Taronga Zoo Recent history of Taronga and developments etc

[Zoofan15]

really like this photo from 8 Jan 1993 of Raya the Sun Bear with a wild Eastern Water Dragon in the foreground. It seems her full named may of been Raya Puteri, didn't know that. Glad she got to have impressive longevity at 32 years of age when she passed at Alma Park in 2011/2012? (having left Taronga for Alma Park in 1997). Know she arrived from Malaysia in 1992, this Gettyimages photo seems to imply it was the Christmas/January summer period of Dec '92-Jan '93 when Raya was first seen by the visiting public.

(from Sun Bear Emerges At Taronga Zoo -- As the sun is finally emerging... News Photo - Getty Images)

The summary is cut off but google picked up on some continuation of it (only to be cut short again): {8 January 1993}
''Sun Bear Emerges At Taronga Zoo -- As the sun is finally emerging this Sydney summer, so is a new resident at Taronga Zoo - a magnificent Malaysian Sun Bear!The Sun Bear is the smallest member of the bear family. It has a short black coat and a distinctive..(assume would of said distinctive golden chest coating along those lines)..Taronga's new sun bathing bear, 'Raya Puteri', can be seen lapping up the heat and feasting on all sorts of sweet tasting foods - bananas, ...(cuts off again)''

Great photo! Raya was still alive in October 2010, but appears to have died sometime before then and when Maly was transferred from Perth Zoo in June 2011 - I’d guess around April or May of that year.

Raya originally lived with a male sun bear named Shar, who also came from Taronga Zoo.

 

[steveroberts]

Great photo! Raya was still alive in October 2010, but appears to have died sometime before then and when Maly was transferred from Perth Zoo in June 2011 - I’d guess around April or May of that year.

Raya originally lived with a male sun bear named Shar, who also came from Taronga Zoo.

Cheers bro, whoever at Fairfax took the photo was there at the perfect moment hey. Oh right (ie Raya) hey did Shar come from Taronga to Alma Park at the same time as Raya? or was his arrival earlier?

 

[Zoofan15]

Cheers bro, whoever at Fairfax took the photo was there at the perfect moment hey. Oh right (ie Raya) hey did Shar come from Taronga to Alma Park at the same time as Raya? or was his arrival earlier?

As mentioned on @jay’s site, they were retired from Taronga (it’s implied together); and were the second pair of bears to live at Alma Park Zoo:

A list of Animals at Alma Park Zoo

Other landmark inhabitants of the zoo are the two elderly sunbears, Shar, the male, and Raya the female. Both animals are in their twenties and were retired to Alma Park from Taronga. They are the second pair to live in this enclosure as the zoos original bears have died.

 

[steveroberts]

@Zoofan15 Thanks man for forwarding Jay's info. That makes sense, I wonder if Shar arrived with Raya from Malaysia in '92 because remembered the exhibit they lived in had just had the American Black Bears depart in turn for Malaysia (never saw them obviously was Raya & Shar between 1994 to the end of 1996, from memory Shar had a white blotch on his nose).

 

[Zoofan15]

@Zoofan15 Thanks man for forwarding Jay's info. That makes sense, I wonder if Shar arrived with Raya from Malaysia in '92 because remembered the exhibit they lived in had just had the American Black Bears depart in turn for Malaysia (never saw them obviously was Raya & Shar between 1994 to the end of 1996, from memory Shar had a white blotch on his nose).

I would assume so. They seemed like a closely bonded pair and were around the same age. Twins are rare in this species, so I’d assume they were an unrelated pair.

They weren’t at the zoo for long, with them making way for the Cambodian imports in 1997, that were younger and had a chance at breeding.

That’s interesting to hear about Shar’s unique marking. Chomel at Wellington Zoo had a black spot on her sun marking. Due to this, she was originally named Spot.

