Mansfield Zoo Mansfield Zoo news

I was looking at the Altina Page. :o I thought Jakari ment they had arrived at Altina.
 
Jarkari said:
They have also added a new rendered wall/gate at the entry to the zoo.
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I hope someone goes soon and gets some pics


I wonder how this zoo will progress, it is very small and a significantly seasonal attraction. however they are definitely progressing.
 
CGSwans said:
A blackbuck has been re-homed at Mansfield Zoo after turning up out of nowhere on a Victorian farm and joining a herd of cows.

Fergus the blackbuck antelope finds a new home at the Mansfield Zoo | Country Lifestyle & Rural Living | Weekly Times Now
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Wow! I was in Warnambool a couple of weekends ago. Hadn't heard anything about this though. Would be great to know the backstory and where he came from. I think the highlight here is that DEPI didn't destroy the animal but let him go to a zoo. Great result! Here is the story in full for future ref:

A CONVOY of public servants, a tranquilliser gun, a bemused farmer and a confused antelope.

That was the picture when six car loads of Department of Environment and Primary Industries officials arrived at a southwest farm recently to apprehend Fergus the blackbuck antelope.

The crime? It is illegal to keep an exotic animal without a permit.

The problem? The farmer wasn’t actually keeping Fergus. He had just wandered in one day.

It was only after DEPI staff read about Fergus in The Weekly Times in June that they decided to nab Fergus.

And now, five months later, Fergus is behind bars — well very secure wire mesh at least — at the Mansfield Zoo.

In June, The Weekly Times’ Back Paddock reported a male blackbuck, a *native of India, had simply turned up on a farm near Warrnambool and adopted the cows as family.

While it remained timid, the antelope gradually got used to the farmer when he came around on the tractor to feed the cows.

“He loves to play with the calves,” the farmer, who wished to remain anonymous and who we will call “John”, said at the time.

John had no idea where Fergus had come from and inquiries across Victoria to find his owner drew a blank. Meanwhile, Fergus made himself at home on the farm.

But, as is its wont, *bur*eaucracy finally caught up with Fergus. For all his exotic grandeur, according to the state’s biosecurity rules, he is lumped in with foxes and rabbits as just another vermin.

The Department of Environment and Primary Industries contacted John and told him Fergus had to go.

“Blackbucks are a declared pest animal in Victoria under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 and can’t be kept without the appropriate authority from DEPI,” bio*security operations manager Mark Watt said. “The illegal keeping and trading of exotic animals poses one of the greatest risks of new pest animals establishing in Victoria and Australia.”

Not that John was keeping him — it was more the other way around.

Either way, the good news is that DEPI has allowed Fergus to be rehomed at the private zoo in Mansfield.

Although it’s still not sure whether Fergus was so happy with the new arrangement. It took a safari of DEPI officials in six vehicles, a decoy feed of hay and a tranquilliser from a dart gun to coax Fergus into special trailer for the trip to Mansfield.

As for future encounters with exotic wildlife, farmer John reckons the only thing that could top Fergus would be a sighting of a big black panther.
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A short update from our recent visit. There have been many changes since our last visit a few year ago (maybe 4 years) The layout is still almost the same, and this visit in spring, everything was very lush and green. Fergus the new Blackbuck was still off display, the group of Blackbuck doesn't seem to have increased in number since I was last there - only about 6 or 7. The Bison and Camels are now in the same paddock, the 2 female Sambar deer had a male (I assume Rusa Deer) in with them, and a sign said there was supposed to be an antelope in there as well, but I couldn't see any sign of an antelope. My first pleasant surprise was the large additions to the Rhesus and Bonnets Macaque enclosure. The lone Bonnets macaque now shares with a female Rhesus, with 2 more Rhesus in the adjoining enclosure. These 2 are recent additions, come from Darling Downs Zoo. I assume that means the other 3 Rhesus monkeys seen on the last visit have now died.
The White fronted Capuchins were also new, with an interesting large enclosure for the 3 of them (2 males, 1 female) Named Calvin, Hobbs & Sebastian, with Sebastian being the mother of Hobbs.
The White Fallow deer are currently in the first paddock seen when entering the zoo, and looked really good, contrasting with the lush green grass. One normal coloured stage was also in with them providing further contrast.
The lion complex now consists of 3 enclosures and the night house is a new garage type shed, vastly improved on what they used to have. The lions are 2 white males (about 8 y o), and a pair from Darling Downs Zoo. These are 11 and 12 years old. I enjoyed the feeding and talk, with the lions eagerly pacing and running around in anticipation beforehand. It is rather difficult to get a decent photo of the lions however.
They have 2 younger dingos who were brought out for a walk and a pat from anyone who wanted to.
Other changes I noticed were - new female ostriches, the white Red Kangaroo no longer there, quite a few female Rusa Deer now (last time they only had 2 males and 1 female) more Cape Barron Geese, lots of domestic duck roaming around and also Guinea Fowl. The aviary, whilst planted out very attractively, was a bit of a disappointment, with Turkeys, guinea fowl, chooks and Indian Ring necked Parrots visible. One pair of parrots appeared to be nesting in what looked to be a rabbit burrow in the ground! I would have like to have seen the turkeys out in a paddock, with the Llama maybe, the chooks and guinea fowl could also free range, and some pheasants and other birds added to the aviary.
I was also pleased to see many deciduous trees have been planted around the zoo in what was previously bare open paddocks, although the wire guards to protect the trees from the deer detracted from their appearance. They will look good in time however. I would also like them to fence out the deer and kangaroos from the first area of the grounds where the monkeys and aviary is, to allow some attractive gardens to be planted, and provide a good first impression when entering the zoo. Overall, I came away very pleased with their progress over the last few years and the family all enjoyed the day there. I spoke briefly to the owners as we were leaving and asked of their future plans. They mentioned a new dingo enclosure and some decent aviary's were in mind, and they had been offered meerkats, but they didn't know whether they would eventuate. If they were only located a little closer to Melbourne, I'm sure they would get many more visitors thru the gates.
 
