No, Cheetah cubs have never been bred at Australia Zoo. To promote breeding, Cheetah require large spaces; accomodation away from other big cats; and a selection of males for the female to choose from. Australia Zoo can provide the females with multiple males to choose from; but they are housed in close proximity to their Sumatran tigers (compare with Orana, where the Cheetah are housed at the opposite end of the park to the lions and tigers); and their individual exhibits aren’t huge. This isn’t to say they won’t breed if all these factors are satisfied; but zoo’s whose facilities can meet this criteria experience greater success.
Its quite unlikely the Cheetah there will ever breed until they are given their own exhibit away from the Tigers they need to shift away from them its about time they had their own place to show case them to the public!
International Cheetah Studbook 2019 The international cheetah studbook for December 2019 is now available online [2019 International Studbook • Cheetah Conservation Fund]. Some of the key information we can get from it includes: Deaths: 1.0 Foxtrot (2004) at Australia Zoo; died 27th October 2019. Imports/Moves: This studbook provides further information about Australia Zoo's 2018 import. The zoo received 0.2 Cheetah on 24th December 2018 from the Feracare Wildlife Centre (South Africa) via the Lory Park Zoo. They were later named Emmy (formerly Medusa) and Liberty. Taronga Western Plains Zoo received 1.0 Manni (2018) from Monarto Safari Park on 2nd May 2019. Sydney Zoo received 2.0 Obi (2016) and Akiki (2017) from Monarto Safari Park on 29th July 2019. Other Notes: I just noticed that Symbio Wildlife Park only has one Cheetah left - Lion. His brother Boo died in February 2018. Both of them were born at Orana Wildlife Park in 2013.
International Scimitar-horned Oryx Studbook 2019 This studbook has been out for a while but I thought it would still be worth mentioning to better understand the current oryx numbers in the region. The only zoo that bred oryx during 2019 was Dubbo and there was only one death in the region. There were also several transfers between the zoos. There were 139 (65.64.10) Scimitar-horned Oryx across five Australasian zoos as of 31st December 2019. Full studbook: https://www.marwell.org.uk/media/other/Scimitar-horned_oryx_ISB_2019_compressed.pdf Altina Wildlife Park – 38 (22.14.2) oryx as of December 2019; there were no oryx births at Altina during 2019; 2.0 oryx were transferred from Monarto to Altina in October 2019 Monarto Safari Park – 28 (5.19.4) oryx as of December 2019; there were no oryx births at Monarto during 2019 Orana Wildlife Park – New Zealand’s last two (2.0) oryx were still alive as of December 2019 Taronga Western Plains Zoo – 44 (18.22.4) oryx as of December 2019; there were 12 (6.4.2) oryx births at Dubbo throughout 2019; there was 0.1 death during 2019; 2.0 oryx were transferred from Altina to Dubbo in September 2019 Werribee Open Range Zoo – 27 (18.9.0) Oryx as of December 2019; there were no oryx births at Werribee during 2019; 2.0 oryx were transferred from Dubbo to Werribee in October 2019
Hundreds! They’ve been a valuable source of new genetics for our region. It’s sad to see Orana phasing theirs out however. They once had such an impressive herd.
Yes, I too would love to know what happened to the lechwe and nilgai in particular. All I know is that both where likely held in reasonable numbers originally, because I saw trophy photos taken at the station of both species a few years after they were transferred there. You'd think they wouldn't have been hunting them unless they'd built up the numbers, otherwise it would have been unsustainable.
I would hope that at least some of our zoos would investigate what species they still hold that could benefit our regions zoos!
My memory is that addax and oryx at least have come into the zoo population with transfers from Mary River to Altina. I'm going to assume that those "hundreds" of Oryx have very, very few founders and are highly inbred. So perhaps a handful is all thats ever going to be of real value to the breeding program. Its even entirely possible that any of these Mary River antelopes have shared heritage with the zoo population anyway, given Tipperary traces some of its stock to Pearl Coast Zoo which traces some of its stock back to other Australian zoos. Perhaps someone else knows more? Ungulates seem to be remarkably resilient to inbreeding. Many of the deer introductions around the world seem are descended from introductions of just a pair or trio.
I believe apart from the Pearl Coast zoos stock there was an importation of Addax and SH Oryx from the San Deigo Wild Animal park(now Safari park) back in the 80s between a small number of zoos within Australia, I seem to remember that the Mary river got some of those. When I see the listed species of antelopes that was held in the Pearl Coast zoo back then I just think "lf only"
Here are some of the antelope species that were held at the Pearl Coast zoo. Nilgai. Possible some could still be there?. Nyala. Now back in oz due to NZ imports. Addax. Maintained in oz zoos. Blackbuck. Common in oz zoos. Addra gazelle. Under open range conditions in oz I believe this rare species would have thrived if enough had been imported to start with. Springbok. Scimitar Horned Oryx. Maintained in oz zoos. Greater Kudu. Gemsbok. Red Lechwe. Waterbuck. A small number in a few Oz zoos. I would really like to know what species are still running around up there still, I believe at least one Lechwe was sighted in or near the Kakadu National park a few years ago.
Which begs the question: why cannot some of the species gone make a comeback? I would particularly be thinking of healthy herds of greater kudu, waterbuck/lechwe, roan/sable antelope, smaller gazelles (1-2 species, arid region).
Let’s not forget Pearl Coast Zoo once held Pygmy hippos. It’s not beyond the realms to imagine some slack record keeping (as was done at Tipperary) could have led to some unrecorded births and one turning up some day when we least expect it.
At the end of the day I guess its going to come down to as to what the Government allows to be imported & when?. As has been mentioned before the Sable antelope and Impala were the species of interest for the ZAA zoos a few years back then just faded away only to be pushed aside for the Nyala!
Given the place was shut down ..., has anyone any idea whom the current owners are, what is going on these days at Mary River ranch and what animal population is place. I would (hope and) assume that the exotic species held are somehow regulated by State or Federal laws and overseen by qualified and independent enforcement / vet staff?
I understand that Mary river was sold and has a new owner, I believe its still used as a shooting property, I believe there is/was a website!
