...and some future development ideas.... i think melbourne should relocate the malyan tapir and put a stage in here, redeveloping the back lawns so that zoo twilights is located behind the reptile house in a more open area close to the back gates. this would allow some of the central lawns to be redeveloped into a "showcase savannah" that would sit right in the middle of the zoo. when watching zoo twilights or relaxing on the lawns you could see the giraffe wanding nearby. by a showcase i mean it will feature only a small collection of african animals, the rest being relocated at werribee. giraffes, zebra and ostrich can continue to share an exhibit, though maybe there could be space for older non-breeding rhino retired from werribee. lions can have a "kopje" overlook on the area, and meerkats are a must! the big cats bear area should be developed into an asian highland section, leaving just the question of where to do an amazon, new guinea and madagascan section. new guinea should be located near the australian bush section and with just the cassowaries, echidnas and tree roos they could just about squeeze a mini-rainforest just about anywhere. the amazon section can make the most of the established rainforest trees around the old elephant, red, panda baboon section of the zoo and could fit a very sizable collection if need be since the are is quite large. as for madagascar we, really have just a few species, 2 lemurs and some giant tortoises. a duel island type habitat could be a go, and again, a smal exhibit such as this could fit just about anywhere. there is actually a very attractive, unused lake behind the restaurant that could surfice, especially if a new coastal precinct sees the dated zoo food court demolished. the only other thing i would really like to see at melbourne is, believe it or not, a muti-level office block to consolodate all the administration, vetinary and groundskeeping buidings into one place. this would free up much, space within the zoo for more animal facilities. even better would be if it were constructed outside the actual zoo boundary fence, though obviously ajoining the zoo....
i belive melb has 2 options with all the odd aniamls, either do a rainforest ecosystem walk as u said for south america, madagascar, and new guinea, and/or convert the old babboon exhbits (well bulldoze) and make this the new shopping precint so much talked about. and have exhibits 'lanscaped' into the builing, as to c say mara whilst dinning, or pandas whislt browsing for a soft take home panda. i like all ya othe rideas, i belive the small kats area is very bad, very small. africa, great idea, even convert the present lion exhibit a bit, open it up, a new maot, and then yes a small svannah- minus the rhino, as werribee is building a multi million dollar complxfor rhinos if im lead to belive very soon in the savannah update precint. the bears need a new exhibit, jst say they copme from the higlands and exhibit next to red pandas and snow leopards. put the clouded leopard over in the new asian precint, yes anotehr, in place of the monkey boardwalk, divide into, a bit fro african and a bit for asian, also the old orang pits. AND YES ANOTHER EXHIBIT FOR ELES. we should push for as much room and diversity as we can. i reakon , wait for it, the worlds first ele aivary! hehe, make a huge aivary ppl go in, and have free birds in here, its really kool when an ele shits, birds and mammals espec butterflies come and get nutirnets etc. in mind, make this a mixed species, put the tapir and some small phillipine deer here asle (when we get them) and all these animals can go off display then eles about. thts my 2 cents repeated again. i love melbouren, and it will be one of the best zoos in the world once amsterplan is finished, it would be kool to get a copy actually sorry there may b a few errors, its late and ive travelled 8 hours to mogo and back in 2 days so im buggered. and yes holly and louis are doing great, samantha an dcahrlie are waiting to come, all money is raised for tehre movemnt, all paperwork is done, and they are wainting for green light from mogo wen exhibit is finished. i was lucky to meet sam and cahrlies keeper from willowbank on the weekend, dont ya jst love a kiwi accent, espec on the sheilas. thts again Zoo_Boy's 2 cents.
port lympne elephants Absolutely- the bull(Luka) and the old females were sent to (I think) Spain, and the two younger females plus the female calf have gone to Antwerp Zoo. They admitted in a public statement that they have continually failed with this species- several calves were born over the years but all were either still births or died soon after. Only the last two survived longer, and the older one of these(Sittang) was the one which died at the age of two years from the virus- that was the final straw for them.. I went to PL in October and there are three female African elephants in the enclosure at present. Incidentally I do not like this enclosure at all- it is on a windswept, exposed hillside and the indoor accomodation is very primitive for the elephants. I don't think PL should keep any elephants on that site. Not everything in Kent is wonderful!
elephant virus Obviously at Western Plains whatever precautions they take they can't really prevent a virus attack if the elephants are housed near each other. Its the new Asians at Taronga I am concerned for. Maybe no one who has had any contact with the Dubbo Africans should ever go near them....
i wonder if you can screen for the virus? if none of the three africans have it, wouldn't that mean they will never catch or transmit it?
the disease can only be passed on relly by total interaction between the species, western plains does keep them part, even if only about 5 meters. they are all healthy. im pretty sure they dont have it, unless it lies dormant for many years
elephant virus. I don't know but would certainly be good if you could. No doubt if the Africans at Dubbo don't have it, there would be no worry. Zoo_Boy says the two elephant species have to interact to be affected. But the calf which died at Port Lympne from the virus had never seen an African elephant. The two Parks(each at that time with one species of elephant only) are about 20 miles apart) They said the calf died from a virus which affects Asian elephants- but didn't enlarge on this or actually blame the African elephants for it. Since Port Lympne stopped keeping Asain elephants, they are probably starting a 2nd breeding herd of Africans as they have 3 females now. Howletts have been very successful with breeding AFricans over the years- a number of successful births, few stuillbirths or losses- the opposite of the Asians at Port Lympne.
