That's quite a good idea. A native Australian Owl species would be nice, such as Barn Owl or Barking Owl. Even a species of Eagle could be used, which could also double as a educational animal.
Melbourne Zoo Future of Melbourne Zoo 2022 (Speculation / Fantasy)
- Thread starter austrlain zoo gower
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That's quite a good idea. A native Australian Owl species would be nice, such as Barn Owl or Barking Owl. Even a species of Eagle could be used, which could also double as a educational animal.
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
I would like sun bears in the carnivores area and Indrah could go into the other enclosure?
I dont know if Melbourne would want the meerkats moving but you hardly ever see the tassie devil anyway but the enclosures are apparently purpose built but with a little bit of work the carnivores area could go from go to amazing what is the finally species list here is mine
Maned wolf
Lion
Serval
Snow leopard
Sun bear
Meerkat
Could be room for coati if Melbourne wanted to they could but them in the tree top ape area highly unloght
I dont know if Melbourne would want the meerkats moving but you hardly ever see the tassie devil anyway but the enclosures are apparently purpose built but with a little bit of work the carnivores area could go from go to amazing what is the finally species list here is mine
Maned wolf
Lion
Serval
Snow leopard
Sun bear
Meerkat
Could be room for coati if Melbourne wanted to they could but them in the tree top ape area highly unloght
Melbourne have extra space including caged enclosures behind the main Tiger enclosure. It's a whole big cat complex, and the elderly Snow Leopard pair used to reside there.
Komodo Dragons would actually suit that enclosure much much better. The Tasmanian Devil could easily move to the other enclosure; they have two but they could easily share the enclosure. Healesville also has a lot of space for this species.
They could place Coati in the Treetop trail, but they'll likely be phased out.
Rotational species exhibit:
Melbourne could potentially look at a rotational species exhibit like Perth have outlined in their masterplan. Two of the species they mention as rotating use of an exhibit are Sumatran tiger and Malayan sun bear, which could also rotate at Melbourne Zoo. The scent of the other species would prove highly enriching.
Malayan sun bear are highly sensitive to disturbances when breeding, so this would only be advisable for non breeding bears (which most of the sun bears in Australasia currently are anyway).
Potentially Snow leopard could be added to the rotational line up, keeping in mind they’d require access to their temperature controlled dens during summer.
This could be done with their Sumatran Tigers, and Snow Leopards; or Sun Bears and Snow Leopards in the future. The second Snow Leopard enclosure could be used for this purpose. I believe it's partially designed for Tigers too, so that works well.
The main Snow Leopard enclosure would advisably kept for Snow Leopards though. I don't imagine the Sun Bears will make the most of the rock face, and like the stony surface!
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Great idea you can easily source Komodo’s from Indonesia with all this my emended version
Maned wolf
Lion
Serval
Snow leopard
Sun bear and tiger on rotation
Komodo dragon
This would be the best outcome
Does anything inhabit the big cat enclosures or any general info about them
Maned wolf
Lion
Serval
Snow leopard
Sun bear and tiger on rotation
Komodo dragon
This would be the best outcome
Does anything inhabit the big cat enclosures or any general info about them
The cages behind the tiger enclosure?
Swanson02
Well-Known Member
This is a fun new thread 
On Melbourne's future, I personally believe that a good and quite cost-effective replacement for Melbourne's outgoing elephants could be a rotating Indian rhinoceros/Malayan Tapir exhibit. This mostly retains the trail's Southeast Asian theme and thus only requires a few North Indian/Malayan tweaks. (Sidenote: This idea has been mentioned numerous times by others before on different threads and I take no credit for it)
My thoughts sourcing-wise would involve transporting Hari the Indian rhino calf currently at TWPZ to Melbourne a little after he reaches maturity, this is beneficial to TWPZ as it opens up room for breeding. Likewise, Melbourne could shift its elderly Malayan Tapir Semangka into the exhibit too. This would free up her current exhibit for other uses (return of bongo maybe?). I'd also imagine Asian Water Buffalo which are cheap and easy to source locally within Australia could also be placed in the rotating exhibit complex either temporarily (to avoid it being empty), or permanently as a third-string species.
