signage for the African Savannah

...brolga, blackbuck and nyala

November 2011

Well, one out of three isn't bad.

Actually it is pretty bad.

WTF(rak) went wrong with this (not) African savanna exhibit?

the exhibit also holds giraffes and guineafowl.

When it opened it held giraffes, blackbuck, zebra and guineafowl. There was some negative interaction from the zebra though (I think towards the giraffes, I can't quite remember) and they had to be removed pretty quickly.

Oddly the blackbuck were a deliberate acquisition by the zoo for this exhibit (they had held blackbuck at the zoo formerly, but these ones were obtained from Hamilton Zoo); I have no idea why they didn't get springbok from Orana Park! I'm sure there was a good reason though.....

However zooboy28 was at the zoo four weeks ago and saw no blackbuck in the exhibit so maybe they've all gone now: http://www.zoochat.com/17/news-2012-a-258958/index3.html

The brolga is a lone bird, I guess he's a stand-in for an African species (brolga is the only crane species in NZ). He just keeps to himself over to the side.

The nyala were imported fairly recently (a trio in 2009 and another male in 2011) from Singapore and are doing well. So far two calves have been born here (http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/7527663/New-rare-zoo-arrival-a-shy-one). I did have a suspicion the blackbuck were sort of a filler until the nyala could fill the space and then maybe the blackbuck would be removed (which seems to have now happened either through removal or death).

Zoogeographically it was a bit of a mess; now the only odd one out appears to be the brolga.

too late to edit my (additional) mistakes in the above post!!

The original nyala trio of course came from South Africa, and only the second male came from Singapore.

And somehow I completely forgot that there are ostriches in this enclosure as well!!!