Perth Zoo African Savannah at Perth Zoo queries (25 years of Animals)

[tetrapod]

Oh cool you've visited De Wildts. Maybe because Kitoko came to perth from her in 99 the possibility of obtaining Brown Hyenas was not completely impossible. Since joining this site and reading lots more i have learned a lot more about the challenges with species selections and imports options etc. I like the idea of perth perhaps starting a new regional focus ie having the first breeding pair in the country.

But with the Hunting Dogs and the meat incident i didnt know anything except a cousin telling me what she heard 'they died from eating contaminated meat.' So when i saw two Hunting Dogs in the great cat zone when i visited the zoo again in 1999 i assumed it was a new pair (odd thing in its own being a pack animal) but i didnt know until you told me that there were survivors (in fact sounds like from what you said the dominant pack members were the fatality).

It got me wondering when you said the meat was laced with euthanasia drug i was assuming contaminated meat meant bacteria rather. But what i was wondering was how could a mistake like that happen anyway as to why meat would be laced with that stuff in the first place let alone be mistakenly given to the poor hunting dogs.

But what you said about the survivors escaping from the exhibit did that happen during visiting hours? (very interesting about the impact of important pack members being removed in dog packs, makes sense though as thats how their social order works so the dominated ones would get quite haphazarded for want of a better word).

Unfortunately mistakes happen. I'm not sure who the meat supplier was and whether they were directly responsible or a second party was. Regrettable, but completely outside PZ's hands.

From dark reaches of my memory the escape occurred before the public were in the zoo. To be honest it was over sooner then you would think, as the escaped individuals (2?) were darted inside a nightpen. After the incident there was definitely a shake up of the pack's composition with new blood from outside.

Many years (20...) since I went to De Wildt but it was an amazing place to see. Loads of cheetah, hunting dogs and the brown hyenas, plus more.

 

[tetrapod]

Hey out of curiosity how much distance would Cheetahs need in an average sized zoo from other carnivore in an idealic sense.

Hey would you prefer to see Lion and Cheetah be spaced out more as a savanna alteration which given the current limitation would most likely mean phasing out hyenas for upgrade space. Sorry again 'what if ' realm I know but I appreciate your perspective on this stuff considering your knowledge and experience.

I'm not sure it is as simple as distance, but having the enclosures next to each other is definitely wrong (in my mind). I would lose the hyenas (they were always a poor exhibit, being far more active in the evening), but reality is that the Savannah area is not huge. PZ are never going to regularly breed either cheetah or lions. If (and a pretty big one at that) the open range zoo ever comes off, then PZ would be better placed to hold surplus/bachelor groups for the large zoo.

 

[steveroberts]

Thanks, was excited when i saw you'd written

 

[Princeabebe]

Hi all - I'm new to the forum. Interesting to hear Tetrapod talking about the savannah at Perth zoo. I was a 'docent' (the almost unrecognizable name the zoo's guide organization chose for themselves) for a couple of years in the early 1990s - the savannah opened when I was there. There's a couple of things I could add to the comprehensive history you've already covered. One is that the elands did arrive - or at least the buck did. I never got to seem them/him, but the woman who ran the docents did (I remember her saying "he is magnificent"). Don't know where they/he got sent to when it was clear they weren't going to fit. The ostriches had been at the zoo for years, but the zebra apparently hassled them relentlessly (I suppose the giraffe/zebra enclosure just wasn't/isn't big enough) so they got shipped off elsewhere. The rhino bunker was fantastic. At some point early on, Memphis broke the viewing glass so it was removed. This meant when it was mudbath time, he'd shove his enormous head halfway through the gap so he was only a couple of feet from the public - it was great fun. His keepers used to play chasey with him too - they'd run around and whack him with brooms and hide behind things while he tried to get them, then called him down to the mud for a bath.
I have to say I find Perth Zoo (I live in Perth) a bit sad these days. De Jose's vision in the late 80s/early 90s was for minimal visible cages and fences and lots of fake rock, moats and ha-has. Over the years, as you guys have discussed, enclosures have been modified here and there, and the principle of invisible fences is long gone. Much of the zoo now strikes me as a reasonably funded privately-run small wildlife park - lots of colorbond and cyclone fencing. For someone who remembers being very excited about the coming savannah (not to mention the other grand plans de Jose had at the time, like a central African exhibit with gorillas and okapi where the big lakes are now), it is all a bit disappointing. But the zoo, like everything else in this country, is run by public servants along neo-liberal lines and lacks much of what anyone might call 'vision'.
One lasting problem is, of course, the lack of space. You are all right when you say it's time for them to develop the property the zoo owns on the outskirts of the city and take all the big animals there. I, personally, always found it sad that de Jose's vision for the zoo's collection was originally - and fairly strictly, I seem to remember - for there to be an east African, an Australian, and a south-east Asian exhibit. Prior to oval's redevelopment into the savannah, the zoo had a reasonable collection of Indian animals - blackbuck, himalayan tahr, langurs, chital, sambar, peacocks etc. They all went. In the meantime, this original vision of purity has been sullied a number of times, to the extent that there is now a modest South American section - the previous South American species (rheas, maned wolves, mara etc) all went when the Indian stuff got shipped out, too. Interestingly, that whole end of the zoo is now taken up by the cringeworthy Australian section, with its fake pinnacles and assorted other miniaturized tourist attractions. Pretty crappy and embarrassing.