Obviously, this is a relatively quick fix with all the transfers involved being domestically within Australia. Later down the track, I'd prioritize -
1. Importing a few Malayan Tapir from Indonesia as Semangka is aging and may not even last till the exhibit's construction. This tapir import in order of my preference would consist of either a male/2 females, a male/1 female, or just a couple of ambassador female Tapirs. I'd preferably want a breeding group imported in conjunction with another breeding group at say Adelaide as this would spark a regional breeding program that could be sustained for 20+ years.
2. Importing a female Indian Rhinoceros to be paired with Hari, a female could likely be imported from either Europe, America, or even Japan. This would also open up a second breeding facility in Australasia. A caveat to this plan is I could see Hari instead ending up in Perth as they are in a similar situation to Melbourne but also have stated their intentions on acquiring Indian Rhino. The best-case scenario is we could end up with three facilities holding Indian rhino in the region instead of just one as we have now.
3. The last adjustment I would make would be minor renovations on the exhibits themselves. One improvement could be including some protected greenery. The exhibit is rather barren right now and a total of 5-6 Rhinos and Tapirs is a whole lot less destructive than a herd of 8-9 elephants. Also, tapirs routinely suffer from blindness in captivity so lowering the level of glaringly bright surfaces would be beneficial. Another adjustment would be removing some of the hilly surfaces and large rocks to open up the three exhibits by increasing the traversable area. Rhinos occasionally like to run/gallop so a more open enclosure could facilitate that a little. Lastly, I'd reduce some of the now redundant elephant barn space and add maybe an off-display yard or two for excess animals created by the two breeding programs
Finally, my yard configuration at any one time for this rotating exhibit would be one yard for a bull Indian rhino, a second yard for a cow and future calves, and the third yard for a Tapir cow and future calves. A bull Malayan tapir could be held in an off-display yard and would be rotated onto display every now and then, in exchange for any one of the other three.
Anyway my apologies for the really long message, I didn't intend for it to be this long
. I don't expect anyone to read it all but thanks for at least letting me indulge in my exhibit ideas and fantasies for Melbourne .
On Melbourne's future, I personally believe that a good and quite cost-effective replacement for Melbourne's outgoing elephants could be a rotating Indian rhinoceros/Malayan Tapir exhibit. This mostly retains the trail's Southeast Asian theme and thus only requires a few North Indian/Malayan tweaks. (Sidenote: This idea has been mentioned numerous times by others before on different threads and I take no credit for it)
My thoughts sourcing-wise would involve transporting Hari the Indian rhino calf currently at TWPZ to Melbourne a little after he reaches maturity, this is beneficial to TWPZ as it opens up room for breeding. Likewise, Melbourne could shift its elderly Malayan Tapir Semangka into the exhibit too. This would free up her current exhibit for other uses (return of bongo maybe?). I'd also imagine Asian Water Buffalo which are cheap and easy to source locally within Australia could also be placed in the rotating exhibit complex either temporarily (to avoid it being empty), or permanently as a third-string species.
Obviously, this is a relatively quick fix with all the transfers involved being domestically within Australia. Later down the track, I'd prioritize -
1. Importing a few Malayan Tapir from Indonesia as Semangka is aging and may not even last till the exhibit's construction. This tapir import in order of my preference would consist of either a male/2 females, a male/1 female, or just a couple of ambassador female Tapirs. I'd preferably want a breeding group imported in conjunction with another breeding group at say Adelaide as this would spark a regional breeding program that could be sustained for 20+ years.
2. Importing a female Indian Rhinoceros to be paired with Hari, a female could likely be imported from either Europe, America, or even Japan. This would also open up a second breeding facility in Australasia. A caveat to this plan is I could see Hari instead ending up in Perth as they are in a similar situation to Melbourne but also have stated their intentions on acquiring Indian Rhino. The best-case scenario is we could end up with three facilities holding Indian rhino in the region instead of just one as we have now.
