Some Great DDZ news, Mark hold onto your hat ""After an absence of several years following the euthanasia of their elderly male tiger, the Darling Downs Zoo is now housing the species again. Shamana, a 10 year old female, arrived at the zoo in the early hours of this morning. Zoo staff had been on tenterhooks all week awaiting her arrival. There had been problems with the freight agent incorrectly booking her flights, then at the last moment the required aircraft was taken out of service for maintenance with no suitable replacement aircraft available and, finally, the airline refused to fly her in a passenger aircraft from Melbourne to Brisbane "in case her smell was carried by the airconditioning to business class passengers". In desperation Steve flew to Melbourne late on Tuesday night, hired a truck and drove her non-stop back to the zoo. After a short break to get used to her new surroundings Shamana will go on display this weekend. She was born at Bullen's Wallacia facility and had lived at Zoodoo Wildlife Park in Tasmania for several years. However, she was incompatible with other tigers - rejecting a male and becoming increasingly alienated from her sister. Eventually she was kept off display. Now that she has moved to the Darling Downs Zoo she will live more useful life as a display animal to enhance the zoo's education activities and as an analogue for Sumatrans should the zoo ever be accepted into ZAA and the ASMP Sumatran Tiger program. ""
Thank you Jay, I had a feeling you might be getting the scoop about a new animal at DDZ. LOL. I also had a strong feeling a tiger was on the cards for the zoo and I hope this is a good omen for the future with tigers back into the collection. I hope to find some time to visit in the near future. I have seen the lions and Jaguar before at the zoo so I know they have a high level of care, I am sure thats why the Jaguar lived to such an advanced age.
Sad news today for tiger lovers. Sabre, our elderly male tiger was euthanased yesterday due to age related problems. He had a full and varied life. Born at Notre Dame in Sydney, purchased by me as a cub he became part of the last tiger act ever to tour Australia. After spending years touring the eastern side of Australia he retired with me to Barcaldine. From there we travelled to Perth to film the TV series "Wild Kat" for Channel 10. After that finished he went to Crocodylus Park in Darwin on a permanent loan. He achieved local fame up there by becoming the mascot of a local Army regiment. He was the last surviving member of the last tiger act to tour Australia. He was waited on hand and foot at Crocodylus by Petra and her team. In his last weeks they even cut up his food for him to help him swallow and digest it. He could not have had better care anywhere but eventually old age caught up with him and he was euthanased yesterday. Vale Sabre.
Very mixed news on the tiger front for you Steve. My condolences on the passing of an animal I know you must have cared deeply for.
Because there are no suitable animals available and there is nobody left touring who knows how to work them. Sumatrans are tied up by ZAA and the remaining generics are inbred so are virtually useless to train. Us oldtimers have grown weary and have "retired" to cushier pursuits. Young people today don't have the dedication to apply themselves for years to learn their craft. Everyone wants to be instant experts. That doesn't work with animals so there are no real cat acts left in this country. A pity, because the demand from the public for performing animals is huge.
Too true Steve! We're getting a bit off topic here, but seeing as you raised the issue of big cat performances, I'd like to add my two cents worth:- Young people today miss out on a lot of life's experiences due to political correctness and the "nanny state." ( A typical example would be "cracker night" when we blew up letter boxes and each other with fireworks ) Well, maybe that's not such a good example after all. A really good, exciting big cat act at a circus is something that today's kids miss out on. Last month, accompanied by various family members, I checked out the last two lion acts at touring circuses in Australia, namely Lennons Circus in South-east Queensland and Stardust in Sydney. Lennons have a lion and two lionesses, but the young guy presenting the act (one of the Lennon family) was working just the two plump and placid lionesses. It was hardly the old "blood and thunder" type act of years gone by - more of a love-in, and reminded me of Dreamworld's Tiger Island show. There was a lot of strolling around, pats and cuddles and a continual stream of little meaty treats for the cats. Hardly the appalling cruelty that Animal Lib. would like us to believe! The act itself was a few easy jumps from pedestal to pedestal and a lie-down and roll-over. Stardust's presentation was a bit more traditional - three lions, presented by a guy named Pettigill. One of the three was fairly cranky, and Mr. Pettigill, showing a fair bit of courage, was not letting him get away with it! Still, the act itself was a few jumps, sit-ups etc. with frequent meat rewards. It was a long way away from the days of the German trainer Fritz Schulz, presenting a large number of lions (9 or 10) or Marcel Peters, "Lord of the Lions", or Captain Gendha (in reality Jules Bullen) or Joseph Eroni (Joe Perry) or Charlie Way Qay, presenting a mixed group of lions and tigers at Ashtons Circus (which resulted in the birth of tigons, the last of which were at National Zoo, Canberra until recently.) It's easy to be critical of such "coarse entertainment", but people should remember that circus was the only way that many country people in the Australia of by-gone years ever saw exotic animals. My big regret is that, as a fan of such acts, I never saw your big cat act, Steve. Care to put it together again?
I am so sorry to hear of your loss Steve. He was a magnificent looking cat. On a positive note, good news that you have a tiger at DDZ again. I watch your developments with great interest. Tim
Trouble is, most of the high profile opponents are hypocrites - Hinch rode to fame early in his career on a circus elephant, Paul Tully [current Ipswich City councillor calling for real circuses to be banned] rose to local prominence partly by appearing in the lion cage at our circus etc, etc. One day the general populace will realise that they have been duped by these self-serving "nannies" but by then it may be too late - there will be no animal people left.
I've been browsing Facebook pages and this seems to be the thread for new arrivals at DDZ, so apart for the pigmy marmosets in December last year (http://www.zoochat.com/24/pigmy-marmosets-301351/), this year there has been: *in March four rhinoceros iguanas, which are most excellent lizards; *three female koalas also in March; *a female serval in April (referred to in the post above this one), to be joined by another later this year; *guanaco [only a passing mention of them so someone else can give details]. Also this from June: All of that from the DDZ Facebook page.
yes I know!! I was looking for something else and I got sidetracked onto a zoo's Facebook page and then ended up finding out about the numbat at Healesville, and then wondered what else I could find that was noteworthy. So you were in Brisbane recently.....didn't go to DDZ?
