Devastating news. At almost 20 years old, these girls have lived long lives. My condolences are with the keepers, and I can’t wait to see what Wellington does with importing a new pride. Hopefully they can return to breeding them.
I’ve visited these sisters since they were very young and a visit to Wellington Zoo won’t be the same without seeing them laying atop their exhibit’s kopje. Djane, Djembe and Zhara arrived in 2002 as companions for the zoo’s then 14 year old male lion, Sam, after the death of lionesses Manta and Mara in 2001. I believe this is the first time in the zoo’s 115 year history that they’ve been without lions. I commend the zoo’s decision to euthanise Zhara on welfare grounds and have long predicted they would do this (as Auckland did) when the time came. It was an impossibly hard decision for the zoo, but ultimately the kindest one.
0.4 Ring-tailed Lemurs have arrived at Wellington from Hamilton: Ring-tailed Lemurs touch down at Wellington Zoo
I am Truly ecstatic to see progress on two of the oldest unused exhibits finally being used for something, Though I am Interested if they will ever repurpose the front entrance exhibit.
Yeah there are a lot of unused enclosures now around the zoo. Some older ones have been just garden spaces or lawns for a long time and will never be re-used for enclosure space (e.g. the old penguin enclosure at the entrance, the old Kea aviary, etc), more recent ones are boarded over (the previous Capybara enclosure at the entrance), and some just sit there with "we have moved" signs for what seems like years (e.g. the lizard tanks at the elephant house cafe). It'll be interesting to see how long the lion enclosure remains empty for. I was at the zoo this morning, and saw the finished lemur enclosure (although the lemurs were inside and remained unseen). There was a keeper there and I asked if the enclosure was actually walk-through - because it clearly is not - and she said "no" in a "duh" sort of way, so I said "that was the original plan though?" and she replied again "no". I just said "oh, okay" and left it at that.
The Kea exhibit was actually removed, well the fence and aviary part was, so I don't think they'll repurpose. and goodie the lemur exhibit is done but such a damn shame its not a walk in now; That could of actually bring in more people.
Wellington Zoo's one-legged North Island Brown Kiwi, Tahi has died: Edit: There is a lot more to this story. This was Wellington’s last kiwi as their three individuals have all died within the past couple of months. An investigation is underway and the zoo have closed the kiwi house indefinitely. They will not be receiving any new kiwi until this mystery is solved. Full story: Wellington Zoo closes kiwi house indefinitely after three birds die within months
oh my goodness, this is terrible news, all three kiwis died, well god sakes hope its is resolved; and its so sad, cause I only ever saw Tahi once, since most times i went there was not during the feeding times or he was sleeping.
I'm not sure if this is old news but I cannot see any mention of it. I emailed Wellington Zoo about their Red-fronted Macaw and apparently they no longer have it unfortunately (the species is not listed on the website anymore either). He was sick in April 2020 with bacterial tracheitis so he certainly had some health problems. Had he been on display up until recently? The email response I received: "unfortunately we don’t have our Red-fronted Macaw at our zoo anymore."
No, he hasn't been on display for ages - I think at least all of this year (I can't remember exactly). He was kept in an awkward aviary space next to the Squirrel Monkey cage, so wasn't always easy to see anyway. I have been assuming he was gone but wasn't sure at all.
Sally, one of Wellington Zoo's chimps is currently pregnant: "We’re very excited to announce that Chimpanzee Sally is pregnant! Sally has already proven herself to be a wonderful mother to her son Bakari and we can’t wait to welcome a new addition to our community of Chimpanzees. We expect her due date to be some time in October, so stay tuned for more details. Here’s a photo of Sally and her son Bakari, back when he was a bit smaller!" Log into Facebook | Facebook
The autopsies of the kiwi have revealed no real connections between the three deaths and are deemed largely as a rather unfortunate coincidence. However, it was noted that all three kiwi had stomach ulcers but the post-mortem didn't reveal a common cause. Interestingly, the zoo were planning on releasing two of the kiwi that died unexpectedly. Wellington Zoo will be receiving kiwi again in late 2022 but in the meantime they will be 'refreshing the habitat'. Full article: Wellington today, August 2: Viking Bay leaves Wellington, no link between three kiwi deaths at Wellington Zoo
So I went to the zoo on Wednesday and had a look at the new lemur exhibit, its pretty good on the front but it seems a bit to large for 4 lemurs to occupy. The Leopard exhibit is still in the blank, and it will be until 2022-23 and lastly there seems to be some little construction on the side of the squirrel monkey exhibit, where those blackboards were.
Thanks for sharing @Zealandiatherium. Wellington is one of my favourite zoos, but this lemur exhibit is even worse than I imagined. Lemurs like to sit in elevated places in the sun, so putting those rocks in the sun spot at the back was a clever idea. This exhibit is poorly conceived from a visitor perspective - even if they breed them to form a decent sized conspiracy, visibility in an exhibit this size will be limited. Unlike with the baboons that previously occupied it, the viewing window will offer little to no visitor/animal interface (I’ve never seen lemurs interact through the glass). Wellington Zoo would have been better off creating the walk through lemur exhibit most of us were anticipating.
I tend to agree with you the exhibit appears to have little imagination perhaps just a cheap way out of having an exhibit, One would feel they could of done much better.
Pretty sure those rocks in the back were there since the last animals that occupied that exhibit, and secondly I think the Lemurs are all 4 Females. Thirdly, the Capybara exhibit next to them is another bad designed exhibit, the real problem was the choice in animal to put there, that part of the Zoo is at the very back so they can't really terraform it greatly with out a large funding to move so much dirt and rock. I mainly say the capybara exhibit is bad cause for an animal that even on the info panel about it ("Great swimmers"), Has no swimming area at all, and sits on a sloped hill. quite sad really. edit: I'm not saying the lemur exhibit it bad, I just think they should of let the trees grow a bit.
Yes, the Ring-tailed lemurs are four females from Hamilton Zoo. They will presumably import males at some stage for breeding. Wellington’s Capybara exhibit is equally lacklustre, especially compared to Auckland Zoo’s exhibit which is themed on as an Amazonian river bank. They’d have been better off landscaping the hell out of the two exhibits and creating a South American walk through precinct with exhibits for Capybara, lemurs and whatever monkeys they can shoehorn into it. And if only they hadn’t phased out those Collared peccary...
when I was younger I thought they were just pigs at the zoo. I do really wish they brought them back.
