A Message from Dartmoor Zoo

Today I have received an email from the chair of trustees at Dartmoor Zoo. I have yet to respond, but wanted to share it with you all. Please see below: Dear Sam, I am writing to you on behalf of the Board of Charity Trustees of Dartmoor Zoological Society, to express our concern surrounding your petition on the escape of our Carpathian Lynx, Flaviu, given it is based on some incorrect assumptions, unfortunately thanks to some members of the Press, and several factual inaccuracies. Dartmoor Zoological Society is a Charity with very strong ethical beliefs, a high standard of animal care with some of the oldest animals in captivity, which is a testament to the level of animal husbandry maintained by our experienced keeper team. It plays a huge part in our local community, engages with many educational establishments, including Universities, and plays an important part in animal conservation in many countries. Flaviu the Lynx is 18 months old and it is perfectly natural at this age oryounger for him to have been separated from his mother. As Flaviu matured into an adult capable of breeding, his father would see him as a competitor and threat, and the risk of conflict and injury would be a very real risk. He is part of a breeding program, and moving on to another zoo is essential (and normal practice) to enable him to establish his own family and continue the species. We cannot second guess what caused Flaviu to react the way he did, but it is possible the stress of moving to new surroundings caused him to force his way out of our Lynx house, which incidentally has held a pair of much larger Lynx for the last 8 years. Of course we did not expect him to react in this way and when the keeper left him at around 7pm on the night he arrived, he appeared relaxed and ate his food. All those involved, including the Trustee Board, are passionate about the health, safety and wellbeing of the animals in our care, and only want the very best care for our collection. We are all very upset, anxious and working tirelessly to return Flaviu safely to the Zoo. However, one of the biggest challenges we face in achieving this is the sometimes well intentioned actions (but often not) of individuals which hamper and harm the extensive and carefully considered procedures and tasks that we are undertaking in order to bring Flaviu home. From people trying to track him with dogs (which runs the risk of scaring him further away, or being chased and spreading unwanted scent), to reporters hiding out in fields trying to get pictures (disturbing tracks, scaring him away and possibly upsetting his routine), to activists tampering with cameras and traps. This level of interest has continued to hamper the little steady progress we are making, and further heightened exposure on Social Media has the potential to bring additional rogue elements into play, extending the time it will take to capture him safely. Whilst your petition is clearly to establish the facts, the exposure it is attracting is simply adding to the level of nuisance we are experiencing on the ground. What is required is a calm environment where he can establish routine and a pattern of behaviour enabling us to track his movements and install camouflaged safe capture traps to get him back. I have personally seen a picture of him taken last week and he looks very well and quite confident in his surroundings. He has access to food that we are putting out for him daily and several streams close by for water. The fact that he is still free and has not entered any traps we believe demonstrates he is far from desperate or hungry and he is a lot less stressed than we are. This is the first animal that has escaped since the Mee family purchased it in 2006 and invested many hundreds of thousands of pounds in new enclosures and infrastructure during the last ten years, prior to the Zoo becoming a charity. The early escapes were as a result of the poor conditions of the Zoo fabric when the family took over. Had they not bought the Zoo all of the animals are likely to have been put to sleep, many of which are still alive and enjoying a good life today. We are all deeply concerned and upset by the Lynx escape, but whilst some individuals are critical of the Zoo, we have been encouraged and are extremely grateful for the huge levels of support extended to us since his unfortunate escape. Kind regards Simon Almond Chair of Trustees