 

[steveroberts]

Hi all - I'm new to the forum. Interesting to hear Tetrapod talking about the savannah at Perth zoo. I was a 'docent' (the almost unrecognizable name the zoo's guide organization chose for themselves) for a couple of years in the early 1990s - the savannah opened when I was there. There's a couple of things I could add to the comprehensive history you've already covered. One is that the elands did arrive - or at least the buck did. I never got to seem them/him, but the woman who ran the docents did (I remember her saying "he is magnificent"). Don't know where they/he got sent to when it was clear they weren't going to fit. The ostriches had been at the zoo for years, but the zebra apparently hassled them relentlessly (I suppose the giraffe/zebra enclosure just wasn't/isn't big enough) so they got shipped off elsewhere. The rhino bunker was fantastic. At some point early on, Memphis broke the viewing glass so it was removed. This meant when it was mudbath time, he'd shove his enormous head halfway through the gap so he was only a couple of feet from the public - it was great fun. His keepers used to play chasey with him too - they'd run around and whack him with brooms and hide behind things while he tried to get them, then called him down to the mud for a bath.
I have to say I find Perth Zoo (I live in Perth) a bit sad these days. De Jose's vision in the late 80s/early 90s was for minimal visible cages and fences and lots of fake rock, moats and ha-has. Over the years, as you guys have discussed, enclosures have been modified here and there, and the principle of invisible fences is long gone. Much of the zoo now strikes me as a reasonably funded privately-run small wildlife park - lots of colorbond and cyclone fencing. For someone who remembers being very excited about the coming savannah (not to mention the other grand plans de Jose had at the time, like a central African exhibit with gorillas and okapi where the big lakes are now), it is all a bit disappointing. But the zoo, like everything else in this country, is run by public servants along neo-liberal lines and lacks much of what anyone might call 'vision'.
One lasting problem is, of course, the lack of space. You are all right when you say it's time for them to develop the property the zoo owns on the outskirts of the city and take all the big animals there. I, personally, always found it sad that de Jose's vision for the zoo's collection was originally - and fairly strictly, I seem to remember - for there to be an east African, an Australian, and a south-east Asian exhibit. Prior to oval's redevelopment into the savannah, the zoo had a reasonable collection of Indian animals - blackbuck, himalayan tahr, langurs, chital, sambar, peacocks etc. They all went. In the meantime, this original vision of purity has been sullied a number of times, to the extent that there is now a modest South American section - the previous South American species (rheas, maned wolves, mara etc) all went when the Indian stuff got shipped out, too. Interestingly, that whole end of the zoo is now taken up by the cringeworthy Australian section, with its fake pinnacles and assorted other miniaturized tourist attractions. Pretty crappy and embarrassing.

