hey, I know that Taronga has a single female Indian crested named Natasha who is a beautiful girl but she has been shifted around alot latley from her home between the lions and tigers to the onle jungle cats homebut she will have to move from there to with the arrival of the breeding groups of tassie devils and basically i was woundering if any other zoos around australia held this species of animal?? i know i could just check ISIS but that thing confuses me and this is easier.... thanks guys!
There's supposed to be a pair in Melbourne. I believe that there are more African than Indian porcupines in the region (a lot in N.Z.) so unfortunately Indians will probably be phased out. It's always a shame when "spare" animals are shifted around a lot. The last two or three of Taronga's flamingoes, having lived in the same pool for over 50 years, were then shunted around a bit, and that was the end of them.......
Natasha, originally of melb her self is very old for a porcupine , about 30 (as said in zoo friends magazine). She was in the tiger area since her arrival at taronga, and wasnt aware she was moved- why has she been moved up to jungle cats? and of tassie devels to jungle cats, where does all them animals go ? im confused? also the last flmingoes left there original pond, as know they would be sharing it with the 500 seat taronga food plaza, they moved up to where the p hippos where, then when 1 died, the final last flamingo, well over 70, was moved off display, and i beelive still is off display.
the old flamingo (i think his name is Orange?) is still alive but looking a little shaky when it stands on one leg! ok so its a bit confusing atm but the fishing cat that has only one leg has been moved to natasha's old home and i guess the others are off display behind wild asia and natasha has a new and rather odd home lined up for her when the off display tassie devil pens behind jungle cats are finished. and the devils are finished in quaritine
sorry ! its the fishing cat MISSING one leg! it would be a bit hard to only have one leg i hadnt thought about the need to rename the jungle cats area but i guess it will get some sort of devil breeding related name How many devils are there out at dubbo? as far as her odd home goes i dont think i should say anything untill its confirmed becuase i dont think the two animals have even been introduced yet! and we all know how plans can fall through if the animals dont like each other.
porcupines. hi torie. unfortunately rodents (thus including including porcupines) cannot currently be imported into australia as a new set of protocols have not yet been developed/approved. this means that for the time being there is no future in a breeding program for indian crested porcupines (not sure how viable melbourne's pair is anyway). however, currently new zealand does allow the import of crested porcupines and the zoos over there are choosing to import south african crested porcupines (which is odd since prior to that all the porcupines in NZ were north african procupines). thus the entire region has agreed to focus on this species since its the only one currently being imported by zoos in australasia. australian zoos are listing south african crested porcupines on future plans.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but when I went to Taronga there were TWO Fishing Cats in Natasha's old home. One was "the one missing one leg", whose name is Fiddle, I remember from work experience; I assume the other is her daughter Cantik.
I know of (but don't have any details) a study made of captive crested porcupines in Europe to determine correct species, which found that while many zoos claimed to have cristata the vast majority actually had africaeaustralis. Apparently the two are very difficult to tell apart, mostly skull measurements. And this in spite of the thriving population of cristata in southern Europe. As a result I believe the UK emphasis was moved to the southern species.
I think the vast majority of captive porcupines is (in central Europe) Hystrix indica from foothills of Kaucasus. They are hardy even in very cold winters (africaeaustralis are not hardy, at least not in my country).
