Australia Zoo Australia Zoo News 2023

RafikiKnowsTheWay said:
Nothing overly 'exciting' but have heard from staff at the zoo that they will be moving to protected contact with their tigers, cheetah & elephants. I was not given a timeline or made aware of any 'formal' announcement for this transition so will keep my ears and eyes out. I found it interesting news given Dreamworld will also be making the transition to PC.
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Just checked their website, looks like the paid guest encounters for both the Tiger and Cheetah are no longer available, which lines up since both of those involve guests being allowed to interact with the animals with barriers.
Management probably isn't too happy about those needing to be pulled, the Tiger encounters specifically ran for absolutely INSANE prices, like $200 per person, iirc.
The Elephant encounters have also been pulled, though I'm unsure if that's a more recent thing or if they've been absent since Christina and Widya went on display. That encounter also had guests entering the elephant enclosure and interacting with them without barriers, so if it's been pulled recently it's probably because of a move towards PC.

Honestly, rather glad to see those encounters go. Allowing guests unrestricted access to big cats is a recipe for disaster, same with elephants. Besides, they'd be pretty easy to rework so they followed PC rules, and hopefully not having as "uP cLoSe" an encounter would mean they'd be less pricey, because Jesus. My heart feels for tourists who already drop hundreds on the celebrity merchandise and an overpriced Koala photo or two.
 
Always_Amity said:
Just checked their website, looks like the paid guest encounters for both the Tiger and Cheetah are no longer available, which lines up since both of those involve guests being allowed to interact with the animals with barriers.
Management probably isn't too happy about those needing to be pulled, the Tiger encounters specifically ran for absolutely INSANE prices, like $200 per person, iirc.
The Elephant encounters have also been pulled, though I'm unsure if that's a more recent thing or if they've been absent since Christina and Widya went on display. That encounter also had guests entering the elephant enclosure and interacting with them without barriers, so if it's been pulled recently it's probably because of a move towards PC.

Honestly, rather glad to see those encounters go. Allowing guests unrestricted access to big cats is a recipe for disaster, same with elephants. Besides, they'd be pretty easy to rework so they followed PC rules, and hopefully not having as "uP cLoSe" an encounter would mean they'd be less pricey, because Jesus. My heart feels for tourists who already drop hundreds on the celebrity merchandise and an overpriced Koala photo or two.
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I have no doubt they’ll find a way to rework the encounters so guests can have a PC experience with the big cats. Many zoos do this with a wire mesh separating people from the cats, with the opportunity to feed them via tongs.

It’ll be interesting to see the extent to which Australia Zoo participate in the Sumatran tiger breeding programme going forward. The cubs, which could be walked through the zoo, were a huge attraction. Either way, it’ll be nice to see future litters raised by their mother.
 
Always_Amity said:
Just checked their website, looks like the paid guest encounters for both the Tiger and Cheetah are no longer available, which lines up since both of those involve guests being allowed to interact with the animals with barriers.
Management probably isn't too happy about those needing to be pulled, the Tiger encounters specifically ran for absolutely INSANE prices, like $200 per person, iirc.
The Elephant encounters have also been pulled, though I'm unsure if that's a more recent thing or if they've been absent since Christina and Widya went on display. That encounter also had guests entering the elephant enclosure and interacting with them without barriers, so if it's been pulled recently it's probably because of a move towards PC.

Honestly, rather glad to see those encounters go. Allowing guests unrestricted access to big cats is a recipe for disaster, same with elephants. Besides, they'd be pretty easy to rework so they followed PC rules, and hopefully not having as "uP cLoSe" an encounter would mean they'd be less pricey, because Jesus. My heart feels for tourists who already drop hundreds on the celebrity merchandise and an overpriced Koala photo or two.
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The tiger encounter now hasn't been available for at least 3 or 4 months (that was around the time i first checked found they weren't available) but they may have been unavailable even longer.

The elephant encounters haven't been available for some time either since I think August or September of 2021. It very well could have been due to moving Christina and Widya to their on display exhibit it could've also been due to the elephants timid nature, Megawati being sick and possibly even the herd being split.

Cheetah encounters stopped being available Around the same time as the elephant encounters.
 
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Zoofan15 said:
This is huge news!

I’ve long suspected they would be moving to PC with their tigers in line with Dreamworld making the same change; and Australia Zoo freeing up space by transferring out the hybrid tigers to Sydney Zoo.

