Monarto Safari Park Monarto Safari Park News 2023

Monarto’s Waterholes/Water Supply

An article published last month details Monarto’s water supply:

10 million litres of water flow into Monarto Safari Park's waterholes to enhance animal habitat

An additional 10 million litres of water has recently flowed into eight waterholes at Monarto Safari Park, as part of an ongoing partnership with SA Water to help improve animal welfare and local biodiversity.

First established in 2020, the clay-lined waterholes have been topped up with raw River Murray water from the Murray Bridge to Onkaparinga Pipeline, ahead of the new Wild Africa precinct welcoming a range of animals such as Nile Hippos and Southern White Rhinos.

In addition to keeping our waterholes at a healthy level, we’ve also invested in 50 hectares of irrigation pipes to tap into this water supply and grow vegetation around the waterholes – helping green this space to create a source of refuge for the animals from potential bushfires, and provide food for grazing.

Specific reference to the hippos:

Excitingly, the water from SA Water’s pipeline will even help our hippos make quite the splash when their new concrete baths are complete and ready to enjoy. Monarto Safari Park’s largest waterhole stores up to 15 million litres of water and has been purpose-built for the hippos, with a maximum depth of three metres, enabling them to swim.

Full article in link.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Monarto’s Waterholes/Water Supply

As luck would have it, an article was published last month detailing Monarto’s water supply:

10 million litres of water flow into Monarto Safari Park's waterholes to enhance animal habitat

An additional 10 million litres of water has recently flowed into eight waterholes at Monarto Safari Park, as part of an ongoing partnership with SA Water to help improve animal welfare and local biodiversity.

First established in 2020, the clay-lined waterholes have been topped up with raw River Murray water from the Murray Bridge to Onkaparinga Pipeline, ahead of the new Wild Africa precinct welcoming a range of animals such as Nile Hippos and Southern White Rhinos.

In addition to keeping our waterholes at a healthy level, we’ve also invested in 50 hectares of irrigation pipes to tap into this water supply and grow vegetation around the waterholes – helping green this space to create a source of refuge for the animals from potential bushfires, and provide food for grazing.

Specific reference to the hippos:

Excitingly, the water from SA Water’s pipeline will even help our hippos make quite the splash when their new concrete baths are complete and ready to enjoy. Monarto Safari Park’s largest waterhole stores up to 15 million litres of water and has been purpose-built for the hippos, with a maximum depth of three metres, enabling them to swim.

Full article in link.
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It appears there's little to be concerned about all has been planned for they just need to build the Hippo exhibit.
 
Zorro said:
It appears there's little to be concerned about all has been planned for they just need to build the Hippo exhibit.
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It’ll be interesting to see the final configurations Monarto use to manage multiple groups of hippopotami. At a minimum, they’ll need three exhibits to manage a bull held separately from the cows; a new mother and neonate; and the main pod.

The close relatedness of the females (mother and daughter) combined with the space, should facilitate earlier introductions of calves to what will hopefully become a thriving pod of up to eight hippopotami (as per previous reports).

It would be advisable for both cows to breed concurrently on the initial breeding, as it will divert their focus onto their respective offspring. Whether this can be repeated for subsequent breedings will depend on whether there’s a fourth isolation yard to simultaneously manage two mothers with neonates seperate from the main herd (which would contain their offspring from the previous mating). If not, the breeding cows would have to rotate.
 
Zoofan15 said:
It’ll be interesting to see the final configurations Monarto use to manage multiple groups of hippopotami. At a minimum, they’ll need three exhibits to manage a bull held separately from the cows; a new mother and neonate; and the main pod.

The close relatedness of the females (mother and daughter) combined with the space, should facilitate earlier introductions of calves to what will hopefully become a thriving pod of up to eight hippopotami (as per previous reports).

