Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo News 2022

I’ve always thought they’d do well at Orana Wildlife Park, but it’d also be nice to see a carnivores in Auckland Zoo’s Americas trail - which is very reptile and primate focussed.

 

New male Ring-tailed lemur:

The male Ring-tailed lemur mentioned above is named Zeus. He was transferred from Hamilton Zoo, where he sired several offspring.

Zeus joins the zoo’s females Felana, Volana, Ravioli and Mawusi.

 

No plans to breed tigers:

Wellington Zoo ceased their tiger introductions some time ago and have no plans to breed their tigers.

More information in this thread: Australasian Sumatran Tiger Population

 

Jasiri the Caracal has died:

From social media:

Sadly Jasiri one of our Caracals, was euthanised on medical grounds today. Jasiri’s health had deteriorated rapidly in the past week, and the Veterinary and Carnivore teams agreed that euthanasia was the best thing for her welfare.

Our Animal care and Veterinary teams will be closely monitoring the health and wellbeing of our remaining Caracal, Tinka. Caracals can be a solitary species, however Jasiri and Tinka have always lived together, and we need to ensure her welfare is not compromised while living on her own.

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Although Wellington Zoo have no room to breed this species, an option could be to import a male to form a non breeding pair with Tinka if her welfare suffers from being alone. Darling Downs Zoo recently welcomed a litter of three males.

 

A new species for Wellington - a pair of Swamp Wallabies have arrived:

“If you’ve been through our Australia precinct recently, you may have noticed a few new furry additions to our Wellington Zoo whanau. We would like to introduce Djarlo and Wimbi, two Swamp Wallabies who are now out exploring their new habitat. As with our existing Wallabies, Djarlo and Wimbi are slightly more reclusive than their larger Kangaroo relatives, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled on your next trip to Wellington Zoo!”

 

what was the Wallaby species they had before?

 

These may be descended from the wallabies caught off Kawau Island in December 2005. The zoo received 3 Tamar wallaby and 10 Parma wallaby from this capture.

At that time, the zoo also had two Red neck and one Brush-tailed rock wallaby (the latter of which also came from Kawau Island) and were planning to capture both more Brush-tailed rock wallabies and Swamp wallabies from Kawau Island to establish breeding colonies of these species.

 

Update on Snow leopard exhibit:

From socials:

Work on our new Snow Leopard habitat continues to progress at pace!

As we move into April, the demolition of the existing habitat has nearly been completed, providing us with a blank canvas to work with. This has been a significant undertaking, and we are incredibly grateful to Naylor Love for their dedication and efficiency.

The team are now laying the groundwork for the visitor walkway, securing rock anchors for the roof structure, and installing underground services – it’s all go!

Fundraising has achieved $21000 of the $50000 goal: Snow Leopards

 

Unfortunately New Zealand has lost another species. Wellington's remaining Caracal has been euthanised on welfare grounds. Hopefully they will make a return one day. Reported on social media:

"Since the passing of Jasiri, Tinka’s welfare has steadily been deteriorating, with her behaviour indicating distress and she was refusing food. Despite the best efforts of the Animal Care and Veterinary teams she was not improving and her welfare was suffering. Euthanasia can be a tough call to make, however the animal’s welfare is always our top priority in situations like this."

 

That’s sad news. I had hoped there were plans to import one of the young males from Australia to breed with Tinka while there was still time. She was coming to the end of her reproductive life, but was by no means elderly and was an unrepresented founder.

Going forward, I’d prefer Wellington Zoo discontinued with either Serval or Caracal and dedicated both exhibits to either one or the other. It’d be nice to see one of these African small cats breeding rather than two exhibits of ambassador animals.

 

With a lot of Australian Zoo's breeding Servals, i'd like to see Wellington get into breeding Caracals. Maybe they could work with the Wild Cat Conservation Centre; but overall its quite sad to see New Zealand lose yet another species. Serval and Fishing Cat are now the only two remaining small cat species left in New Zealand zoos. Quite a devastating number.

 

The Caracal made for a highly engaging exhibit and even if they don’t breed them, I imagine they’ll source more non breeding Caracal. Darling Downs Zoo are a likely source given they welcomed a litter recently.

New Zealand’s small cat population is in dire straits. There’s currently three Serval which consist of an elderly pair at Wellington and a middle aged female at Auckland; while the Fishing cat at Hamilton Zoo are getting on in years, with no sign of successful breeding.

Ultimately, I’d like to see the zoos each concentrate on a species: Auckland - Serval; Hamilton - Fishing cat; and Wellington - Caracal.

 

sorry but I was just curious on the exact number of Meerkats housed at wellington zoo right now?

 

@Chlidonias is a more regular visitor and could give you a better estimate, but I saw around 15 on my last visit. They’ve had a number of litters over the past decade and often seem to have juveniles in the group.

 

Annual Report 2020-2021:

Wellington Zoo have finally released their annual report within the past week. Here are the main bits and pieces to summarise their animal collection developments from July 2020 to June 2021. Construction work involved a Ring-tailed Lemur enclosure, a native reptile breeding/management facility for their 16 tuatara among other species, a Pygmy Marmoset exhibit rebuild and the Giraffe House refurbishment. The board initially accepted the snow leopard design report and cost in December 2020 with construction of course starting the following year. The report also mentions target training their Lace Monitors. Even though I’ve confirmed there presence with the zoo recently, it’s nice they received a brief mention.

Annual report: https://wellingtonzoo.com/assets/Resources/Annual20Report20202120V6-compressed.pdf

Departures:

• 0.1 Tasmanian Devil to Auckland Zoo.
• 3.0 Nyala to Keystone.
• 2.3 Nyala to Orana Wildlife Park.
• 0.1 Duvaucel’s Gecko to Nga Manu Nature Reserve.
• 0.0.2 tarantulas to Otago Museum and 0.0.2 tarantulas to Canterbury Museum. A quick search reveals Canterbury received a Brazilian Black Tarantula and a Mexican Red-knee Tarantula from Wellington. The Otago Museum received a Brazilian Black Tarantula and a Peruvian Orange-striped Tarantula. All went sent to the museums around December 2020.

Arrivals:

• 1.0 Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur from the National Zoo and Aquarium.
• 0.4 Ring-tailed Lemur from Hamilton Zoo.
• 1.0 Pygmy Marmoset from Natureland Wildlife Trust.
• 1.0 Black-handed Spider Monkey from Hamilton Zoo.
• 0.2 Ostrich from a private breeder.
• 0.1 Cape Barren Goose arrived from Willowbank Wildlife Reserve.
• 7.1 Wellington Green Gecko from a private breeder.
• 1.0 Emperor Scorpion returned from a loan with Auckland Zoo.
• a colony of European Honeybees

Deaths:

• 1.0 Black-and-white Ruffed Lemur
• 0.2 Lion
• 0.2 Boer Goat
• 1.0 Red-fronted Macaw [officially confirming the death of their only macaw]
• 0.0.3 Brown Kiwi

Births:

• 1.0 Cottontop Tamarin
• 1.3 Bolivian Squirrel Monkey
• 4.7 Nyala

 

The macaw death is a bit odd, was he an older bird?

 

He was a customs seizure so I’m not sure if his age was ever verified.