Australia Zoo have also allowed their Sumatran tiger population to dwindle with the loss of four tigers between 2020-2022 that were not replaced. They currently hold 3.4 Sumatran tigers, which includes two aged 15 and 19 years.

Changes to legislation and Health and Safety will be the driving force behind this decision and given the risk to staff, I don’t consider it a bad move. I have no doubt they will continue to engage visitors through the exhibits they have - including the new Cheetah exhibit
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In addition to legislation; the “Too close for comfort” report by World Animal Protection Australia had a heavy impact. Various zoos, especially private ones such as Australia Zoo, are very conscious of their image and the private zoos don’t have the protection of government funding and association, so they take these things very seriously when called out. Check it out below:
https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.au/sites/default/files/media/Too_Close_Comfort_Report.pdf

Quite a scathing report obviously, and I won’t get into my disagreements with it, but it’s had an effect on the management of several mentioned zoos in our region. Not far of a reach to imagine it had an affect on the move to PC with tigers at least.
 
baekho100 said:
In addition to legislation; the “Too close for comfort” report by World Animal Protection Australia had a heavy impact. Various zoos, especially private ones such as Australia Zoo, are very conscious of their image and the private zoos don’t have the protection of government funding and association, so they take these things very seriously when called out. Check it out below:
https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.au/sites/default/files/media/Too_Close_Comfort_Report.pdf

Quite a scathing report obviously, and I won’t get into my disagreements with it, but it’s had an effect on the management of several mentioned zoos in our region. Not far of a reach to imagine it had an affect on the move to PC with tigers at least.
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Thanks for linking that report, I hadn’t previously seen it. I don’t necessarily agree with their bias reporting; but given the number of incidents (including one fatal) with big cats in free contact situations within the region, the move to PC seems like commonsense.

Exhibiting tigers in free contact only slightly enhances the visitor experience and I don’t doubt the exhibits at Australia Zoo and Dreamworld will remain popular in a PC context.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Thanks for linking that report, I hadn’t previously seen it. I don’t necessarily agree with their bias reporting; but given the number of incidents (including one fatal) with big cats in free contact situations within the region, the move to PC seems like commonsense.

Exhibiting tigers in free contact only slightly enhances the visitor experience and I don’t doubt the exhibits at Australia Zoo and Dreamworld will remain popular in a PC context.
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Yeah i definitely agree. Tigers in free contact is risky, and I was very surprised to learn AZ had been doing it. Cheetahs are a whole different story though in my opinion.

Re the bias - agree as well. Not hard to see where their favouritism lies *cough* government zoos *cough*.
I wasn’t aware of aforementioned fatality though, could you give more detail? Feel free to do so somewhere else, even in PMs if it’s not appropriate to do so here.
 
baekho100 said:
Yeah i definitely agree. Tigers in free contact is risky, and I was very surprised to learn AZ had been doing it. Cheetahs are a whole different story though in my opinion.

Re the bias - agree as well. Not hard to see where their favouritism lies *cough* government zoos *cough*.
I wasn’t aware of aforementioned fatality though, could you give more detail? Feel free to do so somewhere else, even in PMs if it’s not appropriate to do so here.
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There was a fatality at Zion Wildlife Park in New Zealand in 2009, involving a male tiger named Abu, who had a history of aggression towards handlers. The park used to practice free contact. I won’t go into detail, but there’s multiple articles online.

There’s been countless other incidents involving big cats in the region - including at least three other fatalities I can recall; but those facilities practiced PC and the victims weren’t intended to be in the exhibit.
 
Speaking of their giraffe, I don't know how "news worthy" this is, but social media posts by guests show one of their adult females, Rosie, missing the top portion of her right ossiocone, about the top third to half. This seems to of happened around mid May, and initially showed the underlying bone exposed.
 
Always_Amity said:
Speaking of their giraffe, I don't know how "news worthy" this is, but social media posts by guests show one of their adult females, Rosie, missing the top portion of her right ossiocone, about the top third to half. This seems to of happened around mid May, and initially showed the underlying bone exposed.
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These injuries are usually more common in bulls, due to sparring. The only record I’ve found of a cow sustaining such an injury is a wild cow that was struck by lighting.

Potential causes could include getting her head stuck under a railing/fence; or perhaps rebuffing her weaning age calf or mating attempts from the bull.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Sumatran Tiger Update

I’ve just learnt that Juma and Ranu passed away last year. They were the eldest male Sumatran tigers in the region. Their littermate, Singha, survives and is the second eldest Sumatran tiger in the region.

