Twilight and Daylight at Bristol Zoo

LOOKING UP OLD FAVOURITES

19th July 2013

I had not planned that so many of my recent posts would be about zoo visits. Circumstances have made it difficult to find time for a day viewing British wildlife, but I have managed squeeze zoo visits into my schedule.

I did this again on a trip from Manchester to Devon, when I stopped at Bristol Zoo. Unfortunately I had to set my alarm very early because Bristol Zoo is unusual in opening at 9 am, and many of its most interesting animals are in the Twilight World, which actually experiences its twilight hour until 10 am, when the lights go out. As many of the animals are fed in this twilight time, they are easy to see and it is possible to photograph them. But when the house goes dark, it becomes so dark that I find it hard to see much and almost impossible to photograph anything.

This Turkish spiny mouse is one of a large colony at the zoo. It's a species that I haven't managed to photograph before.

My two favourite species in the Twilight World are the aye-aye and the kowari. I saw both aye-ayes, but I couldn't get a decent photo of either. I was luckier with the kowari (or Byrne's marsupial mouse, if you prefer its Sunday best name). This species is a true Australian marsupial, larger than your average mouse with big ears, a pointed nose and bushy tail - but it is actually a carnivore, closer in habits to a weasel than to any rodent, and almost indecently cute to boot. Bristol has the only group in the country; they arrived last year and I see from the zoo's Annual Report that they bred successfully too. Good show!

Photography in low light settings is tricky. I never like to set the ISO too high, this image was taken at 640 ISO, exposure 1/10th sec at f/6.3 and I underexposed by 1 stop so that it doesn't appear to be taken in normal illumination. I used my 105mm Micro-Nikkor with Vibration Reduction and I also held my rubber lens hood against the glass of the cage front to minimise camera shake. Even so, I needed to take a lot of shots to get one with adequate exposure, accurate focus and no significant subject or camera movement. In difficult circumstances it's sensible  take extra shots to improve your chances of getting a decent one.
In processing the shot, I used the colour of the dark grey nest box to set my neutral grey, which got rid of the yellow cast from the lamp over the cage. I also reduced the colour saturation of my original image to produce an image which matched my memory of the scene: of course I know that's a pretty unreliable process, but remember that at night all cats are grey, so in twilight I feel confident that all kowaris are fawnish.

Out in the daylight, I enjoyed walking around the zoo. It's been nearly a year since my previous visit and I was pleased to see some more of my favourite animals. Regular readers will have worked out that I like gorillas and I first visited Bristol to see Daniel, the first gorilla born in England, 40 years ago. Daniel and his father Samson passed away many years ago, although his mother Delilah is still alive in Belfast. The old gorilla house was demolished long ago too; it was replaced by the Ape House, which was converted into the Twilight World. At that time, Bristol sent the chimps and orangs away and moved the gorillas into new accommodation that was previously the elephant house. 

The gorillas have done so well that they are now extending and modernising this building. The indoor part is off-show during the building work, so I didn't see the gorillas until their 12.30 pm feed because they stayed out of the July sunshine until lunch was served. Even then it was difficult to get photos because the gorillas wanted to stay in the shade and they all went back inside as soon as they could - except for old Salome and her son. Salome relaxed in her favourite shady spot in the shelter, while little Kukena found a carrot that the others had missed and settle down to eat it. Kukena will be two in September and is growing well, he can now climb the old tree on the gorilla's island and he is happy to be out of Salome's sight for a few minutes. I needed my 500mm lens for this shot.

Finally, from the Reptile house, a colourful panther chameleon from Madagascar and a plainer common chameleon from southern Europe, showing some of the extraordinary adaptations of these strange lizards. I used the 105mm macro lens again.

Mainly Miniature Monkeys

MORE FROM CHESTER ZOO

16th July 2013

I went back to Chester Zoo hoping to see the baby Indian rhino, but I had no luck with that.
I was also hoping to photograph the black lion tamarins - I had good views of them indoors on my first visit to the Miniature Monkeys exhibits, but the Eastern pygmy marmosets in the outdoor part of the same enclosure gave me marvellous photo opportunities.

The outdoor enclosures in Miniature Monkeys are completely open and thickly planted with shrubs and mature trees. These are carefully pruned so that the marmosets and tamarins cannot jump over the barriers which have smooth inner surfaces so that they cannot be climbed either. The pygmy marmosets are the smallest monkeys, they are cryptically coloured and they creep around the enclosure - quite different from the agility and dash of the other species of marmosets and tamarins. This makes them hard to see and they also spend a lot of time looking around as if they are checking for predators. Several years ago I watched a kestrel eating a mouse in an oak tree in Miniature Monkeys, it then flew across the path and inspected the floor of the other enclosure obviously looking for another rodent. This happened before the pygmy marmosets arrived, but I have no doubt that a kestrel would be capable of catching an unwary pygmy marmoset - so it is as well that this species is so cautious.
The individual above was sitting quietly in a patch of sunlight at the top of a shrub: a perfect pose for my 500 mm. A different one gave me a sequence as it crept along a dead branch, it then moved across to live branch and started to bite the bark to feed on the sap, which is part of the natural diet of marmosets. You can see more bite marks on this branch.

There was also plenty of action at the giant otter's pool. You can see that the two cubs are still significantly smaller than the adults when they are all out of the water; but in the water it's much harder to tell. I think this shot shows the two cubs in front of their mother 'Icana'. I love the water lilies in their pool, they look very attractive and the otters seem to like them too.

In Realm of the Red Ape, the light was very good in the aviary of the Timor sparrows and scissor-billed starlings, but this male splendid fruit dove hogged the spotlight. I used my 105mm macro lens for this image (and for the photos below too).