Thankyou for sharing your memories and thoughts. Really agree with you

 

[tetrapod]

Hi all - I'm new to the forum. Interesting to hear Tetrapod talking about the savannah at Perth zoo. I was a 'docent' (the almost unrecognizable name the zoo's guide organization chose for themselves) for a couple of years in the early 1990s - the savannah opened when I was there. There's a couple of things I could add to the comprehensive history you've already covered. One is that the elands did arrive - or at least the buck did. I never got to seem them/him, but the woman who ran the docents did (I remember her saying "he is magnificent"). Don't know where they/he got sent to when it was clear they weren't going to fit. The ostriches had been at the zoo for years, but the zebra apparently hassled them relentlessly (I suppose the giraffe/zebra enclosure just wasn't/isn't big enough) so they got shipped off elsewhere. The rhino bunker was fantastic. At some point early on, Memphis broke the viewing glass so it was removed. This meant when it was mudbath time, he'd shove his enormous head halfway through the gap so he was only a couple of feet from the public - it was great fun. His keepers used to play chasey with him too - they'd run around and whack him with brooms and hide behind things while he tried to get them, then called him down to the mud for a bath.
I have to say I find Perth Zoo (I live in Perth) a bit sad these days. De Jose's vision in the late 80s/early 90s was for minimal visible cages and fences and lots of fake rock, moats and ha-has. Over the years, as you guys have discussed, enclosures have been modified here and there, and the principle of invisible fences is long gone. Much of the zoo now strikes me as a reasonably funded privately-run small wildlife park - lots of colorbond and cyclone fencing. For someone who remembers being very excited about the coming savannah (not to mention the other grand plans de Jose had at the time, like a central African exhibit with gorillas and okapi where the big lakes are now), it is all a bit disappointing. But the zoo, like everything else in this country, is run by public servants along neo-liberal lines and lacks much of what anyone might call 'vision'.
One lasting problem is, of course, the lack of space. You are all right when you say it's time for them to develop the property the zoo owns on the outskirts of the city and take all the big animals there. I, personally, always found it sad that de Jose's vision for the zoo's collection was originally - and fairly strictly, I seem to remember - for there to be an east African, an Australian, and a south-east Asian exhibit. Prior to oval's redevelopment into the savannah, the zoo had a reasonable collection of Indian animals - blackbuck, himalayan tahr, langurs, chital, sambar, peacocks etc. They all went. In the meantime, this original vision of purity has been sullied a number of times, to the extent that there is now a modest South American section - the previous South American species (rheas, maned wolves, mara etc) all went when the Indian stuff got shipped out, too. Interestingly, that whole end of the zoo is now taken up by the cringeworthy Australian section, with its fake pinnacles and assorted other miniaturized tourist attractions. Pretty crappy and embarrassing.

Interesting to read your memories of PZ. Agree with you on a number of points -

PZ had a good collection of Asian and Sth American spp during late 80s/early 90s which they neglected in favour of African and Australian spp. Understandable that the collection needed to evolve and it would have been unlikely that the zoo could have held on to decent herds of hoofstock due to space limitations, but I feel that some spp were let go too easily. Endangered/charismatic maned wolves are a case in point - PZ had the best breeding group in the region before it was dissolved.
The plans to create a West African area in the great lake area was a De Jose pie-in-the-sky idea. PZ was never going to afford gorillas, import okapi, not enough bongo/pygmy hippos in the country etc. It was never going to happen; it just looked really forward-thinking at the time for a 20?-year masterplan.
Yes the Australian bushwalk looks decidedly fake next to the African Savannah exhibit (it was a bit rushed, where as I like the original idea of the Savannah), but both have been seriously modified over time. Too many visible fences!
While DJ was considered a breath of fresh air when he took over, he completely lost touch with staff (see dictator) and staff were glad to see the back of him. Personally I had little to do with him.
My biggest argument with PZ is the lack of vision, such as new exhibits. Dinosaurs are not included, and in any event are a 90s rehash. There have been occasional modifications of existing exhibits (orang renovation, elephant + rhino extensions, outside croc pool) and the lions will be the latest version of this, but there haven't been any large new exhibits since possibly the sun bears or hunting dogs??? And both were existing spp in the collection. I don't even include the half-hearted Sth American area as this is just reusing some of the existing aviaries for spp already in the collection (coati excepted). At least make an effort and bring in some new spp and build some purpose built 'Amazonia' exhibits! It doesn't have to be expensive just good zoo design and aesthetic. Unfortunately PZ has history in not committing fully to an idea. Examples are the ill-fated butterfly house and the bird show arena, both of which had some (but not enough) money poured into them, specialist staff trained/employed and (in the case of the birds) alot of time spent heavily training animals. Bad design was one flaw common to both examples. Obviously PZ is not alone at making bad decisions and in the previous examples both could have been successful if the management of PZ fully committed to the plan. But they chose to scrap both instead of fixing them.
[Apologies. Just realised that this has turned into a long rant of what could have been...]

