News lifted from the EAZA zoo magazine; I think that is the menagerie rather than the zoological park.
Over 600 babies born in Singapore wildlife parks in 2016 Annual roundup of births at WRS' parks. Notable births include a cheetah, Sunda pangolin, fennec foxes (from parents that were confiscated illegal pets!) and painted terrapins. Also notable is that Jurong has recognized Sclater's crowned pigeon as a separate species from Scheepmaker's. In other Zoo news, the Snake House has closed for a significant makeover. I understand that it will reopen in June with more reptiles besides snakes.
1.0 Proboscis Monkey born c.16 February. Worth noting that the 2 babies born in 2016 were also males. The most recent birth of a female was in February 2015.
Quite right, there have been significantly more males than females born at Singapore Zoo. The staff think it may be caused by diet.
Presumably they're thinking about either the Trivers & Willard Hypothesis or Local Resource Competition. Do you know whether they've distinguished between the two?
Any indication their are on top of how to change diet affecting sex in offspring? We have a fair idea of wild diets. How does this compare to the diet fed to captive proboscis?
@Giant Panda @Kifaru Bwana unfortunately I don't have access to their studies and results. As for the captive diet, Singapore Zoo has tried to replicate the nutritional value of the monkeys' wild diet with about 20 different types of leaves sourced locally; I understand most of monkeys' natural food plants are not readily available here and difficult to propagate.
The Zoo recently acquired Geoffroy's spider monkeys (no subspecies indicated; anyone knows where they came from?). They will take over the former lion-tailed macaque exhibit. The macaques have been moved off-show as they kept escaping (by swimming across the moat) and have been snatching food from visitors. The former snake house which is undergoing upgrading is going by the working name "Reptopia". It will be air conditioned and will have perhaps double or more exhibit space than before, housing reptiles and amphibians. The walk through section will be retained.
How often do the more spectacular native reptile species show up in view at the zoo? Do you ever get cobras or pythons slithering through public areas like you have colugos swooping around?
Zooish will tell you exactly what it was, but we saw a pretty impressive free-ranging lizard at Jurong last year. I remember it being an iguana, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
Large monitor lizards (water and clouded species) are extremely common and are guaranteed sightings. Cobras and pythons are nocturnal and are rarely encountered by visitors. Smaller snakes like whip snakes and gliding snakes are sometimes seen. What funkygibbon saw was indeed a green iguana. Jurong has a rather large population of them, escapees from the old reptile park that was next door.
0.2 White Rhino (born at the zoo in 2013) have been exported to Virginia Zoo in the United States this week Virginia Zoo welcomes two juvenile rhinos from Singapore
Eye-surgery on an Orang-utan : The Singapore Zoo's oldest orangutan regains sight after successful cataract surgery | Coconuts Singapore
One of the Zoo's female giraffes died last week due to a "metabolic disorder related to her pregnancy". Wildlife Reserves Singapore
There are relatively large numbers of Geoffrey's spider monkeys in Australasia, so potentially Singapore's were from down here - how many has Singapore got? Are the macaques likely to go back on show in the future? Perhaps replacing one of the Zoo's species that are set to move to the new park?
Alas, one more pure-bred Cape / South African giraffe individual less for Singapore Zoo (probably only 1 pure-bred female left ..??)! Surprisingly, no need to breed from a Rothschild's x Cape pairing anyway with a lot of giraffe of South African origin in S.E. Asian zoos (amongst others: Thailand, Malaysia, P.R. China).
Perhaps. I don't know how many there are yet, but will find out when they go on display. Seeing as the macaques can't be contained in island/moated enclosures, and the only fully-enclosed primate enclosures at the Zoo are for callitrichids, proboscis monkeys, Sumatran orang utans and the Fragile Forest biodome, it's unlikely the macaques will go back on display in the near future.
This is what I don't get. Despite the large numbers of giraffes in zoos around the region, Singapore Zoo had to import giraffes from the Netherlands and Israel! I half suspect that the giraffes in many Asian zoos are of uncertain origin and thus face red tape for import into Singapore.
The revamped snake house will indeed be called RepTopia and will reopen on 27 May. Some of the new species to be displayed have been featured in publicity media: Panther chameleon, Northern caiman lizard, horned lizard, electric blue gecko, giant day gecko, Gaboon viper, poison arrow frogs. I'll post the full list when it opens.
