Zoofan15’s Guide to Iconic Australasian Zoo Animals

Here’s Dora’s background:

Sire:

Saver was born 12/09/1971 at Assam State Zoo.

Saver was born to Shivaji (wild born 00/00/1955) and Padmini (wild born 00/00/1956).

Dam:

Nilgiri was born 23/10/1990 at Basel Zoo.

Niligiri was born to Chitawan (born at Basel Zoo 11/01/1990) and Tanaya (born at Basel Zoo 24/08/1971).

Chitawan was born to Arjun (wild born 00/00/1957) and Tanaya (born at Basel Zoo 24/08/1971).

Tanaya was born to Arjun (wild born 00/00/1957) and Joymothi (wild born 00/00/1957).

So a bit of inbreeding on the maternal side. Arjun bred with his daughter, Tanaya, to sire Chitawan; who then bred with his mother to produce Niligiri.

 

Suggestions of Iconic Animals

I would like to thank @akasha for her suggestion of Dora the Indian rhinoceros. She sent me a wealth of information and links on him, which was really useful as it enabled me to do a decent write up in addition to doing some of my own research.

If anyone else has suggestions of iconic animals, feel free to come forward but:

A) Submit them via PM (not via this thread).

B) Justify your suggestion with links to substantial supplementary information (I’m aiming to write more than a couple of sentences).

 

Some more notes on Dora’s ancestors:

Arjun (1957-1983) sired 19 calves. The first was born in 1967 and the last was born in 1984.

Joymothi (1951-1983) produced 10 calves between 1956 and 1978.

Moola was Joymothi’s second calf. She was born 1958 and died at the young age of 14 in 1973. Despite this, she produced 5 calves in her lifetime between 1963 and 1971.

Basel’s original bull (no relation to Dora) was named Gadadhar and arrived in 1951. He died in 1964 and sired 7 calves. The first was born in 1956 and the last was born in 1965.

Basel Zoo sure had an impressive breeding record. Unfortunately, this makes Dora well represented on his maternal side.

 

We really need more than the one pair in the region perhaps when the Melbourne elephants vacate the zoo dubbos male calf could be placed there with a unrelated female from overseas

 

Agreed. Perth Zoo have also expressed an interest in holding them - also in place of their elephants.

They seem to have a reputation for being a city zoo species due to most zoos holding a single pair versus a medium to large sized herd of Southern white rhinoceros; but they’re also suitable for open range zoos as Dubbo have demonstrated.

A number of zoos have achieved breeding success with 1.2 Indian rhinoceros including Whipsnade Zoo, who received two juvenile wild born females via London Zoo; and Basel Zoo, who held a mother and daughter.

It’d be good to see the open range zoos holding a minimum of 1.2 with the city zoos holding at least 1.1 and therefore allowing opportunities for swapping as required.

 

@Zoofan15 Will never forget seeing Dora for the first time at Taronga in early 2002, he is so beautiful. Fantastic spotlight post as always.

 

Some more additional notes...

The first bull Gadadhar( father of the early calves) died after injuring himself on a fence trying to reach or mount a female on the other side of it. His replacement, Arjun, was generously donated by Berlin Zoo. At that time, with GI rhino breeding still in its infancy, there were very few in Europe and only two single bulls in other zoos, Arjun in Berlin and the older Tomy in Rome ,Italy. It was a very early example of breeding co-operation to allow a valuable exhibit like that to move away to another zoo. But in return Berlin later received a pair of half-siblings, Gahauti and Miris, from Basel Zoo. (I saw Arjun, Joymothi and Moola in Basel, and other younger pairs from Basel breeding in both Berlin and Stuttgart at around the same time)

Basel have bred very many G I rhinos and the strain is represented in many other zoos around the world nowadays. At one stage in the 1980's era they began to have a series of inbreedings from related parents, though it never appeared harmful to any of the individuals produced that way.

 

Poor Kua with her untimely passing in Aug' 2007; apparently she was picking up so much sand in the exhibit when eating that it clogged up her upper or lower intestinal tracts. Fortunately for Dora he didn't end up having that issue during his 19 months at Taronga. Had no idea that poor Kua was pregnant when she died. She was so beautiful too. I remember that it was late 2006 when she arrived at Taronga because right before she came there was a Black Rhino temporarily living in the exhibit (same exhibit Dora stayed in, currently part of new/expanded Giraffe & Zebra exhibit). Actually just remembered have written on one of the threads about the Black Rhino just before Kua before, my bad lol (was a Dubbo/Western Plain individual of course or was also heading for Dubbo/Western Plain like Dora did and Kua was meant to). Its interesting how for so many decades the Black Rhinos who lived at Taronga were housed in exhibit(s) right down the very south-east corner of the zoo around where 'Backyard to Bush' is now.

It's so great about baby Indian Rhino at Dubbo doing well (sorry to hear about the first baby but really glad current baby is going well). Would be absolutely amazing to see more zoos in our region get on board with housing and hopefully breeding more Indian Rhinos. Remember vividly too being a bit disappointed when returned to Taronga in September 2003 and Dora was no longer there; but when found out he was at Dubbo changed my mind and realised was the best thing for him in terms of spatial needs and everything.

 

As a minimum, I’d like to see Melbourne and Perth Zoo come onboard the breeding programme as they phase out their elephants.

Similarly Indian rhinoceros would have been a smarter move by Auckland Zoo rather than expanding the exhibit of a current species, which will bring in no more additional visitors.

Long term, it’d be nice to see the open range zoos come onboard. Monarto are a possibility; though Werribee may prefer to stay out of them considering they’ll be promoted as one of Melbourne’s main drawcards.

 

It never ceases to amaze me how many large ungulates zoos of this era manage to cram into a small space. Taronga Zoo also bred many Common hippopotamus calves and had a giraffe herd in the double digits that produced over 90 calves before breeding was relocated to Dubbo.

Even if we acknowledge the benefits of increased exhibit space to animal welfare, there’s can’t be a person on here who’d turn down the chance to visit one of our region’s main zoos in the mid-20th century when biodiversity ruled supreme.

 

Melbourne's a possibility as Indian Rhinos could fit into the elephants enclosure's seamlessly without them having to make any major changes. I'd like to see it happen but a regional breeding program will have to be set up first, with Perth possibly joining too.

I doubt an average zoo visitor would visit Melbourne over Werribee just because of an Indian Rhino! A rhino for them is a rhino, and if Melbourne gets on board with Indian rhinos and they have a successful breeding program, I could see Werribee being used to hold surplus individuals.