Zoo news – October 2024

October was a busy month for Emerald Park Zoo (EPZ) with lots of maintenance work being carried out, plenty of training, for our animals as well as our staff, and the successful carrying out of the Tricky Trail, which featured part of our zoo.

New Arrival Shines Bright: A Silvery Marmoset Baby Joins Emerald Park Zoo!

The Zoo is buzzing with excitement as we announce the arrival of a delightful silvery marmoset (Mico argentatus), born on September 20th! This little bundle of joy is already stealing hearts, clinging closely to proud parents Honey and Geralt, who have truly stepped up their parenting game.

After their previous experience and a bit of a rocky start, Honey and Geralt are now embracing their roles with remarkable care. Zookeepers often spot the baby holding tightly to one of its parents, gaining confidence and recently, bravely trying delicious Arabic gum, which provides essential nutrients and promotes digestive health.

Silvery marmosets are known for their striking grey coats and lively personalities, maturing quickly. The young marmoset will soon start to mimic its parents’ foraging behaviours, an important part of its growth and development. These little ones bring joyful energy to the zoo, reminding us all to appreciate life’s small moments.

If you’re planning a visit to Emerald Park Zoo, keep an eye out for our growing family of silvery marmosets! It’s sure to be a “silver lining” experience as we witness the wonders of parenting in the wild – one tiny leap at a time. Stay tuned for more updates as our little one grows and explores!

Visit from Animal Training Expert Barbara Heidenreich

In October we had the pleasure of welcoming animal training expert, Barbara Heidenreich, to the zoo. Barbara travels the world visiting different zoological collections to guide them through co-operative care training goals for the animals.

Barbara spent 3 days with our zookeeping team visiting everything from our Ouessant Sheep to our Amur Tiger, sharing her expertise and advising on training programmes. Barbara spent time progressing the team’s practical application training skills to ensure the best care of all our animals.

Consulting with EPZ enables Barbara to advise our zookeepers on strategies to train our animals to voluntarily co-operate in medical care such as vaccinations, blood draws, medical administrations and taking weight measurements, all of which contribute to their wellbeing and welfare.

Having Barbara on site at EPZ helps our zookeepers overcome any problems some of the animals may have by creating step by step training skills. This makes the day-to-day care of our animals easier and safer for both our animals and the staff.

Having Barbara’s worldwide experience, consulting with zoos, veterinary professionals and on conservation projects, allows us to enhance our zookeeping skills ensuring that we give our animals the best possible care an allows us to share our training successes with other zoos worldwide.

Barbara is a wealth of knowledge, and we are extremely lucky to have her visit our collection. We always love having Barbara come over to spread her knowledge and expertise and applying them to the training programmes we have here in EPZ.

Be sure to stop by our zoo to catch our zookeepers training our animals throughout the day on your next visit to Emerald Park Zoo.

Written by Zookeepers Yvonne & Rob.

Zookeeper Rebecca training Porcupine Hermit how to receive a vaccination

Zookeeper Claudia doing target training with Valais Blacknose Sheep Heidi

Unfortunate news: Sad loss of Squirrel Monkey Pablo

It is with deepest regret that we announce the sad loss of our Squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus), Pablo, at the end of September. Pablo came to EPZ in February 2023 from Vienna Zoo. At almost 4 years old Pablo was a key part of the monkey troop here in the park.

Being a social species Pablo spent his time interacting with the other individuals in the troop where he would spend his days climbing through the enclosure foraging on the food put out and engaging with enrichments. In the wild Squirrel Monkeys can live in groups of up to 300 individuals, in their native range throughout South America., where they play a key role in the dispersal of seeds and nuts contributing to the biodiversity of their habitats.

“Pablo was the definition of ‘cheeky monkey!’ Very inquisitive, curious, and playful. He loved to test everything you gave him, especially if tomatoes or locusts were up for grabs! He kept us as keepers on our toes!”

Quote from Zookeeper Emma

BIAZAs Spotted on Site Bio Blitz

As part of Spotted on Site, we took part in their BioBlitz that ran from the 14th – 20th of October. The aim of BioBlitz was to add an extra push throughout the week to carry out observations on the native wildlife. Through staff efforts and help from the public we managed to finish 7th out of 67 zoos that participated.

BioBlitz demonstrates an amazing idea of what a collaborative effort can produce, with the week producing over 14,800 observations! It’s inspiring to see the entire collection of zoos come together and make such a big impact on documenting biodiversity.

BioBlitz was a great step in pushing the project here in the park and encouraging public involvement. It helped us move from 13th to 9th overall in the Spotted on Site project. We hope to encourage public involvement even more going forward!

Written by Senior Education Officer Ben

CPD Training in Fota Wildlife Park

In September some of our zoo team visited Fota Wildlife Park, along with many other Irish zoo license holders. The aim of the visit was to discuss different items that were required to keep our institutions up to date and share ideas with other industry professionals to ensure that all the animals in collections around Ireland have the best welfare.

Our Park and Animal manager, Lee Donohoe, as well as our Discover and Learning Manager, Leah Heron, presented on the importance of In situ and Ex situ Conservation for zoos.

It was a fantastic event, with lots of ideas shared. We are always delighted to meet with other industry professionals.

Discovery and Learning manager Leah presenting to other industry professionals

Thanks for reading. Check back next month for more zoo updates!

The Emerald Park Zoo Team