It would be advisable for both cows to breed concurrently on the initial breeding, as it will divert their focus onto their respective offspring. Whether this can be repeated for subsequent breedings will depend on whether there’s a fourth isolation yard to simultaneously manage two mothers with neonates seperate from the main herd (which would contain their offspring from the previous mating). If not, the breeding cows would have to rotate.
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I would hope they could at least build something simple and simplistic to just get them out there all together (breeding), A few open sheds and some yards would do it. They can add more over time which is something the hippos are running out of, Since they are getting the only bull in the whole region do something with him while there is an opportunity to do so.
 
Zorro said:
I would hope they could at least build something simple and simplistic to just get them out there all together (breeding), A few open sheds and some yards would do it. They can add more over time which is something the hippos are running out of, Since they are getting the only bull in the whole region do something with him while there is an opportunity to do so.
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The elephant complex will be built in stages, so they could indeed do something similar for the hippopotamus. If they implemented rotational breeding from the start, all they’d need is the main exhibit and one additional separation yard/exhibit.

Under this format, the bull would be housed separately from the cows until integration is achieved; then one of the cows would remain on contraception for 12 months, while the other conceived (ideally this would be Brindabella, the older cow). After a seven month pregnancy, the breeding cow would give birth; followed by an isolation period of a few months. Upon the reintroduction of the mother/calf to the pod, the other cow would then be taken off contraception.
 
Swanson02 said:
I'm heading to Monarto on Friday, any questions that need to be asked?
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Yes please, any answers to the following would be great. Don’t worry if you can only get answers to a couple of them. Anything is appreciated! Priority questions are in red.

Monarto Questions

Spotted hyena:

1. Are the hyena still in these groupings:

0.1 Forest (24/10/2007) Mwenka x Kigali
0.1 Fahari (03/11/2020) Gamba x Forest
1.0 Gamba (02/03/2003) Imported 2007 (Singapore)
1.0 Jabali (26/08/2022) Gamba x Forest

1.0 Endesha (01/03/2013) Imported 2019 (Singapore)
1.0 Enzi (01/03/2013) Imported 2019 (Singapore)

0.1 Kanzi (13/09/2017) Piltengi x Thandiwe
1.0 Mkoko (13/07/2015) Gamba x Forest

1.0 Jaali (13/09/2017) Piltengi x Thandiwe
1.0 Majani (15/01/2018) Gamba x Forest

2. Do they plan to breed from Gamba and Forest again?

3. Will Kanzi be breeding with the Singapore males (Enzi/Endesha)?

4. Are Monarto still planning to import more hyena from overseas?

Common hippopotamus:

5. Any timeframe around when the hippopotamus will arrive?

Chimpanzee:

6. Any pregnancy news re. Galatea and Lani?

7. Any plans for Zuri to transfer out?

8. Is there progress on a new alpha yet?

African lion:

9. Do they plan to breed Makena again ASAP?

10. Will the adolescent males (Chad and Ruka) be leaving the pride soon? If so, will they remain onsite; or transfer elsewhere?

Asian elephant:

11. Are our assumptions correct Pak Boon and Tang Mo are coming to Monarto? If so, when in relation to the arrival of the other 1.2 elephants?

Imports:

12. I’m particularly interested to know if Monarto plan to import bongo, but any information on bovid imports would be of interest.
 
Swanson02 said:
I'm heading to Monarto on Friday, any questions that need to be asked?
Click to expand...
I have a couple now since @Zoofan15 put up his laundry list. :D

1, Since Monarto are getting the only bull hippo in the region and 3 cows from Werribee all/any breeding is going to come from this group so "when/how soon" are they intending to have them there the responsibly has fallen on them.
2, The zoo did state (I believe it was their website) that they were introducing 2 new mystery antelope species there?
Thanks
 
Zorro said:
I have a couple now since @Zoofan15 put up his laundry list. :D

1, Since Monarto are getting the only bull hippo in the region and 3 cows from Werribee all/any breeding is going to come from this group so "when/how soon" are they intending to have them there the responsibly has fallen on them.
2, The zoo did state (I believe it was their website) that they were introducing 2 new mystery antelope species there?
Thanks
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Mystery antelope species sounds pretty interesting. Hopefully ones to be imported. I believe Impala and Kudu were floated a while back?
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
Mystery antelope species sounds pretty interesting. Hopefully ones to be imported. I believe Impala and Kudu were floated a while back?
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Zorro said:
From what I recall Sable antelope and Impala were the chosen two by ZAA so I am not sure where that stands now.
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I’d assess sable antelope as the most likely new species to be imported. The giant sable antelope is a critically endangered subspecies of the sable antelope versus the greater kudu, which is least concern and visually, would add nothing nyala etc. don’t already have from a visitor perspective.

