Australasian Maned Wolf Research Thread

Zoofan15 said:
No problem @akasha, I was happy to help out.

Many thanks to you for your hard work in transcribing the data into a well presented list for us all to enjoy; and additional thanks to @steveroberts for sourcing it

So the first Maned wolves came to Australia in 1981!

I was also particularly interested to read over Melbourne Zoo’s records. The first time I’d ever heard of Maned wolf was reading through Melbourne Zoo’s 1992 guidebook as a child and seeing a photo of one there. Looking at the data, it wouldn’t surprise me if the photo was of Melbourne’s first male (Juan) since a male would make for a larger and more impressive specimen to photograph. The zoo’s guidebooks often recycled photos, meaning it could have been taken much earlier than 1992 (e.g. when he arrived in 1986).
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You're welcome :) I was also interested learn that they are a relatively new species in Australia, and kept in so few zoos prior to the Altina era. I visited Melbourne in 2003, but don't remember seeing them. (Though that's probably because my mum would have said 'we're not going near those stinky big foxes!')
 
interesting history for them, i remember seeing them on the National Zoo website in 2018 but when i went in september that year they no longer had them. (cant wait to try and spot them when i go to adelaide zoo)
 
@akasha

Thats so great and cool too about your experience at WPZ in 2001 with going back behind-the-scenes to see Ytamby and her month old litter. So good too to hear the level of dedicated determination that the keepers had to doing everything they could to help assist and support Ytamby for her new litters to survive and everything with the monitoring den cameras etc. Must of been such a memorable experince. I was lucky to do an overnight stay there in July '98 and saw two of the adult maned wolves at night time but through a boh fence and watching them do their nightly roaming was so happy to see they had access to one of their large naturalistic exhibit areas after sundown too (then saw two more of them the next day from that elevated covered visitors viewing platform (there might have been more in the main exhibit that day but I remember two fully-grown maned wolves specifically, have often wondered if was seeing the same two from the night before).

Was a great setup for them at the zoo hey; was so impressed how many individuals they were able to hold at any one time too after a few years of having them:

Google Maps

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am guessing the exhibits to the 'north-east' (relative to the aerial shot here) were the boh holding exhibits/breeding exhibits too perhaps? (likely where saw the maned wolves on the night time tour in '98 probably). Also the largely roof covered complex beneath the other and east to the public dispaly exhibit was for them too maybe??
 
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Yes, I would say those are the holding exhibits for Maned Wolf. As for the other structure, I wonder if that is for the vet hospital? I feel like that building with the grey roof might be the vet clinic. (I am casting my mind back over 20 years though, so I can't be sure but I know it was in that direction from the staff amenity buildings.)
 
steveroberts said:
@akasha

Thats so great and cool too about your experience at WPZ in 2001 with going back behind-the-scenes to see Ytamby and her month old litter. So good too to hear the level of dedicated determination that the keepers had to doing everything they could to help assist and support Ytamby for her new litters to survive and everything with the monitoring den cameras etc. Must of been such a memorable experince. I was lucky to do an overnight stay there in July '98 and saw two of the adult maned wolves at night time but through a boh fence and watching them do their nightly roaming was so happy to see they had access to one of their large naturalistic exhibit areas after sundown too (then saw two more of them the next day from that elevated covered visitors viewing platform (there might have been more in the main exhibit that day but I remember two fully-grown maned wolves specifically, have often wondered if was seeing the same two from the night before).

Was a great setup for them at the zoo hey; was so impressed how many individuals they were able to hold at any one time too after a few years of having them:

Google Maps

o4lm5m%2Fpreview%2F64859133%2Fmain_large.jpg


am guessing the exhibits to the 'north-east' (relative to the aerial shot here) were the boh holding exhibits/breeding exhibits too perhaps? (likely where saw the maned wolves on the night time tour in '98 probably). Also the largely roof covered complex beneath the other and east to the public dispaly exhibit was for them too maybe??
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akasha said:
Yes, I would say those are the holding exhibits for Maned Wolf. As for the other structure, I wonder if that is for the vet hospital? I feel like that building with the grey roof might be the vet clinic. (I am casting my mind back over 20 years though, so I can't be sure but I know it was in that direction from the staff amenity buildings.)
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The exhibits to the north-east definitely look like Maned wolf exhibits.

