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North Brighton Zoo North Brighton "Mini" Zoo, historical review

Discussion in 'New Zealand' started by Chlidonias, 3 Jul 2008.

  1. MMuirson

    MMuirson New Member

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    Christchurch, New Zealand
    I'm looking for info to add to our files at the local New Brighton Museum, corner of Hardy & Beresford Streets. Thanks for these posts, which I'll look into more closely in due course.
     
    Last edited: 5 Dec 2012
  2. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I'm not on Facebook, but I just had a look and found two sites. One was in Dutch and not open access. The other is here (partly in Japanese, mostly in English): North Beach Mini Zoo and Aquarium | Facebook

    The photos on the page are the postcards that were sold at the zoo (bobcats, coatis, otters, etc). I used to have all of them but I don't think I do any longer.

    Interestingly, on the Facebook page it says there used to be a chamois at the zoo (which doesn't surprise me, but I never saw it because it was in the 1970s before I started visiting); there were also Shetland ponies there then it seems. There was also at one point a chameleon on display, which did surprise me, but this was back when it was just the aquarium, in the 1950s, before Bill Grey took over and added on the zoo part.

    Reading the anecdotes on the page brought back good memories. I can still remember the smell of the zoo as you went through the gate (a good zoo smell I mean, not a bad smell) and the first animals you saw were the bobcats. One time when I went a stray dog had followed me, and when I went into the zoo the dog slipped in through the gate. The bobcats went bolt upright, looking like they were thinking "yum, dinner!", and the monkeys just went ballistic. Bill Grey came running out of nowhere and hurled a rake pretty accurately at the dog and sent it packing.
     
    Last edited: 5 Dec 2012
  3. MMuirson

    MMuirson New Member

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    The plot thickens! I didn't know about the site you mentioned above either. It's a page, compared to a group site, so interaction isn't as easy.
     
  4. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    This thread being bumped a short while ago, combined with reading other peoples memories on the Facebook page I linked earlier, made me decide to draw up a little map of the layout of the Mini Zoo as it was in the mid 1980s. It is attached at the bottom of this post, and the numbers correspond to the following numbered key. Being from memory the scale will not be terribly accurate.

    The outside of the zoo was a simple corrugated iron fence. Inside the gate was a small garden (in the pre-zoo days, when just the aquarium was here, this garden had goldfish ponds; now there was just one pond there). There was a short path up to the ticket booth, where you could also buy postcards of the animals and tins of chopped fruit to feed the monkeys. To the left of the booth was the entry to the aquarium, and to the right the path that led to the zoo (past the owners’ house).

    *1) The Aquarium. I remember this being about the size of an average garage. Down the right wall as you entered were tanks for seahorses, snake-neck turtles, red-eared sliders, and axolotls. On your left, on the same wall the door was in, were two dry tanks displaying coral skeletons. Down the left long wall were tropical fish. The ones I remember were mollies, swordtails, head and tail lights, glowlights, and black widows. These tanks were well-planted, mostly in Vallisneria although one was thick with Cryptocorynes which I was always impressed with as they had a reputation for being difficult to grow successfully. At the end of the aquarium was the far-too-small tank for Charlie the saltwater crocodile.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/crocodile-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154212/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/crocodile-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30527/

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    Once you entered the zoo the first cage you saw was for bobcats. The area of the zoo to your left was where most of the monkeys were. To the left were otters and birds. Big cats up the back.

    *2) Bobcats. I can’t recall the exact layout in relation to one another of the cages which I’ve numbered 2, 13 and 14. They were sort of in the general placement I’ve given them on the map but it is likely not to be entirely accurate. Anyway, there was a pair of bobcats in this one, in a small wooden cage with a wire front. Inside was a platform, a sleeping box, and some planks between them. All I ever saw them doing was sleeping on the platform, except when the dog I mentioned in my last post ran into the zoo.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/bobcats-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30520/

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    *3) Pig-tailed macaques. A family of these lived in a very large cage, with grass!
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/pig-tailed-macaques-north-brighton-zoo-30523/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/macaques-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154215/

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    *4) A small concrete pen with a huge feral pig that slept almost all the time, probably because there wasn’t any room to move around much.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/feral-pig-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30522/

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    *5) A group of black-capped capuchins lived in here, in one of the better cages at the zoo, complete with live trees. It was always fun watching them hanging by their tails from the branches.

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    *6) An odd narrow cage that I think had basically just been fenced off from the end of the wallaby pen next to it and netted over on the top. There was a round concrete pool at the fence so half was on either side. When I first started going to the Mini Zoo this cage had ducks in it (I remember Carolina wood ducks) but later it was home to a lone spider monkey.

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    *7) A large sandy pen for red-necked wallabies and a multitude of silky bantams with pompom headdresses. Cute wee things they were. I’m pretty sure there were domestic rabbits in here as well.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/wallaby-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154221/ (showing the round pool I mentioned above).

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    *8) A little enclosure tucked in the corner, very hard to view because most was obscured by the fence of the big wallaby pen, but there were weka in here. It was pretty well planted and I don’t recall ever actually seeing a weka but they were there. Apparently.

