Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo News 2013

Chlidonias said:
one of the best animals on display in Australia! A brilliant species! Good luck. The Taronga nocturnal house is very good indeed.

Oh, you should try for a three-monotreme day with the short-beaked echidnas and platypus too (the latter in two places in the zoo) -- nowhere else in the whole world can you do that. Unbelievably when I was there I could not find those latter two species so had to settle for "just" the long-beaked echidna!
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I'm super excited, really hoping to see the long-beaked, plus a couple of other favourites - Fiordland Penguin, Crowned Pigeon, etc. Will let you know how I go with the three monotremes.
 
do they still have the crowned pigeon?! That must be old by now! I didn't see that when I was there, but then I've seen plenty in Asian zoos so not a great loss.
 
Chlidonias said:
do they still have the crowned pigeon?! That must be old by now! I didn't see that when I was there, but then I've seen plenty in Asian zoos so not a great loss.
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There are 2.0 still, Wewak and Patrick. Wewak still should be in the aviary next to the meerkats but Patrick could either be in the Rainforest aviary (near the Goodfellows tree kangaroos) or in a small aviary behind it. I haven't seen him in the Rainforest aviary in my past few visits so he should therefore be in the smaller aviary.
 
Jabiru96 said:
I am not sure. Judging by photos, it is practically finished so the opening should be very soon.

EDIT: I just read the "Wild Life" magazine (for zoo members). It had some more details of Lemur Forest Adventure:

4.0 ringtail lemurs came from Auckland who were born there (Andriba, Soalata, Andre, Makili)
4.0 came from Hong Kong originally but came to Taronga from Dubbo (Julian, Casper, Maki, Bamboo)

There will be three zones:

1. trail which will take visitors through dense 'forest', which will have 10 'discovery poles' in it clustered into four geographical zones (Australia, South America, Madagascar, South-east Asia) which have details on the forests in these zones. There will also be 'promise trees' which convey conservation messages on environmental topics (e.g. recycling, saving energy, etc.) by introducing a cartoon ambassador called Harry.

2. visitors will then move to the 'Observation Outpost'=pretty much a playground.

3. finally will be the lemur walk through which "replicates typical Southern Madagascan habitat, with spiny scrub in a beautiful stone setting".

More importantly, the lemurs will be on view shortly (it says December), however, the walk through will not be open until April 2014. All in all, judging by the theme around it, I don't think it will be a great exhibit, especially since 2/3 of it is not even an animal exhibit., but I will need to see it in my own eyes before passing judgement.
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I only just saw this edit Jabiru. According to Taronga's Facebook the exhibit will be open "in time for the holidays", which is very vague, but I'm disappointing that the walkthrough won't be open this year.
 
Bongo birth boosts Australasian breeding program

Photos of the young'n on the zoo's Facebook page, and on the link below.

Story here: https://taronga.org.au/news/2013-12-13/bongo-birth-boosts-australasian-breeding-program

Friday 13th December 2013

Taronga Zoo is celebrating the birth of an Eastern Bongo calf, one of rarest antelope species in the world.

Conceived on Valentine’s Day, the male calf was born just after 6am on 29 November to mother Djembe in an uncomplicated birth, watched closely by keepers on closed circuit TV cameras. The calf, now named ‘Tambo’ meaning vigorous, was standing strongly within 30 minutes and suckled after 90 minutes.

The calf is the second for Djembe and father Ekundu, following the birth of female Kiazi in April last year.

“Djembe is a very confident, attentive mother and cleaned the calf as soon as it was born. The birth has also provided a great opportunity for Kiazi to learn good maternal behaviour from her mother,” said Ungulates Keeper, Renae Moss.

Tambo has had time to bond with his mother and sister off display, before coming out onto exhibit for the first time this week.

Eastern (or Highlands) Bongos are Critically Endangered, with less than 100 remaining in the wild in their native habitat of Kenya’s highlands.

One of the last large mammal species to be discovered by scientists and zoologists when first recorded in the mid-1800s, Bongos have a magnificent red-brown hide, with white stripes on the shoulders and back which helps camouflage them in the jungle.

