Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo News 2023

OskarGC said:
  • Gila monster exhibit is now being occupied by Western Shingleback
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Any idea if they're still in the collection or not, and if there's still any zoos that keep them in Australia? Believe I remember seeing one ages back on my first (and so far only..) visit there back in 2018?17?, they're such a cool species would be immensely depressing if they're just gone from this region (and it'll mean I probably won't see one again in my life).
Was the long-beaked echidna on display? If so, did you get a glimpse of it? (If it's still in the outdoor exhibit which I remember hearing about, anyone know if they're planning on moving it into the nocturnal house where it could be easier to see? Or will it be in the diurnal exhibit until it's natural retirement..)
 
@WalkingAgnatha

Planning an email to Taronga right now and can ask if they are still actually at the zoo off display (interested too in knowing). One thing that is a positive sign (positive sign as in at least they are very likely to be back if gone like say Komodo Dragons are assured to be) that saw visiting today was the illustrated fabric around the construction site for the upcoming reptile complex was a picture of a Gila Monster with writing making reference to their bright orange colour-ing.

Re: Barton the Long-beaked Echidna was not in the Tasmanian Devil complex anymore today, but believe he is to return very very soon to public display when the Nocturanl House re-opens publicly.
 
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WalkingAgnatha said:
Any idea if they're still in the collection or not, and if there's still any zoos that keep them in Australia? Believe I remember seeing one ages back on my first (and so far only..) visit there back in 2018?17?, they're such a cool species would be immensely depressing if they're just gone from this region (and it'll mean I probably won't see one again in my life).
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I know they're at a handful of other facilities (I think 10 or so across the country?) have Gila Monsters but I can't recall them all off the top of my head.

I know Australia Zoo does (unless they've died/gone off display during 2023) and I think the Australian Reptile Park is probably another one that has them (they're always a safe bet for most exotic reptiles in the region)
 
A few updates from the past week:

- At least 5 Forest Kingfishers are now in the Palm Aviary. Previously, there were just 2.
- The Red Lories have bred in the Wetlands Aviary.
- The Green Pygmy Geese seem to no longer be in the Bush Birds Finch Aviary, although they are still signed. This means that Taronga does not currently have this species on display.
- The male Fishing Cat, Jalau, is not at the zoo anymore. Unless he has been relocated to a zoo within Australasia (which I think is quite unlikely) this brings the regional population to 2.3 individuals.
- The Black-capped Squirrel Monkeys in the former gibbon exhibit are mixed with 1.2 Red Junglefowl.
- The “Aussie Animals ALIVE! Live Show” in the Centenary Theatre (the last show was yesterday) featured a Lesser Sooty Owl, a Short-beaked Echidna, and several Spinifex Hopping Mice. The mice were bred especially for the show.
- The former Dingo exhibit in the Taronga Institute of Science and Learning has been split into two smaller exhibits now that Kep Kep and Warada have moved to their new exhibit in Nura-Diya Australia. One houses Short-beaked Echidna and the other is home to a mix of Red Kangaroo and Swamp Wallaby.
- 2 Tammar Wallabies are being gradually introduced into the macropod walkthrough in Nura-Diya Australia.
- The new nocturnal house (Nguwing Yama) is nearing completion.
- The Platypus in Nura-Diya is gradually getting more used to being on display and is much more visible.
- Tensions are arising between Ato the male African Lion and his two 23-month-old sons, Khari and Luzuko.
- Kambiri the Pygmy Hippopotamus is looking extremely pregnant. I first noticed this around the start of the year, and as their gestation period is around 6-7 months, she should give birth within the next few weeks!

Apologies for the length of this post.
 
Osedax said:
A few updates from the past week:

- At least 5 Forest Kingfishers are now in the Palm Aviary. Previously, there were just 2.
- The Red Lories have bred in the Wetlands Aviary.
- The Green Pygmy Geese seem to no longer be in the Bush Birds Finch Aviary, although they are still signed. This means that Taronga does not currently have this species on display.
- The male Fishing Cat, Jalau, is not at the zoo anymore. Unless he has been relocated to a zoo within Australasia (which I think is quite unlikely) this brings the regional population to 2.3 individuals.
- The Black-capped Squirrel Monkeys in the former gibbon exhibit are mixed with 1.2 Red Junglefowl.
- The “Aussie Animals ALIVE! Live Show” in the Centenary Theatre (the last show was yesterday) featured a Lesser Sooty Owl, a Short-beaked Echidna, and several Spinifex Hopping Mice. The mice were bred especially for the show.
- The former Dingo exhibit in the Taronga Institute of Science and Learning has been split into two smaller exhibits now that Kep Kep and Warada have moved to their new exhibit in Nura-Diya Australia. One houses Short-beaked Echidna and the other is home to a mix of Red Kangaroo and Swamp Wallaby.
- 2 Tammar Wallabies are being gradually introduced into the macropod walkthrough in Nura-Diya Australia.
- The new nocturnal house (Nguwing Yama) is nearing completion.
- The Platypus in Nura-Diya is gradually getting more used to being on display and is much more visible.
- Tensions are arising between Ato the male African Lion and his two 23-month-old sons, Khari and Luzuko.
- Kambiri the Pygmy Hippopotamus is looking extremely pregnant. I first noticed this around the start of the year, and as their gestation period is around 6-7 months, she should give birth within the next few weeks!

