Wellington Zoo 2013 News

[Chlidonias]

The Wellington Zoo's native species exhibit - Meet the Locals - is set to begin the next phase of development, with the zoo calling for expressions of interest for the project. This will see an old part of the lower zoo, which has been blocked off for a couple of years now, redeveloped to include exhibits for penguins, farm animals, forest birds and kea. It will link to the first phase of Meet the Locals, a native bird breeding facility called The Roost.

The plan, which is viewable on the link below, appears to be somewhat different to the original concept (see here: http://www.zoochat.com/15/plan-meet-locals-development-210685/), with the large walkthrough deer exhibit apparently scrapped (although deer are still in the farm section), and the forest aviary also missing (although there will be a bush area to attract wild native birds...). There is also no mention of obtaining Tahr for the old sun bear enclosure, fostering hope that this may be used for snow leopards in the future.

Story and plan here: Wellington Zoo | Meet The Locals Development To... | Stuff.co.nz

I've only just got round to checking out the plan in the article link. Nothing on the plan is labelled but the walk-through aviary and the walk-through deer enclosure are actually still on there (you can see the boundary fences of each and also where the doors at either side of the aviary will be; the aviary is depicted as being hexagonal if that helps). The article doesn't specifically say the aviary won't be there nor the deer walk-through, it simply skips the bit between the farmyard and the kea aviary. Granted it does say the deer will be in the farmyard but to me that sounds more like the reporter mixing things up than the plan having been changed.

Relevant quote from the article:
"She said the section would start with a new penguin exhibit.
It would then run through to an area featuring farm animals including sheep, deer and chickens.
There would be a native bush section where the zoo hopes to attract tui and other native birds that already leave around the area.
The final part of the development would be a mountain encounter housing kea and native skinks."

 

[zooboy28]

I've only just got round to checking out the plan in the article link. Nothing on the plan is labelled but the walk-through aviary and the walk-through deer enclosure are actually still on there (you can see the boundary fences of each and also where the doors at either side of the aviary will be; the aviary is depicted as being hexagonal if that helps). The article doesn't specifically say the aviary won't be there nor the deer walk-through, it simply skips the bit between the farmyard and the kea aviary. Granted it does say the deer will be in the farmyard but to me that sounds more like the reporter mixing things up than the plan having been changed.

Relevant quote from the article:
"She said the section would start with a new penguin exhibit.
It would then run through to an area featuring farm animals including sheep, deer and chickens.
There would be a native bush section where the zoo hopes to attract tui and other native birds that already leave around the area.
The final part of the development would be a mountain encounter housing kea and native skinks."

Ok, I kind of took from the article that the bush area would just be a forested area to attract native wild birds with feeders and stuff, rather than actually having captive birds. But yes, the aviary is still shown in the story's plan. I assumed the walk-through deer enclosure had been cut, as it isn't highlighted in the same way on that plan as on the original. So yes, I guess they could both still be in the plan.

 

[zooboy28]

So in this post (https://www.zoochat.com/community/posts/686184), Chlidonias quoted an article which stated that Hall's Gap Zoo in Australia was recieving two White-cheeked Gibbons from Welington Zoo later this year.

As Wellington only have a pair of gibbons now, which are presumably somewhat older animals, what will they replace them with? It would be great to continue keeping gibbons at Wellington, and I'd prefer it if they didn't get siamangs in. Is an import from outside the region of another gibbon pair (same species, or even Silvery?) possible?

 

[Chlidonias]

So in this post (https://www.zoochat.com/community/posts/686184), Chlidonias quoted an article which stated that Hall's Gap Zoo in Australia was recieving two White-cheeked Gibbons from Welington Zoo later this year.

As Wellington only have a pair of gibbons now, which are presumably somewhat older animals, what will they replace them with? It would be great to continue keeping gibbons at Wellington, and I'd prefer it if they didn't get siamangs in. Is an import from outside the region of another gibbon pair (same species, or even Silvery?) possible?

they are planning on importing a new pair of white-cheeked gibbons from the USA this year.

 

[zooboy28]

they are planning on importing a new pair of white-cheeked gibbons from the USA this year.

Yay! Thats good. I hope they can breed them too. Did they ever breed the current pair?

 

[Chlidonias]

Yay! Thats good. I hope they can breed them too. Did they ever breed the current pair?

I don't know but I don't think so. They certainly bred from the male with his last female. Their daughter went to Perth, and the current female came from Perth (in 2005). The male (originally from Melbourne in 1991) is 36 or so, and the female 21.

