Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo News 2023

Wellington Zoo Update

Update from my visit 06/01/2023:

The zoo will not be acquiring more Cheetah. In the short term, the exhibit will be used to house male Lowland nyala; while long term, it’ll be used to expand the African lion exhibit - an exciting development for the zoo!

The Lowland nyala were split between two exhibits. A small number of females inhabited the Savannah; while a larger group of females and juveniles inhabited a larger seperate exhibit. I assume some of the juveniles are males and will be transferring to the vacant Cheetah exhibit soon. The nyala exhibit opposite the Giraffe House (which in the past has held males) was vacant.

Sumatran tigress Senja is still receiving immunotherapy for her allergies, so will not be introduced to Bashi for breeding until this is complete. I suspect by then, she’ll be post reproductive as she turns 13 this year.

Keza the chimpanzee is off contraception, which hopefully means the zoo will be welcoming an infant this year. They haven’t ruled out breeding from Sally again, though given the age of her current infant (14 months), she’d be looking at giving birth in her 40th year if she were to breed again.

I had hoped Zuri the giraffe would have conceived by now, but the staff said she’s still showing signs of estrus, suggesting she’s not pregnant.

The night dens for the Snow leopard exhibit have now been built; but the exhibit looks a long way off. Signage still says March 2023; but I was told by the staff members I asked that they’re expecting it to be completed by April/May.

For those wondering what tarantula the zoo exhibit, they are as follows: Goliath birdeater, Amazonian pink toe tarantula, Mexican red knee tarantula and Brazilian black tarantula.

Photos from my visit here for anyone interested: Wellington Zoo - ZooChat

 

Great news; hopefully this will allow them to import some females down the line and hold their first breeding pride in more than three decades!

I think it's best to just give up on ever attempting to breed Senja now and send Bashi to a facility that will actually breed him. It'll be a BIG shame if his valuable genetics go to waste. I really like the idea of swapping her for Kirana at Hamilton. Kirana could then produce one litter and then be sent back to Hamilton (where I believe there's plans to pair her with Reggie). I don't think Wellington can afford to wait for one of Ramah and Zayana's cubs too; they won't be able to be paired until at least two, three years down the line and by then Bashi will be 18/19. A move needs to made now if they ever want to breed from him!

That's exciting to hear. It's been almost nine years since Keza last conceived, so fingers crossed she (and Alexis) are successful. Was there any updates on Malika?

 

It would be great to see Wellington Zoo manage a breeding pride. The staff members I spoke to couldn’t confirm if females will be imported or whether it’s just an expansion of the current exhibit - but obviously I’m hopeful of the latter.

I fully agree. Bashi is a founder with wild born parents. Considering a few of our pairs in the region (and worldwide) have been distantly related, founders have never been more valuable.

Bashi and Kirana are a good match. She’s supposed to be paired with Scout, but Hamilton Zoo are almost at capacity with 0.3 tigers needing seperate housing. Swapping Kirana for Senja appears the best way forward, with Hamilton receiving Senja and remaining a non breeding facility for now.

I’m very excited! It will be great for troop dynamics. The zoo has usually had two year age gaps between infants in recent years, which gives them social interaction with peers. Keza is a middle ranking female and will surely benefit from having another infant.

Malika is on contraception at the moment and the lowest ranking in the troop. When I asked if there were plans to transfer her out, I was told there wasn’t at this stage - though this could change down the line. Alexis and Malika are the most distantly related match amongst the younger chimps, so it may be beneficial to breed before Alexis is displaced by Bakari (half brother of Malika).

 

I’m in New Zealand for a few days and I had a chance to visit Wellington Zoo today - I absolutely loved it so here is my report:

We arrived around 15 minutes before the zoo opened so we had a coffee at Rex Tremendous (the cafe at the front of the zoo) - it was the best coffee I’ve had in the whole of New Zealand. I’m from Melbourne so I’m a coffee snob. The other great thing about the cafe was the Pygmy Marmoset enclosure looking into it! The marmosets seem to love watching the customers at the tables in front of their window - great enrichment for them! From this moment I knew I was going to like this zoo!

