Darling Downs Zoo Darling Downs
- Thread starter Zoo_Boy
- Start date
Hamadryas Baboons, Common Marmosets, Rhesus Macaques and Common [aka Long-tailed or Crab-eating ] Macaques. They're all pretty "real"!
Macaques tend to go in and out of fashion in the zoo world. You couldn't do anything with them conservation wise in this country due to the lack of any knowledge of founders and their provenance, inbreeding and hybridising between some species. For example, we saw Rhesus at Jim Clubb's establishment in the UK which bore little resemblance to the Rhesus that we see here in Australia.
However, they do make a hardy, long lived display species and, from time to time, have proved to be worthwhile in some mixed species exhibits. Livening up Orangs come to mind!
That's okay, lions in this country are in the same position; not here for conservation, but have a legitimate purpose as "ambassadors" for their wild relatives, and the animal world in general.
Hope your Crab-eaters have something to swim in - they love to paddle around, and the public enjoy it too!
Hope your Crab-eaters have something to swim in - they love to paddle around, and the public enjoy it too!
When we built the new Crabbie enclosure we planned to have a glass fronted pool so that people could see them diving and swimming. [We got the idea from a presentation at Singapore Zoo]. However, when we got the quote from the mock-rock people who do these things we nearly fell over. The pool and little waterfall that we had planned was going to cost more than the whole enclosure/nighthouse set-up combined! So our Crabbies have a pond to swim in, fish for tucker and turn into soup! Interestingly, our oldest animals that came from the old Natureland Zoo at Kirra where such things were unheard of, have never been interested in the water in the slightest. All the ones that we have bred ourselves just love it. Our youngest climbs up one of the enclosure uprights to about 3.5 metres then shins down like a fireman and does a running dive into the water. His older rellies are unimpressed but the punters love it!
PS: Were you really thinking about monkeys at 2am this morning??????????
Last edited:
Interesting that you mentioned the old Natureland zoo at Kirra, Steve.
I visited there sometime in the seventies. It was pretty obvious that they didn't have much of a budget, although they had some interesting animals - a lot of singles such as an American Black, an Asiatic Black and a Polar bear; a tiger; a leopard; a small group of lions; a big male Chacma baboon and 3 or 4 species of macaques. They also had 2 giraffes (which had apparently been surplus from Taronga.)
The most interesting exhibit to me was a Razor-billed curassow, the first I had ever seen. I'm wondering if the old curassow at Taronga at present is that same bird? (Taronga had none back then.)
I visited there sometime in the seventies. It was pretty obvious that they didn't have much of a budget, although they had some interesting animals - a lot of singles such as an American Black, an Asiatic Black and a Polar bear; a tiger; a leopard; a small group of lions; a big male Chacma baboon and 3 or 4 species of macaques. They also had 2 giraffes (which had apparently been surplus from Taronga.)
The most interesting exhibit to me was a Razor-billed curassow, the first I had ever seen. I'm wondering if the old curassow at Taronga at present is that same bird? (Taronga had none back then.)
Natureland Zoo
I first "discovered" Natureland Zoo in the mid-eighties when they were starting to sell up. All the bears had long since died, the giraffe were gone [were they the two that went to Tipperary?] but there were some reasonable African lions left, Hunting dogs, tigers, leopards and scores of Macaques. And, of course, the chimpanzees - three of them. The female was killed following a series of events that I can not describe publicly without defaming a prominent former zoo person. The two brothers have lived at Rockhampton Zoo ever since then.
They had a quite extensive collection of several species of Macaw. I believe that these went to the Pearl Coast Zoo.
Unfortunately, I arrived the day after Stafford Bullen had descended on the place and had acquired just about every worthwhile animal for a zoo in the Middle East that he had been contracted to stock. Nevertheless we did manage to obtain some quite nice macaques that he had overlooked.
Emmanuel Margolin had also acquired some animals from Natureland for Notre Dame and I will never forget seeing an Entellus Langur die slowly over several days while he and the owner of the place argued over who would pay for a vet to come and treat it. Margolin also acquired all of the Blue Peafowl - none of which survived the trip to Sydney - but that is another story.
I believe that the local fruit shops lamented the closing of the zoo as they then had to find alternate places at which to dump their reject stock.
I first "discovered" Natureland Zoo in the mid-eighties when they were starting to sell up. All the bears had long since died, the giraffe were gone [were they the two that went to Tipperary?] but there were some reasonable African lions left, Hunting dogs, tigers, leopards and scores of Macaques. And, of course, the chimpanzees - three of them. The female was killed following a series of events that I can not describe publicly without defaming a prominent former zoo person. The two brothers have lived at Rockhampton Zoo ever since then.
They had a quite extensive collection of several species of Macaw. I believe that these went to the Pearl Coast Zoo.
Unfortunately, I arrived the day after Stafford Bullen had descended on the place and had acquired just about every worthwhile animal for a zoo in the Middle East that he had been contracted to stock. Nevertheless we did manage to obtain some quite nice macaques that he had overlooked.
Emmanuel Margolin had also acquired some animals from Natureland for Notre Dame and I will never forget seeing an Entellus Langur die slowly over several days while he and the owner of the place argued over who would pay for a vet to come and treat it. Margolin also acquired all of the Blue Peafowl - none of which survived the trip to Sydney - but that is another story.
I believe that the local fruit shops lamented the closing of the zoo as they then had to find alternate places at which to dump their reject stock.
Fascinating stuff!
THAT'S why I say (only half jokingly) that you should write a book! Trouble is, you would probably wind up getting sued by someone. It would be a riveting read, though!
I had forgotten about the macaws at Natureland, until you mentioned them, but you're right, they had some beauts, in aviaries just inside the entrance - and that was when macaws were worth their weight in gold - very few left in Aust. and no prospect at that time of any more coming in.
THAT'S why I say (only half jokingly) that you should write a book! Trouble is, you would probably wind up getting sued by someone. It would be a riveting read, though!
I had forgotten about the macaws at Natureland, until you mentioned them, but you're right, they had some beauts, in aviaries just inside the entrance - and that was when macaws were worth their weight in gold - very few left in Aust. and no prospect at that time of any more coming in.
ZYBen
Well-Known Member
If you want them to look like this
just copy and paste the whole box and delete the parts you dont want
Thanks Ben. I can see why Sim made you a moderator!
