Werribee Open Range Zoo Werribee Open Range Zoo Species List

Mai Thai said:
Thanks! That’s sad to hear.
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It’s a real shame. Werribee went to the effort of importing a purebred as recently as the late 1990’s to continue with the Chapman’s subspecies and indeed equines are relatively easy to import due to the racing industry in Australia and New Zealand.

Auckland Zoo’s Grant’s zebra descended from a pregnant Grant’s mare imported from Chester Zoo in 1963; with a stallion imported from Chester in 1964 and an additional two fillies imported in 1979 from Canada. This population has in turn been hybridised with only an elderly Grant’s mare remaining in Hamilton’s hybrid herd; and a stallion in a bachelor herd at a private facility.

Luckily Darling Downs Zoos have revived the Grant’s subspecies, which could be an option for Werribee long term when a surplus is generated.
 
Adding to the zebra discussion, Werribee have struggled to further import Chapmans following the 80's and 90's imports. Their last three colts were hybrid, but i'd imagine there may still be some members of Werribee's herd who are purebred direct offspring of the Chapmans imports. Although those last offspring would've been born about fifteen years ago.
 
Jambo said:
Adding to the zebra discussion, Werribee have struggled to further import Chapmans following the 80's and 90's imports. Their last three colts were hybrid, but i'd imagine there may still be some members of Werribee's herd who are purebred direct offspring of the Chapmans imports. Although those last offspring would've been born about fifteen years ago.
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Potentially the stallion imported in the late 1990’s could have sired foals into at least the late 2000’s assuming he was prime aged upon import. Most stallions have a tenure of around a decade before zoos swap them out as they’re becoming over represented. My assumption would be this stallion died early on (possibly without siring offspring) and was replaced by a generic stallion.

It’s worth noting that the borders closed to imports around the late 1990’s due to the BSE outbreak, so it was possibly a few years before they could import a replacement (even with equine imports fast tracked due to the racing industry). Rather than wait for a new stallion to service their aging mares, they decided to acquire a generic stallion.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Potentially the stallion imported in the late 1990’s could have sired foals into at least the late 2000’s assuming he was prime aged upon import. Most stallions have a tenure of around a decade before zoos swap them out as they’re becoming over represented. My assumption would be this stallion died early on (possibly without siring offspring) and was replaced by a generic stallion.

It’s worth noting that the borders closed to imports around the late 1990’s due to the BSE outbreak, so it was possibly a few years before they could import a replacement (even with equine imports fast tracked due to the racing industry). Rather than wait for a new stallion to service their aging mares, they decided to acquire a generic stallion.
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Werribee's zebras as of 2012:

The main breeding group (lead by Christou) was held in the waterhole shared with greater kudu and waterbuck.

The other two groups were held in the lower savannah. One has a single male and around five or six females (lead by Sabe); those were older or non-breeding animals. The other group is an all bachelor group of around six animals (lead by Bill). Both of these groups didn't come into contact at all with each other, despite living in the same habitat.

The breeding group (only a few individuals were identified at the time):

1.0 Christou
0.1 Shani (dubbo born)
0.1 Myra
0.1 Kitale

Foals:
Shmwari (x Myra)
Mandelha ( x Shani)
Storm ( x Myra)

It'll be interesting to find out more on Werribee's zebra herd and their history. I'll see what more I can uncover. It seems like the older non breeding animals may have been the remnants of the Chapmans herd; with the breeding herd consisting of generic stock.
 
Jambo said:
Werribee's zebras as of 2012:

The main breeding group (lead by Christou) was held in the waterhole shared with greater kudu and waterbuck.

The other two groups were held in the lower savannah. One has a single male and around five or six females (lead by Sabe); those were older or non-breeding animals. The other group is an all bachelor group of around six animals (lead by Bill). Both of these groups didn't come into contact at all with each other, despite living in the same habitat.

The breeding group (only a few individuals were identified at the time):

1.0 Christou
0.1 Shani (dubbo born)
0.1 Myra
0.1 Kitale

Foals:
Shmwari (x Myra)
Mandelha ( x Shani)
Storm ( x Myra)

It'll be interesting to find out more on Werribee's zebra herd and their history. I'll see what more I can uncover. It seems like the older non breeding animals may have been the remnants of the Chapmans herd; with the breeding herd consisting of generic stock.
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According to my notes from the zoo, Werribee had 9.10 Plains zebra in June 2012 - with the breeding herd having recently welcomed 2.1 foals.

It appears the bachelor herd of Bill and the others comprised around six zebra; with the stallion (Christou) and his juvenile sons comprising the other three zebra in the breeding herd. Possibly Bill was the previous stallion (the sire of the mares in the breeding herd), who’d been retired.

10 females is a large number. I’d assume the breeding herd contained at least six or seven mares, with the remainder being the female foal born that year and the other two or three yearling fillies from 2011.
 
Zoofan15 said:
According to my notes from the zoo, Werribee had 9.10 Plains zebra in June 2012 - with the breeding herd having recently welcomed 2.1 foals.