We visited every enclosure but didn’t see the animals in all of them. Some of my favourite parts included:

How beautiful this zoo is - there is greenery everywhere. There is very little wire. I also really liked the hilly layout (nature is hilly - a zoo can be too).

The giraffe / nyala exhibit - I liked how it could be viewed from multiple places.

The walk through kea aviary was brilliant. As a non New Zealander these birds are particularly interesting.

The penguin enclosure is probably the prettiest I’ve seen anywhere.

The farmyard was creative and worked well. I’m not really a fan of farmyards in zoos but this one was quirky and interesting.

The zoo seems to have it’s own pet black and white cat! I couldn’t believe this - it even has a collar (in keeping with the protecting native birds theme). Or was this just a neighbourhood cat that walked in? Could someone please shed some light on this? The wild sparrows, tamarins and ruffed lemurs all reacted when it walked past the tamarin area towards the Banana Bar. This was such a surprise!

I was happy to see monal pheasants and Lord Derby parakeets but they weren’t really easy to see (let alone photograph)

There was a very young baby chimpanzee - very cute. Nice enclosure overlooking the city too.

The Australian section named after Australian tv shows such as Neighbours and Home And Away etc. I liked the creativity of this even if it is a bit cheesy.

The snow leopard area looks like it will be brilliant when finished.

All in all I really loved this zoo and would include it among my favourites I’ve been to. The only things I’d change would be to add a zebra or two to the giraffe enclosure and perhaps do something about the sun glare on the small monkey area and the pheasant aviary (though it was particularly sunny today - so that probably isn’t usually an issue)

10 out of 10!

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on Wellington Zoo. I also visited the week prior (not my first visit) and agree it’s a great zoo.

The terrain is certainly unique and the zoo do well to use it to their advantage - with multi-storey exhibits like the chimpanzees being an example of this. The giraffe night house is a great feature as it allows you to get closer to the giraffe than most zoos.

I didn’t see the Himalayan monal on my visit (which is nothing uncommon); but did see the sun bear, which is an even rarer sighting in my experience.

The chimpanzee infant is named Akida. He’s 14 months old and beginning to explore the habitat. They’ll hopefully be a second infant this year with another female off contraception.

Wellington historically held zebra, but in a seperate exhibit to the giraffe. They sadly phased this species out and have no plans to acquire more.

 

We actually got a great view of the sun bear! It was above the waterfall looking at the visitors.

Pity about the zebras though - an odd decision in my view

Can you shed any light on the pet black cat though? That was bizarre!

I also noticed one of the giraffes had lost an eye - what happened there?

 

I’m afraid I know nothing about the black cat. They have had pet cats wander into the zoo and unfortunately get killed in the past by the animals in the exhibit they’ve wandered into, so doubt they’d encourage one to remain on the premises.

Auckland and Hamilton Zoo keep a register of neighbourhood pet cats for ID purposes (sometimes they humanely/live trap them). Maybe contact the zoo and ask?

The giraffe missing an eye is Sunny - the young bull. He sustained an injury after getting spooked by a Magpie at his birthplace of Australia Zoo. Vets were unable to save it and after repeated infections, it was removed. It causes him no issue.

 

Some other observations and questions from yesterday:

We didn’t see a caracal - instead the 2 servals had access to both enclosures and were moving between them.

The capybara on a mountainside was interesting - strangely they were all hanging out at the top of the hill.

What was originally in the ring tailed lemur exhibit? Surely that large enclosure wasn’t purposely built for them? It is almost as big as the giraffe enclosure!

We only saw one spider monkey on the island. Are there more or just one?

There were baby meerkats - but not very very young.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday: I really liked how they have set up the interactive play theme around Juan the agouti. The signs on the containers say things like “Juan’s seeds”, “Juan’s nuts”, “Pygmy marmosets keep your hands off” etc - it’s a good way to encourage kids to learn about a non high profile smaller species. It may also help kids if they end up in a share house one day while they are at uni

The squirrel monkeys were much fuzzier and bushier than the ones in Melbourne and Canberra.

