Mogo Wildlife Park Mogo Zoo News

Zoofan15 said:
It’s unknown whether Kipenzi rejected Kaius due to the stress of her illness following his delivery; or because of her uncertainty around maternal care. In the case of the latter, it’d be advantageous to discover that now rather than cease breeding for a decade and have another Kaius raised in the absence of peers down the line.
Click to expand...

I've rather presumed her rejection was due to the shock/stress of her illness, though we don't know for sure. I think in the early days he showed some video of Kaius 'meeting' the other gorillas and there is one of them up close to the grille looking interested in him- I presume that was his mother Kipenzi but not sure.... I think a zoo more experienced with fostering might have attempted it then. The problem now is that Kiaus will be unfamiliar to the group and Kisane might reject him- or worse- if they tried it now.

I forgot to mention that some years ago Artis(Amsterdam) introduced a rejected female baby from Hanover- one of Buzandi's daughters- in the hope a female would adopt her. None did but despite that Yanga grew up in the troop and is still living in it now. The main difference there was it was a group situation with at least one similar-aged baby she did seem to bond and have physical contact with. I guess Yanga will stay in their group permanently now. The Kaius/Ganne situation is of course a 1.1. situation without that option available.
 
Pertinax said:
I've rather presumed her rejection was due to the shock/stress of her illness, though we don't know for sure. I think in the early days he showed some video of Kaius 'meeting' the other gorillas and there is one of them up close to the grille looking interested in him- I presume that was his mother Kipenzi but not sure.... I think a zoo more experienced with fostering might have attempted it then. The problem now is that Kiaus will be unfamiliar to the group and Kisane might reject him- or worse- if they tried it now.

I forgot to mention that some years ago Artis(Amsterdam) introduced a rejected female baby from Hanover- one of Buzandi's daughters- in the hope a female would adopt her. None did but despite that Yanga grew up in the troop and is still living in it now. The main difference there was it was a group situation with at least one similar-aged baby she did seem to bond and have physical contact with. I guess Yanga will stay in their group permanently now. The Kaius/Ganne situation is of course a 1.1. situation without that option available.
Click to expand...

That was Kriba (grandmother) who showed initial interest in Kaius. She was an excellent mother by all accounts and from what I’ve heard of her daughters, they have been too. It’s unfortunate for Kipenzi she never got to witness the raising of an infant; though there was an (unsuccessful) attempt by Mogo to breed with Kriba at the eleventh hour.

Due to the small population size, there’s no opportunity to establish a nursery like the ones seen at Stuggart etc. Melbourne of course established one for the raising of the three infants born 1999-2000; though it feels like the main zoos in Australasia now take a much stronger stance against handraising great apes due to the legacy of issues that arise in individuals who can live for decades.
 
Zoofan15 said:
That was Kriba (grandmother) who showed initial interest in Kaius. She was an excellent mother by all accounts and from what I’ve heard of her daughters, they have been too. It’s unfortunate for Kipenzi she never got to witness the raising of an infant; though there was an (unsuccessful) attempt by Mogo to breed with Kriba at the eleventh hour.

Due to the small population size, there’s no opportunity to establish a nursery like the ones seen at Stuggart etc. Melbourne of course established one for the raising of the three infants born 1999-2000; though it feels like the main zoos in Australasia now take a much stronger stance against handraising great apes due to the legacy of issues that arise in individuals who can live for decades.
Click to expand...

Kriba would have probably taken him over then, but they'd had no time to establish any sort of feeding protocol for Kiaus at that stage. As you hinted, one problem for Australia is the small gorilla population means a baby like Kiaus can't just be moved to another zoo with a potential fostermother or two, such as e.g. in the USA who are by far the most advanced with this. So they have to make do with what they have. There's been quite a lot of critisism of Mogo about this but I think they have taken the only course really available to them. Unfortunately the excessive publicity doesn't help though.
 
It wouldn't surprise me if early thought processes were to have a hand raised gorilla for the social media and future interactions was the intent after the opportunity presented it self.
Previous dealing with the people running the show back when they were running feather dale wildlife park. They were more for the show then the animals or the conservation of the animals.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
A male Sri Lankan Leopard - Chatura from DDZ - has arrived at Mogo! A new species for the facility and only the third zoo in Australia with Sri Lankan Leopards: Log in to Facebook | Facebook
Click to expand...

I wonder where he will be kept? The only real place I could think of is the serval exhibit or maybe one of the tiger exhibits. Does this indicate they plan to go out of serval, or might they rotate them? (I don't expect you to answer these questions, just thinking out loud).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Osedax said:
I wonder where he will be kept? The only real place I could think of is the serval exhibit or maybe one of the tiger exhibits. Does this indicate they plan to go out of serval, or might they rotate them? (I don't expect you to answer these questions, just thinking out loud).
Click to expand...
I believe they had Snow Leopards in the past!
 
That’s so exciting! I’ll be interested to see where he is - it looks like he’s in the old snow leopard enclosures, which were holding caracals and servals - hoping neither species have gone off display. It would seem Mogo is needing to build some additional carnivore enclosures, given this great update and having three lion prides to their two enclosures
 
Zorro said:
I believe they had Snow Leopards in the past!
Click to expand...