 

[zooboy28]

Update from Wellington Zoo's facebook page after todays large earthquake (6.5), which followed a series of moderately sized eathquakes over the last few days.

Hope you're all OK after this evening's shake-up, Wellington! There was no damage to the Zoo that we can see at this point and the animals are all fine (the Chimps were pretty unimpressed, though, and made their feelings about the earthquake quite clear!)

While the zoo appears fine, there have been reports of minor damage throughout the capital, and some buildings have suffered structural damage too. Unusually the earthquakes are increasing in magnitude, not decreasing, meaning a larger quake isn't impossible. Fingers crossed nothing else eventuates, and the zoo doesn't have to resort to its emergency management plan - http://www.zoochat.com/17/zoo-names-first-animals-shot-212976/.

Earthquake info here: More quakes shake central New Zealand - national | Stuff.co.nz

 

[Chlidonias]

I felt the biggest one here in Hokitika

 

[zooboy28]

I felt the biggest one here in Hokitika

Yeah, it seemed to be felt everywhere, even up in Hamilton. I imagine there will be some minor damage to the zoo, but nothing massive. It must be a bit stressful for some of the animals, especially with large recurring quakes. Obviously it stresses the chimps, but there must be other animals that don't cope as well as others. I imagine, for example, that the giraffe could freak out, but other species would be relatively relaxed about it.

 

[zooboy28]

Excuse the pun, here is a story about how one of Wellington Zoo's kiwi has been operated on to try and save her broken beak with a graft from her rib.

Story & Photo here: Kiwi Undergoes World-First Beak Graft Surgery | Stuff.co.nz

Unfortunately, the kiwi died from post-surgery complications:

Story here: Rare kiwi. Ataahua, dies after surgery at Wellington... | Stuff.co.nz

10/7/2013 Ataahua, the North Island brown kiwi who had a delicate, world-first bone graft procedure on her snapped beak at Wellington Zoo, has died after developing post-surgery complications.

But Ataahua’s death is not in vain - lessons learnt in the risky procedure will benefit kiwi undergoing surgery for similar injuries in the future.

Ataahua was operated on in May to bridge her broken beak using a bone graft from her rib.

Last month she was anaesthetised to check the progress of the skin flap and bone graft which were both ‘‘touch and go,’’ zoo spokeswoman Kate Baker said.

‘‘Sadly, there was severe deterioration noted during this procedure and a huge portion of the skin flap had died and the bone graft had almost been completely reabsorbed in just three days,’’ Ms Baker said.

Zoo vets then opted for the most humane choice and euthanased her while she was still under general anaesthetic.

‘‘Ataahua was a fighter and coped amazingly well during her very long stay in hospital. She overcame almost every single hurdle that was thrown at her during the course of her treatment. Unfortunately, this final hurdle was just too big to overcome,’’ Ms Baker said.

‘‘Her case will very likely benefit other kiwi in the future who sustain similar injuries as we now at least have a very comprehensive idea of the hurdles and complications that occur with this specific injury.’’

The zoo's six-strong team of vets performed the original two-hour surgery, where 20mm of bone was taken from the anaesthetised six year-old kiwi's rib and grafted to her upper beak.

Zoo wildlife veterinary clinic doctor Lisa Argilla oversaw the procedure and said it was impossible to say exactly how Ataahua broke her beak, but it was likely she twisted and snapped her bill after becoming startled while probing in the ground.

Ataahua's beak, which broke in January, had healed badly because the two bone ends fused but did not bridge properly.

She had also suffered months of multiple antibiotic-resistant infections on the dirty open wound.

It is common for kiwi to suffer beak injuries when foraging, but usually injured kiwi die in the wild.

Vets had been hopeful she would make a full recovery and had been mainly concerned she would lose her sense of smell, which is crucial to finding food.

 

[Chlidonias]

I went to the zoo yesterday, which will be the last visit for a long time!

Some general observations:
*The sectioned-off area of the squirrel monkey cage, formerly where the cottontop tamarins were held, now appears to just have a pair of agouti in it (and there's another agouti pair in with the squirrel monkeys themselves). The cottontops have been moved to the marmoset doll-house which has been divided into two parts (roughly two-thirds and one-thirds of the space). The larger section has the cottontops, the red-fronted macaw, the sun conures and an agouti. The smaller section has the pigmy marmosets and the iguanas. The emperor tamarin has gone.

