Adelaide Zoo Adelaide Zoo News 2018

Zoofan15

Zoofan15

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To start the year with some positive news, Adelaide Zoo has announced the birth of meerkat triplets, who have emerged from their burrow this week.

Here's hoping 2018 is a year of positive news for Adelaide, who lost a number of their favourite animals last year. Could this be the year they finally see a Giant Panda birth?

Meerkat Pups Debut

Meerkat triplets born at Adelaide Zoo

Born on Christmas Eve, the week-old pups are the third litter born to parents Minie and Swazi.

In July, the new parents welcomed their first pups, a litter of five, and the family grew again in October with the arrival of another three pups.

The older pups have been very interactive with their smaller siblings, helping mum and dad out with babysitting duties!

The sex of the newest pups will be confirmed in a few months’ time when they receive their first check-up and vaccinations.

Visitors to Adelaide Zoo will start to see the tiny triplets in their habitat in front of the Giraffe for short periods each day, as they grow in confidence and start to explore the outside world.

Adelaide Zoo is proud to have bred more than 80 Meerkats since 1993.
 
Adelaide's baby baboon has died as a result of a spinal injury, no sign of discomfort or distress was noted but its thought to be the result of an altercation between the adults. Rather distressing for the keepers and staff there.
 
Astrobird said:
Adelaide's baby baboon has died as a result of a spinal injury, no sign of discomfort or distress was noted but its thought to be the result of an altercation between the adults. Rather distressing for the keepers and staff there.
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That's really sad. Adelaide have an adult pair (1.1) and their 2.0 offspring born 2014 and 2016. Do you know if the altercation was between the mother and father, or mother and eldest offspring?
 
Adelaide Zoo Prepare for Giant Panda Birthing Window

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Forget Mad March, Adelaide Zoo is preparing for the Panda birthing season.

Fu Ni has been displaying behaviour since Christmas that senior panda keeper Jaimee Foote says they would expect to see “if she was pregnant or having a pseudo pregnancy”.

“She went from the bulking up stage where she was eating lots of bamboo ... from then, her appetite decreased, she started sleeping a lot more,” Ms Foote said. “She normally becomes sensitive to noise ... but this year we just see her as a happy and content panda, which hopefully is a good thing.”

Fu Ni now has access to her cubbing den where she has started nest building.

Fertility experts are analysing urine samples, preparations are underway to fly experts over from China and, for first time, ultrasound training is being performed on Fu Ni twice a week. Senior vet Dr Ian Smith said hormone samples from the September breeding window confirmed an implantation.

“Whether this is a pseudo implantation or a real implantation, it’s hard to tell, but we’ve certainly done an implantation, and that starts our clock ticking,” he said. The zoo expects to know if we have a baby panda on the way by the end of February.

The shortest panda pregnancy recorded was 74 days while the longest has been around 320 days.
 
A blackbuck from Monarto is currently being hand-raised at Adelaide Zoo in the children zoo alongside the herd of fallow deer.

There’s a gorgeous new face at Adelaide Zoo: Willow the adorable Blackbuck calf!
Born on 6 November last year, two-month-old Willow is busy learning the business of being a Blackbuck and delighting keepers with her playful antics.

As a growing bub, Willow absolutely loves meal times and is currently being bottle-fed specialised ungulate milk three times a day.

Some of her other favourite treats include hackberry and mulberry leaves. Fig leaves are proving a little more difficult, but the tiny calf is growing fast and quickly learning how to tear the leaves apart in exactly the right way!

Willow was born into the 40-strong Blackbuck herd at Monarto Zoo but, sadly, the calf’s mum didn’t take well to motherhood and Willow was rejected.

Quickly, staff made the decision to transfer the little one to Adelaide Zoo where she could be cared for and handraised by our dedicated Children’s Zoo keepers.

Blackbuck are very social animals, and Willow’s budding friendship with 13-year-old fallow deer Blitzen proves that close companions aren’t always limited to the same species!

She also loves playing with her keepers, frequently nibbling their faces and hair, as well as practicing jumping high into the air with them – a signature behaviour of her species known as ‘pronking’.

Sadly, Blackbuck in the wild are facing increasing destruction of their habitat for agricultural purposes, and are illegally hunted for their spectacular sweeping horns.

As a conservation charity, Zoos SA is proud to be securing a future for the species and has bred over 300 Blackbuck at Monarto Zoo.

Right now, Willow is growing up in the comfort of a behind the scenes nursery, but once she’s bigger you’ll be able to come and say hello to her in Children’s Zoo.
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Fu Ni is not pregnant

Giant Panda Fu Ni experiences pseudo pregnancy

Late last week, Fu Ni’s urinary progesterone level – a hormone associated with pregnancy – declined which meant she was either preparing to give birth or nearing the end of a pseudo pregnancy.

This hormonal change coincided with behaviours that strongly suggest she experienced a pseudo birth, including appetite changes, denning and finally adopting a toy as a surrogate baby.

Zoos SA Senior Panda Keeper Jaimee Foote said the panda team had been treating Fu Ni as though she was pregnant since September when three artificial inseminations were performed, but were never able to confirm she was with cub.