With the recent transfer of the 1.2 generic tigers to Sydney Zoo, this reduces Australia Zoo’s tiger population to the following:

0.1 Singha (01/04/2004) Lari x Malu
0.1 Kaitlyn (04/12/2007) Imported 2008
1.0 Hunter (22/08/2013) Ramalon x Kaitlyn
1.0 Nelson (03/06/2019) Ranu x Kaitlyn
1.0 Malcolm (18/02/2020) Ranu x Kaitlyn
0.1 Sallie (18/02/2020) Ranu x Kaitlyn
0.1 Sage (18/02/2020) Ranu x Kaitlyn

It’ll be interesting to see if this reduction in tigers and the transfer of the Cheetah from the tiger complex to their own exhibit is in support of a shift to protected contact (as is occurring at Dreamworld).

Either way, it’s clear the next step in their breeding programme (whether short or long term) will to be acquire a mate for either the sons or daughters of Ranu and Kaitlyn; with Singha and Kaitlyn post reproductive and Hunter removed from the breeding programme (eye condition).
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Morning Zoofan...this is a late reply...the Cheetahs have not been near the Tiger Exhibit since the early 2000s. Steve had a large BOH Cheetah Complex built which is located up near the cafe tent in the Africa area.
 
Patrick Keegan said:
The tiger encounter now hasn't been available for at least 3 or 4 months (that was around the time i first checked found they weren't available) but they may have been unavailable even longer.

The elephant encounters haven't been available for some time either since I think August or September of 2021. It very well could have been due to moving Christina and Widya to their on display exhibit it could've also been due to the elephants timid nature, Megawati being sick and possibly even the herd being split.

Cheetah encounters stopped being available Around the same time as the elephant encounters.
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I was told that the encounters stopped because Terri had a huge sweep out of staff she associated with the previous Director which meant not enough experienced staff left to be able to continue. It seems that the Animal Curator, the Operations Manager, and most of the experienced keepers on the large mammals team including the HOD all gone in short space of time...happened end of 2021/22.
 
Grus said:
Morning Zoofan...this is a late reply...the Cheetahs have not been near the Tiger Exhibit since the early 2000s. Steve had a large BOH Cheetah Complex built which is located up near the cafe tent in the Africa area.
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Thanks for the information. It appears Australia Zoo recognised the importance of housing Cheetah away from other big cat species with regards to breeding, which is good to hear.

It’s a shame in took so long for them to go on display though. A BOH complex for breeding, in support of a on display exhibit from the beginning would have been ideal.
Grus said:
I was told that the encounters stopped because Terri had a huge sweep out of staff she associated with the previous Director which meant not enough experienced staff left to be able to continue. It seems that the Animal Curator, the Operations Manager, and most of the experienced keepers on the large mammals team including the HOD all gone in short space of time...happened end of 2021/22.
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Long term, I imagine there will be a complete transition to protected contact with the tigers, as they’ve confirmed there will be with elephants. Dreamworld have confirmed a move to PC with their tigers, which is commonsense given the risks to those involved.

PC encounters with tigers are popular at other zoos in the region (feeding cubes of meat with tongs etc).
 
Osedax said:
Has Australia Zoo ended free contact with tigers and elephants yet?
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It looks like they have with tigers. There was a video montage of their tigers posted on socials five days ago and there was no recent footage showing keeper/tiger interaction.

Taking the cubs out on a leash to meet the crowds was always a drawcard, but since it’s not something they can do with adult tigers, I don’t anticipate the move to PC to lessen their appeal.
 
Australia Zoo has released a video about their recently acquired Irwins Turtles. Information in it is as follows:

The zoo has 6 turtles, 3 males and 3 females, all collected from Eungella National Park.
All 3 of the females are Gravid, with the first female has 13 eggs, and the second and third have 17 each, so 47 eggs total.

There's no indication in this video that the zoo intends to put this species on display, which is really unfortunate. They're such a stunning species, and considering the special connection they have specifically to Steve Irwin they'd be a no-brainer display, since so much of the zoo is focused around Steve and having a native species that he discovered and is named after him would certainly be a drawcard.
They do seem to be somewhat recent acquisitions, so I can only hope they're just still working on designing/building an exhibit, and that they'll go on display in the future.
If that's the case, fingers crossed it doesn't take as long as the Cheetah's did. I'd like to see them before 2030.
 
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