CGSwans said:
I like white lions, I think they're beautiful and (at least so far and hopefully never will) don't carry the same inbreeding problems that white tigers do. But surely we're getting close to the point where they are going to negatively impact on the tawny lions program, by taking up available spaces?
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I wouldn't be so sure of that, quite a few of the white lions that I have seen have been decidedly cross eyed!
 
Jake said:
Do they still have polecats, I might be going at Christmas.
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That would be ferrets, the domestic form of the polecat. There are no actual wild polecats in Australia.
 
We visited Mansfield Zoo again this past week, so I thought I would post a few observations and notes from our visit. We last visited Oct 2014, so its almost 5 years since our last time there but ive now visited 4 times over approx. 15 years.
Not a lot has changed in 5 years. There are 3 new exhibits built for common marmosets, meerkats and Barking owls but everything else is exactly the same layout as previous.
I first noticed the Bison (X4) were in a paddock to the left hand side of the long drive way, and when I commented to the owner, Bronwyn that she had got 2 more, she explained that to get around the strict laws to not breed or have both sexes of an exotic animal, her partner had simply got a bison farming licence which was alot less complicated than a breeding zoo licence and so they had to be exhibited on his side of the property.... along with several horses. The Water buffalo were on the other side of the driveway, also with several horses, and like the bison, can only be seen from the car as you drive up the drive or if you walk back after parking.
I must comment on the entrance building (which is the most unusual entrance building to a zoo that ive ever seen) its an old house/cottage of which part of is used as reception and gift shop, the next part appears to be used as the owners general family lounge room (complete with lounge chairs TV and wood heater etc), and then the lean-to room has 2 reptile cases, a few stuffed animals and antlers etc and several shelves full of gum boots for visitors to wear if they so desired!
The Marmosets are now the first enclosure on coming out of the entrance building. I heard they had 10 males but I could only see 8, although there was an area they could go into that wasn't visible to the public. A long well built aviary type enclosure, its certainly looks professionally built, although its only furnished with piles of rocks logs and ropes. Some big cut leafy branches or live plants would have made it really praise worthy.
My next interesting experience was meeting several free ranging sambar deer, 1 rusa deer and the smaller fallow deer. All very friendly and gentle, but the size of the sambar and the roughness of their coats was intriguing! Only 1 female sambar was in a paddock this time, the young male was out with the others.
The Blackbuck still only consisted of 8 females and 1 male, I don't understand why their herd hasn't grown, and the 2 surplus males seen on previous visits were nowhere to be seen. I was quite excited to see my first wild Crimson Chat sitting on a fence post here - a brilliant coloured little bird!
The Fallow deer had the run of the next 3 paddocks and the several stags were grunting and fighting each other and chasing the girls around - the 2 camels appeared to be contained to the end paddock although the deer could get thru to the other 2 paddocks.
Texas long horned cows and a male Hog deer were new animals since our last visit, the cows were in with Red deer and the Hog deer was with 1 female Ostrich (they had 3 last visit)
The Meerkat exhibit was quite well done, they have 10 males. The enclosure can be divided into 2, there is a glass dividing wall down the middle although the gate was open so they had the full run of both sides.
The new aviary for 1 pair of Barking Owls was a large well built structure, way over designed for owls with heavy duty mesh everywhere including lining the roof. I was disappointed it only had owls as large parrots would have made a far better exhibit. The 2 owls were sitting high up against the roof on a rafter and I assume many people would think the aviary was empty (it wasn't signed either)
The only other bird aviary was also very disappointing. The wire is wearing out and had lots of patches here and there, a heavy load of leaves made the roof sag, and the only birds that I could see were a pair of peafowl, 1 slate coloured turkey, 1 Lady Amhurst pheasant cock and 1 large white pigeon. Sparrows were getting in to eat the seed that was simply scattered on the ground.
We stayed to see the lions being feed which was much the same as previous visits. The talk was also almost exactly the same script, with a few extra opinions on his views of Victorian politics and the laws on keeping animals etc! The keeper (the owners partner Dave) seemed rather precise in his numbers of white lions (302 white lions to be exact) which I tend to disagree with, but I don't have any numbers or data to back up my opinion off hand.....

I have uploaded a few photos from this last visit in the gallery - Mansfield Zoo - ZooChat
 
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