@WhistlingKite24 Everyone is right, your photos are absolutely amazing. Its a rare thing to see a photo of a Lumholtz' Tree Kangaroo and your shot is incredible.
Wildlife HQ Zoo Wildlife HQ News 2022
- Thread starter WhistlingKite24
- Start date
Wildlife HQ may have a small (albeit growing) number of species, but they’ve wisely focused on several charismatic species including Hamadryas baboon, African wild dog and Malayan sun bear.
A big cat species would be an exciting addition in the future. It’d be great if they joined the Sri Lankan leopard breeding programme, even if it was as a holder of a surplus non breeding leopard.
A first for any Queensland zoo and this has been well over three years in the making. A breeding pair of Northern White-cheeked Gibbons have arrived at Wildife HQ from Perth Zoo. The male Tao is a proven breeder that was imported from France in 2010 and female Tien was bred at Adelaide Zoo in 2014. They are now on-show next to the reptile house and are the zoo's 12th species of primate. The zoo has every intention to breed this species so fingers crossed they have a long and successful history with this charismatic species: How do two primates find love? They sing for it
Some notes from today’s visit to Wildlife HQ. Today is a public holiday in Brisbane but not in the Sunshine Coast so the zoo was pretty quiet allowing me to appreciate the new gibbons peacefully. I am loving the way the mammal collection is diversifying with 12 species of primate, a large variety of marsupials with two species of rock wallaby and two species of tree-kangaroo and a good array of carnivores in particular. However, there is only one bird aviary at the zoo with a pair of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos (no Sulphur-crested Cockatoo on-show anymore) so I hope birds will be featured in some way in the future:
- the pair of Northern White-cheeked Gibbons are settling in very well and were using all parts of their exhibit. As the enclosure is open-topped, a volunteer was present at all times to watch the female in particular and ensure she didn’t climb up the fence too high. This is only temporary as they settle in and understand the boundaries of their exhibit. The female Tien was particularly active while older male Tao remained largely in the poinciana tree. They have plenty of opportunity for brachiation and the aforementioned tree is superb for them providing shade and height well above visitors. Their enclosure: New White-cheeked Gibbon Enclosure - ZooChat
- the Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs have returned to their original exhibit next to the baboons while the Ring-tailed Lemurs are back on the island. The two surplus Emperor Tamarins are now in the café exhibit were some of their Cottontop Tamarins were. The Long-nosed Potoroos are next to the Sugar Gliders near the Servals now. The Cape Porcupines haven’t arrived yet.
- in true Wildlife HQ fashion, there was construction work. A new exhibit is being constructed between the Cottontop Tamarins and Common Marmosets behind the aerial walkways. It was lushly planted and had a few wooden platforms. The keepers were doing a lot of welding work so I couldn’t find out what is going in there.
Even a few additional showy parrots would do the trick. The zoo used to have a pair of Eclectus Parrots and macaws (from Alma Park Zoo) which at least provided the sound and colour. They have Brush-tailed Rock-Wallabies right at the front of the zoo which they bred a few years ago plus the new Yellow-footed Rock-Wallabies opposite the gibbons.Wildlife HQ are doing quite well and making their mark. Did you find out which species the second rock Wallaby species they have?.
A little surprised they don't have more birds in the collection but are particularly strong with primates.
I like the way they are developing, they do well with primates and small mammals. Adding some bird species would be a plus and as you pointed out perhaps some of the larger parrots species like Macaws.
I am glad they phased out the blackbuck, as the zoo is not really suited to larger hoofed animal species.
There does not appear to be any guide to how large the zoo area is?
Some parts of the zoo are getting pretty snug with new exhibits but a lot of the new enclosures have been replacing domestic animals (e.g. gibbon exhibit built on former alpaca yard, spider monkeys replacing goats, tree-kangaroo replacing pigs). There is a patch of rainforest that runs in between both main sections of the zoo and the siamang enclosure was the first animal exhibit to be constructed within this area. There is fair bit of space in that central patch of forest that can support expansion to connect both sections of the zoo.
Here's a map for those interested.
Looking at it, the zoo is larger than I expected and their collection looks wonderful. They have a similar amount of mammal species to city zoos like Melbourne, Perth and Taronga. The only thing I would add is a large bird aviary, and a small African Savannah area with Giraffes, Zebra and Lions and the zoo would be (in my opinion), possibly one of the best zoos in Australia, let alone Queensland.
Looking at it, the zoo is larger than I expected and their collection looks wonderful. They have a similar amount of mammal species to city zoos like Melbourne, Perth and Taronga. The only thing I would add is a large bird aviary, and a small African Savannah area with Giraffes, Zebra and Lions and the zoo would be (in my opinion), possibly one of the best zoos in Australia, let alone Queensland.
The zoo have done well in terms of being realistic in what they have the resources to exhibit. They have a strong focus on reptiles with at least 24 species; and 12 species of primate - consisting mostly of small monkeys, with a few medium sized species like Hamadryas baboon.
When you factor in that the zoo holds a ursid species (Malayan sun bear) and three canid species (African wild dog, Maned wolf and Dingo); all they really need to complete their collection is a couple of ungulates (perhaps zebra and nyala) and large felid species. Sri Lankan leopard would be a great fit for the zoo and easy to acquire within the region.
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I visited perhaps about 2 years ago when they had a group of blackbuck and they were cramped. I am unsure of the area of the zoo but much of what they have got at the current time is built among forest, I am not aware if they have any open areas for large mammals.
If tapir imports are forthcoming and bred successfully at Darling Downs Zoo and Adelaide etc. then that could be a better option for them than zebra and nyala. It’d be a long time goal that would give them plenty of time to work towards.
The Sri Lankan leopard would similarly require a smaller space than tigers or lions - especially considering the latter would have to be kept in a minimum of a pair or a trio.
I agree tapir’s would be a better option it would be interesting to know how large the area of the zoo is
The property is 41ha in size, though bearing in mind more than half is covered in forest, the useable land is currently at around 18ha if I was to hazard a guess.
That's still a decent amount of size; about equivalent to Melbourne Zoo.
They lot of potential with that unused space, but it'll depend on whether they want to extend into the space taken up by the forest.
For comparison, Alma Park Zoo was 16ha; so at 18ha, the useable space is comparable. 16ha is also the size of Auckland Zoo and we know how much they’ve managed to pack in.
The forest area could provide space for off display breeding facilities down the line. Auckland Zoo had off display exhibits for their golden cats, which saw them successfully breed this species and Wildlife HQ could construct similar to breed Clouded leopard or Fishing cat if they have an interest in either of these species. With the exception of Serval, they’re noticeably lacking in felids at this point in time.
Is that the entire Big Pineapple site, though, including the pineapple farm?