Wellington Zoo News for 2012

[Chlidonias]

Wellington Zoo Skinks Get a Check-Up | Stuff.co.nz

1 December 2012

Finding a vein on a thick-skinned skink to give it a blood test was one of the problems encountered by staff at Wellington Zoo, as they health checked some of the country's rarest reptiles.

Zoo vets today checked the wellbeing of four Otago skinks, which will soon be joined by another four at the zoo before being transported to Alexandra Museum in Central Otago.

Vet Lisa Argilla said that while the blood tests had been tricky, the skinks mostly appeared in good health.

''You use a very small needle, and you can't see their veins, so there's a bit of a trick to that. [But] so far, they're looking good.

''They're just having a health check, checking for parasites, and we check their poos for worms.''

There was suspected parasites in the tails of one of them, which was being monitored.

There are thought to be between 2000 and 5000 Otago skinks living in the wild. The skinks currently being checked at the zoo are part of a endangered species breeding programme.

The skinks in Wellington, once health checked, will be sent to Otago, while skinks from the South Island will make the reverse journey.

Dr Argilla said this was to stop breeding pairs having incestuous relations.

''They're moving some skinks around - and there's some match-making going on. Obviously you don't want to start letting relatives breed.''

The skinks, native to Otago, are primarily threatened by house cats, as well as having their habitat ruined by development.

 

[zooboy28]

Possibly the most un-news story from Wellington Zoo this year, but here goes anyway:

Pelican not caught for vet check: Pelican gives Wellington Zoo keepers the slip | Stuff.co.nz

Lanky the pelican may be a decade past his expected lifespan and have a sore foot, but he has still managed to evade keepers at Wellington Zoo.

Spokeswoman Libby Callander said keepers tried to catch Lanky on Thursday to X-ray his sore foot, but after he spotted strange people in his enclosure he refused to come out of the water.

The procedure had to be moved back a week.

Not only is the slippery 36-year-old pelican more than 10 years older than he would be expected to live in the wild, he is Wellington Zoo's oldest resident.

Of course, he is not the only pelican, but rather the only captive pelican, there being a self-introduced flock in Northland now: http://www.zoochat.com/17/flock-pelicans-arrive-285760/

I think the most surprising thing about this article is that he is the zoo's oldest resident (presumably inheriting this title after the death of the ancient gibbon). I would have thought that they would have had an older parrot, tuatara, chimp, or something in the collection, 36 doesn't seem particularly old.

Edit: Their oldest chimp is male Sammy who is 35, so Lanky is only just the oldest!

 

[jay]

Possibly the most un-news story from Wellington Zoo this year, but here goes anyway:

Pelican not caught for vet check: Pelican gives Wellington Zoo keepers the slip | Stuff.co.nz



Of course, he is not the only pelican, but rather the only captive pelican, there being a self-introduced flock in Northland now: http://www.zoochat.com/17/flock-pelicans-arrive-285760/

I think the most surprising thing about this article is that he is the zoo's oldest resident (presumably inheriting this title after the death of the ancient gibbon). I would have thought that they would have had an older parrot, tuatara, chimp, or something in the collection, 36 doesn't seem particularly old.

Edit: Their oldest chimp is male Sammy who is 35, so Lanky is only just the oldest!

what about tuatara dont they get to be quite old

 

[zooboy28]

what about tuatara dont they get to be quite old

Yea, I mentioned them on the list. They can live to over 100, possibly much older. I don't know if Wellington Zoo has any old tuataras, the ones on display aren't especially big, and they were raising juveniles bred at Victoria University, so maybe they don't actually have any adults.

 

[Chlidonias]

Yea, I mentioned them on the list. They can live to over 100, possibly much older. I don't know if Wellington Zoo has any old tuataras, the ones on display aren't especially big, and they were raising juveniles bred at Victoria University, so maybe they don't actually have any adults.

They should have tuatara both on-display (juveniles) and off-display (adults, including breeders). I'd be surprised if they didn't have any older than 36 years old.

I'd be interested in knowing how old that frogmouth is as well!

 

[zooboy28]

Here is a rather odd article, which doesn't actually contain any news, just some history of the Wellington Zoo, presumably a gap filler/good news story over the new year holiday.

Story here: Wellington Zoo's Personalities Past | Stuff.co.nz
2/1/2013

Before Happy Feet the wayward penguin and Tahi the single-legged kiwi, the Wellington Zoo was home to a canine Antarctic explorer and a war veteran monkey.

We trawled through the archives to find the zoo personalities that captured the hearts of Wellingtonians before they could tell a latte from a cappuccino.

There was Osman, a Siberian dog that settled at Wellington Zoo in 1916 after roaming the Antarctic as a lead sled dog on a Captain Scott expedition. He found a friend a year later when Oscar, a canine helper to Ernest Shackleton, joined the zoo.

King Dick, a former circus lion, arrived at the zoo in 1906, the same year New Zealanders were jolted by the news that Prime Minister Richard ''King Dick'' Seddon had died of a heart attack while travelling overseas.

Visitors would paint and sketch the lion, whose roar resonated across Newtown.

After he died in 1920, his hide was exhibited at the Dominion Museum and is now at Te Papa.

Jacko the monkey was another of the zoo's characters. A 1917 zoo newsletter describes how Jacko was carried from Egypt to France by New Zealand soldiers, before having a brief stint at London Zoo. A soldier who had grown attached to the worldly and well-travelled primate brought him back to New Zealand.

The zoo got its first elephant, Nellikurthra, in 1927. She was an Asian elephant given to the zoo by the Government of Madras.

Since then the zoo has had three other elephants: Maharanee, Nirvana and the popular Kamala, who made a grand entrance to Wellington in 1953 with a procession through the streets.

Kamala gave generations of Wellington schoolchildren a ride and no visit to the zoo was complete without a look at Kamala having a bath.

She died in 1983 and was not replaced.

 

[zooboy28]

I think you must be right about one of the males dying. Arvicola's link in the post above says there are five nyala at the zoo (which is two females, one male, and the two calves born there).

The 2011/12 Annual Report (Wellington Zoo Trust | 2011/12 Annual Report | Visitor Experiences) states that a male nyala did die, along with the last Blackbuck at the zoo.