Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo March 2005

[Nigel]

I paid my annual visit to Wellington Zoo , to see what changes/additions etc there were .

Good points included ;
A decent cafe at the entrance of the zoo , where people can get something more substantial than icecreams / hotdogs
More staff wandering around the zoo providing information to visitors , and willing to talk shop
The zoo is now alot greener , with more gardens , shrubs ,trees , bamboo groves , and is looking a lot neater and less run down
In the aviary rows , every second cage had been amalgamated into the first one , effectively doubling enclosure size .
Fewer empty enclosures , bars/pit/cage style have been whittled down and disposed of ....
Male Sunbear for the female . Hopes that they will breed .
Noticable increase in baby baboons -- some only a couple of inches long and suckling Mother while she is moving around , several little baby ones about the size of a capuchin , several that are a little bigger.....
Lion cubs , Cape Hunting Dogs , baby cheetahs settling in well
A new family of meerkats are on their way from Africa .
A brand new Red panda enclosure , with aviary of birds from Nepal/Tibet

But there are still some negative things ;

No more Cairo ! Despite his bad breath , and showing the world his duulah while dribbling out buckets of froth and goo , he still had a character about him ( he was convinced that he was a human ) Apparently the staff had great difficulty in getting Xrays of his joints -- Cairo didnt like the mobile Xray machine , and drenched it in froth . Unfortunately , his arthritis was so bad that he had to be put to sleep . He had more interest in people than any other animal ( perhaps with the exception of the keas )

One of the chimpanzees had discovered (?) and was enjoying the art of throwing rocks at staff and visitors , so the enclosure is now covered with a netting , and the zookeepers have to think of how to train a chimp to take up more productive pastimes (?)

The nocturnal house is still FAR too dark , and even the keepers are unable to locate tuatara and kiwis . I have written to the zoo about the extreme darkness compared to other zoos in NZ . As the zoo have other breeding kiwis offsite , surely the light can be dim enough to make out the shapes of animals , so to lessen any disappointment of visitors . If the zoo has the lights on really BRIGHT during the night , a soft dim light during visiting hours should fool the kiwis that it is night , and time to be active .
But the response has not bben positive that the zoo will change their current standard ( despite keepers agreeing with me )

There is still poor relationship between keepers who work with the animals , and senior management ( I will not go into details here , but surely the keepers should be consulted if there are any planned changes or "improvements" for the animals ? )

There is not much suitable room for expansion , and new facilities will be costing alot more to design and build . The chimpanzees desperately need
new quarters , at least twice the current enclosure size -- which is fairly large in itself -- but where ?

My general overall impression of the zoo is that it is doing a good job for a zoo that is very old , has had a lousy public opinion until fairly recently , and is underfunded . They have built up a huge primate collection that is almost second to none in Australasia , and have now got a reasonably decent zoo , while trying to make do with what little they have .

 

[patrick]

chimps and nocturnal houses...

you have mentioned before that if one consideres taronga to be built on a steep hill, wellington could be considered a cliff! obviously whilst such a location allows for fantastic views, it can be a major hinderance in designing ideal enclosures for many species of animal, non-mountain dwelling ungulates in particular. i have seen your photographs of the chimp exhibit at wellington, i agree that it looks far too small. in fact, the only great ape enclosure i have ever seen, both in australia and overseas, that i have ever thought was really suitable, is for the gorillas at melbourne. tarongas chimp exhibit is a good size, but needs more vegetation and can pretty much only be viewed from the front. although melbourne's gorill a exhibit is very big, the design makes it appear even bigger, it can be viewed from five differnt vantage points, is very well vegetated and provides the gorillas with plenty of space from eachother and the public. in fact i have observed one of the gorillas hiding from the angry silverback for quite some time before being discovered. not many other animal enclosures would allow for a decent game of hide and seek (though as far as the gorillas were concerened, this was a little more serious!).

considering just how intellegent apes can be, it's no supprise that in a small exhibit they would get bored and resort to throwing stones. interestingly, despite being often unfairly considered the "least intellegent" of the great apes, its orangutans that are the best escape artists, not just for their climbing skills, but for their patience for unsrewing bolds and screws and they are masters at shorting-out hotwires.

anyhow, it sounds like if wellington are to expand their current chimp exhibit, they will need to downsize their animal collection (and thus make more room) or acquire additional land.

on the nocturnal house, it's funny you mention it being too dark because i was only just recently reading about how good levels of "moonlighting" where required to keep some nocturnal animals active during their reversed "night" hours. indeed the moonlight can be pretty bright when your out in the wilderness. most nocturnal exhibits i have ever seen are not that impressive. i think a great deal of clever artistry and technology would be the key to a truly impressive noctournal exhibit. can you imagine what it miust be like living in one of those enclosures? no natural elements - no wind, rain, no real (living) vegetation, nothing. the enclosures are more often than not pretty small as well.

althouth i think a great nocturnal house could be developed - using specially designed fading lighting, mist and watering systems, real plants (requiring expensive hydroponic "day" lighting, soundscapes etc, sometimes i think the best option would be to just keep the zoo open for the first few hours of night say, one night a week. wellington "night zoo" would be the same location yet a totally different experience.

what were the birds in the himalayan aviaries?

 

[Nigel]

I appreciate your comments , Patrick . And you have given more ideas to be discussed .
The birds that are part of the red panda enclosure are Derbyan Parakeet , and the Himalayan Monal , which you referred to in one of your previous messages . When I first saw it , it was in the shade , and I couldnt figure out what you saw in these birds -- they were about as bland colour as the average NZ bird . But I soon found out , when it came into the sunlight .

I think the largest primate enclosure that I have seen is the baboon enclosure which backs up against a steep ridge ( almost cliff ) and it is too large for me to get a photo showing the whole size . However , if you go to Jays website , you will see a good photo of it which will give you a reasonable idea of ther enclosure .

As Wellington successfully breeds the primates that they have , could it be
possible that Wellington could send some primates to other zoos in Australia for breeding . Whoever has the regions stud book should be able to match up some of Wellingtons primates with another zoo ?
The current chimp enclosure needs to be about the size of the current baboon enclosure . But within a few years , the current baboon enclosure will be too small for all the current baboons . So while I agree with Patrick that the chimp enclosure is currently too small for the number that it has , the zoo doesnt really want to trim the variety of animals it has unless there is no alternative .
However , according to the zoos short - medium range plan , one of the more higher priorities in it is the development of more suitable accom. for their chimps . So there may be changes in the next 2 -3 years

There was much publicity about the state of the art nocturnal house just before it opened . As the zoo is on a hilly/steep site , they decided to dig a whole hillsite away , build within the dugout , and then bury 90% of the building . This was very costly , but the zoo knows full well that flat(tish) land is a premium at the zoo . There are plans to build something on top of it , but at the moment it is a small hill that is being grassed . from what I gather , the building is capable of creating a decent downpour as well as mists , lighting of varying types , and sounds

I think that your idea of keeping the zoo open until dark is certainly a good one -- they tried that this summer just passed . Alot of animals are at their most active time then , and perhaps it would be good to show the public more of what a zookeeper actually does . I am not conviced that this will assist kiwi viewing at all , they are a very reclusive bird , and are good at camouflage . Even at other kiwihouses , sometimes it has taken me 15 minutes to spot a kiwi , and I know what to look for .

The zoo also has a new South America enclosure ( though they dont call it that ) Within the enclosure are agoutis , Cotton Top Tamarins , Red fronted macaw , and Sun Conure . A good effort for a mixed species exhibit !