thats god news bout the sunbear. this means adelaide can try and breed from their male...(their other female is considered a non-breeder)
That should give us three potential (one of whom is actual) breeding pairs for the sunbears, plus potential breeding animals at Taronga, Canberra and the baby at Wellington Is that right?
yep. that should be right. wellington, adelaide and perth have breedable pairs, a good female at taronga, a good male at national zoo and a wellington bub... the national zoos male was born at wellington. whats its relationship is to the current breeding female i don't know - sister?, mother? (i know the male is unrelated ex-perth). tarongas female is still considered breedable i believe, so i wonder what she's doing there in a ****** exhibit with an infertile male when there are 3 other unrelated fertile males in australia alone...
I think that the Wellington female is the mother of the male at National. Every zoo seems to concentrate on just one pair, is there any reason they couldn't have two males and a male. Seeing as how the male at Wellington is proven, could not the Taronga female also go there, or at least to the National male (the males could be swapped?) When I look at the above I realise that are actually two females and a male at Adelaide so there should be reason why multiple bears couldn't be held.
it seems to make sense doesn't it jay. the sunbears are a priority species with a proper management program, so there must be some reason why things are the way there are and the zoos are holding back on making what appear to be obvious potential transfers. especially since with the exception of the wellington female two offspring, all other bears are wild caught and assumed to be unrelated to eachother. sunbears are great, but they appear difficult to breed in captivity. we haven't had much luck at all here in asutralia with many bears coming into the country only to never breed. lets hope that changes.
Didn't we discuss in another thread the possible reasons why this may be so? I'm hoping that within the next five years we will have an explosion of births amongst animals that haven't yet bred in Australasia ( or only occassionally). Elephants. Indian Rhinos and sunbears. Francois Langours and and another silvery gibbon breeding pair can also be included.
Adelaide has one breeding pair of Blue and Gold Macaws, Charlie and Madidi, it the current blue and golds arent related i am sure they will try and breed them, Manu and Guiselle, the first pair have bred before having 1 chick called Loren. There is one Scarlet Macaw i think, last time i looked there was, the other one is on loan to Gorge. We also have 2 Brother Hyacinth Macaws, that were illegally imported, i wish they could get some girls for them, but the private breeders (or breeder as it may be) dont wanna give em up! And there are three giraffe ready to drop!
thats a shame bout the hycinth's - you would have thought the birds would be of value to the breeder as well great news ben.
jay hope you can add Polar Bears to that list. it would also be nice to see some Golden Cats born at Taronga, Fishing Cats at Perth, and some more Dhole and Malayan Tapir. does anyone know if Taronga's Dhole cub was an Australian first?
don't think so. taronga has had dhole in the collection for quite a long time. the last group died out of natural causes and after a few years "break" they imported these animals.
All the zoo directors in the region agreed years ago to never display polar bears again in the region. Sea World argued for exemption from that based on the fact they they were not taking away spaces from the bear species selected by the region (sun bears), as these don't fit their aquatic theme. They also have the funds to build a suitable climate controlled facility for them, and provide the stimulus they need. They have been true to their word. Their permit also states that any offspring that are born at Sea World must be managed as part of the US SSP, and sent overseas according to the SSP recommendations. It's highly unlikely (and quite reasonably so) that any other zoo in the region will have polar bears again.
At adelaide zoo, parents always say to their kids that our Syrian Brown Bears are polar bears, because thats what they saw when they were young
The december 1994 issue of taronga zoo friends has a an article about future plans for the zoo. In it are plans for a gorilla exhibit and a polar bear exhibit. I know that it was nearly 13 years ago but it shows that taronga was considering displaying polar bears. They planned to have underwater viewing similiar to sea world. I guess the agreement that you are talking about zoo pro prevented them from going ahead with the plans.
Polar bears As much as they are majestic animals , Auckland Zoo had found them the most problematic in the whole zoo history , and decided to phase out the polar bear exhibit several years ago . They were even offered fresh stock for free by the Canadian government , but the zoo basically said " No way , Jose !! " Jay , as you have the book " A tiger by the tail " you will be able to read more of the polar bear saga in there . Wellington zoo is the only one in NZ that has bears of any description , and it is only recently that they have had a small success in breeding
Auckland s polars Jay can probably help me out here , as he has a copy of that book , and i have to rely on memory ..... They ( the bears ) were not good parents to the cubs , and they were not the most prolific of breeders There were health issues Alot of people were concerned about a green colouration of the fur , and this gave fuel to the anti zoo crowd There was inadequate behavioural enrichment programmes , and at that time the zoo did not have the funds to create a better enclosure ..... The enclosure was difficult to clean , maintain etc and was 100% concrete surface ..... and probably a whole host of other issues . Can you help me out any more on this issue , Jay ?
