they're all Geoffroy's spider monkeys in Australasia except for a few elderly individuals at Wellington (variegated spider monkeys and hybrids - presumably still alive but I'm not sure). But all the Geoffroy's here are a mixed-race population, not of any pure subspecies.
I'm surprised the zoo wants to advertise things like flying a keeper to Canada for $3000. This sounds counterproductive to me if the zoo wants members of the public to donate money or anything like that.
Is it me or do Auckland Zoo (and Wellington Zoo) seem to be constantly replacing one or both of their pair of Golden Lion Tamarins? Last I heard, Auckland Zoo had imported a new male (Janeiro) as a mate for their female (Gabrielle); now a new male has been imported (never heard what happened to the last male?) and there is apparently a new female now as well. Wellington Zoo have also had to recently replace their newly arrived male that died. You’d think they’d just import 2.2 to safeguard against what is apparently a high mortality and to increase the chances of a successful pairing. I don’t believe Auckland or Wellington Zoo has successfully bred this species?
Vandals break in to Auckland Zoo: Alligators and flamingos get another rude awakening at Auckland Zoo
Just announced - in September the three remaining Bornean Orangutan's will going to Orana on temporary loan whilst the new Asian precinct is built. No mention of the planned Sumatran group at this stage Zoo’s orangutans on the move
Last I heard, Orana Wildlife Park were still hoping to acquire Sumatran orangutans, as were Auckland Zoo so I'm guessing an export of Wanita, Charlie and Melur is still on the cards. Mogo Zoo (who will be receiving two hybrids from Taronga, including Wanita's sister) is the most likely destination for Wanita in my opinion, while the two purebred Borneans could be desired for breeding programmes outside the region.
Sad news to hear about Jaka. I've seen him a few times over the years and he was always such a powerful, impressive male. Jaka was born in January 2000 so was 17 years old. Auckland Zoo have incorrectly reported he moved to Hamilton Zoo in 2005, he moved in early 2001, along with his littermates, Molek and Mencari. There is also a report he fathered cubs at Hamilton Zoo in this article, which is also untrue: Auckland Zoo's Sumatran tiger Jaka put down, just shy of his 18th birthday I'm guessing his death will pave way for the demolition of the existing tiger pit, with Molek and Berani moving into the more modern tiger enclosure (built 2006), which usually housed Jaka, ahead of the planned Indonesian Development due to open in 2019.
Even Hamilton Zoo's Facebook post says he arrived there in 2005... did he? I think both of Auckland's tiger exhibits will be demolished (or at least mostly so, I'm not sure if the wall at the back of the newer tiger and adjacent otter exhibits is listed or something? I believe it dates to the opening of the Zoo more or less). So there may be a time when Auckland has no tigers on display, although they may not need to leave the Zoo.
I'm 100% sure he arrived at Hamilton Zoo in 2001. He was initially housed with his sisters, Molek and Mencari but around 2 years later, was separated from them to avoid inbreeding. The smaller enclosure had not been built at that stage so they rotated between the main enclosure and the dens. Jaka, being more confident, made for a more interesting display so usually was given access to the outdoor enclosure during the day. This article at least has it's facts right: Tiger box of tricks at birthday bash This news page for 2001 says they went on display in April 2001: News for 2001
yes, the tiger enclosure was built in January 2001, all three tigers came from Wellington in March 2001, and went on public display in April 2001. I think someone has basically made a mistake (either typo or an actual mistake through not fact-checking) and it has just been repeated without question, as is so often the case in news nowadays.
I think that's the old site of @jay (from pre-Zoochat days) - it is very useful for those yearly news pages.
I never knew that, but yes they were the site of many enclosures previously including the red panda, Galapagos tortoise and baboons I think I remember you telling me? The lion pit dates back to 1922 so would also be listed if the wall is, wouldn't it? I think they've done an amazing job of renovating it to a fully functioning enclosure for the tiger and will be sad to see it go.
It's a fantastic resource. I've learnt a lot from the pages about the species in our region and the news coverage of those years was amazing. That website and your history of the animals in our New Zealand zoos threads @Chlidonias are an asset to online records.
thanks, yes there is a real dearth of online records for "recent history" between the 1970s and 1990s, or even the early 2000s. It's a bit of an internet dead-zone. Older newspapers are archived to varying degrees (up to around the 60s or 70s depending on site, but most are older than that) but then there's very little up until the mid-2000s when the internet really took off for the news media. So while the zoos do have their own records, for outside sources it is difficult and in fact now you start getting situations where zoos' own releases are often incorrect because the PR person doesn't check their own records but just copies it from somewhere else. An additional problem is that in pre- and early-internet days there were always a lot of releases in newspapers which remain available as physical copies to this day (even if they haven't been archived online) whereas now most zoos release a lot of their news solely on Facebook and Twitter.
Yes, that's very true. It's easy to research anything from the last 10 years, even last 15 years as it's all on the Internet. Overseas zoos like Taronga have newspaper archive records of the 1980s and 1990s, which have turned up some interesting info but NZ doesn't seem to have that resource unfortunately.
Auckland Zoo have added five young Red-necked Wallabies to the creche built in the Aussie Walkabout exhibit (adjacent to the lorikeet aviary), so they are now on display. The young animals include one hand-reared male born at the Zoo, and 2.2 hand-reared orphans brought up from Canterbury. The Zoo wanted hand-reared animals, as the six existing adults are too skittish and difficult to give medical checks too. Over the next few months the young wallabies will be introduced to the adults and will eventually move into the main exhibit. There are videos on the Zoo's Facebook page.
that's nice. I'd like them to get some tammar or/and parma wallabies too. And some swamp wallabies. Oh, and some wombats and echidnas. I'm not greedy. But in all seriousness, some of the other wallabies would make for some neat variety for visitors to compare. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they import some more kangaroos at some point.
The videos of the baby wallabies are below (presumably the same videos on the zoo's Facebook mentioned by zooboy28 above). The first video (6.26 minutes long) is about the wallabies' arrival, and the second (2.28 minutes) is introducing them an outside creche. Wallabies are so cute.
