Melbourne Zoo A look at the Melbourne Zoo masterplan

i'm pretty sure that "stage 2" of the australian bush is exactly what you see there today.

personally, i don't think investing in more native animal exhibits is a good strategy for melbourne. unlike taronga, adelaide or perth zoos victoria have the sanctuary, a third zoo focused entirely on natives. thus i feel the melbourne zoo should limit the amount of natives it keeps to encourage people, particularly international tourists, to visit the other institution.

i think keeping it nothing more than a "showcase" is a good idea and any future expansions should be focused in the new guinea realm, creating something "australasian" but not quite "australian".
 
patrick said:
i'm pretty sure that "stage 2" of the australian bush is exactly what you see there today.

personally, i don't think investing in more native animal exhibits is a good strategy for melbourne. unlike taronga, adelaide or perth zoos victoria have the sanctuary, a third zoo focused entirely on natives. thus i feel the melbourne zoo should limit the amount of natives it keeps to encourage people, particularly international tourists, to visit the other institution.

i think keeping it nothing more than a "showcase" is a good idea and any future expansions should be focused in the new guinea realm, creating something "australasian" but not quite "australian".
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Certainly isn't as big as the articles in the Zoo News were briefly describing Stage 2 to be. Although I agree with your point that the australian fauna should be limited to encourage visitation of the sanctuary, I would like to see the area increased marginally; perhaps building a rocky/arid exhibit for two wallaby species and the zoo's quokkas, an exhibit for dingoes (they are showcase species), additional avairies, a new home for the platypus and a small wetlands exhibit (effectively relocating the waterfowl from their exhibit in the South-East corner of the zoo). This means the zoo would only be acquiring dingoes, 2 macropod species (and potentially phasing out Kangaroo Island Kangaroos to make way for this expansion) and a number of bird species which were originally planned to return to the Zoo anyway. It would also allow for virtually all the Australian fauna (except for marine/rainforest species) to be centralized around one area.
 
glyn said:
and reinstate the Victorian grassland exhibit too
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i think melbourne best keep doing what it does, keep a small collection of mostly non-victorian native species, whilst heallesville remains focused strinctly on southeastern australian species. werribee does its victorian grasslands "recreation" - not that most visitors pay it any attention.

the only species i think melbourne should look investing into is a display for "retired" devils from the heallesville program.
 
Hi guys....love your comments.

Triffle, the master plan you're reading about was replaced/reviseda about the same time that the CEO was replaced/revised. I believe Leo Oosterwegle (if that's how it's spelt) was a great fan of the bioclimatic idea. When he was replaced by Laura Mumaw I think the plans for the zoo were modified a bit.

Laura has now left so who knows what plans/ideas the new CEO has.

Regarding the baboons, I believe a committee has been set up to look at hamadryas baboon enclosure with plans for something new to be implemented by the end of 2009 (so there was something in those whispers from the keepers.......). If I hear of anything else I'll let you know.

Regarding the retiremend of Tassie Devils....great idea. However, I don't think the devils ever reach retirement age....isn't their lifespan only about 6 years?

Regarding rats.....the zoo has plenty of rats. If you've ever been on a winter 'spot lighting tour' (available to FOTZ members) you'll see plenty. The zoo is a great place for zoo.....heaps of food, plenty of hiding spots....no rat bait. And you're safe as long as keep away from the carnivores.

ciao for now
 
Those entertaining hamadryas baboons should definitely have received a new enclosure 20 years ago, but I suppose it's better later than never. The best thing to do would be to ship them out to Werribee, where there could perhaps be a large, naturalistic exhibit built that could hold such a large and complex group. The Adelaide Zoo's hamadryas enclosure is quite good, with massive windows for zoo visitors to get nice and close to the loud monkeys.

Maybe once the rollercoasters are built at Werribee (haha) the baboons could offset the noise level by providing some screaming of their own!
 
Adelaide's baboon enclosure is quite good, being in the form of a natural ravine, but I hate looking at animals through glass! I much prefer the adjoining mandrill enclosure, where the visitor is looking across a moat.
 
Ara said:
Adelaide's baboon enclosure is quite good, being in the form of a natural ravine, but I hate looking at animals through glass! I much prefer the adjoining mandrill enclosure, where the visitor is looking across a moat.
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But just think how much extra space the animals could have without the moat....
 
Yeah,true - and space is at a premium at Adelaide zoo.

I got a real laugh on that TV show "Australia's Funniest Videos" once; a child had his face up against the glass at Adelaide's baboon enclosure and a male baboon raced up and shoved his backside against the kid's face! Fortunately there was glass there!

I wonder how keepers feel about glass? I mean, if they wanted a job as a window cleaner, they'd have got one!
 
That remnds me of a time on funniest home videos when a little girl was posing in front of a pygmy hippo that was underwater. It started to spin its tail and crap went everywhere.
 
PAT said:
That sounds great but how small are you thinking of making the giraffe exhibit. And the tree kangaroos could be moved to an exhibit built outside the exit of the great flight aviary near the cassowaries.
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Is their any actual exhibit for the Cassowaries last time i checked their were free-ranged but then again i could just be short-sighted.
 
Just out of Curiousity. Does anyone here know how to shuffle? I can break-dance a bit but i guess that doesn't count.
 
dragon(ele)nerd said:
Is their any actual exhibit for the Cassowaries last time i checked their were free-ranged but then again i could just be short-sighted.
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cassowaries are extremely dangerous animals and you most certainly never saw any "free-ranging". your thinking of emus. the cassowary exhibit is between the elephants and GFA - and can only be viewed from within the aviary itself.

dragon(ele)nerd said:
Just out of Curiousity. Does anyone here know how to shuffle? I can break-dance a bit but i guess that doesn't count.
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lets keep the questions at least mildly relevant on this thread please. if you want to talk breakdancing you can start a new thread in the zoo cafe and see if anyone responds.
 
Free- range cassowaries; wow, that'd be a thrill! Even emus can be a menace at times, not particularly aggressive, but a bit scary when they loom over children and wusses like me! (Saw one trying to mate with a Japanese guy playing a flute at Currumbin once!)

I was at a picnic area at Canberra one time and emus were eating the sausages straight off the barbecue hot-plate. No one was game to prevent them!

I may be wrong but it seems that there are fewer free-ranging emus at wildlife parks in Australia these days. Most are safely behind fences (probably for their sake as much as the public's.)
 
fewer free ranging emus ?!

I may be wrong but it seems that there are fewer free-ranging emus at wildlife parks in Australia these days. Most are safely behind fences (probably for their sake as much as the public's.)


How many are left to open range at Featherdales walk in enclosure ?

I hope they dont phase them out -- it is great to be up close and personal with
Australian animals ( we would consider emus and roos as exotic )
Emus are so fascinating in their behaviour towards humans , just as keas are
 
Ky fauna park still has them free range and so does werribee but only in the Australia section.
 
@Ara: I agree with your assessment of emus. At the tiny Phillip Island Wildlife Park near Melbourne there are a number of emus that are free-ranging with the kangaroos. I'm exactly six feet tall and yet found it a tad intimidating with two emus standing perhaps a foot or two away from me and following me wherever I went. People were buying tiny bags of food for a dollar, and the big birds weren't afraid to peck away at the little brown sacks.
 
We have a holiday house on phillip island and go all the time and when i was little i didn't want the kangaroo to eat off my hand so i held the bag out and a kangaroo grabbed it and ran off with it.
 
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