Impala aren’t on the live import list, so I struggle to imagine any zoo going to the effort to import them; when there’s eight unrepresented bovid species on the live import list we can import:

Nilgai, Boselaphus tragocamelus
Waterbuck, Kobus ellipsiprymnus
Red Lechwe, Kobus leche
Dama Gazelle, Nanger dama ruficollis
Grant's Gazelle, Nanger granti
Scimitar-horned Oryx, Oryx dammah
Gemsbok, Oryx gazella
Addax, Addax nasomaculatus
Sable Antelope, Hippotragus niger
Eland, Taurotragus oryx
Nyala, Tragelaphus angasii
Bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus
Sitatunga, Tragelaphus spekii
Greater Kudu, Tragelaphus strepsiceros
 
Zoofan15 said:
I’d assess sable antelope as the most likely new species to be imported. The giant sable antelope is a critically endangered subspecies of the sable antelope versus the greater kudu, which is least concern and visually, would add nothing nyala etc. don’t already have from a visitor perspective.

Impala aren’t on the live import list, so I struggle to imagine any zoo going to the effort to import them; when there’s eight unrepresented bovid species on the live import list we can import:

Nilgai, Boselaphus tragocamelus
Waterbuck, Kobus ellipsiprymnus
Red Lechwe, Kobus leche
Dama Gazelle, Nanger dama ruficollis
Grant's Gazelle, Nanger granti
Scimitar-horned Oryx, Oryx dammah
Gemsbok, Oryx gazella
Addax, Addax nasomaculatus
Sable Antelope, Hippotragus niger
Eland, Taurotragus oryx
Nyala, Tragelaphus angasii
Bongo, Tragelaphus eurycerus
Sitatunga, Tragelaphus spekii
Greater Kudu, Tragelaphus strepsiceros
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I can only imagine the possibilities that the massive African savanna could have at Monarto zoo, If an importation was done on the same scale as the New Zealand Nyala importation was with Sable antelopes and perhaps Springbok would set up the region for decades. An application for Impala could be made outside the current list if wanted. Many of these species are available from South African holders as were the Nyala.

On a side note. I pray that they don't start adding Indian Blackbuck to the African exhibit as was done by the Western plains zoo as cheap cop-out at best.
 
Zorro said:
I can only imagine the possibilities that the massive African savanna could have at Monarto zoo, If an importation was done on the same scale as the New Zealand Nyala importation was with Sable antelopes and perhaps Springbok would set up the region for decades. An application for Impala could be made outside the current list if wanted. Many of these species are available from South African holders as were the Nyala.

On a side note. I pray that they don't start adding Indian Blackbuck to the African exhibit as was done by the Western plains zoo as cheap cop-out at best.
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I agree. Hamilton Zoo’s savannah has been very underwhelming of recent. The giraffes are seldom on exhibit (their night house is viewable via the wetlands), which means you’re left with a large open field housing a small herd of zebra and a handful of Indian antelope.

While I welcome open range zoos diversifying into other continents (particularly Asia), I would prefer to see them represent their natural range rather than act as “ambassadors” for African species. The general public has enough problems distinguishing an African elephant from an Asian elephant.
 
Zoofan15 said:
I agree. Hamilton Zoo’s savannah has been very underwhelming of recent. The giraffes are seldom on exhibit (their night house is viewable via the wetlands), which means you’re left with a large open field housing a small herd of zebra and a handful of Indian antelope.

