Information from my short half-day visit to Werribee today
Dropped into Werribee today for a quick half-day after looking at cars. Really impressed lovely zoo with (in my opinion) the best theming in the region. It was
packed, easily the busiest I’ve seen an Australian zoo. Probably to be expected given Victoria has 5–6× the population of SA. Huge contrast to when I visited Wellington Zoo earlier this year, there were about 15 people in the entire place!
Chatted to two keepers, one at the lion exhibit and one at the end of day hippo talk.
Info
- Spotted a lone male Waterbuck on the Lower Savannah, would this be the male from Altina? No info on breeding
- I counted 16 Zebra on the Lower Savannah, plus another 4 in the enclosure near the elephants, so 20 total across two groups on display. No info on breeding.
- I counted 3 vervet monkeys. Interestingly, one looked like a juvenile with a shortened tail. Most visitors didn’t seem to appreciate how rare these guys are
- The lion keeper told me Werribee will likely not be getting any new African Wild Dogs. The species will be replaced in their current exhibit by hyena. (I hope wild dogs aren't being forgotten regionally)
- Conversely I was told they plan to acquire new cheetah asap. It will be a pair but from where is unknown.
- Heard nothing new regarding elephants at either Werribee or Monarto. Managed to get one question in at the elephant talk and was told that keepers aren’t aware of Monarto’s plans. could just be them not wanting to make info public without Monarto's consent.
- Had a really good chat with a hippo keeper. He was surprised I knew about the two bull hippos coming from France apparently it wasn’t known that this info had become public.
- It was confirmed by him that only one of the bulls will stay at Werribee after quarantine and breeding will be attempted with all three cows (preferably the two younger ones first).
- The other bull will rotate between Monarto and Dubbo, spending a couple of years at each. The keeper wasn’t able to confirm which zoo will be first, but suggested it may be TWPZ as Pansy is still young and can wait a few years.
- Keeper noted that hippos can breed very quickly compared to elephants and rhinos, with only about a 12-month turnaround between calves. The priority right now is simply getting the bulls into Australia “don’t want to count their chickens too early"
- He said it is hoped that jabulanis mother Kipenzi is already pregnant again, but couldn't confirm .