We are always working to maintain the very best for our animals and the highest quality of our facilities. For this reason, we would like to inform you that the Antarctic exhibit and Sea Bass cylinder in PLANET PENGUIN are being completely renovated in order to maintain our standard of quality.These renovations will be carried out from 4th May to 22nd June, which is the reason why the Antarctica, puffins, cylinder of sea bass and the shop will be closed to the public during this period. We remain at your disposal for any questions or additional information you might need.

A research collaboration between the Loro Parque Fundación of Tenerife, Spain and the University of Giessen in Germany is using a new technique to help the recovery of the Spix’s Macaw (Cyanopsitta spixii), a species that is almost certainly extinct in the wild since the year 2000. The species still exists in captivity, although there are less than 80 individuals within the recovery programme overseen by the Brazilian Government, and reproduction within this population is slow.

The main objective of the project is to increase the number of young birds being recruited to the population, by the use of sperm collection and artificial insemination (AI). Although successful in humans, many other mammals, and some other types of birds, sperm collection and AI in parrots have had very limited success. However, the use of this new technique shows very promising results, and hopefully will lead to an improved breeding success in this incredibly rare macaw.

The initial phase of the project started in 2009/2010, during which time the technique was successful for the first time in collecting sperm from this species, in the Spix’s Macaw Breeding Centre of the Loro Parque Fundación in Tenerife. There are nine macaws on loan from the Brazilian Government, which gave its permission for this technique to be tested. As yet no successful AI has taken place, but the technique will also be used elsewhere, especially at the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation centre in Qatar, which has more Spix’s Macaws to include in the trials.

During the same period, and using the new technique, there was successful semen collection and AI performed in over 100 species of large species in the Loro Parque Fundación’s collection of parrots, the world’s largest and most diverse. It is a significant step for species conservation efforts, and this pioneering first phase now acts as an excellent foundation for establishing a method for cryopreservation (frozen storage) so as to establish a parrot sperm bank.

The renovation work for the “Loro Show” attraction will take place from February 13th until the end of April. We will update this blog post when more information is avaliable.

Thank you for your understanding

Loro Parque celebrates the carnival of Düsseldorf and Vechta, together with the carnival prince and princess, its honorary members and over 60 members of the festive committee. Those specially traveled to Tenerife, accompanied by the duty mayor of Düsseldorf, Mrs. Dr. Marie Agnes Strack-Zimmermann and the city councilor for tourism Carmen Padilla to celebrate these festivities in Puerto de la Cruz, as they always do for more than 20 years.

The 60 members of the German carnival committee visited the city within the scope of the “fraternization” to support those festivities and to share it with all Canaries. They also went for a walk through the park, with their colorful costumes and playing their instruments.

During lunch, local comparsa Son Bahía gave a surprise performance to the visitors.

After lunch the festive committee handed out their medals among the attendees, who sang and danced with them to the rhythms of carnival. The German carnival steps back to the Middle Ages, when it celebrated the end of the winter and served as a preamble for the arrival of the fasting period, including a lot of noise, masks and costumes in what was a fishing village at that time. The winter was personified by a young man covered from head to foot in a straw costume and was symbolically expelled from the village. That triumph was celebrated with music, food, dances and jokes. The result was one of the most popular and famous carnivals in Europe.

A bottlenose dolphin baby has been born in the Dolphinarium, which was specifically created by Loro Parque for these marine mammals. The park is thrilled to announce this birth, as it is a major milestone for the park’s breeding programme and the most important indicator to confirm once again, its high level of animal welfare.

Sanibel, a 31 year old dolphin has recently given birth to a little baby female weighing 40 kilos and developing well in what is now her third month. Ilse has been constantly monitored by Loro Parque’s team of vets and trainers. Moments after her birth, which lasted for six hours, Ilse barely measured one meter, but she swam instinctively toward the surface to take her first breath. From that precious moment, she has been breastfed in the same area, swimming in synchronisation with her mother at all times.

Photos of Ulrich Brodde.

Little more than two months after her arrival to Tenerife, Morgan has been fully integrated into the research programme carried out by Loro Parque Foundation (LPF) and the Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St. Andrews in Scotland. In the scope of this programme, Dr. Filipa Samarra, a bioacoustics expert from St. Andrews, has recently visited the facilities of Loro Parque in order to carry on with her study on the evolution of Morgan’s dialect during her adaptation process to the rest of the killer whale group. Dr. Samarra has explained that killer whales are the only known species whose individuals can modify their dialect once acquired, while the rest only communicates with invariable dialects. During her visit to Tenerife, Dr. Samarra also offered a presentation of her experience in bioacoustics to researchers and postgraduate students of Physics and Biology at La Laguna University (ULL), where she explained further details of her previous studies on the dialects of the North Atlantic killer whale populations.

LPF and St. Andrews cooperate with each other in cetacean bioacoustic research projects and have put at the disposal of the international research community all the recordings of the killer whale Morgan, rescued by the Dolphinarium of Hardewijk and moved to Loro Parque, as ordered by a Dutch judge. These vocal recordings, which began when Morgan first came to Tenerife and were extended throughout her adaptation process, allow researchers to continue with the studies started after the rescue, as well as to acknowledge her successful integration into the Loro Parque killer whale group. .

Dr. Filippa Samarra knows Morgan very well as she was in charge of comparing Morgan’s vocal recordings to the ones she had previously collected of different North Atlantic killer whale populations. She conducted two different research studies aimed at finding her family, which were unfortunately unsuccessful.

