Orana Wildlife Park Gorillas Coming to NZ

zooboy28

zooboy28

Well-Known Member
Orana Park to build exhibit for 3 male gorillas from Taronga Zoo. Will be a great addition to NZ zoos! Sounds awesome.


Gorillas coming to Christchurch wildlife park | Stuff.co.nz
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Orana Wildlife Park is undertaking its most ambitious project - introducing New Zealand's first group of gorillas to Christchurch.

But the expensive primates - weighing in at $2 million for the three due to travel to Christchurch - won't be here until at least 2013.

The park first has to fundraise the cost of bringing them from Sydney's Taronga Zoo, their current home.

The Park spends about $2.4 million on its annual running costs meaning the $2 million needed to build a innovative habitat for a trio of Western Lowland Gorilla was a ''significant project'', Marketing manager Nathan Hawke said today.

''It's a really exciting project and our staff and volunteers are really thrilled to be announcing this,'' he said.

Less than $6 million had been spent on building the Park over its 34 year history.

Chief executive Lynn Anderson said as the Park was a not-for-profit organisation it had to fundraise the entire amount needed for the project.

''We seek the assistance of all Cantabrians to get behind this exciting project. Their support will help bring one of the world's most impressive primates to Christchurch.''

The gorilla habitat would include a large indoor playroom, outdoor grassed area and water moats.

Gorillas were popular animals and different to any others displayed at the Park, Anderson said.

"The development will not only benefit the Park, it will be a boost for the Canterbury region.

"The project will help us attract more visitors, significantly enhance the Park experience and provide us with many new opportunities, especially for our formal education programmes.''

Initially a 'bachelor group' of three gorillas would arrive at the zoo, including a large Silverback named Kibabu, aged 33, and his two sons Fataki,7, and Fuzu,3.

Western Lowland Gorillas were classified as critically endangered due to hunting, disease and habitat loss.

Taronga Zoo primate manager Louise Grossfeldt said the move was critical to the stability of Taronga's world renowned Western Lowland Gorilla group and mirrored the life-cycle of male gorillas in the wild.

''As much as all the keepers respect and admire Kibabu as a near-perfect leader, we also know it's important for the stability of our female group and the on-going breeding programme that a new Silverback takes over the reins. In the wild, females would disband and move on from an ageing Silverback.''

Gorillas are the largest and most powerful primates and are one of the Great Apes, along with Orang-utans, Chimpanzees and Bonobos.

They form active display groups as they regularly forage for food and often sit close to glass barriers.

Male Silverbacks like Kibabu could have the strength of 11 men, grow to 1.7 metres in height and weigh over 200kg.
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Very exciting for New Zealanders. Surely some help will be forthcoming from the provincial or civic governments towards the $2m needed, as I imagine gorillas will be good for bringing visitors to the region from other parts of New Zealand. Even guaranteeing loans would be a material help to the park.

I hope Kibabu, Fataki and Fuzu don't feel the cold too much!
 
A fair bit of that 2 million will be for a heated gorilla house for the winter. Lowland gorillas dont have the hairy coats of the mountain species.

Im not sure that any money will be comming from the govts though, Orana doesnt receive any govt funding, it relies solely on entry fees and donations.
 
kiwipo said:
A fair bit of that 2 million will be for a heated gorilla house for the winter. Lowland gorillas dont have the hairy coats of the mountain species.

Im not sure that any money will be comming from the govts though, Orana doesnt receive any govt funding, it relies solely on entry fees and donations.
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Even private zoos can get government money if it is believed the project will benefit the region.
 
What is the current situation with Orana? I don't think it's been discussed elsewhere on here but I could be wrong.
 
last I heard of Orana, all new projects are on hold indefinitely, including plans for the gorillas. I think the Gorillas were three males that were no longer useful for breeding due to age or genetics.
Orana had over a 50% drop in patronage after the earth Quake and of course lost the Aquarium completely.
They laid off about half a dozen staff, cut back on a lot of costs, and certainly the last time I visited back in August the numbers of visitors were well down. According to the keepers I spoke with a number of animals were being shipped out to other zoos to save on feeding costs.
However they still have lions, tigers, cheetahs, rhino, giraffe and many others.
 
