Taronga Zoo Polar bears at Taronga

I think they still had polar bears at Auckland zoo when I was a toddler in the 1980s. But they are long gone. The place where their pool was is now a farmlike exhibit with critter cottages. I wonder what they did with the pool and the concrete made to resemble ice? There is no sign of the big high concrete wall with ice spears hanging off? Does anyone know when they took that down?
 
zebra finch said:
I think they still had polar bears at Auckland zoo when I was a toddler in the 1980s. But they are long gone. The place where their pool was is now a farmlike exhibit with critter cottages. I wonder what they did with the pool and the concrete made to resemble ice? There is no sign of the big high concrete wall with ice spears hanging off? Does anyone know when they took that down?
Click to expand...

You would be better off asking this question in the New Zealand section.
 
zebra finch said:
I think they still had polar bears at Auckland zoo when I was a toddler in the 1980s. But they are long gone. The place where their pool was is now a farmlike exhibit with critter cottages. I wonder what they did with the pool and the concrete made to resemble ice? There is no sign of the big high concrete wall with ice spears hanging off? Does anyone know when they took that down?
Click to expand...
the pool was simply filled in and the wall is still there. On this thread there's a photo of how it looks now, with the wall visible at the back: http://www.zoochat.com/14/polar-bear-exhibit-30386/
 
Did they once have elephant seals and dolphins at Taronga zoo? They probably should consider reintroducing the former as elephant seals are in rapid decline in the Subantarctic. The australians are doing extensive research into the decline and strangely don't think it is to do with overfishing.
Who were Mac Maude and Nella? They now have a new marine exhibit called Great Southern oceans and though I haven't been there it looks pretty good on the zoo website.
The pools are huge and they have adult male Australian sea lions which are about the same size as female elephant seals so why not introduce the latter? do elephant seals turn up on Australian beaches as they occasionally do in New Zealand?
 
Mac, Maude and Nella were elephant seals that lived at Taronga Zoo, all (as far as i know are deceased).
Yes, Taronga did have dolphins many moons ago, the last of which was a male who had a short 'stop-over' between facilities in 1991 (or around then). He came from Warragamba Dam lion park in Sydney and from Taronga moved to Sea World on the GC.

Zebra finch i would have to disagree with you - although i would love to see a breeding program elephnat seals in human care, i dont think it is possible with GSO.
Great Southern Oceans (GSO) is not designed for true seals like elephant seals - (with the exclusion of the leopard seal pool which already houses 1.1.0 - as well as other pinnipeds on occassions).
even if female elephant seals are smaller (minimum of 300-kg's) whats the point of just housing females? to increase numbers you will need to breed them... where will the offspring go? back to the wild? what if they cannot be released... what other facilities in the country can house them? What about all the other pinnipeds that currently reside at the zoo... its just not possible with the current facility.
 
Male Australian sea lions are not the same size as female elephant seals when it comes to length. Sea lions (being an otarid) have a different use of water space to phocids. Mac, Maude and Nella died a number of years ago. The Macquarie Island exhibit was purpose-built for them, and ultimately not suitable.They are not a species that are suited to Sydney conditions and I personally would not like to see them on display in Australia. Pet Porpoise Pool had a female called Sophie for a number of years.

Vagrant southern elephant seals do turn up from time to time on Australian shores. Taronga rescued, rehab'ed and released (complete with satellite traker) a young female, and later rescued an older female that sadly died.

Demon the bottlenose dolphin was at Taronga for a few months in 1991. As Jones said, he came from the African Lion Safari (the last surviving dolphin there) and was shipped to Sea World, where he lived for quite few more years. He was actually from QLD originally.

As for leopard seals, it can be argued whether this species is suitable for captivity, particularly when there is a failure to replicate their natural environmental conditions for (some unknown reason).
 
Someone sent me this photo taken in 1962 of a polar bear at Taronga Zoo, they thought we would appreciate seeing it on ZooChat.
 

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Taronga,s polar bear show

After Taronga zoo ended their polar bear show in the later 60,s ,I seen the bears travelling with Bullens circus at penrith,on the site of the current penrith plaza.
In 1971 I went to Bullens lion safari at yatalla in Queensland , the polar bears were on display there, in a wire mesh cage.
 
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