AUGUST 2023
Zoo
5 Strawberry Dart Frogs joined the collection from Chester Zoo on the 18th August. This is a new species for Colchester Zoo although they are currently held off show.
On the 4th August, Alpaca male Louis transferred to Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm. This leaves us with two females, although one has recently returned to us from a breeding loan so we hope she is pregnant, with a new cria on its way.
Animal Transfers
On the 7th August, male Coppery Titi Monkey, Muchacho, transferred to Yorkshire Wildlife Park. Following his departure, we have mixed two male Coppery Titi Monkeys Lewis and Pico in the exhibit at Worlds Apart. One of these males will leave the collection in the near future and we will import another female to form a second breeding group of this species. On the 9th August, female Warthogs transferred to Flamingo Land. Our Warthog group has reduced in size this year following exports, so we hope to breed again in future.
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Species Arrival
Quarantines Complete
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Animal Passing
On the 5th August, two 1.5 month old male Guinea Pigs joined the collection. These have been named Leonard and Pete and will eventually join the Guinea Pig Village group.
2 fish species finished quarantine following their arrival into the collection. The Bronze Corydoras have been added to the Cichlid aquarium in Worlds Apart and to the tetra tank in Worlds Apart. The Boeseman’s Rainbowfish have been added to the aquarium in River’s Edge.
On the 23rd August, 20 Rainbow Lorikeets left the collection for Wild Discovery in Lancashire. Following their departure, we will look to breed from the birds again.
Colchester Zoo’s MP, Priti Patel, visited Colchester Zoo to discuss future development plans for the Zoo and to visit some of our zoo exhibits to learn more about the species we house in the collection and the conservation work we undertake.
Sadly, on the 23rd August, we lost 19 year old female Amur Tiger, Anoushka, who was showing deterioration in her condition due to old age.
AUGUST
On the 6th August, our pair of Rock Hyrax, Ryan and Cindy-Lou, moved to a refurbished enclosure opposite the Humboldt Penguins at Inca Trail.
Zoo On the 13th August, juvenile male Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Barry, and 2 Crested Wood Partridges moved to a refurbished exhibit at Worlds Apart as a temporary measure before they leave the collection. Internal Animal Moves
On the 16th August, male Cheetah Abasi moved exhibits to the old Painted Dog enclosure opposite Dragons of Komodo. His brother, Azizi, remains at Edge of Africa to mix with the female, Anika, for breeding in the future.
A collection plan meeting was held to focus on future plans for Tiger Section.
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Meetings Held
Enclosure Upgrades
An animal management and team leader meeting was held for Elephant Section to discuss section standards, management and targets.
Shading was installed on the Sea Lion nursery pool to provide cover from the sun glare on the pool. This is an important addition as our Sea Lions age and eye health needs monitoring.
Our trio of Tamandua were mixed back together! Since our female, Ruth, was heavily pregnant with our youngster Tobermory, Ruth and male Oreo have been kept separate for safety. In the last month, Ruth and Oreo have both been desperately trying to reunite through the doors and now that Tobermory is 7 months old and nearly full grown, it was deemed safe enough to mix the trio under supervision. Oreo seemed thrilled to have some company, spending the rest of the day playfighting, especially with Tobermory who has as much energy as his dad.
AUGUST
education 155 10
from
18
A total of 27 ‘Explore Boxes’ were developed for use over the summer. These were made primarily out of existing teaching resources, as well as laminated photos, instructions and additional information.
pupils visited schools in August
education youth groups
bringing
359
Additionally, an ape Intelligence feeder game was used as a hook to draw people into the activities. ‘Big Cats’ was the most popular (873 people completed it), followed by ‘Poo’ and ‘Ssscales’ (809 people completed it).
7,864
children and
6,647
9,269 Boxes completed over the summer holidays.
adults attended
our Exploratorium activity over the summer.
participants
These numbers are higher than previous years during this time period. 2018 was especially high because we had a few very large groups of foreign English language summer school programmes visit. Outside of that year, this August seems average for school numbers, but also with the addition of all the uniformed group attendees.
18 250 - 300
ambassadors engaged with visitors
over the Summer Holidays
We also have 18 ambassadors now running pop up activities, taking out single props and interpreting enclosures for visitors. On average across a typical day in summer holidays, they engaged 250 – 300 visitors at one of these activities. There are 2 volunteers in on an average day, so overall a good rate of engagement.
AUGUST
research
Andy Moore was appointed as Director of Science, Education and Training. Andy will continue his role within the Education department, but will also support and develop staff training as well as build relations with universities and science based organisations. Part of Andy’s role will also be to collaborate with management and chair meetings to develop our annual events programme.
2 new student studies were started this month. The first is a study of ‘Behavioural comparison and enclosure use of Komodo Dragons at Colchester Zoo’ We also participated in a Komodo Dragon Thermo Logging Project led by Chester Zoo - our dragons ingested data loggers to record internal body temperatures and the keepers recorded external temperatures in order to gather information to provide the most suitable temperatures for dragons in captive habitats.
