Hix said:
what sort of date are these lemurs? Mid-1980s?tetrapod said:
Australian zoo mammal histories
- Thread starter Chlidonias
- Start date
interesting question. plenty of room at TWPZ for more.
The baby was only born a few months ago, so it's obviously too young for the next few years, but when (in general) would a zoo start thinking about this question with an animal such as Indian rhinos in Australia (considering he is one of only 3 in the country)?
Would the planning for this be 5-10 years in advance or closer to the time of the youngster reaching maturity or even later (as the older bull rhinos are the ones that generally mate)?
The import of hoofed animal restrictions would play a part here too I assume.
Anyone have any idea?
I don't know but here are some thoughts. Maybe the zoo don't want to plane too far ahead in case something terrible happens to the calf or one of the breeding pair. Maybe they are trying to get other zoos on board first. Maybe they don't want to invest in a full on breeding program and would just like a breeding pair. The young could always be exported to another continent.
What I would be considering now is the tendancy of the Australian Govt to make import regulations harder. I would always be worrying that the govt wold suddenly ban the imports of rhino. So If I was a benevelant dictator of Aust/nz zoos I would be working with Orana, Hamilton, Werribee and Monarto initialy to bring in a number of pairs/trios with other zoos suc h as Mogo and Australia zoo, Altina would also be a contender, to hold individual or non breeding animals.
So then what would be a good founder size, 8 unrelated pairs would enable three generations of births before inbreeding would need to be started. Would this be sufficient?
How difficult is it to import rhinos at the moment? From my understanding (and this could be wrong), they can be imported provided that they go via New Zealand for a period of 6 months.
I would love it if Australia and New Zealand began a breeding program with Indian Rhinos though - they are one of my favourite animals in the world.
NZ cannot import Indian Rhinos. Australia can import perissodactyls from specific countries, and they do not need to come via NZ.
How come New Zealand can't import them? I'm presuming that this might have something to do with the horse racing industry in New Zealand or is it something else?
NZ has specific regulations for importing perissodactyls, so the only exotic species which can currently be imported are zebra from Australia (the IHS is non-specific for species, but obviously there is only one species in Australia) and white rhino from Australia and South Africa.
Yes my mistake. I had forgotten that the pair at Perth had bred several times before Robyn. She ended up creating the second pair of white-cheeks at Perth.
I've been having a little read through the older International Zoo News which are online (the only relevant news notes were from 1982-3). Some interesting items for this thread.
Adelaide Zoo
*Apparently the Persian Leopards from Cincinnati were male and female (not the three animals which were meant to be going there) and the zoo already had one female when they arrived.
*The zoo imported three Indian Crested Porcupines from Delhi Zoo in 1981/2 "as our existing pair is now quite old".
*Deaths in 1981/2 included "both male Douroucoulis", a female Slow Loris, and "the pair of Black Mangabeys".
*Breedings in 1981/2 included Dwarf Mongoose and Wapiti. Both are interesting to me because I don't know when Dwarf Mongooses started out in Australia (and I would like to); and because previously what I had found on Wapiti was that they were first imported into Australia in 1985 for deer farming purposes. (Unless, of course, Adelaide was just calling regular Red Deer by that name).
*The zoo received four Tree Shrews from Melbourne (and Melbourne also bred a number in 1982). I had imagined that Adelaide was the origin of all the Tree Shrews, but perhaps it was actually Melbourne? Does anyone have any idea?
Melbourne Zoo
*Births in 1982 included one Entellus [Hanuman Langur] and one [Indian] Muntjac. In 1983 they bred two Geladas.
*In 1982 they obtained two female Spot-nosed Guenons. It doesn't say from where.
Perth Zoo
*Births in 1982 included two (1.1) Purple-faced Langurs. The female did not survive, and the male was being hand-reared. Perhaps these may have been twins?
*Interestingly, there is also listings twice for breeding multiple "Green Agoutis". I'm assuming this is supposed to be "Golden Agouti" which is what the zoos were calling the Brazilian Agoutis at the time, but perhaps tetrapod would like to deny/confirm that Perth had/did not have Green Acouchis?
Adelaide Zoo
*Apparently the Persian Leopards from Cincinnati were male and female (not the three animals which were meant to be going there) and the zoo already had one female when they arrived.
*The zoo imported three Indian Crested Porcupines from Delhi Zoo in 1981/2 "as our existing pair is now quite old".
*Deaths in 1981/2 included "both male Douroucoulis", a female Slow Loris, and "the pair of Black Mangabeys".
*Breedings in 1981/2 included Dwarf Mongoose and Wapiti. Both are interesting to me because I don't know when Dwarf Mongooses started out in Australia (and I would like to); and because previously what I had found on Wapiti was that they were first imported into Australia in 1985 for deer farming purposes. (Unless, of course, Adelaide was just calling regular Red Deer by that name).
*The zoo received four Tree Shrews from Melbourne (and Melbourne also bred a number in 1982). I had imagined that Adelaide was the origin of all the Tree Shrews, but perhaps it was actually Melbourne? Does anyone have any idea?
Melbourne Zoo
*Births in 1982 included one Entellus [Hanuman Langur] and one [Indian] Muntjac. In 1983 they bred two Geladas.
*In 1982 they obtained two female Spot-nosed Guenons. It doesn't say from where.
Perth Zoo
*Births in 1982 included two (1.1) Purple-faced Langurs. The female did not survive, and the male was being hand-reared. Perhaps these may have been twins?
*Interestingly, there is also listings twice for breeding multiple "Green Agoutis". I'm assuming this is supposed to be "Golden Agouti" which is what the zoos were calling the Brazilian Agoutis at the time, but perhaps tetrapod would like to deny/confirm that Perth had/did not have Green Acouchis?
Comments above.
Saw an Entellus Langur at Natureland Zoo, Kirra Q in early 1980s [1983 or 4]. This animal died while being prepped to transfer to Notre Dame.
To answer your question, there aren't any reindeer in Australia at all, but I have seen fallow deer used as a substitute for reindeer in Christmas displays at shopping centres!
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I brought over 2 female Chacmas from NZ in 1982 and placed them at BAW at Wallacia where they had a small breeding group. I have heard that they no longer keep the species. They also had at least one or more Olives in the early 1980s
Red Deer seem to be used more often.
Mogo Zoo, about hours drive south of Sydney (in Bateman's Bay) have quite a large herd of European Fallow Deer - which are quite pretty.
I should have thought the climate may be far too hot for them to survive long?