Zoo News Digest 17th August 2018 (ZooNews 1005)
Photo Credit - Brian Lilly, Bristol Zoo
Peter Dickinson
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
I was lucky enough
to have been invited to the first meeting of Emirates Zoo and Aquarium meeting
(EZAA) last Wednesday. It is early days yet but I am sure it will get off the ground. This replaces the Arabian Association of Zoos and Aquariums which in spite of several meetings over a number of years never quite made it. Perhaps that too will arise from the ashes one day once political issues and Middle Eastern strife goes away. Animals recognise no borders other than their own marked out territories and man should only be concerned only about ensure that correct ethical management and welfare of captive animals wherever they are held. It is always going to be difficult in the Middle East where there are so many private collections which sidestep regulations.
It was perhaps my 5th visit to Al Ain since I left working at the zoo in 1982. The place has changed immensely since those happy days. It is where my children learned to walk and when my marriage was strong. I had many friends both human and animal....all gone now...perhaps except for one. In zoo terms though we were at the time just stepping out of the dark ages of zoo design and management though welfare and caring was abundant. I have always missed the place and still do. It is today a very different place. Many new buildings and the grounds lush and green. I still maintain however that the acreage covered is less today than in my time. Not that it matters a hoot really as we know it is not the size of an enclosure that really counts but what you do with it.
The meeting was not too long and gave plenty of time to catch up with colleagues from other collections in the UAE and to meet some new ones.
I am going to miss the UAE and the Arabian Gulf in general. I will be back no doubt. Since my first arrival in 1951 I have left and returned several times. The sand gets in your blood.
"good zoos will not gain the credibility of their critics until they condemn the bad zoos wherever they are." Peter Dickinson
Did you know that advertising your vacancy or product on ZooNews Digest can potentially reach 79,000 + people?
Lots of interest follows.
*********
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 78,000 Followers on Facebook( and over 78,000 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 823 Zoos in 154+ countries? That the subscriber list for the mail out reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos,
********
*****
***
**
*
Paternity Tests at
the Penguin House
Roto and Copper, two
Gentoo penguins at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Utah, cared for three
children together, taking turns feeding them. They’re a social pair, just like
Coco and Gossamer, a neighboring penguin couple that raised their own chicks.
Or did they?
We tend to think of
penguins as monogamous, with social bonds formed between two parents for life.
But researchers have discovered that penguins in captivity, like some species
in the wild, sometimes stray. After sampling the DNA of 19 Gentoo penguins at
the aquarium, researchers revealed last month in the journal ZooBiology that
Roto is the father of two chicks believed to be Gossamer’s offspring.
“We’ll go back to
the classic movies where the male gives the female a rock and they start to bu
Private party to
manage Safari Park
The City Council of
the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation approved on Wednesday the transfer of
Safari Park management to a private company under the public private
partnership mode.
The opposition
leader, Karamullah Waqasi suggested that the matter of the transfer of Safari
Park management should be sent to the committee concerned. He also called for
initiating projects for water, sewerage and project on build, operate and
transfer model.
Parks Committee
Chairperson Hanif Soorti informed the council that steps were being taken to
provide natural environment to animals in the Safari Park.
Zoo’s tiniest giant
panda cub born to world’s oldest father
A giant panda cub
born at a zoo here on Aug. 14 immediately made a big impact as the offspring of
the world’s oldest father panda.
Eimei, the dad, is
25 years old--equivalent to the mid-70s in human years--and remarkably, he
conceived the female cub naturally with 17-year-old mother, Rauhin, breaking
his own world record for mating in captivity at such an advanced age.
In another first,
the cub is the lightest ever to be born at the Adventure World wildlife park,
weighing 75 grams and measuring 15.5 cm in length.
The smallest panda
cub to be reared successfully at the zoo until now was 84 grams at birth.
It is the 16th panda
cub to be born in the park, and the first in about two years. Eimei is now
father to 15 pandas, and Rauhin has become a mother of nine.
According to the
zoo, the cub was born at 10:32 p.m. on Aug 14.
She is unable to
suckle her mother’s breast by
China to move
critically endangered porpoises to aquarium as shipping, pollution choke river
habitat
Facing a continuous
drop in the population of the Yangtze finless porpoise, China has decided to
explore a method of artificial breeding to protect the critically endangered
species.
The plan calls for
relocating 14 of the porpoises to commercial aquariums.
However, the plan
was met with strong opposition from Chinese environmentalists, who urged the
government to reconsider the move and suggested focusing more resources on the
protection of their habitat.
Some
environmentalists even suggested that moving the porpoises to aquariums will do
no good to the porpoises, but will turn the endangered species into a tool for
making profit.
