Parma Wallabies

February 1984

My favourite wallaby sprecies... they are very cute

were these all they had? or how big was the population?

No, they had much more. I'll check "The Dodo" for the year that I visited when I get home, but from memory it was around 30 individuals.

Wow... that´s a big group!

According to the inventory in The Dodo #19, on 1/1/82 they had 31 animals, and at 31/12/82 they had 34. During the year 12 young were born and raised, one adult female died, and 4.4 were exported.

Their former enclosure is currently empty, too.

Really? I thought the red river hogs were here... if not, then where in the zoo was this exhibit?

As I remember, when you walked in through the entrance you turned left, then turned right. The enclosure was a long one, and the back fence was the perimeter fence. The exhibit ran parallel with the main road, and was opposite the cheetahs.

However, looking at an old guide book it appears it was a bit further along, just to the left of the Gaherty Reptile Breeding Centre. They may have been there previously, but the Education Centre was there when I was studying (I think).



Hix

Well, you are both right. The last place they were housed was indeed where 'hogs of the bai' is currently. When Hix took this photo, however, they would have been up around the back, sort of behind the Princess Royal Pavillion and 'First Impressions (Cloud Forest)' – parallel with the main road, as Hix said.

It's this, older enclosure, that has stood empty (and unfenced) for many years. The main reason is the amount of traffic that passes on the other side of the wall. Some of it has become the Education Dept's nature garden, with a mini-amphitheater and ponds, bird feeders and patches of rough grass for glow worms.