Wild ideas for future of Bristol Zoo
PICTURE, if you will, a removal company in Bristol, England. The telephone rings. ‘Good morning. How may we help you?’
‘We’d like to move from Bristol BS8 to Bristol BS10.’
‘That’s no problem, moving house then, are you?’
‘Yep. Along with eight gorillas, a handful of tree kangaroos, a gang of meerkats, some African penguins, a platoon of seals, a couple of dwarf crocodiles...’
That’s right, Bristol Zoo and its current tenants are flitting. After 185 years in the city, it’s relocating to a conservation park on the other side of the city. Meticulous planning will be needed. The lions, fruit bats, pygmy hippos, never mind the aye-ayes, the dik dik and the Alaotra gentle lemur, all will require individual attention.
The zoo is going to extraordinary lengths to find a new des res that will better enable them to continue their conservation, biodiversity and education work.
I stumbled on this information when running a background check on Delilah, a western lowland gorilla and probably the oldest great ape in the world (she’s 57). Her current address is Belfast Zoo on the Antrim Road. She arrived there from Bristol Zoo in 1992.
IHAVE mixed feelings about zoos. In the 1800s, they were largely commercial enterprises, but by the 20th century it was clear there was no free lunch in an ecosystem, and that included us. We needed to look after the natural world. So zoos began working to defend biodiversity through breeding programmes for endangered species.
And not just cuddly, photogenic animals. Dr Grainne McCabe, Head of Field Conservation at Bristol Zoo, has worked tirelessly to reintroduce a native crustacean, the white-clawed crayfish, back into its natural habitat in these islands.
Every part of our habitat is vital: tampering with the Jenga tower that supports life can lead to things called ’species jumps’. This can result in a very unwelcome transmission of viruses. And we don’t need any more of that.
In my research into zoos I uncovered some odd facts, and I know you’d like me to share them: O The pygmy hog-sucking louse is the only species of louse on the critically endangered list. O Cave Hill in Belfast is home to the fastest member of the entire animal kingdom. Not the cheetah, nor the antelope. Several pairs of peregrine falcons nest, and hunt, in the area. And if the peregrine falcon is doing 170mph it’s only dawdling along. Speeds of over 200mph have been recorded as the bird dives on its prey.
O The fastest thing in nature is also to be found in the area around Belfast Zoo. The white mulberry bush. It explodes its pollen out of its stamen at around 350mph, about half the speed of sound. O A group of rare snow leopards has been discovered in a remote corner of Afghanistan. So if you’re holidaying in the area, mind how you go. O One way to deal with predators is to taste awful, although this really only works in the long run. O Another good way is to have an exploding head. Camponotus saundersi is a species of ant found in Malaysia and Brunei. A worker ant can explode suicidally as an ultimate act of defence, taking one for the team. (All ants are company men.) O A female digger wasp (genus Sphex) lays her egg in other insects so that her larva can feed on their insides. She guides her sting into the prey’s nervous system so as to paralyse, but not kill it. The food stays fresh that way. The prey is probably aware of being eaten alive from inside but unable to do anything about it.
It’s not thought that these insects were an inspiration for Dublin woman Mrs Cecil Alexander when she wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful.
But Darwin, on the other hand, did study them closely, and began to smell a rat about the existence of God. The rest, as they say, is natural history.
But we should let Delilah in Belfast have the last word. Gorillas in the wild live about 35 years, but up to 60 years in captivity. And great apes living in zoos or safari parks show a greater tendency to use sign language. Perhaps they’re trying to frantically signal, ‘50 is the new 35’.