The most notorious example of this as far as ZooChatters are concerned would be Eastern bongo. One ran into a fence and so Zoos Victoria decided they’d never be held at Melbourne Zoo again (at least not in that exhibit).
Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo history
- Thread starter vogelcommando
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The most notorious example of this as far as ZooChatters are concerned would be Eastern bongo. One ran into a fence and so Zoos Victoria decided they’d never be held at Melbourne Zoo again (at least not in that exhibit).
It can be quite a difficult task to do due to the fact males and females are virtually identical until they mature. But they can be sexed upon maturing.
Guinea fowl can be sexed from eight weeks:
Sexing Guinea Fowl.
The male is slightly larger, has a larger, taller standing crest on top of his head, and the wattles under his chin are bigger and stick out farther than the female's. The hen's crest is somewhat smaller and angled more toward the rear, and her wattles aren't as large or as deeply cupped.
There’s other methods of sexing here:
3 Ways to Tell the Sex of Guinea Fowl - wikiHow
I imagine either DNA or surgical sexing. The former is not expensive, and they have a large vet department. Although I see from above there are in fact visual ways to sex them.
(The leopard seal in the ad lived at Taronga am certain, both zoos had a similar advertisement at the time, rest would be at Melbourne resident animals at the time, only other one though not sure about, is the harbour seal, maybe Taronga also?)
Edit: Murphy & Sheba were leopard seals at Taronga back during that time period (although one of them might of passed away before then, before Brooke came in '99, thanks @ Hix for the info about them from the Taronga history thread).
Edit: Taronga's version https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZUxb_KWNpiQ
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I’m not aware of Melbourne having Leoaprd seal (the first seal is a Harbour seal), but it seems strange they would use Taronga footage when they’d have their own readily available.
The young chimpanzee would have to be Taronga footage too as it’s a male and Ernie was the only male infant from the last colony to survive to adulthood. He was born 1969 and is clearly a late juvenile/adolescent in this footage.
It looks like it's a decent mix of both. Both the Harbour Seal and Leopard Seal look like they were taken Taronga. The hippo also would have to be too, considering Melbourne didn't have them at the time. The elephant also looks like Burma (at Taronga). And the clip of the first chimp at least looks like it was taken at Taronga. The baby giraffe would also have been at Taronga too (perhaps Nyota!).
Otherwise, most of the rest look like they were taken at Melbourne. There's some nice videos in there of Rigo and Mzuri, the gorillas. And one of Melbourne's chimps too.
@Zoofan15 @Jambo
Oh yeah true I forgot Melbourne sent them to Werribee when it opened, thanks for reminding me. I think got mixed up because of Taronga sending their last (common/river) hippo to Dubbo in 1992 I got them mixed up.
Yeah it is strange that they dint use their fur-seals or sea lions for their commercial. I read somewhere Taronga ran an ad with same jingle (and even hap same visitor map printer around that era or just before, but from memory you guys know about that latter part already).
Am guessing they took footage of one of hippos at Werribee unless they used one of Taronga's hippos being filmed footage too like with the seals.
Oh yeah true I forgot Melbourne sent them to Werribee when it opened, thanks for reminding me. I think got mixed up because of Taronga sending their last (common/river) hippo to Dubbo in 1992 I got them mixed up.
Yeah it is strange that they dint use their fur-seals or sea lions for their commercial. I read somewhere Taronga ran an ad with same jingle (and even hap same visitor map printer around that era or just before, but from memory you guys know about that latter part already).
Am guessing they took footage of one of hippos at Werribee unless they used one of Taronga's hippos being filmed footage too like with the seals.
I recall seeing the same ad for Taronga Zoo, so I’m guessing the same production company undertook filming at both zoos and marketed it to both regions. To be honest, as long as people went to Melbourne and saw a pinniped, they probably wouldn’t give a second thought what species it was.
Similarly, using a juvenile male chimp when Melbourne had all adults would have gone unnoticed.
Sorry am sure we're all tired of the ad now, but heres the 1990 version might be a bit different; barely but nanoseconds of animal/species footage - guess who's featured: Frank and Poetry:
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Not sure if this has been shared already, sorry if it has have time to remove it
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Not sure if this has been shared already, sorry if it has have time to remove it
Great video! It was good to see the small colony of Australian fur seals, which were apparently breeding (as evidenced by the juvenile next to its mother). The exhibit was at least adequate by 1990’s standards, larger than Auckland and Adelaide’s exhibits; though credit to Auckland, they opened a new exhibit in 2001.
It was also nice to see a prime aged Bong Su and the Collared peccaries. What a shame peccaries will disappear from Melbourne Zoo (and the region) within the decade after nearly half a century in the region.
The old exhibit was quite large space wise but the pool was very shallow. Likely not more than two metres deep. The enclosure itself used to house monkeys hence the design of a rocky mountain with a moat around it (which would have been empty when the monkeys were there). Therefore the exhibit itself was at least 60 years old at the time of it's closure. Possibly pre world war II.
I too was interested to see what looks to be a juvenile seal. There's no bull in the video from what I could see. It's possible it could have been a rescue. Melbourne apparently rescued Tarwin when she was only a few months old in 1997.
Osedax
Well-Known Member
It's interesting that there is so much footage that was used in both the Melbourne and Taronga "You Belong in the Zoo" ads. Just off the top of my head, the footage of the lion, bear macaque (!), giraffes (though not the calf), elephant, iguana, kangaroos, chimpanzees, pelican, barking owl, hippo, harbour seal, leopard seal, diamond python, wombat, northern koala, the second shot of the spider monkey, pink cockatoo, galah, red panda, emu and giant tortoise were all used in both.
Yes, there was a lot of overlaps in both (see Taronga history thread, where we’ve also been discussing it). We saw chimpanzees that were juveniles (so clearly not from Melbourne, which only had adults in the 1990’s); in addition to pinniped species never held at Melbourne. Common hippopotamus also weren’t at Melbourne post 1982.
Thanks so much for finding this doco Jambo. Just realised too that the version found on internet archive below which aired in Adelaide has some slightly different footage in some parts believe. Think the version you found and shared has more footage.
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It’s great to see this documentary again. It’s incomprehensible by today’s standards how beloved this gorilla was by Australians as the first of his species born in Australia. The significance of his birth was on a level of that reported for Jubilee (the United Kingdom’s first elephant calf); and to a lesser extent, Luk Chai - Australia’s own first elephant calf.
Never again has a gorilla achieved this fame in Australasia - whether it be Melbourne’s latest infant (Kanzi, born 2015); or Kaius at Mogo Wildlife Park.
Found this video from the early 70's.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KjIS10L_Oz4
Highlights include: Betty and Peggy the Asian Elephants, a Beaver, a pair of Tigers, and the zoos three Bear species (Polar, Black and Brown).
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/KjIS10L_Oz4
Highlights include: Betty and Peggy the Asian Elephants, a Beaver, a pair of Tigers, and the zoos three Bear species (Polar, Black and Brown).
Nice to see the Common hippopotami too. I saw three, which must be 0.1 Genevieve (1955), 0.1 Henrietta (1961) and the male acquired in 1966; with Rangi having died in 1968 (tennis ball of course).