The large building with a handful of adjoining outdoor yards looks like a vet hospital/quarantine building imo. A number of the region’s main zoos have large buildings for this purpose; capable of holding anything from small mammals to great apes and big cats.
 
@akasha @Zoofan15

Yeah that makes complete sense, really does look like an animal quarantine building with veterinary clinic too 'to a T', don't know how I missed the distinctive look of it. So true what you both say, it has that general look about it, and now that you have pointed it out remembered/realised something fairly obvious I had essentially forgotten..of course a quarantine facilitty complex building would have a veterinary quarters within the complex, or within a very short distance of if not (but the former would be preferential given the nature of the complex's purpouse - quarantining lol). They had a really good setup for the maned wolves at the zoo hey, really wish they hadn't phased them out (although Altina saved the day major major time god love them). From memory the last two Persian onagers are the residents of that on-show exhibit viewed from the elevated roofed flatform now.
 
steveroberts said:
@akasha @Zoofan15

Yeah that makes complete sense, really does look like an animal quarantine building with veterinary clinic too 'to a T', don't know how I missed the distinctive look of it. So true what you both say, it has that general look about it, and now that you have pointed it out remembered/realised something fairly obvious I had essentially forgotten..of course a quarantine facilitty complex building would have a veterinary quarters within the complex, or within a very short distance of if not (but the former would be preferential given the nature of the complex's purpouse - quarantining lol). They had a really good setup for the maned wolves at the zoo hey, really wish they hadn't phased them out (although Altina saved the day major major time god love them). From memory the last two Persian onagers are the residents of that on-show exhibit viewed from the elevated roofed flatform now.
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The old Maned Wolf exhibit held cheetah for a long time, but I haven't been to the zoo for a while so I don't know what's in there now. I personally think it would be a good place for some hyena, now that the lion exhibit is opposite it.
 
akasha said:
The old Maned Wolf exhibit held cheetah for a long time, but I haven't been to the zoo for a while so I don't know what's in there now. I personally think it would be a good place for some hyena, now that the lion exhibit is opposite it.
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Oh that'd be a fantastic idea to have some spotted hyenas in there (as you said would really geographically compliment the big habitat for lions adjacent to now). Oh that makes sense they use to (and might still) have cheetahs in that exhibit; set-ups for maned wolves and cheetahs are swapped easily between the two species hey (I remember MRJ mentioning the maned wolves at Melbourne Zoo inherited the cheetah's old exhibit{s}, and Hix said something about an exhibit on the old 'Dog Row' at Taronga had cheetahs in it sometimes and maned wolves at others, almost always short-term for a few months before going to WPZ; albeit the last cheetahs at Taronga briefly {2001 I think} believe were held in the old 'Lion Pit' exhibit that usually had Sumatran tigers in for most of the last 32 years {and African lions again second most regular residents of that exhibit}; and the last maned wolf in early '90s was held in an exhibit that stood on part of whats now the 'Gorilla Forest' exhibit, at the time was an old running bird/ratite exhibit, next to Toby the Brazilian tapir's exhibit).
 
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steveroberts said:
Oh that'd be a fantastic idea to have some spotted hyenas in there (as you said would really geographically compliment the big habitat for lions adjacent to now). Oh that makes sense they use to (and might still) have cheetahs in that exhibit; set-ups for maned wolves and cheetahs are swapped easily between the two species hey (I remember MRJ mentioning the maned wolves at Melbourne Zoo inherited the cheetah's old exhibit{s}, and Hix said something about an exhibit on the old 'Dog Row' at Taronga had cheetahs in it sometimes and maned wolves at others, almost always short-term for a few months before going to WPZ; albeit the last cheetahs at Taronga briefly {2001 I think} were held in the old 'Lion Pit' exhibit that usually had Sumatran tigers in for most of the last 32 years {and lions again second most regular residents of that exhibit}; and the last maned wolf in early '90s was held in an exhibit that stood on part of whats now the 'Gorilla Forest' exhibit, at the time was an old running bird/ratite exhibit, next to Toby the Brazilian tapir's exhibit).
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Funnily enough, on ratites, Ostrich's are currently in the former Cheetah/Maned Wolf enclosure.

