Please, kind sir, nominate the zoos that could more effectively be included in species planning.
Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo News 2025
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Not a government organisation but an association whose members are Australasian zoos. The governing Board are elected by member zoos and are employees of those zoos. There is a professional secretariate headed by a CEO.
It is true a zoo has to be welfare accredited to be a member, but I can say that ZAA goes to extraordinary lengths to get prospective members up to accreditation standard. They recognise that sub-standard zoos can pull the entire zoo industry down. Some surprisingly small zoos are members.
Which species are to be managed are decided by Taxon Advisory Groups, which are made up of representatives of zoos with an interest in those species. Once a decision has been made to manage a species, which often depends on sufficient spaces being made available in interested zoos, a Species Coordinator/Studbook Keeper has to be found. These come from zoos that are interested in the species. ZAA could employ them but that would cost millions which would have to be paid by membership fees. (edit: I just checked and ZAA does manage seven programs)
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And some programs are extremely well managed.
Often the problem is some zoos don't maintain adequate records, or in even don't bother answering requests for information. This can make things very time consuming for the studbook keeper, who then runs out of time to complete the job. It really is up to zoos whether these programs succeed or not.
Have seen an example of in last few days with reading a tamarin studbook (2011 edition international cotton-top tamarin one, which speaking of Melbourne Zoo, wowee what a breeding population historically, and still: of cotton-top tamarins; with numerous births from 1970 to present era, and having multiple individuals brought in, initially from London Zoo first in 1967 & 1968); but in the studbook entries, there were a number of examples of: lost-to-followup entries or rough estimations of when a certain indivdual tamarin may have died, sometimes because an institute (almost entirely are zoos, wildlife parks and small animal focused parks of course) closed down and finding those with the records or information for the studbook keeper(s) is/are fundamentally impossible at time of studbook edition compiling. But some of the places are still open and with a few of the records, just seem like little to no information was shared.
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Im not knocking ZAA, I think they are a needed entity and do a great job. It's especially great to hear they work with zoos to achieve member ship.
I personally just think if ZAA itself had an arm of people dedicated to running just the species programs. We may see an overall improvement in species management. Some programs are fantastically managed. But this is often by a person that is extremely passionate and does a fantastic job. If that person moves on etc and is no longer the coordinator and a pretty average one is picked as a replacement, we do and have seen some species suffer from it. Having ZAA have an arm that has employees that solely manage species programs would nullify this.
I mean what's the conservation fund for if they couldn't dip into it to use it for species coordination. They use it for pandas.
Of course, you are entitled to your opinion however the reality is that this is unlikely to happen. My view is that species management is a primary responsibility of zoos, and a role for curators and senior keepers.
These days, the responsibility for a program lies with the zoo, not the individual doing the role. ZAA monitors them intensely and intervenes where programs are not working. Programs are removed from zoos if they are consistently badly managed. ZAA also provides training in species management.
One thing that pops up in the discussion on this site is the claim that some programs are badly managed. It is one thing to through broad accusations around, but nobody seems to want to name programs. My feeling is that most programs people here think are badly managed fail because zoos are not prepared to provide enough spaces for them to be successful.
I mean what's the conservation fund for if they couldn't dip into it to use it for species coordination. They use it for pandas.
I am not sure where this comes from. No ZAA money goes towards pandas, in fact for obvious reasons there is not even a program for them.
The only thing I can think of is that you are referring to the $1 million rental that is paid to the Chinese government. This is paid out of the Federal government conservation budget.
As a former Chair of the committee that manages the ZAA conservation fund, I can assure you it would quickly empty if it was used to fund the employment of a bevy of species managers.
Realistically that is probably the main driver, comments have been made over the years that zoos have lost interest due to other zoos no longer having an interest or species being difficult to acquire.
But other examples, the common hippo's are a prime example of badly managed. We allowed hippos to be sent overseas instead of retaining them which ultimately left us with one bull and his son who both died.
Sumatran tiger gate keeping is another example of a program that is being badly managed. We have a species that is of national interest and of memory is managed by ZAA. However private zoos are unable to acquire them and are reacquiring generic bengals. When its not like we don't have zoos breeding them or young tigers at zoos that could be dispersed. Every space reverted back to bengals from a lack of ability to get sumatrans is a decsion that reduces capacity and bottlenecks breeding down the road.