Risky move
The Yangtze River
Fisheries Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on
July 27 ordered conservation areas in Anhui and Hubei provinces to send 14
porpoises to the Chimelong Aquarium in Guangdong Province and Haichang Ocean
Park in Shanghai. The administration did not reveal how long the porpoises will
stay in the aquariums.
A staff member from
the Anhui Agriculture Commission told the news site thepaper.cn on August 3
that this is not a business move but a part of a protection campaign.
HOLY CLOSURE Dublin
Zoo announce they will close for three days during Pope’s visit to Phoenix Park
DUBLIN Zoo has
announced they will be closing for three days during the Pope’s visit.
The popular
attraction won’t be open to the public on August 25, 26 and 27.
But keepers will
still be able to get in to look after the animals.
A spokesperson wrote
on Facebook: “To facilitate the visit of Pope Francis to the Phoenix Park, the
Phoenix Park will be closed to the public on Saturday 25th, Sunday 26th and
Monday 27th August.
“This means that
Dublin Zoo will not open for these days.
“The necessary
Dublin Zo
East of Siberia:
Goral on the Cliffs
They are highly
secretive animals: stocky, goatlike creatures about the size of German
shepherds
The Khuntami Cliffs
are a cathedral of rock. They rise slowly from inland to crest like an enormous
wave frozen just before crashing into the Sea of Japan. It’s been a favorite
spot of mine in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve for years now; I’ve seen everything from
nesting Eurasian eagle owls to Pacific swifts here, watched Minke whales in the
sea, and seen tracks of wild boar, Asiatic black bears, and Amur tiger in the
sand along Khuntami Bay below.
South Africa rhino
poaching: 'Bribes paid to court syndicate'
A whistle-blower has
told the BBC he was the middleman between rhino-horn smugglers and a court
syndicate in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
He alleges he took
money given to a lawyer from rhino-horn kingpins and paid it to people within
the judiciary.
The lawyer, Welcome
Ngwenya, denies that he was involved in paying bribes.
But investigations,
involving others informants, point to a court syndicate that could be keeping
rhino killers beyond the reach
Alligator that
survived WWII bombings still alive and snapping
American alligator
Muja arrived at Belgrade Zoo on the eve of the Second World War and is believed
to be the oldest of his kind in captivity and still in good health with a
hearty appetite for his age, his handlers said on Tuesday.
Generations of
Belgraders and tourists have come to watch Muja and though he rarely moves
around much, he is still agile at feeding time — when he munches on rats and
quail. This is when his age shows, though, as he sometimes misses the target
when he snaps at his food.
So far Muja’s only
health i
Chinese zoo angers
visitors with dog in tiger cage
A zoo on Beijing's
outskirts got visitors roaring after they found a dog in a cage marked
"Siberian tiger," among other mislabels.
A Weibo user
"Schlieffen" posted a photo Monday of what appears to be a caged
husky at the Yuhe Zoo in Langfang, Hebei Province, which made the rounds on
social media.
A number of posts
from visitors made similar claims: cages labeled "long-eared rabbits"
housed regular rabbits, the crocodile pond was instead inhabited by swans, and
cages marked "owl" and "golden eagle" also contained dogs.
"There were a
lot of signs that didn't match up," Weibo user "Schlieffen"
later told Beijing Youth Daily.
The park responded
on Tuesday that many of the larger animals were removed earlier this year and
the signs had yet to be changed.
According to an
emplo
Zoo owners owe a
whopping £350,000
A BORTH zoo, which
last week won a temporary reprieve from moves to wind the company up, is
believed to owe creditors almost £350,000.
A petition at
London’s High Court by creditors to wind up Borth Wild Animal Kingdom was
adjourned by a top insolvency judge last Wednesday.
The zoo, which says
it is dedicated to conservation and is a home for endangered animal species,
was granted a reprieve for 42 days by Chief Registrar Judge Nicholas Briggs at
the Insolvency and Companies Court.
A petition to wind
up Borth Wild Animal Kingdom Ltd whose website motto is “A little zoo with a
big heart” was applied for earlier this summer by one of its creditors, Grenke
Leasing Ltd, of Guildford, Surrey.
At a brief hearing
Grenke sought a compulsory winding up order over the debts owed to it.
However, the zoo
succ
Local rhinos given
new lease of life Down Under in fight for survival
The first group of
at least 30 SA rhinos is set to emigrate to Australia in 2019 to help ensure
the survival of the species.
Zookeepers and
conservationists have been fencing and vegetating a 560ha open-plains area for
a new "insurance population" of African rhinos at Monarto Zoo, about
60km from Adelaide in south Australia.
