Here at Flamingo Land we are very lucky to have both Black Rhinoceros as well as White Rhinoceros and this week we will be letting you know the differences between the two species. We have four Black Rhinos, one 24 year old male called Baringo and our three females: Olmoti who’s 3, Chanua who’s 5 and Samira who’s 16. We also have our two young male White Rhinos called Bruce and Mabaso who are 2 and 3.

Make sure you see our pair of zebras here at Flamingo Land. We have a female called Vendela, who is 10, while her partner, our male is called Guiness and he is 11. The zebras at Flamingo Land are all Grant’s zebras, which are the smallest subspecies of plains zebra. In the wild these are found in countries such as Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. They can be found in grassland and savannah woodland. Grant’s zebras have vertical stripes at the front, horizontal stripes on their back legs and diagonal s

tripes in between. Every zebra has a slightly different pattern, so their stripes can be used to identify individuals.

Take a walk through our Lemur enclosure this winter for the chance to see our ring tailed lemurs up close. Here at Flamingo Land we have a troop of 14 females lead by our oldest and most dominant female – Ruth.

One of the more festive animals to see at the zoo is of course our Penguins. Here at Flamingo Land we have a colony of twenty-two Humboldt Penguins. Penguins tend to be associated with very cold climates however our species come from the Pacific coastline of Chile and Peru. This means they are more adapted to a hot climate as opposed to the snow that has been falling upon North Yorkshire in recent weeks! They can still be seen swimming around in their pool but some may prefer to stay inside within their nest boxes.

One of the snakes that was previously housed in our Education Centre has moved over to Reptile River to be put on display. Edmund is a 16-year-old western black rat snake, the move means that he has lots more space to adventure and explore around in Reptile River – he is now housed next the Burmese python and shares his vivarium with our Blood Python named Fluffy! They are both getting on very well and often sleep next to one or another.

Christmas is on its way and in preparation Flamingo Land has welcomed its very own reindeer.

It has been a busy year for Flamingo Land’s, Tanzanian based, Udzungwa Forest Project (UFP). We are excited to report that there have been many successes.

This week we will be letting you know how we look after our very cute Red Pandas and the best time for you to see them when you visit us! We have two Red Pandas here at Flamingo Land called Tai Jang our female who is 5 and our male Bai Jiao who is also 5. We train our red pandas every day, encouraging them to come down from the trees, place their nose against our target stick then be hand fed a reward by our keepers. We do this every day generally around half one which is the best time for our public to see our pandas in action. This allows us to do use the target stick to guide them around the enclosure, onto scales and into crates should we need to move them anywhere. Target training is very important for health checks and weighing animals. They both weigh around 5 kilograms. Females tend to be more confident and Tai Jang regularly comes down, touches the target stick with her nose and received a reward. This training technique is called positive reinforcement and can be used for a whole range of species.

If you have ever visited Flamingo Land you may have noticed we have free ranging peafowl in our park. They 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 peafowl are very friendly which is why we are able to allow them to wander around the park and not keep them within an enclosure.

As Halloween brings another fantastic season for Flamingo Land’s Theme Park to an end, we have been distributing the remaining pumpkins to our animals. And, although the majority of our rides are now closed, visitors can still enjoy our award-winning animal collection throughout the months to come, with admission at a reduced winter rate.

At Flamingo Land, we have been very busy with Halloween activities! One which was on offer to the visitors was to carve a pumpkin. This proved to be a very popular family activity as both adults and children were able to get involved. We found that for a lot of adults it was the first time for them carving a pumpkin! Once the visitors had carved the pumpkin they could either take the pumpkin home with them or leave it here for us to give to the animals. Many of our guests staying at the Holiday Village decided to take theirs with them to decorate their caravans and log cabins.

It has been a very exciting week here at flamingo land as we have some new Australian additions here at the zoo. Our Wallaby Walkway has been undergoing some new developments as six yellow-footed rock wallabies have been introduced to the enclosure.

For this week’s view from the zoo we will be celebrating international zookeeper day! Every October 4th is the recognition of the huge contribution zookeepers make to the care and conservation of all species great and small.

Here at Flamingo Land we do have creatures that are all shapes and sizes. One of our more scary and hairy residents is our Chilean Rose Tarantula with the lovely name – Talula. She is 13 years old and has been with us for almost her entire life and here at the zoo she can live up to 20 years!

The 22nd September every year is World Rhino Day. It is a day to raise awareness on all 5 species of rhinoceros and the threats they face in the wild. There are 2 African species including the white and black rhino, along with 3 Asian species including the Indian, Javan and Sumatran rhino.

You may remember last year we announced the arrival of a baby vicuna (Vicugna vicugna), also known as a cria. At the time of writing the sex of the cria was unknown but a little while later the infant was sexed as a female and she was named Valerie. Born on 15th September 2016 it means Valerie has just celebrated her 1st birthday!

For this week’s view from the zoo we are going to let you in on a secret on how we train and look after one of the taller residents here at Flamingo Land. We are lucky to have 11 Giraffes in two separate enclosures and houses at the zoo and as you can imagine that is a lot of work! In one of our houses we have three females called Charlotte, Amber and Zara as well as a male called Shingo. Their welfare includes giving them a balance diet that consists of a variety of leaves, branches, lucerne, specialised pellets and very occasionally vegetables. Now with our Giraffes reaching the heights of nearly 16 foot, their food is of course placed high up to match how they would eat in the wild and use their 1.5 foot tongues to pull branches down into their mouths.

Our group of banded mongoose has slightly increased in size due to the addition of a baby! Currently 6 weeks of age, the pup is now beginning to get braver and is exploring the enclosure whilst trying out some solid food. Despite being small, infants are very vocal, squeaking to their mother so she is aware of where they are and what they need…

Flamingo Land is delighted to announce the arrival of a Sumatran Tiger Cub on Friday 25th August at 6:01PM at Flamingo Land Resort Yorkshire.

Over in our South America section we have a large mixed species exhibit which includes Brazilian tapir, greater rhea, capybara, vicuna and some smaller residents that resemble a cross between a small deer and a rabbit. These small mammals with long legs and long ears are actually rodents and are called Patagonian mara. We currently have a group of 6 female adults, a young mara that is 6 months old and recently we have had some more babies born.