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Monarto Safari Park Monarto Safari Park News 2020

Discussion in 'Australia' started by Zoofan15, 14 Feb 2020.

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  1. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    Update on Monarto's Projects:

    Monarto Safari Park have released an update on a few of their projects. The new visitor centre should be open by late 2021/early 2022 as the zoo are close to finalising the building and materials agreement. Also, the new rhinos should be arriving at the quarantine centre by mid-2022. They are currently in the process of constructing new night quarters and holding areas for their arrival.

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  2. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    Monarto Safari Park have announced the birth and subsequent death of 0.1 Giraffe calf to experienced mother Kinky. Post-mortem results showed that the calf had a major heart defect. Despite being sad news, I am glad the zoo decided to share it with the public.
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  3. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    40 Greater Stick-nest Rats have been released into Mallee Cliffs National Park. These rats were bred at Monarto, Adelaide Zoo and Alice Springs Desert Park. A very rewarding collaborative effort.

    Full article: Monarto Safari Park-bred Greater Stick-nest Rats find new home in the wild
     
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  4. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Twin Spotted hyena pups were born this week to Forrest:

    Monarto Safari Park baby boom, relocation program: VIDEO

    Keeper Kat Ferres said the team arrived for work on Tuesday morning and discovered Forest had given birth overnight.

    Forest has been doing a great job looking after her cubs - we have seen the cubs suckling and we've also seen her bring out the cubs to introduce them to Dad, Gamba."

    As mentioned in the article, the zoo also welcomed a giraffe calf and zebra foal.
     
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  5. WhistlingKite24

    WhistlingKite24 Well-Known Member 10+ year member Premium Member

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    Annual Report 2019-2020 – Monarto Safari Park:
    Zoo South Australia’s annual report was released today giving further information about Monarto’s achievements over the past year. Here is a summary of their key milestones for the 2019-2020 period:

    Births:
    *three Nyala calves were born recently. We haven’t heard much about the nyala herds in Australia so it’s good Monarto are breeding them regularly and their group is slowly growing.

    *other ungulate births included around three dozen Blackbuck and Barbary Sheep, nine Scimitar-horned Oryx, three Plains Zebra and two Giraffe. Other births for the exotics included the four lion cubs and a female Chimpanzee.

    *native births included 11 Tasmanian Devils (their best breeding record to date), Greater Stick-nest Rat, Greater Bilby, Brush-tailed Bettong, Tammar Wallaby, Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby and Western Swamp Turtle

    Developments:
    *birthing dens were added to the African Wild Dog enclosure; the lions, cheetahs and rock wallabies received improved climbing structures; a new visitor centre is to be opened by the end of 2021 - a summary of the progress: “the project is now at the Early Contractor Involvement (ECI) phase of detailed design in which the successful builder from the tender call has been appointed to provide services that facilitate the completion of detailed design documentation by the architect led design team to comprehensively address and manage issues relating to buildability, budgetary limits and high-risk items. 80% completion of detailed design documentation is anticipated at the end of August 2020 to enable the submission of a guaranteed maximum price to deliver the project works. We anticipate the new Visitor Centre will be completed by the end of 2021.”

    Arrivals:
    *with the completion of purpose-built aviaries, Monarto received their first Plains Wanderers – a group of six birds


    Wild Africa Update from the Annual Report:
    "With plans to become the world’s largest safari experience outside of Africa and exciting accommodation plans on the horizon, our Wild Africa team is working harder than ever to extend and transform the property adjacent to the existing Monarto site. We achieved significant progress in various project builds within the Wild Africa site, including the Rhino Management and Quarantine Centre, one of three rhino holding paddocks (which now houses one of our male Southern White Rhinos, Ibutho), the 2.2-kilometre rhino ‘raceway’, the four kilometre stock fence around the southern section of the safari experience, a small holding paddock and associated animal handling facilities to compliment the southern section, the 'Valley of the Lemurs' exhibit (including completion of one of the night quarters), and the the external perimeter security and feral proof fence.

    Along with constructing animal management facilities, we have also excavated and clay-lined eight waterholes to compliment the safari and accommodation experience, partnered with SA Water to establish a raw water connection from the adjacent pipeline to the property, installed six kilometres of raw water reticulation (with six of the eight waterholes now connected and filled), and formed,ready for building, over twenty kilometres of safari tracks. We also celebrated the completion of a major re-vegetation planting project around the fourteen kilometre boundary. These plantings provide a visual barrier from both within, to hide external infrastructure, and from outside to buffer the safari experience. As well as linking important patches of native vegetation within the project site, the vegetation expands native corridors from Monarto Safari Park through to Kinchina Conservation Park."


    Full annual report: https://www.zoossa.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Zoos-SA-Annual-Report-2019-2020.pdf
     
  6. toothlessjaws

    toothlessjaws Well-Known Member

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    I genuinely suspect Monarto might just become the world's greatest safari park. I hope in the future they can compliment it with additional species of ungulates - a park this size deserves gazelles, wildebeest, warthogs and more....
     
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  7. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    There is so, so much potential. I feel as though how great it becomes will hinge on (obviously as well as funding) the ability to import more ungulate species into the region, as well as bringing in new populations of species such as hippopotamus. Hippos would be amazing. Other exciting plans include those down the line for a potential bachelor group of gorillas. I’d love to see Monarto expand it’s primate collection; hamadryas baboons and vervets would be a perfect fit.
     
