Mogo Wildlife Park Mogo Zoo News
- Thread starter Jet
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Article on zebra birth:
A ‘perfect birth’ has brought a new face to Mogo zoo – and he’s already earning his stripes | About Regional
“We’ve had an established zebra herd at Mogo for quite some time, but he [Melako, Subira’s father] is a relatively new stallion to the group.”
“One of the important things with managing captive populations is genetics. You’ve got to ensure that you’re maintaining that strong genetic diversity over generations – it’s quite often that stallions are moved from zoo to zoo.”
Osedax
Well-Known Member
One of the other important things, Chad, is maintaining pure subspecies that actually have conservation value. Why don't you try that?
And that quote from the ABC article "not many Australian zoos have zebras" is pure nonsense.
It was frustrating to see preference given to maintaining genetic diversity of the region’s generic zebra population over further inbreeding a mildly inbred population of Grant’s zebra.
It’s even more frustrating now others have done the leg work in importing a viable founder population that could supply the other zoos. It would be my preference to see generics placed in non breeding herds (or contracepted), with breeding herds only involving purebred Grant’s stallions/mares as breeding animals.
And yes, there’s close to a hundred zebras in Australian zoos!
Not many Australian zoos breed zebras for that fact.
It's interesting they mention the move being based off genetics. Melako and Katali are likely related, both being descendants of Dubbo's herd. Melako's mother (Shani) being born there in 2005 and Katali's father (Tambo) being born there five years later.
Would be great if there was better focus as to 'properly' managing the regional population; but I guess it's difficult to do with the decades of inbreeding now. Restarting with purebred Grants would be ideal.
New male Cheetah arrives:
Jabari (2014) has transferred in from Hunter Valley Zoo and has been paired with Imani (2017).
1.0 Jabari (04/11/2014) Hamerton Zoo
0.1 Imani (24/03/2017) Monarto Safari Park
According to yesterday’s post, these are the only two Cheetah at Mogo. Sefu (2009) has presumably died; while Ayana (2017) may have been transferred out - presumably to Hunter Valley, who were left without Cheetah upon Jabari’s departure. I will contact the zoo to confirm.
Jabari (2014) has transferred in from Hunter Valley Zoo and has been paired with Imani (2017).
1.0 Jabari (04/11/2014) Hamerton Zoo
0.1 Imani (24/03/2017) Monarto Safari Park
According to yesterday’s post, these are the only two Cheetah at Mogo. Sefu (2009) has presumably died; while Ayana (2017) may have been transferred out - presumably to Hunter Valley, who were left without Cheetah upon Jabari’s departure. I will contact the zoo to confirm.
I wondered how they were getting along, news or video has been sparse since he became a 'gorilla'.
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They often have updates on their social media pages
Oddly enough I just found something with a couple of photos of him with G.Anne. I think having him in the exhibit on his own first is probably a hype/publicity thing.
The instagram account of Mogo’s director has 64 posts so far this year, 62 of which are about the gorilla infant.
This is what was mentioned re. the debut:
So on Monday after we close up the park we will have a special session where Kaius will venture out and have about an hour on display.
I’ll post some more info over the next couple of days as to who we would like to invite to be part of this special step… but Kaius is ready to meet the world
Is it confirmed to be Chitwa? I know Evelyn arrived earlier this year and from what I’ve seen when I’ve visited, Chitwa, Snow and Roc have been in a separate pride to Evenlyn and Baako. Plus their wording of their pair makes me think it’s Evelyn and Baako
Good spotting, I believe you’re right.
Mogo’s announcement tells us everything we need to know about the cubs bar the number in the litter, the parentage, the DOB and the gender.
I’ll excuse them for the latter given the age of the cubs.
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Yep you’re right, it would have been nice to know how many were born/survived, and even the parents!
A recent article mentioning that Mogo’s female hyena and red panda are both currently pregnant. Both are likely to give birth around the Christmas period. Particularly good news for the hyenas especially as the sire is a founder male that Altina imported from Africa: Gorillas in our midst: Youngster set to say g’day as Mogo zoo faces a summer baby boom | About Regional
I'm very suspicious about whether there has been any real bonding at all...I think the recent videos they have released show Ganne isn't interested in him- when he ventures beyond the door to the outside he looks rather 'lost' and she just walks away or past him, as if focused on something else. I'd need to see something more of them interacting together before I believed they were genuinly bonding. Knowing Ganne's past I wouldn't really expect anything more.
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Yeah fair point. I too have yet to see G-Anne initiating interaction with Kaius.
It appears from videos shared that interest from Kaius’ natal troop was limited; and with it being an unknown how Kisane would respond to his reintroduction, it’s reasonable to assume G-Anne was chosen as a safe option. How much Kaius will learn from her in the long term I don’t know, though it’s surely preferable to further handraising.
That is exactly how I see it too. They couldn't give him back to his mother as she had probably ceased lactating by the time he was ready, -though she might have started again. Plus they couldn't bottle feed him in that scenario either. They were probably fearful of Kisane also. So all in all this was the only option left.
I think even if Ganne effectively ignores him and doesn't carry him at all, he'll gain something if he partially imprints on her, and maybe involves her in some 'passive' play. So I await any more videos with interest.
The 14 months that have elapsed since the birth of Kaius suggest Kipenzi is on contraception. This may have been recommended for medical reasons following complications from her last delivery; but I wonder if her producing another infant when able to do so would be of benefit to Kaius.
The best case scenario is a subsequent mother-raised infant that can remain in its natal troop; but upon reaching six or seven, this gorilla could be introduced to Kaius (if a male) with the aim of forming a bachelor troop. Worst case scenario, Kipenzi rejects the infant which could be peer raised alongside Kaius. It’s unknown whether Kipenzi rejected Kaius due to the stress of her illness following his delivery; or because of her uncertainty around maternal care. In the case of the latter, it’d be advantageous to discover that now rather than cease breeding for a decade and have another Kaius raised in the absence of peers down the line.