Exotic Mammals in Australian Zoos

Chlidonias said:
their website still lists six animals. But there should only be one male there now. I have no idea which of the two males is no longer there, or why. It's possible the other male may have gone to Tasmania though (but that is purely a guess). It's possible I'm wrong too, but my source should be accurate.
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I read in a 2015 post that the young male Kouilou was running into conflict with his father, so I'm guessing Kouilou may have been exported. In addition, Kouilou can't mate with 2 of the 3 Adelaide females of reproductive age as he's the son and half brother of two of them; Tabah can't mate with only 1 of the 3 Adelaide females of reproductive age, his daughter.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Pardon my anemone, but don't the Adelaide Zoo hold 2.4 Mandrill?

Tabah (M) 5 April 2005
Penny (F) 1988
Niari (F) 1996
Moabi (F) 1998
Mayombe (F) 2010 (Tabah x Niari)
Kouilou (M) 2011 (Tabah x Moabi)

If I'm mistaken, do you know which male has died/moved, Tabah or Kouilou?
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It will be interesting to see if Adelaide zoo let the species go down the plug hole or import some fresh genes?
 
Zorro said:
It will be interesting to see if Adelaide zoo let the species go down the plug hole or import some fresh genes?
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If one of the males has been sent to Tasmania Zoo, I think they should send the remaining male to Melbourne to found a new breeding group with imported females and import a new male to breed with the Adelaide females. Louise at Melbourne Zoo gave birth to Leroy in 2009 aged 23 years, so there's still time for Niari (21 years), Moabi (19 years) to breed and Mayombe (7 years) is in her prime.
 
Time will tell if they are just "another" phase out species but I would hope maybe a few of the smaller zoos might jump on the band wagon and do a joint import
 
the Indian Rhino born at TWPZ in Oct 2015 sadly died today of a Tetanus infection. The adult pair are back to being the only ones in the country.
 
Shoalhaven Zoo now have meerkats (seen via their Facebook), not sure where they were sourced from.
 
LOU Y said:
- Monarto Zoo have acquired 1.1 African Crested Porcupine - the first in Australia
- Werribee have acquired 3.4 Lowland Nyala
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A couple of notes on these because they are "important" mammals in terms of their rarity in the country:

The Monarto porcupines have had a baby since they arrived.

The nyala have been split between Werribee (2.2) and Monarto (1.2).
 
Chlidonias said:
*Vervet (Chlorocebus pygerythrus johnstoni) – Werribee

A group of ten was imported in 1996 from the USA. All the current animals (c.15) were bred at Werribee.
Perth kept a Chlorocebus species until late 2006 when the remainder (four animals, one of which was a baby born that year) were sent to Gorge. These animals were called C. aethiops by the zoo and listed by the ZAA as being C. aethiops johnstoni (formerly all Chlorocebus were lumped as C. aethiops).
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As can be seen on this picture:

Vervet Monkey | ZooChat

at least part of the Vervets, do actually more resemble Green monkeys (C. sabaeus), the lack of white around the base of the tail and a yellow-brownich tail tuft as opposed to a white one, both point very strongly in the direction of C. sabaeus and based on comparing pictures the overall jizz also fits this species much better. The individuals in Werribee do however have a white band above the eyes, which is mostly absent in C. sabaeus, so they might well be hybrids, which makes sense as these species were previously all lumped....
 
lintworm said:
As can be seen on this picture:

Vervet Monkey | ZooChat

at least part of the Vervets, do actually more resemble Green monkeys (C. sabaeus), the lack of white around the base of the tail and a yellow-brownich tail tuft as opposed to a white one, both point very strongly in the direction of C. sabaeus and based on comparing pictures the overall jizz also fits this species much better. The individuals in Werribee do however have a white band above the eyes, which is mostly absent in C. sabaeus, so they might well be hybrids, which makes sense as these species were previously all lumped....
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I have no idea (I don't really know how to tell the species apart anyway). All I know about them is that they were imported in November 1996 from the USA as C. aethiops, which is what all the Chlorocebus were called then. Now they call them C. pygerythrus johnstoni. I don't know where in the USA they came from either.

Hybrids wouldn't surprise me at all.

For what it's worth, all the Werribee animals have strong white bands on the forehead (Vervet Monkey | Zoos Victoria).
 
lintworm said:
It certainly is not a pygerthrus, because those have a clearly visible black tip on the tail ;).
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hmm, looking at photos on the internet (as unreliable as that may be when I don't know what is labelled correctly and incorrectly) does show obvious black tail tips which the Werribee ones conspicuously lack. Do you know anything on how johnstoni might be different?

Or does tantalus look any better, or not?

I don't think I could agree with them being pure sabaeus because they all have really strong white brows which doesn't seem right.
 
Chlidonias said:
Do you know anything on how johnstoni might be different?

Or does tantalus look any better, or not?

I don't think I could agree with them being pure sabaeus because they all have really strong white brows which doesn't seem right.
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The problem is that johnstoni is a synonym and not a currently recognized Vervet subspecies and I have trouble finding in which currently recognized subspecies johnstoni is lumped. But based on the descriptions of the different subspecies, the differences are mainly in pelage color and size and have nothing to do with the characteristics that let these Australian monkeys look different from Vervets....

tantalus (just as aethiops) does have the white eye-brow, but should have a white tail tip and more white at the base of the tail, so that also does not fit.

I completely agree with you that these are very possible hybrids, as I have seen pictures of sabaeus with a bit of an eyebrow, but not as distinct as in the Werribbee animals. Overall they look most sabaeus, but there are some of the other green monkey taxa in it for sure, based on how they look probably tantalus or pygerythrus.
 
I cannot shed any further light on the Werribee animals, except to say that they were not related to the Perth individuals. Based on memory and Google images I would say that the Perth (now Gorge) individuals most resembled pygerythrus. Whether they were pure subspp...?
 
A couple of changes (just as a record), Taronga no longer has Axis Deer or Barbary Sheep - both removed to other zoos (Hunter Valley and TWPZ respectively, according to the Taronga news thread) to make way for the African Savannah developments.
 
animal_expert01 said:
I wonder if any of the orangutans currently kept in Australia are Pongo tapanuliensis.
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Its likely zoos worldwide may be wondering the same. However from the description of their habitat it sounds like they may have come into contact with people a lot less than the more Lowland-dwelling 'species.' so perhaps never captured. But interesting to find out.
 
Chlidonias said:
their website still lists six animals. But there should only be one male there now. I have no idea which of the two males is no longer there, or why. It's possible the other male may have gone to Tasmania though (but that is purely a guess). It's possible I'm wrong too, but my source should be accurate.
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The Zoos SA Annual report is now online, and one of the male Mandrills from Adelaide has indeed gone to Tasmania Zoo to keep the old female there company.
 
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