Goiânia zoo

Kifaru Bwana said:
Any information on their animal collection and focus of the zoo or even a masterplan?
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I don't personally know this collection and all I know is that they are the only public zoo (not with counting Pedro Ynterian's private zoo) in Brazil which holds siamang gibbons.

However , @David Matos Mendes has visited this zoo and can tell you more about what species they keep.

I don't think is a focus as such and I am almost certain there is no masterplan
 
Goiânia has quite an interesting collection, although for the major public, it's less interesting than other major zoos in the country for not including elephants, giraffes, nor any kind of great ape. The zoo is nowadays mostly composed by native species, having some sporadic exotic ones, such as mouflons, siamangs, waterbucks, bengal tigers, hippos, lions, a brown bear and emus. Between the native species, there are some pretty interesting ones (although most of these are widely kept in other zoos in the country) such as brocket deers, coatis, jabirus, neotropical otters, hoary foxes, weeper capuchins, harpy eagles, etc. I'm gonna try to make a more complete species list of this institution based on the pictures I took on my visit.

About the structure, there are acceptable and bad exibits. Nothing spectacular. The bird exhibits are mostly simple normal sized aviaries (some of them being smaller than what one would call acceptable), having one immersive aviary in the midle of the place, with black swans and peacocks.
The small mammals such as foxes and coatis are kept in aviary-like exhibits around the place that have decent sizes...
Hoofstock paddocks have acceptable sizes, but are mostly just grassy fields, having very few enrichment items. There is a former giraffe and zebra exhibit that houses a single individual of domestic cattle (not sure if it still does).
Big cats have the worse enclosures IMO, being most of them too small and have quite a low ceiling.
Most of the zoo's primates are held in islands on the main lake. The sizes of the islands vary from 100m2 to 350m2, but they have no handling areas.

The only exhibit that one would call satisfactory is probably the new brown bear enclosure, although it's nothing awesome. It was built recently for a single individual.It has a decent size (near 600m2) and a few enrichments. Just an ok enclosure, for what I've seen in pics (I visited the place before it was built).
 
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David Matos Mendes said:
Goiânia has quite an interesting collection, although for the major public, it's less interesting than other major zoos in the country for not including elephants, giraffes, nor any kind of great ape. The zoo is nowadays mostly composed by native species, having some sporadic exotic ones, such as mouflons, siamangs, waterbucks, bengal tigers, hippos, lions and emus. Between the native species, there are some pretty interesting ones (although most of these are widely kept in other zoos in the country) such as brocket deers, coatis, jabirus, neotropical otters, hoary foxes, weeping capuchins, harpy eagles, etc. I'm gonna try to make a more complete species list of this institution based on the pictures I took on my visit.

About the structure, there are acceptable and bad exibits. Nothing spectacular. The bird exhibits are mostly simple normal sized aviaries (some of them being smaller than what one would call acceptable), having one immersive aviary in the midle of the place, with black swans and peacocks.
The small mammals such as foxes and coatis are kept in aviary-like exhibits around the place that have decent sizes...
Hoofstock paddocks have acceptable sizes, but are mostly just grassy fields, having very few enrichment items. There is a former giraffe and zebra exhibit that houses a single individual of domestic cattle (not sure if it still does).
Big cats have the worse enclosures IMO, being most of them too small and have quite a low ceiling.
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Excellent comment and overview of the zoo @David Matos Mendes , just one very minor correction, it is "weeper capuchins" as "weeping capuchins" would literally mean hysterically crying capuchin monkeys :D :p

On the subject of the big cat enclosures, they sound awful but in the article they describe that these are to be changed which must be a positive development and one that probably should have been done a long time ago.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Excellent comment and overview of the zoo @David Matos Mendes , just one very minor correction, it is "weeper capuchins" as "weeping capuchins" would literally mean hysterically crying capuchin monkeys :D :p

On the subject of the big cat enclosures, they sound awful but in the article they describe that these are to be changed which must be a positive development and one that probably should have been done a long time ago.
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Oh thanks for the correction! Sorry for that. I probablly confused it with the weeping willow tree :D:D Already updated. I also added some more information to the post.

Unfortunately, these big cat enclosures will probably only receive new glass panels and increases on the sizes of the pools, as they said on the news... It's very difficult that the zoo improves these enclosures without a drastical renovation (something like a phase out of some species, so that they could assemble some of the existing blocks to house less species on larger spaces, or a complete destruction of the structures, followed by building other exhibits on the place), wich unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case of these ones that are about to happen... Let's see...
The institution already passed through some renovations last year, so some of these topics they mention have already been done.
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Oh thanks for the correction! Sorry for that. I probablly confused it with the weeping willow tree :D:D Already updated. I also added some more information to the post.

Unfortunately, these big cat enclosures will probably only receive new glass panels and increases on the sizes of the pools, as they said on the news... It's very difficult that the zoo improves these enclosures without a drastical renovation, wich unfortunately doesn't seem to be the case of these ones that are about to happen... Let's see...
The institution already passed through some renovations last year, so some of these topics they mention have already been done.
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I really hope those siamangs will benefit from the changes too, but what are the chances of that?
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yeah... A sad situation... If BH phases out the chimps, as I think they will, the exhibit would be free to receive the siamangs... Check out how the BH's chimp exhibit looks from this pic I took:
Chimpanzee exhibit - Belo horizonte zoo - ZooChat
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Haven't BH only got a single very elderly chimpanzee now ?

