I would be surprised if they put two adult males in the same exhibit so I would expect them to keep two groups, I hope more can find there way into the country as two pairs is still not enough to get this species off the ground in Oz
According to the article Elke will be joining the new pair to form a more natural group, ie one male and a couple of females. Mark let's hope that now Taronga has managed to bring in four animals, other zoos will be able to do so. I also find it quite positive that Taronga has more than one breeding group in the same zoo.
Very good news. It appears that the langur's exhibit is going to be the one to watch over the coming years. Hopefully lots of orange babies.
Hi thanks for the reply mark does anybody know when, the white cheeked gibbons will be at the zoo. When i was there a couple of weeks ago there was an empty cage with a sign saying white cheeked gibbons coming soon or something along those lines.
I don't know the timeframe for the transfer but a pair from Perth Zoo is supposed to be coming to Taronga.
Will this affect the maintenance of moloch gibbons at Taronga at all? Or are the white-cheekeds for an amalgamated IndoChina theme (with the Francois langur)??
The silvery gibbons are no longer in the collection - one died and the other was sent to Port Lympne. The only Australian collections holding them now are Perth and Mogo.
Let me just start this post by saying that I love Taronga Zoo. I have been a member of zoo friends continuously since I was 17 in 1989. I will continue to be a zoo friend and I will continue to go there a often as I can. OK, now I have got that out of the way it's time for a little whinge. I went there today and it's a mess. I know that to move forward ( thanks' julia) things have to change but seriously it's becoming a cafe latte location more than a zoo. The new entrance will have an exciting new shopping precinct where the local's can drop in for a coffee. The old tamarins and marmoset cages have been torn down. Great I thought as I walked towards the sign on the temporary fence. A new exhibit is being built. Wrong! Another place to get a coffee is being built. Why? Just down the hill is the new food court. Can't they put a cafe in there. I think they should replace the bar that no one uses, because it's never open, with a cafe for the coffee drinkers. A little later in the day I was walking along the path towards Gung's paddock. the hill opposite is now a work site. Again I thought great a new exhibit. Again I was disappointed. It's going to be a picnic area. I know that the zoo is going through a building boom and things will be great in the long run. But seriously build a new exhibit, please. Something new. I know that we have just got an asian precinct, but the only new animals there were francios langurs and silvery gibbons. All the other animals were already here. I know we just got great southern oceans, but again nothing new. Just the same animals as before. Same thing with the chimps. taronga please bring us something new. I have included a photo ofthe chimp enclosure work site and the picnic area worksite. Sorry if this post is hard to read. I struggle with written communication. I wish I was more like Patrick, Chlidonias or snow leopard, the truly great wordsmiths on this forum, but as you can see I'm not. If any current or ex employees from Taronga would like to respond please feel free to tear me apart on this thread or even P.M me. I can take it. Again, I love Taronga.
I also think they could add more exhibits, but in themed areas/precincts to carry on the 'pattern'. Wild Asia will soon be added to and possibly in a few years an African/South American/New Guinean precinct will be added (or maybe all of them) which will add species and exhibits. I think Taronga is going in a good and positive direction (exhibit-wise) and I thank Taronga for them improving the zoo. The downside is that they are letting some species go (such as dhole which would be good in Wild Asia) and adding too many picnic areas/food shops but I think they know what they are doing.
Sorry from drifting away from Taronga but Adelaide is doing it too, with the new panda precinct, a hectare (from zoo website) of the zoo have been turned into a new entrance, large useless pavement areas and many exhibits have been taken just for the two pandas. Though the pandas will create more revenue, the amount of space that could have been turned into nice exhibits instead of useless pavement and another cafe is wasteful.
I believe the catering operations at Taronga are private operations. I could be wrong though. A cafe may mean extra income from the lease. But I to would like to see more spent on new exhibits at both zoos. It's amazing what one mil did for dubbo with a lake dredging and hippo fences, new wolf observation decking, new black and white rhino and eland fences, new koala/macropod fence and eland yards. Imagine what new open exhibits could be created. It must be stated though that all works carried out with the money were needed. But that gives you an idea of how far a mil can go! Money needs to be spent on new things to encourage return visits to both zoos (especially, given it's location dubbo) the average zoo goer is not going to go back to the zoo to see it's new carpark or cafe.
Also the contractors may be building the cafe themselves I'd it isn't going to be zoo run. Meaning the zoo isn't paying for it but still recording income, in which case it's a good business decision.
It would be very rare for an outsider to build a fixed asset such as a cafe. Contracts come and go and Spotless may not always have this contract. It would be more usual for the zoo to build the structure which it will always keep, irrespective of who has the contract to operate it. The contractor may possibly fit out the structure according to their needs. If the contract is lost at some stage, the contractor can then depart with the fittings.
G'day Jarkari. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't that $1m for the animal side of TWPZ and about $7m for the new entrance/restaurant complex that "people don't go to see"?
Dont think anyone has updated on the Snow Leopard changes but Kamala and Sabu, Mother Sumara will remain at Taronga whilst the cubs prepare to move for Billabong Wildlife Park at Port Macquarie. The movement will allow for the introduction of a new blood line to the Australasian Breeding Program. The cubs are not part of the regional breeding program.
I still feel the best idea Western Plains zoo ever had was the huge African safari which it wanted to build a few years ago, It would of really been worth traveling to see an exhibit of that size where fences were far away in the distance from where the public were taken though in the planned Safari trucks. WPZ needs a big drawcard to pull in the paying public making it worth people driving from a distance, it's a little bit sad Taronga gets all the cream while WPZ still plays second fiddle
Can I ask the source of this information? Since when is any animal bred by a program not part if it! and wasn't there something under the new ZAA guidelines that program species can't go to non-ZAA Zoo's?
