Taronga Zoo Recent history of Taronga and developments etc

According to the inventory, by 1st July 1994 the zoo already held 0.1 Fishing Cat and 2.0 Golden Cats. No mention is made anywhere about their exhibit.



Hix

 

Those Dingoes were beautifal, am glad based from the report to see they lived past 13-14 years

 

Just found out that the 'Jungle Cats' exhibit officially opened on the 8th April, 1993. If I remember correctly for a couple of years there still was at least one Fishing Cat in the westernmost enclosure even after the other Fishing Cat(s) had taken up their new residence in 'Wild Asia' in mid 2005. As I learned on this site the last Golden Cat Mao left TZ in July 2008 for NZ so I wondered if perhaps this was also the time when the last Fishing Cat moved on from the exhibit too (to the 'Wild Asia' precinct) in order for the renovations to start on the Tasmanian Devil habitat.

 

I have a question relating to the former Galapagos tortoise group at Taronga Zoo.
They once held 4.5 individuals with 3.3 imported from Honolulu Zoo and 1.2 from their elder group.

Originally, TZ elder tortoises are actually from the infamous Townsend US import from the Galapagos Islands in 1928. TZ received 6 young tortoises. They were invariably cited to be Chelonoidis vicina and Chelonoidis guentheri (the latter more recent when at 2.2 left from the original import).

Now 2 queries I have:
A) When did the group disperse to Dubbo Zoo (the easy part or might have split to other zoos too) and how many?
B) Any further information on the original group 6 Townsend Galapagos?
(sex, age, names .... or any other anecdotes welcome)

 

I first visited there a few months after it opened in 1977 and from what I can remember there were about 8 or 9 giant tortoise there at that time I believe they were adults from what I can remember I do have some pics of them!

 

Renovations started in December 2009.



Hix

 

@Zoofan15 @Chlidonias @tetrapod

Hey guys I was wondering if you had seen this article from June 2007 by Kelly Burke at SMH about both Tarongas:

''Sydney Morning Herald: Beastly business: zoos under the microscope

by Kelly Burke - June 23, 2007 —

THE Sydney veterinarian Dr Tom Lonsdale has written to politicians and protested to zoo directors. He has badgered zoo keepers, been threatened with legal action and wrote about it in his 2001 book, Raw Meaty Bones.

But 12 years after first seeing the sponsor's sign, the cheetahs at Western Plains Zoo are still being fed Whiskas Milk Plus.

"They have assured me they draw the line at jelly-meat," he says. "But the justification that they 'like' Whiskas milk is about as absurd as saying nicotine addicts 'like' smoking."


Full article here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/beastly-business-zoos-under-the-microscope-20070623-gdqges.html

 

Guy Cooper was an idiot.

 

Yes and bad ideas that the zoo pay for in the long term!
Also another lemon was the wooden viewing platform for the then elite

 

Unfortunately several issues that are raised here are not unique to Taronga. Management and committees are full of people who may well have good business skills but have scant understanding of how zoos work. Pretty obvious the elephants would do better in the space at Dubbo. Also pretty obvious that the elephants were a marketing ploy to improve Taronga's finances.
Then the author talks to ZooCheck for their opinion (rolling eyes thingy)...

 

Taronga has had some great Directors in its past!

 

Guy Cooper had seen some old footage from the 40's or 50's of an elephant being walked down the Whiting Beach where it got to bathe in Sydney Harbour, and he saw dollar signs. He presented that at a zoo presentation to the zoo staff, but it never went any further than that. But he wanted elephants, preferably being walked through the zoo, or at least being 'handled' by keepers.

Hix

 

He probably didn't have to look that far back into the past. Perth regularly walked their four elephants around the zoo and down to the South Perth foreshore during the 90s. Obviously as they got older it was limited to the zoo grounds, but there were still the odd times when an elephant's mind wandered. Luckily no accidents. Elephant management thankfully seems to be moving to hands off approach around the world, despite some benefits for elephant well-being. Always said they are like two-tonne toddlers. Anybody who has had kids will appreciate the difficulty of getting a stubborn child to do something it doesn't want to do.

 

This is a backward move having managers running any zoo let alone some of the biggest with scant understanding of how they work, This alone points to how the mismanagement is happening today in some of our collections with downsizing the number of species held and the on going trend to phase out more species. Having elephants in a city zoo may of appeared to have been a good marketing ploy to get visitors through the gate but having a lot less species is a way to lose visitors and lose cash.

 

These 3 reports are very very interesting reads:

https://majorprojects.planningporta...nt?AttachRef=SSD-6864!20190227T084325.453 GMT

https://majorprojects.planningporta...nt?AttachRef=SSD-8008!20190228T003456.751 GMT

https://majorprojects.planningporta...nt?AttachRef=SSD-7419!20190227T112311.330 GMT

 

Found out from the top one that the zoos first male Kodiak Bear who arrived from Alaska in 1948 was killed by some evil vandals in 1953 (and other animals were apparently injured). That was one of many things i learned about the zoo's past reading through these 3 reports, that poor Kodiak though. Apparently another male arrived in 1954 to join the female who arrived with the first male.

 

Hello, are there in PDF projects on aviary australiana Mountain Bush, It Is beside habitat Australia retreat.

 

Sadly such incidents are nothing new. Auckland Zoo has had many such incidents - one of the worst being a sea lion getting killed by gunshot in 1923.

Two other interesting incidents from Taronga Zoo (which I read about in The Keepers and the Kept):

In 1952, a man scaled the walls of the Southern cassowary exhibit in an attempt to steal their eggs. He was visciously attacked by the birds and collapsed some distance from the zoo, suffering 30 puncture wounds to the stomach.

In 1964, a group of uni lads stole a 1.5 metre alligator as a prank, hauling it out the exhibit and through the zoo, where it was taken to their university halls for the day. It was returned after Sir Edward Hallstrom agreed to pay $100 for it’s return, no doubt recognising the positive in the situation (publicity).

 

I think that 1952 incident man fully got what he deserved. Did he survive (I am not the killing guy ..., right)?

I think the 1964 uni students or staffs got the better treatment, allthough they should each have been remanded ... IMO and given some community service sentence.

 

Yes the man from the 1952 incident survived. I agree he deserved all he got; but nonetheless Sir Edward Hallstrom generously paid his hospital fees.

The 1964 prank was exactly that and given no harm was done, I see nothing wrong in the zoo taking it in good humour; however I agree taking some sort of disciplinary action may have served as an example to others that such future stunts would not be tolerated.