Auckland Zoo Hippos in the future???

Animalgeek

Animalgeek

Well-Known Member
Just wondering that because Auckland zoos female hippo Faith is now what 33 or 34 and I think her son Fudge is 24 and is also castrated what are the plans for these guys?

Will they keep them and wait untill they pass on and then breed again with new hippos or will they phase them out all togeather any one got ay thoughts on the subject?
 
Oh intesing They madesutch a nice enclosuer what a shame but i wonder what will fill up there enclouser then most efintly another african specis to go in to pride lands possibly wild dog???
 
In my dream master plan for Auckland Zoo, I see the Hippo River area being completely renovated and rethemed to an African Rainforest. All species here will change, and the area will be expanded to include Elephant Clearing (elephants will be housed at the Open Range Zoo instead). Gorillas will replace elephants, and a host of other species will move in, notably Mandrills and Bongo will replace the Baboons and Cheetah (also moved to ORZ). Finally, the Hippos (moved to much larger exhibit at ORZ which features grazing!) will be replaced with Pygmy Hippos.

Slightly more realistically, the hippos still have a fair few years left, and it will not be for some time that the zoo will need to decide what to do with the species. When they only have one hippo left, I highly doubt they will consider sending him overseas (or elsewhere within NZ for that matter). At that stage, they will have to determine whether to import more hippos or not. In all of Australasia there are only four zoos holding a total of 13 hippos, and new imports are urgently needed, although currently prohibited. They may decide that pygmy hippos would be a more suitable species, they certainly would be much easier to manage in a small urban zoo, and could be more easily exchanged between zoos.

Personally, I would like to see hippos maintained in NZ, they really are a fascinating species. However, as they are better suited to open range zoos (e.g. TWPZ and WORZ), until such a zoo is established in Auckland (so they could have year round outdoor access), I don't think more should be imported.
 
zooboy28 said:
In my dream master plan for Auckland Zoo, I see the Hippo River area being completely renovated and rethemed to an African Rainforest. All species here will change, and the area will be expanded to include Elephant Clearing (elephants will be housed at the Open Range Zoo instead). Gorillas will replace elephants, and a host of other species will move in, notably Mandrills and Bongo will replace the Baboons and Cheetah (also moved to ORZ). Finally, the Hippos (moved to much larger exhibit at ORZ which features grazing!) will be replaced with Pygmy Hippos.

Slightly more realistically, the hippos still have a fair few years left, and it will not be for some time that the zoo will need to decide what to do with the species. When they only have one hippo left, I highly doubt they will consider sending him overseas (or elsewhere within NZ for that matter). At that stage, they will have to determine whether to import more hippos or not. In all of Australasia there are only four zoos holding a total of 13 hippos, and new imports are urgently needed, although currently prohibited. They may decide that pygmy hippos would be a more suitable species, they certainly would be much easier to manage in a small urban zoo, and could be more easily exchanged between zoos.

Personally, I would like to see hippos maintained in NZ, they really are a fascinating species. However, as they are better suited to open range zoos (e.g. TWPZ and WORZ), until such a zoo is established in Auckland (so they could have year round outdoor access), I don't think more should be imported.
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In the case that AZ wants to use Hippo River for a different species, they could hold one remaining hippo in the baboon enclosure (as it was upgraded for Snorkel, who died several weeks after moving in).


Nice plan, by the way :)
 
driftaguy said:
Speaking of open range zoos, are there any in New Zealand?
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Orana Park is kind of open range, certainly it has large (compared to Auckland & Wellington, similar to Hamilton) hoofstock paddocks, and was originally a drive-through zoo. However, its not as "open" as the Australian versions (Werribee, Monarto and Western Plains) are, and has many smaller enclosures too, so better described as being a cross between an urban zoo and an open range zoo. No other zoos in NZ would come close to being called open range, although there did use to be other drive-through safari parks in the country.
 
Very intresting ideas Zooboy28 would be awsome if we could combine the serval and babbon enclouser to make like a masive enclosuer to house primate speces that can live togeather (any ideas on wicth primates they could be) and then move the servals in to the hippo arena mayby half of it and then exstend the currant cheetah enclosuer in to the other half of the old hippo pond. to make it bigger for them that would be awsome.