 

[steveroberts]

The original Spotted Hyaenas/Hyenas arrived 21st August 1991. Annaru (Annie) and Vinnie were estimated to have been born in November 1985 and were taken from dens outside of Mara Reserve in Kenya. Ferret the male came from University of California, Berkeley, USA (does anyone know if he's dead for sure as the maximum longevity is 40-41 years apparently). At some point Vinnie was sterilised (spayed?). In August 1994 Annie gave birth to twin cubs (one stillborn) the other named Spud (the father being Ferret of course). Sadly in the same month Vinnie killed Spud and was sent to Whyalla Zoo/Wildlife Park the following year in May 1995. Annie & Ferret continued to live together another 12-13 years (not sure if any more cubs were born). On 28th February 2008 Annie was euthanized due to ill health. I wondered if the 1999 move to the former Oryx and short term Hunting Dog enclosure meant the space from their old enclosure was still kept and perhaps they had access to both enclosures (i.e an inter-leading access point or knocking down the barrier between)..

 

[Zoofan15]

The original Spotted Hyaenas/Hyenas arrived 21st August 1991. Annaru (Annie) and Vinnie were estimated to have been born in November 1985 and were taken from dens outside of Mara Reserve in Kenya. Ferret the male came from University of California, Berkeley, USA (does anyone know if he's dead for sure as the maximum longevity is 40-41 years apparently). At some point Vinnie was sterilised (spayed?). In August 1994 Annie gave birth to twin cubs (one stillborn) the other named Spud (the father being Ferret of course). Sadly in the same month Vinnie killed Spud and was sent to Whyalla Zoo/Wildlife Park the following year in May 1995. Annie & Ferret continued to live together another 12-13 years (not sure if any more cubs were born). On 28th February 2008 Annie was euthanized due to ill health. I wondered if the 1999 move to the former Oryx and short term Hunting Dog enclosure meant the space from their old enclosure was still kept and perhaps they had access to both enclosures (i.e an inter-leading access point or knocking down the barrier between)..

Perth Zoo’s current Spotted hyena are males Kigana (born 2000/2001) and Sabi (born 18/05/2007 at Monarto Zoo). I don’t know how they’re related (if at all); but they’re not father and son as Sabi’s father is Gamba (born at Singapore Zoo 2003), who is now at Adelaide Zoo.

I can’t find any mention of Ferret online so I’d say given his age, it’s reasonable to assume he’s now dead. The maximum of 40 years is probably in very exceptional cases (like a human exceeding 100 years). Many sources state the average lifespan is around 25 years; and indeed Perth noted that Kigana is getting in on in years at 18.

 

[tetrapod]

The original Spotted Hyaenas/Hyenas arrived 21st August 1991. Annaru (Annie) and Vinnie were estimated to have been born in November 1985 and were taken from dens outside of Mara Reserve in Kenya. Ferret the male came from University of California, Berkeley, USA (does anyone know if he's dead for sure as the maximum longevity is 40-41 years apparently). At some point Vinnie was sterilised (spayed?). In August 1994 Annie gave birth to twin cubs (one stillborn) the other named Spud (the father being Ferret of course). Sadly in the same month Vinnie killed Spud and was sent to Whyalla Zoo/Wildlife Park the following year in May 1995. Annie & Ferret continued to live together another 12-13 years (not sure if any more cubs were born). On 28th February 2008 Annie was euthanized due to ill health. I wondered if the 1999 move to the former Oryx and short term Hunting Dog enclosure meant the space from their old enclosure was still kept and perhaps they had access to both enclosures (i.e an inter-leading access point or knocking down the barrier between)..

