Taronga Zoo Recent history of Taronga and developments etc

[Jambo]

Absolutely. Yeah it's very interesting and unfortunate that if (a) littermate(s) do not survive, how it triggers that response in the mother felids with their milk drying up. (Sorry cant like your interesting post in return, you know the story, that can't at the moment unfortunately).

The man interviewing Dr George, Neil Mercer, is an incredibly nice person in person, and was super impressed by how well researched he was with Taronga's Sumatran tigers' history before the interview and knew about some of the zoos overseas Kemiri's aunts and uncles had gone to like San Diego and Japan (Ueno).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's this video too from 2006

includes
-American alligator
-Squirrel monkeys on island
-wild noisy miner
-Koala in Koala Walkabout
-Agouti in one of old aviaries opposite Serpentaria complex
-The great Tuka the Komodo dragon in his enclosure at front of Serpentaria complex
-Snake-necked turtle behind underwater viewing glass in the outdoor enclosure shared with Freshwater crocodiles (not shown)
-Serpentaria Indoors: tree frogs, sheltopusiks, baby saltwater crocodiles, tuatas, pythons, star tortoises, sailfin lizard, river cooter turtles, Jackson's chamelen, diamondback rattlesnake, mata-mata turtle, Fijian banded iguana, plumed basilisk, green iguanas, (Murray) short-neck turtles (I think), a small desert monitor and desert skink, spiny-tailed skink (someone will now specific species) , frilled-neck lizard, small very showy water monitor, black-headed python, tawny crevice dragon (think, might be other species of small dragon lizard)
-Common tree shrew
-Giraffes and plains zebras
-Chimps' in 'Chimpanzee Park'
-Barbary sheep
-Dromedary & scimitar-horned oryx
-Eastern bongo
-Himalayan tahr on 'Tahr Mountain'
-Kwanzaa the south-central black rhino'
-An Egyptian goose wandering the 'African Waterhole' pathway
-A Chilean flamingo in the old exhibit that was Cleo or Katrina the pygmy hippo's formerly
-Western lowland gorillas. According to a commentor, the first one seen is Shabani, and apparently he was living alone at the time in the seperate exhibit that used to have De Brazzas' guenons (I reckon someone will even know which other individuals are seen)
-Saltwater crocodiles in old exhibit (two of them) one peeping out from the water and another basking in the sand in their old very small sandbox enclosure (not sure if one of them was Rin Tin Tin or his predecessor)
-either Bethyl or Cynthia asleep in a rocky alcove at side of their 'Bear Canyon' exhibit (now Mary the sun bear's of course)
-Aldabra giant tortoise with its mouth open then cloed
-View of 'Free Flight Bird Show' ampitheatre and the harbour view
-The full 'Free Flight Bird Show'
-Andean condor (Bruce or Connie perhaps?) playing with a milkcrate
-Mandarin ducks
-Berani or Denise the Malayan tapir (unfortunately with one of the veils covering their eyes)

Wonderful find Steve!

It's interesting to see the former Alligator exhibit, which I never got to see in person. I think they make a fascinating display with the Squirrel Monkeys in the background.

Also cool to see three zebras. Taronga presumbly had a non breeding trio at the time - I note they added a young female from Dubbo around this time which indicates it wasn't a bachelor group. The video also shows five giraffes; however if the video was shot in 2006, there should have only been four giraffe. However if it was shot the following year in (2007), and the dates had been mixed up, one year old Jiminyu would also be present. It does look like there's two younger giraffes in shot (which would be Zafara and Jimiyu). Jimiyu is presumbly the giraffe that wanders across to the zebras (13.30).

At 16.00 you can also see two youngsters playing; which looks like it could be Lani (the larger chimp) playing with either Shikamoo or Furahi.

Re. the gorillas, it looks like Mouila initially outdoors and then Kriba with a young Kimya indoors. The last gorilla in the video certainly looks like Shabani. Him and his brother Haoko were exported to Japan in 2007.

It's also a shock to see one of the Malayan Tapirs with the 'mask' on their eyes to protect them from the Australian sunlight. It's no wonder Melbourne's female was off display for so long - it's not the best look.

I also liked seeing the old seal pools, and the old seal theatre too - it's nice that the whole Seal presentation was recorded and is apart of the video.

I was also surprised to see a Tree Kangaroo in an enclosure with what looks like a Tammar Wallaby. Do you remember this mix Steve? I'm presuming this enclosure was located in Backyard to Bush.

 

[steveroberts]

Wonderful find Steve!

It's interesting to see the former Alligator exhibit, which I never got to see in person. I think they make a fascinating display with the Squirrel Monkeys in the background.

Also cool to see three zebras. Taronga presumbly had a non breeding trio at the time - I note they added a young female from Dubbo around this time which indicates it wasn't a bachelor group. The video also shows five giraffes; however if the video was shot in 2006, there should have only been four giraffe. However if it was shot the following year in (2007), and the dates had been mixed up, one year old Jiminyu would also be present. It does look like there's two younger giraffes in shot (which would be Zafara and Jimiyu). Jimiyu is presumbly the giraffe that wanders across to the zebras (13.30).

At 16.00 you can also see two youngsters playing; which looks like it could be Lani (the larger chimp) playing with either Shikamoo or Furahi.

Re. the gorillas, it looks like Mouila initially outdoors and then Kriba with a young Kimya indoors. The last gorilla in the video certainly looks like Shabani. Him and his brother Haoko were exported to Japan in 2007.

It's also a shock to see one of the Malayan Tapirs with the 'mask' on their eyes to protect them from the Australian sunlight. It's no wonder Melbourne's female was off display for so long - it's not the best look.

I also liked seeing the old seal pools, and the old seal theatre too - it's nice that the whole Seal presentation was recorded and is apart of the video.