 

[steveroberts]

@Zoofan15 Oh that's interesting about Chomel and how her name was Spot which I assume was when she was in the US (remember a lot from your really interesting and detailed biography about her). Yeah that makes sense about Raya & Shar and the likeliness of their arriving together because of being a closely bonded pair. It was interesting and shows Taronga's stretch of influence where after only having them for four years they could send them up north to live at Alma Park (remember seeing footage of Dr Harry Cooper feeding the original Sun Bear pair at Alma Park in a '94 doco where he tours zoos in Australia and overseas like Singapore and San Diego) because of Raya & Shar being an aged pair in comparison to the first Cambodian rescue trio of Mr Hobbs, Victoria & Lucille (pretty certain it was January 1997 they arrived). Until a few years ago had assumed Raya & Shar (not that I knew their names) had been at Taronga for close to twenty years themselves but then learnt from Hix about the American Black Bears being in the 'canyon' exhibit at the bottom of the zoo from '79-'92 (with Jay's site actually remember seeing that Angelfire site years ago in 2003 but forgot some of the info on it).

ps so weird clicked like on your last post but then when refreshed page cos my internet was playing up it hadn't done it..my net is so odd sometimes lol

 

[Zoofan15]

@Zoofan15 Oh that's interesting about Chomel and how her name was Spot which I assume was when she was in the US (remember a lot from your really interesting and detailed biography about her). Yeah that makes sense about Raya & Shar and the likeliness of their arriving together because of being a closely bonded pair. It was interesting and shows Taronga's stretch of influence where after only having them for four years they could send them up north to live at Alma Park (remember seeing footage of Dr Harry Cooper feeding the original Sun Bear pair at Alma Park in a '94 doco where he tours zoos in Australia and overseas like Singapore and San Diego) because of Raya & Shar being an aged pair in comparison to the first Cambodian rescue trio of Mr Hobbs, Victoria & Lucille (pretty certain it was January 1997 they arrived). Until a few years ago had assumed Raya & Shar (not that I knew their names) had been at Taronga for close to twenty years themselves but then learnt from Hix about the American Black Bears being in the 'canyon' exhibit at the bottom of the zoo from '79-'92 (with Jay's site actually remember seeing that Angelfire site years ago in 2003 but forgot some of the info on it).

ps so weird clicked like on your last post but then when refreshed page cos my internet was playing up it hadn't done it..my net is so odd sometimes lol

Chomel was born 02/08/1988 at the Miami Metro Zoo (now Zoo Miami). Her mate (born 1989 at San Diego Zoo) was named Stanley, but Wellington Zoo renamed them Bakti (meaning honour) and Chomel (meaning cute).

Chomel was a twin and at least two her five litters with Bakti consisted of twins (due to her cannibalising some of her cubs, it wasn’t possible to rule out if one of the apparent single births wasn’t twins). Her sixth litter (with Sean) consisted of a single cub (Sasa).

It’s a shame Chomel’s line hasn’t been continued via Sasa as research documents suggest the phenomenon of twins in Chomel’s reproductive history is genetic.

 

[Hix]

Taronga's correspondent was kind, she unfortunately could not find any more detail on where the first Fishing Cats at the zoo were housed prior to the April 1993 completed 'Jungle Cats' enclosure: ''I am unable to provide details of where the first fishing cats were originally housed. The original enclosure name is ASH-01 but I do not have access to the information where it was located as most of our archive records is now stored offsite.''

@Hix was wondering if you recall them (Fishing Cats) being where the Jaguars were kept in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. If so the Fishing Cat(s) would of been there 1991 & 1992?

I'm afraid my first recollection of them was in the Jungle Cats exhibit. I don't know where they were before that.

The footage in an earlier post did contain a Leopard Seal. At that time Taronga had two on display in the seal pools, Murphy and Sheba.