Hi Steve
As I mentioned in a post from several years ago (!!!) on the previous page the original pair had at least two litters of which I believe all the offspring went to Singapore (definitely the pair from the second litter). They were all housed during most of the 90s in the small exhibit at the end of the Savannah, which was renovated for the meerkats (a much more logical choice for the space). So there was no connection to that exhibit when they moved into the previously held oryx yard.
As the Monarto/current PZ hyaenas have a connection to Singapore it would not surprise me that there is a link to the previous batch at Perth.

 

[Zorro]

Hi all - I'm new to the forum. Interesting to hear Tetrapod talking about the savannah at Perth zoo. I was a 'docent' (the almost unrecognizable name the zoo's guide organization chose for themselves) for a couple of years in the early 1990s - the savannah opened when I was there. There's a couple of things I could add to the comprehensive history you've already covered. One is that the elands did arrive - or at least the buck did. I never got to seem them/him, but the woman who ran the docents did (I remember her saying "he is magnificent"). Don't know where they/he got sent to when it was clear they weren't going to fit. The ostriches had been at the zoo for years, but the zebra apparently hassled them relentlessly (I suppose the giraffe/zebra enclosure just wasn't/isn't big enough) so they got shipped off elsewhere. The rhino bunker was fantastic. At some point early on, Memphis broke the viewing glass so it was removed. This meant when it was mudbath time, he'd shove his enormous head halfway through the gap so he was only a couple of feet from the public - it was great fun. His keepers used to play chasey with him too - they'd run around and whack him with brooms and hide behind things while he tried to get them, then called him down to the mud for a bath.
I have to say I find Perth Zoo (I live in Perth) a bit sad these days. De Jose's vision in the late 80s/early 90s was for minimal visible cages and fences and lots of fake rock, moats and ha-has. Over the years, as you guys have discussed, enclosures have been modified here and there, and the principle of invisible fences is long gone. Much of the zoo now strikes me as a reasonably funded privately-run small wildlife park - lots of colorbond and cyclone fencing. For someone who remembers being very excited about the coming savannah (not to mention the other grand plans de Jose had at the time, like a central African exhibit with gorillas and okapi where the big lakes are now), it is all a bit disappointing. But the zoo, like everything else in this country, is run by public servants along neo-liberal lines and lacks much of what anyone might call 'vision'.
One lasting problem is, of course, the lack of space. You are all right when you say it's time for them to develop the property the zoo owns on the outskirts of the city and take all the big animals there. I, personally, always found it sad that de Jose's vision for the zoo's collection was originally - and fairly strictly, I seem to remember - for there to be an east African, an Australian, and a south-east Asian exhibit. Prior to oval's redevelopment into the savannah, the zoo had a reasonable collection of Indian animals - blackbuck, himalayan tahr, langurs, chital, sambar, peacocks etc. They all went. In the meantime, this original vision of purity has been sullied a number of times, to the extent that there is now a modest South American section - the previous South American species (rheas, maned wolves, mara etc) all went when the Indian stuff got shipped out, too. Interestingly, that whole end of the zoo is now taken up by the cringeworthy Australian section, with its fake pinnacles and assorted other miniaturized tourist attractions. Pretty crappy and embarrassing.

That's pretty sad to hear a major zoo in decline I just wonder how things would of turned out for PZ if they had gone ahead with the much wanted open range zoo?

 

[millyilkin]

That's pretty sad to hear a major zoo in decline I just wonder how things would of turned out for PZ if they had gone ahead with the much wanted open range zoo?

not sure if I agree that it's a major zoo in decline... complete rehaul of the vision for the zoo is seeing some of the most progressive changes in zoo design in the region (A Future Vision for Perth Zoo), breeding programs are flourishing, PZ registering record visitor numbers... future looks quite bright really!

