Taronga Zoo Taronga Zoo News 2021

WhistlingKite24 said:
Taronga Zoo recently conducted ultrasounds on two of their Australian Sea Lions for potential pregnancies. One female, Tahnee was confirmed to be pregnant and the other female Nala wasn’t confirmed for sure. Sire is the zoo’s resident bull Charlie: Log into Facebook | Facebook
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Thats great, good for Tahnee and Charlie (and Taronga staff and visitors)
 
Scheltopusik breeding success at Taronga!

I came across an interesting video about Taronga's reptiles from the Nat Geo series, Secrets of the Zoo: Down Under, which covers completely different (and much more interesting) stories compared to the version that was aired in Australia. The video features the zoo's Scheltopusiks which rarely receive a public mention. Taronga have a 1.1 pair and the video discusses how the zoo managed to hatch six of them recently.

There are only two known zoos in Australia that house this species - Taronga and the Australian Reptile Park - as well as a handful of NZ zoos. What's intriguing is that the keeper mentions that some of the baby scheltopusiks were distributed to different zoos around the country; I know one when to the reptile park but I assume there were other facilities that received some as well. Hopefully they start popping up at different zoos in the near future.

Source: Nat Geo WILD
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Taronga Zoo recently conducted ultrasounds on two of their Australian Sea Lions for potential pregnancies. One female, Tahnee was confirmed to be pregnant and the other female Nala wasn’t confirmed for sure. Sire is the zoo’s resident bull Charlie: Log into Facebook | Facebook
Click to expand...

Fantastic news! Taronga Zoo has had a successful run of Australian sea lion pups lately, with four pups born over the six years. The last two pups were born to Nala:

1.0 Torre (05/11/2018) Charlie x Nala
0.1 Amalie (20/07/2020) Charlie x Nala

As far as I was aware, Taronga Zoo only had one other female Australian sea lion (Lexie) - who gave birth to Max in 2015 and Moby in 2017.

Although I can find no prior mention of a sea lion called Tahnee, I see one of the staff in the vet hospital shares her name - so my guess is she was a wild rescued pup from a years ago.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Taronga Zoo recently conducted ultrasounds on two of their Australian Sea Lions for potential pregnancies. One female, Tahnee was confirmed to be pregnant and the other female Nala wasn’t confirmed for sure. Sire is the zoo’s resident bull Charlie: Log into Facebook | Facebook
Click to expand...

Zoofan15 said:
Fantastic news! Taronga Zoo has had a successful run of Australian sea lion pups lately, with four pups born over the six years. The last two pups were born to Nala:

1.0 Torre (05/11/2018) Charlie x Nala
0.1 Amalie (20/07/2020) Charlie x Nala

As far as I was aware, Taronga Zoo only had one other female Australian sea lion (Lexie) - who gave birth to Max in 2015 and Moby in 2017.

Although I can find no prior mention of a sea lion called Tahnee, I see one of the staff in the vet hospital shares her name - so my guess is she was a wild rescued pup from a years ago.
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Australian Sea Lion Update/Additional Information

I made some enquires about Taronga Zoo’s Australian sea lions:

Tarni (not Tahnee), is five years old and was rescued from Baird Bay, South Australia. The zoo’s other cows are Nala, aged ten; and her one year year old daughter, Amalie. Nala’s parents were Malie and Kira. Malie died in June 2020.

Bulls, Max, born 2015 to Malie and Lexie; and Torre, born 2018 to Charlie and Nala, are now at Sea World. This leaves the zoo with two bulls - Charlie, aged 14; and Moby, aged four. Moby was born 2017 to Charlie and Lexie.
 
Thanks for always sharing these documents @ReaganM. Reading some of the very detailed documents and plans, it will be a two-stage development costing about 13 million dollars, encompassing the land that currently has the surplus meerkats and gorillas. The centre will be fringed with three landscaped areas as well that will be located around the ground of this new centre:

  • The Forest Entry provides an opportunity to provide guests with a visually striking experience that immerses them in a lush forest habitat when they arrive at the entrance to the east of the site. Existing heritage elements and vegetation are preserved and integrated within the design.
  • The Gully is located to the west of the site and consists of a dry creek bed that re-intreprets the former creek with boulders and grasses that weave down through the site. Screen planting is provided between the RACC facility and the neighbouring Gorilla Enclosure.
  • The Green Facade provides an opportunity to integrate the RACC facility within the surrounding landscape, and will provide an interesting and unique green entrance to the southern side of the RACC facility.
Also, very pleasing news about the potential addition of Philippine Crocodiles (and underwater viewing for them as an added bonus) at Taronga as well. The zoo is long overdue for an exciting development of this nature.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Thanks for always sharing these documents @ReaganM. Reading some of the very detailed documents and plans, it will be a two-stage development costing about 13 million dollars, encompassing the land that currently has the surplus meerkats and gorillas. The centre will be fringed with three landscaped areas as well that will be located around the ground of this new centre:

  • The Forest Entry provides an opportunity to provide guests with a visually striking experience that immerses them in a lush forest habitat when they arrive at the entrance to the east of the site. Existing heritage elements and vegetation are preserved and integrated within the design.
  • The Gully is located to the west of the site and consists of a dry creek bed that re-intreprets the former creek with boulders and grasses that weave down through the site. Screen planting is provided between the RACC facility and the neighbouring Gorilla Enclosure.
  • The Green Facade provides an opportunity to integrate the RACC facility within the surrounding landscape, and will provide an interesting and unique green entrance to the southern side of the RACC facility.
Also, very pleasing news about the potential addition of Philippine Crocodiles (and underwater viewing for them as an added bonus) at Taronga as well. The zoo is long overdue for an exciting development of this nature.
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I am wondering if they do add Philippine Crocs if then the Melbourne zoo will reboot them and get into a real breeding program?
 
Zorro said:
I am wondering if they do add Philippine Crocs if then the Melbourne zoo will reboot them and get into a real breeding program?
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That would be great if they do come. I think it makes sense that Taronga want a new reptile and amphibian building(s); the current one has been great (i remember the exictement of visiting it when it opened in '95 didnt wear off even after returning every year, even ten years later was still an enjoyable and interesting visit), but i just realised from reading your posts it been 26 years since it opened and i guess space is limited now especially with the increase in rescue, rehabiltate numbers and more species conservation commitments/pledges than in '95.
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Thanks for always sharing these documents @ReaganM. Reading some of the very detailed documents and plans, it will be a two-stage development costing about 13 million dollars, encompassing the land that currently has the surplus meerkats and gorillas. The centre will be fringed with three landscaped areas as well that will be located around the ground of this new centre:

  • The Forest Entry provides an opportunity to provide guests with a visually striking experience that immerses them in a lush forest habitat when they arrive at the entrance to the east of the site. Existing heritage elements and vegetation are preserved and integrated within the design.
  • The Gully is located to the west of the site and consists of a dry creek bed that re-intreprets the former creek with boulders and grasses that weave down through the site. Screen planting is provided between the RACC facility and the neighbouring Gorilla Enclosure.
  • The Green Facade provides an opportunity to integrate the RACC facility within the surrounding landscape, and will provide an interesting and unique green entrance to the southern side of the RACC facility.
Also, very pleasing news about the potential addition of Philippine Crocodiles (and underwater viewing for them as an added bonus) at Taronga as well. The zoo is long overdue for an exciting development of this nature.
Click to expand...

This seems to cut off any potential expansion opportunity for the elephants, if this is taking over the current gorilla/meerkat habitats. If they wanted to use Gung's old yard as an elephant expansion, they could use that site as an elephant "trail" connecting the Wild Asia yard with Gung's old yard. If they wanted to double down on elephants, either they would have a bachelor group of elephants, or build the "trail" somewhere else. IDK, I just really hope they are maintained by the time I visit.
 
steveroberts said:
That would be great if they do come. I think it makes sense that Taronga want a new reptile and amphibian building(s); the current one has been great (i remember the exictement of visiting it when it opened in '95 didnt wear off even after returning every year, even ten years later was still an enjoyable and interesting visit), but i just realised from reading your posts it been 26 years since it opened and i guess space is limited now especially with the increase in rescue, rehabiltate numbers and more species conservation commitments/pledges than in '95.
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Yes it sure would be nice to have a better breeding program for them this time with a handful of zoos involved working together! :)
 
Full announcement from Facebook:
We are beyond excited to announce the birth of five African Lion cubs at Taronga Zoo Sydney! We couldn't be happier to report that both mum and cubs are doing extremely well and are growing in confidence every single day!
In some even more exciting news and in a first-ever at Taronga, we are giving YOU access behind-the-scenes to watch the cubs grow with Taronga TV's brand-new Cub Cam!
For a small tax-deductible donation of just $7, you can access Cub Cam and come along the journey with us as we watch these cubs grow as well as providing vital funds to support lion conservation work around the world!
For more information or to access Taronga TV's Cub Cam simply visit: www.taronga.org.au/cubcam
#forthewild #tarongatv #newarrivals #lioncubs #zooborn
 
I recently emailed Taronga Zoo regarding any recent bird breeding success as social media rarely provides any bird-related updates. Species they are currently breeding include Regent Honeyeater (six chicks with two fledglings so far), Noisy Pitta, Mulga Parrot, Wompoo Fruit-Dove and Nicobar Pigeon.
 
The zoo's wildlife hospital recently took in a male Yellow-bellied Glider due to a gliding membrane injury from a barbed wire fence. Unfortunately the glider was not able to be released but will be introduced into the zoo population as a new founder for the regional breeding programme for this species among Australian zoos. From their social media:

"Our Taronga Wildlife Hospital receives more than 1000 wildlife cases every single year. And our intent, after a case is treated is to always return native wildlife to their wild habitats. But sometimes this isn't always possible. Recently, a yellow-bellied glider was brought in after a suspected collision with a barbed-wire fence. Tune in now and hear from Senior Vet Larry to find out what the future holds for this little glider."
 
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