I was also surprised to see a Tree Kangaroo in an enclosure with what looks like a Tammar Wallaby. Do you remember this mix Steve? I'm presuming this enclosure was located in Backyard to Bush.

Oh no worries Jambo, really glad you enjoyed watching it too mate. The footage reminds me of that really good one Patrick found from Sep' 2004 and shared on here in January last year.

Yeah that setup when the alligators were still there until a decade ago, with the squirrel monkeys (and cotton-top tamarins originally too) behind on the pond islands was a very cool sight to see when was like that (albeit unfortunately for the alligators, the creation of the monkey islands for that setup {'Amazonia' as they called it originally even though though were American alligators lol) meant the alligators got a reduction in their exhibit territory down to about 20% or less of what they originally had. Was quite a sight to see always. Just wish the alligators hadnt lost so much area. There was this metal (didnt look metal-made though) statue bust of an alligator's face and upper body sticking out on the viewing side semi-submerged in the water close to the visitors hand rail barrier - so people who didn't know was there would get a big shock when they saw it and think there was an alligator right there getting out of the exhibit (still there actually, just no actual alligators).

Oh cool thanks for sharing about which chimps' they were and which gorillas they were in the video.

Yeah from a historical and architectural point of view the old seal pools were very interesting. The largest in fact was only a bit smaller than the Great Southern Oceans ones (can see the outline of it with the Guillermo the capybara's exhibit and the playground area), but definitely had reached the end of its functional life by then (Brooke the leopard seal was always personal favourite to see, but the fur seals and sea lions were awesome and so gorgeous also).

I'm glad you enjoyed the fact that the seal show presentation was shown entirely in the footage (have attended it so many times now that almost tune out now, but the stars of the show of course are so cool and never a dull moment seeing them). Personally really enjoyed seeing the bird show in its entirety again, its been a very long time since seen it in person.

Yeah it really was shocking with the eye veil mask hey, those poor tapirs. Really unfortunate with the intesnity of our sun here in Australia.

Oh so it's (almost certainly) a tammar wallaby with the tree kangaroo in that exhibit. Thanks for that man. I was really taken by the look of it, quite a beautiful wallaby, but I got quite stuck as to which species it was (originally I though perhaps red-necked or swamp wallaby) but ok cool so that's what tammar wallabies look like (lol have seen them before, but sad to admit, get some of the wallaby species mixed up in identifying as much as would like to be more expert on identifying now). The thing is actually not really, have very little memory of that specific exhibit setup they have there actually. It's a really cool co-habitation hey those two together. Would be interested if Abbey, Hix, Osedax, Akasha and others might remember it. I could be wrong about, but think might of been between the old (look into) kangaroo exhibit(s) and the upper part of the wild Australia section rather than in the Backyard to Bush area.

 

[Zoofan15]

At 16.00 you can also see two youngsters playing; which looks like it could be Lani (the larger chimp) playing with either Shikamoo or Furahi.

Chimpanzee ID:

Yes that’s Lani, identifiable by her long face shape. I’d guess that’s Furahi interacting with her as Shikamoo had considerably longer limbs and there’s quite a size discrepancy between them.

At 15.45, Fifi walks under the juveniles play fighting. She passes away the following year aged 60 years.

Lubutu is visible at 15.39, sitting by his favoured waterfall spot.

At 15.32, the camera begins to zoom in on Shiba and Shona. Samaki is visible above them at the top of the pole.

 

[Younesmark]

Moore Park Zoo in 1912 few short years before move across the harbour to Mosman (site now Sydney Girls High School and Sydney Boys High School). Wow is that an anaconda in first video roaming the grass with a toddler right next to it!!

Didn't realise there was a black wildebeest and cape buffalo at Moore Park Zoo (and is that a Sumatran tiger?? well before they were classified as own subspecies in 1929 seperate from Javan tigers from what understand).

The poor brown bear

the bear pit still there today (source) (Google Maps man it is one tiny pit, those poor bears back in the day)

a tree was planted or removed from near it recently from the looks of

How nostalgic . Thank you for sharing this with us!

 

[steveroberts]

So happy (after trying to track this documentary down again for us on here for nearly 9 years, lost vhs recording of used to have) that a legend out there (thanks ''Didz'')
uploaded this documentary from May 1994 about Tarongas (hybrid) 6 orangutans' Judy, Wendy, Archie, Wanita, Willow & Jantan's move from their old tiny outdated pen enclosures in the old ape house to the 'Orangutan Rainforest' exhibit in early 1994:

Spoiler: Side notes

The short segments at Melbourne Zoo are grear too, aswell as some of the side stories liked the mixed Amazonian species in one of the aviaries, and the primate island one with Mary the Muller's gibbon and the squirrel monkeys (and other brief footage like briefly of Burma & Ranee, three of the giraffes, one of the seals, and snow leopard and others).

Had forgotten about how they had tested out Archie's strength with a dead tree in his old enclosure; and how he just worked at it with his strength until he snapped it.

*Willow's avoidance from her keepers for sedation for the move over after seeing how Jantan was sedated and moved is not surprising given their incredible intelligence. Just realised that for that moving back from the keepers at the bars p.o.v shot was of course a re-enactment of how she responded to; thought it was kinda funny that it meant the direct asked her keepers and vets if they could huddle together again at the bars so could the cameraman could mimic how she backed away from them.

**Really impressed how Archie's keepers with their expertees and knowing him best, were able to distract Archie - so that in the few minutes for the dart anesthetic to take effect he didnt climb up too high, and have a dagerous fall from a height when knocked out, was really impressive; just seeing glimpses of how keepers manage situations like that, and keeping the animals in their care safe when there are barriers that make it harder to do.

