Just found an old artical stateing that 2 female giraffes were meant to be arriving at Auckland from Honolulu in JUly 1982 but the 5 onth old female died oh heat stroke at honolulu airport but im not sure what happened to the other and who we sent them as a swap any ideas ?
sorry heres the link http://www.google.co.nz/url?sa=t&rc...kYCQBg&usg=AFQjCNFfUBWZnluE06VtJZfms-3_GBsBRw
Auckland Zoo's giraffes are currently in quarantine, as Nakuru will be moving to another zoo in April.
Auckland Zoo's giraffe Rukiaya is expecting a calf this month, I'm sure most people are hoping she has a girl but if she does then I can't help but feel Auckland Zoo have missed out on an oppotunity by shipping off Rukiaya's last calf recently... If Rukiaya delivers a daughter (AND HER LAST CALF WAS RETAINED) then Auckland Zoo would have had the following females in their herd: Rukiaya (2001) Kiraka (2010) Rukiaya's fourth calf (2011) Rukiaya's fifth calf (2013) This is arguably comparable to the strong breeding herd of four females, not seen at Auckland Zoo since the 90s (Kinshasa, Manyara, Kiri and Kay). While people have claimed inbreeding is rife throughout Australasia's giraffe history, those who like me believe in preventing it will be concerned that half of this new breeding group (Rukiaya's two daughters) are related to the only breeding male (their father Zabulu). There is a simple solution to this...send him to Wellington to breed with the female Zahara (Rukiaya's younger sister). They are short of a male and will have to import one so why doesn't Auckland import one instead as they will also benefit in the long run). Some people will point out that back in 1999 Auckland had to hurriedly import the then one year old male Zabulu before he grew too big for transport but I find it hard to believe that 14 years on, in the 21st century, this problem cannot be overcome. Auckland would then have to import a new male (like Orana has recently arranged) but if the importation and maturation of the new male was going to prove a hindrance to Rukiaya and Kiraka's reproduction, then Auckland could retain Zabulu long enough to father a sixth calf with Rukiaya and a first calf with Kiraka but not so long that Rukiaya's daughters fall pregnant to their father. Please note: I apologise if I have mispelled Rukiaya's name. I see several variations online and don't wish to offend anyone. Also Kiraka may have been born in 2009, not 2010, again I am not 100%. Finally, if Rukiaya has a boy then this thread reply will be pointless. If she have a boy feel free to post the article below and embarass me
Shortage of males in NZ New Zealand is currently in need of (unrelated) male giraffes in New Zealand as both Wellington Zoo and Orana Wildlife Park are both in need of new breeding bulls. Wellington Zoo may import the young bull born at Auckland Zoo this year, but will have to wait another three years for him to mature. With Wellington Zoo's potential breeding female Zahara (2004) getting on in years, they may be looking for other options. Orana Wildlife Park will almost certainly import from overseas as any male from Auckland descends from the Harold-Zabulu line and will be related to Zuri and Harriet. Zuri, Tunu and Harriet are all pure bred Rothchild's so they may desire a pure bred bull too. I'm surprised they've imported a fourth (and soon to be fifth) female. I wasn't aware they could accommodate so many breeding females since they've only had a maximum of three breeding females at any one time.
Interested to know more if these are pure-bred Giraffa rothschildi. It would be no problem exporting some stock from European holders to make the entire AZA / ZAA region go into pure-bred G. rothschildi. I still remain mistified completely why zoos continue to pursue maintaining and breeding window dressing hybrid stock over really attempting some ex situ conservation breeding
giraffe importation is now a closed circle within Australasia. NZ can only import from Australia, and Australia can only import from NZ.
