...and other mammals in NZ zoos

...and other mammals in NZ zoos
01-12-2008

seeing as we've already covered wild cats in NZ zoos and ungulates in NZ zoos and Primates, I figured may as well go the whole hog and cover all the other exotic mammal species in NZ zoos. Turns out, surprise surprise, there's not very many. Including the cats, ungulates and primates listed in the other threads, there are less than eighty exotic mammal species in NZ zoos (and that's including a number of introduced wild species which I have put in the list below but which are rarely or never found in zoos). I think I've got all the species, but probably some of the zoos that have them aren't listed.

Carnivores
*Sun bear -- Wellington
*African hunting dog -- Hamilton, Wellington, Orana
*Small-clawed otter -- Auckland, Franklin, Hamilton, Brooklands, Wellington, Orana, Willowbank
*Red panda -- Auckland, Hamilton, Brooklands, Wellington
[*Coati -- there used to be lots of coatis in NZ but I can't find them today on any of the zoo websites!]
*Meerkat -- Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Natureland, Orana
*Ferret -- found wild in NZ, recently banned from being kept as pets here but can be seen in several zoos still
*Stoat and weasel -- both wild in NZ, not usually seen in captivity but I've seen a weasel on display at Nga Manu
*Californian sealion -- Auckland and Napier Marineland [according to their website Auckland also has a subantarctic fur seal and a NZ fur seal, both being rescued animals that cannot be returned to the wild; Marineland also has NZ fur seals]

Rodents and Lagomorphs
*Rabbit and hare -- domestic rabbit in childrens' zoos of course, but the wild species never in zoos
*Black rat, brown rat, Polynesian rat, house mouse -- domestic rats and mice in childrens' zoos, wild ones never displayed as far as I know
*Chinchilla -- kept as pets in NZ, probably found in some childrens' zoos
*Guinea pig -- common in childrens' zoos
[*Mara -- as with coati, used to be everywhere but now I can't find any on the zoos' websites]
*Brazilian agouti -- Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington
*South African crested porcupine -- Auckland (according to their website it is a North African but according to ISIS its a South African), Wellington, Orana
*North African crested porcupine -- Orana (which is also actively breeding hybrids with the South African cresteds)

Insectivores
*European hedgehog -- wild in NZ; occasionally displayed in zoos. I've seen them at, eg, Willowbank. There are albino ones at Living Art

Bats
*Grey-headed flying fox -- one at Auckland
*Little red flying fox -- Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington
[NZ short-tailed bat -- Auckland (is a native not an exotic but have now included it anyway)]

Marsupials
*Brush-tailed possum -- wild in NZ, occasionally displayed in zoos
*Red kangaroo -- Auckland, Orana
*Eastern grey kangaroo -- Wellington [I'm not sure where all the kangaroos in NZ went!]
*Red-necked (Bennett's) wallaby
*Parma wallaby
*Tammar wallaby
*Brush-tailed rock wallaby
*Swamp wallaby -- the wallabies are all wild in NZ, red-neckeds are most common in zoos. I don't know if there are any rock or swamp wallabies left in NZ collections

01-12-2008

Are those the only species of Walabies which have been introduced to NZ. It is interesting that wallabies which are endangered in Aus are thriving in NZ.

01-12-2008

Was it the Tammar wallaby that was almost extinct over here and introduced ones were brought back over from New Zealand.

02-12-2008

Parma Wallaby



Hix

02-12-2008

Auckland Zoo also has a group of New Zealand Short Tailed bats.

02-12-2008

Thanks for spending the time to come up with these lists Chlidonias! I found them all to be very enjoyable reading.

02-12-2008

Auckland Zoo no longer holds Mara. As far as I understand Nyack is a South African Crested Porcupine.

I agree these lists make fascintating reading and really appreciate the effort taken to put them together. Well done.

02-12-2008

And brush-tailed rock-wallabies from Kawai Island,

02-12-2008

regarding the wallabies, I've covered them several times on various threads, so I'll just quote myself from Wellington Zoo update to the above I would add that apparently there are still some wallabies on Kawau which haven't been taken care of yet, but once they are gone then the only ones left in NZ will be the red-neckeds on the South Island and the tammars around the Rotorua area (both species are too well established over large areas to eradicate). The fifth wallaby species that was released on Kawau by George Grey was the black-striped wallaby, which is not thought to have established for long after release (hence the reason I didn't include it in the wallabies found in NZ).

02-12-2008

it had been my understanding that the only North African in NZ was at Orana but the Auckland website calls their's cristata (North African) and gives the distribution of cristata. However I checked ISIS and according to their records Auckland has africaeaustralis (South African). So I have changed the list to say this.

02-12-2008

glad to be of service. The thing with being a small country with only a few proper zoos is that I really already knew pretty much everything that was here, so it was just a matter of checking a few websites to see what their zoo distribution was. Of course I like lists anyway so it was fun for me too. The most interesting thing was finding out that some species that I had been used to seeing over the years weren't in fact found here any more, like the coatis and maras (I checked ISIS just before and according to that, for the zoos that contribute, the only coati in the region is one at Melbourne Zoo, and the only maras are six at Dubbo!!); and some common things like kangaroos are hardly found anywhere in NZ anymore. Some zoos sneak under the radar so there potentially could be still coatis and maras at, eg, Franklin or Keystone or somewhere like that, but basically they're functionally extinct here.

02-12-2008

Thanks for that info on wallabies in NZ.

02-12-2008

There were Mara at Adelaide Zoo when I was there last December.



Hix

03-12-2008

I figured there had to be more than six mara in Australia, but Dubbo was all that ISIS listed

27-12-2008

Wellington Zoo now has dingoes: Wellington now has dingoes!