3. The last adjustment I would make would be minor renovations on the exhibits themselves. One improvement could be including some protected greenery. The exhibit is rather barren right now and a total of 5-6 Rhinos and Tapirs is a whole lot less destructive than a herd of 8-9 elephants. Also, tapirs routinely suffer from blindness in captivity so lowering the level of glaringly bright surfaces would be beneficial. Another adjustment would be removing some of the hilly surfaces and large rocks to open up the three exhibits by increasing the traversable area. Rhinos occasionally like to run/gallop so a more open enclosure could facilitate that a little. Lastly, I'd reduce some of the now redundant elephant barn space and add maybe an off-display yard or two for excess animals created by the two breeding programs
Finally, my yard configuration at any one time for this rotating exhibit would be one yard for a bull Indian rhino, a second yard for a cow and future calves, and the third yard for a Tapir cow and future calves. A bull Malayan tapir could be held in an off-display yard and would be rotated onto display every now and then, in exchange for any one of the other three.
Anyway my apologies for the really long message, I didn't intend for it to be this long
. I don't expect anyone to read it all but thanks for at least letting me indulge in my exhibit ideas and fantasies for Melbourne .
This is a fun new thread
On Melbourne's future, I personally believe that a good and quite cost-effective replacement for Melbourne's outgoing elephants could be a rotating Indian rhinoceros/Malayan Tapir exhibit. This mostly retains the trail's Southeast Asian theme and thus only requires a few North Indian/Malayan tweaks. (Sidenote: This idea has been mentioned numerous times by others before on different threads and I take no credit for it)
My thoughts sourcing-wise would involve transporting Hari the Indian rhino calf currently at TWPZ to Melbourne a little after he reaches maturity, this is beneficial to TWPZ as it opens up room for breeding. Likewise, Melbourne could shift its elderly Malayan Tapir Semangka into the exhibit too. This would free up her current exhibit for other uses (return of bongo maybe?). I'd also imagine Asian Water Buffalo which are cheap and easy to source locally within Australia could also be placed in the rotating exhibit complex either temporarily (to avoid it being empty), or permanently as a third-string species.
Obviously, this is a relatively quick fix with all the transfers involved being domestically within Australia. Later down the track, I'd prioritize -
1. Importing a few Malayan Tapir from Indonesia as Semangka is aging and may not even last till the exhibit's construction. This tapir import in order of my preference would consist of either a male/2 females, a male/1 female, or just a couple of ambassador female Tapirs. I'd preferably want a breeding group imported in conjunction with another breeding group at say Adelaide as this would spark a regional breeding program that could be sustained for 20+ years.
2. Importing a female Indian Rhinoceros to be paired with Hari, a female could likely be imported from either Europe, America, or even Japan. This would also open up a second breeding facility in Australasia. A caveat to this plan is I could see Hari instead ending up in Perth as they are in a similar situation to Melbourne but also have stated their intentions on acquiring Indian Rhino. The best-case scenario is we could end up with three facilities holding Indian rhino in the region instead of just one as we have now.
3. The last adjustment I would make would be minor renovations on the exhibits themselves. One improvement could be including some protected greenery. The exhibit is rather barren right now and a total of 5-6 Rhinos and Tapirs is a whole lot less destructive than a herd of 8-9 elephants. Also, tapirs routinely suffer from blindness in captivity so lowering the level of glaringly bright surfaces would be beneficial. Another adjustment would be removing some of the hilly surfaces and large rocks to open up the three exhibits by increasing the traversable area. Rhinos occasionally like to run/gallop so a more open enclosure could facilitate that a little. Lastly, I'd reduce some of the now redundant elephant barn space and add maybe an off-display yard or two for excess animals created by the two breeding programs
Finally, my yard configuration at any one time for this rotating exhibit would be one yard for a bull Indian rhino, a second yard for a cow and future calves, and the third yard for a Tapir cow and future calves. A bull Malayan tapir could be held in an off-display yard and would be rotated onto display every now and then, in exchange for any one of the other three.
Anyway my apologies for the really long message, I didn't intend for it to be this long
The combination of Indian rhinoceros (from South Asia) and the Malayan tapir (South East Asia) are linked together perfectly by your suggestion of Water buffalo, which originates from both India and Indonesia.
