Cotswold Wildlife Park celebrates successful breeding season
The last time Yellow Mongoose were bred at the Park was thirteen years ago so these new pups are welcome additions.
Cotswold Wildlife Park is celebrating an outstanding breeding season having hosted the only Yellow Mongoose and Beaded Lizard births in the UK this year.
The park is home to more than 1,500 animals from 250 different species.
Its commitment to various breeding programmes has resulted in an impressive number of new arrivals – in fact over 428 births from 53 different species so far this year.
New additions include Yellow Mongoose twins. They are the only births of their kind in any UK zoological collection this year.
The last time this elegant species bred at the Park was thirteen years ago so these new pups are welcome additions to the award-winning wildlife park.
Natalie Horner, Section Head of Primates, Small Mammals and Birds explains: “We have had a wonderful year for births across the Primate, Small Mammal and Bird team so far. Most notably our pair of Yellow Mongooses, Chip and Nutmeg, have produced their first litter of two pups. This is also the first time since 2011 that we’ve had baby Yellow Mongooses born at the Park. The new arrivals are even more welcome as we are the only zoological collection in the UK to have bred this species in the past 12 months”.
This week, both pups have been sexed as female and have been named Cinnamon and Clove by Senior Primate, Small Mammal and Bird Keeper Hayley.
Visitors can see the youngsters, now 13 weeks old, in their exhibit in the Walled Garden.
Chip and Nutmeg aren’t the only first-time parents at the Park this summer.
Natalie adds: “One of our Humboldt Penguin pairs, Stephen and Marley, have also produced their first chick together. Now 3 months old, the as-yet-unsexed chick recently ventured out of the nest to explore the Penguin enclosure with mum and dad. This year has been a bumper year for our Straw-coloured Fruit Bats too.
"We have had eight births so far within our colony, with some of the baby Bats already being parked independently as they are getting quite big for mum to carry around. We are one of only three zoological collections in Europe to hold this species and the only one to have bred them in the last 12 months. Straw-coloured Fruit Bats are Africa’s second largest Bat and get their name from their beautiful straw-coloured fur”.
It was also another remarkable breeding year for the Reptile Team. For the first time in the Park’s fifty-four year history, it has successfully bred Beaded Lizards (Heloderma horridum). Births of this prehistoric-looking reptile are incredibly rare in captivity.
The hatchling is the only one to have been born in any UK zoological collection in the last twelve months. In fact, only two other collections worldwide have achieved breeding success with this species in the last year. Out of approximately 3,000 species of lizards, only two are known to be poisonous - the Gila Monster and the Beaded Lizard. Their salivary glands are modified and contain venom. Unusually, the venom in these lizards appears to be for defence rather than for the apprehension of prey. This sets it apart from snake and spider venoms, which are primarily designed for the immobilisation and predigestion of prey. Beaded Lizards are immune to the venom of other poisonous lizards and rattlesnakes.
Other breeding successes so far this year include: A Potoroo baby (part of the Rat Kangaroo family), Green Aracari chicks, European Spoonbill chicks, Ring-tailed Lemur twins, Prairie Dog pups and the birth of two tiny Kirk's Dik-dik calves (a dwarf Antelope species on show in the Park's Little Africa exhibit).