Do they use stags/males for this- given they can be quite aggressive if tamed? Otherwise probably more suitable than Fallow Deer- being bigger, less nervous etc.
There were two individuals, I believe a pair. Second one died during mid-90s, not sure when the first died.
a species which hasn't come up in this thread previously for being in Australian zoos - rock hyrax! Perth Zoo imported wild-caught Cape rock hyrax from South Africa via the UK. I came across it in a 1994 article in a veterinarian journal (abstract only: Tuberculosis in imported hyrax (Procavia capensis) caused by an unusual variant belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. - PubMed - NCBI) where it mentions "Tuberculosis was diagnosed in an adult female hyrax (Procavia capensis) imported from South Africa and held in a captive colony at the Perth Zoo." I can't find anything else on the import but it was presumably early 1990s (there would be a time period between the event and the publication of the paper). There's a little more information here: Isolation of a Mycobacterium microti-like organism from a rock hyrax (Procavia capensis) in a Canadian zoo "...more recently in 1994 in a zoo collection in Perth, Australia ... [T]he animals originated from South Africa and were captured from the wild. The animals imported to form the colony at the Perth zoo were held in quarantine in the UK for a period of months prior to arrival in Australia..."
Interesting! And a rather unexpected import - they were brought in for the African savannah exhibit, and housed separately from other animal species. I found the first paper, which details the history well - they were caught in South Africa in 1987, and quarantined at a private zoo in London for at least six months. 2.2 arrived in Perth on September 20 1989. One of the males died a month later, while two males were born in Feb 1990. The other female had two stillborn babies removed by caesarean in May 1990, but she died two days later. The first female died the following month, and subsequent tests found that she had tuberculosis, and because of concerns this was also present in the three remaining males, they were euthanised in Feb 1991. Necropsy of the three males showed the original male was very sick and infected, but the two Perth-born animals showed no signs of the disease. The study concludes that the infection occurred in the wild, rather than at Perth or in quarantine, and was unlikely to spread to have spread to any other species at Perth. This was the first record of this bacterium in Australia. So a relatively short-lived and unsuccessful chapter in the history of exotic mammals in Australian zoos!
while tinkering with the "former zoo mammals" and looking at CITES records, I came up with a few new questions for the likes of @Hix and @tetrapod. *Smooth-coated Otters - has anyone known these to be in Australia? I found CITES import records for live zoo animals to Australia in 1984 (one animal from the Netherlands), 1985 (two from Indonesia), and 1986 (one from Malaysia). The possibilities are accurate data, or mistaken input for Small-clawed Otters, or mistaken input of importing country (Austria, for example, is right next to Australia on a drop-bar and similar enough to not notice as a mistake). *Red-fronted Lemurs - these were at Taronga, with four animals imported from Canada in 1979. I think @Hix mentioned them as being there in the mid-1980s. How long were they there? I found export records of three or four animals from Australia to Sri Lanka in 1991 or 1992. These are probably the same export (three were recorded by the importer and four by the exporter, so it's likely one is a mistake), so could 1991/1992 be an acceptable last date for the Taronga animals? Or is it more likely to be a mistake? *Three Blue Monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) exported to Indonesia in 1991. This one has to be an error, right? Then there's these ones for @tetrapod because if they are legitimate entries then they would most likely be at Perth: *Andean Saddleback Tamarin (Saguinus fuscicollis) - one imported in 1980 from the USA *Red-bellied Tamarin (Saguinus labiatus) - four imported from the USA in 1980 *Moustached Tamarin (Saguinus mystax) - four imported from the USA in 1980
Reindeer used for draught purposes are usually castrated bulls, which I have seen referred to as 'reindeer oxen'. Fallow bucks or Red stags would presumably have to be gelded as well. Entire males would be just too dangerous. Anyone got any experience of this?
Smooth coated otters were at Melbourne Zoo in the '80's. They were kept in the smaller part of the divided seal pool. I am not sure if this was before or after the harbour seals. American beavers had been kept in this space earlier.
For a few years. They wanted to contrast a true seal with the fur seals. I believe they went to SeaWorld.
I've never heard of Blue monkeys, Saddlebacks, Red-bellied or Moustached Tamarins ever being imported into Australia. I wonder if there is some confusion of Red-bellied with the Red-handeds, and Moustached with the Emperors??? I would be guessing that Perth was the first to import both (at least in the modern system of records) for the Lesser Primate area. As far as guenons go, I can only recall seeing the Lesser Spot-nosed guenons at Melbourne and Talapoins (which we have discussed before), along with the De Brazzas and vervets still in the region. NZ had the Dianas but I've never heard of any in Australia. 1991 seems too recent for people to have not noticed their presence/absence.
I remember seeing the otters in the smaller seal pool; didn't realise they weren't short-claws. As I recall the harbour seals were a bit of a non-display... Were the beavers moved on to Adelaide?
The CITES records are by year and by scientific name (not common name, so it would be difficult to confuse Red-bellied with Red-handed, for example), and the Red-handed are in any case also listed for 1984 from Sweden. The three species I listed all seem to have been part of one export from the USA. I think the Blue Monkeys are a certain error though. For the Talapoins I remember you saying that there were only two at Perth (the two males from Wellington in 1985). But there is also a CITES record of two being imported into Australia from Switzerland in 1985 - any idea?
