I've only just got round to checking out the plan in the article link. Nothing on the plan is labelled but the walk-through aviary and the walk-through deer enclosure are actually still on there (you can see the boundary fences of each and also where the doors at either side of the aviary will be; the aviary is depicted as being hexagonal if that helps). The article doesn't specifically say the aviary won't be there nor the deer walk-through, it simply skips the bit between the farmyard and the kea aviary. Granted it does say the deer will be in the farmyard but to me that sounds more like the reporter mixing things up than the plan having been changed. Relevant quote from the article: "She said the section would start with a new penguin exhibit. It would then run through to an area featuring farm animals including sheep, deer and chickens. There would be a native bush section where the zoo hopes to attract tui and other native birds that already leave around the area. The final part of the development would be a mountain encounter housing kea and native skinks."
Ok, I kind of took from the article that the bush area would just be a forested area to attract native wild birds with feeders and stuff, rather than actually having captive birds. But yes, the aviary is still shown in the story's plan. I assumed the walk-through deer enclosure had been cut, as it isn't highlighted in the same way on that plan as on the original. So yes, I guess they could both still be in the plan.
So in this post (https://www.zoochat.com/community/posts/686184), Chlidonias quoted an article which stated that Hall's Gap Zoo in Australia was recieving two White-cheeked Gibbons from Welington Zoo later this year. As Wellington only have a pair of gibbons now, which are presumably somewhat older animals, what will they replace them with? It would be great to continue keeping gibbons at Wellington, and I'd prefer it if they didn't get siamangs in. Is an import from outside the region of another gibbon pair (same species, or even Silvery?) possible?
I don't know but I don't think so. They certainly bred from the male with his last female. Their daughter went to Perth, and the current female came from Perth (in 2005). The male (originally from Melbourne in 1991) is 36 or so, and the female 21.
Update from Wellington Zoo's facebook page after todays large earthquake (6.5), which followed a series of moderately sized eathquakes over the last few days. While the zoo appears fine, there have been reports of minor damage throughout the capital, and some buildings have suffered structural damage too. Unusually the earthquakes are increasing in magnitude, not decreasing, meaning a larger quake isn't impossible. Fingers crossed nothing else eventuates, and the zoo doesn't have to resort to its emergency management plan - http://www.zoochat.com/17/zoo-names-first-animals-shot-212976/. Earthquake info here: More quakes shake central New Zealand - national | Stuff.co.nz
Yeah, it seemed to be felt everywhere, even up in Hamilton. I imagine there will be some minor damage to the zoo, but nothing massive. It must be a bit stressful for some of the animals, especially with large recurring quakes. Obviously it stresses the chimps, but there must be other animals that don't cope as well as others. I imagine, for example, that the giraffe could freak out, but other species would be relatively relaxed about it.
Unfortunately, the kiwi died from post-surgery complications: Story here: Rare kiwi. Ataahua, dies after surgery at Wellington... | Stuff.co.nz
I went to the zoo yesterday, which will be the last visit for a long time! Some general observations: *The sectioned-off area of the squirrel monkey cage, formerly where the cottontop tamarins were held, now appears to just have a pair of agouti in it (and there's another agouti pair in with the squirrel monkeys themselves). The cottontops have been moved to the marmoset doll-house which has been divided into two parts (roughly two-thirds and one-thirds of the space). The larger section has the cottontops, the red-fronted macaw, the sun conures and an agouti. The smaller section has the pigmy marmosets and the iguanas. The emperor tamarin has gone. *The pelican and frogmouth are still alive, but the frogmouth has moved aviaries again (the aviaries at the Nest are always doing musical chairs). Now most of the aviaries hold kaka except the end one which has sacred kingfishers and a little pied shag (still with the incorrect signage for black shag with a photo that isn't a black shag anyway!). The frogmouth is in the aviary around the back where the cockatiels were. *The Asian Precinct is pretty average. The sun bear enclosure looks good from the front but looks like rubbish from the old giraffe platform. And it doesn't really seem like there's any more room there than they had in their old enclosure, despite the overall area starting out much larger. The old enclosure has been sort of obscured by bamboo fencing. *Hero