PaddyRickMFZ
Well-Known Member
If the onagers were portrayed as fondly as the takhi, who knows
Taronga Western Plains Zoo Taronga Western Plains Zoo News 2023
- Thread starter Zoofan15
- Start date
But there's a number of species which appear to be for TZ/TWPZ only and Persian Onagers are one of them.
I’d attribute the popularity of the Przewalski’s wild horse to their extinct in the wild status, which prompted global action. By 1965, there were 130 across zoos and with them remaining critically endangered, that popularity hasn’t wavered.
Osedax
Well-Known Member
I had an extremely enjoyable couple of days at TWPZ on Thursday and Friday. It was really only a day and a half, as the long drive meant I didn't get to the zoo until 1:30 on Thursday, but very enjoyable nonetheless. I will preface this by saying that I had not been to TWPZ since December 2021, so quite a lot had changed since my last visit.
Before I get into the updates, I will just say that until now, I had not realised how great the zoo is for wild birds. When I return next time, I will make sure I save some time for birding. I saw 61 species of wild birdlife in the zoo over the day and a half I was there, including 4 lifers! These lifers were a Yellow-billed Spoonbill in the hippo exhibit, a Speckled Warbler near the giraffes, White-browed Babblers in various places, and Australian Reedwarblers on Savannah Lake. Other birds of note are a Sacred Kingfisher, Weebills and Brown, Striated and Yellow-rumped Thornbills, Little Friarbirds, Blue-faced Honeyeaters, a White-plumed Honeyeater, many Grey-crowned Babblers, and both Grey and Pied Butcherbirds and Currawongs. This was also the first time I was able to confidently identify Little Ravens among the Australian Ravens. I also heard but did not see Little Lorikeets and an Olive Whistler, both of which would have been lifers. The lake on the far side of Lion Pride Lands was packed with waterbirds, including a pair of Black Swans and 5 species of ducks including a few Hardheads. Probably the biggest surprise was seeing a wild Red Kangaroo in the grounds, a rare vagrant to this area!
Anyway, on to the updates.
- There is now the option to hire a pedal boat to explore Savannah Lake. This offered great close up views of the spider monkeys and Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs, as well as some of the wild birds like darters, cormorants and grebes. If you go over towards the water iris on the other side of the lake to the primate islands, you can get good views of Australian Reedwarblers with a little patience. It costs $20 to hire one boat, which can seat 2 adults and 2 small children, and you get 30 minutes to explore the lake, so great value for money imo. There weren't as many wild birds on the lake as usual, probably because of the pedal boats, but there were a large number of rather tame Little Black Cormorants and a few Great and Little Pied Cormorants.
- The rescued Black Swan that formerly resided on Savannah Lake for many years has unfortunately passed away.
- The gibbons went off display on Thursday, leaving the islands in that part of the zoo empty apart from the breeding group of Ring-tailed Lemurs. This means that Gorge is now the only zoo in Australia with Lar Gibbons on display.
- The Black Rhinos are very stressed following some sort of marathon event with loud music, so the smaller exhibit near the meerkats is closed off.
- To my horror, there is now a small version of the supermarket in Tiger Trek in Taronga Sydney next to the male Sumatran Tiger exhibit.
- The paddock closest to the Waterhole which is signed as Addax on the map actually has a small herd of European Fallow Deer.
- There are now Scimitar-horned Oryx in Savannah Safari.
- The Leopard Tortoise exhibit is empty and the signs have been taken down. Not sure if they still hold this species BTS, but this means that the zoo currently has no reptiles whatsoever on display with the Galapagos tortoises off display due to the construction of the Platypus Conservation Centre.
- The iconic Black Rhino statues at the entrance are gone.
- Some of the Tahki have been found to have some domestic horse ancestry and have been separated from the main herd.
- A new male ostrich has joined Hondo in Savannah Safari. His name is Namib.
- 2 male giraffes have been sent to Werribee.
