Australasian Tapir Population

Sorry if this is mentioned elsewhere, but why aren’t jaguars an option? I know there’s none currently here, but is there a reason we can’t import them? Thanks ☺️

 

Jaguar are a CITES I species, so can’t be imported without the support of a regional breeding programme. Apparently there’s no interest in holding them as a region, which is a great shame.

Many zoos had stopped breeding them by the 1990’s due to difficulty placing them. The last attempt to breed them was at Melbourne Zoo, with the import of a female from Budapest Zoo in 1997. Sadly she had to be speyed on medical grounds soon after arrival.

 

Thanks for the info as always Zoofan. It’s such a shame that there’s no interest here in holding them!

 

You’re welcome.

And I agree, they’re a fascinating felid and very charismatic imo. It’d be nice to have a big cat species from South America in the region to compliment those we already have from Africa and Asia - as well as forming the cornerstone of South American precincts.

The other great thing about Jaguar is the melanism gene, which essentially gives you two for the price of one. Melanistic Jaguar were first imported into the region in 1979 from Rotterdam Zoo and were well loved by the general public.

 

What is more enabling? Don't tell me meerkats

 

Honestly, I’m a little confused by what Melbourne Zoo consider enabling as apparently Mandrill and Maned wolf didn’t fit the criteria either.

In terms of engagement on social media, Asian-small clawed otters are rated the most enabling across most zoos; followed by elephants (if applicable), big cats and great apes.

The suitability of the Brazilian tapir to a mixed species exhibit may well be their saving grace. They could be integrated with the spider monkeys, which are definitely enabling.

 

I was just thinking reading this thread with the number of phase outs from our bigger zoos on how thread bare do they have to become before the public consider them not worth spending their hard earned cash opon ?.

 

I’m tempted to say the general public are happy as long as they can see a lion, a tiger, a giraffe and a zebra but even they’ve noticed the decrease in diversity at zoos like Taronga and Melbourne, which has been reflected in some of the reviews on social media.

Zoos need to consider that although these animals may well be popular, people do appreciate seeing novel species and many of these are every bit enabling.

 

As was mentioned last week they could always fill the depleted gaps with more meerkats?, who's going to notice?.
I saw on the media page of one well known Queensland zoo recently some were complaining about the lack on some species they were expecking to see which it was lacking like Lions and monkeys.

 

There’s something that pre-warns you that meerkats or something equally low-key is coming and that’s a sign attached to the exhibit stating - Something exciting is coming soon!

I’ve learnt long ago that when it’s something that’s actually exciting e.g. Wellington Zoo’s new Snow leopards, they don’t arrive quietly during the night.

 

Any species could be enabling really, it's just up for interpretation.

Even Arturo was quite popular with visitors due to his 'funny nose'; Tapirs are quite a unique looking species in general, and get quite a lot of interest from the public.

 

The Malayan tapir is one of the most interesting species to the visitors, every time i visit the visitors are always so interested in her, some for the brazzilizan tapir it will be sad to see her go, hopefully Melbourne might expand the Malayan tapir habitat and they will become a breeder for the Brazilian tapir, as you know the peccaries are probably going to be phased out which is sad but they could expand the habitat and make it much bigger. When Melbourne zoo had Brazilian tapir did they have the Malayan tapir at the same time

 

Although Melbourne Zoo have no plans to continue with Malayan tapir long term, I agree importing Brazilian tapir would be a good replacement - for both the Malayan tapir and the Collared peccary. Melbourne has successfully bred Brazilian tapir before and the public may well appreciate the novelty factor of having this species back.

 

They could extend and add an additional enclosure in the place of the current Peccary enclosure. This would give them a nice set up for a Brazilian Tapir breeding group.

Melbourne did have the Tapirs at the same time. Semangka was initially kept over near the former Lemur islands I believe, but moved off display about a decade ago. She lived for many years in a small yard behind the current enclosure, with Arturo having access on display. Arturo was then sent to Adelaide to give Semangka more space. I believe she was even kept indoor for some time due to her eye damage.

 

is there a map of the malayan tapir exibit and the peccaries for that matter
then i could make a map of a new exibit

 

There’s no plans specific to their exhibits as far as I can tell - merely the general map which shows them adjacent to each other.

This exhibit photo for the Collared peccary may be of use:


Source: @zooboy28

 

thanks the peccarie exibit isnt to big but i belive there is a back area, when i last visited the seemed to have more foliage

 

Yes, the back of house exhibit would have been useful in managing the group when they had multiple males or needed to isolate mothers and newborns. Melbourne Zoo had a total of 4.4 Collared peccary in 2011 - with 0.1 born in the year that followed; and 0.2 deaths.

 

Yes, that photo was from almost a decade ago.

There's a second enclosure behind the first that's more of a hill type enclosure with several cactuses. It housed their breeding male Pickles for many years, but now sits empty.

The Tapir enclosure also has a small yard behind it (more like a rectangular shaped raceway). This housed Semangka for many years. The Tapirs also have a small barn.

 

The Collared peccary can potentially live into their early 20’s, so Melbourne Zoo may look at transferring them to a wildlife park if they’re still alive when the space is needed to create a Brazilian tapir exhibit. To be honest, I wish they’d done that as soon as they decided they’d be phasing them out, so somebody else could have bred them and we wouldn’t be losing this species from the region.

Melbourne Zoo could potential hold a 1.2 breeding group of Brazilian tapir across the two exhibits. Females are semi-social (especially when related), so ideally multiple founders would be imported within the region, with Melbourne receiving a founder female and her first generation daughter (to breed with an unrelated founder male); or a breeding pair with the male swapped out once female offspring is produced.