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Another successful breeding season at Cotswold Wildlife Park in 2024

Cotswold Wildlife Park celebrates an outstanding breeding season with the only Yellow Mongoose and Beaded Lizard births in the UK this year

Cotswold Wildlife Park is home to more than 1,500 animals from 250 different species making it one of the largest zoological collections in the UK. The Park’s commitment to its 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 (main picture). 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 (pictured below).
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”.

Elsewhere in the Park, keepers welcomed the arrival of a male Bactrian Camel. He is the third calf sired by Louis – named after Prince Louis of Wales as they were both born on the same day – and is the first male calf that Louis and experienced mother Cleo have produced together. He has been named Kaleb by Mammal Keeper Willemijn in honour of local celebrity Kaleb Cooper, not only because he's a regular visitor to the Park with his family, but also because he's her favourite on the Prime Video hit series Clarkson's Farm (Kaleb pictured below with Head Keeper Mark Godwin (left) and Curator Jamie Craig (right) on a recent visit to the Park). Willemijn added "I also thought it was a great name as they both have the same hairdo, especially when Kaleb was experimenting with different styles in Season One!".

The wild Bactrian Camel (Camelus ferus) is classified as “Critically Endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and is thought to be one of the rarest large mammals on earth. Camels have one of the longest gestation periods for a land mammal. Elephants boast the longest of nearly two years, but Camels aren’t too far behind with a gestation period of approximately 360 to 440 days.
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 (pictured below) 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.

Due to its unique ring-like tail markings, keepers have named the as-yet-unsexed hatchling Ringo. At this stage of its development the hatchling will remain off-show in the Park’s specialised breeding facility. Visitors can see the adult Beaded Lizards, including Ringo’s parents Betty and Trovan, in their exhibit inside Reptile House (which contains one of the most interesting collections in the country).

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).

These births are testament to the dedication and hard work of the keepers at Cotswold Wildlife Park and the Park’s commitment to its ever-growing number of conservation programmes. For more information, please visit: Cotswold Wildlife Park Conservation

Cotswold Wildlife Park & Gardens is situated just outside Burford and equidistant from Cheltenham and Oxford.

Cotswold Wildlife Park & gardens is open daily from 10am.

Explore Gloucestershire
31 July 2024

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