Darling Downs Zoo New Zebras

M

Monty

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
I have not seen Steve here for a while.

Just saw a post on face book about Darling Downs Zoo importing 10 Zebras.

This week saw the conclusion of the longest and most difficult project that the Darling Downs Zoo has ever undertaken.

Ten baby Zebra arrived from America on Monday - the largest single import of this species into Australia in living memory.
All of the babies are under 7
months old. They are now in quarantine until the end of February but are on view to our visitors. At the end of their quarantine period, five of the
Zebras will leave us to go and live at other facilities. We will keep 2 males and three females here as the nucleus of a breeding herd for our developing African Savannah feature.

The babies travelled so well that the animal care staff at Singapore's Changi Airport commented that they had never seen such calm animals in transit. This is due to the conditioning that our dedicated team of professional animal people have been giving them in America since mid October. The animals were conditioned to different sights, sounds, people and veterinary procedures so that import health protocols and transport
would not distress them. They were also conditioned to cope with the change in temperature from a northern hemisphere winter to our Queensland summer.

The zoo management team have been working on this import since February 2008 - nearly 6 years! Their dedication and tenacity has certainly paid off now with the arrival of some beautiful animals and much need new bloodlines for the Australasian regional zebra population.
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Finally! I was wondering when they were coming!

:p

Hix
 
Are they a particular subspecies? or hybrids?
Very exciting for Steve to have achieved this.
 
Well done to all involved. What is possible because they are odd-toed ungulates? Or is the importation of artiodactyla also possible under controlled circumstances? I wouldn't have thought this would be possible.
 
Shirokuma said:
Well done to all involved. What is possible because they are odd-toed ungulates? Or is the importation of artiodactyla also possible under controlled circumstances? I wouldn't have thought this would be possible.
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I think the horse racing industry has kept this loophole open.
 
Yes - I think that if we had a hippo racing industry we would be able to get them in too!:p:p:p
 
I said this in the Aldabra tortoise thread too, but I do like when zoos import species already in the country to get the genetic diversity up for the long term. Much kudos.
 
Chlidonias said:
I said this in the Aldabra tortoise thread too, but I do like when zoos import species already in the country to get the genetic diversity up for the long term. Much kudos.
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Well said Chlidonias, another major investment in the long term preservation of a species in Oz, Somali wild ass next?
 
kiang said:
Well said Chlidonias, another major investment in the long term preservation of a species in Oz, Somali wild ass next?
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Not so fast. @Chlidonias was speaking of managing species already in numbers in ZAA zoos and getting up the numbers.

I fear any Somali wild ass imported would fare the same way as the Persian onager at Dubbo (sadly). BTW: I can understand phase out policies, just I can never buy into managing a species into extinction that is critically endangered and for which numbers in both European and/or US zoos would be welcome additions to the the genetics of their populations.
 
Any mention of where the other 5 will go? I guess they would be other privately owned zoos?
 
Astrobird said:
Any mention of where the other 5 will go? I guess they would be other privately owned zoos?
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Fom the utube link,

NSW and Tasmania,

Mogo and Zoodo?

Interesting that there I'd not appear to be any sponsors mentioned, assiting in covering the transport costs.
 
A few months ago Altina's Facebook page was saying they were looking forward to zebra's arriving soon, as they were the owner's favourite animal. This must be it! :)
 
Interesting that they look like Grants/East African where most of Australia's population are Damara type. They really look nice as a group of ten youngsters! Pity some of the bigger zoos didn't come on board, but seems that lately it is the smaller ones that are leading the way. Congrats DDZ and Steve.

I would have thought that Grevy's would have been a good candidate species to import. Previously been in the country, endangered, large population in US, well suited to Aust conditions, mix well (as any horse species does) with African savannah exhibits.
 
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