The Sleepy Hippo
Well-Known Member
I'd love it if Werribee were able to expand westward towards Metropolitan Farm Rd. Open up more space for the lower savannah herds to roam and grow!
Werribee Open Range Zoo Werribee Open Range Zoo News 2023
- Thread starter Jambo
- Start date
- Status
It’d be nice to see Werribee expand their savannah areas. With Monarto and Dubbo’s expansion, they’ll no doubt be keen to keep up with their efforts.
Watching Mega Zoo, the thing that really stood out for me was the lack of infrastructure to treat herd animals such as zebra. They had to dart them and surround the animal with barriers to prevent exhibit mates attacking them (or the staff treating the animal). I note veterinary facilities have been built into the Bison/P-horse complex, so that’s good to hear.
@Zoofan15 @The Sleepy Hippo @PaddyRickMFZ
The new enclosures are on the Upper Savannah; where the Blackbuck males were recently. It does seem like their enclosures have been expanded further back which is really nice to see.
The trail seen passing their exhibits is actually the Safari road, so they'll only be viewable on safari.
The new enclosures are on the Upper Savannah; where the Blackbuck males were recently. It does seem like their enclosures have been expanded further back which is really nice to see.
The trail seen passing their exhibits is actually the Safari road, so they'll only be viewable on safari.
The Sleepy Hippo
Well-Known Member
In the master plan for Werribee they will be building a pedestrian swing bridge over the Werribee River, with a walking loop to the the Rhino Retreat where the gondola will have a pickup/drop off.
Long-term there will be a walking track to the upper savannah.
That's absolutely correct and should be exciting as it should provide on foot viewing of the Lower Savannah.
I don't believe the trail will go past the Bison/Prezwalski's Horse though; it will simply go straight to the Gondola station which will be located next to the Rhino Retreat.
Sad news regarding the Southern white rhinoceros calf:
A tragic end to the zoo’s long and difficult journey towards establishing a sustainable herd at Werribee.
It appears the calf was fatally injured by her mother, who was in turn handraised after her own mother fatally injured her first three calves.
My thoughts are with the staff.
A tragic end to the zoo’s long and difficult journey towards establishing a sustainable herd at Werribee.
It appears the calf was fatally injured by her mother, who was in turn handraised after her own mother fatally injured her first three calves.
My thoughts are with the staff.
It is with a heavy heart that we must announce the Southern White Rhinoceros calf born last week at Werribee Open Range Zoo has sadly passed away from internal injuries sustained after birth.
The five-day-old female calf suffered a neurological episode just before midnight Saturday, followed by cardiac arrest and sadly, zoo veterinary staff were unable to resuscitate her.
"The death of any animal is challenging for all involved, but we can find comfort in the knowledge that every action was taken to ensure the calf was receiving the best care possible." - Dr Mark Pilgrim, Werribee Open Range Zoo Director.
A necropsy (similar to a human autopsy) conducted at the University of Melbourne Veterinarian School confirmed the calf sustained a broken scapula, attributable to interactions with her mother in the immediate hours post-birth. It is suspected that blood clots at the fracture site led to the neurological signs and cardiac arrest. Further test results are pending and due in two weeks.
"We know this news will bring sadness to our Zoo Members and community, and our kind thoughts are with them and all who cared for this precious calf, and particularly with our vet and keeping teams who worked tirelessly to care for the calf over the past five days." - Dr Mark Pilgrim, Werribee Open Range Zoo Director.
The five-day-old female calf suffered a neurological episode just before midnight Saturday, followed by cardiac arrest and sadly, zoo veterinary staff were unable to resuscitate her.
"The death of any animal is challenging for all involved, but we can find comfort in the knowledge that every action was taken to ensure the calf was receiving the best care possible." - Dr Mark Pilgrim, Werribee Open Range Zoo Director.
A necropsy (similar to a human autopsy) conducted at the University of Melbourne Veterinarian School confirmed the calf sustained a broken scapula, attributable to interactions with her mother in the immediate hours post-birth. It is suspected that blood clots at the fracture site led to the neurological signs and cardiac arrest. Further test results are pending and due in two weeks.
"We know this news will bring sadness to our Zoo Members and community, and our kind thoughts are with them and all who cared for this precious calf, and particularly with our vet and keeping teams who worked tirelessly to care for the calf over the past five days." - Dr Mark Pilgrim, Werribee Open Range Zoo Director.
Swanson02
Well-Known Member
Damn the female White Rhino population in this region can't catch a break. It'll be interesting to see how Werribee handles this, they aren't exactly the most proactive zoo with this species of late.
I also do worry that the institutions receiving the most rhinos from this upcoming import (Monarto, TWPZ, etc) are the ones who have also had the worst track record recently. Monarto has now had rhinos for 20+ years and still has not yet produced a single rhino that has gone on to breed itself.
All good points. Both the deaths of juveniles (at Monarto); and the mass death events (at Dubbo, Auckland etc). have indeed involved females - an unexplained coincidence to date.
Historically, the import of large numbers of wild born cows (at San Diego, Whipsnade etc.) has been followed by unparalleled breeding success from the founders; and in turn, abysmal reproductive results from their first generation daughters.
This has been observed on a smaller scale within Australasia. Caballe at Australia Zoo has produced eight calves to date, but neither of her daughters (aged 12 and 16 years) have reproduced. Jamila is the exception to this phenomenon. She was born at Hamilton Zoo in 2012 to wild born parents and delivered calves in 2020 and 2022.