It seems likely that
the animals will have to spend up to a year at the Orana Wildlife Park in
Christchurch, New Zealand, because of rigorous biosecurity and quarantine
requirements by the Australian government.
The Australian Rhino
Project was established in 2013, aiming to relocate a significant population of
rhino to a separate continent because of the horn poaching crisis, which has
led to 1,000 rhino killings annually in SA for five consecutive years.
While the project
has been cri
India’s first
Humboldt Penguin born in Mumbai Zoo
Nature lovers were
thrilled as India’s first Humboldt Penguin chick was hatched at the Mumbai Zoo,
the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officially announced here on
Thursday.
“The Humboldt
Penguin chick hatched at 8.02pm on August 15. It appeared to be active and the
mother Flipper was trying to feed it too,” confirmed the Zoo Director in-charge
Sanjay Tripathi.
After mating in
captivity, the Penguin pair Mr Molt and Flipper, finally delivered an egg in
July at the Veer Jijabai Bhonsale Udyan, or Mumbai Zoo.
While Mr Molt is the
youngest male, Flipper is the oldest female in the zoo’s penguin colony which
attracts hordes of excited visitors daily.
As an anxious team
of zoo caretakers, vets and others kept vigil for nearly 40 days, the egg was
finally hatched late on Wednesday and the small fluffy chick struggled o
Oldest hippopotamus
in captivity dies at 59 in Jerusalem zoo
Tami, believed to be
the oldest hippopotamus in captivity, died on Thursday at the age of 59 in her
sleep at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, the zoo announced.
She was found dead
in the lake of the African-themed area where she lived in the Israeli zoo, a
statement said.
Which Countries Have
Banned Plastic Bags?
In an effort to
reduce unnecessary waste, some countries have placed bans on plastic bags.
Continue reading to find out which places have taken this action as well as
more information about the pollution problem facing our planet today.
Plastic Bag Overload
Let's face it:
plastic bags are everywhere these days, and while they may seem like a cheap,
easy way to carry our goods, they are wreaking havoc on the planet in a number
of ways. According to the Earth Policy Institute, nearly one trillion plastic
bags are used worldwide every year. The problem is that these bags contain
polyethylene and cannot biodegrade, which means if they aren't recycled or
disposed of properly, they become pollution that we commonly see alongside the
road or floating in the water. This equals trouble for not only us and our
environment, but animals and other wildlife as well.
*****************************************************
*********
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 78,000 Followers on Facebook( and over 78,000 likes) and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 350,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 823 Zoos in 154+ countries? That the subscriber list for the mail out reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos,
********
*****
***
**
*
Paternity Tests at
the Penguin House
Roto and Copper, two
Gentoo penguins at Loveland Living Planet Aquarium in Utah, cared for three
children together, taking turns feeding them. They’re a social pair, just like
Coco and Gossamer, a neighboring penguin couple that raised their own chicks.
Or did they?
We tend to think of
penguins as monogamous, with social bonds formed between two parents for life.
But researchers have discovered that penguins in captivity, like some species
in the wild, sometimes stray. After sampling the DNA of 19 Gentoo penguins at
the aquarium, researchers revealed last month in the journal ZooBiology that
Roto is the father of two chicks believed to be Gossamer’s offspring.
“We’ll go back to
the classic movies where the male gives the female a rock and they start to bu
Private party to
manage Safari Park
The City Council of
the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation approved on Wednesday the transfer of
Safari Park management to a private company under the public private
partnership mode.
The opposition
leader, Karamullah Waqasi suggested that the matter of the transfer of Safari
Park management should be sent to the committee concerned. He also called for
initiating projects for water, sewerage and project on build, operate and
transfer model.
Parks Committee
Chairperson Hanif Soorti informed the council that steps were being taken to
provide natural environment to animals in the Safari Park.
Zoo’s tiniest giant
panda cub born to world’s oldest father
A giant panda cub
born at a zoo here on Aug. 14 immediately made a big impact as the offspring of
the world’s oldest father panda.
Eimei, the dad, is
25 years old--equivalent to the mid-70s in human years--and remarkably, he
conceived the female cub naturally with 17-year-old mother, Rauhin, breaking
his own world record for mating in captivity at such an advanced age.
In another first,
the cub is the lightest ever to be born at the Adventure World wildlife park,
weighing 75 grams and measuring 15.5 cm in length.
The smallest panda
cub to be reared successfully at the zoo until now was 84 grams at birth.
It is the 16th panda
cub to be born in the park, and the first in about two years. Eimei is now
father to 15 pandas, and Rauhin has become a mother of nine.