Other than the snow leopards, are there any other species arriving in the near future? I assume that the area from the capybaras to the ring tailed lemurs won’t stay as it is for much longer.

We will definitely come back for a visit once the snow leopards are there and on display.

 

Yes, th Caracal sadly passed away last year. The sibling pair of Serval now have access to both exhibits.

The Hamadryas baboon troop occupied the current lemur exhibit from 2000 when it was built until the death of the last members in 2019.

No new species are planned to my knowledge, but the vacant Cheetah exhibit will house Lowland nyala in the short term, with plans to expand the lion exhibit long term.

 

Don't believe Wellington has Caracal atm, although a local like @Zoofan15 may be able to confirm. One of the sisters (Jasiri) passed last year, and it's likely the other (Tinka) has passed too.

It used to be home to the zoo's group of Hamadryads Baboons; the last of which died in 2019. I too was quite surprised to see the Lemurs move into such a large enclosure with limited arboreal space but the enclosure is seemingly getting better over time.

I've been doing research on the region's spider monkeys and did email Wellington to no response unfortunately. If they just have a single individual remaining, that's a little concerning. There's only just two males in the whole of NZ.

Not to my knowledge, although i'd love to see Orangutans down the line. They would be well suited to Wellington's rocky landscape (with arboreal pathways).

 

Southern Hairy-nosed Wombats are planned for the Australian area sometime in the next couple of years along with a new exhibit for Lace Monitors. The pair of monitors are currently off-show at Wellington.

 

I think I’d like to see that lemur enclosure turned into an orangutan enclosure too. They have proven how well they display the chimpanzees so something similar for orangutans would be great there.

 

The Hamadryas baboons were perfect for that exhibit. Even with a growing troop of lemurs, they still make for an underwhelming display imo.

The exhibit is large and would be perfect for orangutans - not sure if Wellington avoid holding these for climatic reasons, but they thrive in several European zoos, so shouldn't be an issue.

 

The enclosure is a little small, but if they use the next door enclosure with the Capybara, this could very well be done. A single enclosure for a breeding pair; possibly Bornean's in support of Auckland would be great.

The current Spider Monkey enclosure is another decent choice - especially if they adjoin it with the neighboring Gibbon island and rotate the species, or even mix them together.

 

Considering Auckland's trio did well in Orana for the period of stay they were there; I would assume Orangutans would be suitable to the Wellington weather.

 

Wellington's climate is a bit different to Christchurch and in the past Wellington have had at least one chimpanzee develop pneumonia; though if they can thrive in European zoos, I see no reason they couldn't at Wellington with indoor housing offered during winter or on cold days.

I've noticeabled more and mot great ape exhibits are being designed with climate in mind e.g. Hamilton Zoo, Auckland Zoo - to allow the animal to remain on exhibit, buy protected from the elements; while Wellington have a day room you can view the chimpanzees in.

 

I visited 06/01/2023 and saw four on one of the platforms. Their troop includes a young male named Aranyo (2016), who was born at Hamilton Zoo and transferred to Wellington in 2016.

The rest of this non breeding troop are all females - unless their older male (Arturo) is still alive.

 

Are the females much older?

 

Unfortunately there’s very little about them online.

The only female I’ve found is one called Winnie, who was three years old in November 2015 (born 2012 approx): Wellington Zoo tranquilises a spider monkey by accident

The zoo’s website says they have 1.6 spider monkeys, but is out of date as it mentions Arturo as their only male. Aranyo was transferred from Hamilton in 2021.

 

Snow leopard update:

From socials:

We're getting closer to welcoming Snow Leopard sisters, Asha and Manju, to Wellington and we can NOT wait!!!

Work on the habitat and indoor dens has progressed in leaps and bounds over the last couple of months. Planting of the habitat will begin in February, alongside the completion of the visitor experience area.

We can't wait to introduce you to Asha and Manju, and we want to ensure that your experience is as immersive and interactive as possible.