 

[Zorro]

not sure if I agree that it's a major zoo in decline... complete rehaul of the vision for the zoo is seeing some of the most progressive changes in zoo design in the region (A Future Vision for Perth Zoo), breeding programs are flourishing, PZ registering record visitor numbers... future looks quite bright really!

I was refering to the animal collection the number of species in major collections have been dwindling down for quite some time with the many phases outs

 

[steveroberts]

At some point over the next few weeks I believe it will have been thirty years since Perth Zoo's African Savanna was officially opened to the public. Just wanted to acknowledge as visiting it when it opened is an early childhood memory that blew me away, not to mentioned thoroughly enjoyed spending time in right up to the last time I went in January 2006. Big acknowledgement (that I know they'll never hear or comprehend but just want to anyway) to Memphis the beautiful Southern White Rhino who has been a resident of the 'AS' all these years (and actually at the Zoo since May 1990 recently found out) and the many individual animals who have been residents over the years and their conspecifics are the current inhabitants. Annie, Ferret and poor old Vinnie the Spotted Hyenas; Anthony, Mischa and co the Rothschild Giraffes, Claudius/Azizi, Kitoko and other Cheetahs; Mungo the long-lived Serval; the Grants Zebras whos names I've never learnt; the beautiful Hunting Dogs over the generations, the many many Meerkats; and of course the later additions like the African Lions (Alistair, Manzi, Mafuta, Shinyanga, Mandela and Nelson) and the Hamadryas Baboon troop (should have added Mungo the Serval here too as he was technically a later addition resident), and of course the wonderful Radiated Tortoises of whom some may have been there from day one like Memphis has.

 

[Zorro]

I recall having an article from the womans weekly (back then) about the RAAF flying the Oryx in a Hercules Transport plane from Monarto zoo to Perth (I believe I still have that somewhere)

 

[Zoofan15]

I dug out some information on the zoo’s savannah zone from the zoo’s 2005 Annual Report, which may be of interest to you:

In March 2005, the Zoo opened a new African Painted Dog exhibit and new entrance to the African savannah zone. The exhibit and entrance, the first major expansion of the savannah since its opening in 1991, features two visitor viewing areas and conservation education components highlighting the interdependence of African savannah animals and their environment.

Coinciding with the opening of this exhibit, the Zoo also unveiled its newly-arrived breeding pack of endangered African Painted Dogs (one female and two males). The pack, from Monarto Zoological Park in South Australia, quickly expanded with the birth of six pups (four males and two females) in April 2005. The mother, with the assistance of the males, has successfully raised the pups past the weaning stage.

A male Hamadryas Baboon was born on 28 April 2005 – the second of this species born at the Zoo in just over a year. The females in the group will be given temporary contraceptives to increase the inter-birth interval and help maintain a natural group structure in a low mortality environment.

Southern White Rhinoceros cow, Sabie, gave birth to her second calf, a male, on 28 May 2005. The new calf is a vital addition to the regional plans to establish the first generation of captive bred Southern White Rhinoceros in the Australasian region. In line with the regional captive breeding plan, this will be the last breeding between our male, Memphis, and female, Sabie. Investigations into the fertility of our other adult female, Katala, continued during the year. If Katala fails to conceive in 2005-06, she may be transferred to another collection in the hope that increased opportunities to select a mate will stimulate her to breed.

On 18 June 2005, a male Rothschild’s Giraffe, Armani (born at Orana Wildlife Park), arrived by ship via Melbourne Zoo. Armani replaces the Zoo’s former breeding male, Anthony, who successfully sired five offspring at Perth Zoo before retiring from breeding duties and moving to the eastern states in 2000. The arrival of Armani signals the restart of Perth Zoo’s renowned breeding program for the threatened Rothschild’s Giraffe. Two years old, Armani was chosen as the most genetically suitable male after a long and extensive search for a new sire for the Zoo’s female giraffes.

https://perthzoo.wa.gov.au/PerthZoo...orts/CORP_Perth-Zoo-Annual-Report_2004-05.pdf

 

[steveroberts]

Oh awesome thanks for posting, I remember reading that a few years ago and its good to see again and to have posted here as I forgot a lot of the info like the Hunting Dog numbers with the opening of the exhibit and alot of the birth timeframes.