Taronga Zoo Pygmy hippo birth

  • Thread starter Thread starter jay
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While there might not be an official plan in place I'm sure that it was always in the back of zoo officials minds to hopefully create a pairing with the young produced from the Mel/Tar pairing and the young one at Cairns.
I'm hoping that both pairs will produce more young.
 
torie said:
WOW!!!!! i am going in on sunday so i will try to get a look!
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Unfortunately you will be disappointed. The hippo will not be on display as reported by some Media sources. Everybody will have to wait to get a look at Monifa. I believe she will be ready for the public in another 5 weeks or around Xmas.
I have seen her myself and can say that she is as cute as a button and has the best Surrogate parent keepers anyone could ask for. Congrats to TZ and the Ungulates Keepers.
 
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excellent news for the zoo, i was keeping an eye out for the official announcement, which caught me a bit off guard, but the coverage has been amazing.
however, whilst the media hinted at the endangered wild status of the species, little mention was made of the near extinction of this species regionally.
i would still consider the future of this species prearious at best. is it assumed or has Timmy really been sent packing? if this is the case, i am left shaking my head. taronga could be considered to have space for up to 4 adult hippos (at least two animals in the old tapir exhibit, two in the african waterhole and surely a fifth animal could be stored somewhere else, if not melbourne or adelaide zoos?), i feel Taronga should have retained the male and secured at least a second calf from the pairing before returning him. At 23 years of age he is not a young sire, and establishing his genes is essential for the health of the program. Similarly, until Cairns arranges some form of exchange things dont look hopeful. at best, the future of this program is based on just four potential founders. securing more calves from all four of these animals should be considered a PRIORITY! the loss of just one of these founders and/or either of the calves would reduce the programs baseline by a quarter.
the calf has not had the best start to life, im guessing everyone hopes she makes it. i dont think anyone can breath a sigh of relief just yet. she needs to breed herself yet, hopefully with the young QLD male.
until this happens, this program remains, along with the program for dhole, francois langur, indian rhino and bongo on very shaky ground. with quarantine as it is, about the only thing going for this species is that it is relatively long-lived. but if we are to see more pygmy hippo in zoos for the next few decades we need to get at least two or three calves from the current pairings in order to create un-related pairings for the respective holders, who could produce calves themselves without effectively being inbred!
 
jay said:
It looks gorgous on the ABC site. Apparently the parents have been sent back to their owning zoos so I assume Tim has gone back to Melbourne. Let's hope that in time the Cairns place and Taronga/Melbourne can work together to bring their two youngsters together to breed another generation. And yes I hope that another baby or two can be born from both pairs.
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Jay, this is not correct - the report on the ABC was poorly worded. Both parents remain at Taronga, and there are of course plans to try to get the female pregnant again.
 
oh that's a good plan, though I was kinda looking forward to seeing Timmy again,
 
Maybe if all goes well with the two babies they could be sent at a later date to Melbourne zoo as they have a top class exhibit for Pygmy Hippos, three pairs at three zoos
 
That's sounds like an awesome plan, but of course the pairs would have to be made up of non-related individuals, unless the next is also female, the two sisters could live peacefully together.
But I'm sure the zoos want to breed successfully as much as possible,
 
ZooPro said:
Jay, this is not correct - the report on the ABC was poorly worded. Both parents remain at Taronga, and there are of course plans to try to get the female pregnant again.
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Thank you ZooPro, that is good. Sorry if I started a rumour however the article definately gave that impression.
 
pygmy hippos at taronga

they have 1.3.0 pygmy hippos at taronga zoo currently

they have timmy and petre, which are the parent of motifa! timmy and petre are housed opposite the tahr mountain in the old malayasin tapiar exhibit. and there is another much older female hippo katie living in the african waterhole area of the zoo. timmy and petre are not housed together - they get rotated on and off display.

i have seen the little one at 7 days old - shes a gem and sooooooo cute... go TZ ungies!
 
oh cool thanks Danale, I only thought there was 1.2 hippos at taronga, all the recent articles I could find the three are the center of attention ;)
 
The article I remember I read just before Timmy was being shipped off to Taronga said he was 22,
 
Ages

i think - dont quote me - that timmy is 28, petre is 23 approx, baby is almost 4 weeks and katie is like 35+

hope this helped a little bit ill find out definatly tomorrow
 
stretchedandy said:
Unfortunately you will be disappointed. The hippo will not be on display as reported by some Media sources. Everybody will have to wait to get a look at Monifa. I believe she will be ready for the public in another 5 weeks or around Xmas.
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That is disappointing - we were there on Saturday and went looking for the Pygmy Hippo, but couldn't see her anywhere.

At least I managed to get some nice photos of the Crimson Chat :D
 
i think she is. i think Timmy is 23 years of age as he was born at Taronga, therefore i wouldnt be at all suprised if he wasnt related somehow to Katie.
 
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