HQ is all right. I'm half and half with that one. I do like the way it looks, although that will be a matter of taste (very cartoonish, but not in an offensive way like the marmoset doll house) but the information is terrible. There are no scientific names, which I had expected, but even the general tone of the information is pretty crap. The cartoon theme buries the information within it so most of the people I saw viewing it couldn't even tell what they were meant to be looking for in each tank. The reflections on the glass are shockingly bad, which is really something they should have sorted in the planning stage, especially given they have the same problems with the marmoset doll house. The species on display which were properly identified (by common name only) were Jackson's chameleon, Madagascar day gecko, leopard gecko, scheltopusik (they imported five of them) and goliath stick insects. The tarantulas were (according to the text boxes) pink-toe tarantula, goliath bird-eater, king baboon, and a fourth one with no name. The last two species on show were the giant Australian mantis Hierodula majuscula (just labelled as a mantis) and I *think* desert scorpion Urodacus yaschenkoi (with generic scorpion labelling). There are only two scorpion species on the approved zoo animal list in NZ (the other being the rainforest scorpion Liocheles waigiensis) and the ones here have a desert theme to their tanks and a staff member I asked thought they were desert scorpions ("that sounds right"...). [Much later EDIT: the scorpions are indeed rainforest scorpions] So Hero HQ is pretty good but with some big faults (if that makes sense together). Certainly not a fail in the way the marmoset doll house was.
Thanks for the updates Chlidonias. I do wonder where the Emperor has gone, I imagine its off-display somewhere otherwise we would have surely heard something. Unless it was dead. I'm not impressed that they've moved the CTTs into that enclosure, its too small for that number of animals, especially with the birds too. Maybe there was conflicts with the Squirrel Monkeys? I guess they couldn't move the birds back to that separated section either. The Hero HQ flaws sound disappointing, especially after the reflection issues with the Small Monkey enclosures (and even the Nest to a certain degree). And while I like the design ideas overall, if the species labelling and information is being lost, that essentially defeats its purpose. Was there any sign of progress on the Australian section work between the Baboons and Meerkats?
I didn't really look over there. It was blocked off and there were some people working in the area but I don't know anything more than that.
More sad news from Wellington Zoo's facebook page, after the news last week that elderly tigress Cantik had died (http://www.zoochat.com/17/cantik-335128/), another of Wellington's cats, male Cheetah Delta, has been euthanised.
Golden Lion Tamarins arrive at zoo A pair of Golden Lion Tamarins from the US have taken up resudence in the Mini Monkey exhibit. I imagine this will have been purged of the moustache-based paraphernalia left over from the Emperor Tamarins, and will now have a new theme... Presumably they are sharing with either the pygmy marmosets or cotton-top tamarins? Story here: Wellington Zoo - Critically Endangered Golden Lion Tamarins new to Wellington Zoo
all the moustache-related books etc had already been removed when I was there at the start of August. There were still some items in the cottontop side but I can't remember what; definitely much less than before though. Most of the ridiculous nonsense in the iguana side had gone as well. Excellent news on the arrival of the golden lions.
Another new mini monkey! The day after the GLTs went on show, another new mini monkey has appeared, this time a baby Pygmy Marmoset! From the Wellington Zoo newsletter (photo on their facebook page): These guys are breeding really well at Wellington, hopefully those at Auckland and Hamilton start breeding too, and we can have a properly sustainable population of these awesome things.
Australian Exhibit to Open! Another development at the capital's zoo, which is certainly outdoing every other zoo in the country lately in terms of new species and new exhibits: From Wellington Zoo's newletter: Presumably this will also include Tasmanian Devils in the future (although not in the walkthrough), and hopefully some birds and reptiles too.
I was just going to post about that. Only two weeks away! I doubt they will have reptiles there because all their Australian ones are at the old elephant house. Would be nice to have a few aviaries though, even if only for cockatoos and lorikeets. Seriously, there are loads of Australian finches and some small doves in NZ aviculture; you could have a really good walk-through aviary for them for relatively little cost and it would look great. It does make me sad thinking about the number of birds and aviaries the zoo used to have twenty years ago