With this in mind, I’m hopeful the South African imports will herald a new era of breeding success for the Australasian rhino population. At the very least, the increased numbers will up the odds some successful calves will be produced amongst the inevitable losses.
While the imports will primarily be distributed between Dubbo, Monarto and Orana; I’m hopeful Werribee will receive what it really needs - additional cows.
Devastating news; not only for the Werribee team, but also for the public as well (like myself) who were looking forward to seeing Werribee’s first rhino calf in a decade.
Kipenzi was hand raised and has never been around a calf of her own, so Werribee sort of had more of a ‘fingers crossed and hope’ approach to this birth that Kipenzi would raise the calf. I’m not surprised to see it didn’t work out, but hopefully it’s more or less of an experience for her than anything.
On the note of the recent string of calf births; I’d attribute them to more of a coincidence than anything. Kipenzi’s hand raising and lack of being around calves would’ve largely been a major factor.
Hopefully Kipenzi and Kifaru will be re-paired again soon. They’ve proven a successful pair so theres no reason why Kipenzi shouldn’t conceive again soon. Her mother, Sisi conceived again just three months after Kipenzi’s birth. Is do-able.
I’m confident Werribee will receive their fair share of the rhinos from South Africa.
There are plans for a new state of the art Rhino Retreat breeding facility, which will need capable breeding cows! And possibly another bull or two too considering Kifaru’s quite well represented through his parents.
The South African imports will reduce the genetic value of the current regional population overnight. Hamilton are already on a no breeding recommendation with all of their rhinos well represented through their offspring or family lines.
My understand is the rhinos will initially be divided only amongst Orana, Dubbo and Monarto; but gestation is only 16 months and calves frequently transferred out at around three years. There will soon be a surplus of first generation calves to supply Werribee and other facilities in the region.
I too am hopeful Kipenzi’s lack of maternal behaviour this time around can be attributed to bad luck.
Thinking about it more, I would have expected her hand raising to affect her perception of herself as a rhino first and foremost, which it clearly hasn’t (she’s bred naturally with the bull); rather than her maternal behaviour, which would rely mostly on instinct. This is opposed to learning through observing maternal behaviour as primates do.
With the calf removed/deceased, she should return to cycle shortly and since the breeding recommendation was given following the plans to import from South Africa, I see no reason a repeat breeding recommendation won’t be given.
Pedestrian Walking Trail
For those interested, Werribee Open Range Zoo’s pedestrian walking trail is scheduled to open by 2024:
Elephants closer to moving to their new home
It’s an exciting development that combined with the Sky Safari; and the exisiting Safari Shuttle, with give visitors a range of options when they visit - making for an exciting day out, rather than a morning/afternoon.
For those interested, Werribee Open Range Zoo’s pedestrian walking trail is scheduled to open by 2024:
Elephants closer to moving to their new home
It’s an exciting development that combined with the Sky Safari; and the exisiting Safari Shuttle, with give visitors a range of options when they visit - making for an exciting day out, rather than a morning/afternoon.
PaddyRickMFZ
Well-Known Member
Where is the location of said trail? Will it be the walkway over the safari or over the rhino retreat or near the bison? Maybe all 3?
The pedestrian trail in question will be the new Waterhole trail (which will include the elephants). No update on the Skysafari trail yet; but that will follow this precinct's construction I imagine.
PaddyRickMFZ
Well-Known Member
I’m hoping the waterhole and trail will feature several species that can nicely integrate the Asian elephants into a new environment
The walking trail through the elephant exhibit will be especially exciting. As the matriarchal herd grows expands over the decades, there will be more and more to see at each point.
As a starting point, we’ll see two to three of the paddocks full, depending on whether Luk Chai and Man Jai are integrated that day or seperate; but I’m hopeful Putra Mas will be transferring to Werribee in the not too distant future.
Considering Nilo is 11 years old this year, I’m hopeful the expansion of Werribee’s lion exhibit will be completed while she’s still of reproductive age. It would’ve been nice to see her Asali breed simultaneously to mirror the natural social order, but the current exhibit doesn’t allow for that.
Three cubs isn’t a huge litter and considering their parents are a founder and a son of two founders, it shouldn’t be too difficult to place a couple of the cubs within the region - potentially reducing the pride to 1.3 lions for the next breeding (assuming there’s a female in the litter).
Asali and Sheru’s cubs will be more of a challenge given the increasing representation of Lazarus, Maya and Nilo; combined with the extensively represented Tonyi/Kura line.
The Lion expansion is on the cards, but is a while down the line (at least another five years). Apparently it will just be an increase of exhibit size rather than another exhibit which is better imo as the current exhibits lack size despite what they seem. They capacity is only five or six adults.
Werribee still also has that second exhibit (which is currently sitting empty at the moment) and that could easily be used to hold these cubs once they reach adulthood.
Regarding genetics, from what I’ve been told Asali won’t be breeding due to this. It’s possible that this means that any daughters from this litter will be retained long term with any male/s perhaps living separately in a bachelor pride in the back exhibit; especially if this is Nilo’s last litter.
Long term it might be beneficial for Werribee to import some new genetics from overseas rather than continuing breeding from any offspring of Sheru/Nilo.
- Status