As reported by @Patrick Keegan in the Darling Downs Zoo news thread, Sri Lankan leopard are now held at Darling Downs Zoo. They’re the second holder of this species in the region.
Exotic Mammals in Australian Zoos
- Thread starter Chlidonias
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@Zoofan15 @Patrick Keegan Awesome, that is such great news, go DD!!
Darling Downs Zoo are only the fourth zoo in the region to hold four species of big cat (the other three being the National Zoo, Tasmania Zoo and Mogo Zoo). Wellington Zoo will be the fifth when their Snow leopards arrive next year.
Darling Downs Zoo’s Sri Lankan leopards are a male from Valencia Bioparc (born 2016) and a female from Zoobotánico Jerez (born 2017). They’re an unrelated breeding pair.
@Zoofan15 Yes! exactly what wanted to hear, these two and the arrival of the pair at Canberra a couple of years ago so we have at least two breeding pairs in the region thats absolutely brilliant. This has been such amazing news since we started to see our Pantherus pardus(es) disappear over the last almost two decades (still remember vividly being so frustrated in October 2002 that Perth Zoo deliberately sent their Persian Leopards away when there was still room for them to keep Fury at the very least and have room for their Sumatran Tiger expansion, its not like they enlarged their enclosures or anything, but they still came up with some excuse that to be brutally honest didn't really seem to make make sense as they had other enclosures behind the scenes the same size or bigger apparently that could have housed a third or fourth adult Sumatran Tiger, and considering most Leopards in zoos are of endangered subspecies anyway why abandon attention to them and phase them out? Leopards have been so missed from the region dare I say it even by a lot of zoo visitors who aren't members of our site would bet)
So glad Canberra and Darling Downs have shown they appreciate Leopards, once again the smaller zoos seem to be outdoing the city zoos in Australia who actually could still keep up their impressive work but still have kept a fair few species, just reduce the public grass lawn area space by about 35% it wouldn't be the end of the world as there would still be almost two thirds but with some more space for some more species that have been lost or really need expansion etc, sorry really needed a little vent about it but this is great news for Darling Downs and the region.
So glad Canberra and Darling Downs have shown they appreciate Leopards, once again the smaller zoos seem to be outdoing the city zoos in Australia who actually could still keep up their impressive work but still have kept a fair few species, just reduce the public grass lawn area space by about 35% it wouldn't be the end of the world as there would still be almost two thirds but with some more space for some more species that have been lost or really need expansion etc, sorry really needed a little vent about it but this is great news for Darling Downs and the region.
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It’s great news for the region and will hopefully lead to a resurgence in leopard holdings across the region. I’m hopeful some New Zealand zoos will come onboard long term. They’d make the perfect addition to Auckland’s South East Asia precinct; and I’d rather see Hamilton Zoo exhibit Sri Lankan leopards than building a third Sumatran tiger exhibit.
Mogo Zoo will soon be at an interesting crossroads when their elderly Snow leopard passes. I’ll be interested to see if they make the switch to Sri Lankan leopards - especially with the Canberra boys becoming available in the not too distant future.
A few notes as we approach the end of 2021 with my usual December update for exotic mammals – the loris at Perth and harbour seal at SeaWorld - who is approaching his mid-30s! - are both still alive and kicking as of this month.
Mogo Wildlife Park now has Dromedary as seen in one of the photos from this article: 200mms of rainfall inundates the South Coast as Mogo Zoo floods
Gorge’s group of White-fronted Capuchins produced an infant in November. I always assumed they were post-reproductive but I confirmed this birth with the zoo directly.
According to the CITES Trade Database, the Clouded Leopards at the Wild Cat Conservation Centre were imported from Germany if you were seeking specifics.
Mansfield Zoo received two female Maned Wolves from Altina this month. They are the only ones in Victoria currently: It takes a farm to feed a zoo - Country News
Shoalhaven Zoo no longer have Capybara unfortunately which was confirmed via email. Adelaide is down to only one Capybara – the last female of the original trio to be imported. To add to the list of facilities that have bred this species in the region, D’Aguilar Wildlife and Sydney Zoo have also since produced offspring.
@WhistlingKite24 In early January this year drove past Mogo Zoo during a road trip (would have stopped and visited if could have but had family get together taking up all the time out of Sydney that trip, anywhos sorry for the digress lol) and seeing the paddocks compass north from the zoo of which some are part of the property and have always had the Water Buffalo herds, this time saw Dromedaries in some of the paddocks also, was a nice little surprise. Wish had written about it on here to you guys 11 months ago after seeing them.
So now they are living alongside the Plains Zebras since the flooding/flooding warnings, thats really cool (the sharing with Zebras of course not the flooding lol)
Go Mansfield with getting Maned Wolves.
So now they are living alongside the Plains Zebras since the flooding/flooding warnings, thats really cool (the sharing with Zebras of course not the flooding lol)
Go Mansfield with getting Maned Wolves.
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A new holder of giraffe. As reported by @Nisha, Tasmania Zoo have received two male giraffe from Australia Zoo.
Darling Downs Zoo have officially announced the arrival of their first ever lemurs - they now have both Ring-tailed Lemurs and Black-and-white Ruffed Lemurs. This gives them an impressive 13 species of primate: Log into Facebook | Facebook
Alf, the male Brazilian Tapir has died at Darling Downs Zoo at the age of 30. Four (1.3) Brazilian Tapirs remain in the region: Log into Facebook | Facebook
And then there were two... Dubbo have confirmed that one of their Persian Onagers died recently of an intestinal infection. @akasha recently saw two males on display so it would have been the last female that died:
"Unfortunately during our last lockdown, we lost an Onager to an intestinal infection. There are now only two remaining and it is unlikely they will be replaced in the future."
It’s so disappointing that they have all but died out in Australia. They are such a cool species, and every single person who stopped to look at them read on the sign that they are one of the fastest mammals, and was like ‘wow!’, then they really took the time to appreciate them.Its a real shame the zoo lost interest in this species from importing two pairs from the Rotterdam zoo and later imports from the USA they could of kept them going for much longer. They bred well, they were well suited to the Dubbo climate also a listed endangered species. Yet another species pushed to the side like others before them, unfortunately no other zoo got to obtain them from Dubbo which seems somewhat odd and counter productive,this time no other zoo came to the rescue as they did with the Maned Wolfs
Exactly. They do seem like a species Altina would be interested in, but I suppose it's too late now without beginning a new population.
@WhistlingKite24 Its such a shame that we will one day no longer have any Persian Onagers in the country. Had a look at the import list and it seems Przewalski's Horses/Tanakis are an approved species but just don't understand why Onagers are not?!
Sydney Zoo no longer have Black-handed Spider Monkeys. No word on what happened to them in the email response: "Unfortunately we currently do not have Spider Monkeys at Sydney Zoo."
If i remember correctly spider monkeys were where the gorillas were planned to be. perhaps gorillas are coming at long last
They had five originally. It’s likely they’ve been sent to another Zoo.
ZooDoo Zoo in Tasmania recently received two Cotton-top Tamarins: Log into Facebook | Facebook