Auckland Zoo Auckland Zoo guide book C. 1960

FBBird said:
The 'Nepal Pheasant' mention above is probably Nepal Kalij.
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Actually there is a good chance that it was a Himalayan Monal. The third edition of the zoo's guidebook, published in 1948, states that the zoo has this species on display, as well as other pheasants still present in NZ (Silver, Golden, Lady Amherst) and a couple of species now sadly absent (Great Argus and Bornean Fireback).
 
I just re-read this thread. Interesting to compare the diversity in NZ zoos then and now.
 
Chlidonias said:
I just re-read this thread. Interesting to compare the diversity in NZ zoos then and now.
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I just got the third edition (1948), and it is very interesting to compare the diversity at this time (immediately after WW2), with what was held five or six years earlier. I can't do an exact comparison as I don't have the second edition with me, but there are, for example, very few exotic birds (although still more than today), and only one African antelope species left (Brindled Gnu), despite the zoo importing 35 antelope of 13 species from Africa 20 years earlier. There are also no giraffe, zebra, camels or apes. Only one animal had been purchased in the previous six years (Polar Bear from Taronga), although an Ostrich, three Tigers and a pair of Wallaroo had been recieved from Adelaide Zoo in a swap for unspecified stock. The zoo map shows several exhibits of the same species, with the paddocks previously populated with all manner of ungulate now housing only Red and Fallow Deer.

One interesting note is how much remains of the zoos original collection: of the animals purchased in 1925/26, a Mandrill, Anoa, Demoiselle and Crowned Cranes, American Eagle-Owl and Snapping Turtle were still alive. No mention is made of any survivors from Boyd's founding collection however.
 
I'd love to be able to see a complete stock-list from the entire history of the zoo. There are some interesting species that have been kept over the years.
 
driftaguy said:
The Auckland Museum has a copy of the Official guide to the Auckland Municipal Zoological Park (1959) in the brochure collection at their library.
Auckland War Memorial Museum - Auckland-City-Council-Auckland-City-Council-Official-guide-to-the-Auckland-Municipal-Zoological-Park

I had a look at it a few weeks ago and was surprised at the amount of subspecies they held then. 5 types of wallaby (2 now, I think), 4 types of kangaroo (only 1 now with 1 kangaroo left).
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Auckland Zoo must have had a bit of guide book energy from the 50's onward, possibly suggesting a period of substantioal change, with four editions published in that decade, but only three from 1922-1949.

It sounds like the book in the Auckland Library is the same as the one Chlidonias has referenced:

Chlidonias said:
I just found an old Auckland Zoo guide book in a second-hand store, and thought some forum members might find a description interesting. It's dated 1959-61.

Grey kangaroo, wallaroo, black-striped wallaby, black-tailed swamp wallaby, black-tailed rock wallaby [brush-tailed rock wallaby], dama wallaby [tammar wallaby], Australian opossum [brush-tailed possum], wombat, squirrel glider and glider opossum
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The 3rd edition mentions wallabies, and marks two enclosures for these on the map, but does not go into great detail, only the Great Wallaroo (presumably Euro) is specifically mentioned, and marked on the map. I think its likely that apart from the Wallaroo, there were only one or possibly two wallaby species displayed at this time. The only other marsupials mentioned are brush-tailed possums.
 
it sounds like it must be the same guidebook but I'm pretty sure the only macropods it listed were the ones I mentioned (in zooboy's quote above), which are 4 wallabies and 2 kangaroos (rather than the 5 and 4 respectively of driftaguy's post). However I don't have the book to hand to check.

Interestingly enough, all those wallabies are the species that were established on Kawau Island by George Grey in c.1870, and hence they were readily available for the zoo (the black-striped wallaby petered out and disappeared of its own accord though after about 80-plus years); at the time the guidebook was published it wasn't known that parma wallabies occurred on the island (they were thought to be the very similar tammar wallaby which was also common on the island, so the zoo may unknowingly have had them in their collection as well).
 
Zebraduiker said:
I have only two Auckland Guidebooks, one from 1968 ( 8th edition )with a pair of Keas on the Cover, and the 2002 Guide, which was published to the 100 Years Anniversary of the Zoo.
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Chlidonias said:
is that a rather luridly-coloured painting on the cover, because if so its the same cover as the 6th/7th edition I have? (And I think it may be a kaka and a kea rather than two kea, although its rather hard to tell!)
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I've just come across Keulemans series of New Zealand bird lithographs from the late 1880s, and the picture on the guidebooks mentioned above is a (pretty poorly-done, and terribly coloured!) copy of his picture of a pair of kaka. The lower one [which I thought may have been a kea] is a red mutation known in Maori as kaka kura ("red kaka").
See here: http://www.zoochat.com/14/zooguidebook-1968-a-54122/
 
Is this book availible for purchase online, becuase I would like to get my hands on that guide book, it sounds interesting !!!
 
ungulate nerd said:
Is this book availible for purchase online, becuase I would like to get my hands on that guide book, it sounds interesting !!!
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I highly doubt it, as it would have been out of print for a long time. You might find it in a second-hand/hard to find book store, but your chances would be slim.
 
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