Tasmanian Devils in New Zealand

driftaguy

driftaguy

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Tasmanian devils head for NZ - Latest National News - Keep up with Newstalk ZB

Tasmanian devils head for NZ

The next time you visit the zoo, there will be a new creature to show the kids.

Tasmanian devils will be sent to New Zealand zoos in a last ditch effort to save them, after a facial tumour disease decimated most of the population.

Tasmanian Environment Minister Brian Wrightman told Guardian Australia that the future of the species was uncertain, despite hard work from state and federal agencies.

Conservationist Howell Williams says the devils are curious, engaging and delightful - but nothing like the cartoon character Taz that made the devils world famous.
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Wellington Zoo in line to get four devilish 'ambassadors'

Wellington Zoo In Line To Get Four Devilish 'Ambassadors'... | Stuff.co.nz

Wellington Zoo in line to get four devilish 'ambassadors'

Wellington Zoo could get a foursome of Tasmanian devils as part of a trial to make the meat-eating marsupials ambassadors in the fight against the deadly Devil Facial Tumour Disease.

Spread through the species' savage infighting, the infectious parasitic cancer has wiped out about 80 per cent of the population since the 1990s and in 2008 the Tasmanian devil was declared endangered. The untreatable tumours grow so big they stop the voracious animals from hunting and eating.

The Tasmanian state government has launched a pilot project that would scatter about 20 devils around "high-profile zoos" in New Zealand and the United States.

If Ministry for Primary Industries import health standards are met, the "ambassador devils" could be in the country by year's end.

The plan is to bring three groups of four non-breeding animals to likely hosts Wellington Zoo, Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park and Auckland Zoo.

Only zoos with a conservation track record are being considered by the Tasmanian government and Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. The acquisition would be a first for Wellington Zoo and Orana, and the second for Auckland, which had two gifted by the Tasmanian government in the 1980s.

Wellington Zoo spokeswoman Kate Baker said the overseas transfer would be the first since a pair was sent to Copenhagen Zoo in 2006 as a gift to Princess Mary of Denmark, who is from Tasmania.

"We're just really excited about the possibility of getting them and it'll be great talking about them with our visitors," Ms Baker said.

Tasmanian Environment, Parks and Heritage Minister Brian Wightman said the project was viable because a strong out-of-state backup population of uninfected animals had been established in mainland Australia.

Formal ownership of the devils will stay with the Tasmanian government and selected zoos will have to stick to strict animal husbandry guidelines.
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Auckland Zoo a Possibility

Auckland Zoo are working with the Save the Tasmanian Devil programme and the Tasmanian govt to possibly acquire some in 1-2 years.
 
perhaps within the next six months there will be devils in NZ again (the following is from the thread in the Australian forum, linked in my post above).

Tassie devils bound for San Diego* | Mudgee Guardian
FOUR Tasmanian devils will head to San Diego Zoo in the US in late October, the first of 20 bound for overseas zoos and parks in the next six months.

Environment Minister Brian Wightman announced the pilot program in June, and yesterday revealed the first of the zoos to receive the devils.

Four will be sent to Albuquerque Biopark in New Mexico, and four each to New Zealand's Wellington Zoo, Orana Park in Christchurch, and Auckland Zoo.

The international program will raise awareness of the devils' plight, and contribute to the $5 million annual cost of maintaining the insurance populations. The chosen devils must be genetically over-represented in their population or at the end of their breeding life.

Wellington Zoo life science manager Elise Kovac was in Launceston this week attending a prerequisite Tasmanian devil husbandry program, before receiving the devils later this year.

We're thrilled to be a part of the Save the Devils program - it's a great opportunity to be directly involved,'' she said.

The program will be expanded to include around 10 zoos in North America and 10 in Europe.

Mr Wightman said he was disappointed by a failed bid for $4 million over four years from the federal government for the Save the Devils program, which is fighting against the deadly devil facial tumour disease, but said he would continue to lobby the Commonwealth for future funding.

There are now 550 healthy devils living in insurance populations in zoos and wildlife parks across Australia
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They will certainly be a great addition to the currently-being-built Australian section at Wellington (which was basically slated to only include dingo, emu and wallabies and really seemed to me to be a bit of a waste of resources).
 
It's highly possible that the enclosure at Auckland Zoo will be opposite Janie's, as the maintenance page of their website states "Due to a new enclosure being built, our exotic bird aviaries and chimpanzee enclosure are closed to visitors."
 
driftaguy said:
It's highly possible that the enclosure at Auckland Zoo will be opposite Janie's, as the maintenance page of their website states "Due to a new enclosure being built, our exotic bird aviaries and chimpanzee enclosure are closed to visitors."
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Yup, I think that is very likely. That exhibit (previously home to Mara, Parma Wallabies) was fenced off this weekend, and there was a digger in there. That whole area was fenced off, from the walkthrough lorikeet aviary to the lovebirds, and was inaccessible (including Janie).
 
the devils should be at Wellington Zoo in December apparently (i.e. next month!!): https://www.wellingtonzoo.com/net/news/article.aspx?id=364
....“We’re thrilled to share the exciting news that four Tasmanian Devils will also be moving into Neighbours in December. Caring for Tassie Devils is a first for Wellington Zoo....."
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(I have a feeling someone may have already posted that in another thread earlier?)
 
driftaguy said:
It's highly possible that the enclosure at Auckland Zoo will be opposite Janie's, as the maintenance page of their website states "Due to a new enclosure being built, our exotic bird aviaries and chimpanzee enclosure are closed to visitors."
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the current pdf of the zoo map shows that whole area to the left of the band rotunda between the lorikeet aviary and macaws shaded, with the message "Tasmanian devils coming soon".
 
