A brief update. Gorge Wildlife Park still has one elderly Rhea and they confirmed she is the last one of her kind in Australia. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, Darling Downs Zoo no longer has their elderly female (most likely passed away sometime in 2018). Time for the really sad news... I recently contacted Zoos Victoria and they informed me that their last Razor-billed Currasow (Betty) died in June 2019. The end of an era for a species no longer found in Australian zoos.
That means Melbourne Zoo has lost 3 species in June to August period Binturong (Gansga) Died July Razor Billed Cussarow (Betty) died June Brazilian Tapir (Arturo) Given to Adelaide zoo.
It's a shame because they could make so much more of their facilities, including the great flight aviary. Would be great to see some Australian endemics not often seen like Golden bowerbird, Tooth-billed catbird and even Comb-crested Jacana
What’s been happening with birds and mammals and is when a species departs they replace it with an already existing species at the zoo such as when Mandrills departed cassowarys took their place and when Gansga the binturong died it is now inhabited by squirrel monkeys which have 3 exhibits now. Or they completely stop the exhibit all together like The bongo exhibit was turned into more administrative buildings. Furthermore there has also been a waste of space, the great flight aviary is understocked as is the macaw aviary. Growing wild in particular is a useless segment turning perfect space into another kids playground and only exhibiting animals which the zoo already has on display like corn snakes, Aldabra tortoises, meerkats, shinglebacks. Even one of the reptile exhibits displays a repeated species and it’s an extremely common native. Why does the zoo have TWO Sumatran tiger exhibits on show, TWO Tasmanian Devil exhibits, TWO Phillipine crocodile exhibits, TWO snow leopard exhibits. Notice how these TWO are all in the new carnivore section. My last visit was in October and I was unlucky that Gansga the binturong had died, Betty now has passed away and Auruto was moved to Adelaide very close to my visit. I think I just have bad luck.
Perhaps the doubling up on a number of species in exhibits is to fill the gaps when zoos are reducing the number of species being held within the collections there appears to be some within the zoo world in our region who want less animal species in our zoos!
This list could do with a bit of an update. A lot of the seedeater and softbill species on the list have unfortunately been lost to aviculture and thus Australia. The following are all either definitively gone or so rare they are functionally extinct anyways: *Silver-eared Mesia Leiothrix argentauris *White-rumped Shama Copsychus malabaricus *Red-crested Cardinal Paroaria coronata *Red-throated Parrot-finch Erythrura psittacea *Bamboo Parrot-finch Erythrura hyperythra *Pin-tailed Parrot-finch Erythrura prasina *Peale's (Fiji) Parrot-finch Erythrura pealii *Lavender Waxbill Estrilda caerulescens *Green Avadavat Amandava formosa *Violet-eared Waxbill (Common Greandier) Uraeginthus granatinus *African Firefinch Lagonosticta rubricata *Dybowski's Twinspot Euschistospiza dybowskii *Peter's Twinspot Hypargos niveoguttatus *Green-backed Twinspot Mandingoa nitidula *Grey-headed Silverbill Lonchura griseicapilla *Lesser Redpoll Carduelis flammea *Linnet Carduelis cannabina *European Siskin Carduelis spinus *Black-headed Siskin Carduelis notata *European Serin Serinus serinus *Grey Singing Finch (White-rumped Seedeater) Serinus leucopygius *House Finch Haemorhous mexicanus *Purple Finch Haemorhous purpureus *Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella *Comoros (Red-headed) Fody Foudia eminentissima *Plain-backed Sparrow Passer flaveolus
With regards to species only in private aviculture (i.e. foreign finches etc), I specifically said this in the second post of the thread: "the lists of waxbills, finches and parrots were mostly created from stock-lists (e.g. bird sale sites) and Australian avicultural forums. I don't really know which are still found in Australia (I know some are incredibly rare now, some possibly having died out) or further which species are present which have been missed off those lists." So - same as the case with the New Zealand list containing waxbills etc - all those species will stay there because there is no real way of knowing with certainty which are actually gone completely.
Yes I know you said this. And I'm simply trying to provide further information to the forum for the sake of accuracy.
Taking all of those species out of the equation makes for depressing reading re: exotic birds in the country... Australian zoos have done non-native bird species poorly for too long.
The zoos have never really done anything for exotic waxbills and parrots though - those groups (and pheasants) have always been the domain of private aviculturists (which is why it is never going to be clear which of the rare species are still present and which are not). But yes, for other groups - things like curassows, flamingoes, etc - then the failure of them in Australia is solely the fault of the zoos.
There’s a species missing on the list. I know they are fairly rare in aviculture but I did see one at my local pet store around 6 months ago the parrot being a pair of Slaty Headed Parakeets.
That will probably be because we had Grey-headed Parakeet Psittacula finschi on the list (which used to be a subspecies of the Slaty-headed Parakeet P. himalayana). I had a little Google and couldn't see anything about finschi in Australian aviculture, so I guess that was a slip-up. I'll replace the Grey-headed with Slaty-headed.
I used to breed Slaty Headed and Plum Headed Parrots - both lovely birds. Whilst the Slaty headed's aren't "common" they aren't exactly in low numbers either.
This looks interesting. Importation of psittacine birds (household pet and aviary birds) - Department of Agriculture
Anyone know of any private owned rheas in Aus? Just saw an advertisement for rhea chicks for sale and contacted the person and they said they have chicks and breeding pairs for sale... I'm sceptical
sounds dodgy - what location where they? I saw some wood partridges advertised once on gumtree but im sure they were a scam