Hix

 

[steveroberts]

@Hix Thanks Hix, had a strong feeling was a Leopard Seal in footage. There is this tiny mention in a 2002 heritage report of Taronga that mentions early works in the early 1990s around Taronga after that several million $ budget was announced in October 1989 (sounds like Snow Leopard Mountain was project number one), but besides mentioning the 'toilet block' Tamarin exhibit it also mentioned a new Komodo Dragon exhibit (so thought perhaps exhibit first saw Tuka housed in in July/August 1994 might perhaps of been more recent than assuming was same exhibit Keith & female Komodo lived in during 60s, 70s and 80s? also mentioned a Reticulated Python exhibit, the SC Otter exhibit (assuming one use to be to the east of old Red Panda exhibits), Meerkat exhibit (assuming old one that replaced Agoutis), and Fishing Cats with brackets saying former Jaguar exhibit. I remember you mentioning Ali the Jaguar moved down to 'dog row' in the old Mandrill exhibit c.1990 so thought perhaps for about 2 years maybe a bit less the first Fishing Cats (Cites records note imported in 1991) were perhaps housed here, also remember you mentioning the Dholes were next door for a while too right? (albeit housed in Dog Row for their arrival like the temporary Cheetah and Maned Wolves were before going on to Dubbo and obviously come early 1990s the Dholes were in 'dog row' again) does this sound accurate to you? One more curiosity were the Puma trio and the Servals, Caracals and Jaguarundi still housed in their enclosures between the Tahr Mountain and Tiger Pit up until renovations for Snow Leopard Mountain began to your recollection? (sorry for bombardment of questions yet again).

 

[Hix]

In the 1990 P1 vision at 4:40, that particular enclosure on the right held Johnstone's Crocodile and Mexican Mud turtles. The smaller one on the left would have had some lizards, perhaps Rhinoceros iguanas, or they may have been in the next one along. Beside the Iguanas was where the Komodo was kept. After the move to Serpentaria the entire row of enclosures was renovated to accommodate wombats. I don't recall any specific enclosure for Retics. The SC otters for a time were in the curved enclosure beside the Dingos and opposite the Rainforest Aviary, originally built for Numbats and also housing Tasmanian Devils.

I don't recall the Fishing Cats at all until the Wild Cats exhibit. If it was a former Jaguar enclosure, it may have been the one on the African walkthrough next to the lions which later housed dholes and sun bears.

And the pumas, servals, jaguarundi and caracals (the Small Cats) were housed in wooden structures between the tahrs and the tigers, opposite Dog Row.

And just a note on an earlier post about recommendations for the zoo: a "Road Train" as we called it was brought in during the late 70's and used to drive through the zoo. As a volunteer guide at the time I would on occasion ride in the back and provide the commentary. But it wasn't very good at its job as there were times when it would almost get to the top of the zoo and then stop because the load was too great, and we'd have to get everybody off and walk them the rest of the way.

Food Outlets were renovated in the late 70's early 80's to provide better food, more of the fast food was provided. There was a place at the top of the zoo where tree kangaroos used to be displayed, the main Safari Centre just below the Giraffes, and Sarina's Cafe beside the elephants. The removal of the flamingo enclosure to create the massive food outlet opposite the elephants was one of the then CEO's plans to provide for the large numbers of people queuing to buy lunch at the Safari Centre. The Top Shop went in the renovations of the entrance precinct but Sarina's is still beside the Elephant Temple, although it was renamed some years ago.



Hix

 

[steveroberts]

@Hix ...{Paragarph 1} Thanks Hix (-:
(well thanks for all the answers), yeah remember the Freshwater Crocs next to Tuka in 1994, you'd probably recall that Komodo exhibit was still in use up until 1997/1998 when Dina the female Komodo lived in it from 1995 until then, remember when the Wombats moved next door, also remember a temporary glass exhibit in the middle of the visitors path for Rhinoceros Iguanas circa mid '90s Yes also never recalled seeing a standalone Retic' Python exhibit, was just mentioned in the report as an early '90s (remembered you saying SC Otters were for a time kept in that exhibit that remember Tassie Devils in, but am assuming the report is mentioning the exhibit where the Otters were kept until their current exhibit, essentially in the very same spot much like how the Binturongs are essentially still in the same spot).

Hix[/QUOTE]
I don't recall the Fishing Cats at all until the Wild Cats exhibit. If it was a former Jaguar enclosure, it may have been the one on the African walkthrough next to the lions which later housed dholes and sun bears.