Back at Miniature Monkeys, I finally managed a nice shot of a black lion tamarin (or golden-rumped lion tamarin if you prefer). This pair are the only specimens in mainland UK and although I am glad to see them on show, I am also disappointed because they been kept off-show at Chester for a couple of years in the hope that privacy would let them breed. Their move to Miniature Monkeys is a sign that the zoo has virtually given up hope of success. I have written before about this species; it is the most sensitive and delicate of the three species of lion tamarins in zoos, although this pair seemed to have taken their move well. I am afraid that in few years time they may have disappeared from zoos in Britain and perhaps in Europe too.
I am told that these animals are now using the outdoor enclosure too, so I will try to take more photos of them soon.
Finally a photo of black rhino calf 'Embu' at two and a half weeks old, with his mother 'Zuri'. They were out in the paddock, but the grass was too long for decent photos of the little guy. I took this one as the keepers enticed 'Zuri' back into the yard with some pellets before taking them in for the night. The background is pretty horrible, but it shows how much the calf had grown since my previous visit.

Touring Chester Zoo with a Curator

MANAGING A MODERN ZOO

6th July 2013

On Saturday 6th I toured Chester Zoo with a party of people from the ZooChat website in the company of the Curator of Mammals, Mr Tim Rowlands. We have had several of these tours over the past few years, Tim or one of the other curators gives us some insight into the working of the zoo and we make donations to one of the zoo's projects. We have a few ground rules: the zoo never announces animal pregnancies* and we understand that negotiations about the transfer of animals between zoos are sometimes too delicate to be discussed. On the other hand we sometimes see off-show areas of the zoo and occasionally we learn an interesting piece of news off-the-record. I won't break any confidences here of course, but I can describe what I have learned about the way this large and successful zoo is managed.

I think I can best explain this by writing about the zoo’s Eastern black rhinos. We started our tour with these animals and Tim introduced us to one of the team of rhino keepers. I remember the first pair of black rhinos at Chester more than 50 years ago: they bred successfully in the old house which is hardly changed, except that it is now off-show. But for many years the rhinos at the zoo did not breed at all. In spite of their size and proverbially thick skins, black rhinos are sensitive creatures. They have individual personalities and preferences. In the past few years, better management, including testing of the hormone levels in the dung of the females, has helped the keepers to arrange the mixing of males and females producing better breeding results. Tim was formerly a keeper on the giraffe section, so he knows how important skilled keepers are for getting the details right.

Chester now holds 2 bulls and 5 cows of this highly endangered species and 3 calves have been born since last October. Port Lympne Animal Park in Kent has a similarly sized herd and recently Chester sent the young bull ‘Asani’ there. ‘Asani’ is the number one son of Chester’s bull ‘Sammy’ who was bred in Japan and is unrelated to the other rhinos in the European studbook, so this move will help to widen the gene pool.

There are four interconnected rhino paddocks and one house on-show in the zoo, with three more paddocks and three houses off-show (although the paddocks can be seen from the entrance road and the car park). Recently simple shelters have been built in several of the paddocks to provide shade allowing the rhinos to spend more time out of doors, further improvements are planned. 

In the Tsavo house we saw female ‘Zuri’, who was born at Paignton Zoo, with her week old bull calf sired by ‘Magadi’. All baby animals are cute, but I think a baby rhino’s combination of sturdiness and vulnerability is particularly charming – although they grow into tough muscular beasts remarkably quickly. I love the ring on his face where his second horn will grow. The calf has been named ‘Embu’ since our visit. The lighting inside the house is always poor and I knew that most of my photos would be blurred even with a high ISO setting. I chose the low value of 200 ISO and took lots of images, resting the camera on the barrier and trusting the VR feature (vibration reduction) on my 105mm lens, to produce a decent shot when the calf was still for a moment. I have done some colour correction to compensate for the mixed lighting, but I haven’t quite got rid of the pink cast in the calf’s shadow.

Each species in the zoo has its own special requirements, although only a few are as demanding as the black rhinos. Some species do so well that it becomes hard to find suitable homes for surplus stock, other species run into problems and in the end the curator has to decide the best way to solve them. As we walked around the zoo we talked about the animals and the exhibits as we passed them. When we stopped between the oryx and the zebra we asked Tim about progress with the Islands development. From this point you can see the newt-proof fence surrounding the Islands site, which is over 110 000 square metres, almost all outside the current area of the zoo. The first step has been the capture of a large number of great crested newts which have been released into other areas of the zoo's land, one part is being developed as a nature reserve. This is a legal requirement, but the zoo must also be seen to set a good example by protecting this locally endangered species. It also shows the foresight of the zoo’s founder, George Mottershead, who bought up a lot of land along the zoo’s original boundaries, providing space for future projects.

Work will soon start on site to provide services (electricity, water and drainage) before building begins. There will be a large Indonesian house, holding the zoo’s Sumatran orang utans plus birds and macaques, a smaller house for Komodo dragons, with further mammal exhibits and aviaries. There will also be a restaurant, a shop and other visitor facilities. Landscaping, planting and the introduction of the animals is due to be completed around Easter 2015. The total cost will be around £30 million, so the zoo’s managers have been checking and rechecking the plans. As I have mentioned before, Tim has already started to bring in new stock for some of the Islands exhibits, so far the banteng and a Malayan tapir have arrived. I am sure that the other curators will be planning their exhibits too.

* As I was drafting this, Chester Zoo announced that shortly before midnight on 7th July (the day after our tour), 'Asha' the female Indian rhino gave birth to her first calf. Tim did not give us the slightest hint of this.