Apologies for the length of this post.
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Thank you for that update @Osedax. That’s exciting to hear Kambiri appears to be heavily pregnant.

@steveroberts posted what appeared to be a photo of a heavily pregnant Pygmy hippopotamus last week, but there was some debate over whether this was her in the photo or a very well fed Fergus!

It doesn’t surprise me to hear Ato has begun clashing with his sons. I imagine they’ll transfer out soon.
 
Osedax said:
I forgot to mention that Charlie the male Australian Sea Lion is currently off display. His exhibit, Seal Cove, is now home to a female Australian Sea Lion and 2 Long-nosed Fur Seals. Not sure which individuals.
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Thanks so much for the updates

No need to say sorry about long posts, we all enjoy hearing detailed updates
 
Went to Taronga today and had a few notes:

- The new Reptile House (from my observation) will be more than 2 stories tall, or will be 1 giant building. Standing above the capybara exhibit, the construction seemed to be putting in supports for a second or potentially third floor to the building.
- The Lemur Walk was closed and the lemurs were not on exhibit.
- The Gorillas were on enclosure today, but were closed off and there seemed to be construction happening to the undershade viewing area. With both the lemur walk and Gorillas closed, it seems that they are preparing to start the Congo Precinct.
- The Koalas at Nura Diya have been moved back to their old enclosure as renovations on the walls of their Nura Diya exhibit has just started - they seem to be changing the panels of the wall.
- New Rhinoceros Iguanas are taking over the first outdoor area of the Reptile House - a chalkboard in the enclosure said that on the other side of the wall you could see the pair settling in to their new area
- Taronga's California Sea Lion may have been moved offsite as a New Zealand Fur Seal and her pup have moved into his pool.
- Insects at the Backyard to Bush area have been moved into a new building, that of a small cottage.
- The lions are back out on exhibit, although only 2 were visible - After returning every few hours, the same two brothers were seen in the upper part of the enclosure laying down, with their siblings and parents potentially being in their backstage outdoor area.
- The Cassowary seems to be off exhibit with their viewing walkway blocked off by rubbish bins.
- The Main Tiger Trek enclosure was closed off to the general public. The two side ones were occupied by 2 on the right-hand-side enclosure and 1 in the left-hand-side enclosure.
- Keepers were working in the night house of the leaf monkeys and I noticed that their population within the group has declined by a slight amount (unless keepers are able to work with them inside the house)
- (Not anything concerning) but the binturongs were active quite a bit throughout the day!
 
AreOhAreWhy said:
The new Reptile House (from my observation) will be more than 2 stories tall, or will be 1 giant building. Standing above the capybara exhibit, the construction seemed to be putting in supports for a second or potentially third floor to the building.
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New Reptile and Amphibian House

Afaik, the plan is still for the new reptile and amphibian house to be three levels: Ground, Level One and Level Two.

https://architectureau.com/articles/new-reptilian-conservation-centre-at-taronga-zoo/

The ground floor is accessible from the bottom footpath from the south and is for staff use and access only.

Level one contains the majority of the animal exhibits and is accessible by guests from the at-grade pedestrian footpath to the east of the site.

Level two contains four animal exhibits, and is accessed via a ramp from the level below, running along the southern facade. Guests exit the building at this level onto the top footpath to the north.
 
AreOhAreWhy said:
- The Lemur Walk was closed and the lemurs were not on exhibit.
- The Gorillas were on enclosure today, but were closed off and there seemed to be construction happening to the undershade viewing area. With both the lemur walk and Gorillas closed, it seems that they are preparing to start the Congo Precinct.
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That's incredible news, especially the gorillas. But you'd think they would've started sectioning off parts of the zoo for the site planning. The proposed area is quite large and would need a lot of time to renovate it. Given they would like to complete construction by around 2026/27 they would need to get a move on. I'm not completely sure about where it will cover, but it surely wouldn't block the path down to the rainforest trail right? As for the lemur's, they have always been in and out of their exhibit, and the planning for the congo precinct doesn't overlap with their enclosure, and given they haven't started construction yet, the lemurs wouldn't have to be moved. The same goes for the current gorilla habitat, the plans don't include overlapping the exhibit. But when they do eventually start construction(if they do), they would have to move the gorillas and lemurs out temporarily for privacy and health issues you'd assume, which makes it interesting as the lemurs aren't out but the gorillas are.
 
