I’ve seen a few episodes of show. It’s airing in the United States on Animal Planet and Discovery Channel and as of this writing is now six episodes in its Series. My opinion of the show is this: eh. It contains a lot on what the typical zoo television show should contain(pregnancy, deaths, transfers, animal facts, animal maintenance etc), however a lot of it is really focused on the Irwin’s themselves, which is something that I find annoying little time is spent on the actual keepers who work there. Also while we’re mentioning Steve on the thread, a lot of what is shown is also just memories and flashbacks from his time at the zoo, and how his kids want to be just like him and “expand” the zoo for the future(a couple of animals shown in the series are ones that were shown in his old shows like Croc Diaries too).
Which one is her boyfriend? I've only watched through episode 4, but I have the next 3 recorded. From the show, I like Terri, but she says a lot of things that I'm not sure if it's for the tv or if she really doesn't know, which would be embarrassing (like covering an animal's eyes to calm it down, which was brought up multiple times in episode 4 with the sea turtles). The Steve clips tend to be odd ones and don't seem to flow well, IMO. I like Robert, he seems to genuinely like the animals, but Bindi comes across as very fake and forced. A lot of the show has focused on native wildlife, which is why I was surprised to hear they don't have several major species, or many species at all really (but apparently a metric ton of koalas?!)
I was eagerly waiting for this news! Certainly a step in the right direction. The female calf has been named ‘Carrie’ and her mother is Inyeti (from TWPZ and was born in 2005). I believe this is Inyeti’s second calf at the zoo (the first being ‘Mango’ - a female born in 2013). This must be Australia Zoo’s fifth white rhino calf.
I have just looked over my notes and it is indeed Australia Zoo’s fifth rhino calf; Savannah (12/4/2011)- female Mango (7/11/2013) - female Winston (4/5/2013) - male Humprey (11/10/2015) - male Carrie (4/12/2018) - female Caballe (1994) is mother to Savannah, Winston and Humprey. Inyeti (2005) is mother to Mango and Carrie.
Great notes! Its great that Inyeti has breed again. Cabelle gave birth to all her calves with 2 year gaps. It has been 3 years since her last birth so i’m guessing she should be delivering a fourth soon.
Thank you I like to keep up to date with zoo births (especially in my area). I agree I think Caballe should be delivering soon. I’m glad Australia Zoo maintains good breeding records with their rhino.
Indeed they have had a great breeding record with their rhino’s recently. But it’s not only the rhino; they have had a great breeding record with their giraffe too recently.
The giraffes have had an excellent breeding record. I have begun unravelling the giraffe births- currently sitting around nine (can’t believe all their offspring is from only three females!)
I’m also glad that they have recieved an additional female, ‘Kebibi’ from the National Zoo in March to continue their successful breeding results.
Cabelle must be the most successful breeding female White rhinoceros in Australasia. If she gives birth to her fourth calf at Australia Zoo, then that will be her eighth calf: Cabelle (1995): Birth at Hamilton Zoo: 1) Inkosi (2002) M 2) Mtoto (2004) M 3) Unnamed (2005) M 4) Imani (2007) F After transfer to Australia Zoo: 5) Savannah (2011) F 6) Winston (2013) M 7) Humphrey (2015) M
Wow I didn’t know she had four calfs at Hamilton. Any idea who Savannah’s father is? Caballe came to Australia Zoo already pregnant.
Savannah's father is Kruger (1989), Savannah is his third calf. Cabelle's first four calves were sired by Zambezi (1991).
Hamilton Zoo has actually done really well with breeding White rhino (the most successful facility in NZ). They started with 1.2, all wild born. One of the females, Cabelle (1995), produced four calves with the bull, Zambezi (1991); while the other female, Moesha (1994) never fell pregnant. There were two theories why: 1) Zambezi was a small male and Moesha did not consider him impressive enough to sire her calves or 2) Moesha's reproductive cycle was supressed by the presence of another female (Cabelle). Either way, the arrival of a new bull (Zambezi was swapped with Kruger at Auckland Zoo), resulted in Moesha and another female imported 2004, Kito (2000), falling pregnant. They gave birth in 2009 and 2010 respectively. Moesha went on to have one more calf in 2012 and Kito has since given birth to a stillborn calf in 2013 and a male calf in 2016.
No problem @WhistlingKite24. There's still so much to learn about rhino reproduction, but one theory that's gathered support in recent years is that having at least one other bull present at a facility stimulates the breeding bull to mate with the cows (competition theory). It's also noted that first generation cows (the offspring of founders) are less successful in reproducing than their wild born mothers. For example, several wild born females imported by the San Diego Zoo produced several calves each (one produced 15 offspring) in their life time, but many of their daughters have either never bred or only produced one or two calves. Some have theorised this has been influenced by the nutrition of the mothers during pregnancy being different to what it would be in the wild; while others believe it is the oesterous suppression theory. Either way, I'm watching the success of the females in our region with interest. Tamu (born 2002 at Perth Zoo) is a first generation female and has been the most successful breeding female at Orana Park (producing three offspring to date, including her first at the age of 7 years). Neither of Cabelle's daughters, Imani (2007) and Savannah (2011) have bred yet. In contrast, Cabelle had produced her first calf by Savannah's age and was expecting her fourth calf by Imani's age.
