Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo News 2022

He's been there for at least twenty years though, so would've be an older bird.

 

wait were those the older lions? or the new ones?

 

The ones that died were the older females. The new males arrived last year.

 

The new lions aren’t mentioned on the report under imports either as the report only goes up until June 2021 and they arrived in November 2021.

In a twist of fate, Wellington’s female pride were euthanised the same week as Auckland Zoo euthanised the two males that lived alongside them at Wellington for several years. The prides never got on and were housed separately until the males were transferred.

 

The Snow leopards are expected to arrive in December 2022:

From socials:

We’ve just reached the 6-month mark in construction of the Snow Leopard habitat at Wellington Zoo and to celebrate we wanted to share brand-new footage of Asha and Manju from Zoos Victoria (see socials).

With another 6 months to go until Asha and Manju arrive, we are continuing to raise much needed funds to help build their new home. If you want to join our ‘pawsome’ donor community and help build Asha and Manju’s new home you can donate here (see socials).

 

An update on the Snow leopard exhibit:

This exhibit sounds astounding - the mountains will make for an impressive backdrop to the exhibit.

From socials:

The wild and wet weather recently has not surprisingly had an effect on some areas of our Snow Leopards habitat construction site last week. Despite this, our partners Naylor Love have managed to work around this and completed some pretty significant concrete pours across the site.

Next they will be working on building a number of timber retaining walls to help create the multi-level habitat which mimics the Snow Leopard’s natural habitat.

Some significant planting is also on the agenda in the coming months as well as the arrival of some large pre-cast concrete ‘mountains’ that are a key architectural feature of the new habitat.

 

Cotton-top tamarin birth:

From socials:

A Cotton-top tamarin has been born to the zoo’s breeding pair (gender unknown).

Their previous offspring (a six month old female) has been named RoRo.

 

Wellington Zoo receive major grant for Snow leopard habitat:

From socials:

We're thrilled to announce that Wellington Zoo has received a grant from the Kaupapa Hiranga Tahua Lottery Significant Project Funds of $811,702 to go towards the construction of our Snow Leopard habitat and visitor experience.

Upcoming stages of development:

- Timber retaining walls to create a multilevel habitat
- Significant foliage planting
- Installation of concrete ‘mountains’ (architectural feature)
- Foundations laid for the dens

Completion of the habitat and the arrival of the Snow leopards is still on track for December 2022.

 

Pygmy marmoset triplets:

Wellington Zoo are have welcomed Pygmy marmoset triplets to Tunche and Maya. The pair previously welcomed twins late last year.

Coincidentally, Wellington Zoo bred New Zealand’s first set of Pygmy marmoset triplets a decade ago on 11/07/2012.

It’s the second recent primate birth at the zoo, following a Cotton-top tamarin infant to Soto and Celeste.

 

Are they related to the Hamilton zoo pygmy marmosets?

 

I’d say it’s a strong possibility.

Hamilton Zoo originally acquired 1.1 Pygmy marmoset from Wellington Zoo in December 2011. They were a mother and son named Tinka and Salavador (both now deceased). Their current marmosets are Picchu (2008) and Sisa (2016), the latter of which is the daughter of Salvador and Picchu.

Tinka and Salvador were imported by Wellington Zoo in January, so even assuming they didn’t have time to breed in their 11 months at Wellington, it’s likely they were related to others in the same import that were retained by Wellington. Maya (Wellington’s current breeding female) was born there; while Tunche came from Natureland.

 

Right so currently three holders locally (Wellington, natureland and Hamilton)? Are there six (2.4) excluding the new triplets?

Edit: looks like Wellington has two troops, so must be a few more adults in the region.

 

There’s currently three holders - Wellington, Hamilton and Natureland:

Hamilton Zoo have 0.2.

Natureland had 2.1.2 (breeding and 1.0.2 offspring) as of September 2019; the male offspring (Tunche) was subsequently transferred to Wellington. Their breeding pair came from Wellington.

Wellington Zoo have 1.1.3 in their eatery exhibit. I’m not sure if their previous offspring (twins born 2021) are housed with them or are the second troop you mention.

 

Thanks! Do you know if there is a reason they are held in small troops? They seem like the sort of exhibit that would be more engaging and natural in larger troops.

 

They’re highly territorial so unrelated breeding pairs could never coexist in one exhibit space. They’re more tolerant of family members, so theoretically previous offspring could remain in the group into adulthood; but then there’s the risk of inbreeding - the father siring offspring to his adult daughters etc. (as often occurs in tamarins, who have a similar social structure).

I agree it’s a shame as they’re tiny and zoos like to give them a decent sized exhibit, which means there’s not always a lot to see.

 

Capybara update:

Wellington Zoo mentioned it’s herd on social media as consisting of:

1.0 Pepe (07/06/2016) Transferred from Auckland Zoo
0.1 Amelia (25/10/2018) Pepe x Iapa
0.1 Dia (00/06/2019) Pepe x Iapa
0.1 Luna (00/06/2019) Pepe x Iapa

Given their ages, it’s reasonable to assume the founder females, Vara and Iapa, have now died.

Also not mentioned was another daughter of Pepe and Iapa (Lily) and the female they received from Auckland Zoo earlier in May this year. Given her young age, Lily have may been transferred; while the Auckland female could have gone unmentioned due to not being introduced to the herd yet. She’s related to Pepe, so presumably the zoo are looking at receiving a new male at some point before resuming breeding.

 

Pygmy marmoset triplets are first surviving set in the region in 31 years:

Wellington Zoo have officially announced the birth of the Pygmy marmoset triplets. They’re the first surviving triplets of this species born in the region since a set was born at Perth in 1991!

Wellington Zoo welcomes five new primates just in time for holidays

 

Wellington Zoo's Statement of Intent 2022-2025:

I recently came across a set of the zoo's statements of intent that are now available online right underneath the annual reports. The following information is pulled straight from the 2022-2025 plan outlining the future developments for Wellington Zoo. Glad to see wombats (which have been on the cards for several years) are planned and monitors will flesh out the Australian area nicely. Below is the list of renewal projects planned over the next three years. Asset plan 2022-2025: https://wellingtonzoo.com/assets/Resources/FINAL_SOI_-FINAL-WZT-SOI-2022-25.pdf

• plans are in place for the zoo to acquire Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats. They will be housed in the Neighbours precinct.

• the zoo also aims to build an entrance exhibit for this Australian precinct for the Lace Monitors to be their introductory species for the area. The document states the enclosure will be completed by July/August 2021 (either a delayed project or a typo as the plan is for 2022-2025). Also they mentioned that they hope the monitors would increase visitation across the 2022-2023 period so it's a development planned within the next year.

• the refurbishment of the kiwi enclosures to return them to the zoo. Another minor development will involve a refresh of the red panda exhibit, service area and visitor space to strengthen thematic ties with the new Snow Leopards. Speaking of the Snow Leopards, an update: "piling and excavation works are underway through February and March with the current construction end date of late December 2022. We are planning for visitors to see Snow Leopards in the Zoo during summer 2022/23."

• a much-needed redesign of Hero HQ to adapt to a long-term species plan for reptiles and invertebrates.

• additional projects like improvements to earthquake prone buildings, venue developments, perimeter fence renewal, new quarantine facilities and improved river trail and gibbon viewing.

 

It’s interesting to see overhead footage of the sun bear maternity annex, which I understand was renovated from the an old bear pit; with the sun bear exhibit compromising another two (merged into one).

The fact that the Snow leopard exhibit will utilise the space of all three really shows the progression in exhibit standards over the decades.