Auckland Zoo Auckland Zoo News 2022

Bornean orangutan pregnancy update:

The zoo have shared an update on social media of Melur’s pregnancy. The pregnancy is progressing well and her diet has been increased by 20% as she heads into her third trimester. The baby is due late February/early March.

This will be Auckland Zoo’s eighth orangutan infant and the first born in the region in 10 years; as well as the first Bornean orangutan infant since 2005.

 

A Greater flamingo chick has hatched:

I visited Auckland Zoo this week and while I’ll be doing a full news update shortly, I just wanted to share some VERY exciting news:

A Greater flamingo chick hatched a few days ago. It was being tended to by Cole on my visit, who was hatched at the zoo himself in January 2017.

This is the second chick of the season, following the hatching of a chick in late November to Richard and Sullivan. Their chick is approaching six weeks of age and thriving within the flock.

The zoo are hopeful for one more chick this season as another pair are incubating a decoy egg. This will be replaced with their real egg (artificially incubating) as it’s about to hatch.

 

Congratulations to Auckland zoo they deserve every success

 

Auckland Zoo Visit (January 2022)

I had a great time visiting Auckland Zoo this week. Photos from my visit are here: Auckland Zoo - ZooChat

News

South East Asia Precinct:

The tiger exhibits look stunning. There’s three interconnected exhibits (small, medium and large) with overhead tunnels connecting the small to the medium and the medium to the large. The dens are connected to the small and large exhibits. One of the viewing windows has a sensory barrier, so you can smell the tigers etc.

Construction on the tropical dome is almost complete. I was told by a volunteer 1.2 False gharials are being imported from the Netherlands. She was under the impression the zoo will be receiving juveniles.

The boardwalk is now open, leading from the tiger and otter exhibits; over Central Lake past the tropical dome; and into the orangutan exhibit. They’ve also seen sense and got rid of that stupid jungle track path (chalky paste that coats your shoes); and replaced it with a textured concrete path.

The tiger exhibits, otter exhibit and the tropical dome are due to open in Autumn 2022 according to signage.

Deaths:

On my visit I learned of the following deaths: Bo (female Nepalese red panda), Kanan (male Asian small-clawed otter) and Moholo (male Serval). The zoo has no plans to import a new male Serval for their female, Shani.

Galapagos Tortoise Hatchlings on Display:

The Galapagos giant tortoise hatchlings are now on display inside the tortoise house. They have a seperate crèche area, which is visible through a viewing window.

Phase out of Pinnipeds:

I was amazed to hear the zoo is planning to phase out pinnipeds upon the death of their elderly Subantarctic fur seal. They have no plans to receive more rescue/unreleasable seals.

Although the native seals have never been as engaging as the California sea lions the exhibit was built for, it will be sad to see this exhibit come to an end. It opened in 2001 and has aged remarkably well.

Giraffe Breeding:

I was told by a volunteer that none of the female giraffes are pregnant as Billy is still too short to reach them. Considering he’s now three years old, this hopefully won’t be too far away. They’re planning to breed him with Kiraka and Kabili; Rukiya is 21 this year and well represented.

Elephant Export:

The elephant’s crate training is progressing well, ahead of their export to Australia. The zoo has installed a high pressure hose, which douses the exhibit and has proved popular with the elephants in the summer heat.

Their export is still scheduled for March/April 2022.

Final Thoughts

I throughly enjoyed my visit to Auckland Zoo and was grateful to spend some watching the elephants and taking photos before their export to Australia, ending the zoo’s 99 year association with elephants.

2022 will be an exciting year for Auckland Zoo as they celebrate their centenary; complete the South East Asia precinct (which has been five years in the making); and look forward to welcoming flamingo chicks, an orangutan infant and a rhino calf.

 

Quite shocking news. The seals were always quite a star animal at Auckland. It’ll be a shame to see them gone.

Do you know what the plans are for their Little Penguins?

 

Pinnipeds will join hippos and elephants as another phase out after close to a century of being housed at the zoo. I think the exhibit will be a great loss considering pinnipeds were one of the zoo’s points of difference and complimented the New Zealand native collection, which is otherwise just bird and reptile based.

There’s no plans to phase out the Blue penguins. When I asked the keeper what would happen to the seal exhibit, she (half jokingly) said she’d like it for the penguins. Although it’d make for an impressive penguin exhibit, 99% of the times I go there (and Wellington), they’re huddled under the shelter. It’s hard to imagine them utilising the exhibit the way the pinnipeds have.

 

The zoo are hand raising an owlet:

From the zoo’s social media:

Auckland Zoo are hand raising a Barn owl chick. The three week old owlet hatched in late December and will join the zoo’s free flight team (flying demonstrations) when fully grown.

It can currently be viewed at the zoo’s vet hospital.

 

First kiwi chick of the season heading to Rotorua Island:

From the zoo’s social media:

The first to hatch at the zoo this 2021/22 breeding season, this Coromandel brown kiwi is heading to Rotorua Island NZ in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf today where it can grow bigger, stronger, and more able to defend itself from introduced predators.

