Thanks for sharing this information guys ! This is really interesting and much appreciated! It is such a shame that the keeping and breeding of these animals in captivity never really worked out. That said, as they state in the paper they were able to obtain valuable husbandry experience from the keeping of these bats and also learned lessons that could be put to use in the future should they be in the position of holding the species again.
As announced by @ThomasNotTom, 0.5 Asian Small-clawed Otters from Auckland were going to move to Willowbank Wildlife Reserve. The five of them have now arrived safely at Willowbank: Log into Facebook | Facebook
Wellington's last two lions were euthanised today. They don't have immediate plans to acquire the species but will in the long-term: "While Wellington Zoo will be without Lions for a while, in time we will look at welcoming a new pride to the Zoo, so we can continue our conservation work with this iconic species." Lionesses Djane and Zahra pass away Hamilton Zoo announced the arrival of four male Cheetah from Taronga Western Plains Zoo. They were all bred in Australia in 2018: Log into Facebook | Facebook
There are no lions at Auckland now! Their two males were euthanised today just under a week apart from Wellington’s last lionesses: Zoo makes kindest call for elderly lions | Auckland Zoo News
This means Orana is now the only accredited facility in the country with African lion. Some imports for Auckland and Wellington will surely follow, with several surplus lion’s available in Australia; as well as opportunities to import new bloodlines from outside the region.
Wellington Zoo now have Ring-tailed Lemurs. Four females recently arrived from Hamilton Zoo and are currently in quarantine: Ring-tailed Lemurs touch down at Wellington Zoo Edit: Orana Wildlife Park has also just announced some exotic mammal news, one of their gorillas Mahali died today due to a large growth in his abdomen. This leaves New Zealand with two gorillas: Orana Wildlife Park
New species for Orana Wildlife Park. They have received a small group of Nyala from Wellington Zoo. From their Fb page: "Meet our lovely nyala, a brand new species for Orana. They have a short fluffy tail and beautiful orange coats with stunning white stripes! They were transferred from Wellington Zoo as part of the regional breeding programme."
Asian Small-clawed Otters have returned to Orana Wildlife Park giving New Zealand five zoos with otters. The five males came from Perth Zoo: Five otter brothers the newest stars at Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park
Finally! They haven't had otters since 2016 - and the otter enclosure is right at the entrance to the zoo!
Auckland Zoo have lions again. Three females arrived from Werribee Open Range Zoo on Tuesday evening: Haere mai to Auckland Zoo’s new lions! | Auckland Zoo News
Unfortunately New Zealand has lost another species. I confirmed with Orana Wildlife Park today that their last two Scimitar-horned Oryx have both recently passed: “Unfortunately we no longer have Scimitar-horned Oryx here at Orana Wildlife Park. They truly were magnificent animals. We do now have the critically endangerd Addax who, in my eyes, are just as awesome.”
Its a bit sad it came to this. They could of got as many as they needed from Australia to keep them long term. Now the Nyala seem to be stacking up in NZ zoos I wonder how long this is going to continue!
With Orana’s Scimitar-horned oryx herd reduced from a once thriving herd to two single males, this phase out was inevitable. However, the person who took your call isn’t wrong - at least they’ve replaced them with Addax - a similar species that’s critically endangered. So many zoos have made senseless and baffling phase outs with no apparent replacement species, so this is something to acknowledge (I won’t say celebrate when they could have held both species). Nyala are really overrated imo. They’re not even endangered and yet they’ve become the flavour of the month - presumably because they can be shoehorned into every zoo’s savannah.
It’s been confirmed Wellington Zoo will be receiving 0.2 Snow leopard from Melbourne Zoo. These will be the first Snow leopards held in a New Zealand zoo since 1995.
This doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet but I found a document from December 2019. Auckland Zoo have applied to import Red Ruffed Lemur, White-faced Saki and DeBrazza's Monkey into New Zealand: https://www.epa.govt.nz/assets/FileAPI/hsno-ar/APP203982/APP203982-Application.pdf
Lemurs will be a key feature in the Auckland Zoo’s entry precinct, so they’re presumably hoping to exhibit Red ruffed lemur in addition to the Ring-tailed lemur. Long term, surplus male Red ruffed lemur would surely be welcomed at Hamilton Zoo. They house male Black and white ruffed lemur in the mixed lemur exhibit, which could potentially be integrated with them without the female-female aggression or the risk of hybridising. I imagine the White-faced saki are the replacement for the Siamang, which moved out of the rainforest (now rethemed as the South American precinct) to live in the South East Asian precinct. Their exhibit has sat empty for a while now.
According to this study, they trialled mixing them with tamarins - but the saki had to be removed due to aggression. I assumed they lived in large colonies like most other South American monkeys; but apparently small groups of four are common and while same-sex aggression between unrelated adults is not unusual, offspring often remain to help rear young. I believe the most practical solution is to start with a 1.1 pair in the old Siamang exhibit and slowly expand the group through breeding - with the size of the group controlled with contraception or transfers of surplus offspring.
WF Saki are pretty common in European zoos and regularly mixed with other species. I was of the opinion (which may be incorrect) that there was more likelihood of the tamarins ganging up on the larger primate! Obviously depends on exhibit size as to any potential issues. Given the lack of individuals in the region, one shouldn't be advocating contraception! They are a species that could easily be established in Australasia if enough zoos get behind it.
Well the study may have been an isolated incident and it involved Pied-tamarins, so maybe the Cotton-tops and Golden lions would be more amiable. Assuming your assessment of them being suitable for mixed species exhibits is correct, it may even be possible to house them across multiple monkey exhibits - increasing the zoo’s capacity and allowing them to become a breeding hub for the region. Auckland Zoo’s rainforest comprises of several outdoor exhibits - three of which are a decent sized for sakis. They might even spice up Hamilton Zoo’s spider monkey exhibit, which has looked bare since the tapir died.