Mogo Wildlife Park previously held two pairs of Snow leopard, one of which bred to produce two pairs of cubs in 1999 and 2003. The first litter were transferred to the National Zoo and Aquarium, with their exhibit being repurposed for the Sri Lankan leopard it holds today.
 
Last edited:
WhistlingKite24 said:
A male Sri Lankan Leopard - Chatura from DDZ - has arrived at Mogo! A new species for the facility and only the third zoo in Australia with Sri Lankan Leopards: Log in to Facebook | Facebook
Click to expand...

Tigergal said:
That’s so exciting! I’ll be interested to see where he is - it looks like he’s in the old snow leopard enclosures, which were holding caracals and servals - hoping neither species have gone off display. It would seem Mogo is needing to build some additional carnivore enclosures, given this great update and having three lion prides to their two enclosures
Click to expand...

This is cool, unexpected news! I agree that it will be interesting to see where Chatura is exhibited long-term - I concur that he seems to be on the bush-side of the zoo in the snow leopard enclosures. I would have thought that they both would have been on the smaller side, but that could be that the viewing area (esp. for Tenzin's old exhibit) isn't massive.
 
Tigergal said:
That’s so exciting! I’ll be interested to see where he is - it looks like he’s in the old snow leopard enclosures, which were holding caracals and servals - hoping neither species have gone off display. It would seem Mogo is needing to build some additional carnivore enclosures, given this great update and having three lion prides to their two enclosures
Click to expand...

That’s interesting to know. There is a requirement for leopards to be held in fully enclosed exhibits, so this may be a short term exhibit until something purpose built can be established. Mogo would have needed permission to join the breeding programme and understandably didn’t want to invest in infrastructure needlessly.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
A male Sri Lankan Leopard - Chatura from DDZ - has arrived at Mogo! A new species for the facility and only the third zoo in Australia with Sri Lankan Leopards: Log in to Facebook | Facebook
Click to expand...

Slight correction, Chatura is from NZA, not DDZ. He is the first Sri Lankan Leopard to be born in Australia alongside his brother Asanka, who will be retained at NZA for the foreseeable future.
Chatura is currently housed in the old snow leopard enclosure indeed.
 
As far as I know, no other facilities are interested. It is confounding as they are such awesome animals, but besides the facility taking DDZ’s Banduka in the near future, no one else wants to come on board.

Yakalla is an aging leopard and may not be paired again considering. Additionally, there is enough of her offspring for second generation pairings or exports.
 
baekho100 said:
As far as I know, no other facilities are interested. It is confounding as they are such awesome animals, but besides the facility taking DDZ’s Banduka in the near future, no one else wants to come on board.

Yakalla is an aging leopard and may not be paired again considering. Additionally, there is enough of her offspring for second generation pairings or exports.
Click to expand...
It would be such a shame if no other holders (Apart from Banduka’s future holder) come forward for Sri Lankan Lepaords. They’re such a charismatic species and it would be a disappointment if they can’t be supported by others in the region in the future.

Also, do you know if the caracals are off display with Chatura in the Tenzin’s old enclosure? I did spot on Mogo’s Instagram yesterday the several still appeared in their side of the exhibit, so it would be a shame for Caracals to go off display within a year of going on at Mogo.
 
Tigergal said:
It would be such a shame if no other holders (Apart from Banduka’s future holder) come forward for Sri Lankan Lepaords. They’re such a charismatic species and it would be a disappointment if they can’t be supported by others in the region in the future.

Also, do you know if the caracals are off display with Chatura in the Tenzin’s old enclosure? I did spot on Mogo’s Instagram yesterday the several still appeared in their side of the exhibit, so it would be a shame for Caracals to go off display within a year of going on at Mogo.
Click to expand...

Interestingly no government zoos have come forward yet/are expressing interest. It is a shame but always time for things to change.
Not sure about the serval/caracal sorry.
 
Tigergal said:
It would be such a shame if no other holders (Apart from Banduka’s future holder) come forward for Sri Lankan Lepaords. They’re such a charismatic species and it would be a disappointment if they can’t be supported by others in the region in the future.

Also, do you know if the caracals are off display with Chatura in the Tenzin’s old enclosure? I did spot on Mogo’s Instagram yesterday the several still appeared in their side of the exhibit, so it would be a shame for Caracals to go off display within a year of going on at Mogo.
Click to expand...
baekho100 said:
Interestingly no government zoos have come forward yet/are expressing interest. It is a shame but always time for things to change.
Not sure about the serval/caracal sorry.
Click to expand...

The lack of interest in this species is baffling. The requirement to house leopards in fully enclosed exhibits may be a contributing factor (zoos prefer a no bars, open air exhibits image); but this hasn’t deterred those holding Snow leopards. I’ve said it before, but Auckland’s old Sumatran tiger exhibit would be perfect for a single male Sri Lankan leopard.

It doesn’t appear we’ll be seeing any first generation pairings anytime soon, with Kelani remaining at Canberra for the foreseeable and Banduka transferring out to a fourth holder soon. I would still count the establishment of a third and fourth holder as progress though - with the potential for either to receive a female in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top