Tree kangaroos

mazfc

mazfc

Well-Known Member
Are tree kangaroos held in the uk or Europe? I've looked on zooterlister and can't find any current holdings. If not, are there reasons for this?
 
Pretty sure they are at Krefeld and Duisburg or at least were the last time I visited (last year).
 
mazfc said:
Are tree kangaroos held in the uk or Europe? I've looked on zooterlister and can't find any current holdings. If not, are there reasons for this?
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Belfast have a Matschie's tree kangaroo I believe (or a goodfellow's, but I think it's the former) - my main reason I want to visit :)

It would be nice to see them more established in UK collections though :)
 
Belfast keep 1 Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo which is the only one in the UK.
(Dendrolagus goodfellowi goodfellowi)

Argh... JR u beat me to it :P
 
I suspect you've been caught out by Zootierliste's strict search engine! The two forms currently kept are named as 'tree-kangaroo', and 'tree kangaroo' (no hyphen) won't find them! :D

Goodfellow's - 7 zoos including Belfast: ZootierlisteHomepage

Matschie's - 2 zoos: ZootierlisteHomepage
 
Actually prior to my German zoo trip I'd never seen one, then I saw several in one day as I did both Krefeld and Duisburg in one day (they are only 15 mins apart by train), have to say they are lovely looking animals.
 
Got a Marwell guidebook from the 80's which had tree kangaroos on a page of species' that would be arriving in the then future: Still don't know what the outcome of that was, but I presume the plans fell through.
 
mazfc said:
Are tree kangaroos held in the uk or Europe? I've looked on zooterlister and can't find any current holdings. If not, are there reasons for this?
Click to expand...

When I worked at Blackpool Zoo in 1976 they had Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo I believe. In fact they had quite a few and a number of other Australian animals - I believe the plan was that animals from this area would be a specialist feature of the collection. I think the then director Cyril Grace previously of Dudley Zoo had good contacts in Australia at the time.
 
They still had them in 1977. I also saw Doria's at Twycross in 1984 and Matschie's at Blackpool in 1985.
 
Wasn't there some sort of deal going on between Blackpool and Twycross involving marsupials, either they shared the cost of importing founder stock, or they shared stock between the collections?

I am sure I saw Matschie's in the right-hand side of the Clore at London in 1986, I am less sure (possibly wishful thinking) that they were breeding....
 
johnstoni said:
Wasn't there some sort of deal going on between Blackpool and Twycross involving marsupials, either they shared the cost of importing founder stock, or they shared stock between the collections?
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from this former thread (2008) http://www.zoochat.com/38/memories-other-uk-zoos-13994/index2.html:
Chlidonias said:
in the book "Chimps With Everything: the story of Twycross Zoo" by Molly Badham (1979) it says (on page 130) that they were contacted by a woman called Anne Ulrich who had been doing work in New Guinea and had amassed a large collection of wildlife which she wanted to bring out of the country and donate to Twycross (I guess things like that were easier in those days!!). Amongst the animals were three spotted cuscus and fourteen tree kangaroos (apparently of various species?), as well as wallabies (unspecified) and a fruit bat. The quarantine was divided between Twycross and Blackpool, so presumably animals went to both zoos once quarantine was over.
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johnstoni. said:
I am sure I saw Matschie's in the right-hand side of the Clore at London in 1986, I am less sure (possibly wishful thinking) that they were breeding....
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Sorry but the tree-kangaroo in the Clore Pavilion at London Zoo during the 1980s was labelled Goodfellow's tree-kangaroo.

I think it was just wishful thinking that the species bred there.......
 
Didn't Blackpool also exhibit Brown Dorcopsis and Bruijn's Pademelon in the early 1970s?
 
Thank you for the info. I hope I get a chance to see them soon.

@maguari - you guessed right, I didn't use a hyphen:)
 
Zambar said:
Got a Marwell guidebook from the 80's which had tree kangaroos on a page of species' that would be arriving in the then future: Still don't know what the outcome of that was, but I presume the plans fell through.
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They never arrived , the same goes for some of the other species mentioned on those additional inserted pages.
 
zoogiraffe said:
They certainly had Quokka in the late 1980's as I have a photo of them somewhere at home!!!
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They still had three Quokka in 1987, when I visited and photographed them.
These animals very gradually died out , but lasted a suprisingly long time at Blackpool.
 
Edinburgh too had quokka in the early 70's

Twycross too had Doria's tree kangaroo as part of a larger import of animals from Papua New Guinea, split with Blackpool, that also included spotted cuscus, which they also managed to breed.
 
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