red-tailed phascogales @ taronga » Taronga Zoo

red-tailed phascogales @ taronga
29-01-2007

endangered phascogales from south-western Australia have arrived at taronga to start a breeding program and have gone on display.
the species, which has a regional population of well over one-hundred is being managed by perth, adelaide and the alice springs desert park.
no doubt the cbp is part of the ongoing recovery plan for the species, although im unsure about the release of any captive-bred young into the wild.
has anyone seen them (besides me) in the nocturnal house yet?

30-01-2007

wow thats great, about time we started again some important native programs on the eastern states, and yet another forum not about elephants from taronga!

30-01-2007

Earlier last year Alice Springs Desert Park began a trial release of 10 Red-tailed Phascogales within the core area of the park. This has been very successful with radio tracking showing that the animals ranged widely over the park each night before returning to nesting sites close to the release area. The phascogales were offered supplementary feeds early in the exercise but never needed it, getting all their food requirements from insects found naturally on the site. It is planned to extend the scope of this work in 2007 with a further release in another area about 600 metres from the first site.

Alice Springs Desert Park

native species recovery programs
30-01-2007

zoo boy it is great to see taronga getting involved in another conservation program, another string for their bow, so to speak.
the ZPB of NSW must be developing quite a high level of skills in terms of wildlife release programs, and these skills seem to be in demand from overseas conservation agencies too. it would be nice to see taronga advertising this aspect of their work a bit more, there was no mention at all at the zoo of the level o involvement taronga had in the [phascogales recovery...

30-01-2007

wel yea, they have breed close to a thousand mallefowl at dubbo, and they have semi wild wombats, which they do research to be used on northerns, and dubbo has the whole kit and kududle(?? is tht the saying) for breeding natives, 10 bilby enclousres, ( they did breed heaps, but resoruces dried up) 4 enclosures for small marcopods, another large area for another species of small mamal/bird, and maybe about 10 aivaries around the property, not to mention on exhibit is a great place for yellow footed rock wallbies, and even dingos have a decent exhibit.

western plains has so much potentail particular breeding species, state of art tiger breeding exhibits, lion breeding facilities (though more-so better for a small cat), large out back paddocks for mega fauna, massive white, black and now indian facilities, mixed now with all the native exhibit that are set up out back, and whats better is the malle aivaries and the wombat exhibits are in scrub forest, leaving them semi wild, and an area of 150 ha for reintroduction, so the land and exhibits are there, but no money being delivered that way. new koala facilities, new bird aivaries, wombat burroms all around keepers areas, and a brand new aqis centre, its great

a real shame taronga takes it all.

30-01-2007

After reading all that about Dubbo they might as well shut down Toronga and send all funds to Dubbo.

Taronga should be used as a place to hold the big crowd pullers to raise more money for Dubbo.

31-01-2007

thats right, though i think dubbo needs to again boost its status as a conservation property. and in saying all that, there is still 200-300 ha still to develop, they have land they own across from the zoo, golf course, its opposite the entrance, on the dubbo side. it was to be developed into a conservation area for release of small macropods and butterflies or something. now the zoo often rents it to graze cattle and ship- no quarrintine as it has no connection to the zoos main property)

not to mention, if dubbo wanted to, it could further expand to aquire surronding lands, all of which is very basic attractions, with no real value.

talking zoos here and not all money, taronga is an education facility, ie elephants program for education, whilst dubbo has the facilities to actively engage in programs, and has much potential in mega fauna, not to mention the smaller ones as well!

i would still love dubbo to get african elephants though! they have the exhibits, and the room, but again our region focus' on asians, so why not have both!

but again all we need is money and resources, we have animals for programs, but mr. cooper wont buget to kick start conservation programs again at dubbo.

31-01-2007

but we don't have the resources, room or the possibility of housing both!

31-01-2007

monty, ill tell you why they (ZPB of NSW) arent going to shut down taronga and invest all their resources in dubbo. because for a long time now taronga has been subsidising western plain's operations.
western plains definitely has the space and facilites to commit and focus on foreign mega-vertebrates, big cats and native marsupials.
but on the other hand, taronga, with its bigger staff and consequently greater range of skills, plus its proximity to collaborating institutions such as UNSW and Uni of Sydney, is also an effective conservation centre, perhaps more so than dubbo.
almost all the work done by ZPB of NSW in aves, herpes and amphibians is conducted at taronga, plus most marsupial and monotreme breeding/research programs.
when you talk about resources 'drying up' for conservation programs im not sure i see what you mean. i know things get tight financially, particularly out west and the zoo does seem to splash money around wastefully at times, but im pretty sure that when either zoos commit to a native fauna recovery program they stay with it until the end; until their component of the recovery project is finalised, or the project is disbanded. it all depends on what outcome is expected from the zoos, is it breed for release, breed for release/research, breed for captive research???
the breeding program for the common wombat has, as you know, been wound down. there were professional disagreements between the reproductive biologist and veterinary staff, but at the end of the day the project revealed all the biological date about wombat reproduction it was supposed to. having completed the research, there would have been no point continuing to breed wombats. the facilities will just have to wait for hairy nosed tenants to move in.
other breeding programs for the eastern barred bandicoot, regent honeyeater and mala and nail-tailed wallaby and bell-frog have all been wound down or are being wound down because the zoo has met its targets, which is great news because either self-sustaining wild populations are becoming established or the research work is completed.. on the other hand mallefowls, as you know, are part of an ongoing program.
and new projects continue to develop. red-tailed phascogale, little penguins, rock wallaby and coroboree frog. lets watch the zoos involvement closely with these species...

