U.S & New Zealand zoos to receive Tasmanian devils

Plans are being made to export up to 20 Tasmanian devils to New Zealand and USA.
The proposals are that 3 new Zealand zoos and 2 U.S collections will receive 20 animals between them, if successful up to 100 devils will be dispersed to zoos across Europe, North America and Japan.

Tasmania hopes foreign zoo breeding program will help save devils | Environment | guardian.co.uk

 

The San Diego Zoo is one of the U.S. zoos mentioned. They have the exhibit built and ready to go. Does anyone know what the other U.S. zoo mentioned is?

 

There should not be be any checks and balances on the part of the Tasmania Administration! There should be zero tolerance and a full moratorium on mining in the area if and when we are so concerned with the fate and preventing the extinction of the Tassie devil. If there is some breeding left in us we should have a no acceptance of any further declines. And this no acceptance comes with sacrifices we H. sapiens (ahum ..) will need to make.

And ladies and gents: not just there .. here in Europe we ashamedly should do so likewise and not just point South, East, North or West ...!

Having said that I have the feeling several other European zoos may also be contenders to receive Tassie devils on the back of the Kobenhavn breeding successes. Time to set up a self-sustaining EU population and the eventual surplus going back South-East to Tasmania eventually!!!

 

Albuquerque invested a fair amount of staff training and I believe built a facility for Tazzies, but that was a few years ago.....Ft. Wayne was another institution that had a history with devils and may be interested in getting back into them if available.

 

Do we know which are the New Zealand zoos involved? It's interesting that there isn't more Australian fauna in New Zealand zoos.

 

A quick response to that is that it seems to be nearly as hard to import non-indigenous fauna into New Zealand as it appears to be to export indigenous fauna from Australia...

 

It says three NZ zoos - surely this would be Auckland, Wellington and Orana Park in Christchurch. Last week at lunch a couple of the keepers were talking about maybe getting tazzies and there was a bit of doubt about the likelihood, although someone did say that there are procedures and regulations in place.

I find myself wondering where they'd end up? Near the Aussie Walkabout would make sense, and I expect something could be done to remodel one of the aviaries around that area, but I'm not sure about their requirements. I saw them at Perth Zoo when I was a kid and they were in the nocturnal house, so a daytime outdoor enclosure might not suit.

 

Australia is the easiest place to import animals to NZ from though, but still not that easy.

Also, limited zoo resources are better spent on more exotic species that NZers are less likely to see, as many visit Australia for holidays anyway. NZ zoos have a basic selection of Australian animals - kangaroos, wallabies, dingo, possums, emu, brolga, various waterfowl and parrots and a few other birds, and various reptiles.

I'm sure Wellington will be one of the zoos, as they have expressed interest for some time, not sure about other two, but Auckland and Orana would presumably be frontrunners.

 

I wonder if Columbus zoo would be the other zoo to exhibit Tasmanian devils?

 

- I really wonder what zoo it will be, I sure hope that its the Bronx Zoo but no one knows. It would have to be a zoo with a lot of resources and one that does a lot of conservation work. My list for american zoos along with the San Diego Zoo is:
- Bronx Zoo.
- Saint Louis Zoo.
- Zoo Miami.
- Woodland Park Zoo.
- Columbus Zoo.
- National Zoo.
- Denver Zoo.
- Disneys Animal Kingdom (disney's vast resources and connections)

 

What about Los Angeles? The LA Zoo has great relationships with Australian zoos and also has some experience in exhibiting them. Not to mention LA's great success in breeding Australian animals!

 

- I doubt they would send them to zoos that are within a 2.5 hour drive. They will most likely spread them out just like pandas are spread out. Los angeles would be a possibility otherwise.

 

- I was just saying that if the govt of Australia wants them to be ambassadors for there species than they would want more than just the people of SoCal to see them. Having a zoo on the west coast and east coast of the country would reach much more than just having them in a small concentrated area.

 

ooh, my guesses are National or LA. Columbus is a Wild Card choice, though. Only because of Hanna.

 

The reason why I say Columbus zoo is cause recently there have been changes in the roadhouse. With the passing of the last Tiger Quoll and the zoo phasing out fishing cats. Both of these animals were in the Roadhouse. It just seems to make sense that something is going to happen in that building. And another reason is Jack Hanna. He has strong connections with Australia. Plus I think Columbus Zoos Staff is trained for Tasmanian Devils.

 

- I seriously doubt it will be columbus. The roadhouse will not be large enough to accomadate several of these animals. You must also have a large off exhibit area. Most likely any exhibit will have to be newly built or renovated substantially. I hope that the bronx zoos recently shuttered minkey house can become home to these rare animals along with other australian wildlife. Also these animals are good daytime sisplays so they would be not seen often in a nocturnal house.

 

In Australia they're often kept in pretty basic exhibits. Just a low fenced area with no off exhibit holding is the standard. I've attached a link to a photo of one of the Tasmanian devil exhibits at Kyabram Fauna Park (a small native animal park in country Victoria). There are two pairs of exhibits that all resemble the one shown. A basic yard with a pool, trees, and some logs to hide in.

http://www.zoochat.com/383/tasmanian-devil-exhibit-158682/