new series of The Zoo » Auckland Zoo

13-10-2008

I skipped yesterday's episode due to the tedious tiger transfixation but will definitely watch next week's one...

episode six
20-10-2008

quite a good episode last night.

A lioness got some stitches for a wound over her eye.

The elephants in Thailand formed a band and played various instruments at their trainers command. I hope they bring that to Auckland Zoo - since the chimpanzee tea parties were done away with there's no entertainment value at the zoo any more
(that's sarcasm by the way)

Iwani the young siamang who was hand-reared a series or two back was moved to the rainforest exhibit and the siamang pair (Iwani's parents) were moved into Iwani's off-display cage. I have to say the siamang exhibit looks really really fantastic. But was it my imagination or did the narrator call Iwani a monkey at one point?!

20-10-2008

a new series of the zoo program that aired in australia last year starts on tuesday on channel seven.

20-10-2008

Great Tuesday, the one night of the week i am garunteened not to be home!

22-10-2008

Not your imagination at all, I picked up on that one too... I'm sure the keeper mutted a few choice expletives and made sure someone called the editor on Monday...

26-10-2008

Missed tonights episode, what happened Chlidonias..?

episode seven
27-10-2008

ah you would have liked it NZ Jeremy, they had baby tuatara on it. A female tuatara at the zoo had laid eggs so the pretty but not-very-eloquent keeper dug them up so they could be put in incubators. Another keeper, who may also have been pretty but was a man so I'm not one to judge, made a visit to Victoria University in Wellington to see a newly hatched tuatara from eggs laid at Auckland Zoo. Later in the programme some more babies from the University were delivered to the zoo for rearing.

The other two stories were the tiger cubs being vaccinated etc (there was some concern over a runty one that had a head-tilt but it turned out to be fine), and the elephants being locked away in their house so a couple of cheetahs could play chasey in the elephants' yard. A bit odd really.

Good episode though on account of the tuatara.

02-11-2008

Dag nab it, that episode sounded pretty good, missed this weeks one too (I forgot and was out for a run)..!

episode eight
03-11-2008

another good episode last night. The American alligator was moved to a larger enclosure (I think they said it was the old otter enclosure) and they made a big deal about how dangerous it was, using what looked like an entire roll of duct tape to keep its mouth closed.
[just for interest's sake, the only crocodilians in NZ are Auckland's alligator, one or two alligators at Ti Point, and a saltwater croc at Napier Aquarium. Wellington used to have an alligator too about 15 years ago and either Auckland or Wellington had a spectacled caiman at one point. The North Brighton Zoo in Christchurch had a saltwater croc that died in 1995 the year before the zoo closed]

The red pandas were also moved to a new enclosure, although they didn't say why or what the old one would be used for. One of them decided it would rather sit in the top of the tree than come down and be re-homed but they got it in the end.

A baby giraffe was born and named Forest, possibly after Gump (joke). They let him out into the Pridelands paddock where there was also a baby zebra and they played chasey for a bit. The keeper made one of the sillier ill-informed remarks I've heard for a while, something along the lines of "In the wild you often see the giraffes and zebras living in the same areas. So its quite a neat symbiotic relationship they've got." Methinks someone needs to learn the definitions of words before they use them!

04-11-2008

It was the new otter enclosure was finished and opened on Jan 5, the croc moved soon thereafter into the old one...

Two at Ti point, the female is the sister of the one at Auckland Zoo...

There were two red panda enclosure side by side, they are now being used for Tamarins in one and Agouti in the other...

episode nine
10-11-2008

the golden lion tamarins (and their companion cottontop) were moved into the old cottontop enclosure.

Forest the not-so-small-now baby giraffe had developed a very large and obvious lump on his chest, so he was restrained in a crush cage and had the lump drained, which he got quite angry about

The Australian section keeper Asha took a jaunt off to Currumbin Sanctuary on the Gold Coast to have a look at some Australian animals, of which the filming concentrated on a black-headed python, echidna and Tasmanian devil (with quick shots of various other species)

Next week its back to tigers again

10-11-2008

Always look forward to your synopsis of the programme Chlidonias, thanks for those.

10-11-2008

well I've got no life so nothing better to do

10-11-2008

Yes thanks for the tireless updates Chlidonais...

11-11-2008

good thing you said tireless and not tiresome