*The pelican and frogmouth are still alive, but the frogmouth has moved aviaries again (the aviaries at the Nest are always doing musical chairs). Now most of the aviaries hold kaka except the end one which has sacred kingfishers and a little pied shag (still with the incorrect signage for black shag with a photo that isn't a black shag anyway!). The frogmouth is in the aviary around the back where the cockatiels were.

*The Asian Precinct is pretty average. The sun bear enclosure looks good from the front but looks like rubbish from the old giraffe platform. And it doesn't really seem like there's any more room there than they had in their old enclosure, despite the overall area starting out much larger. The old enclosure has been sort of obscured by bamboo fencing.

*Hero HQ is all right. I'm half and half with that one. I do like the way it looks, although that will be a matter of taste (very cartoonish, but not in an offensive way like the marmoset doll house) but the information is terrible. There are no scientific names, which I had expected, but even the general tone of the information is pretty crap. The cartoon theme buries the information within it so most of the people I saw viewing it couldn't even tell what they were meant to be looking for in each tank. The reflections on the glass are shockingly bad, which is really something they should have sorted in the planning stage, especially given they have the same problems with the marmoset doll house.

The species on display which were properly identified (by common name only) were Jackson's chameleon, Madagascar day gecko, leopard gecko, scheltopusik (they imported five of them) and goliath stick insects. The tarantulas were (according to the text boxes) pink-toe tarantula, goliath bird-eater, king baboon, and a fourth one with no name. The last two species on show were the giant Australian mantis Hierodula majuscula (just labelled as a mantis) and I *think* desert scorpion Urodacus yaschenkoi (with generic scorpion labelling). There are only two scorpion species on the approved zoo animal list in NZ (the other being the rainforest scorpion Liocheles waigiensis) and the ones here have a desert theme to their tanks and a staff member I asked thought they were desert scorpions ("that sounds right"...). [Much later EDIT: the scorpions are indeed rainforest scorpions]

So Hero HQ is pretty good but with some big faults (if that makes sense together). Certainly not a fail in the way the marmoset doll house was.

 

[zooboy28]

I went to the zoo yesterday, which will be the last visit for a long time!

Thanks for the updates Chlidonias.

I do wonder where the Emperor has gone, I imagine its off-display somewhere otherwise we would have surely heard something. Unless it was dead. I'm not impressed that they've moved the CTTs into that enclosure, its too small for that number of animals, especially with the birds too. Maybe there was conflicts with the Squirrel Monkeys? I guess they couldn't move the birds back to that separated section either.

The Hero HQ flaws sound disappointing, especially after the reflection issues with the Small Monkey enclosures (and even the Nest to a certain degree). And while I like the design ideas overall, if the species labelling and information is being lost, that essentially defeats its purpose.

Was there any sign of progress on the Australian section work between the Baboons and Meerkats?

 

[Chlidonias]

Was there any sign of progress on the Australian section work between the Baboons and Meerkats?

I didn't really look over there. It was blocked off and there were some people working in the area but I don't know anything more than that.

 

[Chlidonias]

I do wonder where the Emperor has gone, I imagine its off-display somewhere otherwise we would have surely heard something. Unless it was dead.

I have been told that the emperor tamarin was sent to Mogo Zoo in Australia

 

[zooboy28]

More sad news from Wellington Zoo's facebook page, after the news last week that elderly tigress Cantik had died (http://www.zoochat.com/17/cantik-335128/), another of Wellington's cats, male Cheetah Delta, has been euthanised.

We at Wellington Zoo are incredibly saddened to share that Delta, one of the our two male Cheetah, passed away today.

Delta was 9 years old and came to Wellington Zoo as a cub with his brother, Charlie, in 2005.

Delta suffered from kidney failure, which is not uncommon in big cats. He has been treated for kidney disease for some time but his condition deteriorated and our vets and keepers made the very difficult decision to euthanize him this afternoon.

Losing Delta as well as Cantik in the same week is a devastating blow to us.

Delta was a wonderful ambassador for Wellington Zoo with thousands of Zoo visitors meeting him as part of our Close Encounters programme. People who have met him up close, felt his tail and made him purr will never forget their time with him.

RIP Delta.

 

[zooboy28]

Golden Lion Tamarins arrive at zoo

A pair of Golden Lion Tamarins from the US have taken up resudence in the Mini Monkey exhibit. I imagine this will have been purged of the moustache-based paraphernalia left over from the Emperor Tamarins, and will now have a new theme...

