A leading South West conservation charity has created two new posts as it expands its crucial overseas work. The Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, based at Paignton Zoo, has announced new staff for its projects in Vietnam and Nigeria.
Emmanuel Olabode has been appointed as Education & Research Coordinator at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation, while Heidi Quine takes up the post of International Technical Advisor with Save Vietnam's Wildlife.
Dr Andrew Bowkett, Programmes Manager for the Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, explained: “We don’t employ staff...
A Critically Endangered monkey with a rare medical condition has been treated by a team of zoo experts and South West veterinary specialists.
Animal care staff at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park took the sick primate for a CT scan at a veterinary hospital in Somerset. JR – full name Jean-Robert - is a brown or variegated spider monkey Ateles hybridus The species, which is listed as Critically Endangered, comes from South America.
Paignton Zoo vet Jo Reynard, vet nurse Celine Campana, Head Keeper Craig Gilchrist and Senior Keeper Kate Jenner took JR to Cave Veterinary...
How do you learn how to be a good gorilla? You go to gorilla school, of course.
And 12-year-old Kivu is earning top marks when it comes to sitting in a barrel.
He was photographed at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park in Devon by Curator of Mammals Neil Bemment.
“I’m not sure if he was being Father Christmas coming down the chimney, but he certainly seemed to be enjoying himself,” said Neil.
Top zoos provide animals with what is known as environmental enrichment, scientifically designed to help keep them stimulated mentally and physically. Enrichment can range...
Zoo keepers in South Devon have created Halloween versions of the animals for which they care. Staff at Paignton Zoo Environmental Park carved pumpkins with faces inspired by some of the animals at the Zoo.
Nearby Riverford Organic Farms donated several huge pumpkins to the Zoo – a registered charity – so that the keepers could unleash their inner artists.
Mammal keeper Cindy Burton was among the Zoo staff who tackled the vegetables, carving an elephant and a red river hog. Bird keepers Paul Jaques and Chas Barr carved an owl on one of the Riverford pumpkins.
Paignton Zoo has teamed up with Wollen Michelmore Solicitors to hold Will Week. The event - from 6th to 11th October – is an appropriate one for the Zoo, as the charity has received many significant legacies over the years.
Paignton Zoo fundraiser Jenny Paton: “Our Ape Centre – home to gorillas and orang utans, including babies Tatau and Natalia – was built thanks to a legacy. Another sum built a whole set of owl aviaries. It is a very important way for a charity like ours to receive funds.”
A Will is important if you are getting married or divorced, have children or...
The gardens of Paignton Zoo are now home to four of the largest garden ornaments ever seen.
A large gorilla covered in shells, a towering giraffe and a dazzling butterfly have all popped up in the Zoo grounds in recent weeks.
Barry the Gorilla attended the Chelsea Flower Show before retiring to South Devon, while Gerald the Giraffe was at Hampton Court Flower Show. The (unnamed) painted wooden butterfly was left over from a private event held at the Zoo. They join Herbert the painted life-size gorilla, a veteran of the Great Gorillas Project from last summer, when 30...
Paignton Zoo has started an online wish list of gifts – for the animals.
It includes sprinklers to help cool the rhinos on a hot day, rubber balls and a bubble machine for monkeys to play with and aromatherapy oils for tigers to sniff.
The Zoo is a UK leader in environmental enrichment, the science of giving animals things to stimulate them mentally and physically. Now, keepers have compiled a list of items for the Amazon web site so that the public can buy gifts for their favourite animals.
Senior Head Keeper of Mammals, Matthew Webb, explained: “Put simply, and...
The tiny South American fur seal was born at Living Coasts in Torquay early on the morning of Tuesday 3 June.
When her mother was unable to produce milk, zoo keepers stepped in to feed her creamy fish milkshakes around the clock.
Now, Torquay’s coastal zoo is giving everyone who visits the chance to vote for her name.
Living Coasts’ Marketing Manager Katherine Sobey explained: “We have a shortlist of ten names. Some were suggested by staff, others by people on Facebook. We have a collecting box in the entrance hall. People can...
Living Coasts has sent 20 penguins to Eastern Europe as part of a major new initiative. The coastal conservation charity has donated the birds to Tblisi Zoo in the former Soviet republic of Georgia to start a brand new colony.
Living Coasts Operations Manager Clare Rugg explained: “They have built a penguin exhibit from scratch with our advice and input – we have been working with them because they have just joined EAZA, the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, the body which represents top zoological collections across Europe. This is the first EAZA move to Georgia.”
A Devon conservation charity has taken another step to help save a threatened native species.
The Whitley Wildlife Conservation Trust, based at Paignton Zoo, has teamed up with the Environment Agency and Buglife to rear white-clawed crayfish.
The white-clawed crayfish (Austropotamobius pallipes) is one of the largest freshwater invertebrates in the UK but is under threat of extinction in the wild because of the introduced North American signal crayfish, which out-competes its British counterpart for food and carries a killer plague.
