Taronga Western Plains Zoo Taronga Western Plains Zoo News 2025

[Kifaru Bwana]

Auckland Zoo have historically been one of the powerhouses of spider monkey breeding in Australasia. Their troop was founded with A. g. geoffroyi imported from the USA in 1964 and to my knowledge has remained purebred ever since.

It’s therefore my belief any spider monkeys within the region bred at Auckland Zoo are A. g. geoffroyi, including Hamilton Zoo’s entire troop, which were either bred at Auckland Zoo or born to Auckland sourced spider monkeys.

From the New Zealand Mammals thread:

Wellington originally had a mixed-species group dating from the 1960s (containing A. belzebuth, A geoffroyi and A. hybridus). Since 2009 they have obtained animals from other NZ zoos (Auckland, Hamilton, Orana) as well as importing from overseas.

Orana's colony descends from an import of five animals (2.3) from San Francisco Zoo (USA) in 1978, at the time thought to be pure A. g. vellerosus but later shown to be subspecific-hybrids. Other animals have been added more recently from other NZ zoos (e.g. Auckland and Hamilton).

I do hope the region can focus on the A.g. geoffroyi subspecies and that some more genetically similar groups can be sourced from overseas (I guess USA or and parts of Mexico)?!
(NOTA BENE: This subgroup occurs from southern Mexico, Meso-America up to Colombia, in main part of South America).

 

[tetrapod]

IIRC the recommendation was to merge the geoffroyi and vellerosus populations as they were not pure subspecies (mixed ancestry from US stock). If the region wanted to focus on a pure subspecies then it would need to source and start again with a separate captive population. Not sure there is enough will or interest to do so, despite being charismatic, endangered and entertaining displays.

 

[Tiger91]

IIRC the recommendation was to merge the geoffroyi and vellerosus populations as they were not pure subspecies (mixed ancestry from US stock). If the region wanted to focus on a pure subspecies then it would need to source and start again with a separate captive population. Not sure there is enough will or interest to do so, despite being charismatic, endangered and entertaining displays.

Giraffe, chimps, zebra, elephants, are all managed at mostly a species level and not subspecies level. So it doesn't surprise me to see that they have gone down this route. While it gives them mixed ancestry it also opens up mixed genetics which is probably the best thing for the region.
With the history of established breeding it would be a large and expensive undertaking to redo back into a single subspecies.

 

[Zoofan15]

Hari the Indian rhinoceros has transferred out:

As reported by @Patrick Keegan in the Taronga Zoo news thread; and also reported in the link below, Hari the Indian rhinoceros has transferred to Taronga Zoo:

What's On
His departure leaves Dubbo with 1.1 Indian rhinoceros (Hari’s parents, Dora and Amala).