While I welcome open range zoos diversifying into other continents (particularly Asia), I would prefer to see them represent their natural range rather than act as “ambassadors” for African species. The general public has enough problems distinguishing an African elephant from an Asian elephant.
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Perhaps more underwhelming than Hamiltons savannah would be that of Australia zoos, Yes they have White Rhino and giraffe plus 2 Zebra, but any antelope species has yet to set a hoof print there yet even an Indian blackbuck. ;)
 
Zorro said:
One importation I was half expecting were a few Waterbuck since the few zoos that do hold them in the region are doing their best to keep them going as long as possible, here's their chance!
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Male waterbuck are notoriously aggressive, so I believe this has limited their popularity in zoos. Hamilton only ever held females and after struggling to integrate their male with the other savannah species, Auckland only hold females. Orana keep their waterbuck seperate from the rhinos/giraffes etc.

Monarto could certainly hold a breeding herd of waterbuck in a seperate exhibit. A male could live with a group of females/calves; with the option of exhibiting additional females with other ungulate species to achieve the mixed species concept.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Male waterbuck are notoriously aggressive, so I believe this has limited their popularity in zoos. Hamilton only ever held females and after struggling to integrate their male with the other savannah species, Auckland only hold females. Orana keep their waterbuck seperate from the rhinos/giraffes etc.

Monarto could certainly hold a breeding herd of waterbuck in a seperate exhibit. A male could live with a group of females/calves; with the option of exhibiting additional females with other ungulate species to achieve the mixed species concept.
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I believe that Altina was/is trying to build up a herd of them. Its not hard to have a few side yards to isolate spare males if needed.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Male waterbuck are notoriously aggressive, so I believe this has limited their popularity in zoos. Hamilton only ever held females and after struggling to integrate their male with the other savannah species, Auckland only hold females. Orana keep their waterbuck seperate from the rhinos/giraffes etc.

Monarto could certainly hold a breeding herd of waterbuck in a seperate exhibit. A male could live with a group of females/calves; with the option of exhibiting additional females with other ungulate species to achieve the mixed species concept.
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We have so much space down here, the possibilities are really endless! It's what makes Monarto so unique. Plus there's still some unused land surrounding the site (excluding the poultry farm to the north), so if need be we could negotiate further land purchases with the neighbors to expand the African savannah or open new exhibits. But I hardly think they need expanding, its massive as it is. I love all this fantasy talk from you guys, it opens my eyes to the future prospects
 
Luke899 said:
We have so much space down here, the possibilities are really endless! It's what makes Monarto so unique. Plus there's still some unused land surrounding the site (excluding the poultry farm to the north), so if need be we could negotiate further land purchases with the neighbors to expand the African savannah or open new exhibits. But I hardly think they need expanding, its massive as it is. I love all this fantasy talk from you guys, it opens my eyes to the future prospects
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Monarto have certainly achieved great things and I for one admire their ambition. They’re well on track to becoming the region’s best open range zoo, with their ‘think big’ approach to establishing natural social groupings within expansive exhibits. It’s inspiring to see large herds of ungulates; as well as the region’s largest lion pride.

Can I ask what your involvement with Monarto is? Do you work or volunteer there in some capacity?
 
Zoofan15 said:
Monarto have certainly achieved great things and I for one admire their ambition. They’re well on track to becoming the region’s best open range zoo, with their ‘think big’ approach to establishing natural social groupings within expansive exhibits. It’s inspiring to see large herds of ungulates; as well as the region’s largest lion pride.

Can I ask what your involvement with Monarto is? Do you work or volunteer there in some capacity?
Click to expand...
I certainly agree that Monarto is on track to becoming the regions best open range zoo, I believe since the zoo pushed ahead with it massive new African savannah exhibit it had the knock on effect for the Western Plains zoos to expand its own African savannah exhibit, If they had kept on track with the original plan of the proposed 500 acre exhibit they would have been a mile in front by now, I believe watering it down to the current 50 acres was a set back that could of been avoided.
 
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