Book Updates

Historical research isn't static; it's not something you do once, it is a process.    Since the second edition of the book was published, I have kept researching and found out a few more things about the Hotham Park collection, and gathered together more evidence.  A small number of things have come to light which add to, or change some of the information in the book.  I won't publish a third edition, so amendments and clarifications will be listed here.

Chimpanzees - further research has clarified the spelling of some names; 'Yonkus' as she was always known, was actually listed in the studbook as 'Yonkus II', named after her mother, who was John Aspinall's first chimp.  Her father was the adult male that was aggressive to her; the correct spelling of his name was 'Bustah' and he is the same animal which tore off a child's arm in 1986 and bit off a research student's finger in 1994.  The correct spelling of 'Gerry's' name is now confirmed as 'Jerry'; it is likely that the Bognor connections with Gerry Cottle meant people naturally defaulted to a 'G'.  It remains likely that Digby, or Jerry or both were shot dead having escaped their enclosure at Causeway Safari Park but this would have been in the late 1980s, not 1997 as Clinton Keeling asserted.  Their enclosure was a concrete bunker, originally built to house an elephant and they can be seen there in a Northern Irish film archive (details below). 

Copper  the Roe deer.  On p60, I erroneously stated that Copper had escaped from Zootopia but this was not the case; I have since  read more detail about this and it was believed that the animal was an escaped pet; all other details around this were correct and the same article and other sources have conformed that 'The Colonel'   was indeed the scarlet macaw which can be seen on p40.