Yeah that was the exhibit was referring to, where the Asian Lions would be by late August 1993, the mention in the heritage report has led me to believe that upon Ali Jaguar's move to ex-Mandrill exhibit in 1990 the old Jaguar exhibit was temporarily home to Fishing Cats from '91 til Apr '93.

Hix[/QUOTE]
And the pumas, servals, jaguarundi and caracals (the Small Cats) were housed in wooden structures between the tahrs and the tigers, opposite Dog Row.

Yeah I remembered you saying in 2016 about that. Was wondering if all four of the wooden exhibits (of which you said the Puma's was much much larger) were displayed along the same crescent curve that the Snow Leopard exhibit was set up? am assuming these wooden exhibits with their cat residents were still there until late 1989?

 

[steveroberts]

This really interesting post by Patrick.36 from 24/2/2006 (Gorillas at Adelaide zoo [Adelaide Zoo]) about the Gorilla 'situation' between Taronga and Melbourne: Patrick: ''actually, i have mentioned this before on this forum, but it is an interesting story regarding the gorillas. melbourne zoo and taronga both had pairs of gorillas in the very early days of the zoo. eventually, due both zoo's having no success in breeding them (in those days they didn't think to keep them in natural groups) - it was decided to send the taronga pair to melbourne as melbourne had much better facilities for great apes. for many years melbourne exhibited all 3 genus' of great ape and taronga just had the orangs and chimps. of course melbourne started to have results with breeding their gorillas and then built a fantastic exhibit in 89 and have ever since been world famous for them. eventually melbourne decided to send it's chimps to taronga - who had equal success with that species, and the two zoos struck an agreement. melbourne would breed gorillas, taronga would breed chimps. but of course chimps (for reasons unknown) have never had quite the public interest gorillas have and taronga in 96, decide to import a family from a primate park in holland. this was all told to me by a zoo volunteer at melbourne and she said a degree of animosity has existed ever since, regarding gorillas, between the two zoos. i personally think the taronga exhibit sucks and it's a pity they didn't focus more on the chimp park (please render those ugly brick walls!) because that was something taronga was world famous for and it is actually more interesting watching the chimps at taronga than the gorillas - who live in an altered giant panda exhibit.
i don't have any actual objections to taronga having gorillas - i just think they seemed to half-arse it somewhat. apparently melbourne zoo staff think it was all about the olympics....''

funny thing to me is with that understanding between the two zoos..Melbourne still had Chimpanzees until early 1993 (granted nowhere near the troop number as Tarongas, but Chimpanzees none-the-less) so Melbourne Zoo had the perk of being the only zoo in Australia (or the whole region) to have at least one species each from the 3 non-human great ape genuses. Yeah am sure the acquisition by Taronga of the WL Gorilla family from Apenhaul had some factor to do with the upcoming Olympics..but to this day they retain their Gorillas, with big plans for a better living space underway, and also John Kelly was said during his impressive director tenure that in his opinion a world-class zoo like Taronga deserved to have Gorillas too. If Melbourne Zoo really were affronted by this personally think a bit hypocritical of them, but perhaps too they see their Gorillas as their flagship species (being their logo and everything) but MZ should not of fretted as they were still the first zoo in the region with breeding successes and everything.[/Quote]

 

[Zorro]