  8. toothlessjaws

    toothlessjaws Well-Known Member

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    I've not been to Monarto, but judging from the pictures/videos I've seen, I'm very impressed by the size of their chimpanzee exhibit, but a little less impressed with its landscaping. Yes, in West Africa their is a small and aberrant population of savannah chimps - but really this is a jungle species and their enclosure space is very arid and exposed to the harsh Australian sun. I do wish they'd either make an exemption for the chimps and at least selectively irrigate their enclosure for the sake of getting some better vegetation and shade cover, or I would suggest that they switch to baboons in this space, returning chimps to Adelaide in the long run. In contrast with Werribee, it appears that Monarto have a strict "native vegetation only" policy. Which is great for managing the larger space as a whole, but silly to me when applied to a (relatively) very space inhabited by a troop of marauding chimps. This is hardly a natural environment and you'd think some common sense exemptions would apply for the sake of animal welfare. I'm not suggesting a recreated jungle is practical here, but i do think chimps, just like humans, enjoy the benefits of some grass, the shade of a tree and I dare say beauty, of a lusher environment.
     
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  9. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Having been regularly visiting the chimpanzee community since it opened, I have never had any cause for welfare concerns related to the sun.

    Adelaide Zoo doesn't have the space for chimpanzees, which is why the exhibit was built at Monarto in the first place. Monarto's exhibit is largely grassy, though less so in the summer (irrigation would be an easier fix than building something new in Adelaide when the current exhibit is by all accounts very functional). It's more planted out than the vast majority of exhibits for the species I've seen. There are several areas of shade within the outdoor enclosure (more cover has been added over the years), and the mallee trees have survived the marauding chimps exceptionally well (being native to the environment, their shade remains through the summer). The chimpanzees also have constant access to spacious indoor quarters and air conditioning, but I imagine it would only be during intense heat waves that they'd choose to be inside all day.
     
  10. toothlessjaws

    toothlessjaws Well-Known Member

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    @marmolady I'm not suggesting its completely inadequate, just that it could be a lot better.
     
  11. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    I do agree that more irrigation for year-round greenery would be something positive that could change-- but the enclosure has never struck me as being very arid. I don't think a better exhibit could be created in the space Adelaide has; Monarto's chimp exhibit has always felt to me to suffer with harsh sun less than a lot of corners of Adelaide Zoo do (the orangutan exhibit leaps to mind).
     
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  12. Zorro

    Zorro Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I agree 100% with your comments they really do have Huge potential and as you have pointed out the ability to import more ungulate species would be the difference. Many overseas collections have outstanding ungulate populations so this is the weak area for our collections within our region and unless Monarto zoo address this area will never be in the running as one of the best anywhere. I did read a few weeks ago some where on one of their blogs that they have a "Mystery" antelope coming?, I am assuming its a possible new import species for the new exhibit. I can see Monarto becoming the leader within the region, I wished that the TWPZ had kept to the plan they had a few years ago of a 500 acre African Safari exhibit which appeared to have got scrapped.
    I believe also Baboons would fit well into such an exhibit and Hippos in that much room would look outstanding also they could carry a good number and perhaps become a focal point for Hippo breeding for the region!
     
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  13. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    There’s huge potential for a massive baboon exhibit. I’m thinking something to rival Singapore Zoo’s Great Rift Valley.

    As amazing as a hippo hub would be, I believe their focus will be on the Southern white rhinoceros - with 30 arriving from South Africa over the next few years. Hippos could surely be accommodated in a decent sized exhibit though - revolving around one or two of the waterholes.
     
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  14. Zorro

    Zorro Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Yes the focus will be on the White rhinos but they could still be a hub for Hippo breeding as well!.
    I have been following the rhino import from the start which I believe 80 was the number wanted in the beginning but since the number has dwindled down to the present number of 30!
     
    Last edited: 11 Nov 2020
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  15. Jake1508

    Jake1508 Well-Known Member

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    It’s for rhinos not hippos!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 11 Nov 2020
  16. Zoofan15

    Zoofan15 Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I believe @Zorro means that Monarto Safari Park could one day manage large populations of Common hippopotami and Southern white rhinoceros in separate facilities; not that the two species could share use of the rhino facility.

    Rhinos are clearly going to be the short term/priority focus; but down the line, it will be interesting to see what they construct for hippos. It could well be on the scale of Dubbo’s set up - multiple exhibits; but not as large as Monarto’s rhino hub.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 11 Nov 2020
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  17. marmolady

    marmolady Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    In press releases surrounding the new entrance precinct and Wild Africa area, it has been specifically stated that hippos are among the species hoped to be imported in the future. If imports did come from outside the region, it's hard to overstate how fantastic that would be for the Australasian population.
     
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  18. Zorro

    Zorro Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Thank you marmolady. 100% Correct :)
     
  19. toothlessjaws

    toothlessjaws Well-Known Member

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    I'll have to defer further judgement until I finally get to see it with my own eyes.
     
  20. Jake1508

    Jake1508 Well-Known Member

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    Hoped to be imported.. that’s wrong. They should be imported.
     
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