Malayan tapir breeding programme:
Even if Water buffalo are omitted in order to allocate the other two species more space, I’ll happily overlook the geographical blend if it assists the establishment of a Malayan tapir breeding programme.
I’d personally import one male and two females and have three small off display yards that could house whatever permutation their social behaviour dictated - allowing for future breeding and space for juveniles. It would hopefully tie in with a joint import by Adelaide or another zoo to establish a thriving breeding programme.
Options for housing Indian rhinoceros:
There’s really three ways they could go with Indian rhinoceros:
1. Acquire Hari from Dubbo and import a female. Accept they wouldn’t see breeding results until at least 2030 given his age. Dubbo may also want to trial using him as a stimulant bull and be happy to retain him.
2. Import a new founder pair which would be minimally more work than importing a single female. From the perspective of a breeding programme, it’d be advantageous if the regional population wasn’t solely descended from one line with imports needed every generation.
3. Acquire Hari and allow him to mature until a decision is made on whether to import a female. This is the simplest and most cost effective solution - which also makes it the most likely imo. It would at least free up a third exhibit for Water buffalo for a decade or so until they make a decision.
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Biggest paddoc could consist of hari, males mature at about 10 and females 5 to 7, Indiana rhinos love to swim so a paddock with water maybe ideal
Second paddoc could consist if Malayan tapir if there Malayan tapir dies out the could import one form Singapore a male call Bintang who was born I think in 2020 or 21 as they are solitoarty and only like to spend time with males when breeding there could be 2 females in the second paddoc and a male in the third the third paddoc is relatively small
Blackbuk could be spread across the Indian rhino exhibit and all the animals could easily be moved daily although most of these animals are sensitive to change.
As the peccaries would have died out and i can see they are not going to import anymore they could combined the tapir and peccaries inclosure and to some small tweaking to the peccaries one and maybe get rid of the pool plants some new plants change the fence and that would be a cheep fix, you could import a male bongo from western plains zoo and a female form somewhere in Asia. When i went to Melbourne in April the yard where the bongos used to live the lawn hasn’t ween been cut so potentual room for another animas but they could use the exibibt as a holding yard for the Nyala coming soon is there a timeframe for that and they could connect it to the zebra and giraffe enclosure
Having Malayan tapir and bongos would also have its benefits in conservation.
Sorry for a long thread
Btw: on a behind the scene of Singapore zoo on tv i heard that Bintang was a male so probalry wont want to keep him around to long
Second paddoc could consist if Malayan tapir if there Malayan tapir dies out the could import one form Singapore a male call Bintang who was born I think in 2020 or 21 as they are solitoarty and only like to spend time with males when breeding there could be 2 females in the second paddoc and a male in the third the third paddoc is relatively small
Blackbuk could be spread across the Indian rhino exhibit and all the animals could easily be moved daily although most of these animals are sensitive to change.
As the peccaries would have died out and i can see they are not going to import anymore they could combined the tapir and peccaries inclosure and to some small tweaking to the peccaries one and maybe get rid of the pool plants some new plants change the fence and that would be a cheep fix, you could import a male bongo from western plains zoo and a female form somewhere in Asia. When i went to Melbourne in April the yard where the bongos used to live the lawn hasn’t ween been cut so potentual room for another animas but they could use the exibibt as a holding yard for the Nyala coming soon is there a timeframe for that and they could connect it to the zebra and giraffe enclosure
Having Malayan tapir and bongos would also have its benefits in conservation.
Sorry for a long thread
Btw: on a behind the scene of Singapore zoo on tv i heard that Bintang was a male so probalry wont want to keep him around to long
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Is the white cheek gibbon pair they have a breeding pare I believe they are about 13 to 15 years old.