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    *9) Another red-necked wallaby pen, much smaller than the other one.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/wallaby-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154220/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/wallaby-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154219/

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    *10 to 12) A row of three (or maybe four?) monkey cages. The floors were concrete covered in straw. The lower part of the sides was concrete. The back was wood I think, and the front mesh. The monkeys in these changed every so often but Tony the old capuchin was always there. Otherwise there were crab-eating, rhesus and bonnet macaques. When the De Brazza’s monkeys arrived from Taronga they went in the end one I’ve labelled as 12. Behind 12 was a high mesh cage (14) which could be joined to cage number 12 via a door. One of the cages had a pit in the centre of the floor so I think it was originally an otter cage.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/capuchin-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154218/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/monkeys-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154217/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/macaque-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154216/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/macaque-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154214/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/de-brazzas-monkeys-north-brighton-zoo-30524/

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    *13) The kea aviary, made of corrugated iron.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/kea-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30526/

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    *14) A high mesh cage (only the floor was concrete). I can’t remember at all what was in here before the De Brazza’s monkeys arrived (probably some species of macaque), but after they were here this cage was connected to the cage I’ve labelled as number 12 so they had quite a bit of room. There were three De Brazza’s monkeys originally but there must have been some issue with them because after a while one of them was moved to a separate cage and then it disappeared.

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    *15) A narrow well-planted cage which sometimes had Carolina wood ducks in it and was sometimes empty.

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    *16) Another concrete and mesh cage, this one with a shallow pool in the floor, which was home to small-clawed otters. There was a little cage behind this one (in the junction where several cages met, so there was no actual viewing side for it, only being able to be seen through the other cages) and sometimes this was connected to the otter cage but more usually was empty.

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    *17) A big cage for the leopards (a spotted one and a black one). It was concrete-floored but had an area of earth in the middle. There were two big logs attached horizontally on metal poles in the centre of the cage and the leopards spent a lot of time sleeping on these. Later the leopards disappeared and Susi the lioness had this cage. I *think* there may have been maras in here as well, after the leopards left and before Susi moved in (not at the same time!).
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/black-panther-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154211/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/leopard-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154209/

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    *18) Narrow concrete cage for a female tiger.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/tiger-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154210/

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    *19) Narrow concrete cage for Susi the lioness. http://www.zoochat.com/99/lioness-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30519/ After the tiger died and the leopards died or left for elsewhere (I don’t know which) Susi moved to the leopard cage, and cages numbered 18 and 19 were combined into a single cage for a pair of servals. Next to the cat cages (between these and the hedge that backed the parrot aviaries (numbered 24 on the map)) were lots of shallow ponds filled with waterlilies, goldfish and frogs.

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    *20) Two small-clawed otter pens, basically low concrete walls, concrete floors and concrete ponds. Very unpleasant really but the otters bred well. There was a huge tree growing in a third walled section but the otters didn’t usually have access to that part.
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/otter-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30525/
    http://www.zoochat.com/99/otters-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-154222/

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    *21) A converted garden shed. A window in one side displayed blue-tongued skinks. http://www.zoochat.com/99/blue-tongue-skinks-north-brighton-zoo-154213/ A window on the other side displayed a Japanese man-fish (a “mermaid” made from a stuffed monkey fore-body attached to a carved wooden fish body). In the dark interior of the shed were some common mynahs, which must have led a thoroughly miserable life.

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    *22) A sort of dumping cage. All sorts of random animals were kept here. At one point there was a crab-eating macaque, a bonnet macaque and a De Brazza’s monkey all sharing the cage. Later it had meerkats (two, from memory).

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    *23) A grassy fenced area, perhaps “yard” would be an appropriate term. It had emus in it usually. I think there may have been something else at one point but I don’t remember. Perhaps maras.

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    *24) A long row of parrot aviaries, probably about ten or fifteen of them. I remember twenty-eight parakeets, Australian king parrots, rainbow lorikeets, scaly-breasted lorikeets, Indian ringnecks (greens and yellows), and Alexandrines. There were also rosellas and kakariki but I don’t remember species.

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    *25) A row of small dirt-floored mesh cages. These are where the coatis and caracals (http://www.zoochat.com/99/caracal-north-brighton-zoo-christchurch-30521/) were housed, as well as various monkeys. I just remember one capuchin here because I was scratching his head and he was perfectly happy, and then the keeper walked past and the monkey immediately bit me. I’d been reading Hediger’s Man And Animal At The Zoo and there was a bit in there about how to a zoo monkey any human is dominant and it will submit to being groomed, but as soon as a more dominant human arrives (i.e. the monkey’s keeper) then the monkey will bite the less-dominant human to demonstrate to the keeper that he considers the keeper to be of a higher rank. I liked learning stuff like that first-hand as a kid. Just as well it didn’t happen with the leopard though, who would lick my fingers through the wire!!
     

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  5. MMuirson

    MMuirson New Member

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    Location:
    Christchurch, New Zealand
    Thank you!

    Thanks so much Chlidonias for the map and description of the cages, etc. Is it ok to share this map on the Facebook group site? I'm sure it would help to jog some memories a little more.
     
  6. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    yes that would be fine