Although this news is from 2013 (or possibly even very early 2014), it has only been reported recently so I decided to create a new thread. Recent births have included 15 blackbuck as well as one of each: zebra, wapiti, addax and eland.
Sad news. Digger the young male white rhino (b.2010 at Monarto) died from a liver problem: Taronga Western Plains Zoo statement | Taronga Conservation Society Australia
I was in Dubbo the other and had the opportunity to do a quick circuit of the zoo (mainly looking for birds) and I noticed the Dromedaries and Aoudad (Barbary Sheep) are not in their normal enclosure - a single black Rhino had the whole enclosure to himself. The camels and Barbary sheep have been reocated to one of the rocky-substrate ungulate exhibits that used to have blackbuck (at the other end of the zoo). Hix
More Galapagos Tortoise breeding success announced on TWPZ's Facebook page: Lots of photos there too: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.711620178881866.1073741888.162191930491363&type=1
Congrats on this achievement! Any news on to which (sub-)species the breeding Galapagos giants at TWPZ may be assigned to?
It is a great achievement, and possibly a result of the relatively large group held here - 3.2.1. I have no idea what subspecies they would be, nor whether they would necessarily be a pure subspecies, as I'm not sure the adults are.
There is also an article on the hatchlings on the zoo's website: https://taronga.org.au/news/2014-04-30/zoos-new-galapagos-breeding-success
I don't know either - I just looked at some photos I took a couple of years back - one graphic identified them as Geochelone elephantopus, and an enclosure label said Geochelone nigra. Hix
Not even a bit of history or origins from other zoos? They claimed the males had just reached maturity (that is not too old …).
how many adults does Western Plains have? According to the following link, in 1980 Taronga Zoo had 1.2 G. elephantopus guentheri (the information presumably having come from the 1981 IZY). Galapagos Islands Guided Tour - The Endangered Galapagos Giant Tortoise However I think they have also imported G. e. elephantopus from the Honolulu colony, yes?
Taronga's annual report lists 1.2 G.e.guntheri every year up until the 1982-1983 report where they were just listed as G. elephantopus. In that same report 3.3 were imported from Honolulu, and all nine were then sent to the new enclosure built for them at Western Plains. The subspecies imported was not identified. In the 1984-84 and subsequent Annual Reports (until 1996-97 when they stopped publishing the animal inventory) the 3.3 were marked as being on breeding loan from Honolulu Zoo. Hix
huh. That sounds like a way of just avoiding admitting they are mixing different subspecies together (if the original identification of the guentheri was correct and I don't see why it wouldn't have been if they knew where they came from).