-5 females at Werribee split into two groups (0.3 mother and two daughters and 0.2 mother and daughter) -Cuddles did indeed come from Cairns. This takes the number of common hippos in the region to 4.10.1 (1.1 at Adelaide, 0.5 at Werribee, 1.1 at Auckland and 2.3.1 at Dubbo).
1.3 Tasmanian devil born (albeit in March): https://taronga.org.au/media/media-...ntinues-breeding-success-for-tasmanian-devils
New "Savannah Cabins" accommodation has opened: Dubbo residents get first look at Savannah Cabins | Daily Liberal
Here is an article on the new $4.3 million elephant complex (1.7 acres according to a separate news source): Elephants to settle into new barn at Dubbo's zoo - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
I wish, the society had left all their Asian Elephants at Sydney (or send some individuals to other zoos in OZ) and would have imported a big herd of African Elephants for Dubbo instead - together with 2 or 3 other Australian zoos of course. I know, not realy realistic, but looking at all the circumstances (climatic conditions, landscape, theme setting, etc.) African Elephants fit (much) better to Dubbo then Asians. So sad, obviously no Australian zoo is interested to keep (restart keeping) Loxodonta africana. I could imagine they would be even cheaper to acquire then Elephas maximus and it would also be a good deed/action if the zoos import individuals that had been designated for culling.
To be fair, Asian elephants fit in just as equally well as Dubbo has a mixture of African and Asian species, unlike Monarto or Werribee which are predominately African. In addition, Dubbo is much more covered (in terms of foliage) than the other open range zoos and so is probably the most suitable for Asian species out of the three. For now, this facility is needed at Dubbo (the space at Taronga is certainly too small for the current herd) and so I fully support it, but possibly in the future both Werribee and Monarto (and the Perth open range zoo whenever that opens) might import Africans. EDIT: I would say that Asians would probably be easier to import considering the closer proximity of Asia to Australia as well as the Cocos (Keeling) Islands quarantine centre being even closer to Asia. Zoos here also have better contacts with Asian facilities (as seen by how Australia Zoo directly imported tigers from Indonesia) so that would also be an influence in acquiring Asian elephants (and species in general). To demonstrate the above, Australia Zoo is looking to import Sumatran elephants from Indonesia itself.
@Jabiru: First, thank you for your reply and your thoughts. Maybe I was not precisly enough. Sorry for that. What I meant with "fit better" was, that the Elephant exhibit at Dubbo is located within the "Africa area" of the park, while the one (or to be exactly: the bigger one) in Sydney ist in the "Asian zone" (or surrounded with exhibits with animals from Asia). Also - while I have visited Sydney and Dubbo - I was told from a local (motel manager), that there are only 2(!) rainy days in Dubbo (whom one of them I had the pleasure to witness it). So this would better fit African Elephant, while Asian Elephants prefer a more humid environment normally, which is basically given at a sea coast city like Sydney. But this is only an assumption/a guess and maybe you - as a person living in OZ - knows it better. (hope that was not rude. My native tonque is German, sorry). I agree that the foliage of the exhibit is as important (if not sometimes more important) as the climatic conditions there. I must confess that I don't know the new exhibit at Dubbo (beside a few pictures). So if this exhibit is more/better covered then the one in Sydney, then indeed it is more suitable for Asians Elephants or at least as suitable as for African Elephants. Because of the costs, my thoughts were that at least from what I know, when a zoo buys an Elephant from a official animal dealer/national park service/gouvernement, the individual price for an Asian Elephants is higher then for an African Elephant in general. But you are right. There are other costs to regard. So maybe for Australian zoos it is cheaper to get Asian Elephants. Also, my informations about this point are not really new, so maybe no longer valid.
