Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo Developments

thnx pat, thts good to get an update to one of my fav city zoos, so where were the other 3 e;lephants, and on that note, isnt it good to see the rotation is working so well, the bull paddock, not just for a bull, differnt animals separated. i am also wondering has bong-su and mek, been together at all sonce the new arrivals, they ahd a close bond before hand.

have you got any news on any masterplan developments, or know an approx for the sea lions exhibit.

i am still looking forward to see another asian expansion, most be it a small mammal, bird section, i reakon do a massive immersion full out with fake tree trunks, with repitle exhibits in here, a new mixed bintorong otter, new primate, cat exhibits, it would be so good!
 
in regards to elephants the two youngest cows were playing in the "village paddock" and suey was in the "cow paddock". of course all the elephants can pretty much see eachother all the time anyway and are rotated all day (and night) long. they are given access to their barns but alowed to saty outside at night.

bong su doesn't hesitate to push kapah around when he wants. i've seen him mock-charge her when he's feeling greedy and wants all the food. apparently there was a near-drowning incident in the pool where he got too rough whilst playing i was told about by a volunteer. however, they clearly have a close bond and even though he may not be shring the same exhibit at the same time (he may sometimes, i dont know..) animals in the main bull and cow exhibit have a degree of protected contact with one enother through the gates. this was always the plan anyway, to separate the bull from the cows except during breeding opportunities.

i don't expect we will be seeing another "asian rainforest" expansion for quite some time. i expect the coastal exhibit is going to take a year or more to finish. there are plenty of small species that will need rehousing but by placing them in permananat homes in or near the asian section your looking at needing to rehouse other animals to house them. thus the problem simply escalates.

however, the small cats/ binturongs can probably be re-housed easily if location is no issue. their are a few spare cages around the place. for example if the white-cheek gibbons move to siamang island - the arboreal binturongs can move in there, no refurb necessary either...

other things worth mentioning are the second asian aviary. whilst i always quiety hope to see tree shrews in there i was at least glad to see that some decent amount of birds had moved back in instead. a large flock of a mannikin species (black and white? - had brown on the also, ben, jay, glyn?) where there as well as pekin robins and spectacular golden pheasants (there was also about 50 mice, a problem no doubt!).

the patagonian cavies had gone. instead quokka had taken their place in the exhibit. cavies are dying out in the region and i know some where recently moved between adelaide and dubbo (can't quite remember which way though), just a guess but maybe there is a consolodation of the remaining animals taking place to better manage the shrunken population?

the malayna tapir is still not on the map. i didn't go down there to check it out but last time the pool was drained and the exhibit looked like it had been closed down for good.
 
yea 2 female cavys went to dubbo the most recent report says.

so pat is there any plans to do anything with the old tree tops, and the old ape grottos, i know a shopping precint was on the cards, any news there
 
no news.

one thing that has really desperately gotta go is that damn row of baboon cages.

it *&$%@! stinks, looks damn aweful and i'm sick to bloody death of looking at it!

i know the zoo is canvassing the idea of redeveloping the ape grottoes into a gorilla batchelor exhibit and moving the baboons to werribee, but when do they expect to have finsihed that?

they should just move the baboons to the empty old ape grottoes asap. even if it is just for a year or two. and hey, if they did they could then jack up the concrete in the baboon cages, plant some vegetation and use them to tempoarily rehouse some of those small cats we talked about. it would be a upgrade to a bigger exhibit as far as they were concerned!
 
lol i know how bad it is, especially when baboons are such charasmatic species

i just emailed the zoo, to the exclusive, must answer email address, which was passed to me by my spec mate formally of the zoo(she gave it to me when she was there) i asked for masterplans for each 3 zoos, plus supp documents, i know alot of these are internal, but i will never know my luck.

also got onto taronga and trying to get a amsterplan and plans for the new southern coast!
 
patrick said:
other things worth mentioning are the second asian aviary. whilst i always quiety hope to see tree shrews in there i was at least glad to see that some decent amount of birds had moved back in instead. a large flock of a mannikin species (black and white? - had brown on the also, ben, jay, glyn?) where there as well as pekin robins and spectacular golden pheasants (there was also about 50 mice, a problem no doubt!).
Click to expand...

Probably Tri Coloured Munias, a very nice bird, but also hard to find!I am suprissed they are risking the Manakin and Robins with the pheasants, they are notourious for stelaing baby finches from nests and a baby robin wouldnt be that much larger
 
yeah that would be the one. very attractive birds, especially fun to watch when in a large flock. there are also a few australians hidden in the asian aviaries - brown cuckoo-doves (?) in that particular aviary and what appeared to be a green cat-birds in the rice paddy aviary. chattering lories have their own avairy on the elephant trail and the last aviary, that has apparently got more lories, white-bibbed ground doves, amhearst pheasants and green peafowl among its residents is so poorly landscaped/over-planted that i have never really been able to see ANY birds in there. not even more than a glimpse of a peafowl!

the zoos free-ranging blue peafowl often hang round the elephants which is a nice touch though.
 
Yeah, they are 'Tri Coloured Lonchura malacca malacca' there are 21 of them in there

Brown Cuckoo Doves are also found in south east asia, so thats not odd, we have alot of Natives in Jewels of asia but they are also also native to new guinea or representing a species from there, i.e. Blue Faced Honeyeaters for something.

A green Cat Bird in a Paddy, thats odd they are forest dwelling birds.

