New zebra settling in nicely

George with Milo, Ella and Benjamin Mee

On December 5th 2012 we received our new Zebras from Longleat Safari Park, and they were immediately placed in their new, purpose built stable. They took to their new home very quickly, and have rapidly become a firm favourite of the Keepers.

They were named by a special DZP visitor, George Koshti-Richman as Zebedee, Zak & Spot. They are all easily identifiable, as each zebra’s stripes are unique to that animal, a bit like our fingerprints. Zebedee can be identified by the thick black stripe down the centre of his back, Zak has thick black stripes under both eyes, and Spot has a small white “heart” shape on the top of his back right leg and a black “Y” on his upper right foreleg.

Their unique markings make it easy for us to identify individuals, but there is one intriguing questions regarding the zebra’s stripes; are they white with black stripes, or black with white stripes? The answer is to be found at the end of this article.

You may be surprised to see three males together, but in zebra society this is perfectly normal. Young males leave their family herd at between one and four years old and join all male bachelor herds until they are able to lead a herd of their own. Inter zoo co-operation allows these natural set-ups to happen by sending males to other collections who have the space to hold bachelor herds. Here at DZP they can form a bachelor herd where they can exhibit natural behaviours such as play fighting, learning new social skills, and generally behaving normally.

Zak, Zebedee and Spot enjoying their accommodation

Zebras can, and will become aggressive if they feel threatened, and they have some pretty formidable weapons with which to defend themselves. When confronted by any form of danger they will lash out with their powerful hind legs, or they will try to bite with their impressive teeth. Either can cause quite serious injuries and all the Keeper Team have been trained to manage the zebra with minimal risk to both parties.

We are planning to let them out into the African Paddock sometime in March, when, hopefully, the ground will have dried out. As they are designed for life in arid areas they can sometimes suffer hoof problems if the ground is too wet, and after our very rainy winter we want to make sure everything is perfect before giving them access to the fields. This has given us the opportunity to train the zebra, getting them to treat the stable block as a place of security, comfort and food. This will be important in the summer months when we may need to get them in for paddock maintenance or routine veterinary examinations and procedures.

Grants Zebras are the smallest of the Plains Zebra sub-species, being typically 120-140cms tall, and weighing on average 300Kgs. They can live up to 25 years in the wild, but in zoos and wildlife parks we can expect them to live for up to 40 years.

They are without doubt one of the most readily identifiable of all the African animals. No-one who has ever seen a Zebra can confuse it with anything else, which in a way is ironic. The very thing that makes the zebra most identifiable is the one thing that may help it when being attacked by lions, hyenas, hunting dogs or leopards. When they are in a large herd their stripes act as a disruptive camouflage, confusing predators because they cannot distinguish one individual from another.

Zebras are social animals, living in a herd system consisting of a stallion several mares and their young. Some herds may combine to form larger ones numbering several hundred, but family members will always remain close to each other.

Zebras are an iconic African species that inspire joy and excitement in all who see them, but there is still one unanswered question that perplexes staff and visitors alike. Are they white with black stripes, or black with white stripes? The current opinion from scientists is that they are black with white stripes. What do you think?  Either way they are indeed striking animals, and we look forward to seeing them in all their glory for years to come.

Mike Downman
Head Keeper

New Arrivals

The long awaited and very adorable baby meerkats*

There’s been lots going on at DZP over the past twelve months with new additions to the collection, new babies and lots of developments. Here’s a quick round up of some of the recent highlights.

New Babies!

We've had lots of new babies recently including pygmy goats and lechwe, but the real treat came just be for Christmas in the shape of three adorable baby meerkats.

Sue and Timon are long-standing residents at DZP arriving in the spring of 2010. Though they got on very well together, in all that time we never saw any kits. But with the recent introduction of feisty young female, Xena things got very interesting. She gave birth to two girls and a boy shortly before Christmas.

Sue was always the boss of the troop and, as hoped, Xena took a back seat to let Sue take over the care of the new arrivals. This is quite common among meerkats who are known for sharing the responsibility of bringing up the young.

The arrival of the youngsters brings the total number of meerkats to six. Just a few inches in length, they made their first public appearance in early January. The keepers are working on names at the moment so we'd love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

Baby Tapir
April saw the arrival of baby tapir, Luta. His name means, "fighter" and you can find out why in this report from Head Keeper, Mike Downman.

Zebra, getting used to their new accommodation

Zebra Development

Over the past few months we have been very busy making preparations to receive three Grant’s Zebra from Longleat Safari Park. Staff and contractors have been working hard through the atrocious weather up-grading the entire perimeter fence and constructing a wonderful curved stable complex that many visitors say resembles an ark. It has three individual stables large enough to provide comfortable accommodation for the zebra as well as our herd of Lechwe Antelope and our two ostrich, providing much needed shelter from the chilly winter months.

This is the largest development we’ve undertaken for quite some time and it would not have been possible without the enthusiastic support of certain members of staff (who literally threw themselves out of a plane to raise money) as well as local businesses, MST Parkins who provided much needed heavy machinery and Tesco who made a generous donation.

The Zebra arrived safely in early December and are currently going through a settling period during which they’ll be kept within the perimeter of the new building. They will be able to enjoy the full run of the main paddock soon, but in the meantime they can still be viewed in the yards from the Jaguar restaurant and play area.

The zebra are a great addition to the collection enhancing a beautiful African vista; a piece of the African plains in rural Devon. Who’d have thought?

You can see more images of the development here and here.

Mongoose Development

In other developments, the old foundation shell of a Victorian greenhouse has lent itself beautifully to becoming the new enclosure for our three mongoose. They have spent most of their time here in an indoor enclosure but this new development gives them a heated house and a large outdoor run.

The house is raised off the ground to avoid the damp with a ramp for access. The walls of the original greenhouse have been retained for their naturally aged beauty but have been modified to contain the animals with a glazed extension. We’ve also provided an outdoor heated area to allow the mongoose to have some fresh air whilst still keeping warm as well as a covered viewing area to provide visitors with shelter from the Devon weather whilst viewing the mongoose through full height glass walls.

Like the zebra development, this project was also made possible by the very generous support of Cornwall Glass & Glazing Ltd who provided all the reinforced glass. There’s a little more work to do but the Mongoose will move in to their new home within a week or so.

Iberian Wolves

Raul and Carlos in their off-show enclosure

Also on the list of “new at the zoo” is the addition of our Iberian Wolves.

To assist with an on-going breeding programme we exchanged our Grey Wolves, Sarah and Parker, with Woburn Safari Park for a trio of Iberian Wolves, Carlos and his younger brothers, Gregorio and Raul (the latter two named with the help of our visitors). Since their arrival they have been housed in our quarantine facility which is an off-show area. This gave us the perfect opportunity to make some major improvements to the old wolf enclosure to welcome our new pack.

The work entailed bringing down several trees with which we were able to build a new “natural” platform to give the wolves a high vantage point as well as shelter. Beside this platform we built an underground den which gives the wolves privacy and also allows us to catch them should the need arise for veterinary treatment or similar interventions. The enclosure containment has also been improved and with the help of Grow for Good South West the entire exhibit has been planted out with meadow flowers to bring a blaze of colour to the site in the spring and summer.

As is often the case with major developments, it has not been easy. Our planned release has been delayed by the severe weather hampering our build and the heavy rains have flooded the den before we were able to complete! So for the time being, they will remain in the off-show holding area which has all the facilities to meet their needs. We plan to have them in their new home very soon. Watch this space!

You can see more images of the wolves and the development, here, here and here.

*Thanks to Steve Haywood for the meerkat photos.