Due to its weighty body, flat breastbone and loose feathers it means they are unable to fly and are instead built to run, being able to reach speeds of up to 43mph. Native to the African savannah they are widespread across the continent living in small groups usually containing an alpha male and female along with several less dominant hens.
Within our Lost Kingdom section of our park there has been a boom of new arrivals both big and small! This section consists of a variety of different enclosures some of which have mixed species together. There is a standalone pride of 9 lions, which can regularly be soon out lounging around and sunbathing. You may have noticed a new giraffe calf called Sophie who is doing very well and has now been joined by a new male. Mylene gave birth to him on 1st of May and no doubt one day he’ll grow to be as tall as his huge and proud father George. He has already been introduced to his neighbours our two Addax Jackson and Miller. They are a critically endangered species of antelope, which has large spiral horns.
It has been an exciting month for new arrivals here at the zoo in particular our Australia section has seen some little ones emerge from their mother pouches and take their first hops around their home. Within our Australia section we have a wallaby walkway that is home to Parma wallabies and Swamp wallabies. Our swamp wallabies now have four Joeys at different stages in their development. Two have been seen moving around within in the pouch, another has their head poked out while another is already out on the move with their mother!
At the end of April we said goodbye to our two male white rhinos, Balu (6 years old) and Zimba (8 years old). Both rhinos came to us when they were approximately 2-3 years old which is the age they would leave their mothers in the wild. They were too young to be paired with a female at this age therefore Flamingo Land offered them a home and cared for them until they were mature enough to be moved on to another zoo where they can be part of a breeding program. Breeding programs are a crucial part of the conservation of a species.
Renowned Yorkshire artist Lucy Pittaway, the official artist of the Tour de Yorkshire for the second year running, designed a large scale flamingo and bicycle themed piece of field artwork at Flamingo Land Resort Yorkshire. This was painted onto their land by staff at Flamingo Land and was located adjacent to where the race passed by at 2.50pm, making it a ground and aerial visual spectacle.
World Tapir Day falls on the 27th April every year. It is a day to celebrate all 4 living species of tapir including the Malayan, Baird’s, Lowland and Mountain tapir. All tapirs are at risk of extinction and World Tapir Day is an event to raise awareness and create support, shedding light on the challenges and threats these amazing creatures face in the wild.
If you have ever visited Flamingo Land you may have noticed we have free ranging peafowl, or peacocks, in our park. The peacocks are very friendly which is why we are able to allow them to wander around the park and not keep them within an enclosure. Peacocks are very vocal animals, particularly in breeding season. They display a selection or various calls to each other ranging from honks to meow-like calls! During spring is the best time to see them as our males are currently doing their best to display their beautiful feathers to attract the females. Make sure you have your cameras at the ready around the park!
At Flamingo Land we run a daily Meet a Creature session in the Education Centre. One of the animals which we are able to bring out are Madagascar hissing cockroaches. These cockroaches can live up to 5 years old and can reproduce quite easily. The females will carry eggs around with her once they are fertilised and release the young nymphs once they have hatched. They can produce 15-40 young during each season! We recently had some nymphs born and these will undergo several moults before they reach adult size. The hissing cockroach is one of the largest as fully grown adults can reach 7cm long!
Back in November we told you about our new rainbow lorikeet exhibit opening. The developers added an extension along with making several modifications to the old Bongo Warrior’s hut to turn it into a bird aviary. The lorikeets have settled in well over the winter season and visitors have been able to enter the aviary to get up close to these colourful birds. New for the summer season, visitors are able to purchase a small pot of nectar to hand feed the birds. We have quite a lot of the birds so they can be very noisy at times! They are extremely fast at flying too, so you definitely experience a close encounter with them whilst you’re in the aviary.
We are delighted to announce the arrival of Baringo, a 24 year old male black rhino from Dvur Kralav Zoo in Europe. He is currently settling into his new home at our Selous Black Rhino Reserve. Baringo and the 3 existing females are part of a European breeding programme, which aims to conserve this critically endangered species. He joins Samira who is 16 years old, her daughter Olmoti who is 3 and our other female Chenua who recently arrived from Chester Zoo a few months ago.
Wednesday 22nd of March marked the 3rd Birthday of the 3 Sumatran tiger cubs which were born here at Flamingo Land. At 18 months old the mother, in our case Surya, would start to encourage the cubs to find their own territory and start their own families. Since then something wonderful has happened. Kuasa our male tiger cub has become a father himself! Last year he moved to Zoo de la Boissière du Doré’ close to Nantes in Western France as part of the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP). He now has a Sumatran tigress daughter which was born on the 13th of January. She had her first vet examination on the 23rd of March and she weights 8kg. She’ll soon be 10 times that weight when she is a full grown tigress in just a few years. Her mother is Suma from Tiergarten Heidelberg. The cub doesn’t have a name yet but will be decided very soon.
For this week’s article we are going to be letting you in on a little secret on some of the more peculiar ways our keepers look after our animals. One of which has fascinated our guests and fellow staff in particular has been our dummy keeper ‘Tod’. Tod is situated against the fence of our ‘Africa’ Paddock which includes our Kafu Lechwe and also our Scimitar Horned Oryx.
On the 17th of January 2017 here at Flamingo Land we were blessed with the arrival of a healthy female Rothschild giraffe calf (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschildi). Her Dad is called George, and her Mum Lizzy, and she is the sixth member of our Rothschild herd. However she needs a name and that’s where you can help. You can enter the ‘name the baby’ competition by emailing [email protected] with your suggestion and reasons why. The end date for this competition is the 31st of March with our Zoo Manager selecting the winner. The prize is a family ticket to the theme park and zoo, plus a giraffe encounter to see the baby at close quarters.
We have some new animals on display in our aquarium section called fly river turtles (Carettochelys insculpta) who are also known as pig-nosed turtles. We have a male and a female who have been off show whilst their new tank was being prepared. As soon as their new home was ready the male was moved over first to be able to establish his territory and then the female was moved over to join him.
At the zoo on Valentine’s Day we celebrated by looking at all the weird and wonderful behaviours animals have when it comes to courting and attracting a mate. Just like humans, animals have ways of ‘wooing’ their partners and this can vary from elaborate courtship displays, to presenting their mate with a ‘gift’, to something much simpler like using scent.
A Rothschild giraffe calf was born here on 17th January 2017, and as yet she does not have a name! This is where you all come in…
On Sunday 5th February, our female tiger, Surya, enjoyed her 8th birthday! She originally came from Paignton Zoo in Devon and lives at the park with our other tiger, a male named Bawa, who came from the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent. Bawa is named after an island just off the coast of Sumatra whilst Surya is Indonesian for Sun.
As well as the huge variety of exotic animals that call Flamingo Land home we also have an exciting range of native wildlife here too.
On Thursday 26th January we celebrated Jackson the Addax’s 8th birthday. He lives with Miller who is six years old and they also share a paddock with some of our Rothschild Giraffes.
