Adelaide Zoo So what happened to Greater???

Sarus Crane

Sarus Crane

Well-Known Member
5+ year member
I remember in early 2014 that the famed Greater Flamingo at the Adelaide Zoo named "Greater" was euthanized at the ripe old age of 83. He came to the zoo in 1933 and lived there in the Flamingo Grotto. He even survived an attack by ruthless teenage thugs in 2008 and lived with a Chilean Flamingo. There were plans to immortalize him in the South Australian Museum, but it seems like there haven't been any updates. Has anyone been there and seen him on display? Here is an article on the taxidermist from the museum.
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The still-frozen flamingo named Alexander, pictured above from the second article (from June 2017), is the Adelaide Zoo flamingo. The original name of Greater was Alexander.
 
Chlidonias said:
The still-frozen flamingo named Alexander, pictured above from the second article (from June 2017), is the Adelaide Zoo flamingo. The original name of Greater was Alexander.
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I didn't know that. Thanks. So many articles and news outlets referred to him as "Greater". It'd be great if someone could give us an update on whether he's been mounted if they visit the SA Museum.
 
Chile, the last flamingo in Australia, has been humanely euthanised due to her (yes, turns out it's 'her') declining health.

A very sad, watershed day for Adelaide and for Australian zoos.
 
Quite a sad day for our zoos. I wonder if looking at importing eggs like the Auckland zoo did from the UK could be an option for Aussie collections at some stage?
 
CGSwans said:
Chile, the last flamingo in Australia, has been humanely euthanised due to her (yes, turns out it's 'her') declining health.

A very sad, watershed day for Adelaide and for Australian zoos.
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That is very sad. As always with these remnant individuals, it was inevitable but still very sad.
 
Loxodonta Cobra said:
How difficult would it be to import new flamingos to Australia?
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How difficult is "currently impossible"? There is no legislation for importing birds into Australia other than for very specific species (mostly domestic commercial species).
 
Zorro said:
Quite a sad day for our zoos. I wonder if looking at importing eggs like the Auckland zoo did from the UK could be an option for Aussie collections at some stage?
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Auckland Zoo imported the founders of their current flock as chicks, not eggs. There was multiple quarantine requirements to be fullfilled including the condition that the youngest chick had to be a certain age before export could take place. The birds were all aged between six to eight weeks on the date of transfer.

It's such a shame that the Auckland Zoo can't supply some of the Australian Zoos now that their flock is breeding so well (six surviving chicks produced to date).

With the death of 'Greater' the Greater Flamingo and more recently the death of 'Chile' the Chilean Flamingo, the flock at Auckland Zoo has even greater significance as the only population of this species in the region. It's amazing to think that the six chicks produced over the last four years could live for another 60-70 years and with the founders aged only 17 years old themselves, the flock is hopefully sustainable for decades or even centuries to come.

With 22 flamingos in Auckland's flock, and hopefully further breeding to follow, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw one of the other major zoos take 8-10 of Auckland's flock to found their own population in the next decade or so. With such tight restrictions on imports, and Auckland's enclosure already looking full, this is surely the next step.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Auckland Zoo imported the founders of their current flock as chicks, not eggs. There was multiple quarantine requirements to be fullfilled including the condition that the youngest chick had to be a certain age before export could take place. The birds were all aged between six to eight weeks on the date of transfer.

It's such a shame that the Auckland Zoo can't supply some of the Australian Zoos now that their flock is breeding so well (six surviving chicks produced to date).

With the death of 'Greater' the Greater Flamingo and more recently the death of 'Chile' the Chilean Flamingo, the flock at Auckland Zoo has even greater significance as the only population of this species in the region. It's amazing to think that the six chicks produced over the last four years could live for another 60-70 years and with the founders aged only 17 years old themselves, the flock is hopefully sustainable for decades or even centuries to come.

With 22 flamingos in Auckland's flock, and hopefully further breeding to follow, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw one of the other major zoos take 8-10 of Auckland's flock to found their own population in the next decade or so. With such tight restrictions on imports, and Auckland's enclosure already looking full, this is surely the next step.
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It might be the logical next step, but maybe they need to consolidate breeding on site for a few years first. 22 is still a pretty small number as flamingo flocks go.
 
