Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Parks are well known within the UK and Europe for their high standards of animal welfare and captive breeding success. 2009 was yet another successful year for new births across both parks, and there were also several new additions to the collection. The parks have the largest collection of critically endangered Western Lowland gorillas and Eastern black rhinoceros in the world. There were 4 gorilla births in 2009 (bringing the total number of births to 129) and on Christmas day we celebrated the birth of an Eastern Black rhinoceros, bringing our total birth count to 27. Other notable births include 9 clouded leopards, 3 Javan gibbons, 5 rusty spotted cats, 1 Heck’s macaque (the first captive birth outside of their native homeland) and 3 brown hyena pups (our parks are the only UK collection currently holding this species and the first to breed them)
Some new species were also added to the parks’ collections; including Northern Chinese Leopards, ring-tailed lemurs, belted ruffed lemurs and brown hyena. In addition, Howletts and Port Lympne have taken over the captive breeding recommendations (studbooks) for three species; clouded leopards, bush dogs and Scottish wild cats.
Howletts and Port Lympne Wild Animal Park provide a safe environment that encourages rare species to breed in captivity, and the parks also support the in-situ conservation of a number of critically endangered species, working closely with the respective countries governments and local communities to safeguard the future of these species.
