Melbourne Zoo Melbourne Zoo visits...

Status
Not open for further replies.
but on the other hand, i think taronga can justify it. you can start at 9 at taronga, and, if the average zoo visitor took in the seal, bird and reptile show, and say, one or two keeper presentations, a skysafari ride, lunch, coffee, and a koala photo, plus all the exhibits, it would equal a whole day.
im sorry, but in terms of value for money, id rather pay the extra bucks
 
1/11/07

well not much as changed. i was almost avoiding visiting the zoo as i couldn't bare the thought of it being hippoless, even though i'm all for him being moved if it means more pygmy hippo in the future.

the otters were not swimming which was a disapointment. not that it would have much mattered since the water was filthy. i certainly get the whole filter sytem replacement thing now. instead i was expected to be content with scarred and bloated wild carp gobbling at the glass. which made me wonder why they ever bothered filling that other hippo pool since carp are one animal i find disgusting and to be honest i had intense urges to fish them out and leave them in the garden bed someplace. they could have at least put in koi!!!

the otter exhibit of course was empty but the other binturong were on display still in the small cat row.

the treetop monkeys and apes is literally falling apart. the enclosure that had lovebirds in it had been demolished much as the grey parrot cage was before it.

the centre ofthe zoo was all blocked off for the start of the marine precinct. as zookiah said the selas will spend the next two years in shallow makeshift pools down by the water treatment plant and tapirs. they are not on display.

the elephant exhibit had been altered a little. it seems they are doing some alterations to create an area where they can bring in and elephant and visiors can (guessing from the design) actually feed or touch them from behind a low fence built at the top of some prexisting steps.

the four male lions had a massive bloody battle (yes bloody!) and at one
stage i think almost the whole zoo was there. it was good they were full on running and roaring their %^$#'s off! unfortunately disgusting preteens decided that they must also roar, and do a live commentry to the wwhole vbattle, but the roaring was so load it blocked them out a fair bit. it was also particuarly enjoyable to see that, despite the fence, these little preteen boyys squeeled and actually ran when suddenly the lions came crashing into the fence near us!!
 
I would say the binturong were put BACK into small cat alley.

....I would have loved to have seen the lions go off......and preteens give me a headache.
 
actually the binturong in cat alley never left. the offspring of those animals is the one who escaped and is in quarantine.
my flatmate went to melbourne zoo last friday. lions were fighting then, really badly according to her, and excitingly, a keeper feeding the elephants managed to kill a duck with a well aimed apple. apparently concussed ducks dont float, they sink, and DIE! ,lol
 
I went to Melbourne yesterday too and yeh the lion battle was not something I expected. Although in lion terms, they were only superficial wounds. One recieved a gash on its right hind leg, while the others were mainly bloody noses and similar cuts. When I got there I notice the fourth lion hiding in the very back corner, as far away from the comotion as possible - with a cut on his nose. Looked to me that he had learnt his place in the heiracrchy.

You are right Pat about the elephants. I went past that area and both Mek Kapah and Dokkoon were at the area being acclimatised for future public feeding, like they do at Australia Zoo. It was only the second time they had bought the girls to the area, and had zoo maintainence guys acting as the public fedding apples and other goodies.

It was very interesting in the barn earler in the day too. Bong Su walked himself into the crush, where he presented his front feet for restraint (for OH&S purposes). From there, the keeper stood on a stool and proceeded to "clean him out" (rear) all the way up to his armpits. Once clean, he stimulated Bong Su's prostate in an effort to collect semen.

Bong Su seemed to enjoy it -it fact he was erect prior to walking into the crush, so knew the procedure and did it freely.

I left after about 20 minutes so didn't see any result.

They said they want the girls to be mated naturally, but will use the semen to determine fertility and may even send it to other zoos as there are only a couple of viable males in the country.

Very interesting...
 
i got distracted and didn't get to finish my post....

also i noticed that the golden lion tamarin was gone. they had one for a very long time, then finally got a mate (or friend) then suddenly appeared to only have one again. unless one was in the nest box when i was last there. in any event the tamarin exhibits only have emperors and cottontops in them now.

the remaining two de brazza guenons had been split up - one now lives in one of the ape grottoes, the other in treetop apes and monkeys.

to wrap up the zoo isn't looking its absolute best at the moment. dry gardens, empty exhibits and lots of construction and demolishion work does not make for a good look..

but it is a neccesity i guess.
 
so male lions fight, and are hard to keep even as an all male group. as an quality ARAZPA organisation im confident Melbourne will find a solution, but it does make me wonder what places like Cairns are thinking when they breed lions non-stop.....realistically, all ARAZPA zoos need in terms of securing a new bloodline of lions is in the two males now at Perth, there is now no incenive or imperative to integrate these animals regionally.
the duck thing was an accident. my flatmate said the duck got hit by a piece of fruit being thrown into the moat and died.
ducks at MZ have bad luck. in September 2006 i saw the brown bears thin out a few young black ducks in the moat. fascinating, but upsetting for the feral children watching
 
theres not a big problem with the lions at melbourne. from what i saw it was largely superficial stuff as they spar to assert dominance over one another. they are brothers from the same litter and have lived together for many years. if there was a serious issue then you'd expect the zoo would immediately split them up. they do, you must remember have a fenced-in maternity yard within the lion park that is no longer used. it is absolutely no complication to place one or more of the lions within this area if ever needed.
 
