Taronga Zoo Gorillas at Taronga

ill post in sections

In Australia, there are numerous zoos interested in joining the gorrilla EEP, but of course finaces come in to play, and also as simple as materplanning timelines.
 
i think there should be more cooperation between the EEP and the SSP, both populations would benefit enormously.
 
Yassa said:
Apenheul had 2 more female gorillas, Dalilah who is still alive and Tsimi who died some years ago. I am not sure if they were part of the orinigal group of imported animals but both were wild-caught too.
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Yes, Tsimiu was one of the original import, so maybe it was 2.5? she dsied in 2001 at Apenheul, but has a daughter(Binte) breeding at Artis, and a son (Mtonge) at Gaia Park. Dalila originally came from Copenhagen zoo.

When the Kibobo group were sent to Australia, I presumed the extra females would be a basis for starting other groups in their region. I too was surprised to see them returned to Europe instead. A new group could have been formed using any(or all) of them with e.g. Rigo from Melbourne. Also both young males at Melbourne are genetically valable too- on their mother's sides they are only offspring and neither mother has other relatives, though admittedly they're too young breed at present. I suppose when those females were ready to leave Taronga, there was no plan in process for forming a third Australian group.
 
Yassa said:
The EEP recommendations are nothing but "recommendations" and the wishes of the owners are taken into consideration all the time.
I have no doubt that Adelaide would get the OK from the EEP to start a new group with Taronga and Melbourne born gorillas if Taronga and Melbourne want that.
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Yes, that's the crucial part, who actually owns the animal(s) concerned. The zoo holding a Gorilla may be overuled by the wishes of another zoo which actually 'owns' it through breeding loans or whatever. As you say, that's what happened with the young female from Berlin..

In the case of the Taronga group- I know they BOUGHT the whole group from Apenheul so I guess they can call the shots. I suspect at the time when those Kibobo daughters starting reaching maturity, no other Australian zoo had been quick enough to build or offer suitable accomodation- so they were sent to Europe instead. Adelaide or Perth seem to have missed their chances to exhibit Gorillas longterm at that stage.
 
Corect on all counts Pertinax (as usual :) ). Melbourne and Taronga Zoos move their animals around after consultation with the EEP coordinator. Naturally, it's in the interest of the Australasian population for us to work with the EEP coordinator, and this has always been the case.

Although other zoos in the region have indicated an interest in holding gorillas in the future, none of them are ready at this stage - hence animals being exported rather than moved to another regional institution.
 
in Australia at least two other zoos besides Taronga and Melbourne have indicated they would like to have goriilas-Perth Zoo in Western Australia and Australia Zoo in Queensland.
but for the time being, as ZooPro pointed out, it makes sense for the zoos in this country which actually have gorillas to cooperate with other zoos who actually have gorillas....even if this means participating internationally for now
 
Not sure of this...

Hello.

I heard something interesting about the Gorillas a while back and I wanted to check if anyone knew more about it.

When I went to Melbourne Zoo for the first time I had an interesting discussion with a nice and friendly keeper about the Gorillas at both Melbourne and Taronga Zoos.

The keeper said the two zoos had an agreement many years ago that Sydney would only keep Chimpanzees and Melbourne only Gorillas (presumably after both zoos had kept Chimps and Gorillas in the past).

This ensured that the zoos could concentrate on breeding their respective animals as well as securing a unique attraction. This seemed to work with both Sydney and Melbourne boasting impressive (and I presume really well regarded) exhibits for these animals.

The keeper said that it was a surprise when Taronga decided to display Gorillas in the 1990s.

Is this something that was well documented? Does anyone know more about this? I thought it was interesting.
 
I just read Patrick's response in the Adelaide thread.
We seem to have spoken to the same person, and/or asked the same questions.

Having not been to Taronga in years but remembering the Gorillas there and seeing Melbourne's oft heard about exhibit, I have to say that Melbourne's effort with the Gorillas was obviously far more impressive.
Sydney's feels like a typical zoo enclosure where as Melbourne's was a great surprise (the hut was great and I was surprised to see the Gorillas again further down the path).

Melbourne's enclosure seems much much larger (not sure how much larger in reality) and more interesting.

Just on the Chimps in relation to the Gorillas, having visited Taronga many times before and after the Gorillas' return I have to say I'm always much more interested in the Chimps.
Does anyone have any feedback about the success of the Gorillas in terms of public reaction?
 
those sorts of comments hark back to an era when zoo collection planning principles really sucked. the reality of the situation is, that gorillas faced, up until the mid 1990s the same future as many other species in this country. to quote peter stroud, the viabilty of the Melbourne program really shifted dramatically only when Taronga imported its group.
in spite of the fact that there has been absolutely no exchange of animals between Sydney and Melbourne the fact that two zoos in the region are actively participating secures the future of gorillas here. the 'unique' mentality is simply not sustainable.
in terms of public relations the gorillas are one of the most important attractions at Taronga. this is borne out in media coverage, sponsorship deals, private support and polling (ZPB NSW ANNUAL REPORT 2001).
finally, we covered the perceived flaws of the exhibit in the approtriately titled thread for elephants but i think when you consider both Melbourne and Taronga have bred roughly the same number of gorillas when Taronga has had less time to do it in that the exhibit cant be too bad.
 
glyn said:
but i think when you consider both Melbourne and Taronga have bred roughly the same number of gorillas when Taronga has had less time to do it in that the exhibit cant be too bad.
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I don't think the enclosures have any bearing whatsoever on the breeding success/failure rate at either zoo!! My only comment on that is that Taronga's is rather small for the size of their group.(I know why...)

Considering that Taronga imported a fully integrated and established group that was already breeding previously at Apenheul, there was far more potential for breeding and I'm actually surprised they haven't had more births at Sydney.

Contrast with Melbourne- they started their group with two females and Buluman who turned out to be sterile, then added additional animals from other sources(Jersey) so a cohesive breeding group took much longer to achieve at Melbourne.

But and if I'm correct, the females at BOTH zoos have been on contraceptives for much of the time, it makes comparisons between their breeding success rates impossible. ;)
 
taronga also confirmed today that Pornthip, the matriach of the Asian Elephant herd is pregnant. She was inseminated earlier this year with semen from Bong Su in Melbourne. The breeding program is chugging along nicely now with three calves expected by 2011
 
3? what other cow is pregnant? I knew about the one the young bull got to. Did he get another one or is it another A.I?
 
as it stands Bong Su, who is the worlds most fertile bull elephant has got two elephants pregnant, both through AI. Gung has impregnated naturally one cow in Sydney.
 
There was an article in a local rag about Auckland Zoo planning its future Elephant strategy... Maybe softening up the ground to fill the empty stall currently at Auckland with one of these little ones..?
 
NZ Jeremy said:
There was an article in a local rag about Auckland Zoo planning its future Elephant strategy... Maybe softening up the ground to fill the empty stall currently at Auckland with one of these little ones..?
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Auckland could of tryed an AI on its younger elephant female before she reached her presant age maybe it was a case of too little too late :confused:
 
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