Melbourne Zoo has received a male Giraffe (14-month-old Klintun from Altina Wildlife Park). He has already been introduced to their female Nakuru. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2566310196975353
I guess Melbourne Zoo won’t be going back into Rothschild’s giraffe after all. Klintun (born 2018) is the great grandson of Twiga: 0.1 Twiga (1996-2020) at Melbourne > 0.1 Shani (2006) at Mogo > 0.1 Munzi at Altina > 1.0 Klintun (2018) at a Melbourne. Klintun is also related to Nakuru (as is everything) through Orana ancestry. Harold was the sire of Zabulu (Nakuru’s sire) and Ijumma (Munzi’s sire).
I agree with you there is no real reason, But there appears to be a mind set from some that there should only be one species of Leopard, One species of Langer and so on, who is setting these limitations?. Animal species kept with Australian collections have been shrinking for quite some time now and there are some that do not want importations into the country even of new bloodlines for species that are here already.
Unless things have changed, pretty sure the purebred Rothschild's program has long been abandoned in Australasia. An inability to import more giraffe from overseas saw a logical decision made to mix the hybrid and rothschild populations fro the sake of maintaining genetic diversity. I seem to recall also reading something about the Australasian "Rothschild's" being from US stock, which was discovered to be hybridised anyway. Not sure if this is true or not. I suspect the many purebreds that have continued to be born in the region over the last couple of decades have just been a result of recommendations based maintaining the diversity of the giraffes as a single population, not to maintain rothschild's per se.
The original animals at Orana (from which almost all of the Australasian Rothschild's descend) were an already-heavily-inbred pair imported from Canada, which were descended from already-heavily-inbred animals imported from the UK. The North American animals are listed in the studbook as retic-roth but I think that is largely because they can't be sure of their purity. The original animals imported to the UK were from the wild from Uganda (I think it was, from memory) and "should" be pure Rothschild's. But they are basically hillbilly giraffes now anyway.
The US has never managed their individual giraffe (sub- / formerly) species very well. And yes they managed to admix both Rothschildt's and reticulated over time and now they have hillbilly. The myth here is that you cannot do something about it ...! It is really a lacklustre response and a real lack of concern for true wilderness and wildness (and the genetic diversity that it encompasses) among some zoo management staffers (and the potential for using captive populations to replenish wild counterparts). At any one time the ZAA could have initiated total rearrangement of its giraffe herds. First the determination and focus has to be there and consequently the willingness to import representative portions of purebred captive stocks. Mind you: let me not even begin to question why it is far easier to import/export cattle and equids than it is to import a good portion of an exotic species for which bureaucratic import legal restrictions are in place ....
Article on the arrival of new male giraffe, Klintun: ‘HANDSOMEST GIRAFFE’ JOINS MELBOURNE ZOO It's noted that the zoo had been in discussion for some time about the import of a new bull giraffe: Discussions had been underway about bringing in a young male to Melbourne Zoo’s herd since 2018, the year the Zoo’s last male giraffe, Mukulu, died aged 23. While Klintun’s arrival in Melbourne has been planned ever since his birth, it will now be especially welcomed by eight-year-old female giraffe Nakuru. The original plan was to import Klintun's older brother, Zawadi (born 03/03/2017), from Altina; but instead he was sent to Halls Gap Zoo.
I doubt it. The cubs are only six weeks old and are typically debuted around the 12 week mark at zoos. This appears to be Melbourne Zoo’s plan: Valentine advised that as is normal in the wild, the cubs will stay close to their mum in her den over coming months adding “the priority now is to leave them with mum to bond and grow strong. For the next few months we will be as hands-off as possible. They will stay in their den with mum until we provide them more access to the snow leopard exhibit. Melbourne Zoo celebrates birth of rare snow leopard cubs - Australasian Leisure Management
World's First Captive Breeding of Crucifix Frogs Three clutches of eggs have now been laid by Melbourne Zoo's frogs, after a YouTube clip of a thunderstorm was played to stimulate breeding. The zoo has 1.4 adult Crucifix frogs; 25 froglets; and several tadpoles. "Crucifix Frogs, which are named after the red cross-shaped marking on their backs, breed in the wild after rainstorms, when they crawl up from their underground burrows to mate in puddles. Melbourne Zoo first started trying to get the native Australian species to spawn way back in the early 1990s." Full article: Crucifix Frogs breed thanks to YouTube clip
Fantastic news. Along with the recent births of the Alpine She-oak Skinks, Zoos Victoria is having great success with some of the native herptile species.
Does anyone know the sex of Melbourne Zoos Zebras, I don't recall them ever breeding zebra in my lifetime
Any ideas what happened to their younger male, Zaire? There were 4.0 zebra (Chosi, Zuri, Kwasi and Zaire) living with the giraffe as of December 2018.
Zaire is still at the zoo, my apologies. My source on the three males was obviously written prior to Zaire’s arrival. I have edited my post above to include him. Zaire is the youngest and came from the National Zoo in Canberra in 2017. Kwasi is the next youngest and came from Hamilton Zoo in 2014. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2386927384964908
Zoos Victoria have set up a livestream of some of their exhibits including the Snow leopard cubs at Melbourne Zoo: Animal House
I visited the zoo today. It's actually not a bad time to go since the zoo is limiting guests to 2,000 people - so nice and quiet. However, there were more than a few people for whom the "term social distancing" hadn't quite sunk in yet. So if you are super concerned perhaps wait another week for the gravity of the situation to really sink in and behaviour to change. Not much to report on. Whilst the grounds and lush and beautiful and probably looking close to their best ever, the animal collection is really deteriorated in the last few years and it continues to get worse every time. So many empty exhibits around the park or exhibits accommodating a temporary guest. Even less birds than last time. Apart from the Great Flight Aviary, There is just two in the Australia section, Two almost devoid of birds in the Asian section (and with mostly Australian birds) and the macaws/conures. Thats it. The African greys were signposted in the tamarin exhibit but it was yet another exhibit that was empty. The main news is that the snow leopard cubs are on display and have access to the exhibit. Though they were inside their den when I was there.
Its a shame some of the major zoos in the country are holding less and less species I am wondering what are the real reasons for this could it be a money thing?, But on the other hand some of the regional zoo around the country their collections are growing and they have far less money to play with!
The tamarin enclosure(s) opposite the old elephant exhibit. They've held various species over the years. The tamarins on the primate boardwalk where not out for some reason.
