Felids in Australasian Zoos – News, History and Discussion

That's a shame, she wouldn't have been old. Kibira's name meant 'ferocious'; while her littermate, Tiombe's name meant 'shy.' These names obviously reflected their personalities as cubs. It's interesting how Kibira kept her cranky personality into adulthood; while Tiombe became the dominant lioness of the pride. Either way, both very much Kura's daughters.

 

A Tribute to Nakula the Cheetah - Monarto Zoo

A tribute to Nakula - Monarto Zoo

Nakula the cheetah was one of the first cubs born at Monarto Zoo. Read on as Keeper Michelle Lloyd shares a beautiful story in honour of the legacy Nakula left behind.

“2003 was a special commemorative time at Monarto Zoo thanks to the birth of our first cheetah cubs. The litter was particularly special as they were the first cubs born in the Australasian region in 15 years and it was a privilege for me to work closely with them.

Parents Induna and Lula, who came to Monarto from Hoedspruit in South Africa, welcomed two males Kaidi and Inkosana and our special girl Nakula.

The three cubs were feisty but happy and healthy little balls of fluff. They were easily the most photographed animals at Monarto at the time!

As they hit the 12-month-mark, the boys were weaned off mum Lula and travelled to their new home at Werribee Open Range Zoo. After 18 months, Nakula was weaned off Lula and was ready to join our breeding program.

She fell pregnant in 2005, but sadly mismothered the litter as cheetah can naturally do.

In 2005, I travelled to Africa on a cheetah expedition and returned home filled with new ideas on how to improve the way I worked with cheetah.

Nakula was still young and feisty, so I was excited to work with her in new ways. We quickly got started on new ways to carry out regular health checks.

As a species cheetah are susceptible to disease, so there is a need for regular vaccinations and bloods to be taken to allow us to keep a vigilant eye on their health.

After trialing varying techniques from other institutions, I finally came up with a plan to work with Nakula using food.

She would happily come into our small area, sit down with her food and allow the vets to examine, vaccinate and take bloods.

Once we developed this bond, she became a much more relaxed cat and welcomed her first cub in 2012.

Sadly, single cubs don’t have a great survival rate in the wild as the mother’s milk can dry up quickly. Kwatile had to be taken for hand-raising at five days old.

One month later, Nakula was showing positive breeding signs and was reintroduced to the male.

She went on to successfully mother a litter of two males and three females. We were so proud of how perfectly she raised those five cubs.

While Nakula didn’t have any further litters, she went on to live her life out at Monarto as our precious grandma cheetah.

Her daughter Kesho is today our successful breeding queen, having birthed and raised two gorgeous litters successfully. Kesho’s most recent litter were born in May last year.

At 15-years-old, Nakula started to show signs of older age and suspected kidney failure and we sadly had to say goodbye. But her legacy lives on!

I still go to call her name each morning I’m up at the cheetah’s home and feel privileged to have worked with such a majestic girl over the past 15 years.

She is sadly missed by our carnivore team.”

 

Following the death of their remaining Snow leopard, Sheva, the National Zoo have decided to phase the species out of their collection.

Sheva (F) and Bhutan (M) were born 20/10/1999 at Mogo Zoo and arrived at the National Zoo and Aquarium 14/01/2002. Bhutan died in 2017. Bhutan was vasectomised as neither animal was intended for breeding.

Their parents Manga (born at Melbourne Zoo) and Lena (born at Helsinki Zoo) produced a second litter, Khumbu (M) and Tenzin (F) 12/10/2003. Both were paired with mates (Khumbu was sent to Taronga Zoo, and an unrelated male was imported to breed with Tenzin) but neither bred.

With Taronga Zoo and the National Zoo now no longer holding Snow leopard, there are only three facilities holding this species in the region:

Melbourne Zoo: 1.3
Mogo Zoo: 1.1
Billabong Wildlife Park: 2.2

There is essentially only one viable pair, which is the young pair at Melbourne Zoo.

Melbourne Zoo’s other females are a post reproductive female; and her daughter, who has been removed from the breeding programme.

Mogo Zoo’s pair have been together since 2010 but never bred. The female is 16 years old this year and post reproductive; but the younger male (11 years old) is still of reproductive age and a valuable male to the region, genetically.

Billabong Wildlife Park have two non breeding pairs. One is a sibling pair that have been removed from the breeding programme (the male has been castrated); while the other pair contains a post reproductive female and her mate, who will turn 16 years old this year.

With Wellington Zoo being the only zoo in the region interested in importing Snow leopard in the near future, it’d be nice to see them enter the breeding programme. They have previously stated their intention is to import two non breeding animals from the United States however.

 

Yet another endangered species held in our zoos which are on the way out I am sure they could manage species better than they are doing

 

As recently as the 1990s, the typical Australian Zoo would have lions, tigers, jaguars, pumas, leopards; as well as several types of small cats. Nowadays the idea of having regional breeding programmes for more than three types of big cats is apparently inconceivable.

We have a breeding programme for African lions, Sumatran tigers and Snow leopards. Now the decision seems to be whether to keep the breeding programme for Snow leopards or replace it with one for Sri Lankan leopards. Hopefully their a greater perseverance with Sri Lankan leopards than other species that have gone through various phases and crazes.

 

I really hope that zoos in the region doesn’t phase out snow leopards, due to there being a second leopard species present.
Surely the region could successfully manage both snow leopard (cold climate zoos) and Sri Lankan leopard (warm/ tropical climate zoos).
Both are threatened and very charismatic species.

 

That's quite right also look how our zoos have also phased out quite a few primates from collections in resent years I feel a few more are not long for the gong too where does it stop before they have the bare minimum, Mandrills, Dusky's, white fronted Lemurs,Javan Langers and Colobus to name a few!

 

I completely agree with you. On a positive note, Melbourne Zoo have recently imported a new breeding pair and Wellington Zoo are planning to acquire them. It’ll be interesting to see what Mogo Zoo do next. They’ve held two pairs in the past, and now have just one (a post reproductive female and a younger genetically valuable male). Will they import a new, younger female to breed with him? Or will they let Snow leopards disappear from their collection...

 

Let’s not forget Patas monkey and Chacma baboon.

 

Yes and the list goes on and on!

 

Chimpanzees have been lost from Adelaide, Melbourne and Auckland Zoo; though to be fair, Monarto and Hamilton Zoo acquired them as a result.

 

Why not keep snow leopards and stop the breeding programme for African lions and/or Sumatran tigers?

 

Why stop breeding both Lions and Tigers?

 

I more mean, the zoo has the decision to continue with the species or not (and they have chosen not to). Since they have a current exhibit for them, which could theoretically be filled with the same species tomorrow if required; the physical presence of the animal is almost negligent in terms of the zoo’s intention to hold the species if they have immediate plans to acquire more.

 

Why is the fact it is Endangered relevant? Endangered exotic species in Australian zoos have almost nil conservation value, other than for advocacy.

 

Well phasing out is defined as discontinuing something (in this case the curation of Snow leopards).

 

Melbourne got rid of their chimps decades ago! If you want to go back that far, why not lament the loss of the Javan rhino at Adelaide! I sincerely understand your frustrations, but some of your individual criticisms seem misguided. Melbourne's chimps were integrated with Taronga's to form bigger troops (as were at the time Taronga's gorillas with Melbourne's). You forget to mention the new chimp troop established in recent years at Rockhampton. New bloodlines have been imported in recent years. In this particular example, it comes across that you more concerned with every individual zoo having the A-Z of animals than actually the overall status of the population in this country.

So what does that tell you? I'd take more from this than one zoo choosing not to replace an elderly animal with the same species.