That enclosure looks like it would be very suitable for the siamangs, I really hope they get moved there.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Haven't BH only got a single very elderly chimpanzee now ?

That enclosure looks like it would be very suitable for the siamangs, I really hope they get moved there.
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Yes, BH only keeps this old male (the one that is more visible on the pic, on the center, a little bit to the left). That's why I think they might phase the species out. At the time I posted this pic, Dorotéia was still alive.
Yeah, the enclosure is quite nice, and it would be pretty nice to have the siamangs in there...
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yes, BH only keeps this old male (the one that is more visible on the pic, on the center, a little bit to the left). That's why I think they might phase the species out. At the time I posted this pic, Dorotéia was still alive.
Yeah, the enclosure is quite nice, and it would be pretty nice to have the siamangs in there...
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Yes, I think you are right David, this would be a good new home for the siamangs once the old chimp at BH passes away.

Fingers crossed that something like this could happen.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Yes, I think you are right David, this would be a good new home for the siamangs once the old chimp at BH passes away.

Fingers crossed that something like this could happen.
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Yeah, my main thoughts are either the siamangs or maybe the muriquis inhabiting this exhibit, if the zoo actually phases the chimps out. I would love a return of the muriquis at the institution... Specially the northern ones!
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Muriquis ?

You mean that BH would obtain muriquis from other zoos in Brazil ?
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Well, maybe yes, if we consider the southern ones... About the northern ones I mention, it's just a personal hope that I have... Maybe if one or two individuals with wild origins are rescued on the future, their destiny could be BH zoo, as it's the only zoo that has ever kept the species, and would know better how to handle it. But that's all hypotesis. Mostly a wish that I have...
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Well, maybe yes, if we consider the southern ones... About the northern ones I mention, it's just a personal hope that I have... Maybe if one or two individuals with wild origins are rescued on the future, their destiny could be BH zoo, as it's the only zoo that has ever kept the species, and would know better how to handle it. But that's all hypotesis. Mostly a wish that I have...
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I think with the Southern muriqui it may well be possible at some future date. Afterall the youngsters born at the Sorocaba zoo will one day reach sexual maturity and be able to reproduce and then it would be prudent to move these to other zoos in Brazil like BH and form new colonies. The same situation will likely happen with the colony that is held in Curitiba zoo which is growing as I understand it and has also had offspring born.

However, with the Northern muriqui being brought into BH zoo I just really don't know about the viability of something like that happening.

I know many of the major players in Brazil working in the conservation of this species and though I have never talked with them about this particular issue (regarding ex-situ of this species) but somehow I would imagine that they would be reluctant for the Northern muriqui to be captured and brought into zoos.

The problem is that there are just too many risks inherent in these attempts to capture animals and so captive individuals are only really obtained through rescues of former pets or injured animals that cannot be reintroduced to the wild.

I would say that the difference between the Southern muriqui and the Northern muriqui in zoos pretty much comes down to the fact that the Southern has already been established and successfully bred as part of our captive breeding programme whereas the Northern simply has not. The other major difference is that the Northern muriqui is to some extent better conserved in-situ and its population has been effectively conserved in many protected areas whereas the Southern muriqui is still very far from being effectively conserved in the wild.
 
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Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
I think with the Southern muriqui it may well be possible at some future date. Afterall the youngsters born at the Sorocaba zoo will one day reach sexual maturity and be able to reproduce and then it would be prudent to move these to other zoos in Brazil like BH and form new colonies. The same situation will likely happen with the colony that is held in Curitiba zoo which is growing as I understand it and has also had offspring born.

However, with the Northern muriqui being brought into BH zoo I just really don't know about the viability of something like that happening.

I know many of the major players in Brazil working in the conservation of this species and though I have never talked with them about this particular issue (regarding ex-situ of this species) but somehow I would imagine that they would be reluctant for the Northern muriqui to be captured and brought into zoos.

The problem is that there are just too many risks inherent in these attempts to capture animals and so captive individuals are only really obtained through rescues of former pets or injured animals that cannot be reintroduced to the wild.
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Yeah, I agree... Many dificulties involved... If it happens, it will be for pure luck.
About the southern ones, yeah, it could be a chance due to these births that have already happened in Sorocaba and Curitiba... It would be great if it happened...
 
David Matos Mendes said:
Yeah, I agree... Many dificulties involved... If it happens, it will be for pure luck.
About the southern ones, yeah, it could be a chance due to these births that have already happened in Sorocaba and Curitiba... It would be great if it happened...
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I think it will happen eventually because both Sorocaba and Curitiba will have to move these younger animals and future offspring to other zoos as part of the coordinated ex-situ programme of AZAB.

BH amongst a few other zoos would be good candidate institutions to recieve arachnoides and to continue the breeding programme.

Whereas with the Northern muriqui they haven't been successfully established in captivity before so there is no strong imperative to do so now (of course, granted that this could change in the future though if the situation in the wild changes drastically for the worse).

Rather the priority with hypoxanthus is understandably to continue the effective in-situ conservation of the species within protected areas and fragments of forest in anthropogenic landscapes.
 
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