I don't think the enclosure was suitable for any of these three species, it placed what are fairly small animals a long way away from visitors in a stark environment. Regarding the beavers, they were there when I was a child, i remember specifically seeing them on a school excursion. So that would place them there in the late 1960's or early 1970's. I don't know where they went, but would that be too early for Adelaide's animals?
Here's an interesting thing to ponder. In the 2002 IRA for importing zoo Felidae into Australia, I found a sentence (on page 16) which states that the 1999 ARAZPA census lists "21 [twenty-one] species of non-domestic Felidae held in Australasian zoos." http://www.agriculture.gov.au/SiteCollectionDocuments/ba/memos/2002/animal/2002-08a.pdf I had a count up of what I know was in the region in 1999 and came up quite a bit short. Starting with the eleven species still in Australasia we have lion, tiger, snow leopard (now just in Aus), leopard (now just in NZ), cheetah, puma (now just in Aus), serval, fishing cat, bobcat (now just in NZ), caracal (now just in NZ), and ocelot (now just in Aus). Then the four species which we've lost since 1999: jaguar (c.2010), clouded leopard (2008), Asiatic golden cat (2009), and leopard cat (2008). The last leopard cat was in NZ, the other dates were the last in Australia. So that only gives us fifteen species. There were a few other species around in the 1980s (jaguarundi, jungle cat, Pallas' cat, margay, and Geoffroy's cat) but none of those lasted anywhere near to 1999 so couldn't be on the census. I'd imagine they must be including all taxa (i.e. subspecies as well as full species), which adds on maybe one lion (the Asian hybrids which were at TWPZ), Persian leopard, and two or three tigers (Sumatran, Siberian, white). The tigons don't count because they were in a circus until 2000. But that does take us up close (19 or 20) to their total (21). Maybe there were a couple of other subspecies listed for the smaller cats. Here's the interesting part though. While the paper simply says that there are 21 species on the ARAZPA census without specifically listing them, it does have an unaccompanied list of "Common and scientific names of exotic Felidae" (on page nine of the document). This clearly isn't a comprehensive list of the world's Felidae, and the implication seems to be that it is a list of what is in Australasia - even though it's a slightly odd list. Here's what is has listed: Cheetah Acinonyx jubatus Asiatic golden cat Catopuma temminckii Caracal Felis caracal Domestic cat Felis catus Wild cougar, puma, mountain lion Felis concolor Florida Panther Felis concolor coryi Wild cat Felis lybica South American ocelot Felis pardalis European wildcat Felis silvestris Jaguarundi Herpailurus yagouarundi Ocelot Leopardus pardalis Serval Leptailurus serval Lynx Lynx canadensis Lynx Lynx lynx Bobcat Lynx rufus Clouded leopard Neofelis nebulosa Lion Panthera leo Jaguar Panthera onca Leopard Panthera pardus Siberian tiger Panthera tigris Tiger, Bengal tiger Panthera tigris White tiger Panthera tigris Snow leopard Panthera uncia Fishing cat Prionailurus viverrinus Puma Puma concolor It broadly corresponds to what I was suggesting earlier, with the species which I know were around in 1999 (minus leopard cat) plus some additional subspecies (except, strangely, Sumatran tiger and Persian leopard), but there are 25 names on the list. Puma and ocelot are both listed twice (with different generic names), so it can be taken down to 23. Take off domestic cat to make 22. But then there are some odd ones on there which I have to question. It's like they listed most of the Australasian taxa but then just threw in some random other ones. *Jaguarundi - these surely weren't still around in 1999? *Florida panther - did anywhere really list their pumas as this subspecies? *European (silvestris) and African (lybica) wild cats? *Eurasian (lynx) and American (canadensis) lynx? Anyone remember any of these from the late 1990s (or earlier)? I guess the most likely answer is that they are listing the species which are mentioned in the document - but that doesn't work because some species mentioned in the document (e.g. Sumatran tiger) aren't on the list and some of the ones on the list aren't otherwise mentioned in the document. I don't think it can be a list of species which the IRA covers for import either (e.g. Sumatran tiger isn't on it). So it's an odd one. The main point is that the ARAZPA census for 1999 listed 21 "species" of cats in the region. I'd love to get hold of the old census records from the 80s and 90s. They would be so interesting.
I came across a mention (without date) of a Saguinus fuscicollis specimen as having been deposited at the Australian Museum from Taronga Zoo, so potentially the above import could have been to Taronga.
and seeing I'm mucking around with this stuff, I thought I'd have a quick count-up of the mammals which have been brought new into Australia in the last twenty years (since 1997) because that's always interesting. ["New" means not in the country at the time of import, as opposed to never kept here previously]. Indian Rhino in 2001 Francois' Langur in 2004 Dhole in 2006 (but gone again by 2015) Giant Panda in 2009 Brown-nosed Coati in 2011 Mara in 2012 (the last of the previous stock died c.2012 so it probably doesn't even count as a new species) Capybara in 2013 (the last of the previous stock died c.2005) Nyala in 2016 South African Crested Porcupine in 2017 Maybe Sun Bear as well. I'm not sure on the first dates for the current lot. And, meanwhile, close to forty species have been lost in that same time-frame...
That could be possible. Not 100% knowldgeable about Taronga's collection. Traditionally they haven't had a decent small primate collection (lemurs + callitrichids).