The second is ‘a study setting up ‘audiomoths’ to study Elephant communication; to establish whether there is a relationship between vocalisations made by captive African Elephants and behaviour expressed in their social interactions.’ This month, one of our Elephant keepers planned a project with our Research Coordinator to evaluate enclosure and resource use of the bull Elephant at Colchester Zoo, identify trends in enclosure use, such as with seasonality, individual Elephants and Elephant health and validate the use of keeper-collected data for research using ZooMonitor behavioural observation software. This study will commence shortly.
conservation 244
Rhinos
were poached nationally In KwaZulu-Natal, 191 were poached, of which 184 were White and 7 were Black Rhinos. The Government properties are getting hit the most with them losing 182, whilst 9 have been lost in private Reserves.
This month, 2023 funding support was confirmed for a number of projects with donations sent to:
• The Elephant Orphanage Project (£10,000) • Lwiro (£4,858.50)
• Free the Bears (£7,500)
• Orangutan Foundation (£7,500) • Red Panda Network (€250) • VulPro (£4,994.22)
AUGUST
UMPHAFA 1
The University of Suffolk joined us this month and bought their own camera traps and a thermal drone to check out the animals. The new group started with induction drives, bush encroachment, putting out the camera traps, and a night drive.
Camera Trap Stolen
1 of our camera traps was stolen by poachers, so we collected all the cameras in and contacted the supplier asking if they had any security boxes to prevent this in the future – they didn’t – but one of our maintenance team is skilled in welding. He therefore designed and made 7 steel boxes for the solar cameras, with the purchase of some chains and locks these new, super heavy camera security boxes are now back out in the Reserve! Our camera traps donated by WPS specifically pick up poachers; the photos automatically get posted to phones. This month provided not only 2 pictures of different Leopards walking past one of the cameras but also a picture showing 5 poachers inside the Reserve near the N3; one carrying a Panga, the other a spear and there looked like 1 dog with them. The team found the entry and exits points, as well as blood at the fence, so something was taken but they were out before the team got there.
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University Joined us on the Reserve
Imagery from the thermal drone
AUGUST
UMPHAFA 1
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Trailer Upgraded
New Access Gate Installed
Building Blocks Purchased
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Solar Power Project Begun
Erosion Prevention Work Undertaken
Fences and Roads Maintained by Interns
The maintenance team fixed up an old diesel trailer and put a new body on it from recycled metal; the interns will be using it to load equipment, wood, as well as feed items.
At the foot and mouth trough at the main gate, a new access gate was installed for trucks, such as game capture trucks, to enable them to get in and out without scraping along the bottom of the ‘wheel wash’.
Building blocks were purchased ready to start work on the Ranger Outpost where rangers stay out in the bush. This was demolished and will be rebuilt to give better accommodation for our Rangers, which includes warm water, cooking facilities and a flushing toilet. The building was demolished by hand so we can save as much of the material as possible. A couple of male Giraffes completely destroyed a section of fence along the Tugela Ranch boundary – they were leaning over the fence, one from our reserve and one from a neighbouring reserve to do some necking over the fence. It took the maintenance team and Interns a few hours to put the fence back together.
The maintenance team started to build the houses for the new solar power equipment and finally finished off the garage area at the intern accommodation, Sully, as there was now enough natural bamboo to finish the job. The company that are helping us with our solar plan placed monitors in all electric boxes so they can tell the usage of each property and therefore ensure that the solar we put in is able to cover us as we go completely ‘off’ the grid! One of the most important maintenance jobs is to keep the roads and fences erosion free for when we eventually get rain. Last rainy season the banks of the Tugela river started eroding away even more and the fence in some places was on the edge of the river bank. This month, the team moved the affected sections 5 metres back from the bank to ensure its stability over the coming years.
The interns continued with the painting of the numerous fence poles around the Reserve and helped the Maintenance team to fix the fences and roads.
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Giraffes Destroyed Fencing
AUGUST
UMPHAFA Government Department Visit
The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries came for a meeting to establish what our requirements are for the vegetation survey. They will be joining us in the first quarter of 2024 as this is the best time to look at our vegetation. Once this has been done, this will then feed into our carrying capacity figures and will be a lot more accurate than any reports we have had done so far.
Animal Licks Put Out
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Wild Fire Attended
This time of the year is a worry as it is so dry and the slightest spark can create a wild fire. A lightning strike on the top of Ithala meant the team had to jump into action and spend until the early hours of the morning stopping it spreading even more.
Sadly this time of year, we start to lose the weak, injured and old animals to starvation and poor health. With little food around the Reserve and animals not being able to maintain their condition, we start to see more mortalities. Each month we put out licks for the animals, which is a mixture of salts, molasses, lime, and phosphorus; they are placed around the Reserve to help the animals maintain their strength.
This means that each year we will be able to do the same assessment in the same areas to monitor progress. Potentially the field trip will take approx. 8 days.
The Reserve management team went to visit another reserve to go and check out a herd of Buffalo; we are looking at purchasing 20 individuals to form a new herd on the reserve.
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Ranger Meeting Held
A meeting was held to discuss the Field Rangers’ firearms training, assessments and security grading. We are hoping to start training in the next 2 months.
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Buffalo Visited
AUGUST