teenage mother elephants? I think one of the problems faced by zoos trying to breed elephants(in the past) has been the age of the mothers at first breeding. Many zoos had just females for many years before starting a breeding herd or getting a male. These older females are too old to be breeding for the first time, causing problems with large calves getting stuck in the birth canal,, stillbirths, mothers attacking their babies due to inexperience/stress or desocialisation, even mothers dying during the birth etc. We know female wild elephants start breeding at a much earlier age- probably while still growing.Here's an example; Chester zoo in Uk has a growing group of Asian elephants & breeding them increasingly successfully. A couple of years ago a female calf (Sithami) born at Chester successfully produced her own first calf at the VERY young age of only 6/7 years.. The calf's grandmother 'Thi' had previously lost another calf and she largely took over and even fed the calf(it suckled from both)- I was told by the headkeeper that grandmother and mother looked after the calf in the ratio 60/40 (in favour of grandma) and the calf(a female) is thriving in the herd. At the time obviously 'Sithami' was still only partgrown and still growing. Maybe this is particularly unusual but does show its possible. Chester also have a much older breeding female called Jangoli who came from another zoo and which bred for the first time in her thirties- she first had a stillbirth,since then two successful calves.
im 100% taronga would be taking just about every precaution it could to ensure nothing which has had any conack with the africans out west ever came into contact with the sydney animals. theyre worth too much money and zooboy, as small as melbourne's cat facilites are, they are obviously good in the animals eyes or else they wouldnt be breeding...
yes i know, but when i saw them, it just seemed depressing, that they were small, the aniamals were pacing, and it wasnt enriching and so on.
the small cat alley, is a pretty crap exhibit Zoo_Boy i agree. it will almost certainly be demolished soon to make way for the new coastal precinct. off my head i'm pretty sure the collection in there is now much smaller than it was in the past... binturongs, fishing cats, golden cats, servals and a lone bobcat is about it now. these animals could probably be cheaply re-housed throught the place, certainly i hope the servals move to the now empty srval exhibit at werribee..
tht wont happen. the serval exhibit was design for that female, she was tammer, and very old (no one beleives she is still kicking). the exhibit was designed for her, in that any other serval couldt easily get out of it. the exhibit is know only used as educational and tour people, which is very occasional, since now the main education builing is being renovated to theme african habitats weriibees trail is themed by a few zones grasslands- servals, lions wetlands-hippos, few wickedly kool snakes and bugs in african community centre desert- cheetah, camel etc, to be joined by baboons. as u note the servals walkway is completely cut off, by rustic fence, saying do not enter, crocodiles or some ****. and in our melb masterplan, the old monkey exhibit is the be demolished, why carnt we have a new exhibit her for tapir, primates, FISHING CATS, GOLDEN CATS, BINTORONGS etc. this would make heaps of sense, and build another exhibit for the i would say very old bobcat, in new hymilayan precint, to be used for anther species when it passes
hay guys, back to melbourne on thsi thread i know its been discussed but i carnt find the info on it, what part of the zoo, is the new seals going, i take it it covers the old pool, but how big is it, and what does it go over, what is going to make room for it. thnx guys (i am doin a masterplan thingy for the zoo now, and i am making a template for everybody to use for there owns designs. ill put it up soon)
if you remeber Zoo_Boy, a while back, for interests sake i grabbed a photo from a media release on the age website of a zoo seal staring at a map of the proposed development. i took the image into photoshop, cut out the not-so-clear map, re-aligned it to remove perspective and make it appear flat, and then by overlaying it onto a current zoo visitor map and an airel photgraph of the zoo, i used distinctive points to work out roughly where the development extended to. of course, whilst i took the utmost care to align the roads and distinctive features the process could have been flawed in many respects. i posted a map of the zoo with an overlay here on the forum - you'll have to scan back for the thread on the new seal exhibit to find it... in any event it appeared that it will remain on the same site, but expand as far as the lion park, bears and small cat areas. much like atrongas exhibit, there is a new seal theater, and much larger deeper pool. penguins and other coastal creatures will also be in the area and i belive there will be aquarium elements as well.
it sonds like a great development, i acrnt wait, so whats happening to the bears etc, maybe the seal pool will be a few yrs away, and the govt, has jst set the money aside for the project, as melbourne re-does alot of other exhibits. i think that all the asian cats and primates can go in a new area of the current asia, on the site of the treetop apes, and further along a new african divison for bongo etc. ill try to get a masterplan
melbourne-design ya own zoo here we go a clean slate to design on, -right click save as, then edit in paint or other appropraite program
zoo boy, im so glad that whilst other young people are out getting drunk and smashing their cars in the school holidays, your uploading maps of zoos on to the net keep it safe champ lol
lol well im drinking alot glyn, beleive me, (dont ask), BUT I AM SENSIBLE IN CARS, THERE WOULD BE NOTHING WORSE THAN KILLING YA BEST MATES IN A CRASH!!!!!!!! (and i have never drank and driven) i love RUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bundy OI ! OI! OI!
