Sea World Gold Coast Sea World Gold Coast

A spokes person at Seaworld has said there will be several major announcements over the next few months regarding new Animal exhibits, sounds interesting

 

kool, did they drop u any secrets?

 

Some info is to be found on the net Zoo_Boy regarding this

 

yep thats right. seaworld has been planning for some time to open a new hippo exhibit, possibly sourcing some animals from within both queensland and the wider australasian zoo community which would unite the two bloodlines.
if anyone googles seaworld, new hippo exhibit a single link will appear. the old news has broke

 

There are a number of other very interesting mammal species planned for the park,

 

I saw baby dolphins mentioned on their site. Is that quite old news?

 

The baby Dolphins are current news Mr Hornbill, the news we are talking about will be some new mammal species for seaworld

 

Sorry.

Is otters an option. I'm not sure whether you have sea otters, but you have asian short clawed otters don't you?

 

we only have the asian short clawed otters in Oz

 

Hippos at Seaworld?

What do hippos have to do with the sea?

 

I have read some time ago that Hippos have been seen swimming in the open sea off south east Africa.

 

its a whole water world thing, but who cares, it will be complete with underwater veiwing and all the high tech stuff, will be good

did you all also read orcas! and antartic penguins!

 

there are hipposof the ivory coast, or western africa, that actually surf! thank god for national geographic!

 

Are there any dugongs in captivity down under?

The caribean manatee's in captivity in the USA are almost all survivors of some sort of accident and rehabilitating, perhaps something like that could get them some individuals?

 

I think that Seaworld has two Dugongs and are the only ones in Captivity in Oz.

 

They did release a dugong back into Moreton Bay a few years ago. The whole hippo things sounds very interesting but I'm not too sure about Orcas, I'm not even sure about keeping dolphins in captivity but at least they are smaller than orcas. I see that in the article, Currumbin getting pandas was also mentioned.

 

i am not fully supportive of the orca thing, they are such big and amazing animals, so i dont know if i would support them in captivity, as i would elephnats. plus, not to emntion locating surplus, and even more transporting half way around the world, its not everyday that orcas wash up in eden! or anywhere in oz for that matter. the only thing i would support is something close to the size of constructing an enitre outlet in a harbour next to sea world, with rotation facilitties ofr underwater viewing!

 

i think seaworld's plans to acquire river hippo is a good move from a regional perspective, increasing both holding capacity and uniting the two blood lines of hippo in the country in what would undoubtably be superb facilities. hippos do well in captivity, and theyre popular with the public.

on the other hand, importing orcas seems a bit wrong to me. i think orcas are another league beyond elephants. its far easier to enrich a terrestrial environment than it is to enrich an aquatic exhibit, most of which end up as giant swimming pools surrounded by giant tv screens. in the US institutions holding killer whales have recovered alot of valuable data and bred them quite succesfully, but unless Seaworld Australia can promise to do for orcas what it did for polar bears (build them a bloody good exhibit) than i couldnt forgive them for blatantly compromising animal welfare to make profits.

 

the melbourne aquarium is in the process of constructing an indoor penguin facility for a few antarctic species to be imported from the US and around teh place. they did have some loose plans for sea otters, but i'm not sure if that is still on the cards. other marine-themed aquariums in australia and abroad settle for short-clawed otters, so i'm almost supprised sea world havent already got some.

the hippos that "surf" in west africa isn't a common site - it took the NG crew weeks and weeks to find the few that were photographed. personally, i agree that hippos dont exactly fit in with the seaworld theme and would prefer them to focus exclusively on educating about marine environments, however, i can't say i'de be sad to see the hippos leave cairns for an ARAZPA member institution. the two younger hippos are males, offspring of the older female there as far as i know.... hopefully we will see a bit of swapping take place as someone suggested might occour.

orcas don't do well in captivity at all. much worse than dolphins from what i have read. i can see a controversy there in the making.. funny enough i have long wondered if seaworld australia planned on expanding into some of the species seen so often in US parks. orcas are the main attraction but i have wondered of the prospect of them aquiring walrus (no doubt a few more arctic elements to compliment their bears - they already have harbour seals...)

i doubt they will get manatees since they already have the australian equivelent in dugongs. they now house a male/female pair of manatee, that are to stay permanently at the park since teh reitroduction attempts proved unsuccessful. i have no idea if they plan to try and breed the two. i have never heard it mentioned from the park but hopefully they will...i don't know if anyone has ever bred them in captivity before..

 

i googled this, and heaps of links cam eup, tis one got me interested though, Aquarium prepares for the patter of happy feet - National - theage.com.au

at the bottom it says that the previous operators, oceanias or something, proposed the penguin exhibit, as well as a rainforest one, this would be kool!