Eastern Bongos are now part of a conservation breeding program, managed across the Australasian region to function as a safety net for the species against the possibility of going extinct in the wild.

“Sadly Eastern Bongo numbers have collapsed due to disease, poaching and habitat destruction. There’s fewer than 100 of these gentle animals left in the wild, so Tambo is an important addition to the Australasian breeding program helping to save the species,” said Renae.
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jabiru96 said:
There will be three zones:

1. trail which will take visitors through dense 'forest', which will have 10 'discovery poles' in it clustered into four geographical zones (Australia, South America, Madagascar, South-east Asia) which have details on the forests in these zones. There will also be 'promise trees' which convey conservation messages on environmental topics (e.g. recycling, saving energy, etc.) by introducing a cartoon ambassador called Harry.

2. visitors will then move to the 'Observation Outpost'=pretty much a playground.

3. finally will be the lemur walk through which "replicates typical Southern Madagascan habitat, with spiny scrub in a beautiful stone setting".

More importantly, the lemurs will be on view shortly (it says December), however, the walk through will not be open until April 2014. All in all, judging by the theme around it, I don't think it will be a great exhibit, especially since 2/3 of it is not even an animal exhibit., but I will need to see it in my own eyes before passing judgement.
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aargh I hate it when that happens! I'm all for theming and putting the animals into context because that is very important, but it is just stupid when zoos create huge hideously-expensive exhibits where the actual animals are only a small part. The animals are why people are going to the zoo!!

I'm willing to bet too that the "spiny forest replication" will be nothing of the sort.
 
Chlidonias said:
aargh I hate it when that happens! I'm all for theming and putting the animals into context because that is very important, but it is just stupid when zoos create huge hideously-expensive exhibits where the actual animals are only a small part. The animals are why people are going to the zoo!!

I'm willing to bet too that the "spiny forest replication" will be nothing of the sort.
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I don't think I've ever seen lemurs displayed in a proper "spiny forest" type exhibit, they always seem to get rainforest/jungle style exhibits. Spiny would be very hard to replicate decently though, unless it was an indoor exhibit (e.g. what Bronx has) or in a very nice climate (e.g. Taronga.....)

On a semi-related note, Adelaide Botanical Gardens has a brilliant Madagascar house and garden, with lots of plants that would be perfect for a lemur exhibit...
 
hmm....

The Facebook photo makes it look amazing!

The Stainform link makes it look like a hideous monstrosity!
 
Chlidonias said:
The Facebook photo makes it look amazing!

The Stainform link makes it look like a hideous monstrosity!
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Agree! It certainly looks intriguing and I'm looking forward to checking it out. The Staniform photos show more the non-enclosure parts, so hopefully the bit the lemurs are in is better than it appears.
 
An interesting thing regarding Kuma the chimpanzee:
Grandmother=Fifi
Mother=Ficha
Sons=Furahi, Fumo

Considering that Taronga's chimps are named in accordance with the first letter's of their mother's line, it seems unusual that Kuma does not have a name starting with 'F'. However, her name in Swahili literally translates as "fanny" (private female body part), so either a keeper was trying to be funny or has a weird sense of humour!

Just a little story for those who care......:D
 
These photos give a good visual experience of Lemur Forest Adventure, starting here: [ame="http://www.flickr.com/photos/55369298@N00/11557080815/in/photostream/"]Heading for the Lemur Forest Adventure | Flickr - Photo Sharing![/ame]
 
Jabiru96 said:
There are 2.0 still, Wewak and Patrick. Wewak still should be in the aviary next to the meerkats but Patrick could either be in the Rainforest aviary (near the Goodfellows tree kangaroos) or in a small aviary behind it. I haven't seen him in the Rainforest aviary in my past few visits so he should therefore be in the smaller aviary.
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I saw both brothers, Wewak in the aviary by the Meerkats, Patrick at the very opposite end of the zoo in a small aviary opposite the Red Kangaroos. Patrick made some very cool noises! They are both 34 years old (so I guess from the same clutch).
 
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