Melbourne Zoo Future of Melbourne Zoo 2023 (Speculation / Fantasy)

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Zoofan15 said:
Thanks @PaddyRickMFZ:

1. When the Snow leopards will next be breeding and if any other zoos in the region have expressed an interest in cubs.

2. Whether Chad (new male Hamadryas baboon) will be integrated with Melbourne’s five male baboons or if they’ll be transferred out.

3. What female Hamadryas baboons will be breeding with Chad? Potential candidates are: Macey, Qetesh, Juju, Gana, Hudson, Makali, Quilton and Muna.

4. Melbourne Zoo’s interest in bears.
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Compiled a list of questions, perfect for the inconvenience of staff members:
Any new species


Elephant replacements


Peccary


Malayan Tapir and Brazilian Tapir


Bongo


Mandrill/Long term Zillie replacement


Growing Wild


Gibbon breeding


Gorilla breeding


Baboon males getting moved


When will the siamang mate arrive?


Snow leopard re pairing


Female Pygmy hippo


2. Whether Chad (new male Hamadryas baboon) will be integrated with Melbourne’s five male baboons or if they’ll be transferred out.


3. What female Hamadryas baboons will be breeding with Chad? Potential candidates are: Macey, Qetesh, Juju, Gana, Hudson, Makali, Quilton and Muna.


4. Melbourne Zoo’s interest in bears.
 
Rug up!!! Going to be freezing tomorrow!

Hope you are able to find answers -but you may need to hunt to find a staff member: due to industrial action no bins are being emptied, no feedings are being done publicly, no keeper talks are taking place, and no animal encounters are running.
 
The Sleepy Hippo said:
Rug up!!! Going to be freezing tomorrow!

Hope you are able to find answers -but you may need to hunt to find a staff member: due to industrial action no bins are being emptied, no feedings are being done publicly, no keeper talks are taking place, and no animal encounters are running.
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What is said industrial action?
 
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go today due to the weather, but will certainly be going for Tuesday. I was just thinking, we have thrown around some nocturnal animals for a better experience on the night tour, namely night monkeys and tapir. If this was to come to fruition, it would be a great opportunity to reimplement binturong, which would likely be a popular species if active
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
I was just thinking, we have thrown around some nocturnal animals for a better experience on the night tour, namely night monkeys and tapir. If this was to come to fruition, it would be a great opportunity to reimplement binturong, which would likely be a popular species if active
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That’s a good idea. Felids are more active at night - being either crespecular or nocturnal, so the small felid species such as Fishing cat no one ever sees during the day would also be a good choice.

Ungulate options are limited on the night tour - with Malayan tapir being the obvious choice. The Singapore Night Safari has mostly carnivores, but Babirusa were an interesting addition - sadly unavailable.
 
Zoofan15 said:
That’s a good idea. Felids are more active at night - being either crespecular or nocturnal, so the small felid species such as Fishing cat no one ever sees during the day would also be a good choice.

Ungulate options are limited on the night tour - with Malayan tapir being the obvious choice. The Singapore Night Safari has mostly carnivores, but Babirusa were an interesting addition - sadly unavailable.
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The civet walkthrough at the night safari is a really great idea. I’d love to see a similar concept implemented closer to home
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
The civet walkthrough at the night safari is a really great idea. I’d love to see a similar concept implemented closer to home
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That would be good to see. Being a city zoo, Melbourne is unable to dedicate large parts of the zoo to a night safari concept, but at a minimum could implement a handful of walk through exhibits to complement exhibits of species that are nocturnal or crespecular. It would greatly enhance the experience.
 
Night Precinct to Replace Elephants

Reviewing a list of nocturnal species, these are some of the species already held in the region Melbourne could acquire to enhance their night tour:

Sri Lankan leopard
Clouded leopard
Caracal
Serval
Night monkey
Spotted hyena
Maned wolf (crespecular)
Capybara (crespecular)
Cape porcupine
Binturong
Slow loris
Owl (any species)

Almost everyone of these species has already been identified by us as suitable for various precincts at Melbourne Zoo, but another possibility is replacing the elephants with a Night Precinct.

A walking trail will pass through walk through exhibits for a handful of the above species, with a couple of the larger species displayed in larger exhibits e.g. leopards.