*The squirrel monkeys on island short term experiment as you can see was where the cotton-top tamarins live now and was Mary the gibbon's home for decades. It's funny because referring to it ''..'squirrel monkey' island becomes 'gibbon island''' techically became Mary's island again, but as a kid thought it meant it only became hers then until joining zoochat and learning tonnes of history recent and old about TZ. (Say this with humour rather than 'nitpicking' but notice in the panoramic shot of the island exhibit when narrator Darren is about to talk about the problem with the squirrel monkeys being the residents of the island it's actually Mary swinging about in that footage before it cuts back to previous filmed footage of the squirrel monkeys).

 

[Abbey]

So happy (after trying to track this documentary down again for us on here for nearly 9 years, lost vhs recording of used to have) that a legend out there (thanks Didz on youtube, though can't help but add..watermark of username over sceen maybe kinda
unnecessary lol, but very grateful anyway) uploaded this documentary from May 1994 about Tarongas (hybrid) 6 orangutans' Judy, Wendy, Archie, Wanita, Willow & Jantan's move from their old outdated (frankly horrible) old ape house cages to the 'Orangutan Rainforest' exhibit in early 1994:

Thank you so much for sharing Steve! I know you have been looking for this for a long time so I'm glad that paid off!

 

[Zoofan15]

So happy (after trying to track this documentary down again for us on here for nearly 9 years, lost vhs recording of used to have) that a legend out there (thanks ''Didz'')
uploaded this documentary from May 1994 about Tarongas (hybrid) 6 orangutans' Judy, Wendy, Archie, Wanita, Willow & Jantan's move from their old small cramped horrible outdated pens in the old ape house to the 'Orangutan Rainforest' exhibit in early 1994:

Thanks for sharing @steveroberts, it was really interesting to see the development of this exhibit and footage of the orangutans from 1994. The old cages were archaic, but interesting to see from a historical perspective.

It was surprising to see the keepers enter the exhibit with the then nine year old Willow and seven year old Jantan. The fact Judy went on exhibit the next day, but was later seen cuddling her son Jantan indicates free contact did not occur at any time with the adult orangutans.

It appeared the groupings once they moved over were:

Archie and Wendy
Judy, Wanita, Willow and Jantan

Wanita was later introduced to the two female Bornean orangutans imported from Hong Kong in 1995 and was reportedly close to them upon their export to Auckland Zoo in 2001.

It was also nice to see the Melbourne Zoo footage - elderly male Sumatran tiger Frank; and previous Taronga resident Betsy with her juvenile son Buzandi. She was evidently pregnant with her daughter Bambuti in the footage.

 

[Jambo]

So happy (after trying to track this documentary down again for us on here for nearly 9 years, lost vhs recording of used to have) that a legend out there (thanks ''Didz'')
uploaded this documentary from May 1994 about Tarongas (hybrid) 6 orangutans' Judy, Wendy, Archie, Wanita, Willow & Jantan's move from their old tiny outdated pen enclosures in the old ape house to the 'Orangutan Rainforest' exhibit in early 1994:

Spoiler: Side notes

The short segments at Melbourne Zoo are grear too, aswell as some of the side stories liked the mixed Amazonian species in one of the aviaries, and the primate island one with Mary the Muller's gibbon and the squirrel monkeys (and other brief footage like briefly of Burma & Ranee, three of the giraffes, one of the seals, and snow leopard and others).

Had forgotten about how they had tested out Archie's strength with a dead tree in his old enclosure; and how he just worked at it with his strength until he snapped it.

*Willow's avoidance from her keepers for sedation for the move over after seeing how Jantan was sedated and moved is not surprising given their incredible intelligence. Just realised that for that moving back from the keepers at the bars p.o.v shot was of course a re-enactment of how she responded to; thought it was kinda funny that it meant the direct asked her keepers and vets if they could huddle together again at the bars so could the cameraman could mimic how she backed away from them.

**Really impressed how Archie's keepers with their expertees and knowing him best, were able to distract Archie - so that in the few minutes for the dart anesthetic to take effect he didnt climb up too high, and have a dagerous fall from a height when knocked out, was really impressive; just seeing glimpses of how keepers manage situations like that, and keeping the animals in their care safe when there are barriers that make it harder to do.

*The squirrel monkeys on island short term experiment as you can see was where the cotton-top tamarins live now and was Mary the gibbon's home for decades. It's funny because referring to it ''..'squirrel monkey' island becomes 'gibbon island''' techically became Mary's island again, but as a kid thought it meant it only became hers then until joining zoochat and learning tonnes of history recent and old about TZ. (Say this with humour rather than 'nitpicking' but notice in the panoramic shot of the island exhibit when narrator Darren is about to talk about the problem with the squirrel monkeys being the residents of the island it's actually Mary swinging about in that footage before it cuts back to previous filmed footage of the squirrel monkeys).

Thanks for sharing! It's great to finally watch the doco after reading discussions about it over the years.

Nice to see footage of the orangutans - and the old cage block too which has thoroughly been discussed on here too. It's difficult to imagine a large group of chimps running around in there, let alone a single orangutan!

It's great to see Melbourne Zoo featured. The footage of the current Forest of Wonders enclosure is amazing, it's interesting to see the exhibit covered in vegetation and in comparison, the lack of vegetation surrounding the exhibit. The exhibit's essentially completely surrounded by thick foliage today, and so seeing the enclosure in bright sunlight is strange!

It's also great to see Melbourne's gorillas;

At 23.26 - it looks like Buluman, Betsy and Yuska (front to back) walking down the hill, whilst the camera pans to Motaba.

There's a better shot of a young Motaba at 23.35. And then at 23.48, Betsy (on the left) and Yuska (on the right), who are joined by a young Buzandi. Another shot of Yuska at 23.55.

It's also really cool to see Betsy (with Buzandi) who appears to have been introduced permanently at this point; despite being hand raised, both seem to showing quite a positive bond. It's no wonder both of Betsy's offspring were able to successfully go off and live in breeding troops successfully.

