Osedax
Well-Known Member
As reported by @WhistlingKite24 in the DDZ news thread, Darling Downs Zoo have reacquired Whiptail Wallaby, meaning this species is not completely gone from captivity after all!
Native Mammals in Australian Zoos
- Thread starter zooboy28
- Start date
SugarPlumLucy
Member
Hi everyone
Is there a reason for why Currumbin is the only place with greater gliders? Are they hard to keep or breed? They have the cute fluffiness that the general public like.
I'm really tying to find a reason becuase Greater gliders are one of my favourite native animals and Australian zoo's don't want to keep my favourite exotic animals.
Is there a reason for why Currumbin is the only place with greater gliders? Are they hard to keep or breed? They have the cute fluffiness that the general public like.
I'm really tying to find a reason becuase Greater gliders are one of my favourite native animals and Australian zoo's don't want to keep my favourite exotic animals.
I'm not aware anybody has bred greater gliders, certainly not sustainably. Those that are displayed are usually unreleasable rescues, and Currumbin would be the ideal location in south-east Queensland to place such animals.
As of 2022, Currumbin had 1.3 Greater Gliders. As MRJ said they are from non-releasable stock mainly. Their white breeding female Grevillea came to the park in 2017 from a mine site in Condamine. Their breeding male Ewok was reared in 2015 after he was found in the wild after his mother was killed by a fox on the Gold Coast and reared at Currumbin. Summarising perfectly the rampant development of the Gold Coast by the time he was ready to be released, the site where he was found was all developed. Ewok moved to David Fleay Widlife Park but returned to Currumbin in 2018 to breed. Ewok and Grevillea had a joey in 2019; a female called Malani. The last time Greater Glider bred in captivity prior to this was at David Fleay in 2008 as far I know. Their fourth Greater Glider is a female called Midnight who came via Taronga in 2020 who was found in the wild in New South Wales.
Greater Gliders can be picky eucalyptus eaters like koalas, require a lot of space within the limited means of a nocturnal house with height especially (the park had to redo the entire nocturnal area to put them on-show), they are slow breeders and there has always been a small captive population. Currumbin maintain a very large koala population so can afford to provide their particular eucalyptus they prefer. They further have a dedicated browse team and plantation. If zoos want a fluffy larger glider that doesn't require as much space and are comparatively more readily available they can always opt for Yellow-bellied Gliders.
Great to hear Currumbin are working with the species and fantastic they are achieving breeding success.
The fear with greater gliders is that with increasing frequency of wildfires and their slow breeding regime they may not breed fast enough between fires to make up their numbers.
The ZAA program species for gliders is the yellow-bellied glider. However, even now there are not enough spaces in zoos to guarantee the long-term survival of that species in zoos.
I believe (according to their social media on instagram) that Mogo Wildlife Park now have at least one Koala named Heath 1.0. I think he's a Northern Koala.
(When was still Mogo Zoo/Somerset Wildlife Park owned and operated by Sally Padey (and Bill Padey too in earlier years) they had Koalas in the 1990s, but has been over twenty years since held any Koala. Unsure though how long Heath has been at the park for now.)
(When was still Mogo Zoo/Somerset Wildlife Park owned and operated by Sally Padey (and Bill Padey too in earlier years) they had Koalas in the 1990s, but has been over twenty years since held any Koala. Unsure though how long Heath has been at the park for now.)
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That’s good to know they previously had Koala at Mogo in the 1990’s, I never knew that.
It was first announced Mogo had Koala again in June 2024, with this post implying there was more than one:
Mogo Wildlife Park on Instagram: "BIG NEWS! Australia’s biggest icon has made the move down south! You can now see Koala’s at Mogo Wildlife Park, an important step in their conservation management between our parks
@Zoofan15
Sorry man you already found the news out when they arrived nearly 7 months ago and let us all know, I should of searched more than just this thread before typing the post. Can't believe personally missed your sharing the news about their arriving in June, try to keep updated with Mogo news.
Sorry man you already found the news out when they arrived nearly 7 months ago and let us all know, I should of searched more than just this thread before typing the post. Can't believe personally missed your sharing the news about their arriving in June, try to keep updated with Mogo news.
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Maru Koala and Animal Park in Victoria now have this species on-show according to a post from November 2024.
These species no longer at Perth Zoo. Imagine Chuditch (Western quoll) & Northern quoll will return sometime in near future however.
JM01
Well-Known Member
The amount of Rakali in captivity keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Yeah its really unfortunate, they really are awesome animals (even if my first grade/year 1 teacher didnt agree with my friend and me that they were really interesting when we saw them in the platypus house exhibit at Taronga during a school excursion lol, or my family when showed them a photo of one once and said they were the best species of rat imo; dont think have any rodent likers in my f.o.o); but yeah they really have diminished in ex-situ holdings almost entirely. Hoping there is a return interest in keeping them again soon.
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I once saw a glass fronted enclosure for Rakali at Australia Zoo
Rakali are very short lived (up to 4 years), so it would be necessary to constantly breed in order to keep a captive population.
Thought I’d mention this finally, have known for a few months about it but Warrawong Wildlife Sanctuary in SA have Unadorned Rock Wallabies Petrogale inornata, which can be seen on their social media pages.
David Fleay's received a wild-rescued unreleasable male Greater glider who was rehabilitated at Taronga from memory. This was some time ago; I wonder if he was the sire of the offspring born in 2008. I can't remember exactly when it happened but the timeline might match up (the story was covered on The Zoo which ran from 2007-2010, so it may have been later, I can't remember).
Osedax
Well-Known Member
Perth has reacquired Chuditch (Western Quoll), as reported by @steveroberts.