My preference would be to see it divided into three e.g:

South East Asia Night:

Binturong (walk through)
Clouded leopard (exhibit)

African Night:

Cape porcupine (walk through)
Caracal/Serval (exhibit)

South American Night:

Capybara (walk through)
Maned wolf (exhibit)
 
I
Zoofan15 said:
Night Precinct to Replace Elephants

Reviewing a list of nocturnal species, these are some of the species already held in the region Melbourne could acquire to enhance their night tour:

Sri Lankan leopard
Clouded leopard
Caracal
Serval
Night monkey
Spotted hyena
Maned wolf (crespecular)
Capybara (crespecular)
Cape porcupine
Binturong
Slow loris
Owl (any species)

Almost everyone of these species has already been identified by us as suitable for various precincts at Melbourne Zoo, but another possibility is replacing the elephants with a Night Precinct.

A walking trail will pass through walk through exhibits for a handful of the above species, with a couple of the larger species displayed in larger exhibits e.g. leopards.

My preference would be to see it divided into three e.g:

South East Asia Night:

Binturong (walk through)
Clouded leopard (exhibit)

African Night:

Cape porcupine (walk through)
Caracal/Serval (exhibit)

South American Night:

Capybara (walk through)
Maned wolf (exhibit)
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feel as if the amount of space would permits the inclusion of Sri Lankan and clouded leopard, or spotted hyena on top of your ideal list. Great concept, and I just learned what crepuscular means. Cape porcupine walkthrough would be an interesting one to say the least. And of course you forgot my favourite animal! Where is my treasured tapir going to go? The inspiration for the night tour concept? It has to be the barn;)
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
I

feel as if the amount of space would permits the inclusion of Sri Lankan and clouded leopard, or spotted hyena on top of your ideal list. Great concept, and I just learned what crepuscular means. Cape porcupine walkthrough would be an interesting one to say the least. And of course you forgot my favourite animal! Where is my treasured tapir going to go? The inspiration for the night tour concept? It has to be the barn;)
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Thanks! I hesitated to include Spotted hyena as I feel their future is in large packs at the open range zoos, but certainly holders of surplus pairs will be needed within the region and Melbourne could hold a pair. Maned wolf would be a better fit though - as well as complimenting the Capybara.

Future proofing is important re. space but yes we could probably fit in Sri Lankan leopard and Malayan tapir. For diversity, they may wish to include some bird and reptile species - which wouldn’t take up much space. Potentially the barn could accomodate some reptile tanks on the walls.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Thanks! I hesitated to include Spotted hyena as I feel their future is in large packs at the open range zoos, but certainly holders of surplus pairs will be needed within the region and Melbourne could hold a pair. Maned wolf would be a better fit though - as well as complimenting the Capybara.

Future proofing is important re. space but yes we could probably fit in Sri Lankan leopard and Malayan tapir. For diversity, they may wish to include some bird and reptile species - which wouldn’t take up much space. Potentially the barn could accomodate some reptile tanks on the walls.
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And the plan has been perfected… You know now I am a fan of the striped hyena and think that would be a great addition, albeit I understand that is very unlikely if not impossible. Maned wolf are certainly a better option than spotted hyena, and excess hyena could probably be kept at WORZ anyway once acquired
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
And the plan has been perfected… You know now I am a fan of the striped hyena and think that would be a great addition, albeit I understand that is very unlikely if not impossible. Maned wolf are certainly a better option than spotted hyena, and excess hyena could probably be kept at WORZ anyway once acquired
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I’ve previously been quick to dismiss Striped hyena, but having read up more about them, I think the greater question is why don’t we have them?

Striped hyena are a CITES III species, so can be imported without the support of a regional breeding programme, they’re held at several North American zoos and live either alone or in pairs - making them better suited to city zoos than Spotted hyena.

Historically, they’ve been held in the region and bred at Wellington Zoo.
 
Zoofan15 said:
I’ve previously been quick to dismiss Striped hyena, but having read up more about them, I think the greater question is why don’t we have them?

Striped hyena are a CITES III species, so can be imported without the support of a regional breeding programme, they’re held at several North American zoos and live either alone or in pairs - making them better suited to city zoos than Spotted hyena.

Historically, they’ve been held in the region and bred at Wellington Zoo.
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Don’t give me hope please…
You guys were definitely correct, very few staff members were present.
The adjacent island to the orangutans is being cleaned up and vegetated, with a staff member stating, ‘something is planned’. I observed 4 siamangs, a new male in quarantine on the Japanese island. Basically didn’t have a chance to ask many if any questions.Might also add the zebras were in with the giraffes, and the adjacent space seems like a great exhibit for a smaller antelope, such as duiker, or potentially porcupine. Walked through growing wild again, just a complete waste of space honestly. Wasn’t able to view Semangka today to my dismay.
One last thing, I heard someone call the peccary a wombat. That one got me. Why are they included in the suidae ban if they’re not technically a member of suidae
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
The adjacent island to the orangutans is being cleaned up and vegetated, with a staff member stating, ‘something is planned’.
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The staff member will soon be replaced with a sign stating the same thing. He forgot to say the word “exciting” however.
PaddyRickMFZ said:
Basically didn’t have a chance to ask many if any questions.Might also add the zebras were in with the giraffes, and the adjacent space seems like a great exhibit for a smaller antelope, such as duiker, or potentially porcupine.
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Thanks for the update.

