Regarding the Black and White Ruffed Lemurs - Australia have always only had a bachelor group of them. They did indeed import a male from France although that was almost 20 years ago!
Australasian Western Lowland Gorilla Population
- Thread starter Zoofan15
- Start date
ApeLadyNZ
Well-Known Member
Indeed, it's a pity that Australia Zoo never went ahead with their plans for gorillas - no doubt Covid and a lack of funding played a part. Hopefully someday they will reconsider a great ape species - another gorilla breeding group would have been amazing for the Australasian region.
And yes, Bindi's Island could have been put to better use - perhaps they could have obtained some smaller monkey species for that area - that in itself would have been quite a drawcard!
Oh, sadly it was canned long before Covid (the last mention of it was in 2007, with Bindi’s Island opening December 2014).
Gorillas would have undoubtedly proved a huge attraction for Australia Zoo and a large breeding troop could have been accommodated; most likely with a small bachelor troop held on site. Since then, Orana and Mogo have emerged as new holders; and Sydney and Adelaide have made plans, then abandoned them. With Zoos SA’s major investment in elephants, it’s unlikely we’ll see them at Monarto for the foreseeable future (which I feel would have been an inevitability had Adelaide acquired them).
The Gorillas (and a lot of other projects) pretty much fell out following Steve's passing.
Whilst you can acknowledge that most were rather unrealistic. Knowing Steve I'm sure he would've found a way to execute all the plans he had for Australia Zoo.
Realistically when Steve died money dried up. His plans and income from fame created a unique mix of being able to create and put plans into action. He also just wanted to recreate singapore zoo.
Australia Zoo had incredible potential. From the time Steve and Terri took over in 1992 until Steve’s death 14 years later, the zoo grew exponentially; but sadly progress has been slow over the last two decades with numerous planned exhibits (including a whole North American precinct) scrapped.
Steve planned for gorillas and orangutans. Had he lived to this day, it wouldn’t have surprised me to have seen the zoo acquire chimpanzees and be the only holder of three great ape species in the region.
ApeLadyNZ
Well-Known Member
It's indeed a pity the plans for gorillas were scrapped. Great apes would have done a good deal to raise popularity and profitability at Australia Zoo, and it would have been spectacular to see had they managed to acquire orangutans and possibly chimpanzees.
If Steve had lived, I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd tried to acquire bonobos as well. No other zoo in the region holds them, and being the first zoo in Australasia to hold all four great ape species would have caused quite a sensation!
Considering Steve had ambitions to exhibit every tiger subspecies, that’s certainly a possibility.
The 2000’s were an era when city zoos like Auckland and Adelaide phased out Common chimpanzee because they didn’t have the space to accomodate large social groupings. In addition to being smaller, Bonobo are commonly housed in troops of 2-10 individuals in captivity, so there could have potentially been some level of regional support had Australia Zoo taken the initiative.
I seem to recall from a tv show with Steve with Lemurs that he had a deep interest in them and mentioned that he would like to have a number of species. Since he did have a love for primates and wanted both Gorillas and Orangs it seems strange that when it's stated often they are "keeping his dream alive" that the zoo still has no ape or monkey species at all. With the magnificent gardens they have they could do some stunning exhibits for any primate adding a lot more interest and attractions for the visiting public.
I recall years ago there appeared to be something new opening just before every easter holidays. The African savanna still is very light on species a couple of zebra with the Giraffe and the rhinos next door, The Cheetah finally have a long awaited exhibit after being housed in the Tiger holding area for years, after this nothing of note that I know of unfortunately. I have wondered if the zoo will ever add some species of antelopes, Lions, baboons or some other point of interest, this question remains open!
I wonder if gorillas would finally gain traction if reports are accurate Australia Zoo is considering hippopotamus (presumably Pygmy hippopotamus). It would be a prime opportunity to build a gorilla complex - even if it’s a scaled back version (i.e. a bachelor exhibit as opposed to an exhibit housing a breeding troop).
Australia Zoo was growing exponentially in Steve’s last years with tigers, elephants, cheetah, the Crocoseum opening etc. The Crocodile Hunter Diaries and other promotions (Steve did a lot of talk shows in the US; and there was a Crocodile Hunter movie) took the zoo to the world stage, but there was a real sense that the money coming in was being funnelled straight back into the zoo - which was great to see.
I will believe it when I see it unfortunately even the long spoken about Glamping came to nothing!
I do believe the Australasian western gorilla breeding program is basically an off-shoot, and more or less alas EAZA zoos' Gorilla EEP surplus to requirements individuals. Pretty much, for now the Australian gorilla troupes are dependent upon what the EEP Species Committee recommends for the part regional population.
Having said that, @Zorro, I agree that Australia could be much more active with exchanging gorillas with the South East Asian zoos and/or zoos in Japan....!!!
Your spot on - and this has been detrimental in that there hasn't been many girls that Europe's deemed overly represented to the point they will be sent across to Australia. Once the gorillas arrive, they (and their offspring) will likely have to remain within the region unless the EEP deems a specific lineage is underrepresented within Europe.
In saying that, there's been a surge of female births luckily in the last decade or so which will hopefully be beneficial towards any females coming across in the coming years.
Since Australia is apart of the European population, it would be difficult to exchange with the Asian region for example. However there's already been an export from Taronga to Japan.
I pretty much mean exchanging male gorillas for some surplus female young gorillas from Australia to Japan!
What individual(s) have been exchanged between Taronga and Japan?
Taronga has sent two male gorillas to Japan:
1.0 Haoko (1993) Kibabu x Mouila
1.0 Shabani (1996) Kibabu x Mouila
Haoko lives at the Ueno Zoo; Shabani lives at the Higashiyama Zoo. Both have sired offspring at their respective zoos.
All potential females in Japan are offspring of both Haoko and Shabani, so there would be little point of acquiring them if there are other unrelated females available in Europe.
In saying that, the current silverbacks at Melbourne, Taronga and Mogo are all unrelated; so it's possible they could consider that as an option. It would just mean we're acquiring more females from the same lineages.
Then honestly as far as gorillas is concerned and without a very active local Great Ape Working Group in actively canvassing EAZA or AZA for unrelated gorillas, it will be another SPP managed till ... early Goodbyes.
The problem is Taronga essentially have limited space so wouldn't be able to really accommodate two troops - especially in the long term. Unless they elect to send the bachelor males down to Orana, which is another possibility.
We as a region are in a position where there's no harm in breeding openly. We have sustainable bachelor facilities (one of which can essentially hold two troops). And we are in dire need of females (gorillas in general); so even in the event majority females are born, they'd be useful to building up group numbers.
If Adelaide did not drop out from holding Gorillas it could have been a real game changer in the overall scheme of thing having so few holders in the region has a negative effect on the way thing are managed!