- The Wildlife Hospital Aviary currently has 4.0 Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, 3.1 Little Lorikeets, 0.2 Eastern Whipbirds and 8.0 Australian Zebra Finches. There were originally 4.4 finches, but they bred prolifically until there were 8.10, so the females are now housed off display. Regent Honeyeaters will be moving into this aviary when the Platypus Conservation Centre is complete. This aviary has an interesting design. Visitors enter the aviary on a small raised platform, leaving the rest of the space for the birds. A keeper talk takes place in this aviary at 2:15 every day during the school holidays, where the birds are fed and visitors are introduced to each of the different species. I thought this was a great idea which should be incorporated into more walk-in and walkthrough aviaries in zoos.
- The wildlife hospital is great. There is almost always something happening in the Treatment Room, and the vets tell the guests about what they are doing. On my visit to the wildlife hospital, a young Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey was undergoing investigation into its injured leg. Unfortunately the joey had a severe joint infection that could not be repaired, and it had to be euthanised. Next was a Crested Pigeon which had somehow lost all its tail feathers and then flown into a window during a storm. We were told that the pigeon would make a full recovery. The next patient was a Brown Falcon. Unfortunately I did not get to see this bird as I wanted to have one more drive around the zoo before I had to leave early to visit family in Orange.
- The new Platypus Conservation Centre will have 3 large interconnected plastic tubs for each of the 65 platypus that it has the capacity to house. Two of these tubs will be filled with water, and the third, which is split in half, will be filled with soil for the platypus to create their burrows. The moat around the old South America paddock next to the wildlife hospital is being transformed into a "Platypus Re-wilding Area", to get the platypus used to being in a semi-wild environment before they are released.
- Elephants: Pardi Hahn was in with the main herd. He seems to be getting on very well with Anjalee, so hopefully they will have a calf!
- The ostrich paddock near the wildlife hospital is home to 1.4 ostriches. This exhibit is great for them, and they can be very entertaining, with one of the females running alongside my car as I drove off!
- The Persian Onagers have had some sort of branding or paint on their rumps. They both have a combination of letters and numbers. One of the onagers is showing his age, and I fear that the zoo (and the region) will soon be down to one Persian Onager.
- The bongo calf is doing very well, as are the rhino calves of all three species.
- It was great to see the Tasmanian Devils in the old dingo exhibit. Although it is sad to see dingoes go, the exhibit suits devils far better and is among the largest I have seen for this species.
- I did the Early Morning Walk on Friday morning, and it was a wonderful experience. We were taken around by a lovely volunteer named Bob who, like me, has a passion for photography and birding, and we quickly became friends and met up several times throughout the day. He was very happy that there was someone there who was interested and knowledgeable about birds and was willing to listen to his talks on the native birdlife! He said that there has been an Azure Kingfisher around the cheetah exhibit, and even a Nankeen Night Heron near the African Wild Dogs! Without Bob I would not have found the White-browed Babblers, the Weebills, or the Sacred Kingfisher, or known to look for the reedwarblers!
The Early Morning Walk has changed quite a lot since I last went on it in 2018, with much more emphasis on BTS. We were shown the Black Rhino Breeding Complex, which I was astounded to learn has 32 exhibits! We were also shown the Regent Honeyeater aviaries, and it was great to see the flight cage, which gets the birds used to flying before there release. It also get the honeyeaters used to other bird species. In here with the regents are several White-winged Choughs, many Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, and even a few Malleefowl. The choughs and lorikeets came from Taronga Zoo Sydney. We also saw a few of the off display paddocks with the White Rhino breeding bulls and a surplus male Tahki.
- There seem to be a lot more Scimitar-horned Oryx at the zoo than there used to be. There were around 20 in the camel/Barbary Sheep paddock, about 10 in the Savannah Safari, and I also saw some in the off-display paddocks that can be seen from Obley Rd. This totals up to at least 35 oryx, compared with the 13 they had in 2021.
- Apart from the oryx, I saw Eland, zebras and what may have been Asiatic Water Buffalo in the off-display paddocks on Obley Rd.
