Home About Us School Visits Parties / Events Contact Us Meet the animals Prices Feedback News

Jonathan's Jungle News!  Last updated 1st May 2013

News and important events in the lives of the animals of Jonathan's Jungle Roadshow are reported and updated here from time to time - feel free to check back in the future to see what is happening in Jonathan's animal collection!  For more information about any of the animals featured here, follow the links to each animal's page by clicking the blue highlighted words in the relevant text or where highlighted to do so. 

**N.B. Older news stories (and their page links) may refer to animals which I no longer have in my collection so please check the Meet the Animals page for correct & up-to-date information about the animals in my current collection!

1st May 2013  COMPETITION TIME!!  From today I am looking for a name for my beautiful male rhinoceros rat snake (bel0w).  The person or organisation who suggests the chosen name will win a half price visit from some of the animals & I to a venue or event of their choice!

Full competition details, information on how to enter and lots of information about the species to inspire your suggestions can be found on the rhinoceros rat snake page by clicking here. I will look forward to receiving your ideas!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am delighted to report some new babies since my last update last week.  On Monday 29th April I found 40+ tiny dead leaf praying mantis nymphs (Deroplatys dessicata) which is particularly exciting as this was my first ever attempt to breed them!  There are few things cuter than a baby praying mantis as you will see here:

It is hard to be absolutely sure exactly how many nymphs (babies) there are because they do not stay still long enough to count, but certainly 40+ have hatched! Here are just a few of them on the mesh screen lid of their enclosure:

As they will not stay still it is quite a challenge to photograph even a single nymph, let alone a small group together, so I was particularly pleased to get the photos below of a group of five on my hand!

I will certainly look forward to seeing how these grow and change in the coming months and will report their progress here.  For more information about the species please click here.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

24th April 2013  Today marks the second birthday of the rather gorgeous Tiny, my ironically-named female New Caledonian giant gecko

Tiny now weighs in at just over 180g, making her anything but tiny in gecko terms!  The next heaviest gecko here in my collection of 35+ individuals is a large adult male leopard gecko weighing in at around 80g, so Tiny is already 100g heavier than this one and she is still growing!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

15th April 2013 Today marks the first anniversary of the day I received 74 tiny baby Antilles pink toed tarantula babies from Bristol Zoo!  They are looking fabulous as you can see below.

For anyone not familiar with the story of how and why 74 of these beautiful spiders came to be with me please click here for LOTS more information and pictures!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

29th March 2013  Plenty of news to report since my last update!  First of all I had a crazily busy National Science & Engineering Week, visiting seven schools in six counties over six days, so a big thank you to everyone involved in all of these visits. The first animal news is of a couple of newly hatched crested geckos, one which hatched on March 26th and one today!

The pictures above are of the baby which hatched on March 26th and the ones below are the one which hatched just this morning, March 29th.

As always the babies are extremely beautiful and very strong and healthy too.  These are nos. 2 & 3 for 2013 and I envisage many more where these came from!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The incredible insect pictured below is an newly-matured female jungle nymph, possibly still my absolute favourite insect in my entire collection! The significance of this individual though is that she is the very first yellow individual I have reared from hatching and I am absolutely delighted with her! 

Female jungle nymphs are usually bright lime green and, whilst I have kept yellow ones before, I have never personally hatched out an individual here which turned out yellow on maturing so I am incredibly pleased with this one!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The final piece of news is also about a significant insect moult, this time an adult female Malaysian leaf katydid Ancylecha fenestrata.  I bought this female as part of a large nymph pair back in February (as reported below on the 20th February) and it is truly remarkable just how much she has changed in such a short time and also how incredibly beautiful she has turned out!  I hope you agree.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

5th March 2013  I have a couple of great things to report which have happened since my last update!  Firstly, and most importantly of all, I have acquired a pair of new snakes which I could not be more excited about!  These amazing creatures are juvenile rhinoceros rat snakes which in the wild are found in subtropical rainforests from northern Vietnam to southern China.

This species has been at the top of my animal wish list for some time so it is very exciting indeed to have acquired them, I collected them just a week ago on February 26th.  They are unrelated and were captive bred in two different European countries but were being sold by a UK breeder who had bought them for himself but then had a change of mind, I was more than happy to be in the right place at the right time to have them from him!

For LOTS more information about these beautiful animals, including information about the amazing colour transformation they will go through as the months go on, please click here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As well as acquiring these stunning snakes I have also had my first baby crested gecko for 2013 hatch, this little beauty popped out of its egg on February 24th!

Here is how s/he looks today, just over a week later.  It is certainly one very beautiful baby!

