Our primary current research focus is on the Humboldt penguin. This penguin occurs in isolated populations along the west coast of South America. Due to overfishing and climate change, their numbers have decreased over the last 30 years. Flamingo Land is among a network of zoos across the world that are breeding this species to maintain a viable captive population. Our research in collaboration with masters student Stacey Mayer (University of York Environment Department) is aiming to determine the effectiveness of the Flamingo Land penguin exhibit for encouraging space-use, exercise and good behaviour.

Zoo keeper Catherine Brenkley is currently studying the preferred diet of the Flamingo Land giraffes. In their wild habitats giraffes eat Acacia trees, well-known for their defensive spines and galls containing armies of guarding ants. However, tree species in the UK are quite unrelated and mostly without defensive spines. This may mean that zoo giraffes can devour leaves and bark more rapidly than those in their natural state.

This research will help UK zoos to prioritise which trees to plant to maintain the stock of available food.

Another of our zoo keepers, Christina Fischer, is also preparing a study of diet and enclosure design for Rodrigues fruit bats. These bats are endangered in their native home on islands near to Mauritius, due to forest habitat destruction. Fortunately they breed well in captivity when kept in adequate conditions. Inadequate enclosure design in some parks may result in restricted flight corridors. Bats may therefore spend less time flying than their wild counterparts and can then become overweight. To ensure that this does not affect the healthy population of Flamingo Land bats, Christina will be testing various enclosure designs and diets to determine the effect on weight and time spent flying.

For the past two years, students under Dr. Katie Slocombe from the University of York Psychology Department have been studying the response of lions to playback calls of wild lions. By using captive-born lions that have no previous experience of foreign lions, this is helping to understand whether lions are born with the ability to recognise calls or whether this is learned from experience. In 2008 this project was nominated for the British Psychological Society Psychobiology prize. Dr. Slocombe’s research will continue, including a new study on the learning techniques of meerkats.