Mogo Zoo has 12 primate species, including 3 types of gibbon, and does that compare favourably to Australia's two biggest and best zoos? Melbourne and Taronga both have a large number of primate species but Mogo has done well for itself considering that the facility does not appear to be very large.
Mogo actually has 14 species (including lemurs). Melbourne has 16, Perth 14, Adelaide 10 and Taronga only 9. To my knowledge Mogo is the only zoo in Australia to hold 3 species of gibbon.
Mogo actually has 14 species (including lemurs). Melbourne has 16, Perth 14, Adelaide 10 and Taronga only 9. To my knowledge Mogo is the only zoo in Australia to hold 3 species of gibbon.
Thanks for the numbers and Mogo's website only lists 12 but it seems as if they are short-changing themselves. Australia's poor diversity of exotic species is not reflected with the primate collections as those numbers are actually rather impressive.
I've noticed their website is rarely updated. That's interesting that those numbers aren't too bad by international standards - although there is, of course, a LOT of crossover. I just counted and there are 36 primate species (not including humans!) in Australia, but of those, 2 are restricted to research facilities and a further 10 consist of remnant non-breeding populations (and that's being quite generous about what can be considered "breeding").
But one thing I must point out is that in order for Mogo to achieve such a good primate collection it has allowed other areas to remain lacking. They only have one bird species (ostrich) and two native species (Kangaroos and Dingoes), all of which are kept in small numbers. On my visit I wasn't surprised by a small bird collection (what you'll find in most Aussie zoos these days) but I was really disappointed by their native collection. IMO it just makes more sense to for a facility focused on education and conservation to educate people on the species around them that they affect directly than animals from different continents. That being said, they do keep a number of endangered exotics and are very good at breeding them. It is always great to see large groups of endangered animals.
Despite there being a gap in the collection, I did love my trip to the zoo and I had a great time, as said above their primate collection is well on par with the major zoos and their cat collection would put the big zoos to shame (Adelaide-4, Melbourne-4, Perth-2, Taronga-1, with Mogo having 7!!!!!!!)(NOTE:Taronga has transferred two cat species for renovations with plans for both to return).
Mogo has always been pretty much exclusively focused on exotics. I don't mind this, really - they have limited space and there is a native animal park only ten minutes away (Birdland). Totally with you on the lack of birds, though.