loganjmuir said:
That's incredible news, especially the gorillas. But you'd think they would've started sectioning off parts of the zoo for the site planning. The proposed area is quite large and would need a lot of time to renovate it. Given they would like to complete construction by around 2026/27 they would need to get a move on. I'm not completely sure about where it will cover, but it surely wouldn't block the path down to the rainforest trail right? As for the lemur's, they have always been in and out of their exhibit, and the planning for the congo precinct doesn't overlap with their enclosure, and given they haven't started construction yet, the lemurs wouldn't have to be moved. The same goes for the current gorilla habitat, the plans don't include overlapping the exhibit. But when they do eventually start construction(if they do), they would have to move the gorillas and lemurs out temporarily for privacy and health issues you'd assume, which makes it interesting as the lemurs aren't out but the gorillas are.
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The current Lemur exhibit will be apart of the construction, so it would make sense to move them off display sooner rather than later if construction is indeed beginning for the Congo precinct (which they hope to complete by 2025/26). If anything, maybe the second, smaller gorilla enclosure could be an option for the lemurs.

On the topic of the gorillas, their current enclosure isn’t being vacated. The plan was for an Okapi enclosure to replace them but with Okapi still being up in the air, this might be something Taronga choose to leave until after the Congo precinct once the Gorillas move to their new enclosure/s. I doubt the gorillas will be affected much by the noise. It wouldn’t really be feasible for them to go through all of the stress of a temporary move elsewhere to avoid that.
 
Chimpanzee Death: Cebele (2017-2023)

It’s my sadness to report Cebele died last week due to an underlying medical condition. This information was disclosed to my friend visiting the zoo via a volunteer after they noticed Cebele’s absence.

Her mother Ceres appeared subdued, as could be expected; but in a bittersweet turn of events, will deliver a new infant in September.

I will discuss the implications on the troop dynamics further in the chimpanzee thread; but in the meantime my thoughts are with the staff, volunteers and of course the chimpanzees as they grieve the loss of a valuable member of their community.
 
Taronga Zoo - Ape Update

My friend (a regular visitor to Taronga Zoo) visited yesterday and provided the following updates on their gorillas and chimpanzees after asking volunteers about them:

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Chimpanzee Update

Chimpanzee pregnancy:

Kamili is pregnant! Her due date is January next year.

It will be the third infant born within 12 months, following the birth of Lemba in May; and Ceres’ infant which is due in September.

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Gorilla Update

Gorilla exhibit reopening:

The gorilla troop are back on exhibit and the visitor viewing path is almost fully reopened now. The closure was nothing to do with the Congo precinct as previously reported, but to allow the gorillas to acclimatise to being on display again after recovering from illness.

Death of Fikiri:

Some extremely sad news - the juvenile female, Fikiri, has died. I know many of us were excited about the future role she’d play in the breeding programme and following her progress over the decades to come.

My thoughts are with Taronga’s team - who despite setbacks like Fikiri and Cebele’s death, remain dedicated to providing the animals in their care with the best quality of life.

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I will discuss this news further in the relevant threads.
 
steveroberts said:
@Zoofan15

Thanks heaps (and to your friend too) for the news updates.

Rip Fikiri :(:( very sad indeed

On the positive that's awesome about Kamili's pregnancy and expected birth in January :)
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You’re welcome. :)

Fingers crossed for a successful outcome for Kamili!

It’s been close to a decade since Taronga Zoo’s chimpanzee community last had three (surviving) infants born in 12 months (Fumo, Sudi and Liwali); and no calendar year has seen more than two (surviving) infants since 1991 (Mali, Sumu, Kike, Chunga and Kuma).
 
steveroberts said:
@Zoofan15
Re: poor little Fikiri (and WL Gorillas in our region in general): Until now with young Fikiri, did not realise we had been fortunate enough to of not had an infant or juvenile Gorilla loss in our region, thats very impressive (besides poor Fikiri) and fortunate.
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Absolutely. It’s not reflection on the zoo, losses are inevitable and sometimes unavoidable. We’ve been extremely lucky up to date to have had the success we’ve had as a region.

Frala lost newborn infants in 1998 and 1999, but the next nine infants born all survived to at least adolescence.

Historically, a young (wild caught) female died in 1961 at Taronga but records are unclear on her birth date. It was imported with several other infants and would have likely been two years of age or younger.
 
Chimpanzee Birth

Ceres has given birth! She and the infant were on exhibit today. The newborn appears healthy with a strong grip and a strong suckling reflex.

This is the third infant for 33 year old Ceres and welcome news after the tragic losses of Fikiri and Cebele.

Her birth takes the zoo’s chimpanzee community to 21 chimpanzees.
 
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