“During a pseudo pregnancy, hormonal changes and behaviours are identical to those of a true pregnancy, making it very difficult to determine if a Giant Panda is actually pregnant or not,” Jaimee said.

“Apart from a birth, the only definitive way to confirm pregnancy in pandas is through a comprehensive ultrasound examination where a foetus can be seen in the last few weeks of a pregnancy.

“While Fu Ni has allowed us to ultrasound her for short periods, and the ultrasounds showed some swelling and thickening of the uterus, we weren’t able to confirm a foetus.

“Over the weekend, she has since adopted a toy and spends the day cradling and holding it close to her chest, which is totally consistent with a pseudo pregnancy.

“We’ll continue to monitor Fu Ni closely as she will now need time to recover and to eventually move on from her adopted toy.

“This is Wang Wang and Fu Ni’s fourth genuine attempt at breeding and we remain determined to help them on their journey to parenthood.”

Zoos SA Veterinarian Dr David McLelland said the team was hopeful this time around after three successful artificial inseminations were carried out last year.

“We were extremely pleased with last year’s artificial insemination procedures, with results again confirming that Wang Wang’s semen is of a high quality,” David said.

“Artificial insemination has played an important role in the captive breeding of Giant Pandas around the world due to the species’ unique reproductive biology, but it doesn’t guarantee a pregnancy and subsequent birth.

“Their complicated reproductive biology presents a number of challenges; however ongoing research efforts continue to improve our understanding of panda reproduction and hence improve our chances of success.”

Zoos SA Chief Executive Elaine Bensted says activities that have occurred since the breeding season will put the zoo in good stead for future breeding seasons.

“Although Fu Ni did not give birth this year, we have every hope that she will go on to become a mother in the future,” Elaine said.

“We have always known that breeding the Southern Hemisphere’s only Giant Pandas was going to be incredibly challenging.

“We are working with the very best panda experts in the world; I would personally like to thank everyone involved for their professionalism and passion over many months of preparation.

“With less than 1,864 Giant Pandas living in the wild, Wang Wang and Fu Ni are powerful ambassadors for their species and since arriving in Australia they’ve played an important part in international Giant Panda conservation.”

Fu Ni may or may not be visible to the public over the coming days as she is choosing to spend time off exhibit in her den.
 
A couple of updates from a visit yesterday

- The Eastern brown snake's have been replaced with a red bellied black snake
- Black and White Colobus are now on display in the cage on the back of the nocturnal house
- In the nocturnal house the fish tanks have been boarded up as have all of the reptile enclosure's along the front with the exception of the rhino iguana exhibit.
- One of the goodfellow's tree kangaroo's is now inhabiting one half of the former matschie's tree kangaroo exhibit
- A cane toad is now on exhibit in the envirodome
- The Hermann's tortoise which was being housed in the children's zoo nursery is now in one half of the guinea pig exhibit.
 
So is this species another phase out or is it being phased back in again I cant keep up with what is out and in again these days!
 
I think they have 2.2 Dusky Langurs (Jingga, Nanti, Nakal and Tevi), all full siblings.

According to the Master Plan, black and white colobus are to be part of Adelaide Zoo's 'Into Africa' exhibit. Presumably, this is on the cards, funding dependent.
 
marmolady said:
I think they have 2.2 Dusky Langurs (Jingga, Nanti, Nakal and Tevi), all full siblings.

According to the Master Plan, black and white colobus are to be part of Adelaide Zoo's 'Into Africa' exhibit. Presumably, this is on the cards, funding dependent.
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If they do not have unrelated stock, why no exchange of individuals with S.E. Asia, Singapore or EAZA zoo network?
 
toothlessjaws said:
Australian & New Zealand Zoos appear to be infected with what I can only describe as a culture of determination to do the bare minimum at absolutely all times.
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You do have a point its been interesting to watch over the years how our major zoos have been phasing out many species from its collections even some endangered species like maned wolfs and ongers only to have some of the smaller regional zoo to take up the species and doing a better jobs of it. I will be watching how far our animal collections will dwindle down over the future years and now with Taronga zoos new asian rain forest I believe is going to house just Tigers, I really feel our big state zoos are losing their way only to have our much smaller regional zoos taking over to show the big guys how it should be done
 
Akbar the Sun Bear has been put to sleep due to old age health issues on 17 May. He was 31 years old and the oldest Sun Bear in Australia. He had been at Adelaide since 1994 (originally a rescue animal from Thailand).

From the email newsletter the zoo sends out.
 
Chlidonias said:
Akbar the Sun Bear has been put to sleep due to old age health issues on 17 May. He was 31 years old and the oldest Sun Bear in Australia. He had been at Adelaide since 1994 (originally a rescue animal from Thailand).

From the email newsletter the zoo sends out.
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31 is a decent age for a sun bear. I understand he was kept with two females during his time at Adelaide:

Dewi (imported 1994, died 2010)

Manji (imported 2007, died 2013)

Does anyone know if there were ever attempts to breed?
 
@Zoofan15, a very valid question. We seem to be revolving on this one.
It would be nice if this ZAA program would function properly ....

In several ways the ZAA program can contribute: 1) conservation breedin; 2) ex situ conservation education; 3) ambassodor species for S.E. Asia and in situ support .....
 
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