Giant Anteaters and Aardvarks in Australian zoos

Taronga definitely had one in the 70's.

:p

Hix
 
There was one or maybe a pair in Melbourne in the 70's also
 
CGSwans said:
Obviously she didn't mean aardvarks but maybe, just maybe, there's something we've missed about the ability to import anteaters?
Click to expand...

Interestingly Melbourne Zoo has also had aardvarks in the past, about 15 years after the giant anteaters if my failing memory serves me right.
 
MRJ said:
Interestingly Melbourne Zoo has also had aardvarks in the past, about 15 years after the giant anteaters if my failing memory serves me right.
Click to expand...

Now that you've said that I have the vaguest of very vague memories of an enclosure where I never saw anything, but it could have only been when I was in pre-school (I'm in my, *gulp*, late 20s). I could also be completely making it up.
 
Aardvarks at Melbourne Zoo, from the ever-trusty Zoochat files:

Posted by tetrapod in 2009: "Melbourne Zoo kept some aardvarks in the late '70s. They were kept in the old pens (since been knocked down) where one would have found wombats, echidnas and prairie dogs. Probably where the new elephant housing is."
http://www.zoochat.com/2/aardvarks-16403/index2.html

Posted by ZooPro in 2007: "The last prairie dog and aardvark died at Melbourne Zoo in the late 80s."
Followed by: "....she lived in an off limits area of the zoo for the last few years of her life. She died in 1981, and I think the male died in the late 70s."
http://www.zoochat.com/24/when-did-die-out-7388/

(I'm not sure if that last one contains a typo where "late 80s" should read "early 80s", or if "1981" should read something later like "1987" or something)
 
CGSwans said:
Now that you've said that I have the vaguest of very vague memories of an enclosure where I never saw anything, but it could have only been when I was in pre-school (I'm in my, *gulp*, late 20s). I could also be completely making it up.
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They were always sleeping on a heated plate in their shelter, and would have been very difficult for a pre-schooler to see.
 
Chlidonias said:
Aardvarks at Melbourne Zoo, from the ever-trusty Zoochat files:

Posted by tetrapod in 2009: "Melbourne Zoo kept some aardvarks in the late '70s. They were kept in the old pens (since been knocked down) where one would have found wombats, echidnas and prairie dogs. Probably where the new elephant housing is."
http://www.zoochat.com/2/aardvarks-16403/index2.html

Posted by ZooPro in 2007: "The last prairie dog and aardvark died at Melbourne Zoo in the late 80s."
Followed by: "....she lived in an off limits area of the zoo for the last few years of her life. She died in 1981, and I think the male died in the late 70s."
http://www.zoochat.com/24/when-did-die-out-7388/

(I'm not sure if that last one contains a typo where "late 80s" should read "early 80s", or if "1981" should read something later like "1987" or something)
Click to expand...

If it was early 1980s I'm clearly thinking of something else.
 
Chlidonias said:
Aardvarks at Melbourne Zoo, from the ever-trusty Zoochat files:

Posted by tetrapod in 2009: "Melbourne Zoo kept some aardvarks in the late '70s. They were kept in the old pens (since been knocked down) where one would have found wombats, echidnas and prairie dogs. Probably where the new elephant housing is."
http://www.zoochat.com/2/aardvarks-16403/index2.html

Posted by ZooPro in 2007: "The last prairie dog and aardvark died at Melbourne Zoo in the late 80s."
Followed by: "....she lived in an off limits area of the zoo for the last few years of her life. She died in 1981, and I think the male died in the late 70s."
http://www.zoochat.com/24/when-did-die-out-7388/
Click to expand...

Earlier than I thought. That may place the anteaters back into the late '60's.

Funny I cannot remember ever seeing prairie dogs at Melbourne Zoo. Other species I remember from those enclosures were armadillos and (Indian?) crested porcupines. The armadillos were favorites as it was always possible to scratch one behind the head.

The only remnant of these enclosures is a crushed padlock that still hangs in one of the keeper rooms, that was destroyed by an agro wombat.
 
okay so it turns out that ZooPro was not accurate in what he wrote about the Melbourne Zoo's aardvarks (which greatly surprises me actually but nobody's perfect).

I just found an archived newspaper article from July 1982 which is all about the zoo's last aardvark, a male named Crinkles, who was still hale and hearty (and sharing his enclosure with a band of meerkats).
The Age - Google News Archive Search

I guess the "late 80s" in ZooPro's post may be correct in this case (even if the sex of the remaining animal and the 1981 date were not).
 
Chlidonias said:
okay so it turns out that ZooPro was not accurate in what he wrote about the Melbourne Zoo's aardvarks (which greatly surprises me actually but nobody's perfect).

I just found an archived newspaper article from July 1982 which is all about the zoo's last aardvark, a male named Crinkles, who was still hale and hearty (and sharing his enclosure with a band of meerkats).
The Age - Google News Archive Search

I guess the "late 80s" in ZooPro's post may be correct in this case (even if the sex of the remaining animal and the 1981 date were not).
Click to expand...

Actually I am wondering if Crinkles is not the first Aardvark, and a female arrived later. I say this in that I have a memory of an article about a female arriving in the Zoos Friends newsletter, and that would place it in the mid-'80's. The article does not mention any preceding aardvarks.
 
MRJ said:
Actually I am wondering if Crinkles is not the first Aardvark, and a female arrived later. I say this in that I have a memory of an article about a female arriving in the Zoos Friends newsletter, and that would place it in the mid-'80's. The article does not mention any preceding aardvarks.
Click to expand...
well, now that just complicates things!
 
There were aardvarks and armadillos at Melbourne when I visited in 1978.

A keeper told me one species ran around the exhibit all day, and the other species (in the next exhibit) ran around all night.

:p

Hix
 
I don't remember. There was a Giant Anteater at Taronga a few years before which I saw on several occasions, so if Melbourne had one it wouldn't have been as interesting as the things I hadn't seen (like aardvarks and armadillos).

Looking at the Taronga annual report for 1978-79 it's not listed, so it must have departed prior to July of 1978.

:p

Hix
 
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