When were giant anteaters last in an Australian zoo? Chlidonias says: I split this thread off from the news thread: http://www.zoochat.com/24/melbourne-zoo-news-2014-a-356471/
I didn't think they lasted that long in Australia! I just found a photo of one of them at Adelaide (undated): Giant Anteater At The Adelaide Zoo Adelaide South Australia Stock Photo 148732019 | Getty Images
Definitely a pair or two individuals in late 70s (78?), mixed with usual Sth American suspects: tapir, agouti and mara.
Interestingly Melbourne Zoo has also had aardvarks in the past, about 15 years after the giant anteaters if my failing memory serves me right.
Now that you've said that I have the vaguest of very vague memories of an enclosure where I never saw anything, but it could have only been when I was in pre-school (I'm in my, *gulp*, late 20s). I could also be completely making it up.
Aardvarks at Melbourne Zoo, from the ever-trusty Zoochat files: Posted by tetrapod in 2009: "Melbourne Zoo kept some aardvarks in the late '70s. They were kept in the old pens (since been knocked down) where one would have found wombats, echidnas and prairie dogs. Probably where the new elephant housing is." http://www.zoochat.com/2/aardvarks-16403/index2.html Posted by ZooPro in 2007: "The last prairie dog and aardvark died at Melbourne Zoo in the late 80s." Followed by: "....she lived in an off limits area of the zoo for the last few years of her life. She died in 1981, and I think the male died in the late 70s." http://www.zoochat.com/24/when-did-die-out-7388/ (I'm not sure if that last one contains a typo where "late 80s" should read "early 80s", or if "1981" should read something later like "1987" or something)
They were always sleeping on a heated plate in their shelter, and would have been very difficult for a pre-schooler to see.
Earlier than I thought. That may place the anteaters back into the late '60's. Funny I cannot remember ever seeing prairie dogs at Melbourne Zoo. Other species I remember from those enclosures were armadillos and (Indian?) crested porcupines. The armadillos were favorites as it was always possible to scratch one behind the head. The only remnant of these enclosures is a crushed padlock that still hangs in one of the keeper rooms, that was destroyed by an agro wombat.
okay so it turns out that ZooPro was not accurate in what he wrote about the Melbourne Zoo's aardvarks (which greatly surprises me actually but nobody's perfect). I just found an archived newspaper article from July 1982 which is all about the zoo's last aardvark, a male named Crinkles, who was still hale and hearty (and sharing his enclosure with a band of meerkats). The Age - Google News Archive Search I guess the "late 80s" in ZooPro's post may be correct in this case (even if the sex of the remaining animal and the 1981 date were not).
Actually I am wondering if Crinkles is not the first Aardvark, and a female arrived later. I say this in that I have a memory of an article about a female arriving in the Zoos Friends newsletter, and that would place it in the mid-'80's. The article does not mention any preceding aardvarks.
back to giant anteaters: there was one still at Melbourne Zoo in October 1976 at least. The Age - Google News Archive Search
There were aardvarks and armadillos at Melbourne when I visited in 1978. A keeper told me one species ran around the exhibit all day, and the other species (in the next exhibit) ran around all night. Hix
I don't remember. There was a Giant Anteater at Taronga a few years before which I saw on several occasions, so if Melbourne had one it wouldn't have been as interesting as the things I hadn't seen (like aardvarks and armadillos). Looking at the Taronga annual report for 1978-79 it's not listed, so it must have departed prior to July of 1978. Hix