Green Peafowl are Immpressive birds, but only if you have senn Good Pure ones, at adelaide zoo we have terrible specemins but at Gorge Wildlife Park they are Immpressive,
 
pure? do the crossbreed with the blue? has that become a bit of a problem in australia? i read that its hard to find absolute pure goldens/amhearst pheasants because of all the crossbreeding that goes on.

i have seen gorgeous green peafowl specimens in asia - but since i have never got a good look at the melbourne pair i wouldn't have a clue what the look like!!!

melbournes once impressive asian collection seems to have diminished. they no longer seem to have bleeding heart doves, just one nicobar left i think, siamese fire backs have been traded for more impressive but much more common ruffed pheasant species and i think they have not a single bul bul left. they did get some manadrin ducks happening in in the rice paddy however. i'm into that...

regarding the cuckoo dove, i didn't know that they had extended ranges. i don't really see new guniea (where a lot of our "asian" birds come from) as "southeast asia" in fact technically even bali isn't asia, but we can accept this. actually, australia have so many very attractive shared birds with southesat asia and in addition we have a decent collection of asian exotics in aviculture, that we really could create an asian aviary the size of a GFA.

there are asian ducks, finches, pheasants, pigeons, parrots and even a few softbill species like the red-whiskered bulbul and the pekin robins. add to this attractive australian stand-ins like pittas, kingfishers, egrets, sarus crane etc.. and you have quite a collection!!
 
I'm surprised the baboon cages are still in use- they build beautiful new enclosures for elephants, orangutans etc at great expense yet they leave an eyesore like that still in use with animals in it. It's a priority for change...

Obviously no new developments on moving the Gorillas around yet?
 
nope. the enclosure rigo is in is totally unsuitable for one gorilla let alone a group in my opinion also. there is a need for a batchelor gorilla troop in the region but it seems no zoo is up to the the task. perth, mogo and australia zoo all want to house gorillas but certainly mogo and perth are a long, long, long way off getting round to it.

so really it is going to come down to melbourne to create their own facilities.

really, the zoo should have invested some money into upgrading rigo's enclosure at the very least a long time ago. a second outdoor space is a must for taronga and melbourne to manage their troops effectively and so even if rigo wasn't around - the space will always be used.

whilst its never cheap to upgrade an exhibit, simply raising the walls and adding one-way mirrored glass window at the fronnt of a grotto would allow for the moat to be filled in - provviding the gorilla with a bit more valuable space. as would new climbing frames and platforms (that might also allow the inhabitant valuable views into the ajacent rainforest exhibit).

its not really fair at all i think. long before the taril of the elephants and orangutan sanctuary was built - melbourne was famous for its gorillas and rigo, after mzuri/ya kwanza is its biggest star. he deserves some money spent on him i think....
 
the javan peafowls at melbourne are gorgeous, if i hadnt deleted the image off my camera id post a photo of the male preening on the log in the aviary.
taronga's peafowl are also beautiful, and in regards to hybrid peafowl its interbreeding between the blue and green.
of the pheasants in australian aviaries the green peafowl and silver pheasant both suffer inbreeding, in the case of the silver its interbreeding between sub-species.
 
on another note, your suggestion about the babboon cages pat was a great one, but i wouldnt care what they did with them, as long as they destroyed them. bulldoze the lot and sow the area with banannas or some other quick growing, tropically plant for all i care.
 
Australia zoo should be the next zoo in oz to house Gorillas in the worlds largest exhibit
 
Patrick- your right in all your comments re the Melbourne Gorilla situation- so many zoos with Gorillas are short of accomodation when they need to re-arrange their groupings, remove surplus males etc, yet because its not available the situation just languishes. Rigo is in an unusual situation- that as one of Melbourne's best loved animals, they have let him remain in this situation for so long( but I mustn't start on that again though...)

It would probably be better if another zoo, currently without Gorillas, could build an enclosure to take Melbourne's surplus males- there's no incentive for Melbourne to have a 2nd 'group' apart from the main one, on display.
A decent enclosure somewhere else- in Australia's wonderful climate- would cost far less to build than it would in the 'cold' European climate....

The best thing for Melbourne's old Grottoes would be for them to be demolished entirely rather than continuing on as a holding area for surplus gorillas- or any other animals. (They'd be okay for those baboons in the short term though.)
 
agreed - gorillas are probably second only to pandas at demonstrating (superficially at least) a zoos level of prestige. so i find it very odd that none of the other major public owned zoos in the region have put their hands up to at the very least house a valuable lone silverback!
 
I suspect Melb. would be very reluctant to part with Rigo, even on a loan basis, while there hasn't been anywhere in Oz with other gorillas for him to be partnered with. Perhaps nowhere else offered to take him as they didn't want the responsibility of a 'hot potato'.
 
isnt he genetically viable, and hasnt yet been breed from, what if the male in the troop was moved, since he has had his turn, and ringo was added (only if so easy), and the current silver abck was moved to say oz zoo.
 
Rigo WAS fertile, many years ago, and his semen was used to inseminate Yuska, to produce Ya Kwanza (now living in Jersey). However, there were previous suspicions that he might have been infertile, and he did have a very low sperm count at that stage. I don't know that semen has been collected since for testing.

So there's a change that he is still fertile, but it my be a slim one.

Australia Zoo has no facilities to hold gorillas, and no plans to build them in the short term, but there's a possibility of moving a male to some other zoos.
 
Yes we know Australia dont have the facitities to hold Gorillas at presant but they do state on their website they are going to exhibit Gorillas in the world largest Gorilla exhibit?.
 
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