Red Pandas in Oz.

P

Pertinax

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Can someone tell me in which zoo I would have seen some years ago, a nocturnal Red Panda exhibit? Melbourne or Tarango Park? Its the only nocturnal exhibit I've ever seen for this species and I was very impressed at how active the Pandas were, racing around at high speed, running along logs etc.

I don't think I'd realised before this is a nocturnal species. In European/Uk zoos they are typically displayed outdoors in a walled enclosure surrounding one or more tall trees, in which they're usually fast asleep or peering sleepily down at the visiting public. Even if awake they move very slowly in the daytime, not active like the ones in the exhibit I saw in OZ.
 
Melbourne has never had them in a nocturnal situation, and I don't recall Taronga displaying them like that either. There are a number of smaller zoos that have displayed red pandas over the years, but I've never seen any of them displayed in a nocturnal situation.

Are you sure it was in Asutralia Grantsmb?
 
Red Pandas

All red panda exhibits in NZ are in the open , and the animals are active alot of the time . I have never heard of a nocturnal red panda exhibit .
 
I've seen red pandas at Melbourne, Taronga, Mogo, Perth, Wellington, National Zoo and Symbio - none of those are nocturnal either.
 
i think you may be referring to the old clouded leopard exhibit at taronga in the cats of asia exhibit. its not artificially darkened, just surrounded by dense stands of bamboo which filter out most of the sunlight. and it was used to display red pandas for a short while too.
 
melbourne has no nocturnal house. taronga does, but its used exclusively for australian natives...

i think glyn might be on the right track...
 
We used to display red pandas at the Night Safari, they were fairly active, especially around dusk.

But the species has been phased out for now because the pandas weren't adapting well to the hotter climate in Singapore. They had an air-conditioned den to rest in during the day, but were displayed outdoors at night. Even though the temperature at night was significantly cooler, the pandas still pant a lot.
 
yeah i'm not suprised! a zoo here in cairns holds them, and i have often wondered how the poor little creatures go up there. they are not adapted to tropical weather and can handle subtropical at best. they can however deal with very, very cold temperatures...
 
Wow! Thanks for all the helpful answers, but this is still something of a mystery to me... Is my memory deceiving me?

The exhibit was definately in Australia- it must have been either Melbourne or Taronga(it wasn't Perth, the only other main zoo I've been to in Oz) Glyn could be right that it was Taronga- it was some sort of grotto, perhaps I thought it was a darkened exhibit. I think the Pandas were behind glass and their 'ground level' was probably our waist height. Does that sound right for the old Clouded leopard exhibit?

The Pandas were REALLY active- never seen this species like that before nor since. Perhaps a proper nocturnal exhibit would be a good idea as Zooish says they were active at Singapore mainly around dusk. So are they actually Nocturnal or Crepuscular? :)
 
i love that work crepuscular, always makes me sound smart in bio class and animal studies,

i would say red pandas are CREPUSCULAR, though in oz it is warmer in oz, so this stimulates more activity at these times, in neapl maybe they are active all day, in singapore an indoor exhibit would be great, cool and active, maybe time for an opposite to a tropical house, a cool house!!!

wonder what our zoos pandas are like at night, anyone justify?
 
i tell ya what - there is an opening for a night zoo in the country. given the right loaction i reckon it would do really well. especially when you consider how many of our natives are nocturnal. even koalas can get pretty rowdy at night...

i know some of our major zoos do "night safari" tours, but what they should think about doing is keeping the zoo open until midnight one night a week.
market it properly and give it a try. i think melbournians would really get into it. they don't even need to do much. it would just mean a big investment in lighting throught the entire zoo. i like the idea of having the animals be them diurnal/crepescular/nocturnal still scattered around the zoo in their respective "zones" but that the night zoo exhibits have a little logo such as a blue moon at their exhibits so we know to come back after dark, when we can follow a seperate night zoo map that leads us more effectively around the zoo..
 
patrick said:
i tell ya what - there is an opening for a night zoo in the country. given the right loaction i reckon it would do really well. especially when you consider how many of our natives are nocturnal. even koalas can get pretty rowdy at night...

i know some of our major zoos do "night safari" tours, but what they should think about doing is keeping the zoo open until midnight one night a week.
market it properly and give it a try. i think melbournians would really get into it. they don't even need to do much. it would just mean a big investment in lighting throught the entire zoo. i like the idea of having the animals be them diurnal/crepescular/nocturnal still scattered around the zoo in their respective "zones" but that the night zoo exhibits have a little logo such as a blue moon at their exhibits so we know to come back after dark, when we can follow a seperate night zoo map that leads us more effectively around the zoo..
Click to expand...

