Darling Downs Zoo Darling Downs
- Thread starter Zoo_Boy
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Jaguar
You like jaguars Patrick?
Me too!
We are in the privileged position of having one of only five jaguars in Australia here at our zoo. But not for much longer. Our girl, Kera, is very old indeed and will not be with us for much longer. She is starting to become ataxic and that is the beginning of the end.
She started life in Adelaide Zoo 25+ years ago. How many is +? We really don't know. Peter Stroud told us that Adelaide Zoo records only go back for 25 years and she was born before then. In the mid 1980s my wife cut out a clipping from a newspaper about Kera and she was said to be 4 years old in the article. Unfortunately the clipping is not dated. Little did my wife know then that one day we would own this beautiful girl.
From Adelaide Kera went to a little private zoo at Bulla - out behind the Melbourne Airport. The slightly eccentric lady who owned this zoo had an amazing collection of animals including several (!) jaguars, binturongs etc. All kept in converted chicken sheds! True. I saw her on several occasions when she lived there and she interacted very well with the old lady.
When the old lady got too old to look after her animals some of them went to the Monbulk Animal Kingdom out past Dandenong. [I often wonder what happened to all the others]. Kera lived at Monbulk until 1996 when she started to go blind. Her then owners decide that the best possible treatment for her condition would be to turn her in to a floor mat. Fortunately, we heard about their plans and persuaded them to sell her to us for the value of the mat. I hadn't realised until then just how much exotic cat skins are worth in this country.
Since she has come to live with us she has progressively become completely blind. Her blindness can not be reversed - it is due to age related deterioration of her retinas. Although blind she has enjoyed a good quality of life for at least twelve years longer than would otherwise have been the case. And, for the first time in her long life, she has been kept on grass. She eats well, has a wonderful coat, enjoys a smooch with her "Mum and Dad" [ who are unashamedly anthropromorphic about the relationship ] and seems to have a pretty good mental map of her enclosure as she rarely bumps in to anything. Her impending euthanasia will be one of the saddest events in our lives to date.
After that, as you are only too well aware, when the two jags at Mogo and the two at Melbourne are gone, we won't see these wonderful animals in this country again.
You like jaguars Patrick?
Me too!We are in the privileged position of having one of only five jaguars in Australia here at our zoo. But not for much longer. Our girl, Kera, is very old indeed and will not be with us for much longer. She is starting to become ataxic and that is the beginning of the end.
She started life in Adelaide Zoo 25+ years ago. How many is +? We really don't know. Peter Stroud told us that Adelaide Zoo records only go back for 25 years and she was born before then. In the mid 1980s my wife cut out a clipping from a newspaper about Kera and she was said to be 4 years old in the article. Unfortunately the clipping is not dated. Little did my wife know then that one day we would own this beautiful girl.
From Adelaide Kera went to a little private zoo at Bulla - out behind the Melbourne Airport. The slightly eccentric lady who owned this zoo had an amazing collection of animals including several (!) jaguars, binturongs etc. All kept in converted chicken sheds! True. I saw her on several occasions when she lived there and she interacted very well with the old lady.
When the old lady got too old to look after her animals some of them went to the Monbulk Animal Kingdom out past Dandenong. [I often wonder what happened to all the others]. Kera lived at Monbulk until 1996 when she started to go blind. Her then owners decide that the best possible treatment for her condition would be to turn her in to a floor mat. Fortunately, we heard about their plans and persuaded them to sell her to us for the value of the mat. I hadn't realised until then just how much exotic cat skins are worth in this country.
Since she has come to live with us she has progressively become completely blind. Her blindness can not be reversed - it is due to age related deterioration of her retinas. Although blind she has enjoyed a good quality of life for at least twelve years longer than would otherwise have been the case. And, for the first time in her long life, she has been kept on grass. She eats well, has a wonderful coat, enjoys a smooch with her "Mum and Dad" [ who are unashamedly anthropromorphic about the relationship ] and seems to have a pretty good mental map of her enclosure as she rarely bumps in to anything. Her impending euthanasia will be one of the saddest events in our lives to date.
After that, as you are only too well aware, when the two jags at Mogo and the two at Melbourne are gone, we won't see these wonderful animals in this country again.
MARK
Well-Known Member
MARK
Well-Known Member
From my recent visit to the Darling Downs zoo more than two years after Jays visit I would have to agree with him, ALL the animals I saw were fit and healthy and in excellent condition, I would say on par with animals I have seen in major collections. The whole place was very clean including the animal enclosures (All water bowls were spotless). The Lion group was impressive and in great condition which I think shows in my photos. A recent Lion night house has also been added.
Another thing I was quite pleased to see were the groups of monkeys in
such large cages, all were active and alert, some plants have been added to the outside of the cages such mulberries for enrichment and from what I heard more are going to be planted inside each monkey exhibit with metal guards protecting the plants body with all the foliage to grow through guards mesh for the animals to enjoy. The cage for the common Marmosets is even bigger than I have seen in some of the big city zoos. These little monkeys appeared to be thriving with plans to start a second group in the near future.
The Jaguar, the last of her kind in Queensland is a very old lady and for her age in wonderful condition, I will be sorry to see her go when her time is up.
Some of the new work there was a new exhibit for Wombats and Koalas, a small reptile house, Lion house and Macaw avairies. The birds are a highlight of the zoo with heaps of baby Macaws being bred along with other parrots such as Red tailed Black Cockatoos, the breeding pair I saw were stunning! I took quite a few photos of these, though I have only uploaded a few in the gallery.
There are many Eucalyptus being planted in the zoo for food trees and for animal's enrichment .
All in all, I give it the thumbs up. One can see the amount of work that has gone into the zoo in only a few years of being built from scratch, this so far is only stage one. I look forward to seeing them develop into stage two in the future as this zoo has a big potential.
Any aledgations about animals living in bad conditions and being fed bad food, from what saw, is very wrong !!!! I can say, I saw NO sign of this and it appears to be total rubbish, and I have been to many many zoos world wide !!
I should have mentioned that some of you in this part of the world may have already seen Kera.
She was the jaguar in the RSPCA TV commercial "All creatures great and small". She walked across screen with a bandage wrapped around her. Hard to realise that that commercial was shot nearly 20 years ago.