World Binturong Day
07/05/2018
[updated 23/05/2018]
The Binturong or Bear-Cat is a strange animal from South-East Asia. It is a member of a family of carnivores called the Civets, which are partway between Dogs and Cats. Even odder, the Binturong is a carnivore which eats fruit!
International Binturong Day is celebrated by Zoos all over the World on the 12th May. At Hamerton Zoo Park we are running a series of keeper-talks, to give you the chance to find out a little more about this threatened animal - and our work with them. Binturongs have been kept at Hamerton for many years, several babies have been born and reared, and we currently have ten animals in the collection. Come and meet one or two of them and find out more - SEE YOU ON 12th MAY!
UPDATE - 23/05/2018
A second pair of Javan Binturongs (Arctictis binturong penicillatus) has arrived from the breeding station in Indonesia, and our original pair are rearing two more babies! We now have a nucleus of eight Javan Binturongs at Hamerton, the first ever kept in Europe - 2 founder pairs and 4 youngsters born here. To allow for this project, the younger of our two pairs of 'generic' Binturongs are being moved to Australia. Our old pair of senior citizens are still housed with the Short-clawed Otters.
Three young Javan Binturongs (the new young female plus the first two Hamerton born babies) have now formed a group in the top house near the Zoo entrance, where they are on-show to the public for the first time in Europe, and will stay until they are a little older. Their indoor windows will be screened for a while to help them settle down, as none of these young ones are familiar with crowds of people.