- Interestingly, the tour guide on the Savannah Safari said the zoo's giraffes were Northern Giraffes.
Before I get into the updates, I will just say that until now, I had not realised how great the zoo is for wild birds. When I return next time, I will make sure I save some time for birding. I saw 61 species of wild birdlife in the zoo over the day and a half I was there, including 4 lifers! These lifers were a Yellow-billed Spoonbill in the hippo exhibit, a Speckled Warbler near the giraffes, White-browed Babblers in various places, and Australian Reedwarblers on Savannah Lake. Other birds of note are a Sacred Kingfisher, Weebills and Brown, Striated and Yellow-rumped Thornbills, Little Friarbirds, Blue-faced Honeyeaters, a White-plumed Honeyeater, many Grey-crowned Babblers, and both Grey and Pied Butcherbirds and Currawongs. This was also the first time I was able to confidently identify Little Ravens among the Australian Ravens. I also heard but did not see Little Lorikeets and an Olive Whistler, both of which would have been lifers. The lake on the far side of Lion Pride Lands was packed with waterbirds, including a pair of Black Swans and 5 species of ducks including a few Hardheads. Probably the biggest surprise was seeing a wild Red Kangaroo in the grounds, a rare vagrant to this area!
Anyway, on to the updates.
- There is now the option to hire a pedal boat to explore Savannah Lake. This offered great close up views of the spider monkeys and Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs, as well as some of the wild birds like darters, cormorants and grebes. If you go over towards the water iris on the other side of the lake to the primate islands, you can get good views of Australian Reedwarblers with a little patience. It costs $20 to hire one boat, which can seat 2 adults and 2 small children, and you get 30 minutes to explore the lake, so great value for money imo. There weren't as many wild birds on the lake as usual, probably because of the pedal boats, but there were a large number of rather tame Little Black Cormorants and a few Great and Little Pied Cormorants.
- The rescued Black Swan that formerly resided on Savannah Lake for many years has unfortunately passed away.
- The gibbons went off display on Thursday, leaving the islands in that part of the zoo empty apart from the breeding group of Ring-tailed Lemurs. This means that Gorge is now the only zoo in Australia with Lar Gibbons on display.
- The Black Rhinos are very stressed following some sort of marathon event with loud music, so the smaller exhibit near the meerkats is closed off.
- To my horror, there is now a small version of the supermarket in Tiger Trek in Taronga Sydney next to the male Sumatran Tiger exhibit.
- The paddock closest to the Waterhole which is signed as Addax on the map actually has a small herd of European Fallow Deer.
- There are now Scimitar-horned Oryx in Savannah Safari.
- The Leopard Tortoise exhibit is empty and the signs have been taken down. Not sure if they still hold this species BTS, but this means that the zoo currently has no reptiles whatsoever on display with the Galapagos tortoises off display due to the construction of the Platypus Conservation Centre.
- The iconic Black Rhino statues at the entrance are gone.
- Some of the Tahki have been found to have some domestic horse ancestry and have been separated from the main herd.
- A new male ostrich has joined Hondo in Savannah Safari. His name is Namib.
- 2 male giraffes have been sent to Werribee.
- The Wildlife Hospital Aviary currently has 4.0 Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, 3.1 Little Lorikeets, 0.2 Eastern Whipbirds and 8.0 Australian Zebra Finches. There were originally 4.4 finches, but they bred prolifically until there were 8.10, so the females are now housed off display. Regent Honeyeaters will be moving into this aviary when the Platypus Conservation Centre is complete. This aviary has an interesting design. Visitors enter the aviary on a small raised platform, leaving the rest of the space for the birds. A keeper talk takes place in this aviary at 2:15 every day during the school holidays, where the birds are fed and visitors are introduced to each of the different species. I thought this was a great idea which should be incorporated into more walk-in and walkthrough aviaries in zoos.