Asian elephants are managed in way that is starting to raise questions, we have paused breeding at western plains and taronga. When the level of offspring that have made it to actual adulthood is low. Werribee seem to be the only ones making decent decisions. Pak boon, Porntip and Thong dee are all at risk of loosing viability from not being bred. With the only recent breeding recommendation being for Anjale. You can't deny that if they don't start making better breeding decisions, a few more EEHV deaths of calves and we are practically back at square one.
Thats what I was meaning, I was also just being more of a smartarse then anything.
FunnyJamie
Member
Interesting. For the viewing building, it was only one end open, not the one you had shown that was always blocked. And where the indoor viewing bit was blocked up was where the big projector on native insect life was. I wonder if what I saw was a test or they have closed it to do further work on the inside.
Female Hamadryas baboon arrives:
Melbourne Zoo have a new female Hamadryas baboon, which appears to be Kasmut (imported from Singapore Zoo by Sydney Zoo in 2019).
The new arrival takes the zoo’s troop to 5.11 baboons.
From socials:
New female Baboon Kas is turning heads at Melbourne Zoo, attracting the attention of two different males in the troop.
Originally our Keepers thought Kas and young Melako might make the perfect match... but headstrong Kas had other ideas, coupling up with the older Azizi after she was impressed by his brightly-coloured behind.
Melbourne Zoo have a new female Hamadryas baboon, which appears to be Kasmut (imported from Singapore Zoo by Sydney Zoo in 2019).
The new arrival takes the zoo’s troop to 5.11 baboons.
From socials:
New female Baboon Kas is turning heads at Melbourne Zoo, attracting the attention of two different males in the troop.
Originally our Keepers thought Kas and young Melako might make the perfect match... but headstrong Kas had other ideas, coupling up with the older Azizi after she was impressed by his brightly-coloured behind.
Thanks for letting us know.
The colobus were reported by @Mlawlor and came from Adelaide Zoo. They are as follows:
1.0 Jasiri (2008) - Adelaide’s breeding male
0.1 Charlie (2002) - Single female with no ties to Adelaide’s troop
Melbourne now has 1.2 colobus (including their female, Kipenzi).
Which enclosure was this? Afaik, both enclosures which they have access to now had privacy glass.
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
The two groups of cows/calves will be transported 24 hours apart. It was previously advised they could follow several days after Luk Chai, so although it’s not guaranteed they’ll be leaving tomorrow, it wouldn’t surprise me to see the move happen this week.
Melbourne is set to have 3-4 cooler days before the temperatures rise again, so this is an opportune window.
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
austrlain zoo gower
Well-Known Member
All elephants now at Weribee Open range zoo
Melbourne zoo Now longer has elephants!
Reported by @Babirusa
link to article
Nine Asian elephants find new home at Werribee Open Range Zoo habitat - ABC News
Melbourne zoo Now longer has elephants!
Reported by @Babirusa
link to article
Nine Asian elephants find new home at Werribee Open Range Zoo habitat - ABC News
With the elephants now gone, the burning question is what will replace the elephants? Luckily, I've received confirmation that Melbourne have indeed finalised plans for the area.
I'm not in the know of exactly what is planned (but obviously do have a fair idea based on previous convos with staff). All I've been advised is that this overhaul will likely take some time so for now all we can do is wait and expect more updates in the long term.
Taronga, Perth and Auckland are all planning to replace their elephants with species (like rhinos and giraffes) that can easily be accommodated in the current enclosures without much need for extensive renovations. Hence their confirmations as they're additions that we will see in the short term. Conversely, Melbourne hopefully has something far more exciting planned with this space that will take more time to develop. I don't want to get too ahead of myself though but I do have high hopes. The next half of this decade should be exciting in that sense!
Just keep in mind too, any discussion on this should also probably be directed to the speculation thread;
The Future of Zoos Victoria 2025 (Speculation/Fantasy) [Melbourne Zoo]
I'm not in the know of exactly what is planned (but obviously do have a fair idea based on previous convos with staff). All I've been advised is that this overhaul will likely take some time so for now all we can do is wait and expect more updates in the long term.
Taronga, Perth and Auckland are all planning to replace their elephants with species (like rhinos and giraffes) that can easily be accommodated in the current enclosures without much need for extensive renovations. Hence their confirmations as they're additions that we will see in the short term. Conversely, Melbourne hopefully has something far more exciting planned with this space that will take more time to develop. I don't want to get too ahead of myself though but I do have high hopes. The next half of this decade should be exciting in that sense!
Just keep in mind too, any discussion on this should also probably be directed to the speculation thread;
The Future of Zoos Victoria 2025 (Speculation/Fantasy) [Melbourne Zoo]