What happened to the xxxx enclosure/exhibit? » Taronga Zoo

18-02-2008

If in future tigers are going to be housed in the present lion enclosure, then a bit of height will need to be added to the walls, or we will have another "San Francisco" on our hands.......

18-02-2008

ARA, if youre referring to the half of Cats of Asia currently holding lions then the chance of a tiger escaping seems remote. especialy as the exhibit has held tigers on a number of occasions, most recently in 2006 when the lions and tigers had a bit of a swap.
when chester the white tiger was at taronga he always lived in the left hand side enclosure and the sumatrans were almost always on the right hand side......its quite safe man

19-02-2008

I'm a bit worried this may happen at Auckland Zoo... The female Tigress is kept in a pit originally designed for two prides of Lions and at some points the wall looks quite low...

19-02-2008

@Ara: Speaking of the San Francisco Zoo, the 4 tigers (3 sumatran and 1 siberian) and 4 lions have been locked into their tiny night quarters for 60 days. Apparently the new alterations to their exhibits have taken a long time to finish, but I feel sorry for the big cats in their puny environment. They haven't been let out into the refurbished exhibits.

19-02-2008

I'm a bit worried this may happen at Auckland Zoo... The female Tigress is kept in a pit originally designed for two prides of Lions and at some points the wall looks quite low...

quote by NZ Jeremy

I have asked my contact at Auckland zoo to find out some actual statistics of the wall heights .

There is a hotwire around the top of the enclosure , but whether it is enough to discourage the tigress ......

19-02-2008

Just before you came up they were cutting back all the ivory around the top of the exhibit... Wasn't too overgrown and I thought it may be due to San Francisco...

Could you PM me the heights when you get them..?

19-02-2008

i imagine you could make an aweful lot of piano keys with all of it too!

19-02-2008

they were cutting back all the ivory around the top of the exhibit



I wonder if all this ivory was sponsored by Kashin and Burma ? ( the 2 resident elephants )

19-02-2008

LOL... I think I meant ivy...

04-03-2008

Well, thank you to everyone who gave some wonderful insights in this thread. I'm glad I asked.

Now, I hate to make suggestions since I only arrived here, but with so much knowledge and 'expertise' from members here, and with so many questions always posed, would it be an idea to have dedicated threads to each animal/exhibit at Taronga all linked in a sticky thread which acts like an index.

The idea being that when new members come, or old members are seeking information on, say the Chimps, they can simply click on the Chimp link in the index thread and be taken to the latest information as well as old discussions on the animals and enclosures rather than searching through all the threads.

I know that sort of happens here, but there seem to be about 5 threads talking about elephants, and maybe 3 talking about seals and GSO.

Just an idea, and all respect if it gets knocked back, but I've seen it work elsewhere and it's handy.

Maybe... maybe not...

05-03-2008

I remember seeing one or two black rhino at Taronga Park on my first visit there- circa 1990(?).

The original Ape exhibits were HIDEOUS(!!!) perhaps the worst I've ever seen in a major zoo (mind you, many zoos worldwide had pretty dreadful Ape enclosures in that era) from memory they were easily the worst enclosure at Taronga Pk. There were still Orangutans in them when I was there( the first time) I guess all three Great Apes once used to live there including the various gorillas Sydney had?

06-03-2008

Hi all, Ive just registered here. Found this site while looking up the latest on the tiger escape at San francisco zoo. Im very interested in tigers and lions. Have found this thread about old enclosures very interesting cause from my childhood can remember alot of them, the old lion and tiger pits, the apes, the alligator exhibit etc.

I vaguely recall when the tiger zookeeper was mauled. Could anyone clue me in on what actually happened? Did it have something to do with tiger cubs? Did it happen in the current cages or was it when tigers used to be housed in where the smaller jungle cats are now? Someone mentioned that there were lots of changes and upgrades prompted by this. Any details?

Also very interested in any info on the tiger and lion pits and their setup. i can remember years ago looking down into them after they had been modernised and before all the plants grew and could see above the tunnel where people stand and look at the cats there was a cage like setup where I thought I saw a tiger. Is that their behind the scenes cages? I also rremember seeing some sort of chute - is that how they are fed?

I can remember the old lion pit which is now the sunbears having the current window and also another window which looked directly down at them. I think it was tinted blue and was that colour as thats the colour the cats see in. Think it used to have tigers at one stage? Way back when it first opened? Does anyone else remember something like this?

Also interested in the old elephant house. I visited Taronga in January and it looked like it was being turned into a museum display?

Man what a long first post. Thanks for anyone who managed to read through it all! Am I allowed to ask so many questions??

06-03-2008

i don't know where it was exactly, but on my first taronga visit as a real little kid with my dad, i distinctly remember viewing a tiger through a dark-tinted glass window.

06-03-2008

@interested

I seem to remember someone mentioning (on this site) the mauling happened in the early 90's and was a female keeper... Google it, it'll be somewhere or PM the member Glyn (he one of the Taronga fanatics on the board)...

I went to Taronga last September and the lions and tigers are kept next to each in the pit style enclosures, lions on the right, tigers on the left...

I found the enclosures to be drab and very cage like (mock rock had only replaced bars)... The animals were viewed through (clear) glass, you don't look down on them, in fact the viewer is slightly below the animals... The tigers in paricular were pacing a lot...

06-03-2008

I agree with NZ Jeremy in his assessment of the Taronga lion and tiger enclosures. When I visited in May of 2007 there was a decent amount of foliage in the background, and it was cool to see the big cats up close and against the glass...but the exhibits aren't really that large and seemed to be in renovated pits rather than new areas. The pacing of large carnivores is especially troublesome even in the best zoos.