According to the
zoo, the cub was born at 10:32 p.m. on Aug 14.
She is unable to
suckle her mother’s breast by
China to move
critically endangered porpoises to aquarium as shipping, pollution choke river
habitat
Facing a continuous
drop in the population of the Yangtze finless porpoise, China has decided to
explore a method of artificial breeding to protect the critically endangered
species.
The plan calls for
relocating 14 of the porpoises to commercial aquariums.
However, the plan
was met with strong opposition from Chinese environmentalists, who urged the
government to reconsider the move and suggested focusing more resources on the
protection of their habitat.
Some
environmentalists even suggested that moving the porpoises to aquariums will do
no good to the porpoises, but will turn the endangered species into a tool for
making profit.
Risky move
The Yangtze River
Fisheries Administration under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs on
July 27 ordered conservation areas in Anhui and Hubei provinces to send 14
porpoises to the Chimelong Aquarium in Guangdong Province and Haichang Ocean
Park in Shanghai. The administration did not reveal how long the porpoises will
stay in the aquariums.
A staff member from
the Anhui Agriculture Commission told the news site thepaper.cn on August 3
that this is not a business move but a part of a protection campaign.
HOLY CLOSURE Dublin
Zoo announce they will close for three days during Pope’s visit to Phoenix Park
DUBLIN Zoo has
announced they will be closing for three days during the Pope’s visit.
The popular
attraction won’t be open to the public on August 25, 26 and 27.
But keepers will
still be able to get in to look after the animals.
A spokesperson wrote
on Facebook: “To facilitate the visit of Pope Francis to the Phoenix Park, the
Phoenix Park will be closed to the public on Saturday 25th, Sunday 26th and
Monday 27th August.
“This means that
Dublin Zoo will not open for these days.
“The necessary
Dublin Zo
East of Siberia:
Goral on the Cliffs
They are highly
secretive animals: stocky, goatlike creatures about the size of German
shepherds
The Khuntami Cliffs
are a cathedral of rock. They rise slowly from inland to crest like an enormous
wave frozen just before crashing into the Sea of Japan. It’s been a favorite
spot of mine in the Sikhote-Alin Reserve for years now; I’ve seen everything from
nesting Eurasian eagle owls to Pacific swifts here, watched Minke whales in the
sea, and seen tracks of wild boar, Asiatic black bears, and Amur tiger in the
sand along Khuntami Bay below.
South Africa rhino
poaching: 'Bribes paid to court syndicate'
A whistle-blower has
told the BBC he was the middleman between rhino-horn smugglers and a court
syndicate in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province.
He alleges he took
money given to a lawyer from rhino-horn kingpins and paid it to people within
the judiciary.
The lawyer, Welcome
Ngwenya, denies that he was involved in paying bribes.
But investigations,
involving others informants, point to a court syndicate that could be keeping
rhino killers beyond the reach
Alligator that
survived WWII bombings still alive and snapping
American alligator
Muja arrived at Belgrade Zoo on the eve of the Second World War and is believed
to be the oldest of his kind in captivity and still in good health with a
hearty appetite for his age, his handlers said on Tuesday.
Generations of
Belgraders and tourists have come to watch Muja and though he rarely moves
around much, he is still agile at feeding time — when he munches on rats and
quail. This is when his age shows, though, as he sometimes misses the target
when he snaps at his food.
So far Muja’s only
health i
Chinese zoo angers
visitors with dog in tiger cage
A zoo on Beijing's
outskirts got visitors roaring after they found a dog in a cage marked
"Siberian tiger," among other mislabels.
A Weibo user
"Schlieffen" posted a photo Monday of what appears to be a caged
husky at the Yuhe Zoo in Langfang, Hebei Province, which made the rounds on
social media.
A number of posts
from visitors made similar claims: cages labeled "long-eared rabbits"
housed regular rabbits, the crocodile pond was instead inhabited by swans, and
cages marked "owl" and "golden eagle" also contained dogs.
"There were a
lot of signs that didn't match up," Weibo user "Schlieffen"
later told Beijing Youth Daily.
The park responded
on Tuesday that many of the larger animals were removed earlier this year and
the signs had yet to be changed.
According to an
emplo
Zoo owners owe a
whopping £350,000
A BORTH zoo, which
last week won a temporary reprieve from moves to wind the company up, is
believed to owe creditors almost £350,000.
A petition at
London’s High Court by creditors to wind up Borth Wild Animal Kingdom was
adjourned by a top insolvency judge last Wednesday.
The zoo, which says
it is dedicated to conservation and is a home for endangered animal species,
was granted a reprieve for 42 days by Chief Registrar Judge Nicholas Briggs at
the Insolvency and Companies Court.