I definitely envisage this being just the first of many gecko babies for 2013 with plenty more crested geckos as well as gargoyle geckos and leopard geckos expected too, much the same as in 2012 in fact!  Watch this space...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have this week taken new photos of some of the crested geckos which I kept for myself out of my own babies hatched in 2012 - all of them are looking fantastic as you will see below, as well as being much bigger than they were in April last year when they hatched.  In fact these are now almost at a size where I will start to include them in my JJR visits so watch this space!

This first one (above and below) is a female dalmatian whom I have named Cluster due to the enormous cluster of spots on her back and left hand side!

Amazingly this next one is Cluster's sister (and clutch mate) and she has been named Sunset by my children because of her beautiful red and orange colouration - believe it or not she actually looks better in the flesh than in these pictures!

This final one is a male and is as yet unnamed - he is another dalmatian and very attractive indeed!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As well as the crested geckos I have also recently taken some updated photos of my juvenile New Caledonian giant gecko (also as yet unnamed) who is now approximately ten months old and weighing in at 45g+!  S/he is looking very gorgeous as I'm sure you will agree.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20th February 2013  Since my last update I have acquired a few new invertebrates for my collection, most of which are simply additions or 'new blood' to existing breeding groups along with one which is a species new to my collection. 

First up is a new group of Malaysian leaf katydid nymphs (Ancylecha fenestrata), undoubtedly one of my very favourite insect species in my entire collection. 

These beautiful creatures are a fabulous mix of greens and browns as juveniles and have thorny leg spines which are very impressive!  For more pictures and information please click here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up are a juvenile pair of a new stick insect species for me known by their scientific name of Haaniella echinataThis species originates from Sabah on the island of Borneo.  In both pictures the female is the larger, somewhat chunkier individual.

For more information and pictures of the other Haaniella species I have in my collection please click here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Next up is another beautiful female Australian king mantis (Hierodula majuscula) - one of my favourite mantis species.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I also added some more Tirachoidea jianfenglingensis nymphs to my collection - these are the largest stick insects I keep in my collection at the moment and are hugely popular with everyone they meet!  These ones are only around 15cm long but they get MUCH larger, check out their page here to see just how large!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th February 2013  I have today taken a few updated photographs of some of my beautiful baby leopard geckos which hatched in the second half of 2012.  These are five of the individuals which I have decided to keep for myself because they are all absolutely gorgeous!

This is the very species which got me started keeping reptiles 30+yrs ago, I still think they're absolutely fabulous today and I'm sure it's not hard to see why!!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

20th January 2013  Since my last update I've done a complete audit of all my Phasmida (stick & leaf insects) and among the many species I keep here I was delighted to find that I currently have 30+ jungle nymphs (Heteropteryx dilatata) in my collection, here are just a few of them!

All of the 30+ individuals have been hatched here and I currently have at least one individual at every life stage (instar) of both genders!  This is very cool because as some of you will know jungle nymphs are my favourite Phasmid species by far, they are also a species I love to use in schools to talk about both life cycles and also how animals are suited/adapted to their particular habitat.  The pictures above are of a few of the females, here are some of the males:

Although the male nymphs never turn the vibrant lime green colour of females in later life I still think that they are absolutely beautiful with their mix of browns, creams, peaches and white. Here are two males to prove my point!

For more information about this fantastic species and for lots more pictures please click here!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

6th January 2013  First of all I would like to wish everyone involved in education a very happy start to the new school term, I trust that you are all well rested after the Christmas & New Year break and raring to go!  I will very much hope to see many of you during 2013 and would recommend getting in touch as soon as you can if you are looking to book a visit as I am now taking bookings right up to (and beyond) the end of the academic year.  Dates in some periods of 2013 are already quite limited so please book early to avoid disappointment!

Secondly I am delighted to be able to announce the winner of my competition to find a suitable name for this stunning female gargoyle gecko who had her first birthday on New Year's Eve.

She will henceforth be known as Ember, a fantastic name reflecting her beautiful orange and red markings.  This name was suggested by several people before the competition deadline but the first person to suggest it, and the winner of a half price visit from the animals & I to a venue / event of her choice, is Mrs Julia Newstead from Chipping Campden in North Gloucestershire.  Congratulations to Julia!

Thank you to absolutely EVERYONE who got involved and suggested names, I was overwhelmed by the response both via email and also via my Facebook and twitter pages!  I will plan to run another competition in the coming weeks/months so watch this space...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you would like to check back on any 'old' news please use the links below!

News November - December 2012

News September - October 2012

News July - August 2012

News May - June 2012

News March - April 2012

News January - February 2012

News from 2011

News from 2010

News from 2009

News from 2008

News from 2007

Adults, you can also keep up-to-date with any animal-related news via the Jonathan's Jungle Roadshow Facebook page:

Contact Jonathan's Jungle Roadshow