- The wildlife hospital is great. There is almost always something happening in the Treatment Room, and the vets tell the guests about what they are doing. On my visit to the wildlife hospital, a young Eastern Grey Kangaroo joey was undergoing investigation into its injured leg. Unfortunately the joey had a severe joint infection that could not be repaired, and it had to be euthanised. Next was a Crested Pigeon which had somehow lost all its tail feathers and then flown into a window during a storm. We were told that the pigeon would make a full recovery. The next patient was a Brown Falcon. Unfortunately I did not get to see this bird as I wanted to have one more drive around the zoo before I had to leave early to visit family in Orange.
- The new Platypus Conservation Centre will have 3 large interconnected plastic tubs for each of the 65 platypus that it has the capacity to house. Two of these tubs will be filled with water, and the third, which is split in half, will be filled with soil for the platypus to create their burrows. The moat around the old South America paddock next to the wildlife hospital is being transformed into a "Platypus Re-wilding Area", to get the platypus used to being in a semi-wild environment before they are released.
- Elephants: Pardi Hahn was in with the main herd. He seems to be getting on very well with Anjalee, so hopefully they will have a calf!
- The ostrich paddock near the wildlife hospital is home to 1.4 ostriches. This exhibit is great for them, and they can be very entertaining, with one of the females running alongside my car as I drove off!
- The Persian Onagers have had some sort of branding or paint on their rumps. They both have a combination of letters and numbers. One of the onagers is showing his age, and I fear that the zoo (and the region) will soon be down to one Persian Onager.
- The bongo calf is doing very well, as are the rhino calves of all three species.
- It was great to see the Tasmanian Devils in the old dingo exhibit. Although it is sad to see dingoes go, the exhibit suits devils far better and is among the largest I have seen for this species.
- I did the Early Morning Walk on Friday morning, and it was a wonderful experience. We were taken around by a lovely volunteer named Bob who, like me, has a passion for photography and birding, and we quickly became friends and met up several times throughout the day. He was very happy that there was someone there who was interested and knowledgeable about birds and was willing to listen to his talks on the native birdlife! He said that there has been an Azure Kingfisher around the cheetah exhibit, and even a Nankeen Night Heron near the African Wild Dogs! Without Bob I would not have found the White-browed Babblers, the Weebills, or the Sacred Kingfisher, or known to look for the reedwarblers!
The Early Morning Walk has changed quite a lot since I last went on it in 2018, with much more emphasis on BTS. We were shown the Black Rhino Breeding Complex, which I was astounded to learn has 32 exhibits! We were also shown the Regent Honeyeater aviaries, and it was great to see the flight cage, which gets the birds used to flying before there release. It also get the honeyeaters used to other bird species. In here with the regents are several White-winged Choughs, many Scaly-breasted Lorikeets, and even a few Malleefowl. The choughs and lorikeets came from Taronga Zoo Sydney. We also saw a few of the off display paddocks with the White Rhino breeding bulls and a surplus male Tahki.
- There seem to be a lot more Scimitar-horned Oryx at the zoo than there used to be. There were around 20 in the camel/Barbary Sheep paddock, about 10 in the Savannah Safari, and I also saw some in the off-display paddocks that can be seen from Obley Rd. This totals up to at least 35 oryx, compared with the 13 they had in 2021.
- Apart from the oryx, I saw Eland, zebras and what may have been Asiatic Water Buffalo in the off-display paddocks on Obley Rd.
- Interestingly, the tour guide on the Savannah Safari said the zoo's giraffes were Northern Giraffes.
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Thank you for your updates from TWPZ. I am sorry to hear that the White-Handed Gibbons have gone off-display completely, although this is fair enough if it is for their welfare (as was the case for the gibbons at Mogo). Hopefully they will continue to live for many healthy years off-show.
Thank you for the nice review.
Its wonderful you had seen so many native birds within the zoos grounds that's welcome news.
I am a little shocked they allowed load music/event being held there close enough to unsettle the country's only Black rhino breeding group, I believe someone should held responsible for this happening!.
I thought that the TWPZ would have been immune against the plastic supermarket scourge of some city zoos but I guess some managers can't help themselves!