And your spot on with Melbourne, that enclosure the Maned Wolves used to reside in (upon until Tiete's passing in 2009), held Cheetah prior to the first Maned Wolves. It appears the Cheetahs then resided in the Big Cat row from that point moving forward until they were phased out.
 
akasha said:
The old Maned Wolf exhibit held cheetah for a long time, but I haven't been to the zoo for a while so I don't know what's in there now. I personally think it would be a good place for some hyena, now that the lion exhibit is opposite it.
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It strike me as odd that of the eight current holders of Spotted hyena in the region, Taronga Western Plains Zoo are not among them. Both Hamilton Zoo and Werribee Open Range Zoo are interested in acquiring them long term, so there’s significant regional support for this species.

The other notable gap at Dubbo is of course the absence of great apes. It’ll be interesting to see whether rumours of a phase out of gorillas at Taronga leads to Dubbo holding a bachelor troop; with the females being easy enough to disperse between Melbourne (Frala and Mblei); and Mogo (Johari).
 
steveroberts said:
.. and the last maned w̶o̶l̶f wolves (at Taronga) in e̶a̶r̶l̶y '90s w̶a̶s were held in an exhibit that stood on part of whats now the 'Gorilla Forest' exhibit, at the time was an old running bird/ratite exhibit, next to Toby the Brazilian tapir's exhibit).
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Lol sorry am probably being a sadcase replying to myself (well more of an editing with more info), but here are individuals Akasha mentioned in her brilliant maned wolves history post who were last individuals at Taronga who held maned wolves for the briefest times of all the big city zoos in Aus':

Yago 1.0 at Taronga - 12 June 1992 to 23 Feb 1995 (sent to Dubbo)
Juan 1.0 at Taronga - 17 July 1992 to 8 Jan 1994 (died)
Wiley 1.0 at Taronga - 22 Feb 1995 to 15 June 1995 (returned to Dubbo)


**I wonder if Wiley's retransfer to WPZ might of been the date that Toby 1.0 the Brazilian tapir was removed from his adjoining/neighbouring exhibit perhaps? (an email reply I got from Taronga two years ago said Toby died on 11 May 1998, but I forgot to ask where he died. So am wondering if he was transferred to Dubbo at the same time Wiley the maned wolf was returned there? (and the preliminary site surveying for the 'Gorilla Forest' exhibits complex began then. Though could imagine too surveying and architectural planning happened sooner and perhaps late June '95 was when construction work began maybe).
 
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steveroberts said:
Lol sorry am probably being a sadcase replying to myself (well more of an editing with more info), but here are individuals Akasha mentioned in her brilliant maned wolves history post who were last individuals at Taronga who held maned wolves for the briefest times of all the big city zoos in Aus':

Yago 1.0 at Taronga - 12 June 1992 to 23 Feb 1995 (sent to Dubbo)
Juan 1.0 at Taronga - 17 July 1992 to 8 Jan 1994 (died)
Wiley 1.0 at Taronga - 22 Feb 1995 to 15 June 1995 (returned to Dubbo)
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Did Taronga actually exhibit them? It’s hard to tell from studbooks, they use some place names interchangeably for institutions like Taronga that have 2 sites, and the animals aren’t always held/displayed at both.
 
