Flamingo Land is currently celebrating the birth of a baby ring-tailed lemur. The sex of the youngster is still unknown, as it’s still being closely looked after by its mother. However, it appears to be healthy and doing well. The baby can be seen clinging to its mother as they move around the enclosure. Baby lemurs travel everywhere with their mother until they are old enough to move around independently and keep up with the rest of the troop.

Ring-tailed lemurs are probably the most easily recognised lemur, thanks to their black and white striped tail, which is longer than their head and body. They are also the most common lemur to be found in zoos worldwide. Lemurs are primates but are not closely related to other primates such as monkeys, gorillas or humans. They have eyes which are reflective at night, rely more on their sense of smell, have relatively small brains compared to other primates, have wet noses and possess a unique feature known as a toothcomb, which is used for grooming.

At Flamingo Land, we are pleased to announce that our mara group number has increased this April due to the birth of four youngsters! Two females gave birth to two babies each within a couple of weeks of each other. Female maras usually give birth to two babies at a time so this is normal behaviour. The new additions are settling in well with the rest of the group and can be clearly seen from our Treetop Walkway. 

There are two species of mara, Patagonian and Chacoan. Our maras are Patagonian and can be found living in our South American area of the zoo. They are quite an unusual animal, looking slightly like a miniature deer with the head of a hare. Their backs are fairly grey in colour, with a fringe of white towards their rear end, and they have golden brown fur on their front and around their face.

Zanzibar Food Market, “the home of Stone Town Pizza’s, Starbucks and the Burger Shack.”

Several new species are now on display in Flamingo Land’s Reptile River area. This section of the zoo is part of Children’s Planet and was already home to our water monitor lizard, Burmese pythons and cane toad. As well as reptiles, amphibians and mammals can be seen there too – our porcupines and meerkats also have enclosures there. The species now on display are poison dart frogs, a blood python, mossy frogs and red-tailed racer snakes.

Red-tailed racers are also known as red-tailed green ratsnakes. If you see ours you’ll be able to recognise them easily by their bright green colour, although don’t bother looking for red tails because they don’t have them! The name is quite misleading as these snakes are not always green and don’t always have red tails. Red-tailed racers are excellent climbers and may spend most of their lives in the trees. They eat birds, eggs, rodents, lizards and bats. They are native to Southeast Asia, being found in countries such as India, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.

On 13th February we had a camel calf born at Flamingo Land! The calf is yet to be named but Abi the camel gave birth to a healthy girl. This is Abi’s second calf and she is looking after it very well.

Abi was hand-reared but she still has a motherly instinct to make sure the calf is protected and suckling from her. The calf’s dad, Baxter, is living within the same camel house along with the rest of our camels, although they are being kept separate from Abi and her calf for a few days to give them a bit of privacy.

Flamingo Land has yet more new additions to the zoo! We have introduced two mongoose lemurs into our group of ring-tailed and red-bellied lemurs.

These small lemurs are settling in well after leaving their previous home at Edinburgh Zoo. The pair were already living together at Edinburgh so they are already familiar with each other. The male, Geoffrey, is distinguishable from the female, Geraldine, as he has a brown neck while she has a white neck.

Flamingo Land is proud to announce that our two Red Pandas are now on display to visitors.

The male is called Bai Jiao and the female Tai Jang and they are both 18 months old. They form part of our international breeding programmes, and we look forward to them having babies in the future.

Flamingo Land has been a member of BIAZA, the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums, and EAZA, its European counterpart, for many years.

BIAZA and EAZA are professional accreditation bodies that represent only the best zoos in Britain, Ireland and Europe. Although all zoos must comply with strict government regulations, to be a member of an accreditation body requires compliance with even more stringent codes of practice, as well as significant contributions to the fields of animal welfare, research, conservation and education. Accreditation body membership brings a number of benefits, including training sessions and conferences for zoo staff. BIAZA and EAZA zoos also have very close relationships with one another, collaborating on conservation projects and coordinating animal moves to ensure the success of breeding programmes for endangered species.