That’s good news the giraffes and zebras have been integrated. They likely wanted to allow the two younger giraffes time to mature. I expect the zebra yard will function as a contingency for any relationships going south; or the need to re-seperate upon the birth of a giraffe calf.

They should really phase out zebra imo. Nobody seems to notice their absence from Wellington Zoo and the giraffes are the main character on Auckland and Hamilton’s savannahs.
 
Zoofan15 said:
The staff member will soon be replaced with a sign stating the same thing. He forgot to say the word “exciting” however.


Thanks for the update.

That’s good news the giraffes and zebras have been integrated. They likely wanted to allow the two younger giraffes time to mature. I expect the zebra yard will function as a contingency for any relationships going south; or the need to re-seperate upon the birth of a giraffe calf.

They should really phase out zebra imo. Nobody seems to notice their absence from Wellington Zoo and the giraffes are the main character on Auckland and Hamilton’s savannahs.
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Just saying, he didn’t say exciting so it may actually be exciting. I agree zebra should be phased out, and ideally giraffe would follow. I feel as though Thomsons or addra gazelle, maybe even springboks would work well with the Giraffe as a contingency plan. Ideally Bongo would take the zebra paddock, Okapi the giraffe paddock and duiker/ something else in the spare exhibit. Would be a great segue if baboons were phased out, replaced with mandrill for an expansive troop. Would accentuate how big of a loss the red river hog is… Just my, very unrealistic plan
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
One last thing, I heard someone call the peccary a wombat. That one got me. Why are they included in the suidae ban if they’re not technically a member of suidae
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That’s a new one. Warthog or pig would be the most understandable mistaken identity imo but even then, there’s signs for the literate.

Collared peccary were classified as Suidae until 2020 i.e. until recently. A study placed them in the genus Dicotyles which has been accepted by the American Society of Mammalogists, but is yet to be recognised by the IUCN (which still places them in the Pecari genus. To answer your question, as the study becomes more widely recognised, it could change Australia’s biosecurity stance.
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
Just saying, he didn’t say exciting so it may actually be exciting. I agree zebra should be phased out, and ideally giraffe would follow. I feel as though Thomsons or addra gazelle, maybe even springboks would work well with the Giraffe as a contingency plan. Ideally Bongo would take the zebra paddock, Okapi the giraffe paddock and duiker/ something else in the spare exhibit. Would be a great segue if baboons were phased out, replaced with mandrill for an expansive troop. Would accentuate how big of a loss the red river hog is… Just my, very unrealistic plan
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Eastern bongo would be an excellent replacement for zebra; and Okapi for giraffe. Ironically, visitors would consider giraffe and Okapi as equally appealing. The average visitor is ignorant of what is or isn’t held in the region and the rarity and novelty of the Okapi would likely be lost on them. On the positive side, they would certainly be happy enough to see them and not begrudge the zoo for phasing out giraffe with them as the replacement.

I’d love to see Mandrill. I’d tolerate the phase out of baboons if they were to be relocated to a large exhibit at Werribee; but I favour housing Mandrill in the gorilla complex if Melbourne decide to build a new gorilla complex on the site of the elephant complex. While it remains an excellent exhibit, they may feel a new complex will allow them to better manage one of their cornerstone species over the next few decades.
 
Zoofan15 said:
That’s a new one. Warthog or pig would be the most understandable mistaken identity imo but even then, there’s signs for the literate.

Collared peccary were classified as Suidae until 2020 i.e. until recently. A study placed them in the genus Dicotyles which has been accepted by the American Society of Mammalogists, but is yet to be recognised by the IUCN (which still places them in the Pecari genus. To answer your question, as the study becomes more widely recognised, it could change Australia’s biosecurity stance.
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Definitely hope the stance changes. Surely someone pretends red river hogs, babirusa and warthogs aren’t suids so we can have them too. Might add, red river hog would be a great species for any Congo precinct, and their popularity within planet zoo reflects that
 
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