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.
|