Yes I noticed that. This is such a dead location of the zoo. I've never liked the way Growing Wild cut off access to this pathway, and I've always found it wasteful that the old elephant exhibit was left as is rather than be cleaned up, even if it is just to use as for school camps. It would take so little to polish this area up and make it presentable again. It's an ideal area to house birds and small mammals until the zoo decides how to redevelop it.
For those who like to keep tabs on the exotic mammals in the region, Melbourne’s new Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs are two females that arrived from the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra. They would be quite young animals as Canberra have been breeding the species consistently for the past couple of years (four in 2016, four in 2018 and two in 2019). The zoo also mentioned that keepers are currently doing maintenance works in their enclosure so they are not always on-display currently.
Grassland Earless Dragons (Tympanocryptis pinguicolla) are now on-display in the Keeper Kids area of the zoo: Zoos Victoria
I actually entered this area for the first time the other day. For those interested the species list is: Corroboree frogs Grassland earless dragons Blue & yellow macaw Eclectus parrot Bolivian squirrel monkey It's actually quite a nice little area. There is also another indoor building for teaching school-age groups in Growing Wild with animal displays I had never been into before. This had (from memory): Fijian crested iguana* Corn snake Stick insect sp. And while I'm at it, the little hut between the "bull" elephant paddock/squirrel monkeys currently has: Fijian iguana Golden coin turtle Southern angle-headed dragon Stick insects sp. I feel like one of the iguana displays had elongate tortoises also but I can't recall which one.
50 baw baw frogs bred at Melbourne being released into the wild : Critically endangered Baw Baw frogs fitted with radio transmitters to track their movement
Melbourne Zoo welcomes the arrival of male Asian elephant Luk Chai from Taronga Western Plains Zoo!! A Massive Welcome for a Huge New Melbourne Zoo reisdent
Omg! Very unexpected arrival. That’s brilliant news, and an additional bonus as he could breed with Melbourne’s females!
This is one of the best news of recent times !!! I expected Melbourne to end elephant breeding, and I criticized it. Great news.
Zoos Victoria have released 14 rehabilitated koalas to the wild, who were rescued from January’s bushfires: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=731538834412007
According to a post on Instagram tagged with Melbourne zoo. They now have new black and white ruffed lemurs though I am not sure how many
The recently-released Annual Report 2019-2020 for Zoos Victoria has a few bits and pieces that haven’t been mentioned: *a juvenile Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo at Melbourne Zoo died unexpectedly and was found deceased in its enclosure. The cause of death was suspected to be a wild Brushtail Possum. Yikes. *on a happier note, lots of great results with native species – “Melbourne Zoo supported the Fighting Extinction programs with the hatching of 328 Baw Baw Frogs, 17 Grassland Earless Dragons and nine Regent Honeyeaters.” The number of Crucifix Frogs bred in captivity for the first time was confirmed to be 47 individuals. Full report: https://parliament.vic.gov.au/file_uploads/ZV_Annual_Report_2019-20__Final__Fpb4DRWQ.pdf
Hamadryas Baboon Update For those wondering about the baboon numbers at Melbourne Zoo, it was mentioned on the finale of Mega Zoo that the zoo have a troop of 24 Hamadryas baboon and that all females are now on contraception. Apparently the plan was to have four infants from each of the four breeding females - Huddo, Grace, Macey and Qetesh. This has now been achieved and Quilton (female infant born earlier this year to Qetesh) will be the last infant for several years. The troop was founded with two males from Prospect Park Zoo (Azizi and Jabari); six females from Wellington Zoo (Beth, Sinead, Zara, Macey, Abeeb and Qetesh); as well as at least two females from Melbourne Zoo. I have posted a synopsis of the tenth and final episode of Mega Zoo here, for anyone that's interested: Mega Zoo (Zoos Victoria TV Series)
The troop had a lot of elderly or middle aged Melbourne females as well; it was definitely more than 5 females though.
Huddo (born 2000) was the last baboon born at Melbourne Zoo, prior to the cohort of 16 infants born between 2015 and 2020. Grace would have been born around the same time as Huddo and they were apparently the only baboons of reproductive age from Melbourne's previous troop. This would mean the other Melbourne females were born around the early 90's (or even late 80's) and most are likely deceased now. The DOB of the Wellington imports were as follows: 0.1 Sinead (29/01/1993) 0.1 Beth (04/06/1994) 0.1 Zara (21/09/1994) 0.1 Macey (13/04/2004) 0.1 Abeba (24/12/2004) 0.1 Qetesh (2010/2011) The first three were post reproductive on arrival; and Abeba has apparently never bred. Mega Zoo implied each breeding female not only was allowed to breed four times, but had four surviving offspring in the troop. Assuming this was true, the troop is now comprised of 16 offspring from 2015-2020; the two founder males; and six of the females from Melbourne and Wellington.
Thanks for the update. I recently found out that Abeba moved to Wildlife HQ back in November 2017 with another older female from Melbourne. She hasn't bred there successfully as far as I know but that was the intention when they arrived.
You're welcome. Abeba was born at Wellington Zoo to a female named Grit, who arrived from Melbourne Zoo in 1988. Grit's genealogy is unconfirmed/unrecorded, so that (combined with her Melbourne ancestry) is likely why the other four (Huddo, Grace, Macey and Qetesh) were chosen for breeding over her at Melbourne Zoo. Abeba had no other relatives in Melbourne's troop, making her a good candidate for export. Macey was the daughter of Beth; and I believe Qetesh was the daughter of Macey, though I will have to confirm that.
Ayisha is Zara's daughter. She was born 04/09/2001 at Wellington Zoo. Her first son, Yafeu, was also conceived at Wellington Zoo to an unknown male prior to Ayisha's export. Yafeu is the sire of Auckland Zoo's latest infant - born to his sister, Mali. Kito was born 21/05/2002 to a female named Greet. Greet was sent to Adelaide Zoo, along with Beth and Macey; but died there. Beth and Macey were then transferred to Melbourne Zoo. Ayisha and Kito's sires are listed as multiple (Ramses, Albert and Pharaoh). These three males were all sired by a male (fittingly) named Randy - who sired Sinead, Beth and Zara. Ramses in turn sired Macey; and Albert sired Abeba, making them related by their sires.