Thanks for this fantastic update!
That’s great news Pathi Harn has been spending time with Anjalee. Following the passing of Man Jai, his line has become even more genetically valuable and so I assume the preference would be to pair him and Anjalee, rather than Gung and Anjalee.
Long term, we hope Kanlaya will survive to produce the next generation of Dubbo’s herd, but there’s no guarantees and Pathi Harn remains an important contributor to the breeding programme. There’s only 10 years between him and Gung, meaning there’s not the same sense of urgency as there is with breeding from an older bull.
The supermarket is an unwelcome addition, but at least in an open range zoo. Space isn’t at the premium like it is at the Taronga site.
On that note, couldn’t they have just had Taronga’s fake supermarket and plane? Taronga visitors are surely getting bored of it by now.
Awesome review! I must admit I hadn’t even thought about the birding opportunities at TWPZ but it makes a lot of sense. There has always been a lot of native wildlife within the zoo grounds though - I got some really nice photos of wild grey kangaroos there about 7 or 8 years ago. It’s actually a great zoo for photography as the fences and wire etc aren’t noticeable so you can get shots of the animal and some greenery without a fence (so it looks like it could be a wild animal). It’s also a really pretty zoo - which makes it even more enjoyable. Can’t wait to get back there again at some stage.
What time of year would you recommend as the best time there for birdwatching? When would you see the most different species I mean?
Osedax
Well-Known Member
The best time of the year for birding at TWPZ would probably be Spring/Summer (just guessing as I only discovered how great it is for birdlife this week, and only know what Bob told me).
As for the Eastern Grey Kangaroos, a fair few of them are not actually truly wild, being escapees from the zoo. There is an interesting story behind this. Both Eastern Grey and Red Kangaroos were previously kept with the emus. The Eastern greys used to hop out of the exhibit and explore, returning at feeding time. Then, one day, they decided that they preferred life outside of the fence and never came back, though they remained within zoo grounds. The Red Kangaroos never did this. They were rather older than the greys and eventually died of old age, meaning the paddock now only contains Emus.
2.1 African lion cubs were born on October 4th to experienced parents, Lwazi and Marion. The cubs are doing very well and will be introduced to their father and 18-month-old sisters in the following months.
https://fb.watch/o48I_NGDmS/
https://fb.watch/o48I_NGDmS/
11 Western quoll have been released:
From socials:
The cohort of 11 individuals were carefully selected from the conservation breeding program to ensure we inject genetically robust and diverse individuals into the newly established wild population at Mt Gibson. Taronga is proud to collaborate with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy on reintroduction efforts for this critical native predator.
The Chuditch was once found across 70% of mainland Australia but has been reduced to just 5% of its former range and is extinct in the wild in NSW, NT and QLD. One of four species of quoll in Australia, Chuditch are WA’s largest endemic carnivore.
Thanks to the generous philanthropic support of the Kinghorn Foundation, Taronga's crucial conservation breeding program commenced in Dubbo in 2022 with the aim of reintroducing the Chuditch to conservation areas where the species has become locally extinct following European settlement.
Since the commencement of the program, Taronga has successfully bred 37 joeys, all intended for wild release. This wonderful achievement was also made possible thanks to an expert, multi-disciplinary team and to the Taronga Sanctuary which was first opened with philanthropic support in 2018 and has well and truly shown its impact as a conservation powerhouse in NSW.
From socials:
The cohort of 11 individuals were carefully selected from the conservation breeding program to ensure we inject genetically robust and diverse individuals into the newly established wild population at Mt Gibson. Taronga is proud to collaborate with the Australian Wildlife Conservancy on reintroduction efforts for this critical native predator.
The Chuditch was once found across 70% of mainland Australia but has been reduced to just 5% of its former range and is extinct in the wild in NSW, NT and QLD. One of four species of quoll in Australia, Chuditch are WA’s largest endemic carnivore.