FBBird said:
It might be the logical next step, but maybe they need to consolidate breeding on site for a few years first. 22 is still a pretty small number as flamingo flocks go.
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That's no bad idea, if nothing else to establish which birds and breeding and which are not. Out of the seven chicks produced to date (six surviving), I'd be interested to know the parentage of them. I believe one of the 2018 chicks was referred to as a sibling to a previous chick (Otis) so it's likely they have at least a couple reliable breeding pairs, as well as some that have produced at least once and are likely too again. Curiously enough, 'Chick' the male born 2014 is believed to have fathered at least two of the chicks born in recent years. Impressive considering his parents took 13 years to get it together. There are obviously some 'lemons' amongst the flock which have never bred, and over time it may become obvious that they never will. My guess is these will be first up for relocation :D That's not cynnaism against Auckland Zoo, just suggestion of good buisness sense in my opinion if they want to maximise oppotunity for breeding with the space they have (and therefore maximise output of flamingos to supply the region).
 
Zoofan15 said:
With 22 flamingos in Auckland's flock, and hopefully further breeding to follow, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw one of the other major zoos take 8-10 of Auckland's flock to found their own population in the next decade or so.
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Twenty-two is an almost minimum baseline figure for establishing a flamingo flock. Auckland would be foolish to start trading birds until the flock size as at least triple that number!
 
toothlessjaws said:
Twenty-two is an almost minimum baseline figure for establishing a flamingo flock. Auckland would be foolish to start trading birds until the flock size as at least triple that number!
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I tend to agree having only 22 is quite small and should be built up to a greater number before letting some go to other zoos.I believe there is some interest within some of our zoos to try and get flamingos allowed to be imported at some stage!
 
Auckland flamingo flock needed 17 years to grow from 20 to 22 birds. Hopefully it will breed annually and show better results.

If we talk about flock size, EAZA husbandry guidelines state that "groups of a minimum of 20 birds should be maintained for 'good welfare' and 40 birds for 'regular breeding'".

So first Auckland´ flock needs to grow to 60 birds before they can send some birds to a new location.
 
Jana said:
Auckland flamingo flock needed 17 years to grow from 20 to 22 birds. Hopefully it will breed annually and show better results.

If we talk about flock size, EAZA husbandry guidelines state that "groups of a minimum of 20 birds should be maintained for 'good welfare' and 40 birds for 'regular breeding'".

So first Auckland´ flock needs to grow to 60 birds before they can send some birds to a new location.
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Well that's in large part due to the young age of the birds and the young age of program within NZ, you can as easily say that it required ~5 years to go from 16 to 22 birds, which is a 37% increase in population size. I expect the population will follow this trajectory into the future.
 
zooboy28 said:
Well that's in large part due to the young age of the birds and the young age of program within NZ, you can as easily say that it required ~5 years to go from 16 to 22 birds, which is a 37% increase in population size. I expect the population will follow this trajectory into the future.
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This is quite true the birds needed time to mature to adulthood before breeding took place the future looks bright for them, I would hope at some stage more could be imported with more bloodlines!
 
Zorro said:
This is quite true the birds needed time to mature to adulthood before breeding took place the future looks bright for them, I would hope at some stage more could be imported with more bloodlines!
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In itself that may not be a huge issue, but for program management authorities to be determined enough to do so for the region.
 
An update on the two last flamingos that lived in Australia (what a sad sentence that is to write). Almost three years on since the death of Australia's last flamingo, Chile - the last Chilean Flamingo - and Greater/Alexander - the last Greater Flamingo - are still in storage and are awaiting to be properly prepared to be eventually put on display in the South Australian Museum. However they need to fundraise $50 000 first...something tells me they will remain where they are for a little while longer. A news article from a few weeks ago:

 
WhistlingKite24 said:
An update on the two last flamingos that lived in Australia (what a sad sentence that is to write). Almost three years on since the death of Australia's last flamingo, Chile - the last Chilean Flamingo - and Greater/Alexander - the last Greater Flamingo - are still in storage and are awaiting to be properly prepared to be eventually put on display in the South Australian Museum. However they need to fundraise $50 000 first...something tells me they will remain where they are for a little while longer. A news article from a few weeks ago:

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It’s a shame Adelaide Zoo never knew (or cared) about the importance of importing a greater numbers of flamingos when they had the chance (Greater was imported 1933), and were therefore able to build up a sustainable flock as Auckland Zoo are now doing.

The fact they had two flamingos of two different species really illustrates the postage stamp method of collecting, where the merits of zoos of that era were judged solely on the number of taxa they held.
 
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