Our group of banded mongoose has increased in size due to the addition of three babies!

These small animals are miniatures of their parents, so they look very cute! Despite being small they are very vocal, squeaking to their mother so she is aware of where they are and their needs. The photo shows one of our babies actively running around with its mother. The mothers are still quite protective of their offspring so will try to make sure they are close by and are visible. In the wild the young would be defenceless against any predators so depend on their mothers for protection and to teach them how to be a mongoose. The babies are fully integrated into the group so if you’re visiting us this winter you may be lucky enough to spot them in our Children’s Planet area. Our keepers assume that the babies have different mothers but the same father. This is a replica of the natural behaviour in the wild, where there would be one dominant male within the group and several breeding females.

If you have ever visited Flamingo Land you may have noticed we have free ranging peafowl, or peacocks, in our park.

These have recently gone through their breeding season and have produced multiple young. These can be seen following their mums around and look like mini versions of them! 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.

Visitors to Flamingo Land can get closer than ever before to our lemurs now their new walkthrough enclosure is open.

Our existing lemur enclosure has been modified so that the public can now walk through it instead of only being able to view from the paths outside. This allows people to encounter the lemurs at a much closer range. It also means that you can get photos of them without a fence in the picture. Our wallaby enclosure was converted to a walkthrough earlier in the year and has proved extremely popular with visitors this summer. So, we hope this will be just as successful.

Summer visitors to Flamingo Land have been enjoying the sight of hundreds of colourful rhinos amongst the trees

Sadly, they’re not real ones. Instead they’re the work of hundreds of children who’ve visited Flamingo Land this summer and taken part in our Ready for Rhinos event, aimed at getting Flamingo Land ready for the arrival of our new Indian rhinos.

Our latest arrival at Flamingo Land is an adult male white-crowned mangabey named Paddy.

Visitors can see him settling into his new home in the mangabey enclosure, in between the tiger and zebra enclosures. Paddy has joined our two resident female mangabeys, Calpurnia and her daughter Sophia.

Calling all wildlife enthusiasts! Flamingo Land is holding a BioBlitz from Friday 20th to Saturday 21st September and we want you to join in.

You don’t have to be an expert on British wildlife or have any equipment – you just need to come along and use your eyes and ears to help us spot as many species of wildlife as possible around the park.

Children’s Planet is home to a range of mammal and reptile species. This includes the South American coati, found is Venezuela, Columbia, Uruguay and Argentina.

These are closely related to racoons, therefore resembles them by having a stripey tail and long snout. Coati’s fur is a slightly reddish colour with lighter patches around its face. When foraging it often holds its tail in the air allowing other coatis in the group to be able to distinguish each other. Despite looking fairly cute and fluffy, it is able to eat animals such as scorpions, spiders and tarantulas, in addition to a variety of food and seeds.

Flamingo Land is pleased to announce the birth of yet another baby!

A male scimitar-horned oryx was born five weeks ago in the zoo. He has been born into our collection of six females, which should be being joined by a new breeding male shortly. The young oryx will stay with his mum and rely on her for about the first 14 weeks of his life.

With over 140 species of reptiles, mammals and birds, new arrivals are a familiar attraction at Flamingo Land.

However, our baby Hamadryas baboons have achieved superstar status, drawing masses of interest from visitors of all ages. Born between April and July, the five infants – who are yet to be named – rapidly became an integral part of our existing baboon family.

Flamingo Land is currently renovating the old mangabey and bat house into our new Indian Rhino exhibit. The building has been extended and improved, and fixtures are now being fitted to accommodate our new residents.

The Rhino should be arriving towards the end of the summer or early autumn. This will be an exciting time for all our zoo staff and the visitors to the park too. Although we already have White Rhino at Flamingo Land, the Indian Rhino will be kept in a completely separate enclosure to them.

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