At 25.03, Motaba can also be seen charging, chased by Betsy and Buluman at 25.10. Nice to see clear footage of Buluman!

 

[Jambo]

It appeared the groupings once they moved over were:

Archie and Wendy
Judy, Wanita, Willow and Jantan

Wanita was later introduced to the two female Bornean orangutans imported from Hong Kong in 1995 and was reportedly close to them upon their export to Auckland Zoo in 2001.

It would've been interesting to see how the groups were managed following the arrival of the girls from Hong Kong. I doubt a second group was formed, so it seems the girls were likely introduced to Archie and Wendy, with Wanita seemingly joining them.

Perhaps Wanita was initially introduced to Melur and Gangsa, due to her personality (being a good welcome animal), and then was eventually introduced (alongside the two new girls) to Archie and Wendy. The intention I presume would've been to breed them with Archie, but following his passing, a new male, Datuk was brought in.

This group was then effectively broken up in 2001 with the exports of Wanita, Melur and Gangsa to Taronga in March, and then Wendy's passing the following month. Leaving Judy, Jantan and Willow as the remaining trio.

 

[Zoofan15]

It would've been interesting to see how the groups were managed following the arrival of the girls from Hong Kong. I doubt a second group was formed, so it seems the girls were likely introduced to Archie and Wendy, with Wanita seemingly joining them.

Perhaps Wanita was initially introduced to Melur and Gangsa, due to her personality (being a good welcome animal), and then was eventually introduced (alongside the two new girls) to Archie and Wendy. The intention I presume would've been to breed them with Archie, but following his passing, a new male, Datuk was brought in.

This group was then effectively broken up in 2001 with the exports of Wanita, Melur and Gangsa to Taronga in March, and then Wendy's passing the following month. Leaving Judy, Jantan and Willow as the remaining trio.

I believe they were held in two groups as Archie and Jantan wouldn’t have mixed. If Archie and Wendy were successfully integrated, the Judy and Jantan likely lived with Wanita and Willow.

Jantan and Datuk similarly would have lived separately. Perhaps Wanita was clashing with the adult females and was moved across to join Melur and Gangsa’s group; with Datuk then joining them when he was imported.

Archie was a hybrid, so there wouldn’t have been any intention of breeding him with the Bornean females. Datuk (Bornean male) was their intended mate, but he sadly died of heart failure in 1998.

 

[Jambo]

I believe they were held in two groups as Archie and Jantan wouldn’t have mixed. If Archie and Wendy were successfully integrated, the Judy and Jantan likely lived with Wanita and Willow.

Jantan and Datuk similarly would have lived separately. Perhaps Wanita was clashing with the adult females and was moved across to join Melur and Gangsa’s group; with Datuk then joining them when he was imported.

Archie was a hybrid, so there wouldn’t have been any intention of breeding him with the Bornean females. Datuk (Bornean male) was their intended mate, but he sadly died of heart failure in 1998.

It's interesting though as Datuk was only seemingly acquired following Archie's death. It would've been difficult to keep three rotating groups had Archie not passed, so I'm not sure what the plan was with the Hong Kong girls then and whether they were intended to breed (or if the opportunity was seized following Archie's passing).

I'd assume Wendy was in with the Hong Kong girls plus Datuk too, unless she was integrated in with the other non breeding group.

 

[Zoofan15]

It's interesting though as Datuk was only seemingly acquired following Archie's death. It would've been difficult to keep three rotating groups had Archie not passed, so I'm not sure what the plan was with the Hong Kong girls then and whether they were intended to breed (or if the opportunity was seized following Archie's passing).

I'd assume Wendy was in with the Hong Kong girls plus Datuk too, unless she was integrated in with the other non breeding group.

Archie suffered from respiratory issues from a young age. He was originally intended to go to Barcelona, but these plans were abandoned. It was clear he wasn’t going to live to an old age (and indeed died aged 21 years). Combined with Judy and Wendy getting on in years (they died 2001 and 2007), the zoo were clearly trying to establish a Bornean orangutan colony in my opinion.

The Bornean females they imported were aged 6 and 7, so that gave them more than enough time to wait for hybrid numbers to dwindle before breeding commenced. In addition to awaiting the inevitable passing of Archie, Judy and Wendy; Taronga were perhaps optimistic of the opportunity to transfer out the 1.2 hybrids to another holder within the region (including new holders) within that timeframe. Though none were of consideration in 1995, Mogo, Cairns and Australia Zoo all emerged as options within the decade that followed.

Datuk arrived aged seven years in 1996, so the delay in importing him was additionally around giving him sufficient time with his mother. Dara was an excellent mother by all accounts and he would have been a playmate for Intan (born the same year as Datuk), whose mother was reoccupied with her new infant, Isim. The death of Archie clearly cleared the way for Datuk’s import; but I doubt Auckland would have had a problem delaying it a further 3-5 years until Datuk was 10-12 years and no longer able to be housed with the males.

 

[Jambo]

Archie suffered from respiratory issues from a young age. He was originally intended to go to Barcelona, but these plans were abandoned. It was clear he wasn’t going to live to an old age (and indeed died aged 21 years). Combined with Judy and Wendy getting on in years (they died 2001 and 2007), the zoo were clearly trying to establish a Bornean orangutan colony in my opinion.

The Bornean females they imported were aged 6 and 7, so that gave them more than enough time to wait for hybrid numbers to dwindle before breeding commenced. In addition to awaiting the inevitable passing of Archie, Judy and Wendy; Taronga were perhaps optimistic of the opportunity to transfer out the 1.2 hybrids to another holder within the region (including new holders) within that timeframe. Though none were of consideration in 1995, Mogo, Cairns and Australia Zoo all emerged as options within the decade that followed.

