited (I can never keep them apart) was due to be closed and completely renovated at that time, but they decided not close it during it's renovation proces. They are now on their way with renovation and the big centerpiece, a large concrete rock with viewpoint is back open.

They should be back to it's original splendure at around 2012 i believe, wheither they make it or not i don't know. Do know that work is in progress