That sounds like a great idea. I guess the main concern, like you said, would be cost. Lighting was THE most difficult and costly aspect when we set up Night Safari. Trying to position and focus 800 lamp-posts (with over 1,600 individual spotlights) almost brought the designers to their knees. How bright the lights should be was also debated greatly.

To justify the high cost of setting up the lighting, it has to be a permanent and regular fixture. Are the night tours in OZ zoos successful? If they are then maybe that will help secure an initial investment.

It really does make more sense to view nocturnal/crepuscular animals at night since that's when they're most active.
 
theres the lighting and the security. most years Taronga opens until 9 pm in january, Tower Twilight i think its called. thats why all those funny little disk things are installed around the zoo, for lighting.
opening our zoos up in the dark, not for supervised walks or groups but just for the genera public would be great, but would pose so many risks, particularly from a security point of view.
i would be worried about animals being stolen, birds getting frightened and crashing into wire roofs etc. i think the current idea of opening until 9 is better. the only other times Taronga opens after dark is for its Summer Concert seriesand New Years Eve, when people enter by the top entrance than walk down along a well supervised path to the lawns and bird show arena, then back the same way to leave.
on the other hand, a purpose built night safari close to one of our metropolitan cities would be great. Weribee might even be a good one to start with, I mean, you cant steal a hippo or rhino,a nd its close to Mlebourne????????????
 
and im sure youre thinking of te clouded leopard exhibit Grant. it wasnt really designed to breed cloded leopards in, just to display a single male. in fact, the clouded leopards replaced Fishing Cats who were displaye din the enclosure for a while, when the Cats Of Asia section had Sumatran Tigers and Asian Lions too.
the exhibit is fronted by harp-wire, although originally it was netted. im not sure how many people can remember this, but the Clouded Leopard actually escaped this exhibit.
the upgraded exhibit includes two artificial trees and lots of branches, but there is very little vegatation. some STANHOPIA i think. currently, the Indian Porcupine from Melbourne is on display there, but being ground-dwelling she doesnt make good use of the exhibit. and hides alot. the spare binturongs, which mus tbe around somewhere, would be best-displayed here, because as its dark they might become more active.
 
you could probably steal a pygmy hippo. did you see how small they are? :)

sure the lighting things a biggie. expensive i'm sure. i suppose the trick would be to locate the nocturnal exhibits strategically so that large sections of the zoo can be closed off. though i do like the idea that the animals are still on their respective geographical trails, but that is a different experince for the night zoo. hey, in some case i'm sure a different species could occupy an exhibit during the day/night.

if you think about it quite a lot would still be open - mostly just primate and bird species that would be closed off..

we would have to change our minds about phasing-out loris of course. and get ourselves some bushbabies and some of those south american night monkeys ;)
 
night safari at taronga

im certainly not saying that it isnt 'doable' at Taronga. Taronga could open up the the whole Western side of the zoo, so people could see all the animals from the koalas, reptiles (which may be active) down to the giraffes. the whole African Waterhole exhibit could stay open, so too the Food Market. Wild Asia could open too, with just the aviaries closed to stop people disturbing the birds or falling into the ponds.
Cats of Asia, the Snow Leopards and everything else up that end could stay open, and maybe they could have a jazz concert too down on the lawns near the condor aviary. The Bird Show could do a special presentation with owls, and maybe incorporate other species like Pheasant Coucal, Night Herons etc. Even have reptiles and possums too.
In terms of security, the wetland boardwalk and roads leading from gorilla, roangs and bush birds to other parts of the zoo would remain closed. the more i think about it, the more the concept seems feasible. and once Southern Oceasn opens, could you imagine underwater lighting illuminating the seals swimming gracefully at night?
 
Thanks Glyn- I'm still not sure about where I saw the active Red Panda(s) but I guess it was that Taronga exhibit. A few years makes a lot of difference to one's memory...

Now I wonder if Lesser Panda really is a nocturnal(or crepuscular) animal or not? I don't know for a fact, I was just surmising as in our European exhibits, they are nearly always curled up fast asleep in the daytime. Does that mirror their natural activity pattern? In fact, does anyone know very much about the wild lives of these little 'zoo favourites' ....
 
at the darjeeling zoo in the himalaya they breed many of the native nepalese red panda. their sleeping patterns seemed much the same. many were asleep and just one or two awake and walking around the exhibit (a big one..)
 
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