Wellington Zoo Wellington Zoo News 2023

Release of Tuatara:

From socials:

A group of precious Tuatara have been successfully released to their new home in the Marlborough Sounds.

Ten of the Tuatara have been cared for by our expert team of Reptile Keepers at Wellington Zoo for the last 12-15 years, until they were mature enough to be safely released to the wild.
 
Giraffe pregnancy:

Zuri is pregnant! Her calf is due late 2023 and all going well, will be the zoo’s first surviving calf since Zahara was born 19 years ago in March 2004.

From socials:

We have some very exciting news to share .... there's a baby on the way!

In the meantime, we've made some temporary changes to the Giraffe habitat. If you've been up there recently, you may have noticed some temporary fencing has been installed. We're making sure that our Giraffes all have access to separate spaces, for the remainder of Zuri's pregnancy.

Once the calf has arrived, and is out and about exploring, we'll be making some permanent changes to the Giraffe house.
 
A few interesting titbits from the 2022-2023 annual report:

Annual report: https://wellingtonzoo.com/assets/Resources/Annual-Report-2023-VFINAL-WEB.pdf
  • Wellington Zoo’s new masterplan will be presented to the city council next month sometime in October. Master planning had commenced to deliver an 20-year-plan for the zoo which started in late 2022 and the workshops were facilitated by Studio Hanson | Roberts, Kelp Creative and some former Taronga staff. Page 60 has a pixelated map with a few small changes shown initially (e.g. capybara moved back towards spider monkeys).
  • the arrival of the snow leopards led Wellington to have their highest ever month of visitation with 40,058 visitors in April. Particularly impressive considering the exhibit opened halfway through the month.
  • deaths included their cheetahs (Cango and Kunjuka), servals (Shanti and Tunde) with one euthanised due to cancer and the second on welfare grounds like the caracals, a Cape Barren Goose (Goosey), their breeding female Cottontop Tamarin (Celeste), a red panda (Manasa) and their breeding female Pygmy Marmoset (Maya).
  • transfers out included a Cape Barren Goose and a female Capybara to Willowbank. Several meerkats were transferred around New Zealand; two to Auckland, three to Orana and two to Brooklands.
  • births/hatchings included eight Ring-tailed Lemurs, a Black-handed Spider Monkey (first in 29 years for Wellington apparently), three Pygmy Marmosets, a Swamp Wallaby and a Scheltopusik.
  • arrivals included two kiwi with one from Willowbank and the other from Westshore, four Red-rumped Agouti from Canberra, Grand Skinks from Auckland and a private holder, an Otago Skink from Auckland, two new Derbyan Parakeets and two Little Penguins were absorbed into the zoo’s collection after being deemed unrealeasable via the wildlife hospital.
  • six Cunningham’s Skinks have also arrived and will soon go on-show near the banana bar.
  • a new tuatara exhibit has been opened in the living room building.
 
An updated statement of intent has also just been released and actually provides drawings to explain the stage reached in the November 2022 workshop for their masterplan. There will be further refinements and undoubtedly will be changes to the version that will be presented to council next month. Some of the notable animal-related points of interest/changes from the initial masterplan:
  • ‘rock wallabies’ - not sure if that’s an error. The zoo has recently invested an import with Swamp Wallabies and the Kawau Island population of rock-wallabies seems to be an unreliable source due to an eradication programme.
  • the first primate island dedicated to the spider monkeys along with capybara and agouti.
  • the second primate island for the gibbons and ‘small deer’. These would presumably be Lesser Mouse Deer. A gibbon aerial pathway as well.
  • a climate action hub that will seemingly house most of the exotic reptiles/inverts that links to the twilight area with the kiwi.
  • two lion exhibits with overhead tunnels to link the separate spaces.
  • the two lemur species side-by-side (which has sort of eventuated anyway with the loss of small felids and the ruffed lemurs taking their place)
  • a space for the callitrichids up near the lemurs.
Drawing of initial masterplan - page 17 (better quality in the document itself than screenshot below as you can really zoom in): https://wellingtonzoo.com/assets/Resources/Final-WZT-SOI-2023.24-1-June-2023.pdf
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WhistlingKite24 said:
An updated statement of intent has also just been released and actually provides drawings to explain the stage reached in the November 2022 workshop for their masterplan. There will be further refinements and undoubtedly will be changes to the version that will be presented to council next month. Some of the notable animal-related points of interest/changes from the initial masterplan:
  • ‘rock wallabies’ - not sure if that’s an error. The zoo has recently invested an import with Swamp Wallabies and the Kawau Island population of rock-wallabies seems to be an unreliable source due to an eradication programme.
  • the first primate island dedicated to the spider monkeys along with capybara and agouti.
  • the second primate island for the gibbons and ‘small deer’. These would presumably be Lesser Mouse Deer. A gibbon aerial pathway as well.
  • a climate action hub that will seemingly house most of the exotic reptiles/inverts that links to the twilight area with the kiwi.
  • two lion exhibits with overhead tunnels to link the separate spaces.
  • the two lemur species side-by-side (which has sort of eventuated anyway with the loss of small felids and the ruffed lemurs taking their place)
  • a space for the callitrichids up near the lemurs.
Drawing of initial masterplan - page 17 (better quality in the document itself than screenshot below as you can really zoom in): https://wellingtonzoo.com/assets/Resources/Final-WZT-SOI-2023.24-1-June-2023.pdf
View attachment 658490
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Mouse deer would be Awesome , but can they import them?
 
PaddyRickMFZ said:
New Zealand seem to be better than Australia at imports, so I don’t doubt them
Click to expand...
Zorro said:
It does appear that way, Waiting to see if they import new Giraffe bloodlines
Click to expand...

Agreed. To date, we’ve processed the Bovid IRA and the Giraffe IRA before Australia. Aside from the nyala import and the single bongo, there hasn’t been a lot of cooperation between the countries, which is disappointing.

Auckland, Orana and Wellington had no plans to import giraffe when I asked them earlier this year.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Agreed. To date, we’ve processed the Bovid IRA and the Giraffe IRA before Australia. Aside from the nyala import and the single bongo, there hasn’t been a lot of cooperation between the countries, which is disappointing.

Auckland, Orana and Wellington had no plans to import giraffe when I asked them earlier this year.
Click to expand...
What is currently in the works for new zealand
 
Osedax said:
So if they were added to the live import list they could be imported straight away, or would an IRA need to be completed?
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PaddyRickMFZ said:
they fall under the family Tragulidae and I’m not sure if that would require an IRA or not. @Zoofan15 , you’re up now
Click to expand...

An IRA would be needed to import Tragulidae species. There’s plenty of species on the live import list that Australian can’t import without an IRA. Australia doesn’t have an IRA for Tragulidae afaik.

New Zealand has a Tragulidae IRA, but only lesser mouse deer are on the live import list.
PaddyRickMFZ said:
What is currently in the works for new zealand
Click to expand...
Good question! I’ll ask next time I visit a zoo and can track down someone knowledgeable.
 
Zoofan15 said:
An IRA would be needed to import Tragulidae species. There’s plenty of species on the live import list that Australian can’t import without an IRA. Australia doesn’t have an IRA for Tragulidae afaik.

New Zealand has a Tragulidae IRA, but only lesser mouse deer are on the live import list.

Good question! I’ll ask next time I visit a zoo and can track down someone knowledgeable.
Click to expand...
So that means that Wellington definitely can import lesser mouse deer at a moment’s notice, and Australia can easily receive them from NZ
 
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