This line is doing well. Kalaya is a full sibling to Cerdik at Perth Zoo, who has produced two litters to date; their older half brother (also sired by Juno) is Kanan, the breeding male at Auckland Zoo. Kalaya, Cerdik and Kanan are all great grandchildren of Jaya (born at Adelaide Zoo in 1990).
I am at Adelaide Zoo this morning and stumbled across some exciting and unexpected news. A sign is up in the nocturnal house stating that an enclosure is being prepared to house northern galago or bushbabies which will arrive "soon" from a "zoo in Russia". Will update with news on when they arrive. In other news a trailer is now in the giraffe enclosure and signs indicate that Kimya will be moving in the next few weeks to an unnamed zoo.
Wow, that is entirely unexpected. In fact I opened the thread, read the post, thought "that's interesting" and was going to move on and then suddenly went "wait, this is an Australian thread!".
I wonder what "northern galago" refers to? I believe only Galago senegalensis is on the live import list these days (though I have a vague recollection of the northern greater galago being on there in years past - but could be wrong on that). In any event. A nice addition.
Yes, only G. senegalensis is on the import list. However, IUCN calls this species the Northern Lesser Galago, so that could be where it comes from.
Senegalensis were previously kept by Adelaide, while Greaters were kept by Perth. Only galagos in relatively recent times that I'm aware of in Australia.
The 2 Asian short clawed otter pups have had their first health check revealing that they are a boy and a girl. Otter-ly adorable pups pass their first health check with flying colours - Adelaide Zoo
A few updates from Adelaide Zoo in the last few weeks. - The site for construction of the children's zoo is now fenced off with construction having been underway for a few weeks. - In the reptile house a range of moves have happened. The mertens water monitors have moved to the former crocodile exhibit with their exhibit now occupied by a splendid tree frog. The juvenile tortoises have moved to the children's zoo and their exhibit now houses a corn snake. - The poison dart frogs which were moved out of the froggery for construction of the children's zoo are now on exhibit in the envirodome. - The rhinoceros iguanas have moved to the former binturong exhibit across from the sea lions. Also just to clarify from above. The species to be imported is listed on the sign as northern lesser galago I just left lesser out of my original post.
From the zoos latest magazine which I received today are a couple of small bits of news. The colobus tunnels which have been discussed previously will be installed in the next couple of months. These will connect their enclosure at the back of the nocturnal house to the central lawns where there will be a 'treehouse' which appears to just be a cylindrical wire cage from the image included. Also construction of the children's zoo is listed as being due for completion in October.
From a recent email from Zoos SA: “Our Hamadryas Baboon troop recently welcomed a baby and need a little quiet family time. To support them in this, the pathway near their exhibit has been temporarily closed. We apologise for any inconvenience and appreciate your cooperation and understanding.” Fingers crossed this baby baboon survives.
Unfortunately this baboon baby has since died. From another recent Zoos SA email: “We are saddened to announce the passing of our infant Hamadryas Baboon following a disturbance that occurred within the troop late afternoon on Saturday, 6 July. We are currently focusing on helping our baboon troop in working through this loss, and our keeping and animal health teams are doing all that is possible to support their welfare. We thank you for your ongoing support during this time.”
That’s sad news. This is now the third infant to die in 18 months: Unnamed (born December 2017) > Died January 2018 Unnamed (born August 2018) > Died September 2018 Unnamed (born May 2019) > Died July 2019 Unfortunately with two adolescent males in the troop; and an overall gender imbalance of 3.1, the outlook for any future infants isn’t great. The two adolescent males will be getting frustrated and this isn’t likely to be resolved anytime soon.
From an email newsletter, the Adelaide Zoo has two male Pig-nosed Turtles. They have been in quarantine for the last few weeks but are now going on display. It didn't say where they came from.
Adelaide Zoo’s Giant Panda Breeding Plans are on Hold: Efforts to encourage Adelaide's two giant pandas to mate are unlikely to go ahead next month because contract negotiations with Chinese authorities over the popular animals have not yet been resolved. Zoos SA said the annual breeding program had been halted as talks continued over whether Adelaide Zoo would keep Wang Wang and Fu Ni after the current lease agreement expires at the end of the year. The SA Government has committed to providing the necessary funds - about $3.5 million - to retain the two popular tourism draw cards until 2024, with the hope the zoo would get to keep any panda cub. However, Zoos SA today clarified that their Chinese counterparts had not yet agreed to those terms. "I went over to China in April this year and started those discussions — they're proceeding really, really positively. We've had a lot of communication," Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted said. "At this stage we don't yet have a signed contract. I’m very confident that will occur, but as part of that it means we won’t be undertaking artificial insemination this year because we don’t have a signed contract.” Ms Bensted said the pandas' annual breeding window of between 24 and 72 hours typically occurred in September. She said the focus this year would be on gaining crucial breeding research — but there might still be a chance to attempt natural insemination. "It would depend on how the contract discussions go with China. If we do have a signed agreement in place before Fu Ni's ovulation window opens, we may have discussions about a natural introduction," Ms Bensted said. Read more here: Panda breeding on hold as negotiations with China continue I assume the comment about the zoo ‘hoping to keep a panda cub’ was taken out of context/misinterpreted since any cub/s born at the Adelaide Zoo remain property of China as per the loan agreement, and are required to be returned upon reaching four years of age. And Adelaide Zoo apparently doesn’t believe in Murphy’s Law. After failing to breed this pair for many years; the year that their future at the zoo is up in the air is the year they’re guaranteed to succeed in breeding.
Melbourne Zoo’s male Brazilian Tapir (Arturo) has moved to Adelaide Zoo with the intention for breeding. He will be introduced to Adelaide Zoo’s female, Chiquita. Security Check The zoo’s website says that the zoo now has 1.2 Brazilian Tapir (so I assume Chiquita’s mother, Talara, is still alive). Brazilian Tapir - Adelaide Zoo
That’s unexpected but very exciting! I thought the region had given up on tapir. According to their website, Talara is still alive. The dates of birth of the females are as follows: Talara - born 21/09/1987 at Marwell Zoo Chiquita - born 27/08/2002 at Adelaide Zoo Since Talara arrived at Adelaide Zoo in 1990; it’s reasonable to assume Talara was the mother of Hamilton Zoo’s female (now deceased), who was born at Adelaide Zoo in May 1991.
If only they hadn't given up on the Malayans. Still not convinced the blindness was due to anything short of inadequate housing. Fingers crossed for some Brazilian calves to tide us over until more tapir are imported....
In fact, it really was due to inadequate housing practice - something that could easily have been rectified and not a huge costs by remodeling the exhibitry with most if not all tapir being strictly rainforest species - except for the S. American lowland tapir - needing shade and well planted exhibits. I cannot help but fear the very same other issue will persist with South American tapir in that there seems to be no long term vision - (yet....) - on tapir in Australasia (something that beset the Malayan program too) and certainly the - assumed - lack of import initiatives now.
