Their herd is quite large, but i’m not sure of an exact number. I can ask next time I visit, if you like. On my last visit, there were 2 groups of Bison; one consisting of around 3-4 bison, and the other, consisting of about 6. That would make around 10 in total.
Werribee have their group of 6 waterbuck back on display in the main savannah enclosure. Its great to see 3 species of antelope in the one area now - Waterbuck, SH Oryx and Eland, along with the giraffe, zebra, rhino and ostrich
the last 3 females died several years - the exotic animals in Australian zoos thread has details of them somewhere
part of their future plans is a new Bison enclosure, so they're probably building up their numbers for this. They look best in large numbers I think
Yes, the plan is to build ‘An extension adjacent to the African savannah that will provide an open landscape for American bison and a mixed collection of northern hemisphere animals’.
Can anyone confirm any work going on at the Hippo holding area behind the exhibit, possible expanding it??
I’m not aware of any construction there. There is, though, construction opposite the African Wild Dog Enclosure and the ‘Ranger Hut’ (which formerly held African Dwarf Crocodiles and a few Snake species)...
This quote: “An extension adjacent to the African savannah that will provide an open landscape for American bison and a mixed collection of northern hemisphere animals.” Is from the announcement of the $83.5 million expansion to Werribee mentioned in this article: Grand plans for Werribee Open Range Zoo - Star Weekly It offers no elaboration but the ‘open landscape’ part implies ungulates (or at least something that can be seen from a distance). The simplest imports would be those species already housed in Australian zoos/wildlife parks: Elk/Wapiti; Red deer; and Fallow deer.
I'd be putting my money the other "northern hemisphere animals" is their przewalski's horses + a deer species. Wapiti, Red, Fallow and Sika are all in Australian deer farms. They've held Wapiti in the past. Personally I'd prefer they got moving on getting their elephants out there asap.
I would agree I believe moving the elephants to Werribee is more important than the other project with a non endangered animal species also since they want to bring over the Perth bull for breeding but I believe as it stand the elephants are last in line.
African Dwarf Crocs (Osteolaemus) have never been kept in Australia. I believe that it was a Freshie that was kept in this enclosure.
One could hope that WZ were angling towards keeping a pack of Grey wolves alongside an ungulate paddock... Maybe brown bears too?
One could hope but incredibly unlikely. I think this "northern hemisphere" umbrella term is just cover putting their existing wild horses and bison together in one area since these animals largely sit outside the African theming of the rest of the park.