Effectively that means the death knot for any self-sustaining giraffe population within the region of any conservation importance! You can go explaining it all away - and I do respect that - ..., however the rationale why imports of f.i. racing horses, cats and dogs may and can take place (and do pose risks to local native faunas), I really fail to see what biosecurity risks importing fully vetted and paperworked imports / exports of exotic bovids - as well as giraffe and f.i. zebra and other wild equids - would pose to this region for a purely zoo marketplace while serving the interests of captive-breeding / ex situ conservation breeding only. Let us leave it ... at that!
the zoo organisation here gave up on any sort of conservation importance for giraffes and zebras a long time ago (despite trumpeting how important they are for conservation at every giraffe birth and inter-zoo tranfer). Now they just treat them as generic display animals. I doubt there will ever be any change in that. However I believe there are plans to try and get giraffe imports allowed from elsewhere (e.g. USA) so they can import fresh blood - and any animals imported to NZ or bred here from imported animals, can be then imported into Australia from NZ.
Chli, I would applaud that very much! I am sure that if such a request were made to the EAZA the Giraffe EEP and EAZA Antelope TAG would be most willing to provide you in NZ - Aotearoa (aɔˈtɛaɾɔa) with a good number of either pure-bred Giraffa rothschildi and Giraffa reticulata and perhaps even become part of the breeding network (just to make the population that much more viable in NZ/Australia). NOTE: we are already restricting breeding in EAZA due to having not sufficient space. If thus - with the inclusion of NZ/Australia that number would multiply XX ..., that would be all the more welcome.
I've been collecting zoo births since the early 80s when I was a boy and had relatvies in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Auckland send me newspaper cuttings about zoo births arrivals etc. The internet became a godsend in the 90s when newspapers started posting there. As a result I had a quite definitive family tree for many species kept in NZ.Aus zoos, including the giraffes. Unfortunately a house fire a couple of years ago destroyed the lot. I mention all this because I could have provided an excellent esourse for the history of giraffe breeding. Not now though. So from memory I seem to recall that the original Rothschildi giraffe were a trio imported from Hawaii to Orana, and that they were siblings. Orana bred there group well. The only other import of Rothschilds was a female to Melbourne that came from Europe, the Netherlands I think. Perth was a successful centre for Rothschilds as well but think that there original animals came from Orana. Meanwhile the Hybrid herds at Monarto and Dubbo were in desperate needs of fresh blood as well. So after the zoos gave up their half hearted attempt at specialising in Pure Rothschilds it was decided that the best thing to do would be to combine the two herds. Which they did to great success. Several pure blood males became the breeding bulls at Monarto, Dubbo and Wellington, siring a large number and an entire generation of giraffes in the region. The problem is that that was a one of. All the breeding bulls were related and came from just the one, inbreed line. So in a couple of generations the zoos will be back where they started, in need of fresh blood. How they will solve this I don't know..
the original Orana animals were a pair from Toronto Zoo (Canada) imported in 1982 - it was the Auckland herd which was descended from Honolulu animals [not Rothschild's]. The Orana pair were half-siblings and were already horribly inbred when they were imported - if they had been given banjos they would have known how to play them by instinct. The pair had the same father and that male was also the father of the two mothers; the stock was descended from 1.3 animals (which were all sired by the same male) originally imported by the African Lion Safari (Canada) from Woburn (UK); and the Woburn group was itself descended from 1.3 wild-caught animals imported from Uganda in 1968. The American studbook lists this Canadian line under the Retic-Roth banner and so it is not entirely clear that they are even pure Rothschild's to begin with, although the Ugandan origin suggests they should be. Orana bred multiple calves from the original pair, and there was also one calf produced between the male and his first-born daughter. The original male died in 1991, and in 1994 they imported a new male from Chicago (not descended from the Canada line) who bred with some of the original pair's daughters and with his own daughters. More recently they have placed hybrid animals within the herd as well. So all the Orana Rothschild's giraffes are from three founders. Orana also imported a female from Melbourne in 1987 who disappeared (not sure what happened to her, whether she died or was sent elsewhere, but she never bred) and a male from Perth in 1991 after the death of the original male (this male died within about seven months, without breeding, and then they imported the 1994 one from USA). I think both of these animals were originally bred at Orana anyway - or were not actually Rothschild's - because all the Rothschild's in Australia were bred at Orana. The only other Rothschild's imported into the region appears to be the Melbourne female from Ouwenhands Zoo in the Netherlands in 1998/99. All others in Australia came from Orana's hillbilly herd.