31-01-2007

I was joking about shuting Taronga. Zoo boy made Dubbo sound so good it is all we need.

01-02-2007

thats why i was always an advocate for dubbo and not taronga, i was there when all the keepers where at worry stage about the zoos closure, and that there was defintally a need for the zoo.

i mean the keepers may have been thinking irrationally, but still dubbo needs resources, and maybe when the drought eases, some of the money that was used for extra fodder, can be used to build up programs!

01-02-2007

it would be great to see the drought break, but it will take more than that to change dubbo's fortunes. what dubbo needs is an increase in domestic/regional tourism and a drop in petrol prices, both of which seem set on consistent trends. i think despite these factors western plains will always stay open for a myriad of reasons-as a major tourism attraction it brings social, economic and political opportunities, plus for the ammount of public money invested in it and of course for its conservation value.
but i am also sure that for the short-term at least western plains will continue to be subsidised. until it starts pulling its own financial weight again its unlikely that there will be any significant infrastrucutre investment on the scale of wild asia at taronga.
maybe that land opposite the zoo will one day be sold off as a green housing site, or something like that, to bring in some more money? on another note, i would agree with zoo boy on the african elephant import. the only time i ever would advocate bringing in a unplanned species. african elephants arent only iconic for dubbo, and a major drawcard, but the fact that the zoo already has them, and they are all still middle-aged, means that theoretically dubbo would be useless as a holding facility for asian elephants for the next few decades.
i know this will prompt debate. consider it my personal 'jaguar'.

01-02-2007

on another note how many people in the coastal areas would be put off going to dubbo because of
a-the length of the drive
b-the fact that they believe there is no link from the city to the zoo
c-they dont have a car
d-petrol prices
does anyone know how long it would take on the train to get to dubbo? because you can easily walk out to the zoo from town.

01-02-2007

i think the distance from sydney alone has gotta be the biggest factor in whats making dubbo struggle. the fact that anyone who plans on visiting from teh city really needs to spend a night in dubbo, puts people off. it becomes a weekend trip to the zoo instead of a day trip. its inland too, and most tourists commute along the coast.

on african elephants. look, i think they are fantastic and the idea of asians at our city zoos and africans at our open range zoos is an appealing one.

however, even when putting finacial obsticles aside (and elephants are undoubtably the most expensive animal to house), their is one issue that was brought to my (our) attention that flattened the idea once and for all.

and that was the disease issue. if african elephants pose a risk to asian calves then you really can't have both species in the region.

if we really do have as much sucess with breeding asians as we hope, then its really only a matter of time (be it a decade or so) until we will start to run out of space for growing herds at taronga, perth and melbourne. as zoopro pointed out another time its not so much that we need more genetics in the short to medium-term, but i belive that we will need more space to hold growing herds and or batchelor males. imagine if, in the next 10 years every zoo breeds a calf from every young female they have. the melbourne ppopulation could be 8, taronga 9 and perth 5. its unlikely, but entirely possible.

certainly melbourne and tarongas herds would be struggling with knowhere to go or grow..

as far as i'm concerned it will force a rethink as to how the zoos intend on managing the elephants. is keeping the breeding herd in the city the smartest way of doing it? either the herds will be split to create another small herd and reduce the pressure on the city zoos or the whole herd will need to move to larger space. either way, its inevitable, with so few zoos, that the open-range zoos will eventually be called apon to have a greater role in the elephant breeding program. dubbo with its long history of keeping elephants and its facilities is an obvious choice.

but if africans are already at dubbo and the issue of asians infected by herpes is real - this can't happen. the african elephant breeding program (and i assume thats what you want it to be) will effectively be compromising an asian breeding program. and we can't have that.

01-02-2007

Yeah in SA we dont have the problem at monarto (not saying we get heaps of visitors) its only an hour from teh city up the freeway!