just to let everyone know the report can be downloaded free from arazpa-its been on the home page since august and is a compelling and interesting read
artiodactyl numbers... these numbers are a bit off, but i thought it might be ofinterest to you guys to see the rough (may be a little outdated) numbers of artiodactyl species we have in decent numbers here in australia. are they viable? depends on how inbred they are and the numbers for mareeba/tippary antelopes not known and therfore not included... giraffe 59 hippopotamus 15 oryx 33 addax 28 waterbuck 12 eland 73 barbary sheep 121 himalayan tahr 56 worth noting is that there is also a polulation of some 32 springbok in NZ
The sprinbok are very inbred from what I hear. As you are well aware so are the giraffe, the next generation willbe interesting, now that they've included the rothschilds into the main group there doesn't appear to be any unrelated males. With so many himalyan Tahr (did you include the population at Alma?), it makes me wonder why they are a phase out species.
hymalayan tahr the only reason i can think of is that zoos that currently hold them in the future dont want them in their collection plan...does adelaide hold tahr? if they do only them and taronga currently have them and maybe tahr dont fit in to adelaides bio-climatic planning. in new zealand where they are feral it surely couldnt be too hard to integrate some into the zoo collections there when they get a bit inbred??? its the same case with hog deer, banteng and sambar here in australia. i thought that if things got really drastic here our zoos could always capture wild ones or exchange with private holders.
thats correct. indian antelope used to be feral in WA but have since died out. nonetheless they are held privately on certain game and shooting ranches in australia. makes me wonder why their is such concern about them being inbred. are all semi-captive animals in australia decended from zoo-bred stock? i did include alma park zoos tahr in those figures.
Glyn don't forget that Alma Park has a herd of Tahr. I don't know about their relatedness to the Taronga lot, but that makes two definate zoos.
yeh i know about alma park zoo, but i guess i just hesitate a little with this place. and i wonder if the authors of the report did too??? the more i think about the 'going going gone' report the more i think the authors looked exclusively at major zoo collections and disregarded obtaining stock from these privately owned collections. for example, in the hunter valley is hunter valley zoo, who have blackbuck,chital, fallow deer and sambar. did the report factor there holding capacity in??? they dont belong to arazpa or list on isis. maybe there is hope for some ungulate species in the country.
I think the report was written for and about ARAZPA institutions, as it referred to all the animals available within the managed programs. In almost all cases, non-ARAZPA institutions are not able to participate in managed programs. Often, the origins, and therefore the pedigrees of the animals in private hands is unknown, or confused at best, and this doesn't help improve the quality of the managed species.
yeh, i guess that goes without saying but would the pedigree of many of the ungulate species really matter if it was only for display purposes and not for conservation? as weve concluded before ungulate conservation breeding programs wouldnt really work in this country unless quarantine laws were relaxed. taronga and western plains have sent primates to hunter valley zoo previously so there is some involvement at that level.
They've very likely only ever sent species that are not managed, or genetically surplus, or desexed animals. Species that are managed by ARAZPA cannot be sent to non-ARAZPA members without there being very special circumstances, and I doubt that the Hunter Valley Zoo fits the bill.
its sad, but of recent times, zoos are jst breeding to supply other zoos, i am now hoping tht with the reloctaion of tarongas oryx to wpz, tht more breeding will take place, and this country contributes to ungualte re-intros again, apparently i was told there is a new effort within next year to get p horses back to wild again.
hunter valley species Hunter Valley Zoo - Australia Total Travel only macaques and spider monkeys are exotic really they house
also known as rusa zoo, i have been googling imaging, and some interesting pics, of well nothing, its not flash hot zoo, jst cages like most small zoos.
zoo boy, its about twenty minutes from home, and i go there some times. es it used to be called rusa park zoo, and yes it run-down, but it was brought out by new owners in july who also own pet-shops on the central coast and in the future will add new species to the collection. for now there are dingoes koalas red kangaroo eastern grey kangaroo parma wallaby swamp wallaby pademelons rusa deer sambar deer chital deer fallow deer crab-eating macaque spider monkeys ostrich emu golden pheasant amherst pheasant green peafowl eclectus parrot cockatoo gang-gang black swans ring-neck pheasant king parrot lorikeets blue peafowl blue tongue lizrds red-belly black snakes the DPI laid down a whole range of 41 improvements the zoo must implement to avoid being closed down. the new owners must have put these in place, including building a perimiter fence (how basic), etc etc. this zoo just goes to show how some people should never be allowed to open a zoo. it started as a private deer park and venison farm in the 1980s and has grown ad-hoc ever since. im hoping the new owners will help the zoo realise its full potential, maybe they need a bull dozer
yea it's really a shame. and pat, im on school hoildays, im at a private school so we break up like 2 and a bit weeks before every1 else
