Exotic mammals at each Australian zoo

[Astrobird]

I haven't been able to find any references to Eland, I guess the only contender would be Mary River Safari, who possibly also have a few other types of antelope. A reedbuck or lechwe was seen grazing somewhere in NT recently, which was believed to have come from Mary River Antelope sightings in Kakadu - ABC Darwin - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

 

[zooboy28]

I haven't been able to find any references to Eland, I guess the only contender would be Mary River Safari, who possibly also have a few other types of antelope. A reedbuck or lechwe was seen grazing somewhere in NT recently, which was believed to have come from Mary River Antelope sightings in Kakadu - ABC Darwin - Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Surely it wouldn't have been a reedbuck? Would it? The photo looks like a lechwe, I didn't realise there had been any of them in the country that recently though.

 

[Jabiru96]

If it has not been mentioned, Crocodylus Park have acquired hamadryas baboon.

 

[tetrapod]

Surely it wouldn't have been a reedbuck? Would it? The photo looks like a lechwe, I didn't realise there had been any of them in the country that recently though.

Pretty sure red lechwe at Mary River descended from Broome stock. Always surprised with the number of African displays in Aust zoos and the dwindling antelope populations that lechwe aren't considered.

 

[Ara]

They are probably not considered for the same reason a whole lot of interesting species are not kept - not considered "box office."

I'm quite disillusioned with the apparent outlook of all the large Australian zoos today; while paying lip service to science/conservation/ providing a good exhibition of the natural world, their real major purpose seems to be financial. They are becoming more and more expensive to visit, and everything seems to be geared towards getting more money out of visitors once they are through the gates. I'm talking about zoos which are to a large degree government supported financially.

There are fewer and fewer species kept and if an animal is not "charismatic megafauna" then it is likely allowed to die out or, if we are lucky, one of the smaller private zoos will keep it going.

I'm an old guy. I can remember (in the 1960s) walking into Adelaide Zoo and being able to see 20 different species of monkeys or visiting Melbourne Zoo and seeing 6 species (9 races) of bears or going to Taronga in Sydney and being able to see 14 different species of Birds of Paradise. While no-one realistically expects to see these today, there is no real reason apart from financial for large Aussie zoos to get rid of animals like clouded leopards, Asiatic golden cats, De Brazza's guenons, jaguars, leopards, maned wolves etc.

 

[nanoboy]

They are probably not considered for the same reason a whole lot of interesting species are not kept - not considered "box office."

I'm quite disillusioned with the apparent outlook of all the large Australian zoos today; while paying lip service to science/conservation/ providing a good exhibition of the natural world, their real major purpose seems to be financial. They are becoming more and more expensive to visit, and everything seems to be geared towards getting more money out of visitors once they are through the gates. I'm talking about zoos which are to a large degree government supported financially.

There are fewer and fewer species kept and if an animal is not "charismatic megafauna" then it is likely allowed to die out or, if we are lucky, one of the smaller private zoos will keep it going.

I'm an old guy. I can remember (in the 1960s) walking into Adelaide Zoo and being able to see 20 different species of monkeys or visiting Melbourne Zoo and seeing 6 species (9 races) of bears or going to Taronga in Sydney and being able to see 14 different species of Birds of Paradise. While no-one realistically expects to see these today, there is no real reason apart from financial for large Aussie zoos to get rid of animals like clouded leopards, Asiatic golden cats, De Brazza's guenons, jaguars, leopards, maned wolves etc.

Aren't jaguars and leopards charismatic megafauna though? I would have thought that these big cats would pay their own way, so to speak, like tigers and lions.

 

[Shirokuma]

Given that unlike ungulates and birds, animals like many carnivore species and primates - and others such as the recent capybara - can be imported I am surprised that there isn't greater diversity of species in Australia.

 

[Ara]

The Australian zoo hierarchy seem to have the, in my opinion, unrealistic view that Aussie zoos should only keep those exotic species in which they can be, for want of a better term, "self sufficient"; in other words those that they can keep going without the need for fresh blood from time to time. This naturally results in fewer and fewer species.

There is also a "political correctness" thing at work too. For example, the sun bear is the politically correct species for Australian zoos, so any zoo which wanted to bring in, say, Kodiaks would be frowned on at the very least. To me, saying that we don't want the big browns because we have sun bears would be like saying that when it comes to apes we don't want gorillas because we already have gibbons.

It's getting so that if you want to see something apart from the usual chimps, tigers, elephants and giraffes you need to go overseas, and I resent that because at one time Aussie zoos were among the world's best.

 

[Jabiru96]

It is also a shame that the species we have (especially hoofstock) or either really inbred if pure or hybridised (e.g. pure Rothschild's giraffes are inbred while hybrid giraffes have a wider gene pool). Also it is unusual that Australian zoos keep breeding hybrid chimps (or assumed to be hybrids, because they haven't been tested) when apes can be readily imported into Australia.

 

[Hix]

Also it is unusual that Australian zoos keep breeding hybrid chimps (or assumed to be hybrids, because they haven't been tested) when apes can be readily imported into Australia.

The public don't care whether the chimps are intergrades or not, because to them all chimps are the same. And none of the captive chimps in Australia are ever going back into the wild. Any pedigree chimps imported would never go back into the wild. So why waste all that money and resources importing chimps when you can breed them here?



Hix

 

[Ara]

I know I'll probably cop some flack for this but, at a time when so many species are in trouble, why get all picky about subspecies/races anyway? Would the world stop turning if for example we introduced Bornean orangs to Sumatra? Better than no orangs!

 

[Jabiru96]

The public don't care whether the chimps are intergrades or not, because to them all chimps are the same. And none of the captive chimps in Australia are ever going back into the wild. Any pedigree chimps imported would never go back into the wild. So why waste all that money and resources importing chimps when you can breed them here?



Hix

I understand that, but in keeping with EEP (as Australian zoos do with gorillas, Sumatran orang-utans, etc.), Australian zoos should start breeding pure race chimpanzee (western chimpanzee is the target of the EEP I believe). The western chimpanzee is also listed as endangered by IUCN, so it would be a perfect sub-species to look at breeding.

 

[Hix]

Well, considering all the gorillas in captivity are western lowlands, there isn't much of a choice there. As for the Orangs, there were only a few 15 or 20 years ago, so it was easier to switch to pedigree, although there are still cocktails around. There's quite a few more chimps around than orangs, and I don't think any zoos are prepared to go to that expense just to get a pure-breds.



Hix

 

[tetrapod]

Well, considering all the gorillas in captivity are western lowlands, there isn't much of a choice there. As for the Orangs, there were only a few 15 or 20 years ago, so it was easier to switch to pedigree, although there are still cocktails around. There's quite a few more chimps around than orangs, and I don't think any zoos are prepared to go to that expense just to get a pure-breds.



Hix

To go another step from this: the captive orang population was (probably) made up of more pure Sumatrans/Borneans than hybrids when the testing was made available in the ?80s. Easy to switch to pure populations, and not breed with the hybrids.
Chimps however have been mixed ever since captive breeding began, and only since the 90s have we accepted that chimp populations should be managed separately. Much larger global captive hybrid population. Are there sufficient pure captive chimp populations for Aust zoos to realistically look at heading in this direction? I don't know but I doubt it.

 

[Chlidonias]

okay I have made the final draft into a sticky, here: http://www.zoochat.com/24/exotic-mammals-australian-zoos-353848/

Have a look and let me know (on this thread) if it looks alright in terms of format -- if it is easy to read and so on. I thought maybe I could underline each species name to make it all clear, or is that unnecessary?