Yet it is highly likely there are some zoo/s that want females to pair to the males they have!
Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo News 2023
- Thread starter WhistlingKite24
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Considering they breed like rabbits, it’s surprising they haven’t been dispersed to more holders within Australia. I see Melbourne will only be the fifth holder (seven years on from the import of the first founders of Australia’s population in 2016).
Of the four current holders in Australia, two hold bachelor bulls (Sydney Zoo and Altina Wildlife Park) and only recently acquired them - Sydney in 2022; Altina in 2023.
I’d imagine this is due to a lack of interest; Werribee has been breeding them quite for a while now, and I’m surprised they haven’t offloaded surplus females to other facilities yet.
I believe Werribee have a group (at least of females) off display, which is probably the group destined for Melbourne.
Not so. There are other factors at play here.
How hard would it be to send both SZ AND Altina females?
Agreed. Sydney Zoo don’t have a lot of space and contingencies for separation, so I imagine they’re happy holding a bachelor herd; but Altina Wildlife Park have space and multiple paddocks. They have extensive experience with ungulates and would surely do well with breeding nyala.
Sydney's males are from Werribee; Altina's are from NZ (probably Wellington). Considering the region population is derived from imports through NZ, I assume there might be a degree of relatedness beginning to encroach on the regional population. Therefore unrelated females would be difficult to source, and I assume they would want to keep the populations breeding core at certain facilities anyways.
That certainly has not stopped all the other species blackbuck eland ect ect from being bred!
Australia has to date imported the following nyala:
3.4 imported 2016
2.6 imported 2018
2.0 imported 2022
With these numbers, it’s possible they’ve managed to avoid inbreeding up until now, on the assumption bulls bred and then were subbed out for unrelated bulls to breed with first generation daughters. This all depends on the relatedness of the imports though.
New Zealand imported the following nyala:
1.2 imported 2009
1.0 imported 2011
5.15 imported 2016
Following the 2016 import, all existing males were sent to Australia.
PaddyRickMFZ
Well-Known Member
Would you be able to inform us of such?
The Sleepy Hippo
Well-Known Member
I imagine the species on TOTE that will be expanded, as reported by @BasecatXD would be the likely suspects: Orang'utan, Gibbon and Tigers (and I dare hope Otters!!! I want an Otter wonderland!!!)
Theoretically, all these species can mix with each other so with multiple exhibits, there’s the potential to hold multiple groupings of orangutans and otters. Gibbons can become agitated when held in close proximity to another pair, so I imagine they’d only hold a single pair within the complex.
Example:
Exhibit 1: Sumatran orangutan
Exhibit 2: Sumatran orangutan and gibbon
Exhibit 3: Sumatran orangutan and otter
Exhibit 4: Otter
In this example, the fourth exhibit would be fixed (breeding group of otters); while the groups of apes would rotate between the first three exhibits via aerial pathways. The third exhibit would be designated for otters as it’d require a water body that would take up valuable real estate in the shared ape exhibits (no point replicating that three times).
BasecatXD
Active Member
An otter wonderland would be amazing, and to make it even better, they could have other otter species too!
Osedax
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What, even the tigers?
Osedax
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As much as I would love to see multiple species of otters in Australia, I doubt they would import other otter species. Although Smooth-coated Otters are on the live import list, we are doing perfectly fine with Asian Small-clawed, and most members of the public would not be able to tell different otter species apart. Also, if any zoo in the region was to import a second species of otter, it would almost certainly not be Zoos Vic!
austrlain zoo gower
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Surprising Nyala are going in the malaysian tapir exibit, as to me it seems a bit small, also do nyalas need water as the pool could be filled in for more space i guees the habitst could be renevated
Nyala only require water for drinking, so the pool would be wasted on them. If the plan is to transfer the nyala to the giraffe exhibit, then they may opt to keep the pool (which would be ideal for capybara), but otherwise it makes sense to fill it in and expand the land space (especially if the nyala are pregnant i.e. the herd is expanding).
The pool is on the small side, and is designed as to serve as a barrier between the visitors and the guests. For this reason, I'd imagine it'll be retained.
The enclosure is more than big enough for a small group of Nyala, although breeding would probably be ruled out.
Swanson02
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How many zoos have capybara right now? And where are they breeding?
Twelve facilities - Altina; Crocodylus; Currumbin; D'Aguilar Wildlife; Darling Downs Zoo; Gorge; Hunter Valley; Sydney Zoo; Taronga; Tasmania Zoo; Wildlife HQ; Wings Wildlife Park
Adelaide and Hunter Valley have previously breed them to my knowledge, but neither have in recent years. Sydney seemingly are the only facility with a breeding group at the moment.
The regions population is mostly descended from a trio imported from Los Angeles to Adelaide a decade ago.
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