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Howletts
Howletts Wild Animal Park (formerly known as Howletts Zoo) in the parish of Bekesbourne, near Canterbury in Kent, was established as a private zoo in 1957 by John Aspinall. In 1962, the House known as Howletts was being restored. A small cottage was inhabited by an employee. The animal collection was opened to the public in 1975. To give more room for the animals another estate at Port Lympne near Hythe in Kent was purchased in 1973, and opened to the public as Port Lympne Zoo in 1976. The collection is known for being unorthodox, for the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals, and for the breeding of rare and endangered species. Steve Irwin visited the park in 2004 and described the zoo's gorillas as "the finest in the world". Since 1984, both parks have been owned by the John Aspinall Foundation, a charity. Following his death, John Aspinall was buried in front of the Howletts House and a memorial was built next to the grave near the bison. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Port Lympne Zoo
Port Lympne Hotel & Reserve near the town of Hythe in Kent, England is set in and incorporates the historic Port Lympne Mansion, and landscaped gardens designed by architect Sir Herbert Baker, for Sir Philip Sassoon. The estate with an Edwardian mansion near Lympne was purchased in 1973 by John Aspinall; the intent was to solve lack of space at the nearby Howletts Wild Animal Park. It was opened to the public in 1976. Since 1984 the animal parks have been owned by a charity (The John Aspinall Foundation, currently led by Damian Aspinall). The collection is known for being unorthodox, for the encouragement of close personal relationships between staff and animals, and for their breeding of rare and endangered species. The park now includes tigers, lions, leopards, gorillas, bears, giraffes and the UK's largest herd of black rhinos. The facility also plans to release some of the animals into the wild. Royalty and many other famous people have stayed at the mansion at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Aspinall (zoo Owner)
John Victor Aspinall (11 June 1926 – 29 June 2000) was an English zoo and casino owner. From upper class beginnings he used gambling to move to the centre of British high society in the 1960s. He was born in Delhi during the British Raj, and was a citizen of the United Kingdom. Early life John Victor Aspinall, known to all his friends as "Aspers", was born in Delhi, British India on 11 June 1926, the son of Lt-Col. Dr Robert Stivala Aspinall (1895–1954). Born Stivala, the doctor adopted the name "Aspinall" after joining the Indian Medical Service, being known for some time as Robert Aspinall-Stivala), a British Army surgeon of British parentage and Maltese origin. His wife was Mary Grace Horn (died 1987), the daughter of engineer Clement Samuel Horn, of Goring-by-Sea, Sussex. Years later, when he pressed his father for money to cover his gambling debts, he discovered that his biological father was George Bruce, a soldier of Nordic descent. Aspinall attended Felsted School ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bekesbourne
Bekesbourne is a village near Canterbury in Kent, South East England. The village is centred ESE of the city's cathedral and its centre stretches less than 1 km from its railway station to the A2 road to the south. Amenities The parish church is dedicated to Saint Peter and has a Norman doorway, a 13th-century chancel and the first recorded example of brick mathematical tiles. Howletts Wild Animal Park is in Bekesbourne, the home of many endangered species and the world's largest breeding gorilla colony in captivity. Transport Bekesbourne railway station serves the area, on the line between Canterbury East and Dover Priory railway stations. The A2 is a route bordering the south of the village's formal area. History Bekesbourne was the site of an aerodrome, built during World War I, and which thrived as the home of the Kent Flying Club until World War II, when it was closed. One large hangar remained. It was severely damaged by and rebuilt after the Great Storm o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Aspinall Foundation
The Aspinall Foundation (formerly The John Aspinall Foundation) is a British charity (Registered Charity 326567) which works to promote wildlife conservation. It was set up by casino owner John Aspinall in 1984 and runs the two zoos he established, Port Lympne Wild Animal Park and Howletts Wild Animal Park in Kent, England. It also runs conservation projects overseas to protect endangered species and return captive animals back to the wild. The charity is now run by Damian Aspinall, son of the founder. In addition to running the zoos, which breed rare and endangered animals, the Foundation campaigns on wildlife issues, such as opposing Chinese attempts to relax the rules governing the trade in products made from tigers. As of 2002, the twin zoos were home to 14 hybrid, Siberian and Sumatran tigers. The Foundation set up a project for gorillas orphaned by bush meat poachers in the Republic of Congo in the late 1980s and in 1998, created an orphan gorilla project in the neighbourin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Black Rhinoceros
The eastern black rhinoceros (''Diceros bicornis michaeli''), also known as the East African black rhinoceros, is a subspecies of the black rhinoceros. Its numbers are very low due to poaching for its horn, and it is listed as critically endangered. Description The eastern black rhino is distinguishable from the southern subspecies as it has a longer, leaner, and more curved horn. Its skin is also very grooved. ''Diceros bicornis michaeli'' is also reportedly more aggressive than the other three subspecies of black rhino. They are browsers and are usually found in highland forest and savanna habitat. Population and threats Once located in Ethiopia, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya, as of 2017 they can only be found in Kenya (594 animals), Rwanda and in northern Tanzania (80 animals). A population of currently 60 animals is kept outside its natural range in South Africa ( Addo Elephant National Park). The population has declined 90% in the last three generations. In 2010 their ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mantled Guereza
