a passing mention on the facebook page says one giant weta is now on display in The Night area of Te Wao Nui
the blue duck pair laid a second clutch after the last lot of six eggs and these (again, six) have all now hatched. (From their facebook page).
a month later and they are up to 1000-odd baby giant weta at the zoo (with probably many hundreds more to come from eggs still waiting to hatch)
I just revisited Auckland Zoo last week. I love that zoo. Anyway, some updates on Te Wao Nui. In the nocturnal house I managed to see the short-tailed bats!! So awesome! Much bigger than I had imagined they would be in flight as well! They have a feeding station right by the window where they put mealworms, and so I got to watch two of the bats sitting there feeding. Highlight of the day - nay, of the week!!!! Lots of exclamation marks in that paragraph! The house is much brighter-lit than when I first went there. The terrariums inside are currently housing flax snail and katydid; kauri snail and praying mantis; forest gecko (did not see); giant weta ("currently off display" sadly); and Archey's frog, which I saw one of! At least I'll assume it was a real one: that particular tank was very dark and the frog didn't move at all. I also saw a couple of kiwi - despite screaming kids The islands aviary was open this visit (it was closed last time) so I saw the Antipodes parakeets but not the Campbell teal. The blue duck aviary, conversely, was closed. I still saw no weka in the kea aviary. The wetlands aviary currently has signage for paradise duck, shoveller, scaup, grey teal, brown teal, kingfisher and white-faced heron, of which I saw all. No sign for the banded rail now, so I guess they have been removed?
The bat and frog news is great, was the bat feeding at a special time or anything? Will have to come back and see if I can spot them both. Good that they have further illuminated that house too. If they removed the banded rails I hope they put them in the forest aviary.
I was there about 10.30 for the bats. I was thinking about it afterwards and because bats need to eat a lot, they must feed soon after coming out in the morning ("evening") so early would presumably be best for viewing. If I could have seen well enough to adjust my camera settings I could have got some great photos because the feeding station is in the brightest spot at the window. Instead I just pointed and shot and the blurry mess I got is attached below (one bat in the centre and one inside the right-hand tray) The signage in the forest aviary only showed waxeye, kaka, bellbird, tui and pigeon. One thing that grates me about Te Wao Nui, and which is really its only bad point, is the lack of any scientific names on the signage. And it is doubly odd because almost every other sign in the zoo has the species' scientific names on there. It is weird.
on the zoo's Facebook they say they have now bred over 1600 giant weta and there are currently some baby ones on display in the nocturnal house (but no adults on display).
from zooboy28's post in the Auckland Zoo 2013 thread: a retired pair of takahe are now on display in Te Wao Nui.
Don't get me started on the array of lovely birds that could be seen, were I able to afford to go to New Zealand
hey, you said you would swim to New Zealand if the birds could be guaranteed! The only bird that might be devilishly tricky is the kakapo, and all you need to do there is arrange it during a Sirocco show.
are we going to change his name to TasmaniaLovingDave now? I had assumed he would be swimming from England.
If he arranges a rowing boat and is prepared to have a break at the Dutch/Belgian coast I will join him. Although I m not sure if he will be happy to be stuck with an annoying Dutch personal for all the way around the globe.
