The following is a full list of species held on show at Peel Zoo on my visit on the 21st of July 2016. I will be uploading pictures to the Peel Zoo Gallery and posting a review of this zoo in my trip thread: http://www.zoochat.com/24/trip-australia-june-july-2016-a-449389/. Though there is a species list on the zoo's website, it is not entirely accurate. Birds: Blue-and-gold Macaw Laughing Kookaburra Emu Domestic Duck Bush Thick-knee Gang-gang Cockatoo Eclectus Parrot Red-tailed Black-cockatoo Plum-headed Parakeet Elegant Parrot Rainbow Lorikeet (lutino morph) Scarlet-chested Parrot Yellow Turquoisine Parrot Golden-shouldered Parrot Red-crowned Kakariki Yellow-crowned Kakariki Crested Pigeon Jacobin Pigeon Port Lincoln Ringneck Parrot Bar-shouldered Dove Mallee Ringneck Bourke’s Parrot Torresian Imperial-pigeon Green-winged Pigeon (Emerald Dove) Rose-ringed Parakeet Red-rumped Parrot Nepal Kalij Pheasant Lady Amherst’s Pheasant Swinhoe’s Pheasant Silver Pheasant Dusky Lory Hybrid Galah x Corella Rainbow Lorikeet Little Corella Galah Red-capped Parrot Western Rosella Eastern Rosella Crimson Rosella Yellow Rosella Regent Parrot Cockatiel Moustached Parrot Scaly-breasted Lorikeet Budgerigar Sulphur-crested Cockatoo Australian King Parrot Lovebird (blue morph) Sun Conure Alexandrine Parakeet Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo Spotted Dove Barbary Dove Musk Lorikeet Princess Parrot Zebra Finch Japanese Quail King Quail Java Sparrow African Firefinch Star Finch Superb Parrot Long-billed Corella Domestic (Sebastopol) Goose Masked Owl Southern Boobook Owl Sooty Owl Australian Kestrel Barking Owl Barn Owl Grey Butcherbird Chicken Guineafowl Peafowl Gouldian Finch Australian Wood Duck Pacific Black Duck Chinese Goose Yellow-billed Spoonbill Turkey Total: 80 species Mammals: Common Brushtail Possum Common Ringtail Possum Ferret Rabbit Guinea Pig Northern Quoll Spotted-tailed Quoll Eastern Quoll Squirrel Glider Northern Golden Brushtail Possum Long-nosed Potoroo Black-footed Tree-rat Rufous Bettong Quokka Southern Koala Woylie Western Grey Kangaroo Sheep Fallow Deer Red Deer Alpaca Short-beaked Echidna Common Wombat Tasmanian Devil Southern Hairy-nosed Wombat Dingo Common Wombat Woylie Swamp Wallaby Red-necked Wallaby Red Kangaroo Bengal Cat Total: 32 species Reptiles: Eastern Water Dragon Eastern Blue-tongued Skink Frilled-neck Lizard Western Blue-tongued Skink Oblong Turtle King Skink Total: 6 species Overall Total: 118 species
they have quite a few exotic finches and parakeets (especially Psittacula), don't they. And Bengal cat...
As I understand it the zoo was built as a birdpark, but went broke before it opened. Thus the large number of aviaries, many of which are now used for mammals (for instance a large walk through aviary is subdivided into devil pens.)
I remember the (now closed) Buxton Zoo in Victoria used to display Bengal Cats. I guess they could be a good money spinner/extra revenue stream if they breed them, as they're not cheap cats to buy.
Any thoughts as to what the zoo may mean by 'Northern Golden Brushtail Possum'? From a curled up ball in a log, this looked to be a golden morph of a Common Brushtail, however aren't those from the Tasmanian subspecies?
they can be from any subspecies, they are just leucistic (or xanthistic). They seem most common in Tasmania but that may just be because there are fewer predators there. I'd say most in zoos would be Tasmanian just because most are probably related (from a few zoos), but that wouldn't preclude an individual found elsewhere being in any zoo. Precise answer: I don't know about this individual, but not all "golden" possums are Tasmanian.
for what it is worth, the zoo's website lists this as "Northern Golden Brushtail Possum (Goldie) Trichosurus arnhemensis"
Thanks for the replies, Chli. It would certainly be interesting if it was genuinely Trichosurus arnhemensis.
after some googling, there's a video of Goldie here - https://www.facebook.com/peel.zoo/videos/vb.193241090701946/10150100034583440/?type=2&theater - which shows the brush tail well (at the one minute mark, near the end of the video). One of the distinguishing features of arnhemensis (I have just found out) is that they don't have a brush tail but rather a more slender tail almost like a ringtail possum. There's a very clear photo of a young animal here but you can see it on other photos and videos too - http://www.marsupialsociety.org/images/nt_poss_5.jpg So I think Goldie is just a Tasmanian brushtail like others in zoos.
Thanks very much for finding all that out, Chli. Odd that they would call it an arnhemensis when it's not.
after seeing the level of effort they put into their signage and educating their visitors... I would say not odd at all.