Edinburgh Zoo

Penguin Chicks!

Edinburgh Zoo has one of the largest Gentoo penguin colonies in the world, with over 120 adult birds. Although active all year, the breeding season is a great time to catch these amazing animals. The first eggs that were laid in April are due to hatch in early May, although some eggs are still being laid.

For more information about our penguins, the breeding season, and to keep up with all the action, please visit Penguin Cam.

Elvis Has Entered the Building!

Cooper our male Visayan Warty Pig, has is lovely flowing rockstar locks, ready for the new season and to entice his mate Alice. These two are very special as they are the first captive-born warty pigs, and we hope that their offspring will play a major role in the reintroduction programmes.

Find out more about our Visayan Warty Pigs.

Plant Sale

The Edinburgh Zoo specialised gardens team are hosting a special plant sale between the 18th and 20th of May, to coincide with Plant Conservation Day. The selection on sale will include house plants, summer bedding and vegetable plants from the Zoo's very own nursery.

For more information please visit our Plant Sale page.

New Borns

May is another opportunity to catch the new arrivals here at Edinburgh Zoo. This year we have young Rock Hyrax, Giant Anteaters and Grevy's Zebra, as well as baby Squirrel Monkeys, Gelada Baboons and Goeldi's Monkeys.

*Gelada Baboon photograph taken by Gordon Jack

Nesting

April will see the start of work on the Chilean flamingo nest-site. Keepers will dig this area over on a daily basis to get the soil in the right condition for the flamingos to start nestbuilding. The birds often show quite a lot of interest in the nest-site from this point onwards and look out for ritualised courtship displays taking place, sometimes spreading through the whole group!

Many of the other species are also starting to nestbuild: the Waldrapp ibis for example are busily lining their nest-boxes with twigs in advance of breeding and look out for the magnificent Stellar's Sea Eagles. Although it is believed they might still be too young to breed fully, they did display nesting behaviour for the first time last year.

*Steller's sea eagle photo by Edinburgh Zoo Facebook fan Debbie Grant

Grasslands

Following its opening last month, Grasslands is receiving great feedback from our visitors. Choose from pizzas, hot carvery rolls, salad bar and much more, using fresh ingredients cooked on the premises. This new eatery is the first in a series of exciting redevelopments within Edinburgh Zoo which also include the front entrance and Jungle Cafe.

Zoo Gardens

Now we are well into spring and with summer just around the corner the Zoo Gardens are really coming into their own thanks to the hard work and dedication of the gardens team. This month look out for our large collection of Rhododendrons, which are in full bloom and flowers such as Tulip Negrita which are filling the flower beds with colour.

Not to mention...

...all of our other attractions such as the Budongo Trail, Penguin Parade, and Living Links, and the rest of our animal collection. This includes rhinos, koalas, sea lions, parrots, hunting dogs, tigers, lions, black stork, tapir, bongos, jaguar, pygmy hippos, sun bears....