Auckland Zoo Orangutans At Auckland

borneo. but prior to that i believe they were distributed amongst the australasian regions zoos and then consolodated to auckland when it was decided to instead focus on the more endangered sumatran subspecies.
 
Orang utans endangered

Shame that ARAZPA zoos only concentrate on the Sumatrans. Borneo (or Kalimantan as it is locally called) harbours admittedly the largest populations, however the speed in declining populations is so much the greater. The forest fires that we have come to know from Indonesia Borneo is the biggest flashpoint!
 
unfortunately jelle, there just arn't enough zoos in our rgion to be able to support programs for both types. further complicating the matter is that some authorities consider bornean orangs to be split into various subspecies.. something zoos have never paid much attention to.

at present i belive auckland is exploring options to have their colony move overseas so that they can become involved in the regional sumatran program.
 
and another reason why we dont participate in the bornean program is that perth zoo, which has the most succesful breeding record and biggest colony, concentrates exclusively on sumatrans!
 
I think Australian zoos should just concentrate on the Sumatran subspecies since they are slightly less represented in the international zoo community than the Bornean race. Kalimantan refers to the Indonesian-owned portion of Borneo island.

Forest fires are also wiping out Sumatran rainforests, and actually the situation on Sumatra is even worse than Borneo, lots of forest have already been destroyed.

Geographically, Bornean Orangutan populations straddle across 3 different nations (Brunei, Malaysia and Indonesia), so the political will and power to protect them is stronger than Sumatra being Indonesian-owned. The Indonesian government is being really lax about environmental protection, much more so than the Malaysian govt.

I still believe Sumatrans are at greater risk for the moment.
 
yes, i would have to whole-heartedly agree with you zooish. the situation in indonesia is pretty bad, worse than in mayaysia as you said. the nation provides itself with pathetic environmental protection and seem determined to log themselves into obvilion. making matter worse is the fact that their country straddles across two different biomes, with a transitional zone that is littered with endemics. they are trashing west papua, the with probably the largest tracts of rainforest left in the whole archepelago, maybe even more so than borneo. sumatra and java have little more than relict forests left and sulewsi will be destroyed before you know it. by no means do i not understand the issues facing the nation, but there needs to be some serious international pressure (and help) to get them to protect these facinating and unique habitats.
 
yes, and when they finish loggin themselves into oblivion they will riot and whinge like the solomon islands! their main industry is logging and its about to run out. what will indonesia do when the last tree falls????????
probably start swimming south ;)
 
One of the saddest things about the destruction of the west Papuan rainforests is that everytime some scientist goes there (eg Flannery), they discover huge number of hithero unknown species of animals, ranging from insects, dozens of frogs through reptiles, birds and seeminly everytime, a new species of possum, cuscus or tree kangaroo. The whole island is nowhere near being known by zoologists, who knows how many other species are disapearing as the loggers move in.
 
though papua is very likely the worlds last frontier in terms of zoological discoveries, it is by no means the only place where it is happening. borneo has been offering some pretty amazing cryptozoological oddities of late such as chameleon snakes and a photograph of a medium sized coati-lemur-mongoose like animal who has as yet evaded capture... as i'm sure we will all agree, responsibility for protecting these places should not lie solely with their countries of origin, but with the entire international community. these are earths riches we a talking about - and they belong to everyone.
 
and on the weird and zoological - orang pendek, has anyone heard this, southern samatra an orangutan/man walks upright like homo sapian, or pre evolutuionary form, and orang hairy like orang? type into search engine, teher are searches being conducted now, locals swear by it, creepy ooooooooooooo
 
there are some websites with news on this so called orang pendek it seems they have some of the worlds top primate people looking for them in Sumatra and a few other places near there.
 
auckland orangs.

Sam said:
Anyone know what zoos they came from ?
Click to expand...

I think you'll find the original 4 animals( all Bornean) were all bred in zoos as follows;
male Horst- Frankfurt; female Indra- Rotterdam; male Charlie-Singapore
female Melur- HongKong. Then there are two more recent females born at Sydney, one Bornean, one hybrid. plus one or two born at Auckland.

Does any one know what the plan is at Sydney for Orangutans?- they have now got a male Sumatran 'kluet' from Jersey- but no Sumatran female as yet...
 
bornean versus sumatran.

its always a problem for zoos when more than one subspecies/species is concerned.
In Uk there are far more Bornean than Sumatran orangs. In Europe there are slightly more Sumatrans. I think its probably good that zoos in Oz concentrate on Sumatrans more, as they are lower numerically in the wild(both need an awful lot of help though..)

Perth's colony is very successful- tho' I was a bit disappointed by the boring enclosures- rather 'prison' like. Chester zoo in UK have a male from there-Puloh- he's just become fully mature (with pads) at 18 years old but already has four offspring. He's a son son of Atjeh x Puan. Is the old female 'Puan' still alive? She is heading for some sort of longevity record if so.

Probably Taronga will get a female from Perth to breed with Jersey-born Kluet?
 
hey grant, i was wondering when you last went to perth zoo? theyre currently renovating their orang exhibits and the effect is quite good. different but good. the artificial trees are huge, filled to the brim with artificial enrichment devices and of course lots of ropes for brachiating.
in addition, from where they are on the new platforms the orangs could see a fair bit-enrichment in itself.
soon the exhibit will be spanned by a raised walkway putting people at eye level with the apes. by better integrating some of the bamboo stands in the area with new vegetation it could become quite an effective display!!!
 
perth orangs enclosures renovation

Glynn- That's good. It was some years ago when I went, the orangutan enclosures then were adequate but rather bare. I'd heard a lot about this colony but was a bit dissapointed after seeing their surroundings. Still, its good to hear they have upgraded it nowadays. I guess the basic housing hasn't been replaced but I hope they carry on being successful with this species.
 
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