@Zoofan15 It's really interesting to see this map from 2005. There really haven't been many changes in this section of the zoo besides the following:
*Red Foxes are gone and have been replaced with Binturongs.
*The area where the camels were is now closed off from the public.
*The enclosures where Harriet the Galápagos Tortoise and Coconut the Aldabra Giant Tortoise lived no longer exist. Coconut now lives on Bindi's Island with a male tortoise.
*Scrappa's (Saltwater Crocodile) enclosure was still open in 2018 but has since been closed off to the public.
*The kookaburra exhibit (labelled as number 1 on map) now houses a pair of Short-beaked Echidnas.
*The old lizard pits (numbers 12-14) have since been demolished. Most of the native lizards are housed in the newer enclosure (number 17 on map).
*There are fewer on-display koala enclosures at the zoo (both the locations with number 20 on map no longer exist/cannot be accessed by the public).
@WhistlingKite24 Australia Zoo was founded first and foremost as a wildlife park for native animals (especially crocodiles); so while I'm thrilled they've expanded to exotics, I like how the many crocodile exhibits remain a focal point. I know many of their crocs were wild caught by Steve; and they have also bred many of them. Do you know if any have been kept back in the last decade or so?
@Zoofan15 Scrappa [Scrappa the Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) - ZooChat] was definitely hatched at the zoo, but besides him, I cannot find much information. The zoo do annual nest raids and they dispose of the eggs, so I guess they certainly don't have any intentions to breed any more crocodiles. However, the occasional juvenile croc does arrive from confiscations.
Alligators are another story; the zoo have a large off-display pond with 30+ alligators and three on-display enclosures. They seem to breed them regularly to supply their own collection and other zoos (e.g. Auckland Zoo).
@WhistlingKite24 Wow, I never knew they disposed of the Saltwater crocodile eggs! I assumed they hatched and released them for some reason. You'd think females could be assimilated into 1.2 or 1.3 groups with relative ease. I believe there's only one or two males that are too aggressive to females to risk an intro.
@Zoofan15 They do it to control numbers. With 30+ Saltwater Crocodiles there would be a lot of hatchlings that would take up a lot of space and resources when fully-grown. Also not all facilities could house surplus animals due to climate, space, safety, heating requirements etc. so they have to take that into consideration.