This really interesting post by Patrick.36 from 24/2/2006 (Gorillas at Adelaide zoo [Adelaide Zoo]) about the Gorilla 'situation' between Taronga and Melbourne: Patrick: ''actually, i have mentioned this before on this forum, but it is an interesting story regarding the gorillas. melbourne zoo and taronga both had pairs of gorillas in the very early days of the zoo. eventually, due both zoo's having no success in breeding them (in those days they didn't think to keep them in natural groups) - it was decided to send the taronga pair to melbourne as melbourne had much better facilities for great apes. for many years melbourne exhibited all 3 genus' of great ape and taronga just had the orangs and chimps. of course melbourne started to have results with breeding their gorillas and then built a fantastic exhibit in 89 and have ever since been world famous for them. eventually melbourne decided to send it's chimps to taronga - who had equal success with that species, and the two zoos struck an agreement. melbourne would breed gorillas, taronga would breed chimps. but of course chimps (for reasons unknown) have never had quite the public interest gorillas have and taronga in 96, decide to import a family from a primate park in holland. this was all told to me by a zoo volunteer at melbourne and she said a degree of animosity has existed ever since, regarding gorillas, between the two zoos. i personally think the taronga exhibit sucks and it's a pity they didn't focus more on the chimp park (please render those ugly brick walls!) because that was something taronga was world famous for and it is actually more interesting watching the chimps at taronga than the gorillas - who live in an altered giant panda exhibit.
i don't have any actual objections to taronga having gorillas - i just think they seemed to half-arse it somewhat. apparently melbourne zoo staff think it was all about the olympics....''

funny thing to me is with that understanding between the two zoos..Melbourne still had Chimpanzees until early 1993 (granted nowhere near the troop number as Tarongas, but Chimpanzees none-the-less) so Melbourne Zoo had the perk of being the only zoo in Australia (or the whole region) to have at least one species each from the 3 non-human great ape genuses. Yeah am sure the acquisition by Taronga of the WL Gorilla family from Apenhaul had some factor to do with the upcoming Olympics..but to this day they retain their Gorillas, with big plans for a better living space underway, and also John Kelly was said during his impressive director tenure that in his opinion a world-class zoo like Taronga deserved to have Gorillas too. If Melbourne Zoo really were affronted by this personally think a bit hypocritical of them, but perhaps too they see their Gorillas as their flagship species (being their logo and everything) but MZ should not of fretted as they were still the first zoo in the region with breeding successes and everything.

[/QUOTE]
I saw the gorillas, chimps and oranges at Taronga in 1977 and I was very disappointed to see them in nothing more than than concrete squires with iron bars on one side.

 

[steveroberts]

@Zorro Yeah was a travesty and complete cruelty. Looks like the Gorilla cage was even smaller than the pens in the Ape House for the Orangs & Chimps. Melbourne certainly was better at the time with their Ape Grottoes until Chimp Park was opened in '80 (and Orangs were stuck in cruelty for a further 14 years). Am glad Betsy & Buluman Gorillas were sent to Melbourne in 1980..but by the time Taronga opened it's current Gorilla exhibit in Dec '96 would of thought Melbourne would be fine with it.

 

[Zorro]

@Zorro Yeah was a travesty and complete cruelty. Looks like the Gorilla cage was even smaller than the pens in the Ape House for the Orangs & Chimps. Melbourne certainly was better at the time with their Ape Grottoes until Chimp Park was opened in '80 (and Orangs were stuck in cruelty for a further 14 years). Am glad Betsy & Buluman Gorillas were sent to Melbourne in 1980..but by the time Taronga opened it's current Gorilla exhibit in Dec '96 would of thought Melbourne would be fine with it.

Yes the Gorilla cage was very small indeed.

 

[Zoofan15]

I saw the gorillas, chimps and oranges at Taronga in 1977 and I was very disappointed to see them in nothing more than than concrete squires with iron bars on one side.

It’s understandable how the infant mortality rate at Taronga was so high with the chimpanzees confined to a small space. Aside from the increased likelihood of infections spreading, infants could easily become caught up in routine conflict between the males or their displays and indeed Spitter had at least one infant fatally injured during a scuffle. Her first four infants died in infancy, but her next three (all born in the open air exhibit) survived - with Sacha being the first of her species born in the current exhibit.

 

[Zorro]

It’s understandable how the infant mortality rate at Taronga was so high with the chimpanzees confined to a small space. Aside from the increased likelihood of infections spreading, infants could easily become caught up in routine conflict between the males or their displays and indeed Spitter had at least one infant fatally injured during a scuffle. Her first four infants died in infancy, but her next three (all born in the open air exhibit) survived - with Sacha being the first of her species born in the current exhibit.

I would say they had very little sunshine if any depending on which direction the bars were facing I recall they were all enclosed bar one side. I also recall a wooden self around the wall and all concrete floors.

