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Sydney Zoo $36 million zoo with roaming African animals planned for Blacktown

Discussion in 'Australia' started by Astrobird, 7 Sep 2015.

  1. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Apparently this place used to operate as a glorified circus. There were around 40 chimpanzees held there. I'm not sure what ages the new imports will be but either way, they could be coming with a lot of issues. 7.4 is quite a gender imbalance for a species, which is usually curated with a heavier balance of females to ease tensions. Presumably it reflects social ties within the troop that they didn't want to disrupt.
     
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  2. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I'm guessing at least some of the males are castrated, as has been fairly common practice in Europe. Knowing that they are from a performing background, it castration for ease of management seems likely. In this case, their social role would not be that of usual males. I'll be very interested to learn about the individuals in this group.
     
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  3. ShonenJake13

    ShonenJake13 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Some research has shown:

    The seven boys are called Fritz, Maik, Tim, Charli, Jerry, Many and Mogli, and range in age from 37 to 10. The four girls are called Babsi, Julchen, Mary and Sile, and range in age from 35 to 13. They all seem to be related in some shape or form - Tim, Charli and Many are brothers, and Mary, Mogli and Jerry are siblings as well. Sile is the daughter of Julchen.
     
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  4. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    All four females are of reproductive age then. It'll be interesting to see if they contribute to the regional breeding programme, or if they have purely been imported as a non breeding group. I suppose most of all, it depends on how well adjusted they are socially. Even if the females are capable of rearing their own offspring; if the offspring are immersed in a troop which is socially abnormal, they may struggle when integrated with a community of 'normal' chimpanzees.

    Lulu (1952-2014) at Taronga Zoo was of course from a circus background and at times struggled to assimilate to life as a chimpanzee; as have other hand raised females in the region.
     
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  5. Nisha

    Nisha Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Some snippets of info via Google and the incomplete website - The primate species will also include Tufted Capuchin and Spider Monkey (I assume Black Handed?).

    The Tiger's will be Sumatran

    The species held in the Australian section will include:
    Black Headed Python
    Black Headed Monitor
    Boyd's Forest Dragon
    Broad Headed Snake
    Brush Tailed Possum
    Cassowary
    Central Netted Dragon
    Centralian Blue Tounged Skink
    Centralian Knob Tailed Gecko
    Common Death Adder
    Common Wombat
    Diamond Python
    Dingo
    Eastern Brown Snake
    Eastern Long Necked Turtle
    Echidna
    Emu
    Frill necked Lizard
    Ghost Bat
    Giant Burrowing Cockroach
    Giant Grasshopper
    Gidgee Skink
    Goliath Stick Insect
    Greater Bilby
    Green and Golden Bell Frog
    Green Tree Python
    Inland Taipan
    Kangaroo Island Kangaroo
    Koala
    Lace Monitor
    Long Nosed Potaroo
    Magnificent Tree Frog
    Merten's Water Monitor
    Perentie
    Pygmy Possum
    Red Kangaroo
    Red Bellied Black Snake
    Ring Tailed Possum
    Rough Scaled Python
    Saltwater Crocodile
    Scrub Python
    Shingleback Skink
    Spinifex Hopping Mouse
    Spiny Leaf Insect
    Sugar Glider
    Swamp Wallaby
    Tasmanian Devil
    Tiger Snake
    Western Blue Tounged Skink
    Yellow Footed Rocky Wallaby

    The Aquarium will house:
    Australian Bass
    Australian Lungfish
    Australian Rainbowfish
    Barramundi
    Bull Shark
    Gulf Saratoga
    Little Penguin
    Murray Cod
    Murray River Spiny Crayfish
    Red Clawed Smooth Crayfish
    Seven Spot Archer Fish
     
  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    By "Google" you mean...? The internet is full of nonsense about this zoo's holdings - very little has even been anounced yet.
     
  7. Nisha

    Nisha Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    No, that list was off the zoos website. Just that most of the links (within the website) don't work yet.. So as a work around - you go onto Google and type in (for example) Sydney Zoo Bullshark and then it brings up the page for Bullshark plus a drop down list of other species in that section. They have the same for Africa and the rest of the sections.

