here in australia every major zoo has a giraffe, some lions and an orang or two. but there are plenty of animals which are regarded as regionally common that actually dont appear in some of our major zoos. for example, melbourne doesnt have chimpanzees in the not too distant past taronga didnt even have lions perth zoo has no antelopes and no seals taronga doesnt have lemurs, nor many tamarins on public display, in fact it's lesser primate collection is quite small any other examples people can think of? and what should zoos get?
yeah melbourne no longer has chimps or antelopes and has never held sunbears or rhino as far as i know. on the other hand they have 2 species of gibbon, langurs, macaques, spider monkeys, squirrel monkeys, 2 lemur species, 3 tamarin species, colobus, 2 baboon species and guenons!!!! they also have snow leopards, clouded leopard, common leopard, puma, jaguar, tiger and lion! not to mention the small cats... undeniably they hold the biggest (and best) primate collection and carnivore collections in the country. sorry, just had to brag a bit there! and for me its not so much what we should get but what we should maintain. the idea of maintaining diversity not just from a geographical point of view but a taxonomical perspective appeals to me. so i am okay with francois langurs replacing javan and dusky langurs, becase its langur replacing langur. we can spare the LT macaques, but maybe then we should hold on to the sulawesi variety. i'm not that keen on the idea of phasing out our guenons (well i'm sure vervets will stay, but they are a different genus ) unless its for another species (diana guenons anyone?). of course this doesn't help much with the issue of providing space....
Have to agree with Patrick. As a Sydney boy born and bred it galls me to say it, but Melbourne zoo is clearly Australia's best and daylight second. I also agree with Glyn. ( What an agreeable fellow I am! ). Taronga's primate collection is crap compared to how it used to be. A good collection of apes, but after that----virtually nothing! The old-world monkeys are represented by a single pair of Francois' langurs. Where are the baboons, the guenons, the colobus? Where are those zoo stalwarts, the macaques? None of these exist, as far as Taronga is concerned. The new-world monkeys are not much better, and as for the lemurs etc., they are totally unrepresented. Still, I suppose Taronga has worked out that they don't need monkeys when ignorant gits stand in front of the chimpanzees and say to their kids, "Look at the funny monkey, darling"
There's been a trend in many zoos worldwide not to show the commoner Old World Monkeys. Baboons are mostly only seen nowadays in those zoos that still have a 'baboon rock' or other established colony- usually Hamadryas. Guenons seem to lose out except in specialist primate collections, apart from the brightly coloured De Brazza's and Diana's. Colobus fair a little better as they are active and impressive as exhibits. Macaques? Forget them, apart from the endangered ones like Lion-tailed and Sulawesi. The current trend is for the rarer langurs and the New World species, it seems. However 'what goes around, comes around'(is that it?) so maybe some of these will re-appear again in the future.
what goes around, goes around, goes around comes all the way back arooooooound..... you'd love to be him!
Hornbill- I'd have to disagree with you over Chimpanzees. Although London recently phased them out, and one or two other major Uk zoos which have kept them previously haven't had them for a long time (eg.Paignton.Bristol) a good number still exhibit them. You can see them at the following; Whipsnade. Chester. Dudley. Twycross. Welsh Mountain Zoo. Flamingo Park. Colchester. Edinburgh. Monkey World. (Longleat & Blair Drummond Safari?) None of these collections are likely to phase out chimpanzees in the near future- in fact, Edinburgh are building expensive new accomodation for a much bigger group. So, sorry, little friend, but you're a bit off the ball on this one.....
Longleat doesn't have Chimps as far as I know, but one you missed is the Suffolk Wild Animal Park at Kessingland. I think it would be quite likely for Flamingo Land to phase them out if it hasn't already, but generally I agree- on a national scale they're not really declining in zoos.
I didn't include Suffolk W.P. as they only have an aged pair- or did- its likely they won't be replaced. Mole Hall at Widdington may still have a couple of old males too. There is a 'primate rescue' farm in South Wales that has quite a number of Chimps previously held at Penscynor Zoo (also in South Wales), that also includes the two males from Southport. Longleat used to have a group, but obviously no more. Flamingo Land- they still had three a few months back, but yes, they could disappear in time there. At the others they seem to be as popular as ever though.
common / uncommon That very much depends on the zoo . You want to see lots of chimps and baboons ( and many other primates ) you could do worse than visit Wellington Zoo . But they dont have orangs , and there are no gorillas in NZ . Auckland zoo still has elephants and hippos -- and not pygmies , but the big ones . Hamilton is the only one in NZ with tapirs ( unless Orana Park has them ) And Wellington has actually bred Sunbears , where as Auckland Zoo will never accept any more bear offers ..... And NOWHERE in NZ can you find snakes .
Partick appeared to like this song so I've made a film of it on the gallery. It has Congo buffalo on it. I believe it is one of your favourite species! Enjoy!!!
snakes are prohibited in NZ, even for zoos. Many zoos have reptile houses (or at least one or two tanks for them) but they are very small because of the very few exotic species available over here, and these are mainly Australian species. NZ does have a very large diversity of native skinks and geckoes as well as the tuatara of course, but most do not appear to be displayed (that is, a few species are displayed frequently by many zoos, and the others only at a few places).
