As the new year has entered, some changes have occurred at the zoo: The zoo has revamped the pygmy marmoset enclosure to house green iguanas (I'm pretty sure there are 4 iguanas), while the pygmy marmosets are now housed with the golden-lion tamarins on the island enclosure (which makes it much more harder to spot them) Iguana Moving In by ZooNZ posted 7 Jan 2018 at 4:46 AM Green Iguanas by ZooNZ posted 7 Jan 2018 at 4:47 AM The two new cotton-top tamarin pair has settled nicely with the three female agoutis in the cotton-top tamarin enclosure with the very old sign from when the zoo use to have agoutis hung up in the viewing area Agouti by ZooNZ posted 7 Jan 2018 at 4:51 AM Cotton-top Tamarin by ZooNZ posted 7 Jan 2018 at 4:51 AM The brolgas have been moved again to a new temporary enclosure taking the left smaller Tasmanian devil enclosure, probably because the new South-East Asia precinct construction will be changing the previous temporary brolga enclosure area. Brolga by ZooNZ posted 7 Jan 2018 at 4:52 AM Let's hope this new year brings more amazing changes
Oh cool, they must have got the iguanas from Ti Point, I guess. They only had one before (a smuggled animal seized by Customs) which I think was not on display except for school groups.
I wonder why they have not just built the brolga exhibit as I thought they planned to do? Is there any sign of a new exhibit underway yet?
This will be the first flamingo chick to be parent-raised at Auckland, with previous chicks being raised by keepers.
Two nyala calves were born at Auckland in late December 2017, a male and a female (to different mothers). Video on Facebook.
I believe the flamingo flock was at 20 birds in September 2017, so assuming no deaths since then, this chick should make it 21. It's awesome to see how successful this flock has suddenly become in the last 4 years. I really hope they're able to export to other zoos in New Zealand to found flocks in their zoos over time. Being relatively long lived birds, there will hopefully be decades of successful breeding ahead at Auckland.
Auckland Zoo has announced the hatching of a second flamingo, which is also being parent-raised. This chick was born to Lizzie and Chick - a 3 year old male who was born and hand-reared at Auckland Zoo. Check out the video on the Zoo's Facebook page.
Chick was the mate of one of the females who produced a chick last year and therefore believed to be the father, despite his young age. He's 4 years old though (born January 2014).
A female Asian Small Clawed Otter has arrived from Australia Zoo and been paired with male Kanan (born 2009 at Auckland Zoo). They are in the exhibit near the tigers and red pandas. Kanan is the third generation of his family line to be born at Auckland Zoo: Jaya F (1990) > Jade F (1999) > Jana F (2002) > Kanan M (2009)
Auckland Zoo is celebrating the arrival of a baby Galapagos tortoise which is a first for New Zealand! The mother is Chippie (47) and the father is Smiley (46). This makes Auckland Zoo the second zoo in Australasia to breed this species. Exciting news! Read more here: Galapagos tortoise hatchling a rare first
That is exciting news! The video shows at least 6 further eggs in the incubator, although it is unknown if they are fertile or not. The article notes that this first individual was incubated at 30C, and is therefore expected to be female.
Long overdue and exciting news! Hopefully this is the start of a successful and ongoing breeding programme. I didn't realise the tortoises were that old, but from memory they were all hatched around 1970 +/- 1 year so they've been of reproductive age for several years. Incubated at 30C, I'm surprised they needed an incubator with temperatures in NZ these last few weeks #bringonwinter.
