NEWS

The four Mishmi takin from Edinburgh Zoo were joined by four more from Germany and Latvia and we were delighted to welcome our first baby takin, born to Cava, one of the Edinburgh females, on the 22nd of March (left - standing underneath her mother). The herd can be seen in their area in the Main Reserve. These unusual animals look like a cross between a wildebeest, bison and moose. At home in the eastern Himalayas, these creatures are endangered due to habitat loss.

At the start of April we are expecting five female European forest reindeer as well as three elk from Finland and we hope to bring you news of these animals soon.

We were delighted to host the launch of Scottish Natural Heritage's Scottish Wildcat Survey on the 19th of February. The launch saw over 50 individuals from government and conservation bodies meeting with Michael Russell, Minister for Environment to outline the aim of the survey. The public are being urged to report any sightings of wildcats or feral cats. The survey can be completed online at WildcatSurvey.

February has seen the arrival of more animals, the most popular of which is the red panda, which can be found next to the Visitor Centre. Both animals arrived from Edinburgh Zoo and are remarkably active in their new home. We also received two young male Carpathian lynx from Chemnitz Zoo in Germany.

Other January arrivals are well settled now. The Afghan urials (a rare type of wild sheep) are now together with three new male markhor and Kol, our new male elk is practically inseperable now from Lisa, our resident female.

The second group of Japanese snow monkeys have been introduced and after initial scrapping, sorting out the hierarchy within the enlarged troop, they all seem to have settled down. Their wonderful new enclosure around the lochan provides them with lots of enrichment and they spend a lot of time looking for grubs in the heather and chasing birds up trees!

The core of our collection remains Scottish wildlife past and present but throughout 2008 we will be introducing internationally endangered species of mountains and tundra. This brings us in line with the Masterplan for Edinburgh Zoo which will concentrate on the other biomes of oceans and wetland, tropical forests, woodlands, wetlands. We therefore have had a lot of new species arriving and more to come. We already have domestic yak, bharal, Turkmenian markhor, goral (left), kiang (Tibetan wild ass) and Himalayan tahr who have all settled in well to their new surroundings.