Auckland Zoo Te Wao Nui Review

Really you Kiwis should be proud of your country's heritage! It is one of the fundamental reasons why us overseas wish to visit your great nation! Happy to see Auckland doing well in the zoo stakes after the recent earth shatterings ...! Keep it up!!! :)
 
Auckland Zoo scoops gold for Te Wao Nui in landscape awards | Scoop News
31 July 2012

Auckland Zoo’s curator of horticulture, Hugo Baynes, has won Landscaping New Zealand’s supreme award in the 2012 Landscapes of Distinction Awards for the NZ precinct, Te Wao Nui – the Zoo’s largest ever project.

Along with winning the Landscape of the Year Award and three golds - for Landscape Design, Horticulture, and Garden Management, Te Wao Nui also won the Best Sustainable Landscape, Best Use of Native Plants, Best Horticulture, and Best Garden Management (large project) awards.

The overall award recognised consistency in quality and excellence throughout the planning, planting and maintenance of Te Wao Nui’s habitats - The Coast, The Islands, The Wetlands, The Forest, and The High Country

Judges said: “This design shows sensitivity and expertise at all levels and results in a magical journey for visitors that highlights the very best and special natural character of New Zealand. Zoos are much more than animals! The renewed focus on flora, as well as fauna, is extraordinary and educational…and the planting design of this space is inspirational.”

The Zoo’s curator of horticulture, Hugo Baynes, says the win is both tremendous and humbling and the result of many passionate people.

“It was a truly collaborative effort. The Zoo’s horticultural team and Natural Habitats contractors did a superb job helping install the landscape on a canvas beautifully designed and compiled by designer Logan Brewer and proudly built by NZ Strong. It’s been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a real joy to be involved in a project where New Zealand native flora and fauna are showcased in representative iconic habitats, that by their very nature, encourage visitors to explore, connect and protect our natural heritage,” says Mr Baynes.

Auckland Zoo director Jonathan Wilcken says local and overseas visitors have flocked to see Te Wao Nui since it opened last September – a major catalyst for the Zoo attracting a record 710,000 visitors in the 12 months ended 30 June.

“It’s wonderful to receive these landscaping awards for Te Wao Nui - the biggest and most important project in our 90-year history, and a real tribute to Hugo and his team, and everyone involved,” says Mr Wilcken.

Landscaping New Zealand’s Landscapes of Distinction Awards is a biennial event that recognises excellence in the fields of landscape design, construction and maintenance, encompassing commercial and residential projects.

2012 Landscaping New Zealand awards won by Auckland Zoo:
• 2012 Landscape of the Year
• The Living Earth: Best Sustainable Landscape
• The Dalton’s Landscape Supplies: Best Horticulture Large Project
• NZ Landscape Supplies: Best Garden Management
• Naturally Native: Best Use of Native Plants
• GOLD: Landscape Design – large project category
• GOLD: Landscape Horticulture – large project category
• GOLD: Garden Management – large project category

The 2012 judges were Renee Davies, Head of Department of Landscape Architecture at Unitec, Grant Eyre from Growing Spectrum Plant Nursery, and Richard Hart, architect.
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on the zoo's facebook they say the blue duck pair in Te Wao Nui have laid eggs:
Exciting news! Our blue duck (whio) have laid their first egg in The High Country, in Te Wao Nui. This is the first time this pair have bred, so we have high hopes for a successful clutch.
All going well, we will release the ducklings into the wild as part of a breed to release programme :)
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The brown teal in the Wetlands aviary also laid a clutch recently.
 
So I visited Auckland Zoo on the 19th (best zoo in the country by a long way, and easily of world-class standard) and Te Wao Nui is amazing! It could easily be a stand-alone native collection – and if it was it would surpass by a very long way any other stand-alone native collection in the country! The only poor point about it is that there isn’t a single path through the complex, so there seemed to be a lot of random back-tracking to see everything (or maybe that was just me!). Judging by other comments in this thread there does seem to be quite a bit of moving of animals between exhibits, so my observations follow:


COAST: all the birds in the aviary were sleepy, so I only saw one sleeping NZ dotterel, one sleeping spotted shag, two sleepy little blue penguins and one little blue taking nest material into one of the boxes. The underwater viewing window for the seal pool was fantastic with nicely done theming around it. The seals were very active too.

ISLANDS: the aviary for Campbell Island teal and Antipodes parakeets was empty (with a sign saying the birds were off-display) so I didn’t go in there because it was padlocked. The lizard tanks were lushly-planted with mosses and ferns, and looked great. They held from left to right (when facing them) Duvaucel’s geckoes; Falla’s skinks; forest and Northland green geckoes; more Fallas’s skinks; and chevron skinks. The signage for these tanks was very poor, with only some of them specifically identifying the inhabitants within. The tuatara tank on the opposite wall was nice too.