Datuk arrived aged seven years in 1996, so the delay in importing him was additionally around giving him sufficient time with his mother. Dara was an excellent mother by all accounts and he would have been a playmate for Intan (born the same year as Datuk), whose mother was reoccupied with her new infant, Isim. The death of Archie clearly cleared the way for Datuk’s import; but I doubt Auckland would have had a problem delaying it a further 3-5 years until Datuk was 10-12 years and no longer able to be housed with the males.

That's interesting that the intention was for Archie to go to Barcelona. I'm assuming he would have been transferred alongside the one year older, Little Mo, who was transferred in 1982.

It seems like following Datuk's passing in 1998, Taronga reached a cross roads were the best option was to send the Hong Kong girls plus Wanita to Auckland, perhaps due to the lack of availability regarding Bornean males.

One thing that still interests me is Taronga's decision to import Kluet from Jersey in 2003. Whether that indicated a switch an attempt to switch to Sumatrans - or whether the region was simply offered Kluet, and jumped at the opportunity, housing him at Taronga temporarily with the other breeding facilities 'full' at the time.

In the 80's a decision was made regionally to focus on purebreds. A lot of the hybrids were attempted to be exported overseas - Melbourne's male 'Kembar', twin of Kiani, was exported to Hyderbad, and I assume Kiani would have joined him had she not birthed a few years earlier. That pregnancy was accidental. Both her and her daughter (Gabby) were later desexed, as were the hybrids at Taronga.

 

[Zoofan15]

That's interesting that the intention was for Archie to go to Barcelona. I'm assuming he would have been transferred alongside the one year older, Little Mo, who was transferred in 1982.

It seems like following Datuk's passing in 1998, Taronga reached a cross roads were the best option was to send the Hong Kong girls plus Wanita to Auckland, perhaps due to the lack of availability regarding Bornean males.

One thing that still interests me is Taronga's decision to import Kluet from Jersey in 2003. Whether that indicated a switch an attempt to switch to Sumatrans - or whether the region was simply offered Kluet, and jumped at the opportunity, housing him at Taronga temporarily with the other breeding facilities 'full' at the time.

In the 80's a decision was made regionally to focus on purebreds. A lot of the hybrids were attempted to be exported overseas - Melbourne's male 'Kembar', twin of Kiani, was exported to Hyderbad, and I assume Kiani would have joined him had she not birthed a few years earlier. That pregnancy was accidental. Both her and her daughter (Gabby) were later desexed, as were the hybrids at Taronga.

Yes, the original plan was for Archie and Little Mo to be exported together. They were hand-raised together and very close by all accounts.

On hindsight, Auckland could have sent Horst as a replacement for his son, since he had no further breeding application at Auckland Zoo; but paternity of Intan (and Isim) wasn’t known in 1996 and they were likely happy to retain him in case they wanted to breed him with Indra again. Since the original exhibit plans at Auckland were for two exhibits, I assume the import of 2.2 was originally planned with the intention of housing them in 1.1 pairs (Charlie/Dara and Horst/Indra).

Taronga’s import of Kluet could have only been an intention to establish a Sumatran colony in my opinion. Perth imported a new breeding male shortly after; and Adelaide and Melbourne both had breeding pairs, so there was little use for him in the region at that point in time. It wouldn’t surprise me to see him transfer to Perth once they resume breeding however.

 

[steveroberts]

Brief footage of the zoo in October 1993, just over a minute - shows: a peacock, (a very charismatic and cute) bearded dragon, koalas, (also very cute and showy) s.b echidna, entry of noc' house, glimpse inside rainforest aviary (didnt see any birds in footage but can hear at least one), two alligators basking on grassy area they had in that exhibit originally before the late '90s renovations created the monkey islands over part of, and Tuka the Komodo dragon in his original exhibit.

 

[steveroberts]

This is very much worth the watch imo - but it starts at 20 minutes : 17 seconds into the video: the zoo on 11th July 1992 (thanks to the filmer and uploader).

Spoiler: footage summary

*Footage starts inside one of the old sky safari gondolas (good view of camel in the old farmyard where part of rainforest trail is now/back of whats soon to be Hari and buffalo companions exhibit area, and finishes going over lake and grassy land area of what was old alligator exhibit, still there but squirrel monkey island now of course)
*emus and red 'roos
*koalas in the 'koala walkabout exhibit
*a kingfisher with some food in its beak (fish?),
*the facade of the old tamarins exhibit area,
* c.t tamarin, g.l tamarin, emperor tamarin,
*squirrel monkeys,
*giraffes,
*chimpanzee family (thanks in advance for telling us which individuals they are),
*can just see Ali & Jacunda the jaguar (Jacunda was sent to Adelaide Zoo exactly four months later),
*Chilean flamingos in their old exhibit where the big foodcourt building is now,
*Bethyl & Cynthia the Kodiak bears being very playful together, and then Barney too (he lived seperate at the time),
*fennec fox,
*Omaha & Prafula the snow leopards resting up on rocks of their exhibit,
*meerkats (one on sentry duty),
*Bethyl & Cynthia again play sparring (quite a sight),
*think what was the start of a native wildlife show,
*sea lions in old seal pools (one is curiously peeking over into the next pool exhibit, very cute),
*monkeys (embarrassed to admit, but actually at a bit of a loss as to which species, had a few theories but not entirely sure) in one of old pit exhibits,
*Heman the elephant (wondering if he is in musth from the secretion on side of his face),
*Burma & Ranee,
*little penguins,
*mudskipper in tank inside now closed aquarium building,
*wedgetailed eagle in old aviary,
*two Goodfellow's tree kangaroos in old exhibit (great footage of them, being very active),
*birds such as crowned pigeon and eclectus parrots,
*Brooke the leopard seal (<3) with one of her keepers who is giving a talk about her and Brooke actually demonstrates how she listens to prompts by her keepers (worth watching, except for a split second of filming Brooke is on the landbase part of her exhibit next to her keeper), the camera person actually goes to a high vantage point that believe to be on top of that viewing rock that is now at the front of whats now the red pandas exhibit to film some of, and for a nanosecond can see one of the southern elephant seals in the exhibit just over from Brooke's exhibit (is it the male?),
*Lindy and Billy? the hippos (just over three months before being moved to Dubbo..they would have been very happy looking at their tiny living space), a rhea having a look over a fence, s.c otters (being very cute),
*three red pandas being very playful and cute in their old exhibit (thats actually located pretty much exactly where the current otter exhibit is now, am wondering if those three red pandas were sibling, then a keeper putting food in bowl for a (I think different) red panda (there used to be two exhibits side by side),
*the American black bears in their exhibit (the afformentioned current red panda exhibit. They'd be off to Malaysia, a few months after being filmed here, swapped for Raya & Shar the sun bears),
*two of the sth elephant seals in their exhibit (next to Brooke's one) have been wanting to see footage of them again for long time,
*and lastly: fur seal seen swimming gracefully underwater in 'seal cove' exhibit just like can see still with different fur seal individuals now.