It appears the bachelor herd of Bill and the others comprised around six zebra; with the stallion (Christou) and his juvenile sons comprising the other three zebra in the breeding herd. Possibly Bill was the previous stallion (the sire of the mares in the breeding herd), who’d been retired.

10 females is a large number. I’d assume the breeding herd contained at least six or seven mares, with the remainder being the female foal born that year and the other two or three yearling fillies from 2011.
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Mandhela, Storm and Melako were the 2.1 born in 2012.

There were three groups keep in mind; a bachelor group (five males), retired group (one male, five females), breeding group (three males, five females). That would give the 9.10 you have. Two of the five females from Werribee's breeding group would be Storm and Shmwari (young fillies), meaning they had three breeding fillies, which does account for the three calves born in 2012.

It seems Sabe may have been the Chapmans male that was imported in the late 90's. The retired herd, was, I believe the descendants of the Chapman herd with the other breeding herd consisting of Plains stock from other zoos from within the region.

EDIT: Werribee's three breeding females at the time were Shani, Myra and Kitale as mentioned in my previous post.
 
Thought I'd update this list for the first time in three years.

Updated list from my visit 15/06/2025 is below.

Guide:

Species Name - Number of animals seen (including names/sexes if known) - * Number from 2024 Inventory Report for comparison in italics.

*only listed for some species

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mammals:

Eastern Grey Kangaroo - 0.0.2 ; 1.10
Tammar Wallabies - 0.0.4 ; 2.11
Koala - 0.2 ; 0.3
Western Lowland Gorilla 3.0 : 1.0 Motoba (1983), 1.0 Yakini (1999), 1.0 Ganyeka (2000)
Vervet Monkey - 0.0.1 ; 2.3
African Wild Dog - 2.0 : 1.0 Neo (2015), 1.0 Madash (2016) ; 3.0 (one male passed recently)
African Lion - 3.3 : 0.1 Nilo (2012), 1.0 Sheru (2016), 0.1 Asali (2017), 1.0 Jengo (2023), 1.0 Mwenzi (2023), 0.1 Kianga (2023)
Common Hippo - 0.3 : 0.1 Primrose (1990), 0.1 Tulip (2003), 0.1 Lotus (2008)
Serval - 0.2 : 0.1 Nanki (2012), 0.1 Morilli (2012)
Cheetah - 0.1 : 0.1 Kulinda (2012)
Slender Tailed Meerkat - 0.0.4 ; 4.1
Bison - 1.11 ; 2.11 (one male passed recently)
Prezwalski's Horse - 1.7 ; 3.7
Dromedary Camel - 0.2 : 0.1 Aloe (2012), 0.1 Sahara (2016) ; 0.3
Scimitar Horned Oryx - 0.0.19 MAIN GROUP, 3.0 BACHELORS ; 13.17
Nyala - 1.9.2 ; 7.9
Blackbuck - 1.27 ; 7.28
Southern White Rhino - 3.4 : 0.1 Make (1984), 0.1 Letaba (1992), 0.1 Sisi (1996), 1.0 Umgana (1988), 1.0 Kifaru (2009), 0.1 Kipenzi (2013), 1.0 Jabulani (2024)
Zebra - 0.0.17 MAIN GROUP, 4.0 BACHELORS ; 8.14
Eland - 0.0.19 ; 10.11
Waterbuck - 2.3 ; 3.3 (one male passed recently)
Giraffe - 7.0 : 1.0 Harold (2008), 1.0 Kona (2008), 1.0 Ajali (2010), 1.0 Jelani (2010), 1.0 Jesse (2021), 1.0 David (2022), 1.0 Wayo (2022)
Asian Elephants - 2.7 : 0.1 Mek Kapah (1973), 0.1 Dokkoon (1993), 0.1 Kulab (2000), 0.1 Num Oi (2001), 1.0 Luk Chai (2009), 0.1 Mali (2010), 0.1 Aiyara (2022), 1.0 Roi Yim (2022), 0.1 Kati (2023)

OFF DISPLAY: Ankole Cattle - 3.0

Birds:

Emu - 0.0.7 ; 5.5.2
Ostrich - 0.9 FEMALES, 7.0 MALES ; 8.9

OFF DISPLAY (breeding programs): Plains Wanderer, Orange Bellied Parrot

Reptiles:

Madagascar Ground Boa - 0.0.2 (new species)
Bells Hingeback Tortoise - 0.0.3 ; 0.0.3
Leopard Tortoise - 5.0 ; 5.0
Eastern Blue Tongue Lizard - not seen ; 0.1
Shingleback Lizard - 1.1 ; 1.1
Dumerils Boa - not seen ; 1.1
 
Osedax said:
These are the same species.
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Thank you. I had thought so as they used to be on display in the little Ranger Kids display and as I was looking at them on the weekend I was thinking to myself, they look awfully familiar.:p

It seems like Werribee's just decided to utilise the Madagascan name now that they have a new exhibit. Presumably to let guests know they're not from Australia, as they're essentially displayed in the Australian trail now.
 
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