Shirokuma said:
I guess that's why the waterbuck went to Hamilton.
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Possibly, although I think Hamilton always wanted to get waterbuck back for their Savannah exhibit, and when the nilgai died out the waterbuck were brought in as replacements (filling the 'large antelope' slot quite nicely). I do not know of any other species which have been moved out of Orana recently, although they do have some domestics (water buffalo, highland cattle, llama) which could have gone into private hands pretty easily. I would like to know of any transfers that would back up Kiwipo's statement.
 
zooboy28 said:
Possibly, although I think Hamilton always wanted to get waterbuck back for their Savannah exhibit, and when the nilgai died out the waterbuck were brought in as replacements (filling the 'large antelope' slot quite nicely). I do not know of any other species which have been moved out of Orana recently, although they do have some domestics (water buffalo, highland cattle, llama) which could have gone into private hands pretty easily. I would like to know of any transfers that would back up Kiwipo's statement.
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All you have to do is ask them, which is what I did. Orana to date has only shipped out three waterbuck to Hamilton, and received a Zebra in exchange.
There are no immediate plans at present to move out any more animals, although in the period after the Earthquake it was one of the options that was looked at.
Instead Orana have reduced costs by restructuring staff, which resulted in several redundancies, and not replacing some others who have left, though recently they have increased keeper numbers.
Their real saving has been through the cancellation of improvement and postponement of some plans they had for new displays.
Animal care and welfare is the priority however, and the emphasis is on keeping the present zoo population fit and well.

If anyone wants to know more just ring Orana and ask to speak to the Customer Services Manager, he's a nice guy who is happy to answer any questions.
 
zooboy28 said:
Possibly, although I think Hamilton always wanted to get waterbuck back for their Savannah exhibit, and when the nilgai died out the waterbuck were brought in as replacements (filling the 'large antelope' slot quite nicely). I do not know of any other species which have been moved out of Orana recently, although they do have some domestics (water buffalo, highland cattle, llama) which could have gone into private hands pretty easily. I would like to know of any transfers that would back up Kiwipo's statement.
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no animals have been "shipped out" due to the earthquakes. The waterbuck, as you say, were a standard inter-zoo transfer. As usual kiwipo is posting nonsense.
 
Chlidonias said:
no animals have been "shipped out" due to the earthquakes. The waterbuck, as you say, were a standard inter-zoo transfer. As usual kiwipo is posting nonsense.
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You should have read the post I put just above yours, it would have saved you looking silly.

The shipping out of animals was indeed something they seriously looked at in order ot cut down on costs, but they were able to make savings in other areas without resorting to that.

Why dont you just ask the people that know, its saves a lot of speculation.
 
kiwipo said:
You should have read the post I put just above yours, it would have saved you looking silly.
The shipping out of animals was indeed something they seriously looked at in order ot cut down on costs, but they were able to make savings in other areas without resorting to that.
Why dont you just ask the people that know, its saves a lot of speculation.
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I can't really be bothered getting into one of these threads where someone calls you on nonsense you post, you throw one of your bizarre little hissy fits and then demand the thread be locked, but you said "a number of animals were being shipped out to other zoos to save on feeding costs", followed by "Orana to date has only shipped out three waterbuck to Hamilton, and received a Zebra in exchange" the latter quote of which needless to say makes a mockery of the former claim.

As for "asking the people that know", one of those would be me.....
 
Too bad your comprehension skills aren't on a level with your claimed knowledge, or you would have seen that my first post said one of the option being looked at after the quake was reducing the amount of animals that had to be looked after, however as time went on alternative methods of cost saving were found.
Suggestions, plans and ideas are put forward and often changed as circumstances dictate.
As for you being in the know, how am I to know that since I have no idea who you are.
I prefer to go with the info provided by someone who I know is in the know, rather than some easily offended self proclaimed zoo expert on a chat forum.

If you want to know the name of the person who does in fact have the real info I can message you his details and you can find out for yourself.

I dont claim to be an expert in the know on any zoo, my opinions on here are my own opinions and like you are made under a nom de plume.

And if you want to quote me again do it properly, not out of context. That just makes you look even sillier when you are corrected.
 
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