of course! antelopes like bongo and springbok are a species many zoos have expressed interest in keeping. it seems utterly rediculous to bring in new antelope species when our stocks of these are suffering from inbreeding. personally, i think we can do with the current range of antelopes we have (even minus a few...). its a reasonably diverse little collection and the focus should be on getting reasonably diverse stocks at every open range zoo we have.
I can really see the problem with the Antelope species in our region, we are over run with them, just look at our zoos open range exhibits they are running alive with to many of them. not.
Wellington have indicated that they want to hold four maned wolves, but not until after 2008. Things change rapidly with zoo collection plans, so that doesn't mean that it's a gaurantee. That means six zoos showing interest: Altina Zoo, Western Plains, Hamilton, Melbourne, Monarto, and wellington, with a total of 23 animals planned. That may make a difference when the Carnivore TAG next discusses the issue.
altina zoo is actually a cattle property that has some exotic species too, like bison, barbary sheep, blackbuck and maybe??? przewalksi horse???? its in griffith, in nsw. it would be amazing if maned wolves could be move dup to viable category. i love them, in fact i love all the canid species our zoos have. fennec foxes are another species that seem to have slipped under the radar so to speak, in fact only taronga and i think adelaide seem to have them. is this species a goner??? it would be a shame, besides being so cute they are one nocturnal species that is always active by day. :\
melbourne still had fennecs up until recently, they built them a new enclosure, which was a prime example of poor research and planning. it was also far too small, in fact it looked even smaller than their old enclosure. the fennecs escaped and now they don't have them anymore. instead a few outcast meerkats reside in there. mogo have fennecs still. they may have ex-melbourne animals but its pure speculation... i'm not a huuuuge fan of canids. i do love the maned wolves though. i was pretty dismayed that taronga and adelaide decided to go out there with dhole when neither was prepared to take on maned wolves. melbourne have committed spaces to dhole also, fortunately not at the expense of the wolves...
i know of the melbourne zoo exhibit youre talking about. i remember you were sp pissed off about it, so i kept an eye out for it deliberately and ive gotta say, it was pretty pathetic, although i liked the cave at the front. perth zoo has an awesome exhibit of hunting dogs, with multiple viewing points. probably the best other exhibits ive seen for hunting dogs were at the mind-blowing barcelona zoo, and also edinburgh zoo. Artis in the Netherlands has a good display for maned wolves, working around a whole SouthAmerican theme, with guanaco, ant-eater, rheas, tapir, capybarra and flamingoes.
letter from Wellington zoo Dear Nigel, As I am sure you understand a zoo - just like any other business - is a flowing continuum and plans made in the past may or may not be fulfilled in the presence or future. Often funding has a major part to play in these decisions, others are availability of resources and incorporation of the strategic goals. Melbourne and Dubbo have Maned wolves and we will contribute to that population should we ever get Maned wolves to Wellington. At this point there are no plans to get leopards. We are the only zoo which is able to breed Agoutis at the moment as we have the only intact male in the region. We will need to breed with this male until we have the permits to import new animals from overseas. So the number of animals will slowly increase. Saying that, some animals are already earmarked to go to facilities in Australia, so we will free up spaces which will be filled again. The very obvious reason for scattered reptile enclosures is that we don't have the funding at this stage to build a reptile house (other projects have priority). We will include mixed exhibits where possible and keep improving enclosures as and when possible. As far as I know there is no intact male peccary in the region. Combined with an import stop for suidae peccaries will be phased out from the region. I am sure Auckland will be able to comment on their importation of flamingos much better then I could. Have a great day, Kind regards,
baby chimpanze wellington zoo has had a female chimpanzee born. i was tempted to post this news under perth zoo, or worst zoo exhibits, or the taronga thread but instead thought id do the right thing and track down the approtriate post. good news all round
Any updates here..? Has anyone been recently..? I saw the scale model of what the zoo should look like after 10 years and 20 million $ when I went a couple of years ago... It looked pretty good...
Could you please do a review (if its a trip for pleasure) and possibly take a photo of the scale model, adding it to the Wellington Zoo gallery..?
I'll see what I can do. Hopefully I'll be getting to the zoo, Te Papa, Karori, Kapiti, Somes Island, and either Nga Manu or Mt. Bruce, but it all depends on time etc
Sounds like you've got a good trip planned..! I'm hoping to go to Ti Pi point tomorrow if I can manage it... A visit to a garage this evening gave me some inspiration..!
When I went it was just after going through admission adjacent to the otter enclosure... Earlier in the thread Nigel mention it was still there (I believe), I think the post was in mid 2007...