akasha said:
Did Taronga actually exhibit them? It’s hard to tell from studbooks, they use some place names interchangeably for institutions like Taronga that have 2 sites, and the animals aren’t always held/displayed at both.
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Yeah Taronga did display them at times (I cant account for every individual who passed throught Taronga but I believe most of them were on public-display at times, the ones who were imported would of been quarantined of course but you know the dealio with quarantine isolation, Im just thinking out loud lol. I believe Taronga then may have displayed those individuals for a month or so post-quarantine before sending them to Dubbo. Hix recalls maned wolves briefly being on display in one of the old 'Dog Row' exhibits (the row of enclosures remembered mainly in the 1990s and '000s as the dhole exhibits). I know that of the last three maned wolves at Taronga, at least one of them was on display. There was an article that saw on a newspaper archive (will try dig it up) that stated that Toby the Brazilian tapir now had a new neighbour who 'hailed from' the same part of the world as he did geographically (from memory Yago was the individual maned wolf mentioned in the article).
 
steveroberts said:
Yeah Taronga did display them at times (I cant account for every individual who passed throught Taronga but I believe most of them were on public-display at times, the ones who were imported would of been quarantined of course but you know the dealio with quarantine isolation, Im just thinking out loud lol. I believe Taronga then may have displayed those individuals for a month or so post-quarantine before sending them to Dubbo. Hix recalls maned wolves briefly being on display in one of the old 'Dog Row' exhibits (the row of enclosures remembered mainly in the 1990s and '000s as the dhole exhibits). I know that of the last three maned wolves at Taronga, at least one of them was on display. There was an article that saw on a newspaper archive (will try dig it up) that stated that Toby the Brazilian tapir now had a new neighbour who 'hailed from' the same part of the world as he did geographically (from memory Yago was the individual maned wolf mentioned in the article).
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Cool, thanks. I’ll do a bit more research and make another post. Plus I realised I left at least one individual off the Adelaide list, so I’ll update that.
 
@akasha

Thought you might find this a little bit funny (think have only told the story to Zoofan15). When my year 7 class went on a high school excursion to Taronga in 2002, our science teacher gave us all a photo-copied map of the zoo that was very out of date (I imagine c.1993). So there were no gorillas on the map but still said either Brazilian tapir or just tapir and maned wolf where 'Gorilla Forest' was; there was no orangutan symbol or writing where the 'Orangutan Rainforest' exhibit was at the time (from memory were still labelled where the archaic old 'Ape House/Row' was) things like that, the reptile house was still labelled as the old one had stood between the top entrance and sky-lift top entry/exit (cant remember if one could take the sky-lift in the opposite direction back down to the harbour end, certainly never did personally if was able to) - stuff like that. Obviously out school had just been photocopying a map they had from a previous excursion nearly ten years prior every year since then. From memory I think my science teacher seemed more annoyed than interested/appreciative when I told him the map was out of date..but I was a poor attention span /late homework returner student despite finding science fascinating so was not one of his favourite students and didnt really 'have his ear' lol (hope the following years grade 7's got a current photocopy map of the zoo but lol).
 
akasha said:
Cool, thanks. I’ll do a bit more research and make another post. Plus I realised I left at least one individual off the Adelaide list, so I’ll update that.
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Oh no worries. You did such an amazing job with that post but Akasha seriously. Have already saved it as a pdf on my document files so if ever want to re-read it while ZC is down for an hour for maintenance can still do so.
 
Jambo said:
Funnily enough, on ratites, Ostrich's are currently in the former Cheetah/Maned Wolf enclosure.
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Actually, that exhibit is currently empty and unable to be accessed. Ostriches are in a nearby exhibit.
EDIT: It might not be empty; it might still be used as an additional cheetah exhibit, but it is not on display and hasn't been since 2021.
 
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Osedax said:
The cheetahs were, and possibly still are, in the former Maned Wolf exhibit. The paddock that currently has ostriches is nearby, and held wallabies when the Maned Wolves were there.
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Indeed you are correct; thanks for clearing it up. I've double checked and realised there are in three paddocks following the Giant Tortoises (not two as I had initially thought).

This is because the former Maned Wolf/Cheetah enclosure is now off view.

According to past maps, back in 2012, the Maned Wolves were in their enclosure, with their second empty and then wallabies in the last.

By 2020, Cheetahs were now in the former Maned Wolf enclosure whilst Oryx inhabited the latter two. The Persian Onager and Ostrich have since replaced the Oryx.
 
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