Werribee Open Range Zoo Werribee Open Range Zoo News 2019

To begin the year, WORZ has welcomed the birth of a Przewalski’s Horse foal.
Zoos Victoria

 

WORZ have welcomed a baby Scimitar horned oryx:

Zoos Victoria

and 4 male Guinea fowl:

Zoos Victoria

 

Johari the lion has passed away.
Zoos Victoria

 

He had such a nice life. RIP big guy.



I wonder what WORZ will do with the remainding members of the pride. A likely suggestion is to keep Nilo, Nairobi one female offspring from Nairobi (Aziza or Kibibi), and one female offspring from Nilo (Asali or Ilola), to breed with two males, imported from overseas. Export Nilo’s other two sons (Lwazi and Ato) to Melbourne zoo to join their half brothers there, who are 8 months older. The two remaining females out of Aziza and Kibibi, and Asali and Illola will be sent together to be the two breeding females at Auckland zoo.

 

Johari has such a dark mane/hair on the underside. I see he gets it from his father’s line:

Taronga Zoo 2007 - African Lions | ZooChat

 

World Record Number of Plains Wanderer Chicks Hatched

World record number of Plains-wanderer chicks born | Zoos Victoria

Werribee Open Range Zoo has seen the population of its most critically endangered bird almost double overnight.

In what is believed to be a world first, nine precious captive-bred Plains-wanderer chicks hatched in little more than 24 hours thanks to the help of mum, dad and some life-saving intervention.

The March 19-20 births mark only the second time the iconic, yet mysterious, bird has been bred in Victoria – also at Werribee Zoo in November last year when four chicks were hatched.

Breeding nine healthy chicks in such a short time is a huge achievement and one we are all very excited about,” said Werribee Open Range Zoo Threatened Species Keeper Yvette Pauligk. “Genetically speaking, they are listed as the fourth most important species worldwide, and the first most important in Australia in evolutionary distinctiveness and extinction risk.”

 

African Wild Dog Import

Werribee Open Range Zoo have imported 5.0 African wild dogs from Taronga Western Plains Zoo. I believe they are the siblings of the female pack (eight sisters) that were recently sent to Orana Wildlife Park.

Werribee Zoo welcomes new African Wild Dogs | Zoos Victoria

Five African Wild Dog brothers have arrived at Werribee Open Range Zoo just in time to celebrate World Siblings Day today.

The two and three-year-old males – Neo, Leonardo, Nelson, Ziggy and Madash – bonded over a meat feast and a swim together on this special day.

Carnivore keeper Nicola McCleery said the African animals were settling into life at Werribee Open Range Zoo well and have a wonderful sibling relationship.

“The boys are very calm and are enjoying getting to know their surroundings,” she said. “They are a cohesive pack and really look out for each other, the more confident ones bringing meat to the wary ones during feeding time so everyone has their fair share.”

The endangered animals made the journey from Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo Zoo recently and, after a veterinary checkup, were released into their newly-renovated enclosure where they will be important ambassadors for their species.

Edit: Leonardo, Nelson, Ziggy and Madash were born 25/08/2016.

 

Article about this breeding :

Australian zoo breeds rare plains-wanderer by replacing absent father with feather duster

 

A female Przewalski’s horse foal was born three weeks ago.

Baby boom a bonus in the fight against extinction | Zoos Victoria

 