 

[Zoofan15]

This is very much worth the watch imo - but it starts at 20 minutes : 17 seconds into the video: the zoo on 11th July 1992 (thanks to the filmer and uploader)

Spoiler: footage summary

*Footage starts inside one of the old sky safari gondolas (good view of camel in the old farmyard where part of rainforest trail is now/back of whats soon to be Hari and buffalo companions exhibit area, and finishes going over lake and grassy land area of what was old alligator exhibit, still there but squirrel monkey island now of course)
*emus and red 'roos
*koalas in the 'koala walkabout exhibit
*a kingfisher with some food in its beak (fish?),
*the facade of the old tamarins exhibit area,
* c.t tamarin, g.l tamarin, emperor tamarin,
*squirrel monkeys,
*giraffes,
*chimpanzee family (thanks in advance for telling us which individuals they are),
*can just see Ali & Jacunda the jaguar (Jacunda was sent to Adelaide Zoo exactly four months later),
*Chilean flamingos in their old exhibit where the big foodcourt building is now,
*Bethyl & Cynthia the Kodiak bears being very playful together, and then Barney too (he lived seperate at the time),
*fennec fox,
*Omaha & Prafula the snow leopards resting up on rocks of their exhibit,
*meerkats (one on sentry duty),
*Bethyl & Cynthia again play sparring (quite a sight),
*think what was the start of a native wildlife show,
*sea lions in old seal pools (one is curiously peeking over into the next pool exhibit, very cute),
*monkeys (embarrassed to admit, but actually at a bit of a loss as to which species, had a few theories but not entirely sure) in one of old pit exhibits,
*Heman the elephant (wondering if he is in musth from the secretion on side of his face),
*Burma & Ranee,
*little penguins,
*mudskipper in tank inside now closed aquarium building,
*wedgetailed eagle in old aviary,
*two Goodfellow's tree kangaroos in old exhibit (great footage of them, being very active),
*birds such as crowned pigeon and eclectus parrots,
*Brooke the leopard seal (<3) with one of her keepers who is giving a talk about her and Brooke actually demonstrates how she listens to prompts by her keepers (worth watching, except for a split second of filming Brooke is on the landbase part of her exhibit next to her keeper), the camera person actually goes to a high vantage point that believe to be on top of that viewing rock that is now at the front of whats now the red pandas exhibit to film some of, and for a nanosecond can see one of the southern elephant seals in the exhibit just over from Brooke's exhibit (is it the male?),
*Lindy and Billy? the hippos (just over three months before being moved to Dubbo..they would have been very happy looking at their tiny living space), a rhea having a look over a fence, s.c otters (being very cute),
*three red pandas being very playful and cute in their old exhibit (thats actually located pretty much exactly where the current otter exhibit is now, am wondering if those three red pandas were sibling, then a keeper putting food in bowl for a (I think different) red panda (there used to be two exhibits side by side),
*the American black bears in their exhibit (the afformentioned current red panda exhibit. They'd be off to Malaysia, a few months after being filmed here, swapped for Raya & Shar the sun bears),
*two of the sth elephant seals in their exhibit (next to Brooke's one) have been wanting to see footage of them again for long time,
*and lastly: fur seal seen swimming gracefully underwater in 'seal cove' exhibit just like can see still with different fur seal individuals now.

I believe the chimpanzees are:

Spitter (1960) to the left holding Gombe (1988), with her daughter Sally (1985) sat between her and Snowy (1983).

Melissa (1978) to the right holding Mali (1991), watched by Monte (1985). An unidentifiable chimpanzee is behind Melissa.

Yes, the Common hippopotamus would be Billy and Lindy.

 

[Abbey]

Absolutely. Yeah it's very interesting and unfortunate that if (a) littermate(s) do not survive, how it triggers that response in the mother felids with their milk drying up.

