there will be members here who have been visiting zoos long enough to remember when coatis were quite common in Australasian zoos. Actually you don't even need to go back very far, they only disappeared from NZ zoos in the early 90s I think. Same with mara, formerly quite common now entirely gone from NZ and mostly gone from Australia. Just another case of Australasian zoos doing what they do best, letting apathy lose species from their collections then having to go to a lot of trouble and expense to bring them back into the countries again.
The coatis are so fun to watch. I'm amazed that Melbourne Zoo, or other Australasian zoos, haven't tried to keep them around. I watched them in the first small cat cage for at least half an hour in the rain because they never stopped moving the whole time I was there.
Pat, do you mean the (former?) binturong enclosure, on the kiosk side of the small cat cages, or the one at the opposite end (ie nearest the platypus?
Thanks for that Pat. Have they made the enclosure more arboreal-oriented for the coatis? I'd really like Melbourne to add fennec foxes to the collection. With the caracal sadly the last in the region, it would mean that Melbourne would still have the best collection of small carnivores in the country when it dies (with meerkat, small-clawed otter, red panda, binturong, ring-tailed coati, serval and fishing cat already present).
I have to admit, Melbourne does have pretty good collection (at least, for this region) in some great exhibits. Even the meerkat exhibits I found to be thoroughly enjoying, even more so than Weribee's 'Meerkat Bistro' exhibit, due to the fact that they had a very large and sociable group.
I was at the zoo yesterday and am pleased to confirm that this importation has already seen success. There are four juvenile coatis (pups? kits? cubs?) that have been born at the zoo. The other major piece of news is that the zoo has clearly imported a group of otters from somewhere. They used to have two - now ISIS reports 8. I saw a group of five in the exhibit, including one pup. It was great watching a big group again - I haven't seen a group that size for years and years.
that's fantastic news about the baby coatis. Pleased to hear they are progressing well towards getting them established back in the region again (hopefully someone might import some more to get a better population base though)
Adelaide was on the cards to import some, but I don't know if this has been postponed/cancelled due to the financial issues within the zoo at the moment.
Just had a look on isis, isis states that Melbourne now has 1.4.23, with 23 births within the last twelve months. This sounds like a lot, so I don't know if this is a mistake or is actually real.
I can't rule that out - I only saw the male and one female with kits (that's the word Wikipedia uses), each in separate enclosures. I don't know where the other three are.
It could be for real, the zoo has announced that 3 litters have been born. Zoo successfully breeds coatis - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Well then, it must be correct. I suspect the article refers to three MORE litters beyond the (apparently small-ish) one that I saw. If so, that means all four imported females have already bred. I believed before the coatis arrived they were going to be the next ubiquitous, highly popular species in the region. But I didn't think it would be so fast. Hey Steve - want some coatis?
Melbourne Zoo's application to amend the live import list to include coatis indicated that regular importations of new males was anticipated to maintain genetic diversity. I realise that Australian zoos don't have a good track record with this stuff - but you have to give them the benefit of the doubt. I wonder if Melbourne anticipated so many young so quickly. The display enclosure they are in is perhaps suitable for a dozen or so females, but males are solitary and, assuming a rough 50-50 split of the sexes, they are going to have to be kept in bachelor groups. Solitary enclosures are not going to be possible for all of them. Have bachelor coati groups worked overseas? If not, the males from these litters will be swiftly distributed across the region and the problem will at least be delayed for a couple of years. One thing is fairly certain - I doubt they will allow four females to breed in the one season again any time soon.
I do wonder if the 23 babies recorded on ISIS is an error, because it would mean each of the four females would have to have had an almost-maximum litter size (or, if only three females have had litters as reported on kiang's link, they would have had to have had seven or eight babies each). In any case, it looks like soon they will be in half the zoos in Australia (and probably NZ soon enough). If I was in a pessimistic mood I'd also say that give it thirty years and there will again be none in the country..... Just an afterthought, wouldn't it be fantastic to see a really big well-designed enclosure with lots of cimbing opportunities, inhabited by a really big group of coatis like they live in the wild, rather than just a few here and a few there.
Coming soon to a zoo near you. I'd say they were not thinking they were going to have so much success so soon. Perhaps they rushed things a bit. However, on the glass half full side of things, I'm pretty excited about this and being on the live import list there's no excuses for not managing this species well in Australia for a long time to come. I have never seen this animal live before so really looking forward to seeing them asap
I believe they were from Leipzig - they were swapped for the Eastern Quolls. (good swap all round, by the sounds of it, as both species are breeding in their new continents!)
I wondered where Leipzig's quolls came from! I asked on that thread but I don't think it got an answer.