A petition to wind
up Borth Wild Animal Kingdom Ltd whose website motto is “A little zoo with a
big heart” was applied for earlier this summer by one of its creditors, Grenke
Leasing Ltd, of Guildford, Surrey.
At a brief hearing
Grenke sought a compulsory winding up order over the debts owed to it.
However, the zoo
succ
Local rhinos given
new lease of life Down Under in fight for survival
The first group of
at least 30 SA rhinos is set to emigrate to Australia in 2019 to help ensure
the survival of the species.
Zookeepers and
conservationists have been fencing and vegetating a 560ha open-plains area for
a new "insurance population" of African rhinos at Monarto Zoo, about
60km from Adelaide in south Australia.
It seems likely that
the animals will have to spend up to a year at the Orana Wildlife Park in
Christchurch, New Zealand, because of rigorous biosecurity and quarantine
requirements by the Australian government.
The Australian Rhino
Project was established in 2013, aiming to relocate a significant population of
rhino to a separate continent because of the horn poaching crisis, which has
led to 1,000 rhino killings annually in SA for five consecutive years.
While the project
has been cri
India’s first
Humboldt Penguin born in Mumbai Zoo
Nature lovers were
thrilled as India’s first Humboldt Penguin chick was hatched at the Mumbai Zoo,
the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officially announced here on
Thursday.
“The Humboldt
Penguin chick hatched at 8.02pm on August 15. It appeared to be active and the
mother Flipper was trying to feed it too,” confirmed the Zoo Director in-charge
Sanjay Tripathi.
After mating in
captivity, the Penguin pair Mr Molt and Flipper, finally delivered an egg in
July at the Veer Jijabai Bhonsale Udyan, or Mumbai Zoo.
While Mr Molt is the
youngest male, Flipper is the oldest female in the zoo’s penguin colony which
attracts hordes of excited visitors daily.
As an anxious team
of zoo caretakers, vets and others kept vigil for nearly 40 days, the egg was
finally hatched late on Wednesday and the small fluffy chick struggled o
Oldest hippopotamus
in captivity dies at 59 in Jerusalem zoo
Tami, believed to be
the oldest hippopotamus in captivity, died on Thursday at the age of 59 in her
sleep at Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo, the zoo announced.
She was found dead
in the lake of the African-themed area where she lived in the Israeli zoo, a
statement said.
Which Countries Have
Banned Plastic Bags?
In an effort to
reduce unnecessary waste, some countries have placed bans on plastic bags.
Continue reading to find out which places have taken this action as well as
more information about the pollution problem facing our planet today.
Plastic Bag Overload
Let's face it:
plastic bags are everywhere these days, and while they may seem like a cheap,
easy way to carry our goods, they are wreaking havoc on the planet in a number
of ways. According to the Earth Policy Institute, nearly one trillion plastic
bags are used worldwide every year. The problem is that these bags contain
polyethylene and cannot biodegrade, which means if they aren't recycled or
disposed of properly, they become pollution that we commonly see alongside the
road or floating in the water. This equals trouble for not only us and our
environment, but animals and other wildlife as well.
*****************************************************
** ***
** **
***
*
New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
If you have anything to add then please email me at elvinhow@gmail.com
I will include it when I get a minute. You know it makes sense.
Recent Zoo Vacancies
Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World
*****
About me
After more than 50 years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand. In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and many more before 'hitting the road' (many more before that) and writes about these in his blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/
or on Hubpages http://hubpages.com/profile/Peter+Dickinson
Peter earns his living as an independent international zoo consultant, critic and writer. Currently working as Curator of Penguins in Ski Dubai. United Arab Emirates. He describes himself as an itinerant zoo keeper, one time zoo inspector, a dreamer, a traveler, an introvert, a people watcher, a lover, a storyteller, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer, a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in the butt to others.
"These are the best days of my life"
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant
If you have anything to add then please email me at elvinhow@gmail.com
I will include it when I get a minute. You know it makes sense.
Recent Zoo Vacancies
Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World
*****
About me
After more than 50 years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand. In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and many more before 'hitting the road' (many more before that) and writes about these in his blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/
or on Hubpages http://hubpages.com/profile/Peter+Dickinson
Peter earns his living as an independent international zoo consultant, critic and writer. Currently working as Curator of Penguins in Ski Dubai. United Arab Emirates. He describes himself as an itinerant zoo keeper, one time zoo inspector, a dreamer, a traveler, an introvert, a people watcher, a lover, a storyteller, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer, a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in the butt to others.
"These are the best days of my life"
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant
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