One of the rarest things we saw was a bird called Monserrat Oriole. Apparently these are the only ones in this country and are critically endangered !
Montserrat orioles are sexually dimorphic (the males and females look different). The males have black wings, tail and breast and their belly, rump and lower back are yellowish. The females are yellowish all along their underside and have dark green/brown wings and a green tail.
They inhabit a small region on the island of Montserrat in the West Indies. These birds live in the forested areas of the island, but much of their habitat was destroyed by volcanic activity during the mid 1990's.
These Orioles eat mostly insects, but are also known to eat fruit and nectar.
Montserrat Orioles breed seasonally, they nest from June until August and the females build hanging basket like nests from plant matter and incubate the eggs. However both parent feed their young. They are monogamous. The parents will continue to feed their young even after they have fledged.
This species has always had an extremely small range, but recent volcanic activity has seriously reduced the size of their habitat and has damaged the forests. The increase in hurricane activity is also damaging their habitats. Predators such as rats are also decreasing the numbers of chicks to fledge. ( Copied from Twycross site )
The best part of the day was when we went to see the elephants. The elephant enclosure at Twycross has been highly improved since I last went. We spent ages watching an elephant that waded into the water about 4 feet from us and kept diving until it was completely covered by water and then it would pop up again. It did this over and over and was so funny ! See the picture above.
This is the same elephant before it went for a swim .
The Elephants at Twycross are all Asian elephants. Here is a bit more info :
Asian Elephants are much smaller than their African counterparts. They are, on average, 3m (10ft) tall and 6m (25ft) long. The males can weigh up to 5000kg, which is about the same as 62 men! They also have much smaller ears too. African elephants have large rounded ears whereas Asian elephants have smaller squared ears.
The Asian Elephant was once found throughout India and South-east Asia. Now it is restricted to small areas of India, Indo-China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and Southern China. In these countries they live in various habitats including tropical rainforest, tropical deciduous forest and mountains.
Asian Elephants are one if the largest herbivorous mammals in the world. In the wild their diet consists mainly of grasses, leaves, trees and shrubs. At Twycross Zoo there are fed cabbage, bread, apples, bananas, carrots, leaves and a manufactured dry food to make sure they get all their vitamins.
Female elephants and their offspring are very social and live in 'herds'. Each herd has a 'matriarchs', a mature female leads the group. The 'matriarch' will lead the group to the best places to feed and drink and so passing on her knowledge to the nest generation. Males usually wander solitarily only meeting with the females to mate.
Asian elephants breed, on average, seven times during their lifetime at intervals of between 4 and 6 years. After mating the female is pregnant for 20 - 22 months (almost 2 years). The calf will then suckle for up to 3 years (up to 5 years in captivity). If it is a female then it will remain in the group for its lifetime.
Twycross is probably most well know for its chimpanzees. The PG tips chimps from the old adverts came from there and my Mum says they used to have a chimps tea party. Now they are kept more natural and have indoor and outdoor enclosures.
We saw so many animals it would take all day to list them but I have to add a pic of the penguines, they were hilarious !
And the Otters who were the biggest attention seekers of the day :D
This is my cutest picture of the vist
Twycross Zoo is well worth a visit there is so much to see.
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