Hold Up!! Something just occured to me; a male and a female binturong in queensland...The state that only allows male red pandas has let in a pair of oppurtunistic small carnivores.
i don't know where this "males only" rumour started, but last i checked cairns tropical zoo had a female red panda and was intending on breeding them.
Why are male red pandas only allowed? I actually named the male binturong Jaya. Does anyone know what his name was before he came to Australia Zoo?
Madagascar Island was supposed to by complete when I worked there - Dec 2005 was the initial completion date. It's still not complete! I went there in March with my husband & daughter. What a shame. There is definitely rhino there - a few of my friends work with them! Just they're off display. Khan was a bit "iffy" in temperament in that he always used to size up the people watching the shows in the Crocoseum. Because of his behaviour, the bengal tiger shows in this place were cancelled. Sure it's "normal" behaviour for a big cat to lock his eyes on to patrons/workers nearby, but not something you really want for a show - you want him to be concentrating on his handlers. The tigers much happier just lazing around or going for a swim in tiger temple. They are in a newly re-designed enclosure where the foxes used to be. Foxes & Camel are now off display
Do you have any idea why these exhibits are taking so long to complete?. Another thing was they were keen to exhibit both Gorillas and Orangs at a while back so what has happened to these ideas
I will try to find out the answer to your questions for you Mark. They've always said they would get Orangs "in the future", but in all honesty, I think they have too many animals off display already - don't you agree?
Australia Zoo should not be allowed to "stock-pile" exotic animals with no immediate plans to put them on public display ( and I don't regard expensive "behind the scene" tours as being on public display.) State governments in this country have strong policies against private zoos which are not open to the public - didn't Darling Downs Zoo cop some grief from the Qld. Government a while ago for not wanting to be open 365 days a year? Lets have some consistency here.
Coupled with the fact that enclosures for Great Apes are very expensive to build(properly) so these plans could well be shelved if they have, as it sounds, existing species which haven't got proper enclosures built for them. What direction/course has Australia Zoo taken since the death of Steve Irwin? Is it still developing... or stagnating?
Since Steve died they've opened a red panda enclosure and re-developed a fox enclosure for binturongs. That's it.
It would be very wrong to assume that the behind the scenes enclosures at Australia Zoo do not comply with government Standards.
I agree Steve, in fact, it is my understanding that all the animals that are currently off display are kept in enclosures that far exceed the standards.
From a news paper report in New Zealand it appears Australia zoo now has imported a 15 year old White rhino female called Caballe from Hamilton zoo who had originally came from Kruger National Park in South Africa, hope all goes well for her.
Mark are you able to provide m with a link to the article? Caballe has had three calves, males Inkosi amd Mtoto, now at Auckland, and female Imani, presumably still at Hamilton.
Here's the link She's apparently pregnant as well so Australia Zoo have got two for the price of one! Hamilton Zoo farewells Southern white rhinoceros | Scoop News