Animals that o would like to see at Melbourne zoo
Bongo
Mandrill
Maned wolf
Komodo dragon
Capybara
Mara
Aaardvark
They could turn the growing wild area into a little South American area as it is highly undereprestented this could consist of
Mara
Capybara
Naked mole rat
The Mara could in habit the tortoise habitat the meerkats moved the the centre of the zoo and could have a new capybara habitat how much space is there at growing wild
Animals that o would like to see at Melbourne zoo
Bongo
Mandrill
Maned wolf
Komodo dragon
Capybara
Mara
Aaardvark
They could turn the growing wild area into a little South American area as it is highly undereprestented this could consist of
Mara
Capybara
Naked mole rat
The Mara could in habit the tortoise habitat the meerkats moved the the centre of the zoo and could have a new capybara habitat how much space is there at growing wild
It’d be nice to see Eastern bongo return to Melbourne Zoo. My preference would be to see them support Werribee Open Range Zoo by holding a surplus founder bull; while the open range zoo holds a breeding herd of 1.3 founders. The surplus bull at Melbourne could then be swapped with the initial breeding bull to breed with his daughters after several years.
It seems inevitable that Melbourne will allow their peccaries to die out; but on that note, I’m frustrated they were never sent anywhere that would breed them. Surely Altina or somewhere could have successfully bred them into a robust (albeit highly inbred) population. We’ll never be able to import more.
The most likely source for Malayan tapir is Europe or South East Asia. They’ve imported from Europe before, where they’re held across several zoos and it’d be easy to source unrelated animals.
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
My trail lists
Gorrila rainforest
Ring-tailed lemurs, the bachelor group is fine
Black and white ruffed lemur- breeding would be cool but bachelor is ok
Western lowland Gorrila- I would love to see more breeding kimya is 50 so will probably die soon and that will leave three importation of 3 females would be great if they didnt do this, Adelaide has expressed intresssed in Gorrila but i dont think Melbourne would want to lose them
Pygmy Hippo- I want to see a breeding pare Melbourne has the facilities to do it two exhibits
Mandrills- a breeding pare would be nice
Tree top monkeys and apes
White cheeked gibbon- i belive breeding pare so baby’s in the future?
Cotton top tamarin- pretty successful breeding
Colubus monkey- it would be nice to see a breeding pare
Spider monkey- good breeding troop
Slow loris ore tree shew would be cool in the small exhibit
white faced saki- in the biggest avalable monkey and would be the first holder in the country could import from Asia
Tree kangaroo or some sort of interesting creature
Empire tamarin- breeding pare would be nice
Gorrila rainforest
Ring-tailed lemurs, the bachelor group is fine
Black and white ruffed lemur- breeding would be cool but bachelor is ok
Western lowland Gorrila- I would love to see more breeding kimya is 50 so will probably die soon and that will leave three importation of 3 females would be great if they didnt do this, Adelaide has expressed intresssed in Gorrila but i dont think Melbourne would want to lose them
Pygmy Hippo- I want to see a breeding pare Melbourne has the facilities to do it two exhibits
Mandrills- a breeding pare would be nice
Tree top monkeys and apes
White cheeked gibbon- i belive breeding pare so baby’s in the future?
Cotton top tamarin- pretty successful breeding
Colubus monkey- it would be nice to see a breeding pare
Spider monkey- good breeding troop
Slow loris ore tree shew would be cool in the small exhibit
white faced saki- in the biggest avalable monkey and would be the first holder in the country could import from Asia
Tree kangaroo or some sort of interesting creature
Empire tamarin- breeding pare would be nice
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Peccaries are an interesting species and people are always intrigued by them but i thing Melbourne is heading for more basic animals. Sad to loose the
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Any info about the big cat cages behind the tigers size, any info like that
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Melbourne Zoo have a potential breeding pair of Northern white-cheeked gibbon. Jin-Huan (male) was born 24/07/2006 at Toledo Zoo; and has been paired with Li-Lian (female), who was born 02/06/2007 at Perth Zoo.
Li-Lian has Melbourne heritage. Her mother, Nelly (born 1996 at Wellington Zoo), was sired by a male named Vilson (born 1987 at Melbourne Zoo).
If you want to find details on specific animals within the region, many are covered in population lists written by @Zoofan15, @WhistlingKite24, @akasha and @Patrick Keegan.
Here’s a link to the index: Australasian Population List Index
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
Where did I you find this map
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
What does the map represent