just to share my excitement about the fact that cassowary have returned to taronga. they are among my favourite zoo animals....and their exhibit, mainly for zooboys interest particularly is going to be built on the site outlined in the zoo2000 document. yey
from my memory, its sorta aboue the seal pools, near the new aprk lands- will be good. on taronga (soz to take from cassowaries) do rhino ahve place at taronga- aprticualry a black rhino?
no, they dont, but like you i think the masterplan may have changed since 2000, it might now incorporate a rhino exhibit, or it might not...lol the site of the new cassowary exhibit used to be a beaver pond i think, back in the days
or maybe penguin, i cant remember, will dig out some old maps....perfect location though, beneath the rainforest aviary. will be a sheltered but shady location with lots of trees. its also nice to see a new exhibit at taronga, but not a mega-exhibit. they do good little exhibits like this
Are they the southern cassowries? If the zoo was really adventerous, it could go for the Bennet's or single wattled. They're really rare in zoos outside that region. I only know of Jurong, san diego zoo and a few parks in europe that hold the bennet's/single wattled varities.
again, though, its a quarantine problem, so at the moment were limited to the southern cassowary. however i belive this is not only the most magnificentlooking, but as an endangered species which is natie, is also an australian zoo priority
..and supprisingly since they are native animals and we have such a long history of cassowaries in zoo here, we are not exactly pro's at breeding them.
were not that bad either, and there is a strong case for establishing a good captive assurance program. im pretty sure that most of our australian zoos have bred this species at least once.
oh by all means i hope we get good at it! there awesome birds. the other two species are great but not really worth the effort of us australians at this stage though. id'e rather see some more long-beaked echidnas and goddfellow's tree-kangaroos imported first
According to the zoo friends newsletter the two males are brothers. They are going between the rainforest avairy and the old seal pools.
cassowary are a little more widespread than previously thought as. symbio, and oakvale farm and fauna world in port stephens north of newcastle, in a nice new (2004) enclosure
I was at Taronga last week. It appears that nothing has been done on the cassowarry enclosure down near the rainforest avairy since my last visit a couple of months ago. from looking at old posts in this thread, the cassowarries arrived at the zoo june last year. does anyone know whats going on with them?
Went to Taronga today.Absolutely no progress with construction of the cassowary enclosure. In fact, the bird section of Taronga seems to be taking a back seat to all the "Mega" developments which are under way. A keeper told me that they (the bird section) are losing the front three aviaries of that group just below the main koala enclosure. "What's going to replace them?" I asked. "Lawn", he replied. Oh, glyn, there are at least 3 cassowaries at Featherdale out near Blacktown too. In fact I would suggest that Featherdale's over-all bird display is now better than Taronga's.
if i am thiking of the same aivarie you are ara, then i always thought they were histrcally listed? im prob wrong?
disappointed, naturally, to hear that no progress is being made on the cassowary exhibit. its now twelve months since Taronga regained this species and the wait is becoming a bit annoying. however, I disagree with your assessment Ara that that bird section is losing out or taking a back seat; i can see your point of view and could understand the view of any disgruntled bird keepers, but lets just summarise the investments into aviaries in the last few years..... *for starters, Creatures of the Wollemi. *the renovation of the Rainforest Aviary and rodent proofing, extending the display capacity of this exhibit to include ground-dwelling and smaller species *refurbishment of the bush aviaries, macaw aviaries and aviaires for PNG birds, eclectus parrots and regent honeyeater *new penguin and pelican exhibit *2 new walk-through aviaries for Asian Rainforest birds. *off-show breeding facility *new condor aviary it is true that in the process of developing B2B the Australian Bird Lawns were razed, but the back of these exhibits were terrible and a real OHS issue. Taronga may no longer have the diversity of species it once had but overall I think the range of birds on display are now more effectively exhibited than ever before.
I agree with Ara. I think that the birds are slowly slipping away at Taronga. Don't get me wrong, the new avairies such as Wollemi and the two on the asian trail are great but if you list some of the avairies that have been removed in the last 20 years, such as: *the Australian birds near B2B, *the seabird avairies that were oppisite the gorillas, *the pheasants near the current orang utans, *the birds of prey near the old orang utans, *the large wedge tail avairy, *the empty avairy near the old penguin pool, *the kookaburra cage across from the tassie devils *and the small avairies turned into one large one for the mallee fowl above the jungle cats, more have gone than have been created. fair enough some of the birds that lived in these avairies are still on display but a lot have gone.
This is true yes alot have gone, i would just like to say however, the zoo chose to make some of the moves due to the fact that the facilites you mention were not upto scratch in terms of the animals husbandry. And you'll find alot of modern zoo's cut back on numbers so quality can be upgraded.
Boof, I appreciate what your saying but at a time when pheasant stocks and species are at a critical low in Australia I think Taronga is doing well with the range it currently has. Your point on the old seabird aviaries and eagle aviaries left me a little puzzled...not only were these aviaries falling down around their occupants ears but I think the most recent tenants of these aviaries (wedgies, brolga, raven, condor) are far better displayed in the FFBS. and finally. I think we would ALL love to see the historic aviaries near the penguins done up....but on the plus side we now have the Moore Park Aviary. I dont even know that Taronga displays less birds now than it used to in the period youre talking about or if it just keeps them in bigger, better enclosures. comparing Creatures of the Wollemi to the old Australian Bird Lawn aviaires is, IMO, a non-comparison, however peaceful this section of the zoo may have been back then.
You make a couple of good points, glyn. Those old Aust. Bird Lawn aviaries were quite decrepit at the rear (the keepers access), and also the modern trend is away from classic "avicultural" displays consisting of a row of long, thin aviaries, each housing a pair of birds.(They are good for breeding, not so good for display.) The trend IS for habitat aviaries, and these Taronga does quite well. I wish they still had their pheasant aviaries, however. Its also good that Taronga is tackling rodent-proofing. As an aviculturist myself (in a small way) I know that making aviaries rat- and mouse-proof is much more critical than most people realise. On a personal note I love the asian bird aviary near the elephants. There are a couple of pheasants in there.Wish I had some of those Pekin robins (beautiful little birds; worth a bomb!)