 

[Zoofan15]

I would say they had very little sunshine if any depending on which direction the bars were facing I recall they were all enclosed bar one side. I also recall a wooden self around the wall and all concrete floors.

I’ve heard concrete floors weren’t as bad as we all think from a hygiene perspective as they were easy to sanitise. Problems with viruses spread by rodents became more prevalent in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

The cage blocks weren’t heated to my knowledge though and indeed pneumonia was a leading cause of mortality.

 

[Zoofan15]

This really interesting post by Patrick.36 from 24/2/2006 (Gorillas at Adelaide zoo [Adelaide Zoo]) about the Gorilla 'situation' between Taronga and Melbourne: Patrick: ''actually, i have mentioned this before on this forum, but it is an interesting story regarding the gorillas. melbourne zoo and taronga both had pairs of gorillas in the very early days of the zoo. eventually, due both zoo's having no success in breeding them (in those days they didn't think to keep them in natural groups) - it was decided to send the taronga pair to melbourne as melbourne had much better facilities for great apes. for many years melbourne exhibited all 3 genus' of great ape and taronga just had the orangs and chimps. of course melbourne started to have results with breeding their gorillas and then built a fantastic exhibit in 89 and have ever since been world famous for them. eventually melbourne decided to send it's chimps to taronga - who had equal success with that species, and the two zoos struck an agreement. melbourne would breed gorillas, taronga would breed chimps. but of course chimps (for reasons unknown) have never had quite the public interest gorillas have and taronga in 96, decide to import a family from a primate park in holland. this was all told to me by a zoo volunteer at melbourne and she said a degree of animosity has existed ever since, regarding gorillas, between the two zoos. i personally think the taronga exhibit sucks and it's a pity they didn't focus more on the chimp park (please render those ugly brick walls!) because that was something taronga was world famous for and it is actually more interesting watching the chimps at taronga than the gorillas - who live in an altered giant panda exhibit.
i don't have any actual objections to taronga having gorillas - i just think they seemed to half-arse it somewhat. apparently melbourne zoo staff think it was all about the olympics....''

funny thing to me is with that understanding between the two zoos..Melbourne still had Chimpanzees until early 1993 (granted nowhere near the troop number as Tarongas, but Chimpanzees none-the-less) so Melbourne Zoo had the perk of being the only zoo in Australia (or the whole region) to have at least one species each from the 3 non-human great ape genuses. Yeah am sure the acquisition by Taronga of the WL Gorilla family from Apenhaul had some factor to do with the upcoming Olympics..but to this day they retain their Gorillas, with big plans for a better living space underway, and also John Kelly was said during his impressive director tenure that in his opinion a world-class zoo like Taronga deserved to have Gorillas too. If Melbourne Zoo really were affronted by this personally think a bit hypocritical of them, but perhaps too they see their Gorillas as their flagship species (being their logo and everything) but MZ should not of fretted as they were still the first zoo in the region with breeding successes and everything.

That’s surprising to hear there was animosity from Zoos Victoria over Taronga acquiring gorillas in 1996. Melbourne Zoo were firmly established as breeders of this species - with Mzuri’s birth in 1984 receiving worldwide attention; and two more births in 1991 and 1994.

Taronga didn’t successfully breed gorillas until 2003 (with their first two infants dying as neonates in 1998 and 1999). During this time, Melbourne Zoo bred a further three infants and have undoubtedly benefited from having what was then a second holder in the region. There’s been several exchanges between the two zoos - who have in turn benefited from Orana, Werribee and Mogo acquiring the species as well. Teamwork makes the dream work.

 

[Zorro]

I’ve heard concrete floors weren’t as bad as we all think from a hygiene perspective as they were easy to sanitise. Problems with viruses spread by rodents became more prevalent in the late 80’s/early 90’s.

The cage blocks weren’t heated to my knowledge though and indeed pneumonia was a leading cause of mortality.

I was expecting better for what many would consider the number 1 zoo in the country in the late 70s.