Monarto's new chimpanzee exhibit... » Monarto Zoo

Monarto's new chimpanzee exhibit...
29-11-2007

well i thought id'e start a new thread specifically for the new chimp exhibit, as i'm sure we will be having numerous converstations about its development over the coming months.

its going to be not only the largest chimp enclosure in this part of the world it will also serve as massively benificial addition to the breeding program here in australiasia. there seems to be a bit of disagreement amongst the various chimpanzee holding zoos as present about how best to manage the anticipated shuffle to make the most of the new monarto facility, but its looking likely part of any plan will see the importation of new chimps from the US or Europe.

the australian plan of management is to maintain chimps in large multi-male multi-female groups as they live in the wild. as per the wild also, all transfers for breeding will be done with females only. and here lies the problem. in order to establish a new colony at monarto, at least one zoo is going to have to deal with the potentially risky operation of introducing new males to eachother. currently, adelaide, hamilton and wellington (who are at capacity an need to remove a couple from their group) are all putting forward different ideas.

in any event i'm sure all will be worked out. however it would be a shame to see the monarto facility open with just three chimps when other zoos are at capacity. what with all that space and all.

but wouldn't be supprised if the willowbank chimps end up coming to monarto instead of mogo!

on another note - does anyone know of the relationship between the two brother chimps at rockhampton zoo and the other chimps in the region?

29-11-2007

i think its goone be great, its within easy walking access from both the Visitors Centre and the Waterhole, but i think they should put some african reptiles along the path along the way, leopard tortoises maybe?

29-11-2007

this is just my opinion, but I think this is a long time over due in Australia.
A second troop of chimps and I mean a troop, not just a couple like Adelaide has at the moment, could really see Australia become a big part of the long term survival of chimps.
I think Mogo should let their plans for chimps go and Adelaide step up and take over.

I am looking forward to hearing about future progression of this exhibit.

P.S
I would ask how many chimps are in our region, but the last person to ask a simmliar question got smashed by Patrick. I think it was about elephants or something. I'll look on ISIS.

29-11-2007

Just looked at ISIS. Didn't know Wellington had just a large number. Still 18 males and 24 females isn't a huge amount for our region.

29-11-2007

I have the details of where the Rocky boy's parents came from before they ended up in the zoo in Coolangatta, but I can't remember and the paperwork is all packed away still in Brisbane. I do know they are genetically valuable to the region, not just because they are not represented, but because of their origins.

Having a troop at Monarto was a dream of mine, and I really hope the region can work together to provide more individuals with a suitable and progressive habitat rather than fragmented populations. I would also like to see a bachelor group, which can work quite well, but not sure who would be willing to sacrifice the pulling power of infants to maintain a sink for excess males. I am an advocate of assisted reproduction to skew the sex ratio of offspring, and unless we address the issue of excess males we will have continuing problems with the great apes, as moratoriums on breeding will drastically reduce the effective population.

29-11-2007

realistically the chimpanzee population in Australasia has zero conservation benefit in terms of a breeding program as the animals represent such a mixed bag of sub-species.
so i think chimpanzees are less of a priority than managing gorillas and sumatran orangutans. at the same time, if perth and australia zoo come on board with gorillas in the future, and with sumatran orangs widely held, the alignment of monarto zoo with the chimp program represents a solid founding for programs for all 3 ape species in this region and could increase the level of in-situ work our zoos are able to get behind.
our zoos have been strong supporters of in-situ conservation programs for all 3 species in the last few years, with every zoo seeming to strengthen its focus on a particular species.
perth and auckland-orangs
adelaide-the recent example of the gorillas and ongoing orang work
taronga-chimpanzees
melbourne-orangutans
giving our regions zoos the option of more effectively managing these species by increasing holding capacity is a critical step, but i imagine future decisions to breed chimpanzees will be based more upon display requirements than conservation breeding requirements. the pedigree of our chimps creates a different management style between them and the globally managed gorillas and orangs.

30-11-2007

absolutely. i can understand the zoos descision to continue with a program for "generic" chimps however. there are over a thousand mixed-race chimps in zoos and very few that are of know pedigree. its a terrible shame and further clouded by the fact that some authorities still argue over the exact number of subspecies anyway. ideally, we probably wouldn't keep them, but can you imagine how long it would take to phase out a species with a lifespan comparable to humans!!

they will however be good representatives for their species in zoos and assist in raising conservation dollars.