Thanks to the generous philanthropic support of the Kinghorn Foundation, Taronga's crucial conservation breeding program commenced in Dubbo in 2022 with the aim of reintroducing the Chuditch to conservation areas where the species has become locally extinct following European settlement.
Since the commencement of the program, Taronga has successfully bred 37 joeys, all intended for wild release. This wonderful achievement was also made possible thanks to an expert, multi-disciplinary team and to the Taronga Sanctuary which was first opened with philanthropic support in 2018 and has well and truly shown its impact as a conservation powerhouse in NSW.
African lion cub update:
Marion’s cubs are preparing to meet the rest of the pride. It’ll be fantastic to see this pride of eight on exhibit together.
Marion’s cubs are preparing to meet the rest of the pride. It’ll be fantastic to see this pride of eight on exhibit together.
I stand corrected that I mentioned elsewhere that the litter only included one male, when in fact there are two males. Good to be able to check in with both updates in this thread to make sure I'm on the right page
I stand corrected that I mentioned elsewhere that the litter only included one male, when in fact there are two males. Good to be able to check in with both updates in this thread to make sure I'm on the right page
It’s funny you say that as this morning I was *this* close to announcing the cubs had been mis-sexed. I found a news article stating they were three females and since it mentioned their older sisters, I didn’t think they were confusing them with the previous litter (0.3). I double checked with this video by the zoo, which confirmed genders.
It wouldn’t have surprised me as sexing isn’t 100% in felids until at least six weeks. Dreamworld announced they had 1.2 Sumatran tiger cubs, only to discover Jaya was actually female at the six week check.
Kani the Common Hippopotmaus has Died
I’m saddened to advise that Dubbo’s youngest hippopotamus, Kani has died.
Kani turned three years old this year and as many of you will be aware, was the only bull in the region.
His death reduces Dubbo’s population to 0.4 hippopotami:
0.1 Nile (15/05/1999) Ollie x Suzie
0.1 Cuddles (00/09/2002) Fonzie x Solucky
0.1 Kibibi (11/09/2014) Mana x Cuddles
0.1 Kendi (25/05/2017) Mana x Cuddles
This information was passed on to me via a friend’s visit.
I’m saddened to advise that Dubbo’s youngest hippopotamus, Kani has died.
Kani turned three years old this year and as many of you will be aware, was the only bull in the region.
His death reduces Dubbo’s population to 0.4 hippopotami:
0.1 Nile (15/05/1999) Ollie x Suzie
0.1 Cuddles (00/09/2002) Fonzie x Solucky
0.1 Kibibi (11/09/2014) Mana x Cuddles
0.1 Kendi (25/05/2017) Mana x Cuddles
This information was passed on to me via a friend’s visit.
What might have been a 50/50 risk has now happened no more hippo bulls in Australian / ZAA region. For species management sake's an import of 2.4 or 3.3 hippo is badly needed. Same is true for a few other species with small populations that urgently require import and intervention on the part of species managers at individual zoos.
The inaction over decades on the part of ZAA species coordinators and senior zoo management and curatorial staff concerned is most obvious now. It is about bloody time you get your act together or make way for a more visionary and forward planning group of zoo management staff..
While the birth of Kani at Dubbo in 2020 was heralded on here as the much needed birth of a male calf; I can’t deny the reduction of the regional population to a single bull (upon the death of Kani’s father) placed us in a tenuous position that has ultimately led to us having no viable breeding population (at this point in time).
I can’t comment on management, but know that nobody is more anxious to get this Hippopotamus IRA than the keepers. Fingers crossed it’s not too far away now!
I am inclined to use the words disinterest, inaction and lack of vision (perhaps even the big I.)
I restricting my criticism and feedback towards senior species management and up to senior management level.
I agree there has been some lack of dedication towards successfully managing this species.
Whilst the deaths of Kani and his father, Mana a few years ago were undeniably unexpected; there was a point where Werribee was without a bull (following Harry's death) and Dubbo sat on two bulls for years and either could've easily moved one down to Werribee to breed. In the event that that did occur; we may have had the chance to be in a much better position regionally. But who knows.