The mantled guereza (''Colobus guereza''), also known simply as the guereza, the eastern black-and-white colobus, or the Abyssinian black-and-white colobus, is a black-and-white colobus, a type of Old World monkey. It is native to much of west central and east Africa, including Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Chad. The species consists of several subspecies that differ in appearance. It has a distinctive appearance, which is alluded to in its name; the long white fringes of hair that run along each side of its black trunk are known as a mantle. Its face is framed with white hair and it has a large white tail tuft. The mantled guereza is diurnal and arboreal, found in both deciduous and evergreen forests. It is an adaptable species that can cope with habitat disturbance and prefers secondary forest close to rivers or lakes. Although previously thought only to eat leaves, it also eats seeds, fruits, and arthropods. It is able to diges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bongo (antelope)
The bongo (''Tragelaphus eurycerus'') is a herbivorous, mostly nocturnal forest ungulate. Bongos are characterised by a striking reddish-brown coat, black and white markings, white-yellow stripes and long slightly spiralled horns. They are the only tragelaphid in which both sexes have horns. They have a complex social interaction and are found in African dense forest mosaics. Native to Africa, they are the third-largest antelope in the world. The western or lowland bongo, ''T. e. eurycerus'', faces an ongoing population decline, and the IUCN Antelope Specialist Group considers it to be Near Threatened on the conservation status scale. The eastern or mountain bongo, ''T. e. isaaci'', of Kenya, has a coat even more vibrant than that of ''T. e. eurycerus''. The mountain bongo is only found in the wild in a few mountain regions of central Kenya. This bongo is classified by the IUCN Antelope Specialist Group as Critically Endangered, with fewer individuals in the wild than i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dusky Leaf Monkey
The dusky leaf monkey (''Trachypithecus obscurus''), also known as the spectacled langur, or the spectacled leaf monkey is a species of primate in the family Cercopithecidae. It is found in Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar and Thailand, and can occasionally be found in Singapore. During the day, these small, folivorous primates divide in sub-groups and forage for vegetation and fruit throughout the tropical forests. According to the IUCN, the dusky leaf monkey's population is declining due to habitat loss, poaching, and anthropogenic land use, which prompted the IUCN to classify the species as endangered in 2015. Taxonomy Within the Cercopithecidae family, the dusky leaf monkey is a member of the lutung taxonomic group. Although most researchers agree with this classification, others believe that this primate should be categorized under the genus ''Presbytis.'' Researchers have also disputed the number of subspecies that exist, with some claiming that there are 11, while others claim ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South American Tapir
The South American tapir (''Tapirus terrestris''), also commonly called the Brazilian tapir (from the Tupi ''tapi'ira''), the Amazonian tapir, the maned tapir, the lowland tapir, the ''anta'' ( Portuguese), and ''la sachavaca'' (literally "bushcow", in mixed Quechua and Spanish), is one of the four recognized species in the tapir family (of the order '' Perissodactyla'', with the mountain tapir, the Malayan tapir, and the Baird's tapir). It is the largest surviving native terrestrial mammal in the Amazon. Most classification taxons also include ''Tapirus kabomani'' (also known as the little black tapir or kabomani tapir) as also belonging to the species ''Tapirus terrestris'' (Brazilian tapir), despite its questionable existence and the overall lack of information on its habits and distribution. The specific epithet derives from ''arabo kabomani'', the word for tapir in the local Paumarí language. The formal description of this tapir did not suggest a common name for the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dhole
The dhole (''Cuon alpinus''; ) is a canid native to Central, South, East and Southeast Asia. Other English names for the species include Asian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, red wolf, and mountain wolf. It is genetically close to species within the genus '' Canis'', but distinct in several anatomical aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third lower molar and the upper molars sport only a single cusp as opposed to between two and four. During the Pleistocene, the dhole ranged throughout Asia, Europe and North America but became restricted to its historical range 12,000–18,000 years ago. The dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies and containing multiple breeding females. Such clans usually consist of about 12 individuals, but groups of over 40 are known. It is a diurnal pack hunter which preferentially targets large and medium-sized ungu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
De Brazza's Monkey
De Brazza's monkey (''Cercopithecus neglectus'') is an Old World monkey endemic to the riverine and swamp forests of central Africa. The largest species in the guenon family, it is one of the most widespread arboreal African primates. Aside from size, it can be differentiated from other cercopithecus monkeys by its orange diadem and white beard. Due to its cryptic nature, the species is not well documented in all of its habitats but has shown unique traits such as pair-bonding and aggressive behavior towards other guenons. Etymology Locally known as swamp monkeys, these primates are named after the Italian naturalist and explorer Jacques Savorgnan de Brazza. Their scientific species name, ''neglectus,'' which means to pay no attention to, was given to them because of their ability to hide from both humans and predators. Description The De Brazza's monkey is the most sexually dimorphic species of guenon; males weigh around 7 kilograms, while females weigh around 4 kilograms ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crowned Lemur
The crowned lemur (''Eulemur coronatus'') is a lemur that is long and weighs . Its tail is about long. Description The crowned lemur is endemic to the dry deciduous forests of the northern tip of Madagascar. It eats a diet of mostly flowers, fruits, and leaves. The population is estimated to 1000–10,000 individuals as of 2004, most of which live within the Ankarana Plateau, although there is also a population on the Montagne d'Ambre. This species has a distinctive brown-orange crown on the top of the head. Females have a gray body with an orange crown, and males are a darker reddish brown, crowned with black and orange. Crowned lemurs have a life span of approximately 20 years and reach sexual maturity after 20 months. They give birth usually in late September or early October, after a gestation period of 125 days. The crowned lemur is in the order of Primates as it possesses characteristics such as pseudo-opposable thumbs, binocular vision and is highly intelligent. ''E. co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
