Wednesday 28 January 2009

Trojan Staircase

Firstly, apologies for anyone who received a garbled email this morning. I’ve had a look into it and hopefully it’ll be fixed for the next one!
Today’s post is in relation to yesterday post. The gargoyle plant pot lies on the right of the staircase as you walk up, and can be seen just beyond the green railing..
Royalty and many other famous people have stayed at the mansion at the centre of the park. The rooms are lavishly decorated and the landscaped gardens take full advantage of the spectacular views of Romney Marsh.

Animal Collection:
Port Lympne also houses the critically endangered Sifaka, the largest breeding herd of Black Rhinoceros outside Africa. As well as Siberian and Bengal tigers, small cats, monkeys, Malayan tapirs, Barbary Lions which have just given birth to two cubs, African Hunting Dogs and many more rare and endangered species, some are on the circular walk. ‘The Palace of the Apes’ is the world’s largest gorillarium and home to a complete family group of gorillas, there is also an open enclosure near some of the rhinos and colobus monkeys.
A recent feature at Port Lympne is an ‘African Experience’ safari trail, visitors are transported on specially modified vehicles around the park to view Rhinoceros, giraffe, zebra, deer and wildebeest.
The collection was known for being unorthodox, for the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals, and for their breeding of rare and endangered species. In 2000, a 27 year old keeper was killed whilst working in the stall of a female Indian elephant called La Petite.
The zoo has recently moved its herd of Asian Elephants following numerous deaths related to a persistent outbreak of a strain of herpes virus found in captive elephant populations. In 2005, after many years of stillbirths, two infant mortalities, and several premature adult fatalities, the first surviving mother-reared calf, Sittang, succumbed to the virus. This incident occurred one month after an adult female produced a stillborn calf and also perished. Port Lympne's remaining calf, May Tagu, who was born in April 2005, was transferred to Antwerp zoo following the spate of deaths, along with her mother and one other cow. The remaining adults were moved to Terra Natura in Benidorm, Spain, where many other, former Port Lympne elephants reside. This move has allowed the park's to focus on their tremendous success in breeding African elephants. Three cows have been moved from Howletts, followed soon after by a bull named Kruger from Knowsley Safari Park. Howletts is home to the UK's largest herd of African elephants, which currently numbers at 12.
Port Lympne has the following animals within it's collection:

Photograph details: Nikon D40. Focal length 18 mm, ISO-400, exp: 1/500 sec. F-stop f/4.5


If you liked this post, or have done something similar, why not spend a minute and let me know in the comments at the bottom of the page


Or if you like this blog and would like to receive emails when it's updater why not subscribe. You will only get an email if there is a post on this blog, and your details will not be shared. Plus its free!
Simply enter your email address in the box below:



Email subscriptions are delivered by FeedBurner

As ever, thanks for reading

6 comments:

  1. Makes me sad to hear about all those elephant deaths. I wonder if they ever found the cause. I look forward to it getting warmer over there so I can enjoy your pictures!

    ReplyDelete
  2. They died from a strain of herpes. Weather forcast over here is winds from Russia are going to hit at the end of the weekend and temperatures are going to drop further! Hopefully, we'll get more snow though!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I guess it did say that!! I apparently don't read well, sorry.

    I know this is completely random - but you said Russia so I claim that it's relevant!! ;-D I'm going to Russia in June on a mission trip. I can't wait!

    ReplyDelete
  4. heh, don't worry about it. I had a look around but couldn't find any more information on it.

    Where abouts in Russia are you going? I'd love to go there but bit skint at the moment! :o(

    Let's hope the storms are from Russia With Love... (sorry, had to get it in there!)

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm assuming skint means your broke! (Man I love accents - and I bet you have a good one!) I don't have the money to go either - but my church is putting together a mission trip to an orphanage in Lopukhinka. Buckner International is sponsoring the trip and I think there are about 10-15 of us going. They've put together a support letter for us to use to send to family and friends - so that's the only way I'm making it!

    I could go on and on about the trip and looking forward to it - but since this is YOUR blog - I'll leave the posting to you! ;-D

    ReplyDelete
  6. yeah, skint = broke! I've got somewhat of a mixture of an accent - it's part manchester, part liverpool, and now and again part southern, but only very rarely.

    Sounds like a good trip anyhoo!

    ReplyDelete

Amazon Adverts

Amazon Adverts

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner