Taronga Zoo Recent history of Taronga and developments etc
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Oh, I don't know. Walking the elephants outside the zoo through the bush down to the harbour to give them a bath in Little Sirius Cove is up there too.
Hix
Article on Sumatran tiger cubs in the 1990’s:
There’s an interesting article on Page 10 of this magazine about the Sumatran tiger cubs bred at Taronga Zoo in the mid-90’s:
https://catprotection.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cat-Affairs-Journal-1996-APR.pdf
They were the first born at the zoo since 1988 and attracted significant media and visitor attention.
The litters were:
1.1 born 18/11/1994 - Kemiri and Unnamed
3.0 born 26/10/1995 - Juara, Ramalon and Lari
There’s an interesting article on Page 10 of this magazine about the Sumatran tiger cubs bred at Taronga Zoo in the mid-90’s:
https://catprotection.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Cat-Affairs-Journal-1996-APR.pdf
They were the first born at the zoo since 1988 and attracted significant media and visitor attention.
The litters were:
1.1 born 18/11/1994 - Kemiri and Unnamed
3.0 born 26/10/1995 - Juara, Ramalon and Lari
Thanks for sharing this. The photo of Selatan and her cubs in the article is beautiful.
You’re very welcome.
In recent years I’ve been able to find photos of Selatan from the 1990’s, which has been fascinating as I’ve heard numerous accounts from those who saw her in person how beautiful she was.
Having seen the photos, I agree she was an exceptional tigress - with the largest ruff I’ve seen on a Sumatran tigress.
This is a photo of Selatan at 18 months old: 1yr Old Seletan, a female Sumatran Tiger at Taronga Zoo. June 01,... News Photo - Getty Images
This is a photo of Selatan shortly before her third birthday: snow Leopard Mountain in 1990. The Sumatran tigers and Asiatic lions... News Photo - Getty Images
@Zoofan15
She was very beautiful Selatan
@Hix
I believe Guy Cooper over-rode the head reptile's keepers advice to keep Tuka and the female Komodo Dragon who took over his old exhibit (my friend nicknamed her Kimberley) separate for good, after dangerous meetings initially that during Dr Kelly's time were put to a halt...then suddenly circa 1998 she was moved into his exhibit with a glass divider set up in the center of the exhibit during visiting hours and not long after that she was killed during another interaction with Tuka.
She was very beautiful Selatan
@Hix
I believe Guy Cooper over-rode the head reptile's keepers advice to keep Tuka and the female Komodo Dragon who took over his old exhibit (my friend nicknamed her Kimberley) separate for good, after dangerous meetings initially that during Dr Kelly's time were put to a halt...then suddenly circa 1998 she was moved into his exhibit with a glass divider set up in the center of the exhibit during visiting hours and not long after that she was killed during another interaction with Tuka.
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Terry Boylan (manager of the reptile division) detailed three attempts to introduce Tuka to the female in his book. The final attempt left the female needing stitches. Terry noted that he wrote a memo to management advising on no account should a reintroduction ever be attempted.
The new manager of this division attempted a reintroduction following Terry’s resignation with fatal results - the female was injured and died from these injuries just over a year later.
Does anyone know what happened to Keith the Komodo Dragon who was at the zoo in the 80's? I presume he died sometime around 1990, leading to Tuka being imported as a replacement.
Also, Keith was Taronga's only Komodo Dragon as of 1984, so the female, 'Kimberly', must've been imported sometime in the late 80's too.
Also, Keith was Taronga's only Komodo Dragon as of 1984, so the female, 'Kimberly', must've been imported sometime in the late 80's too.
Keith died in 1990. He was imported from Indonesia in 1963 - along with a female who died of septicaemia in 1967. They arrived thanks to political lobbying by Sir Edward Hallstrom.
Tuka was Keith’s replacement, imported from Ragunan Zoo in 1991, where he’d been captured as a juvenile in 1983. He died in 2015.
It’s unclear when Tuka’s mate arrived - but I’d assume the late 80’s to early 90’s. It was mentioned they had a female when Tuka arrived.
@Zoofan15 @Zorro @Patrick Keegan @Jambo
I remember seeing an import listing in the 1980s on trade.cites.org for at least one Komodo Dragon to Australia during that decade. Would assume that it was the female arriving.
For a time wondered if the Australian Reptile Park may have kept at least one Komodo during the '70s & '80s but a former keeper there confirmed on facebook a while ago to someone else's question that the photo of the park's proprietor Eric Worrell standing next to a Komodo was taken at Taronga (with Keith the Komodo though his name wasn't mentioned I filled in that info by one look at the photo and the date, it was Keith as Eric Worrell died before Keith did) and along the lines of (albeit paraphrasing from memory) ''there was never any Komodo Dragons at the reptile park back then as much as Eric Worrell would've loved to of had one''. Was interesting in the parts of Terry Boylan's book that got to read when he started in the mid-late '60s Taronga was in the process of phasing out all their venomous snakes and Eric Worrell was coming down from Gosford area to ''bag up the 'nasty ones' and take them back to his park'' as a senior keeper told Terry in his early weeks at the zoo. The above mentioned photo years later shows I guess that as Terry Boylan earned his keeper 'stripes' and became a/the senior reptile keeper he obviously invited Worrell when in Sydney to come and meet Keith the Komodo up and personal and was captured on camera....heard other people's encounters with Keith didn't go quite as peacefully.
Funnily enough a zoo volunteer mistakenly told my friend and I c.1995 that Tuka's name was Keith, which prompted my friend to 'christen' the female 'Kimberley' (think he thought Komodo's should all have names starting with a K, also his childhood crush was the 'pink power ranger' with the same name lol), because the guy told us either he didn't know the females name or she was just referred to as the female Komodo Dragon.
I remember seeing an import listing in the 1980s on trade.cites.org for at least one Komodo Dragon to Australia during that decade. Would assume that it was the female arriving.
For a time wondered if the Australian Reptile Park may have kept at least one Komodo during the '70s & '80s but a former keeper there confirmed on facebook a while ago to someone else's question that the photo of the park's proprietor Eric Worrell standing next to a Komodo was taken at Taronga (with Keith the Komodo though his name wasn't mentioned I filled in that info by one look at the photo and the date, it was Keith as Eric Worrell died before Keith did) and along the lines of (albeit paraphrasing from memory) ''there was never any Komodo Dragons at the reptile park back then as much as Eric Worrell would've loved to of had one''. Was interesting in the parts of Terry Boylan's book that got to read when he started in the mid-late '60s Taronga was in the process of phasing out all their venomous snakes and Eric Worrell was coming down from Gosford area to ''bag up the 'nasty ones' and take them back to his park'' as a senior keeper told Terry in his early weeks at the zoo. The above mentioned photo years later shows I guess that as Terry Boylan earned his keeper 'stripes' and became a/the senior reptile keeper he obviously invited Worrell when in Sydney to come and meet Keith the Komodo up and personal and was captured on camera....heard other people's encounters with Keith didn't go quite as peacefully.
Funnily enough a zoo volunteer mistakenly told my friend and I c.1995 that Tuka's name was Keith, which prompted my friend to 'christen' the female 'Kimberley' (think he thought Komodo's should all have names starting with a K, also his childhood crush was the 'pink power ranger' with the same name lol), because the guy told us either he didn't know the females name or she was just referred to as the female Komodo Dragon.
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I ran a search of the years 1980-1992 and two Komodo dragons were imported into Australia in 1980 and one in 1991. We know the 1991 import was Tuka, so I’d assume one of the 1980 imports was the female. Since she wasn’t introduced to Tuka until the 1990’s, I’m guessing she was imported as a juvenile and they had to wait for her to mature.
I don’t know any information on the other dragon imported, but it’s likely Taronga imported a pair and one died early on.
Would assume Taronga must of had the female at that time too as she was most likely imported in 1980 as @Zoofan15 mentioned along with another KD that likely passed away after only a few years (am convinced it 1980 was her transfer year after the info but have been told CITES may have lost records sometimes). Perhaps as the female was most likely a growing juvenile (again think you're deduction there is surely the case @Zoofan15) perhaps the juveile female was simply left off the record in the 1984 TZ listing?
That’s possible or perhaps the Komodo dragons imported in 1980 were held at another zoo in Australia throughout their juvenile years until they outgrew their accomodation and then the decision was made to send one/the surviving one to Taronga for breeding.
The next live import into Australia was six dragons in 1996. These would have been the dragons imported by Wyndham Crocodile Park - five of which were later sent to Australia Zoo.
@Zoofan15 From memory @tetrapod mentioned that the Wyndham import was made possible with the help of Perth Zoo in the hopes that a Komodo Dragon would arrive at PZ soon after...well PZ only received their first KD ever Raja in 2013 following his 2012 import from the US with the other KD's from that import.
Keith was the only Komodo Dragon on display, so I guess it’s possible this young female may have been off display at the time.