Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo News 2020

Update on Snow Leopard Import

Wellington Zoo a step closer to finally getting snow leopards

A $3.7 million project to bring snow leopards to Wellington is one step closer. The capital's zoo is looking to find someone to design and project manage the building of a new enclosure for the animals.

The zoo could not comment directly but said in an emailed statement that patrons would likely view the carnivorous Central Asian cats by late 2021, or early 2022.

Wellington Zoo's animal welfare experts would work alongside the successful designer to "ensure the habitat provides the best possible animal welfare for snow leopards", the statement said.

The Wellington City Council will take on 75 per cent of the project, which has been budgeted through its Long-Term Plan. The zoo's trust will make up the rest through fundraising.

Once the enclosure is complete, it will apply for two critically endangered snow leopards to come to Wellington from another zoo, through the global species management programme, "We will not know the age or gender of the snow leopards we will care for until we have had further discussions with the global species coordinator."

Wellington Zoo CEO Karen Fifield told Stuff in 2018 the zoo did not plan to breed the cats and that she believed the New Zealand climate would not be an issue for the cats, which she expected to come from a United States zoo.

The campaign to bring snow leopards to the capital began in May 2011, after plans to bring two giant pandas to Wellington Zoo were shelved.

It was delayed due to money issues but revived in April 2018 when Wellington City Council set aside about $3.5m in its draft 2018-28 LTP to rehome a pair from a zoo in the United States within roughly two years.

While the initial timeframe and budget has been expanded, the tender process marks the beginnings of the project getting off the ground.

The new pen for the large cats will be the former sun bear habitat.
 
Snow leopards are not critically endangered. They are vulnerable.

Nonetheless, if Wellington is not planning on breeding them, probably best they don't invest $3.7 million on an enclosure.....
 
A couple of notes from a visit today:

The former baboon enclosure now has some inhabitants - Boer goats. At least it is being used instead of sitting there empty.

All the Blue-tongue Skink tanks in the old elephant house are uninhabited now (before just the end one was empty). Only the fourth tank (with bell frogs) is still occupied.
 
toothlessjaws said:
Nonetheless, if Wellington is not planning on breeding them, probably best they don't invest $3.7 million on an enclosure.....
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Perhaps Wellington Zoo are being realistic with what they can do here. While the disused sun bear exhibit contains a maternity annex that was once adequate for rearing sun bear cubs; the costs to renovate this to a standard adequate for Snow leopard cubs would add to the $3.7 million.

Recommendations to breed Snow leopards are not given readily, much less to zoos who have just acquired the species. If the chances of being able to breed in the next 10 years are slim to zero, why spend that money unnecessarily?

Acquiring two non breeding Snow leopards will give the zoo an exciting new draw card; boost visitation and compliment their Asian collection. Then, when they pass on in 10-15 years, they can reassess whether they want to continue; or swap to a species more widely supported by the region i.e. Sri Lankan leopard.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Wellington Zoo has welcomed the birth of a Bolivian Squirrel Monkey. This is the zoo’s first squirrel monkey birth in five years.
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I saw the baby Squirrel Monkey today.

It is the Wellington Anniversary Day, hence a public holiday within the city, and the zoo was very busy!

In "latest visit news", I haven't seen the porcupines for ages but was never sure if they were actually still in the Meerkat enclosure or not (the viewing windows into their dens are now mirrored, making viewing almost impossible). I assumed they weren't on display any longer but didn't know for sure. However all the porcupine signage has now been removed from the exhibit.
 
Wellington Zoo has mentioned in a recent Facebook post that they currently have a female Goliath Bird-eating Spider sitting on an egg sac. The keepers mention that it’s due to hatch in the coming days. If this hatching is successful this will be the first time the species has bred in Australasia.
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WhistlingKite24 said:
Wellington Zoo has welcomed the birth of a Bolivian Squirrel Monkey. This is the zoo’s first squirrel monkey birth in five years.
Wellington Zoo
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WhistlingKite24 said:
Wellington Zoo has welcomed another baby Bolivian Squirrel Monkey to first-time mother Kantuta.
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The two Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys born earlier in the year have been sexed - one male and one female. The zoo are now asking the general public to select their names from a list of options.
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WhistlingKite24 said:
The two Bolivian Squirrel Monkeys born earlier in the year have been sexed - one male and one female. The zoo are now asking the general public to select their names from a list of options.
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Urghh. I hate it when zoos do this. I get that it gets everyone engaging with their social media; and it saves them time as it weeds out the stupid suggestions (which probably make up 90% of entries); but unless it comes down to a single vote - me entering isn’t going to even slightly influence the outcome. Even if the name I ‘chose’ won, I didn’t even choose it.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
A Nyala calf was born on Easter Monday.
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Another one! Auckland and Wellington Zoo are doing well with breeding Nyala. Hamilton Zoo is apparently going to hold a bachelor herd, with three males from Auckland Zoo. If castrated, males could remain in the herd long term without issue. Females can give birth every seven months, so both zoos will need to look at options for contraception soon.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Another one! Auckland and Wellington Zoo are doing well with breeding Nyala. Hamilton Zoo is apparently going to hold a bachelor herd, with three males from Auckland Zoo. If castrated, males could remain in the herd long term without issue. Females can give birth every seven months, so both zoos will need to look at options for contraception soon.
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Maybe perhaps instead of castrating them send them to some Australian zoos who dont have any?
 
Zorro said:
Maybe perhaps instead of castrating them send them to some Australian zoos who dont have any?
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Agreed. Send bloodlines on to Australian zoos for benefit of (better) population management.
I would feel one of the open range zoos might actually have the space to start up a bachelor herd (or 2 ..) too.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Agreed. Send bloodlines on to Australian zoos for benefit of (better) population management.
I would feel one of the open range zoos might actually have the space to start up a bachelor herd (or 2 ..) too.
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There are a number of regional zoos in Aust that have interest in antelope species like this such as Altina and Darling downs zoo and others why waste said animals when there is a better option within the region!
 
Astrobird said:
Nyala live in mixed sex herds in the wild, why couldn't zoos keep them the same way?
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Probably to prevent inbreeding of young males with their female relatives. Most of the zoos founded their herds with a single male, so any of his sons would be related to all first generation females (his sisters or half sisters); as well as his mother and etc.

It’s better to allow the incumbent male to sire several daughters; export his sons from the herd; then replace him with an unrelated male.
 
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