A few observations from our visit this past Saturday - I took my boys to see the dinosaur display that they have on currently - this is situated down in the river walk, part of the Australian area, an area I had never bothered going thru on previous visits. I thought the dinosaurs were very impressive and displayed really creatively. Some of them are huge! A lot of the other people visiting were dressed in Jurassic Park or other dinosaur styled cloths, so they're obviously a big attraction for the zoo.
*I was also impressed with the orange bellied parrots aviary, the main exercise flight aviary can only be looked into thru small holes but you do walk thru a smaller aviary on the side of that bigger aviary, which currently has 9 parrots. The remaining exhibits for koalas and wallaby's etc are placed around the historic Chirnside family's shearing shed which makes for an interesting addition to the zoo
*on the safari bus tour, I noted only 3 addax were on display, the new Przeswalski horse foal is very cute (like a fluffy toy rocking horse) and I could see several zebras in the paddock behind them, off display
*A lot of wild Cape Barren geese were see in the paddocks, as well as 4 Magpie geese which were a highlight for me - I presume they would be wild birds
*The Texas long horn cows are looking very impressive now - the tour guide said the largest one had a horn spread of 1.5 mtrs now! I assume this is the white one.
*I was pleased to see a group of "older" S H Oryx are now in the big savannah enclosure, but there was only 6 zebras on display there and no waterbuck on display anywhere which is disappointing. Only 2 female rhinos were on display although more could be seen in the distance in their off display housing area.
*I was very excited to finally see the Nyala - a new species for me. They were all lying down in the distance but I counted 12, with only 1 adult coloured male in the group. The Blackbuck also had increased to about 30 individuals, although there was no adult males on display - a few very young males were making the most of the girls without an older male to chase them off!
*The lion pride was great! after going to 5 other zoos in the past few weeks, most of which also had lions (all kept in pairs), it was really cool to see a pride of 8 lions all together with a 9th lioness in the 2nd/further enclosure.
*I could only see 6 vervet monkeys, have they ever bred them here or were they always a "non breeding" group?
*The hunting dogs seemed to be off display, during the bus tour I noticed some keepers walking thru their enclosure but they still couldn't be seen by the time we walked around to them.
I really enjoyed our visit, the zoo is always very polished looking with enough new animals and changes to displays to keep me enthused.

 

WORZ has recently had a Bandicoot baby boom, welcoming 10 baby Eastern barred bandicoots this year so far. What a great effort for this species that is considered extinct in Victoria.

Bandicoot baby boom at Victorian zoos

 

Details have been released on the parks expansion over the next 8 years. These plans will cost an estimated 86 million.

Phase I: larger spaces for bison and white rhino
Phase 2: hippo expansion, meerkat expansion and concert lawn (5000 capacity)
Phase 3: Cheetah and wild dog expansion (sounds like a rotational space)
Phase 4: Hyenas and a second lion pride
Phase 5: a gondola across the zoo and the elephant complex (20 hectares, capacity for 15 elephants)
Phase 6: relocation of Melbourne zoo’s elephant herd

The story can be read here.
PressReader.com - Your favorite newspapers and magazines.

 

Unfortunately, us European cannot read it as the page relating to elephants is off limits.

 

I’m wondering if there’s something regarding a hippo import the zoos know, which we don’t...

First, one of the only two female Pygmy hippos in the region is sent to Darling Downs Zoo alone; as opposed to being paired with a male. The only reason I can think of for not breeding her (albeit with a related male) is if new imports from outside the region were in the foreseeable future.

Now Werribee Open Range Zoo (who already have excellent exhibits) are planning to expand them even more, despite the exhibits previously being suitable for the bull (now deceased) and the five cows. There could be a simpler explanation i.e. they’re importing a bull from Dubbo and want to breed him with the younger cows (which would require more space), but still I wonder...

If the expansion plan is eight years (and six stages), it appears the hippo expansion will be happening in the next two to three years.

 

Well I won’t argue with the fact that a giraffe import isn’t long overdue! How inbred the European and North American stocks are though, I don’t know.

 

It looks like the Bovid IRA is advancing but not yet done. The draft IRA report, which was released in March, can be viewed here. The final report has not yet been published.

Page 7 states: "This policy covers all species from the Bovidae family except for those in the Bovini tribe and Caprinae subfamily (domestic cattle and buffalo, sheep and goats)."

I think this means tahr, barbary sheep, buffalos and bison will not be covered by the IRA.

Unsurprisingly, I haven't seen any sign of IRA development for hippos and giraffes yet (pygmy hippos were added to the live import list in March this year and okapis back in September 2018).

 

Do we have any idea which bovid species are likely to be selected for import? Two obvious candidates are bongo and nyala, but are there any other species? I'm guessing the oryx species could do with some fresh blood. A small herding species - springbok?

 

WORZ has welcomed two Nyala calves. The zoo has welcomed six calves in 12 months.
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Hopefully other zoos in the region will soon receive this striking antelope species.