Was wondering if anyone would be so cool as to give an idea (or better yet a walkthrough idea) of what it was like with Adelaide Zoo between the years 1989-1992 in the Zoo (in terms of species on display etc).
Adelaide Zoo Adelaide Zoo 1989-1992
- Thread starter steveroberts
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What a tragic end she met at Monarto - at only the age of 40 at the time she passed.
It's interesting to imagine what Monarto may have eventually ended up doing with her (and elephants in general) had she not passed that early on. I know all three city zoos (Auckland, Taronga and Melbourne) had plans to send all their ageing elephants to Monarto around the time of Samorn's death.
I’m open to correction, but I believe it was only Taronga and Melbourne intending to transfer their elephants to Monarto. Auckland Zoo imported Burma in 1990 and opened their then state of the art elephant exhibit in 1992, which was at the time considered the best in the region. An article from 1994 details discussions around undertaking AI with Kashin at Auckland Zoo as the elephant exhibit had a capacity for three females.
I wonder had Samorn survived whether Monarto would have been considered for the circus elephants (Siam, Sabu and Bimbo) who went to Australia Zoo.
Indeed your right, I've double checked and it was indeed just Melbourne and Taronga with Adelaide being the third facility (they had already sent Samorn).
It seems like reading past comments on this, that these plans were made following Samorn's passing however. Zoo director changes at both Melbourne and Taronga though at the time resulted in these plans unfortunately being cancelled.
In the event the zoos did send the elephants to Monarto, it's possible we could have ended up with an ageing population, and no breeding whatsoever!
It was definitely for the best in my opinion that Taronga and Melbourne didn’t phase out as they were the driving force behind the import of the eight elephants from Thailand. Every calf born in the region has been a direct descendant of at least one of those imported elephants.
The six elephants were as follows:
Taronga:
1.0 Heman (1963-2006)
0.1 Burma (1959-2021)
0.1 Ranee (1962-1998)
Melbourne:
1.0 Bong Su (1974-2017)
0.1 Mek Kapah (1973)
Adelaide:
0.1 Samorn (1950-1994)
The best hope for breeding would have arguably been Heman and Mek Kepah, with Heman having at least a vague idea of how to mount cows; and Mek Kepah being aged 21 years in 1994.
It appears most of our now elephant holders have evolved rather rapidity in the last few years much faster in the last 5 years. Werribee is the gold star of everything that can be done to take things to the next level,
The very fast evolvement at Monarto zoo is amazing and they are still putting it all together. Dubbo I believe is lagging behind the large gaps in breeding may well back fire on them. I do hope it's not going to take years to get its new barn/yard.
It's a shame Australia Zoo never imported the same sub species and joined the breeding program with the other holders, they certainly have the space for it!
Thought maybe could change thread title to the zoo's history thread
Ad from 1997:
Ad from 1997:
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This is great, thank you Steve! Is that an ocelot in the video?
No worries Abbey (same uploader as 'Orangs' on Stage' put it up on youtube). Yeah it's one of their ocelots (thinking most probably, one of the 1.2 three who went to Crocodylus Park later, think in 2003 - but maybe there were still additional ocelots at Adelaide in '97?).