Jan and Hanneke Louwman officially closed the
Wassenaar Wildlife Breeding Centre (WWBC) on April 1 2006. The cheetah facility
at the breeding centre has been the most successful in the western hemisphere,
with 215 chetahs born since 1980.
The breeding center was an offshoot of the Wassenaar
Zoo, which originated in 1937 when Jan Louwman’s father opened his private
bird collection for public viewing. The zoo was sold to the province in 1980
because of financial problems. Some investments were made by the province, but
apparently the wrong ones, as the financial situation did not improve. The zoo
closed in 1985, but the WWBC remained intact, and the breeding of some
endangered animals (several species of vultures and small cats as well as
cheetahs) continued. The Louwmans are pleased to offer advice to people wanting
to know more about their methods, but primarily plan to concentrate on their
hobbies, including miniature donkeys and giant turtles.
After 1.5 years of discussion and consideration, the
future course of Artis, the
centuries-old Amsterdam Zoo, has been set.
Attracting more than a million visitors per year in a country of 16
million people, Artis is important for the regional economy, and in
strengthening social cohesion. Much time, energy and money will be invested in
realizing the future vision, which focusses on giving Artis’s rich history a
new relevance and urgency, strengthening its educational role and providing a
better visitor experience. Because Artis is a city zoo with limited space, it
will not strive to create the illusion that the animals are in the nature, but
rather to provide exhibits that optimize the animals’ well-being, encourage
natural behaviours and improve visitor visibility.
A parking area will be built underground, freeing up
more room for the animals. The historic
“Knowledge Square” will be renovated, and an educational centre added. The
Great museum, founded in 1850-1855 and housing the largest historical interior
of any museum in The Netherlands, will be restored to its former glory. A
micro-zoo presenting the important but to the naked eye invisible microbic world
will be housed in another building on Knowledge Square. The planetarium will be
relocated to the square, and renovated. The new project systems to be employed
in the planetarium will allow visitors to take simulated journeys down to the
earth’s core and up through countless galaxies to the origin of the universe.
They would have arrived faster if they had flown
themselves...
Three European zoos, Tierpark Berlin and Frankfurt Zoo
in Germany and Burgers’ Zoo in Arnhem The Netherlands worked together, and
with the EAZA Pelicaniformes TAG, to import a group of little pied cormorants (Halietor/Phalacorax
melanoleucos) from Australia. The first two zoos had held them for some time,
but needed some new animals to maintain the groups. A studbook will be kept by
Frankfurt Zoo to monitor the developments of the population.
After three years of preparations, 16 cormorants finally arrived at the airport in Frankfurt on 24 June 2005, and were quickly whisked into the quarantine facilities at the zoo. Burgers Zoo received 3.3 cormorants from Australia, an older female born at Frankfurt Zoo and an older male that had been in the group at Berlin. The cormorants adapted quickly to their new enclosure in the Burgers’ Zoo Mangrove Hall , and courtship and copulation activity has already been observed.Many people think that it is not possible to import animals out of Australia. It is possible but entails much time, correspondence, paperwork, patience and careful planning. But in this case it was certainly worth it!
Agile mangabeys Cerccocebus a. agilis are found in
captivity only at a rehabilitation facility in Cameroon and in Wissel Zoo. This
species is thought to be present in Cameroon
rainforests in reasonable numbers, but is vulnerable.
The group in Wissel consists of three daughters from
the original pair held there (both parents are now dead) and one male offspring
(Jop) from a daughter (Jové) and unrelated male (Levi) confiscated in Letland,
and arrived from Riga Zoo in 1998. Jop, now six years old, is the last young born in the group. Various
combinations have been tried, but now two groups have been formed: a sister of
Jové (Leontin) with Jop in the first group, and Jové, Levi and another sister
of Jové (Lotje) together in the second group. These combinations seem to work
well, and Levi is beginning to show interest in the females and a reduction in
abnormal behaviours that he has displayed over the years. Hopefully it will be
possible to receive some unrelated animals from captivity in Cameroon in the future.
The pair of
capercaillie shared an “European” enclosure that is 720 m2 and 5 m high with
corncrakes Crex crex and European turtle doves Streptopelia turtur. Vegetation
consisted of elder, hazel, Ligustrum, currant,
holly and nordman??? The female laid a clutch of nine eggs in a
shallow scrape between the vegetation. Eight eggs hatched on 28 June 2006 after
26 days incubation. The female and young regularly found insects in the
enclosure, and also received mealworms, young grasshoppers and crickets. As the
chicks grew they switched over from a insect- based diet to one with pellets,
carrots, appel and endive. By ten weeks of age they ate only a pelleted Galliformes diet (Gallus 3). Two chicks died
because they squeezed through a small opening leading outside their enclosure.
Coccidiosis proved a problem, despite the chicks being offered a turkey starter
diet with Diclazuril added as a preventative coccidiosis medicine. Salmonella
typhinarium was also found in a dead chick. Treatments for both problems
are described in the article. The four remaining young, all females, were as large as their mother by three
months of age. The male was present in the enclosure throughout the entire
reproductive period, and did not interfere. Unfortunately he contracted an eye
infection that resulted in blindness and subsequent euthanasia, as he would no
longer be able to live in that enclosure.
Foundation Zoos Help
Foundation Zoos Help (SDH) is a nature conservation
fund established by the Dutch Zoo Federation to support both in situ and
ex situ projects. One example of a species that has been supported is
the Grevy’s zebra. Working with the EEP coordinator, SDH has supported surveys
in Ethiopia and Kenya. Most recently it
gave 10,000 euros for vaccinating the zebras for anthrax, as there was an
outbreak in the last Kenyan population. This situation illustrates how an EEP
coordinator can serve as a bridge between ex situ and in situ
efforts in nature conservation. A list of other projects supported by SDH,
which species and which countries are involved, is provided in the table. More
information is available from William van Lint <William.van.Lint@nvdzoos.nl>
Polar bear Huggies became increasingly irritable in
October 2005, not letting her three-year-old daughter or the male polar bear
near her. She was given a birthing den to with wood shavings and straw at the
end of October. Infra red cameras showed that triplets were born on 26
November. They then weighed approximately 500 grams and drank approximately
every three hours. Huggies began leaving the den when the young were eight
weeks old. The young, two males and a
female, were first given accesses to the outside enclosure in front of the
press on 10 March 2006.
Take a journey to the wilderness with Apenheul!
The primate zoo Apenheul in Apeldoorn has established
a foundation called the Apenheul Primate Conservation Trust (APCT) which funds
protection of primates and their habitats. A proportion of the income from
souvenir-sale profits and 2% of the entrance fee are donated to the fund. This
enables APCT to support approximately 15 projects annually. To increase the
amount of funding available, Apenheul has now started offering wildlife trips.
Apenheul has two tourist bureaus with which it works
to organize the trips for small groups. Expeditions to see wooly monkeys,
howler monkeys and spider monkeys in
Peru and to see orang utans, elephants and probiscis monkeys in Malaysia were
organized in 2005. An 18 day and 26 day tour along the Chacha trail of Peru are
now being offered in Peru. The trip to Malaysia includes an excursion to see
orang utans under guidance of the local people. It is also possible to see
gibbons, rhinoceroses, elephants and clouded leopards. More information on
these tours is available from the internet sites given.