Dr. Filippa Samarra declared that the animal “is very active and relates with the rest of the group, presenting the typical scratches of the social interaction with other fellow killer whales, as also observed in wild populations”.

Loro Parque continues to expand its recreational offers, focusing on the variety and quality of their organization and for this reason have started the New Year off with the acquisition of a pair of white Royal Bengal Tigers (Panthera Tigris Tigris). They are male and female, just 18 months old, coming from the Guangzhou Panya Xiangjiang Safari Park in China and they are now enjoying their new home, surrounded by vegetation, waterfall and an exclusive lake for their summer dips.

The female, Yanjya, and the male, Linmao, are from a subspecies of tiger which are well-known and numerous y normally live in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma and China (in the southern region of Tibet). In the grounds, this pair of felines are in the process of getting to know their new surroundings and demonstrate a lot of curiosity in discovering every nook and cranny, taking long siestas beneath the greenery and arousing the interest of all the visitors.

Bengal tigers are characterized by being, like all other tigers, solitary animals which usually don’t live in big groups, with the exception of the females, which travel with their babies in small groups of three or four.

They can reach up to 3 metres in the case of the males, whilst the females are smaller and reach a height of up to 1,10 metres. They usually live in a great variety of habitats, including savannas and tropical and subtropical forests. They feed on wild pigs and deer of various species are the two prey types that make up the bulk of the Tiger’s diet. They also feed on crustaceans, frogs, crabs, small invertebrates and fish such as trout and perch.

The orca Morgan, who arrived at the park on the 29th of November by decision of a Dutch Court, has begun her process of integration with the rest of the group, and after getting used to the facilities she has joined the two females Skyla and Kohana. This socialization process is coordinated by the trainers and veterinarians of the park and it is done gradually and progressively, all the while studying vocal behaviours to ensure her welfare. In fact, during these first 3 weeks with the group her vocal behaviour is getting more natural and she is increasing her vocalizations underwater, while reducing the emission of sounds above the water.

During her firsts days in Tenerife, Morgan has also shared time with the baby orca Adán and she will be gradually united with all the specimens of the orca family of Loro Parque, with whom she is establishing the social bonds essential for her proper development. This process includes different steps of approach and social adjustments that will be more common as the animals settle and organize the hierarchy according to their positions. This hierarchical organization is a natural process which constantly occurs In social animals, such as the orcas, dolphins or primates. “Her change of behaviour has been remarkable from the first moment she began to be in contact with the others, and in fact she is constantly playing and swimming with them, and anyone who sees her with the rest of group will realize how happy she is and how important it is for orcas to establish social bonds” explained Dr. Javier Almunia, Deputy Director of Loro Parque Foundation.

The orca Morgan currently weighs more than a ton and eats more than 30 kilos of fish per day. This amount of fish is higher than before and it has been increased to meet the energetic needs that she has now, as a result of the improvement of her physical activity and social interaction.

The Harderwijk Dolphinarium selected our Orca Ocean facilities to harbour a baby Orca named Morgan, which was rescued by the Dutch dolphinarium in the Wadden Sea on the 23rd of June, 2010. This decision was announced yesterday by the Dutch Court who ruled in favour of the position taken by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture & Innovation after consulting multiple cetaceans experts.

The youngster appeared moribund with severe signs of malnutrition and which was saved by the Dutch dolphinarium from a certain death. After regaining her weight and health for a year, she can now be introduced to our group of Orcas, this being the most suitable location in Europe for Morgan to continue living healthily and integrated with a family, given that it has the best facilities and expert staff needed to take proper care of her.

In this regard, the Deputy Director of the Loro Parque Foundation and head of the marine conservation programmes, Dr. Javier Almunia, stated “Our only interest is to help this animal and provide the greatest attention to its development, as we have done in the past with other rescued animals, which is why we have not hesitated to make our facilities and our team of professionals available to this animal.”.”

The decision to integrate Morgan into a group of orcas in captivity was taken by the entity in charge of the case, in this instance, the Dutch Ministry of Economy, Agriculture and Innovation; after consulting a group of the world’s leading experts on orcas and listening to different opinions on the case. The unanimous conclusion reached by the expert scientists was that this was the only chance of survival the animal had, because it is a marine mammal belonging to a social species which needs to form part of a group to survive. For this reason, and due to the fact that we have the facilities and expertise required, the experts in charge of the animal have initiated the legal steps to carry out the transfer of the animal to Spain, which will take place as soon as possible, when the logistical process and training session are complete.

Tigres, gorillas, chimpanzees, jaguars and other animals get refreshed with long baths and dips in fresh water. In this sense, and in order to relieve them from the heat, the veterinaries and keepers of the Loro Parque and Siam Park prepare diverse fresh dishes which the different species from air, land, and water have been savouring with enthusiasm.

Tasty and pleasing ice-cream with vegetables such as celery, broccoli, carrot, green and red pepper, have been prepared in the form of popsicles for the mammals; while the ones made of meat and ice were those eaten by the tigers and jaguars, the frozen cakes made of fish were prepared for the orcas and dolphins. This activity is part of the actions carried out by the specialists in order to enrich the development of the different species of animals, who are offered their usual diet, but in a different shape and complexion; a fact that positively surprised visitors of both parks.

Photographs by Ulrich Brodde.