This is all part of a strategic approach to kiwi conservation through the Operation Nest Egg (ONE) programme with Department of Conservation, Save The Kiwi and regional conservation partners. Collected by our friends at Thames Coast Kiwi Care, this kiwi egg was incubated, monitored and hatched at a special behind the scenes kiwi facility at Auckland Zoo.

Here, our bird keepers will care for these kiwi chicks until they reach the right weight to be released into predator-free creche islands. 32-days-old today and weighing 409 grams, this manu (bird) will join fellow ONE kiwi on the island.

 

I can see why they would decide to phase out Pinnipeds, Native rescues mostly are releasable or so sick they pass away quickly, and the tightening marine mammal laws, But i love the enclosure i hope it is still used for something because really still looks good

 

Auckland held a successful breeding group of Californian Sea Lions for quite some time. Their group was descended from 1.2 individuals imported in the early 80’s. Their last individual died in 2016, and it’s a shame as they were quite an active and exciting species to watch.

Unfortunately, once the remaining Sub Antarctic fur seal at Auckland dies, there will be no captive pinnipeds in New Zealand.

I too hope Auckland makes use of the enclosure. The only real option is putting their Little penguins in it. And while they would make decent use of it, they wouldn’t be half as active as the seals in the water.

 

Their last batch of rescues (three New Zealand fur seal and one Subantarctic fur seal) arrived as pups/adolescents and all lived for at least a decade - with the current male in his mid-teens.

Auckland Zoo once said in an interview they like to look at replacing their exhibits around every 17 years, but I agree this exhibit (which turns 21 this year) has aged remarkably well.

The remnants of their California sea lion colony were descended from ancestors going back even further than that. Liquorice, the bull, was born at Auckland Zoo in the 70’s, to a female named Cassie that was born in the 60’s. I’d have to look into whether Cassie and Leadbelly (Liquorice’s sire) were born at Auckland Zoo, but from memory they were. Liquorice subsequently bred with the Hawaii imports (Sinka and Kline) to produce several pups.

I think putting penguins in this exhibit would be a total waste. I’ve heard other suggestions of turtles and sharks from friends (which theoretically could work); but honestly, I think the expense of maintaining such a large volume of water is a driving force behind this phase out and will probably lead to the demolition of the exhibit.

 

I had a thought about them potentially getting some Gentoos and King penguins from Kelly Taltons, but that would require some serious changes of the enclosure, though a sort of open air aquarium for sharks and turtles could work as well. Is sad to see such a nice enclosure go.

Seeing the native seal species is cool though, not many places you can see a Subantartic fur seal haha

 

A native enclosure with sharks, fish ect could work well. That’s probably the only option they have, besides demolishing the exhibit.

Hopefully they work something out. It’s such a great enclosure and it’ll be a shame if it ends up being demolished.

 

I’d be interested to know if Auckland Zoo and Kelly Tarlton’s have any agreement between them (either formal or informal) that Auckland Zoo won’t display the same species re. competition.

By virtue of climate, Auckland Zoo have never displayed Subantarctic or arctic penguin species (only Little blue penguins - and going way back, Humboldt); but a suitable shark species would be a crowd puller at Auckland Zoo. They could retain the open air aspect of the exhibit, offering guests a thrilling sight of its dorsal fin at intervals

 

I agree, would be cool to display some native fish and other marine fauna could be cool

I doubt that, but I can see the effort into going into changing the enclosure to fit Subantarctic penguins may not be worth it, though it fits the theme of the area in my opinion, being New Zealand wildlife, I agree some sharks and things could be cool, though that could be competition to some extent, guess we will just have to see

 

I can’t see them going to the expense and effort of renovating the exhibit to anything temperature controlled, but the zoo often takes in Olive Ridley sea turtles. This could make a suitable exhibit for their rehabilitation, though there’d be little to see above water.

Alternatively, they may demolish the exhibit altogether and build an extension to the African precinct. The seal exhibit is adjacent to it and they’ll be looking for space to build a larger flamingo exhibit.

 

I can see that last one as potentially the most likely option, will be cool to see the walkthrough aviary for the flamingos when that gets onboard

 

A little late to the train, but wonderful news about the second flamingo chick! Fingers crossed the third egg hatches as well.

There also definitely seems to be a bit of a recurring theme now, were the zoo hatched flamingoes are the ones consistently producing offspring. I do hope the rest of the original birds do eventually start to breed as well, but I have a feeling there’s going to be some very lopsided representation over the next few years from the same two or three pairs. Overall as long as her breathing that’s the main thing, but still, a bit more fertility would be nice!

 

Richard (the first chick hatched at the zoo in 2014) has proved a successful stud, having sired a few chicks. Cole (the sire of the second chick hatched this year) was also bred at the zoo.

It’d be interesting to know out of the 16 surviving founders, how many have bred. There’s been non surviving chicks as well (whose hatching and parentage haven’t been announced in the media), but there will surely be at least some founders that have never bred in the 20 years they’ve been at the zoo.

 

it would be nice to have a second import to boost the flock size and perhaps enhance breeding and bloodlines