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Chlidonias

mara

photo taken 1992. Not a good photo but there are no longer any mara left in NZ

mara
Chlidonias, 9 Jun 2010
    • Chlidonias
      photo taken 1992. Not a good photo but there are no longer any mara left in NZ
    • zooboy28
      No mystery here Chlidonias, I know the location of this exhibit precisely! It is shown on this map as holding mara (http://www.zoochat.com/14/auckland-zoo-map-1980s-54241/), and as an unlabelled exhibit in this earlier map (http://www.zoochat.com/14/auckland-zoo-map-1979-a-54238/). It was situated next to the central lawn, and this photo was taken looking towards the hill at the back of the zoo (the pine plantation at the back shows this), and immediately behind the camera was a bear pit, which by 1992 did not hold bears, but I do not know what it did hold, possibly North American porcupine or red panda. It now holds the African crested porcupine.

      Behind this exhibit can be seen green netting, which covered some large cages, which likely held agouti and wombats, although in the 1980s they also held giant anteaters and racoons. Beyond that was a kangaroo exhibit, which was similar to that for the mara, although larger. This became a wallaby walkthrough in (I think) the mid-90s. The mara enclosure, wallaby walkthrough, and the cages in between were removed, probably around 1998, to allow construction of Sea Lion & Penguin shores, which opened in 1999. The mara were moved to the enclosure opposite the tea party chimps, in which they lived out the rest of their days. By this stage the wombats had gone too, and the agouti were moved to the rainforest. The wallabies were moved to the old bison paddock in the corner of the zoo, which by that stage was holding llama, which was converted into the current wallaby walkthrough.
    • Chlidonias
      I did wonder what that weird-lookin' critter was on the 1980s map next to the raccoon -- an agouti!! I always thought the fearsome-looking one next to that was a Tasmanian devil though: do you think it may instead be supposed to represent a wombat?

      This photo, by the way, may have been taken in 1995 rather than 1992 because it looks more like what the crappy camera I had then would have produced than what my sister's slightly less crappy camera would have produced.
    • zooboy28
      Yes, its certainly not the best drawing, but I don't think Auckland had devils at this time, and I know they had wombats in that cage, so I would say its just a really bad drawing of a wombat! Its certainly a fat little mammal anyway.

      If it was taken in 1995 that wouldn't change much, although I'm not sure if the wombats did hang around that long.
    • Chlidonias
      I'm sure I remember in A Tiger By The Tail it said the North American porcupines were housed in the modified bear pit (not sure on date though)
    • zooboy28
      I have had a look at the book, and I can't find any references to where the porcupines were housed. They were a gift from the Commonwealth Games Association of Canada, given in 1990 to commemorate that years games in Auckland. They gave birth to their first baby in 1992. They certainly didn't persist for much longer after that, I don't think they were there in the late 90s, and certainly weren't from 2000. I wonder what happened to them.
    • Chlidonias
      perhaps my memory is incorrect, and I don't have the book here to check. I did myself wonder what happened to those porcupines because they didn't seem to last long despite having bred at the zoo.
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  • Category:
    Auckland Zoo
    Uploaded By:
    Chlidonias
    Date:
    9 Jun 2010
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