Or they could import some pygmy hippos instead and phase out common hippos or send there currant ones to WORZ?
 
Hopefully by the next 20 or so years common and pygmy hippos will be allowed to be imported once again. I think we can maybe last around 2 more generations without inbreeding for both species, but after that we might need to resort to measures used for species such as bongo, waterbuck, etc.
 
Jabiru96 said:
Hopefully by the next 20 or so years common and pygmy hippos will be allowed to be imported once again. I think we can maybe last around 2 more generations without inbreeding for both species, but after that we might need to resort to measures used for species such as bongo, waterbuck, etc.
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I think the big hippos will be OK for that long, but I'm not sure about the pygmies, imports are needed sooner to boost numbers to create a viable population. Their numbers are ridiculously low (four? animals excluding Cairns), even assuming breeding occurs occassionally, they won't be able to persist for long.
 
zooboy28 said:
I think the big hippos will be OK for that long, but I'm not sure about the pygmies, imports are needed sooner to boost numbers to create a viable population. Their numbers are ridiculously low (four? animals excluding Cairns), even assuming breeding occurs occassionally, they won't be able to persist for long.
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Maybe lass than four now outside of Cairns. I have heard that both Katie (the very old female) and Timmy (the breeding male) have both died at Taronga, and Petra has moved down to Melbourne (this is confirmed).

I think this leaves (if it is correct) 1.1 at Melbourne, 0.1 at Taronga and 2.1 at Cairns (now Shambala). Someone posted only a few days ago that the Cairns female is pregnant, but this breeding of the same animals can't last for long.

As for common hippos, only 1.1 (old, former breeding animals) at Adelaide, 1.4 (intended breeding group) at Werribee, 1.2 (or is it 2.2?) at Dubbo, 1.2 at Cairns and 1.1 at Auckland. Not many at all to last for more than 2 generations without inbreeding.
 
Yes so we defintly need a import soon if there is any hope of keeping the popualtion healthy. Alos i was thinking what age do we intend to stop breeding a female hippo because will faith be capable of still breeding we could try and import a male from AUS possibly. In swap for Fudge.
 
Jabiru96 said:
Maybe lass than four now outside of Cairns. I have heard that both Katie (the very old female) and Timmy (the breeding male) have both died at Taronga, and Petra has moved down to Melbourne (this is confirmed).

I think this leaves (if it is correct) 1.1 at Melbourne, 0.1 at Taronga and 2.1 at Cairns (now Shambala). Someone posted only a few days ago that the Cairns female is pregnant, but this breeding of the same animals can't last for long.

As for common hippos, only 1.1 (old, former breeding animals) at Adelaide, 1.4 (intended breeding group) at Werribee, 1.2 (or is it 2.2?) at Dubbo, 1.2 at Cairns and 1.1 at Auckland. Not many at all to last for more than 2 generations without inbreeding.
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2.2 at Dubbo according to census. If the Adelaide and Auckland animals are excluded, thats only 3.6 animals in a breeding position, which won't last long, but will probably suffice for 20 years with minimal breeding. A priority request for IRA development (for importation of both pygmy and big hippos to Australia from US and Singapore) has been lodged with DAFF.
 
Animalgeek said:
Yes so we defintly need a import soon if there is any hope of keeping the popualtion healthy. Alos i was thinking what age do we intend to stop breeding a female hippo because will faith be capable of still breeding we could try and import a male from AUS possibly. In swap for Fudge.
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I don't think any will be imported to NZ anytime soon, as I doubt AZ is that interested and they probably wouldn't want to seperate Faith and Fudge anyway, assuming she can still breed. A swap wouldn't be very practical, I don't think transporting hippos is done unless absolutely necessary. Australia is where the hippo population is theoretically viable, and any eventually surplus animals could be sent to NZ to supplement our collections. NZ zoos could be much more active participants in a regional brreding programme for pygmies though.
 
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