We also just don't have anything like them in our zoo's. I can fairly confidently say we won't see black, brown or grizzly bears reimported. Nor spectacled from SA. So our asian species are what we have left. With sun bear being the smallest and most numerous in captivity outside of zoos. I can't see us moving away from them.
Taronga Zoo Future of Taronga Zoo (Speculation / Fantasy)
- Thread starter Zoofan15
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We also just don't have anything like them in our zoo's. I can fairly confidently say we won't see black, brown or grizzly bears reimported. Nor spectacled from SA. So our asian species are what we have left. With sun bear being the smallest and most numerous in captivity outside of zoos. I can't see us moving away from them.
Spectacled and Indian sloth bear would be the most viable replacements:
Spectacled bear:
Held by 18 North American facilities; and 22 European facilities.
Indian sloth bear:
Indian sloth bear are held by eight European facilities; eight North American facilities; and the Singapore Zoo Night Safari.
True, but like for like in a lot of regards. Of memory are they not only marginally better then sun for captive breeding. They are also more difficult from a management point of view.
Indian sloth bear would be better in my opinion. They appear to breed more readily in captivity than Spectacled bears and Malayan sun bears. Though primarily a solitary species, some zoos have had success keeping them in small groups; though most city zoos (Taronga, Melbourne etc) would likely aspire to a 1.1 pair.
Third - polar bears at SeaWorld Gold Coast.
It’s interesting to compare how all three species are limited in number within the region for three entirely different reasons:
Giant panda:
1.1 loaned pair at one facility. No other facility in the region appears to have an intention of loaning a pair.
Polar bear:
Held at one facility, who has long term plans to continue with them. No other facility is currently interested in acquiring them due to the complex needs of the species. Once prevalent across Australian and New Zealand zoos.
Malayan sun bear:
Ageing remnants of a decent sized Australasian population that unfortunately struggled to generate succession. Sourcing replacements will be difficult and so a switch to another bear species regionally appears the best alternative.
Re. Giraffes:
Hamilton Zoo recently had a prime opportunity to start a breeding herd of imported founders. Five of their six elderly bulls died, which has left them with the elderly Masamba. For some reason, they signed on to receive any available bulls and have acquired a young male from Auckland and have another young male coming from Orana.
Wellington is at capacity and Auckland is close to it, which leaves Orana. The transfer of their young male will leave them with three adult cows. It would be an ideal opportunity to import 1.1 giraffe from Europe; but since it’s been no secret Orana has struggled financially, I can’t see it happening. I imagine they’ll maintain a non-breeding herd going forward.
It’s a shame as a few keepers have referenced the difficult in placing calves for not importing breeding stock; yet it’s clear any first generation calves bred in New Zealand to founder parents would be in high demand in Australia. If capacity’s such a concern, maybe the open range zoos should cut back on breeding 6+ calves every year. Same goes for the open range zoos breeding generic Plains zebra in high numbers.
I completely agree!
I think your spot on with this. Conservation of native species will always take priority (especially amongst the big government run zoos). For example, a lot the programs run by Zoos Vic do get a lot of funding from the government; a recent example being the Canberra government forking over a couple million for Melbourne Zoo to build a new state of the art center for Earless Dragons.
I certainly agree with this as priorities. As much as we like to see Asian Elephants breeding and thriving in our regional herds; they will never be prioritised over the other native conservation programs run.
On Dubbo's new Savannah, it seems this is a direct response to Monarto's, and is being built in effort to appeal to a new demographic of visitors who would be expecting this at an open range facility. A new elephant barn wouldn't honestly do much on the visitor numbers side of things, and the only real benefit is to expand the zoo's elephant population; which is obviously a goal, but not a priority.
Native species would be much easier to acquire than the exotic's and at much less trouble and cost also most are small in size compared to many of the exotic imported species, they would in general take up far less space with smaller housing so much easier all around
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It's an area of the zoo that I can definitely see being redeveloped in the near future. It'll be interesting to see where they go; as you say the new Native trail sort of means that this native section of the zoo essentially feels like a double up these days.
The center of the zoo (gorilla exhibit and current lemur exhibit) should be the next priority however.
Ideally, im still holding out hope! They do an African forrest area. Where they build revamped gorilla exhibits utilising some of the slope areas around the exhibit, build purpose built pygmy hippo enclosures and fit black and white colobus in there somewhere. Either in their own exhibits or preferably as mixed exhibits. It would be even better to see them use the current gorilla exhibit as it was intended and use it for bongo. They could easily do an import and hold a bull and two females in there to accomodate breeding. Western plains is already set up to hold surplus. Though they could feasible hold more then two females in the gorilla exhibit. The exhibit wouldn't even need to be changed that much.
Backyard to bush would be better, ideally removing the petting zoo and redoing the zone into a South American precinct. Housing capybara, squirrel monkeys, bring back spider monkeys and some of the new Xanrthra imports like sloth and anteater. Which would be far more popular then back yard to bush currently is. People are very aware where food comes from these days, it's become completely redundant.
I’m greatly disappointed the Congo precinct hasn’t proceeded as planned as along with the expanded elephant trail (overheads connecting the exhibits), it was the project I was most excited about.
Gorillas and elephants have followed similar trends in that both have bred well in Europe for decades and now a surplus has been reached, with males consistently problematic to place. Australasia has followed, just a couple of decades later. Consequently, there’s a requirement on Australian zoos to accomodate their own surplus and with regards to gorillas, this could have been well managed with both breeding and bachelor troops held at Adelaide and Taronga.
Going forward, I’m not expecting Taronga to return to breeding gorillas. The best we can hope for is a retention of the bachelor troop; and hopefully expanded Pygmy hippopotamus facilities. They have two females, one of which is not even two years old, so it appears the zoo have little incentive to import a bull at this point.
Gorilla management just needs to be better in our zoo's. There was absolutely no reason that Taronga should have stopped breeding. When they have western plains sitting there with the space to build and accomodate gorillas. The zoo desperately needs new species, and they have no large great apes. On top of that Taronga has the space to build a gorilla complex that could house a bachelor and breeding troop. They are a species that would actually benefit from the areas of the zoo that have been deemed unusable due to terrain. It's just laziness on management part.
Just think, if they put back the sky rail project. They could have used the money and built up the gorillas and pygmy hippo's. The zoo is functioning fine without it. For quite a few years the station at the dock was closed and not even operating. So it was just a fun aerial experience with no actual use in moving people from point a to b.
Just think, if they put back the sky rail project. They could have used the money and built up the gorillas and pygmy hippo's. The zoo is functioning fine without it. For quite a few years the station at the dock was closed and not even operating. So it was just a fun aerial experience with no actual use in moving people from point a to b.
It does seem odd that all the proposed projects appear to have been stalled and they are spending $105 million on the chair lift