WETLANDS: saw paradise duck, shoveller, grey teal (quite a few of them), brown teal, scaup, white-faced heron. There was a sign for banded rail but due to the presence of an unbelievably badly-behaved school group they were hiding. There were was no signage for pied stilt or kingfisher that I saw. The eel tank was good, but hard to see into due to reflections.

NIGHT FOREST: again ruined by the hoardes of screaming little school kids with no adult control!!! The kiwi, morepork and (frustratingly) short-tailed bats all remained unseen. The two kiwi enclosures were too small for my liking. The Archey’s frog tank is still not occupied. There are two tanks for snails (kauri and flax). They only have one cave weta left but I missed that tank anyway. The giant weta tank is now or will be very soon finished and occupied (but I didn’t notice where it would be). The fish tanks looked very nice, especially the giant kokopu was impressive. The other two tanks held black mudfish in one (not visible, unsurprisingly), and a mix of bullies, galaxiids, torrentfish and koura in the other. My only criticisms here are that the corridor is too dark when there are alcoves in the walls (where the tanks are) which makes walking into things too easy; and the doors at the end aren’t obviously for the public to go through (I think that was the entrance though and I just went in the wrong way!)

FOREST: really nice but personally disappointing in that I had just come from several days on Tiritiri Matangi and had been spoiled by birds. There was no specific signage for saddleback or kokako but just a general wattlebird sign. I think adding banded rails to the floor of the aviary would be a good idea.

HIGH COUNTRY: once again, a fantastic aviary, very nice both to look at and to walk through. I didn’t see any weka (you know, school kids!) but I did see the kea. Outside are several tanks for Otago skinks, all very visible basking on their outcrops. Rough geckoes are in a tank inside the entrance hut for the blue duck aviary. The ducks couldn’t be seen from the viewing point inside but could be seen sleeping on the far end of the pond when standing on the raised path that leads past the outside of the aviary. I saw no kakariki in the blue duck aviary and don’t recall seeing a sign for them (there were signs for both in the forest aviary though).
 
Chlidonias said:
So I visited Auckland Zoo on the 19th (best zoo in the country by a long way, and easily of world-class standard) and Te Wao Nui is amazing! It could easily be a stand-alone native collection – and if it was it would surpass by a very long way any other stand-alone native collection in the country! The only poor point about it is that there isn’t a single path through the complex, so there seemed to be a lot of random back-tracking to see everything (or maybe that was just me!). Judging by other comments in this thread there does seem to be quite a bit of moving of animals between exhibits, so my observations follow.
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I'm glad you liked the zoo Chlidonias, althoughI'm a little disappointed there is, as yet, no deliberate provocation :D

I think if the Islands aviary was open, you could have done a loop with no doubling back: Coast, Islands, Wetlands, Night, Forest, High Country.

Good to see they have introduced kingfishers and stilts to the Wetlands, this will provide a bit more diversity. Not surprised you missed the eels, I'm not sure anyone has ever seen them in there, they need to fix that. Surprised you didn't see the birds/bats in the Night, but agree that the opposite area is too dark. Did you see any reptiles in those tanks? Looks like they have moved the Duvaucels from there to the Islands, presumably the Giant Weta are replacing these.

I am very excited about my visit in a week or so!
 
zooboy28 said:
I'm glad you liked the zoo Chlidonias, althoughI'm a little disappointed there is, as yet, no deliberate provocation :D

I think if the Islands aviary was open, you could have done a loop with no doubling back: Coast, Islands, Wetlands, Night, Forest, High Country.

Good to see they have introduced kingfishers and stilts to the Wetlands, this will provide a bit more diversity. Not surprised you missed the eels, I'm not sure anyone has ever seen them in there, they need to fix that. Surprised you didn't see the birds/bats in the Night, but agree that the opposite area is too dark. Did you see any reptiles in those tanks? Looks like they have moved the Duvaucels from there to the Islands, presumably the Giant Weta are replacing these.

I am very excited about my visit in a week or so!
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I will make some comments about the zoo as a whole in another thread, but I didn't really find anything wrong with it at all. It was almost entirely brilliant. With the caveat that NZ is limited in the number of species the zoos can display, I did find Auckland Zoo to be world-class.

Regarding Te Wao Nui, to be honest I think my perception of the "no single route" may have been due to me wanting to visit the night bit first for the bats. If I had approached it differently it may have been simpler. The sole reason for missing the kiwi and probably bats was the screaming kids (and I mean literally screaming, not just being noisy). I didn't see any reptiles in the night area. The giant weta *should* be on display by the time you visit.