In the wild siing lions form coaltitions. I have seen one documentary where four brothers took over a large pride and ruled it for many years, the females successfully raising two generations of litters.
 
do male lions form coalitions? wow i never knew that, i thought they were solitairy. silly me, and here i was thinking i knew stuff about animals.
im joking
 
glyn said:
do male lions form coalitions? wow i never knew that, i thought they were solitairy. silly me, and here i was thinking i knew stuff about animals.
im joking
Click to expand...

If male lions grow up together in a litter and stay together at maturity, its a sibling bond as much its as a coalition. A coalition is really where single animals(or humans) come together to form a united front for their mutual benefits. Brothers can form a coalition too, though its not necessarily the reason they were together in the first place... ;)
 
Ok it was the wrong word. What I was trying to point out was that lion brothers do stay together, that the zoo wouldn't have to seperate them, ie what Pat was saying.
 
This highlights a problem zoos have with many species, not just lions, in that the majority of animal species seen in zoos are polygamous, with one or maybe two dominant males living with a number of females. It doesn't matter whether it's gorillas, lions, zebras or kangaroos, you are going to have spare males which the dominant male (or males) won't tolerate.

What do you do with them? Euthanasia? Castration? There's no easy answer.
Most zoos try bachelor groups (and keep their fingers crossed that it works.)
 
Yet very people bat an eyelid at the slaughter of large numbers of cattles, sheep, chickjens etc. But dare to euthanase an excess lion and everyone is on your back.
 
this one again.....

theres a big difference in mst peoples eyes between a company that slaughters animals specifically raised for food, and a zoo which proposes that it breed animals for the benifit of the species.

us zoo enthusists may know the realities of the situation, but the general public does not and probably never will quite understand and it not supprising why.... remember - its a necessity only because zoos cannot afford to provide enough space for these surplus animals, so there is a very valid counter argument of "well if you can't manage a breeding program without employing euthanasia as a method, then don't".

male of most species have somewhat shorter life expectancies and greater risk of an early death. but fortunately many, many animals will form batchelor groups and can co-exist peacefully. the situation with big cats is a bit different and lions are a slightly unique example - however, in any event, zoos nearly always maintain two male littermates within their prides male lions usually tolerate their brothers. so its a system that works in the wild and is of benifit to zoos who would otherwise have that one more suplus male if it was done otherwise. melbourne has four males, but no females AND has the option to split the males up if necessary. i must stress - there is no particular problem that i can see in this particular case.

still i'm quite adamant that there are alternatives to culling off surplus males. its just a by comparison a very expensive alternative most zoos don't want to commit to.
 
I was just over in Aus and Tassie, and visited the Melbourne Zoo. I'd been once before about 15 years ago and thought it was awesome, but what's happened to it now -- or is it just that I'm older? The otter enclosure was great when I was first there but now looks like rubbish, as does the mandrill enclosure. The tree-tops primate bit was one of my favourite things first time round but now the cages look really small and the plastic windows are all fogged and scratched with age. The whole rainforest section in general looks very sad and deteriorated.

The elephant/orangutan section I thought was interesting but also thought the message it was trying to put across would more than likely go straight over most visitors' heads and just leave them thinking there was an awful lot of wasted space there that could have been used to put animals in.

On the other hand, the native animal section I thought was fantastic (who knew that hairy-nosed wombats slept on their backs with spread-eagled legs?). The reptile house was still very good with a nice mix of exotic and native species (but far too many people!) and the frog house was as always my favourite (and had few people: sample dialogue of visitor group going past was little boy going "I wanna see the froggies" and clapping hands at the thought. His father said "no you don't" and the mother said "frogs are boring"...and then I presume they went off to watch lions sleeping).

I also went to the Melbourne Aquarium which I loved. Why are some of the guys on here always saying it sucks? How can an aquarium with Shaw's cowfish and giant southern crabs suck?
 
The Melbourne Aquarium is one of 6 that I've been to, and the size of the establishment hurts its credibility. It's too small!! It will be interesting to see how they exhibit penguins when the new enclosure opens next year, but it isn't half as nice as San Diego Seaworld, Vancouver Aquarium, Monterey Bay Aquarium, Seattle Aquarium or Sydney's Aquarium.

The one cool thing about my visit was that my wife and I were randomly selected to go "behind the scenes" and toss chunks of food into the largest tank. We even got within a couple of feet or some enormous fish.
 
so you judge an aquarium purely on the basis of size? That seems to be a very limited way of looking at things. There are any number of small aquariums and zoos around the world that are fantastic places to visit, more so than monster zoos or aquariums in many cases.

As I understand it, the penguins are going to be in an entirely different building attached to the side of the existing aquarium.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top