Presumably they are sharing with either the pygmy marmosets or cotton-top tamarins?

Story here: Wellington Zoo - Critically Endangered Golden Lion Tamarins new to Wellington Zoo

Two critically endangered Golden Lion Tamarins are now on display at Wellington Zoo, after arriving from the United States last month.
The female, Clementine, came from Santa Ana Zoo in California; the male, Orolito, from Cleveland Zoo in Ohio. The two primates have completed their 30 day quarantine and are settling into their new home at Wellington Zoo?s Mini Monkeys exhibit.
?These beautiful and charismatic Golden Lion Tamarins are still getting used to their new environment, so we?re expecting them to be a bit cautious and stay up high in their house for the next few days,? said Paul Horton, Life Sciences Manager.
?We last had Golden Lion Tamarins in 2007, and this new pairing will contribute to the International Conservation Breeding programme for these little monkeys.?
Last year Wellington Zoo Learning Manager Lynn Allan spent two weeks with the Golden Lion Tamarin Association in Brazil, proudly supported by the Wellington Zoo Conservation Fund.
?I monitored wild Golden Lion Tamarins (GLTs) and assisted with the development of learning resources. GLTs almost went extinct in the wild, but through the conservation breeding efforts of zoos working hand in hand with scientific research from around the world, their numbers are rising,? said Ms Allan.
?It?s awesome that Wellington Zoo is a part of that effort and our community has the opportunity to connect with these beautiful monkeys when they visit the Zoo!
Wellington Zoo visitors will have a special opportunity to connect with the Golden Lion Tamarins at The Conservation Week celebration, ?Do at the Zoo?, this Sunday 15 September. There will be a Tamarin Conservation Talk at 11.30am outside the Mini Monkeys exhibit, followed by a Golden Lion Tamarin Short Film in the Wild Theatre.
By attending ?Do at the Zoo? visitors are also personally contributing to Golden Lion Tamarin conservation ? entry on Sunday is just $2 for children 14 and under, and these proceeds will go directly to the Wellington Zoo Conservation Fund, which supports the Golden Lion Tamarin Association.

 

[Chlidonias]

A pair of Golden Lion Tamarins from the US have taken up resudence in the Mini Monkey exhibit. I imagine this will have been purged of the moustache-based paraphernalia left over from the Emperor Tamarins, and will now have a new theme...

Presumably they are sharing with either the pygmy marmosets or cotton-top tamarins?

all the moustache-related books etc had already been removed when I was there at the start of August. There were still some items in the cottontop side but I can't remember what; definitely much less than before though. Most of the ridiculous nonsense in the iguana side had gone as well.

Excellent news on the arrival of the golden lions.

 

[zooboy28]

Another new mini monkey!

The day after the GLTs went on show, another new mini monkey has appeared, this time a baby Pygmy Marmoset!

From the Wellington Zoo newsletter (photo on their facebook page):

Congratulations to the proud parents, Wicket and Cuzco, and big brother Peru. You can spot this tiny family in the Mojo cafe exhibit, all taking turns to cart the young one around on their backs!

These guys are breeding really well at Wellington, hopefully those at Auckland and Hamilton start breeding too, and we can have a properly sustainable population of these awesome things.

 

[zooboy28]

Australian Exhibit to Open!

Another development at the capital's zoo, which is certainly outdoing every other zoo in the country lately in terms of new species and new exhibits:

From Wellington Zoo's newletter:

How well do you know your neighbours?

Visit Wellington Zoo's fair dinkum Aussie walk-through exhibit these school holidays!

You'll get to walk amongst the Kangaroos, Wallabies, Emus and Cape Barren Geese, dig with the Dingoes, and explore the new neighbourhood at the Zoo.

So come along to the opening day on Saturday 28 September for an ripper Aussie shindig with games, entertainment and giveaways!

Presumably this will also include Tasmanian Devils in the future (although not in the walkthrough), and hopefully some birds and reptiles too.

 

[Chlidonias]

Presumably this will also include Tasmanian Devils in the future (although not in the walkthrough), and hopefully some birds and reptiles too.

I was just going to post about that. Only two weeks away! I doubt they will have reptiles there because all their Australian ones are at the old elephant house. Would be nice to have a few aviaries though, even if only for cockatoos and lorikeets. Seriously, there are loads of Australian finches and some small doves in NZ aviculture; you could have a really good walk-through aviary for them for relatively little cost and it would look great.

It does make me sad thinking about the number of birds and aviaries the zoo used to have twenty years ago