I obviously worded the Wetland section badly though. I did see some eels in the tank there, right at the front, but the reflections made it a difficult tank for viewing. There aren't stilts and kingfishers in the aviary, I was just commenting on that there were no signs for them which I gather there had been previously (I read the passage back and I had made it sound like I had seen the stilts and kingfishers but hadn't seen the signs for them, which wasn't my intention sorry).
 
Chlidonias said:
I will make some comments about the zoo as a whole in another thread, but I didn't really find anything wrong with it at all. It was almost entirely brilliant. With the caveat that NZ is limited in the number of species the zoos can display, I did find Auckland Zoo to be world-class.

Regarding Te Wao Nui, to be honest I think my perception of the "no single route" may have been due to me wanting to visit the night bit first for the bats. If I had approached it differently it may have been simpler. The sole reason for missing the kiwi and probably bats was the screaming kids (and I mean literally screaming, not just being noisy). I didn't see any reptiles in the night area. The giant weta *should* be on display by the time you visit.

I obviously worded the Wetland section badly though. I did see some eels in the tank there, right at the front, but the reflections made it a difficult tank for viewing. There aren't stilts and kingfishers in the aviary, I was just commenting on that there were no signs for them which I gather there had been previously (I read the passage back and I had made it sound like I had seen the stilts and kingfishers but hadn't seen the signs for them, which wasn't my intention sorry).
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I eagerly await your whole zoo comments :D

Good that you saw the eels, perhaps they have become more confident in the year they have been living there. Shame about the kingfisher and stilts, although Auckland Zoo is looking to acquire both species (according to ZAA census), so they will hopefully appear soon enough. Pied Stilts were previously displayed in the Coast, although before it became the Coast per se.They are also listing to acquire Great White Heron (presumably also for Wetlands), Orange-fronted Parakeet & Takahe (High Country), and NZ Robin, Kokako & NI Saddleback (Forest). Clearly some of these are much more attainable than others.
 
zooboy28 said:
I eagerly await your whole zoo comments :D

Good that you saw the eels, perhaps they have become more confident in the year they have been living there. Shame about the kingfisher and stilts, although Auckland Zoo is looking to acquire both species (according to ZAA census), so they will hopefully appear soon enough. Pied Stilts were previously displayed in the Coast, although before it became the Coast per se.They are also listing to acquire Great White Heron (presumably also for Wetlands), Orange-fronted Parakeet & Takahe (High Country), and NZ Robin, Kokako & NI Saddleback (Forest). Clearly some of these are much more attainable than others.
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Is the ZAA census available online?
 
So I visited Auckland Zoo on the 19th (best zoo in the country by a long way, and easily of world-class standard) and Te Wao Nui is amazing! It could easily be a stand-alone native collection – and if it was it would surpass by a very long way any other stand-alone native collection in the country!
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A Pom can only dream...:-) Are Kaka on display anywhere? I remember them being near the Kiwi/Tuatara exhibit in 1997.
 
IanRRobinson said:
A Pom can only dream...:-) Are Kaka on display anywhere? I remember them being near the Kiwi/Tuatara exhibit in 1997.
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the kaka are in the big walk-through forest aviary.

The first time I visited Auckland Zoo (which was also the only time I had visited Auckland Zoo until last week), back in the early 90s, both kea and kaka were in horrible little concrete aviaries with almost literally nothing for them to do in there. What a marvellous difference since then!!
 
Chlidonias said:
on the zoo's facebook they say the blue duck pair in Te Wao Nui have laid eggs.
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there were six eggs, all of which were pulled for incubation (I did wonder why the ducks were sitting by their pond instead of on a nest!). All are fertile which is good news.
 
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https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151004439206984.421676.57062666983&type=1
 
Excellent news.

Will Auckland also in future do endangered stilts and other waders (VIZ your review of Te Wao Nui)???
 
Four have hatched, and they plan to release these to the wild eventually.

Lots of photos here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AKLZOONZ?fref=ts

@KB, Auckland Zoo wants to acquite Pied Stilts, but these would not be bred for release as are not a threatened/endangered species. The programme to breed the critically endangered Black Stilt is concentrated in Twizel (South Island, NZ) and no other zoos are involved with this.

Auckland Zoo does hold New Zealand Dotterals, but I don't know if this is for breeding or just rescue birds. No other species are held, or are likely to be held in the short-term.

Oystercatchers are held at a very few NZ zoos (not Auckland). I think most other waders in NZ are migratory, and these are not considered suitable for zoo programmes, although there are a few rescued birds (Bar-tailed Godwit) in at least one other collection.
 
zooboy28 said:
The programme to breed the critically endangered Black Stilt is concentrated in Twizel (South Island, NZ) and no other zoos are involved with this.
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Peacock Springs in Christchurch is part of the black stilt breeding programme and release quite a few birds. The Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown used to be part of this as well; I'm not sure if they still breed them, or only hold them for advocacy purposes (I'll be there later this month, so I'll find out).
 
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