    Sorry I didn't word my original post very well
     
  8. nczoofan

    nczoofan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Its crazy to think about a zoo opening with only 4 species of birds :eek:

    Otherwise this place seems to be turning out better than expected. From their facebook the reptile house looks great and they have done extensive planting to improve the site.
     
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  9. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Thanks, I didn't know about that.
     
  10. tetrapod

    tetrapod Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    If the list of native species is valid, then that's a really good collection. Really nice to see that they have an aquatic display and reasonable representation of inverts. Are bull sharks relatively easy to keep? Not a species one often sees in aquaria.
     
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  11. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    The zoo confirmed (via message) that the hyenas are all male. Apparently they will release more information about the baboons in the coming weeks.
    In other news, the zoo’s three zebra are called, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zuberi’ and ‘Zambezi’.
    Security Check
     
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  12. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    This must be Zambezi that was living at Monarto Zoo. He was their breeding stallion for a while; before living in a bachelor group with one of his sons. I’m not sure if the third male mentioned here was another son, who later joined them; or whether he is a unrelated male, who joined them at Sydney Zoo.
     
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  13. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    Zebras are always difficult to identify to an individual level in my opinion, mainly due the majority of them having names beginning with ‘z’. Also, since our region has a reasonable population of zebras there are always many possibilities.
    Monarto Zoo seems a likely choice, however I do know that Taronga has/had a male zebra called, ‘Zuberi’.
    Although the Facebook post shows a photo of what looks to be at least one Chapman’s type zebra, Darling Downs Zoo does has two Grant’s males (by coincidence or not) called ‘Zulu’ and ‘Zambezi’.
     
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  14. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I hadn’t actually noticed the abundance of zebras with ‘Z’ names as there isn’t many in New Zealand; but it does make sense as there are so many Swahili names beginning with ‘Z.’

    One of Sydney Zoo’s zebra probably came from somewhere else as previous news reports said there were two zebra on site; which has since been updated to three.

    I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again; there’s gonna be bugger all breeding at Sydney Zoo for the foreseeable:

    Lions - non breeding
    Cheetah - non breeding
    Hyena - non breeding
    Zebra - non breeding
    Orangutan - non breeding
    Chimpanzee - non breeding (probably)

    Many of us have predicted they’ll be receiving the three bachelor male gorillas at Melbourne; the two adolescent bulls at TWPZ look like their most likely option for elephants; and their Sumatran tiger will be non breeding as there are so many holders ahead of them to breed. I guess all that’s left is to source a same sex giraffe herd!

    It’s nothing unusual for a new holder not to be given breeding privileges; but as the first major Australasian Zoo in decades, it’s hitting them all at once.
     
  15. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    Well, that's disappointing...


    Their African Hunting Dogs are all male too.
     
  16. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I would guess there would be plans to breed the chimpanzees eventually. That's a good sized mixed-sex group to import if breeding was not planned, especially when the region really could do with new genetics. I'm assuming all of the females were hand-reared?
     
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  17. Brum

    Brum Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Excuse my ignorance, but are Australasian zoos still breeding subspecific hybrids? I know that in Europe there's been a move to just breed pure P.t.verus nowadays.
     
  18. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Chimpanzees are presently managed on species level in Australasia, similar to the US. To my knowledge, there is only one individual whose subspecies is known, Galatea at Monarto, P.t.verus (at the time she was imported from Europe, the subspecies of her father had been misidentified).
     
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  19. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Yes, all the offspring born in Australasia in recent decades are hybrids. The Monarto Zoo has one purebred female. She was exported from Europe in 2010 by accident (they thought she was a hybrid) along with three other hybrid females; but since Monarto’s males are hybrids, her future offspring will be also.

    Hamilton Zoo also has a female who is likely purebred, but she has never bred and is now post reproductive.

    The benefit of Europe shifting their focus to purebred chimpanzee, is that they’re more willing to export their hybrids. We’ve had several European imports in recent years - 0.4 to Monarto Zoo in 2010; 0.3 to Taronga Zoo in 2015; and 1.1 to Rockhampton Zoo in 2015.
     
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  20. MRJ

    MRJ Well-Known Member 15+ year member Premium Member

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    Keep in mind this is a commercial operation. They are probably just happy to have animals in exhibits. Breeding animals is expensive and takes space, so is probably not a priority, at least initially.
     
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