Word on Tassies at Auckland is around Christmas, usually appended with "hopefully," or "if we're lucky."
 
If this is the plan as stated in the header

"The plan is to bring three groups of four non-breeding animals to likely hosts Wellington Zoo, Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park and Auckland Zoo."

How is that going to save the species? Won't they just die out in the zoos as they age?
 
will57 said:
If this is the plan as stated in the header

"The plan is to bring three groups of four non-breeding animals to likely hosts Wellington Zoo, Christchurch's Orana Wildlife Park and Auckland Zoo."

How is that going to save the species? Won't they just die out in the zoos as they age?
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There is a large conservation breeding program underway in Australia, which is being managed to ensure the species survived. We are talking in the region of 500 animals, surely one of the largest programs in the world.

The problem is that devils live 7 or 8 years, but are useless for breeding after age 3 or 4. In fact ideally once capacity is reached each devil will need to be bred only once in its life.

This leaves the problem of large numbers of post reproductive animals. By taking these animals overseas zoos are freeing up spaces in Australian zoos for animals required for the program.

It would be extremely unlikely that any devils bred overseas would ever be allowed into Australia anyway, for fear of introduced diseases.
 
MRJ said:
There is a large conservation breeding program underway in Australia, which is being managed to ensure the species survived. We are talking in the region of 500 animals, surely one of the largest programs in the world.

The problem is that devils live 7 or 8 years, but are useless for breeding after age 3 or 4. In fact ideally once capacity is reached each devil will need to be bred only once in its life.

This leaves the problem of large numbers of post reproductive animals. By taking these animals overseas zoos are freeing up spaces in Australian zoos for animals required for the program.

It would be extremely unlikely that any devils bred overseas would ever be allowed into Australia anyway, for fear of introduced diseases.
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thanks for that, I was curious why we were only getting non breeding animals
 
they are going to be on display at Wellington Zoo from the 14th of December which is only a few days away. Anyone heard anything about Auckland or Orana regarding devils? (I mean there's been literally nothing from Orana at all, and very little from Auckland)
 
to answer my own question: Wellington Zoo ready to welcome Tasmanian Devils - World - NZ Herald News
5 Dec 2013

Wellington Zoo is making a home for four Tasmanian Devils which are due to arrive there this week.

The arrival of the Devils - following a seven-day stint in quarantine - will mark nearly 100 years since the species was last housed at the zoo.

A specially constructed exhibit within the zoo's Australian walk-through precinct 'Neighbours' will house the three males and one female when they arrive.

The zoo is a partner of the Save the Tasmanian Devil Programme, which was established in 2003 in response to a rare contagious cancer that decimated Tasmanian Devil populations, reducing their numbers in the wild by approximately 80 per cent.

The programme, which involves institutes and zoos around the world, and was set up by the Tasmanian Government, has enabled the number of Tasmanian Devils living in zoos and wildlife parks across Australia to reach 550.

More of the animals will arrive at Christchurch's Orana Park and Auckland Zoo later next year.
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There is a photo of the exhibit on Facebook, it looks like it is built at the base of the old Emu enclosure (previously Barbary Sheep). I guess there's more than one exhibit though.
 
as noted by zooboy28 in http://www.zoochat.com/17/auckland-zoo-news-2014-a-351354/index2.html, the devils have now arrived at Auckland Zoo!!

Auckland Zoo - The devils are coming...
Four Tasmanian devils are making their way to Auckland Zoo this week, just in time for April School Holidays.

One female and three male Tasmanian devils are moving to Auckland Zoo from Australia's Healesville Zoo to be part of an insurance population for the endangered species.

Auckland Zoo director, Jonathan Wilcken says that Auckland Zoo is excited to be a part of this important conservation programme to help save the iconic Tasmanian devil.

"People may be surprised to learn that the Tasmanian devil is a delightfully curious and engaging creature - a very different animal from the one portrayed in the famous cartoon. We're looking forward to visitors being delighted by the new exhibit; it really is a fantastic environment for the devils to live and for visitors to learn," says Mr Wilcken.

Once widespread throughout Australia, devils are now only found in Tasmania and are threatened with extinction due to the deadly Devil Facial Tumour Disease - a devastating disease that emerged in 1996 and still has no cure.

In response to the emergence of this disease and the alarming decline in Tasmanian devils, the Australian and Tasmanian governments teamed up and created the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. The programme includes a global zoo-based initiative lead by the Zoo and Aquarium Association, which manages a disease-free population of devils for future release in to the wild, should the wild population further deteriorate.
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Still nothing from Orana (although I did come across someone on Facebook in January asking "When is the Tasmanian devil's coming" and the answer from Orana was "That's Wellington Zoo and I believe they have arrived") :rolleyes:
 
Chlidonias said:
Still nothing from Orana (although I did come across someone on Facebook in January asking "When is the Tasmanian devil's coming" and the answer from Orana was "That's Wellington Zoo and I believe they have arrived") :rolleyes:
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Lol, excellent work by the marketing department :D
 
Chlidonias said:
as noted by zooboy28 in http://www.zoochat.com/17/auckland-zoo-news-2014-a-351354/index2.html, the devils have now arrived at Auckland Zoo!!

Auckland Zoo - The devils are coming...



Still nothing from Orana (although I did come across someone on Facebook in January asking "When is the Tasmanian devil's coming" and the answer from Orana was "That's Wellington Zoo and I believe they have arrived") :rolleyes:
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Oh, I can help with this:

The Devils are due in June-July. The latest supporters newsletter from OWP gives details about the Tasmanian government's plan for the marsupials, and asks for donations to help bring them over (remember, OWP is a charitable trust - not run by the city council).
 
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