The man interviewing Dr George, Neil Mercer, is a really nice person, and was super impressed by how well researched he was with Taronga's Sumatran tigers' history before the interview and knew about some of the zoos overseas Kemiri's aunts and uncles had gone to like San Diego and Japan (Ueno).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There's this video too from 2006

includes
-American alligator
-Squirrel monkeys on island
-wild noisy miner
-Koala in Koala Walkabout
-Agouti in one of old aviaries opposite Serpentaria complex
-(The late great) Tuka the Komodo dragon in his enclosure at front of Serpentaria complex
-Snake-necked turtle behind underwater viewing glass in the outdoor enclosure shared with Freshwater crocodiles (not shown)
-Serpentaria Indoors: tree frogs, sheltopusiks, baby saltwater crocodiles, tuatas, pythons, star tortoises, sailfin lizard, river cooter turtles, Jackson's chamelen, diamondback rattlesnake, mata-mata turtle, Fijian banded iguana, plumed basilisk, green iguanas, (Murray) short-neck turtles (I think), a small desert monitor and desert skink, spiny-tailed skink (someone will now specific species) , frilled-neck lizard, small very showy water monitor, black-headed python, tawny crevice dragon (think, might be other species of small dragon lizard)
-Common tree shrew
-Giraffes and plains zebras
-Chimps' in 'Chimpanzee Park'
-Barbary sheep
-Dromedary camel & scimitar-horned oryx
-Eastern bongo
-Himalayan tahr on 'Tahr Mountain'
-Kwanzaa the south-central black rhino'
-An Egyptian goose wandering the 'African Waterhole' pathway
-A Chilean flamingo in the old exhibit that was Cleo or Katrina the pygmy hippo's formerly
-Western lowland gorillas. According to a commentor, the first one seen is Shabani, and apparently he was living alone at the time in the seperate exhibit that used to have De Brazzas' guenons (I reckon someone will even know which other individuals are seen)
-Saltwater crocodiles in old exhibit (two of them) one peeping out from the water and another basking in the sand in their old very small sandbox enclosure (not sure if one of them was Rin Tin Tin or his predecessor)
-either Bethyl or Cynthia asleep in a rocky alcove at side of their 'Bear Canyon' exhibit (now Mary the sun bear's of course)
-Aldabra giant tortoise with its mouth open then cloed
-View of 'Free Flight Bird Show' ampitheatre and the harbour view
-The full 'Free Flight Bird Show'
-Andean condor (Bruce or Connie perhaps?) playing with a milkcrate
-Mandarin ducks
-Berani or Denise the Malayan tapir (sadly with one of their eye mask veils covering their eyes, as is known by all of us on the Australasian forums, they lost their sight from the intensity of the Australian sun rays, and as a result went blind, and had to wear eye-veils/masks to protect their eyes from further damage and general comfort against the sunrays)
-Brooke(?) the leopard seal in old seal pool exhibit with two male fur seals or sea lions (the look of their coats makes me think they are either male California sea lions or male Australian sea lions. This was very much the final years of those seal pools existance as pinniped occupied.
-The full 'Seal Show' at the old Seal Theatre (where ARC is now)
-Fur seal in one of the smallerst (and wire fronted) pool of the old seal pools
-Emu and red kangaroo (male one chilling on the ground, female ones having a look around), and a blue peacock on top of the stones mound, in the old (non walk-through) kangaroo & emu exhibits that are now under the 'Wildlife Retreat' hotel grounds (back in late '90s recall tree kangaroos had one of these exhibits too)
-Goodfellow's tree kangaroo in a wire-fronted exhibit (dont have much memory of this exhibit) sharing with a wallaby species (swamp?), good footage of the tree 'roo
-Platypus swimming in the old Platypus House (nice footage of)
-The old macropod walkthrough (now part of the larger Gulamany Nura walk-through) red kangaroos, agile wallaby, another wallaby (red-necked? or parma?) or pademelon (red-necked?) and emu (the footage of both the female & male agile wallabies found the best thing about the footage, they climb on top of one of the small feeding 'kennels' & the other wallaby species or pademelon are very lovely too
-A blue peacock hovering around one of the upper eateries areas
-Lengthy footage back at Koala Walkabout of the Koalas again brings the video to ab end (Koala Walkabout, Chimp' Park, Gorilla Forest, Wild Asia/Rainforest Trail, Bear Canyon, squirrel monkey island, empty alligator pond + exhibit, b.t.s and tahr-less Tahr Mountain (heritage listed), empty saltwater crocodile exhibitz, and the outer foubdations/facade of the old seal pools (minus the smallest wire fronted one, all traces of that are removed), and (also heritage listed) old giraffe house, are the animal exhibits in this footage that still exist today (some renovated like Chimp' Park since) the other exhibits have either been demolished, or renovated as part of an expansion of the precinct's theme like the old longstanding giraffe exhibit with the zebras too, they still live in that part of the zoo but have about 3 times more exhibit space, and same with the kangaroo, wallaby, pademelon, emu walkthrough area.

This is a great video and lovely to virtually walk through the zoo of my childhood again. That said, some of the exhibits are terribly small or bland, goes to show the improvements which have been made even in the last two decades (albeit sometimes to the expense of collection diversity).

I didn't realise that there was a flamingo on display at Taronga as late as 2006/07. The big tell of when it was filmed would have been if there was footage of the elephants, considering they arrived in November 2006. That said, other than the tapirs there's not much footage of the Wild Asia area, so that's not to say that they hadn't arrived by this point and it just wasn't included.

I'm not up to the bit yet with the tree kangaroo exhibit, but from memory they were housed in the exhibit which Steve recalled (which, as mentioned, was in the area which is now the Wildlife Retreat) at the earliest until the new entry was built and they were moved to the current exhibit sometime in the 2010s - so definitely after this video was filmed.

