Orana Wildlife Park currently has no tigers. Dumai, their last Sumatran tiger was put to sleep yesterday at the age of 16 due to renal failure.
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Orana Wildlife Park Orana Wildlife Park News 2020
- Thread starter WhistlingKite24
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Orana Wildlife Park has received two Lace Monitors from Auckland Zoo. The pair are currently 9-months-old and are on-display in the former Shingleback Lizard enclosure. According to the article Orana hasn't held the species in 15 years.
Christchurch wildlife park welcomes two Australian lace monitors, relations of Komodo dragons
Christchurch wildlife park welcomes two Australian lace monitors, relations of Komodo dragons
How many does Auckland have? I didn't even know they were breeding them.
Back in Feb 2017, they had 3 males on display, Bruce, Ned and Alf; who were mentioned in this Youtube Video:
They bred 5 hatchlings back in July 2018. Their parents were ‘Ned’ and ‘Darla’.
Meet our new lace monitor hatchlings | Auckland Zoo News
Orana have 6.5 lions in two prides:
1.0 Ra (24/09/2002) Toby x Priscilla
0.1 Leah (13/01/2004) Toby x Priscilla
0.1 Meeka (13/01/2004) Toby x Priscilla
1.0 Mambila (04/01/2011) Malik x Mishka
1.0 Kahn (31/12/2002) Toby x Kiara
1.0 Sakura (31/12/2002) Toby x Kiara
0.1 Mishka (31/12/2002) Toby x Kiara
0.1 Tua (16/06/2009) Malik x Mishka
0.1 Tama (16/06/2009) Malik x Mishka
1.0 Kairangi (05/07/2009) Malik x Kiara
1.0 Tawhiri (05/07/2009) Malik x Kiara
All of the males are castrated, so with the lionesses in Pride One post reproductive, this pride will eventually die out. There’s around two years to breed with Tua and Tama from Pride Two, otherwise they will soon be in the same situation.
Wonderful news. Orana Wildlife Park has announced that twelve Orange-fronted Kakarikis bred at the zoo have now been released into the wild. From the zoo's Facebook page:
Source: Orana Wildlife Park's Facebook page
Orana Wildlife Park
Source: Orana Wildlife Park's Facebook page
A few bits and pieces from a recent Facebook post. One of the zoo's female Addax gave birth to a calf four weeks ago. Orana is the only zoo to hold the species in New Zealand. They also welcomed 12 Blue Duck (Whio) ducklings for release this season. From the zoo's Facebook page:
Orana Wildlife Park
Orana Wildlife Park has recently received seventeen Maud Island Frogs from the University of Otago. According to the article, this is the first time Orana has ever housed a native frog species. The frogs will be on-display in a new frog habitat along with a few exotic amphibians which will be arriving at a later date.
Full story: Native frogs land at Orana Wildlife Park
Full story: Native frogs land at Orana Wildlife Park
Orana Wildlife Park is back and offering visitors the chance to check out a species never seen before at the zoo - Maud Island frogs.
It is the first time the park has ever held a native frog. Six male and eleven female frogs, ranging from 18 to 25-years-old, have moved to a purpose-designed conservation facility at Orana.
One of the longest lived frogs in the world (more than 45 years in the wild), they were transferred as part of the Department of Conservation’s Native Frog Recovery Group plans. The ultimate, but difficult, aim is to breed the remarkable animals in captivity.
Native fauna manager Catherine Roughton said her team is "excited" to welcome the 5cm frogs - NZ’s largest.
“This is really exciting for our whole team.
"The frogs are so cool - they are very cute with big dark eyes.
"We are excited to join another breeding programme for a key native species.
"The team are committed to raising awareness on these treasured creatures whilst attempting to breed them.”
Maud Island frog. Photo: Orana Wildlife Park
New Zealand native frog researcher Professor Phil Bishop transported the frogs from the University of Otago to Orana.
"This is a really big deal for Orana and for New Zealand frog conservation," he said.
"Scientifically, Maud Island frogs are genetically indistinguishable from Hamilton’s frog, which number less than 300 and are restricted to one island in Cook Strait.
"Breeding Maud Island frogs in captivity would make a significant contribution to native frog conservation and may even enable Hamilton’s frog to be secured in captivity too.”
New Zealand’s remaining native frog species belong to an ancient and primitive group and are all under threat. They are special animals with few relatives and considered evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered, Bishop said.
"They have remained virtually unchanged since they crawled around the toes of the dinosaurs."
The wild population of Maud Island frogs is around 30,000.
They remains at extreme risk due to predation, habitat destruction, disease and climate change, especially since they are restricted to just four small islands.
“Our frog habitat is one of the most technically challenging projects we have ever completed," said Roughton.
"Our team consulted extensively with Professor Bishop and our zoo partners to ensure we completed a state of the art habitat; it is designed to simulate the climate of Maud Island throughout the year.
“A range of interesting exotic amphibians, housed in completely separate enclosures, will also be added to the facility.
"Right now, we are delighted to offer visitors the chance to see and learn about Maud Island frogs. It is an absolute privilege for us to have such precious native fauna in our care," Roughton said.
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Orana actually welcomed two Addax calves. They were later both sexed as females, and named Nailah and Hara.
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Orana Wildlife Park has announced the birth of a third Addax calf. The calf was born yesterday afternoon. This is the zoo's fifth calf since the group arrived from Australia. From their Facebook page:
Orana Wildlife Park
It will be interesting to see once they reach a certain size herd number if other NZ zoos will obtain them?
I could see them going into Bornean orangutan also. They planned to acquire Sumatran orangutan three years ago; but decided to loan Auckland’s around the time that the Bornean orangutan was conservation status was updated to critically endangered - and Auckland decided to go back into them. This could be interpreted as their way of stalling making the decision until they had had time to observe which way other zoos in the region would go.
The biggest clue is that they haven’t mentioned acquiring Sumatran orangutan since this time either (something they previously spoke of frequently).
According to this recent Facebook post, Orana Wildlife Park is down to eight lions across two prides. From the exotic mammals of New Zealand thread, the zoo only had 5.4 lions as of January 2020 so it has been a gradual decline in numbers.
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That’s interesting. The Facebook page says the lions are aged 8-16, so from this we can work out that the youngest (Mambila) - who is actually aged 9.5 years, is still alive; and that the eldest (Ra) - who would have turned 18 next month, is deceased. I’d hazard a guess the other two deceased lions (to make the decrease from eleven to eight) are two of the three lions born December 2002.
It looks likely that they’re repeat the same formula as last time - let the non breeding prides die out; and then import new founders.
I was curious to hear directly from the zoo regarding what their current plans were for orangutans returning to the zoo. They have no plans for them at this stage. This was the response I received:
Well that’s disappointing. I made the comment that the zoo haven’t mentioned obtaining Sumatran orangutan for over three years, which is about the time we all heard that they were planning to obtain a breeding troop of Western lowland gorilla. I’d say it’s likely orangutan were on the cards all the time they had a small bachelor troop of gorillas in a single exhibit; but that they’ve now been canned in favour of holding a breeding troop.
Whether this breeding troop will be held alongside a bachelor troop (in a seperate exhibit); or whether the bachelor troop will make their long predicted export to Sydney Zoo is anyone’s guess. Either way, Taronga Zoo has benefited from having a second smaller exhibit over the years - to house Haoko and Shabani prior to their export to Japan; to house Kibale and Kimya, while Kibabu’s troop were still at the zoo etc. So it’s not hard to imagine this could be Orana’s thinking.