30-11-2007

this is something I am prepared to get heavily critised for mentioning but does keeping certain animals in sub species really matter. I understand the difference between a sumartran tiger and a siberian tiger are easily noticable but animals like chimps, and sun bears; which are already divided into to sub species in our region, does it matter.

02-12-2007

I visited Monarto earlier this year, and was disappointed by the fact that after the hour long bus ride then there's maybe another hour at best wandering around with the meerkat and wallabies. However, the enclosures are ten times larger than at any traditional zoo, and I received a 3 page flyer with all of the plans for the chimpanzee exhibit.

As long as they receive additional chimps, on top of the 2-3 that are coming over from Adelaide, then a large troop will entice visitors to hang out for a lengthy period of time. Between the giant panda and expansion plans at Adelaide Zoo, as well as the chimps at Monarto...things are definitely looking up for South Australia's tourism.

02-12-2007

you could also have alwked to tha mallefow, rhino viewing decks or even the waterhole biewing deck, both weer open early this year, depending on the month you also could have seen the cheetahs veiwing deck.

You could also have walked the myriad of walking trails. next time your in South Australia let me know, i'll show you a whole day(!) at monarto

03-12-2007

even a zoofan like myself can only drag werribee out to a couple of hours due to lack of "at own pace" exhibits - its definately a problem there in my opinion.

03-12-2007

i think so. there is a lot of work and understand yet to be extracted from animals. things we know little about. for example, almost all zoos hybridised orangutans for years. now they are considered seperate species.

we recently discovered gorillas were indeed two seperate species also and that it looks likely the same for clouded leopards.

what if say a type of endangered squirrel from borno and sumatra was being bred in captivity. we notice no difference between the two types so we interbreed them. then we discover that only the sumatran squirrels were immune to a certain parasite found in sumatra. becuse we mixed them with teh borneans they now cannot be reintroduced becuse the bornean squirrel genes cancelled out the immunity?

shame yes?

this is of course a totally hypothetical (and potentially ridiculous) scenario i just made up, but it kind illustrates the potential problems that can occour by indicriminately mixing.

my belief (and the policy of many zoos) has always been avoid hybridisation of subspecies wherever possible - obviously its not so important for non-endangered species where the captive population is not considered so much of an "insurance".

obviously the size of the captive population plays an important role in detremining if its a rule worth adhereing to. for example in the case of sumatran rhino, hybridise away i say....better to have a hybrid captive population than none at all!!!

however, it makes me wonder why elephants in australia are still considered to be managed at the species level, when we clearly have a purebred founder population. shouldn't we make it policy to maintain this?
giraffes we had little choice. hopefully if laws change we will one day re-initiate a reversal process and switch via attrition to purebreds again. we shifted to hybridising gueeza colobus due to our two groups in the region being of different subspecies. this i question. choosing not to hybridise was obviously somthing that had finacial implications as it meant possible exporting of one race and importing more of the other. but should we probably have done it anyway?

there was already a large hybrid guereza population overseas, but a comparable sized population of the mt kenyan race also, of which the perth animals represented (the melbourne-based purebred c.g. guereza are held by virtually no other zoos). now there may have been unknown factors (such as unavialability) but shouldn't we have chosen to contribute to the purebred mt kenyan lineage instead of the hybrid one?

03-12-2007

Patrick brought up a solid point in regards to open range zoos. The lack of "own pace" exhibits forces zoo patrons to see most of the highlights from a bus/tram/monorail. That means that for about an hour people are whisked around from enclosure to enclosure, and then usually the majority of the animals have been seen.

Then there are always a number of exhibits that can be seen from foot, but sometimes this is the best part of the visit. I'm not knocking these organizations, because part of me feels that they are the future of zoological gardens and they usually have massive enclosures...but I always feel a bit rushed.

The three open range zoos that I've been to are: Monarto Zoo (Adelaide), San Diego Wild Animal Park, and Northwest Trek Wildlife Park (Washington State, U.S.A.).

03-12-2007

and then theres Western Plains Zoo, a true zoological gem.
for the benifit of Snow Leopard and other members who havent been to WPZ before, there are plenty of good reasons as to why tickets are valid for two consecutive days. its massive, and seen from foot.

04-12-2007

The next time that I visit Australia then I'll definitely make my way to Western Plains Zoo, but it is a little out of the way for the average zoo customer. Do you happen to know what their attendance numbers are? I'm sure that the Taronga Zoo averages over a million a year.