 

[Jambo]

This is very much worth the watch imo - but it starts at 20 minutes : 17 seconds into the video: the zoo on 11th July 1992 (thanks to the filmer and uploader)

Spoiler: footage summary

*Footage starts inside one of the old sky safari gondolas (good view of camel in the old farmyard where part of rainforest trail is now/back of whats soon to be Hari and buffalo companions exhibit area, and finishes going over lake and grassy land area of what was old alligator exhibit, still there but squirrel monkey island now of course)
*emus and red 'roos
*koalas in the 'koala walkabout exhibit
*a kingfisher with some food in its beak (fish?),
*the facade of the old tamarins exhibit area,
* c.t tamarin, g.l tamarin, emperor tamarin,
*squirrel monkeys,
*giraffes,
*chimpanzee family (thanks in advance for telling us which individuals they are),
*can just see Ali & Jacunda the jaguar (Jacunda was sent to Adelaide Zoo exactly four months later),
*Chilean flamingos in their old exhibit where the big foodcourt building is now,
*Bethyl & Cynthia the Kodiak bears being very playful together, and then Barney too (he lived seperate at the time),
*fennec fox,
*Omaha & Prafula the snow leopards resting up on rocks of their exhibit,
*meerkats (one on sentry duty),
*Bethyl & Cynthia again play sparring (quite a sight),
*think what was the start of a native wildlife show,
*sea lions in old seal pools (one is curiously peeking over into the next pool exhibit, very cute),
*monkeys (embarrassed to admit, but actually at a bit of a loss as to which species, had a few theories but not entirely sure) in one of old pit exhibits,
*Heman the elephant (wondering if he is in musth from the secretion on side of his face),
*Burma & Ranee,
*little penguins,
*mudskipper in tank inside now closed aquarium building,
*wedgetailed eagle in old aviary,
*two Goodfellow's tree kangaroos in old exhibit (great footage of them, being very active),
*birds such as crowned pigeon and eclectus parrots,
*Brooke the leopard seal (<3) with one of her keepers who is giving a talk about her and Brooke actually demonstrates how she listens to prompts by her keepers (worth watching, except for a split second of filming Brooke is on the landbase part of her exhibit next to her keeper), the camera person actually goes to a high vantage point that believe to be on top of that viewing rock that is now at the front of whats now the red pandas exhibit to film some of, and for a nanosecond can see one of the southern elephant seals in the exhibit just over from Brooke's exhibit (is it the male?),
*Lindy and Billy? the hippos (just over three months before being moved to Dubbo..they would have been very happy looking at their tiny living space), a rhea having a look over a fence, s.c otters (being very cute),
*three red pandas being very playful and cute in their old exhibit (thats actually located pretty much exactly where the current otter exhibit is now, am wondering if those three red pandas were sibling, then a keeper putting food in bowl for a (I think different) red panda (there used to be two exhibits side by side),
*the American black bears in their exhibit (the afformentioned current red panda exhibit. They'd be off to Malaysia, a few months after being filmed here, swapped for Raya & Shar the sun bears),
*two of the sth elephant seals in their exhibit (next to Brooke's one) have been wanting to see footage of them again for long time,
*and lastly: fur seal seen swimming gracefully underwater in 'seal cove' exhibit just like can see still with different fur seal individuals now.

Thanks for this!

Heman certainly looks like he's in musth - the secretion from his temporal gland on the side of his head is a big indicator.

Regarding the monkey species - those would be Crab Eating Macaques.

At the time Taronga had the following monkey species - Ring Tailed Lemurs (breeding group), Red Fronted Lemurs (2.1, with plans for phase out), Cotton Top Tamarins (bachelor group), Golden Lion Tamarins (pair of females), Black Capped Capuchins (breeding group), Squirrel Monkeys (breeding group), Spider Monkeys (group of females), Crab Eating Macaques (breeding group), Mandrill (bachelor group), De Brazzas Monkeys (breeding group), Hybrid Orangutans (non breeding group), Chimps (breeding group).

 

[steveroberts]

I believe the chimpanzees are:

Spitter (1960) to the left holding Gombe (1988), with her daughter Sally (1985) sat between her and Snowy (1983).

Melissa (1978) to the right holding Mali (1991), watched by Monte (1985). An unidentifiable chimpanzee is behind Melissa.

Yes, the Common hippopotamus would be Billy and Lindy.

Cheers man appreciate

This is a great video and lovely to virtually walk through the zoo of my childhood again. That said, some of the exhibits are terribly small or bland, goes to show the improvements which have been made even in the last two decades (albeit sometimes to the expense of collection diversity).

I didn't realise that there was a flamingo on display at Taronga as late as 2006/07. The big tell of when it was filmed would have been if there was footage of the elephants, considering they arrived in November 2006. That said, other than the tapirs there's not much footage of the Wild Asia area, so that's not to say that they hadn't arrived by this point and it just wasn't included.

I'm not up to the bit yet with the tree kangaroo exhibit, but from memory they were housed in the exhibit which Steve recalled (which, as mentioned, was in the area which is now the Wildlife Retreat) at the earliest until the new entry was built and they were moved to the current exhibit sometime in the 2010s - so definitely after this video was filmed.

Thanks Abbey so glad you enjoyed seeing it too.

Thanks for this!

Heman certainly looks like he's in musth - the secretion from his temporal gland on the side of his head is a big indicator.

Regarding the monkey species - those would be Crab Eating Macaques.

At the time Taronga had the following monkey species - Ring Tailed Lemurs (breeding group), Red Fronted Lemurs (2.1, with plans for phase out), Cotton Top Tamarins (bachelor group), Golden Lion Tamarins (pair of females), Black Capped Capuchins (breeding group), Squirrel Monkeys (breeding group), Spider Monkeys (group of females), Crab Eating Macaques (breeding group), Mandrill (bachelor group), De Brazzas Monkeys (breeding group), Hybrid Orangutans (non breeding group), Chimps (breeding group).

Yeah was mainly thinking was the crab-eating macaques but then thought perhaps the female and baby De Brazzas perhaps (but thought moreso the macaques; for some reason they kind of made me think of Cercopithecini genus monkeys when looking at them a bit too in the footage). Thought was good footage, and a few rarities too for a long time like the elephant seals and the black bears.

Taronga must have started keeping emperor tamarins sometime in 1992 given they werent on the list from that 1991 primate TAG report WhistlingKite found (same report had left out that Perth had golden-lion tamarins also, except Perth's representative Dr Markham wasnt at the meeting that year so Perth's primate species inventory was based on what the rest of the TAG team knew them to have believe, but side-tracking with mentioning that).