I highly doubt they would be bringing males in, with all the young males in the group in the moment! The intention is probably to replicate the wild situation by having females immigrate into the community. I'm very much looking forward to hearing more about the new additions.
Hehe!! Shabani will be extra busy then... trying to keep track of who has a swelling and all... *grin* T.
Going off photos from Taronga's Facebook page it appears that the gorillas now have access to both the main enclosure as well as the smaller enclosure (previously holding De Brazza guenon, ringtail lemur and Kibali and Kimya initially). Can anyone confirm? Thanks!
Was at Taronga today and asked... the gorillas only have access to the smaller enclosure at night. It is safer for them while unattended by staff, as there is no moat or anything there than can really hurt them. Got me some nice photos of little Mjukuu yawning and looking up at M'beli... he's going to be a handsome boy when he grows up methinks. Funniest thing ever today with the Chimps... seems Sasha may be in season, as Shabani is sticking to her like glue... as is Sule... lol! Shabani was getting a bit miffed with Sule hogging his mum's attentions, so started slapping at Sule with a twig until he moved away, then Shabani was trying to get all comfy with Sasha - and then Sule managed to squeeze himself back in between Shabani and Sasha... poor Shabani! Kamili has a swelling, and it appears that her latest paramour is Shikamoo... poor boy following her around like a lost puppy. Saw Shiba finally put Sudi on the ground and let him move around a bit... finally!!! And she allowed Fumo near Sudi, but not close enough for him to touch. Lisa lay down on her back after lunch, and Fumo came over and was allowed to gently interact with Liwali... Kuma was in mother mode hovering nearby in case he did something that might have gotten him in trouble... Lisa was unfased and allowed the interaction. Fumo seemed to know he had to be gentle too, which was nice to see... T.
I wouldn't say "wasted" space... it could be used to separate gorillas, or introduction of new gorillas, etc. The night dens are positioned in between the 2 displays, so to open it up to them during the day would require them having access through the night dens all day - which would also mean that if they didn't feel like staying out at all, no-one would get to see them (like the Orangutans for example). T.
But from a visitors point of view they are seeing an empty exhibit, which has previously held other primates, so is a wasted exhibit space. Unless its totally off-display now, but I'm not sure how they'd do that. Its such a shame Taronga has ditched all of its African monkeys (Mandrill, Colobus, De Brazza), which are all essentially doomed in Australia now.
At one time Taronga had a really good primate representation- lots of African, Asian and South American species. These days, apart from apes, very few primates there.
I'll agree there - and those that they do have are hard to see in their exhibits. The Spider Monkeys are dying off. The little monkeys up behind the Alligators are impossible to see from any vantage point, yet Taronga keep teasing us with photos of their babies on Facebook. The Cotton Top Tamarins can only be seen from the conference area (which the general public can't access during normal hours). The Orangutans refuse to use their outside area 99.9% of the time. The Gibbons down the bottom are visble but not very well - same with the Francoise Leaf Eating Monkeys. Mary Gibbon is visible, but only just - and she's usually missed by most people as she doesn't move around much. On another note, I heard yesterday that Satu the male Sumatran Tiger has been moved off to another zoo - didn't get to verify with keepers. Can anyone verify? T.
I've got a theory about the lack of primates at Taronga; many years ago, when Taronga had lots of monkeys of various types, they were housed in either concrete pits or cages, which these days would not be acceptable. Any other form of confinement is not really secure for such agile and intelligent animals. As it was, the species housed in pits (usually macaques) would occasionally escape. Because Taronga wants to have minimal cages, then the "powers that be" probably find it easier not to have many monkeys. Thank heavens for the smaller zoos which are not too proud to have macaques, baboons, capuchins etc.
There are ways to contain/exhibit monkeys that don't require the use of obvious cage enclosures - Symbio's small monkey exhibits are great, and would work just fine anywhere and even on a larger scale - if the other zoos were of a mind to do so. Just been thinking about the question of the use of the smaller gorilla outside enclosure... did that question arise due to seeing a photo of Kibali eating lunch in there posted to Taronga's Facebook page? If so - that's actually a photo from last year when Kibali and Kimya were using that enclosure while the big enclosure was being renovated. The guy who posted that photo is notorious for posting old photos and not stating when they were taken.... grrr! T.
Yes that is precisely the picture I'm talking about. No wonder I thought they had access to the smaller enclosure!
I don't know if they are still doing it, but the gorilla keepers used to bring the group in later in the afternoons for training sessions, and then they would have access to the smaller outside area from then on... but I haven't been there late in the afternoon to know if they were still doing that nowadays. There is no chance that Kibali would be eating lunch in there nowadays... he's with the rest of the group for the 12:15 feeding and talk... *grin* T.
Well its not just the small zoos that have those species - Melbourne and Adelaide have baboons and mandrills, and more South American primates than Taronga, in a range of different cage types. I don't know that it is the cages Taronga objects to, they did build those excellent gibbon and leaf monkey cages in Wild Asia. And there are plenty of alternatives to cages that are secure for primates - so if Taronga wanted them I'm sure they could have them.
Hmmm... well - sometime soon there will be that Orangutan enclosure needing to be filled with something... *grin* Put a lid on it (netting or wire would be fine and relatively cheap and easy to secure), and put something cool in there that will actually use it - small monkeys or even something a little larger (but still primate) would be tres cool methinks... T.
I have always wanted that area to become some sort of extension to the "gorilla rainforest". Possibly after the Sumatran tiger exhibit is complete completely renovate the area (including the current gorilla exhibit) or at least make it feel as if the gorilla exhibit merges with the chimp exhibit by adding some sort of African primate (mandrill, colobus) or aviary. Of course this all depends on funds as well as the 2000 masterplan (the last project that I definitely know was part of this masterplan was Great Southern Oceans. Anything after that i'm not sure if it was originally included or added on later). But who knows what will happen....
The current Orangutan exhibit area would be perfect for any number of other animals, wouldn't it? Maybe they could use it to separate out some of the male chimps - or maybe even split the current group into 2 groups for easier management of numbers? T.
