Adelaide Zoo ZooUpdates
- Thread starter ZYBen
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The Australian government is not part of the decision-making process for where Australian gorillas are moved, other than to approve (or not) permit applications from our zoos to import or export animals overseas. There is an Australasian program, and a regional species manager, and the animals in this region are managed, in conjunction with the EEP. They are not managed by the EEP.
i thought taronga paid a fairly substantial amount of money for those gorillas from holland - therefore i was not aware that they were still owned by the zoo in that country...
melbourne needs a few new females for a second troop. its not fair poor rigo has been all on his lonesome for so long
melbourne needs a few new females for a second troop. its not fair poor rigo has been all on his lonesome for so long
lolha ha ha, i remember quite clearly that "rigo the wife-beater" headline in the herald all those years ago.... my whole family thought it was a bit of a joke and rigo's face was proudly displayed on our fridge!!
i would have thought adelaide and perth would be super-eager for a gorilla troop? i am still quite supprised that no attempt has ever (from what i know) been made to see if rigo has been compatable with any other young females that have come out of the taronga and melbourne troops. hes unrelated to all other gorillas in our region except for mzuri and his offspring (all at jersey)...
i would have thought adelaide and perth would be super-eager for a gorilla troop? i am still quite supprised that no attempt has ever (from what i know) been made to see if rigo has been compatable with any other young females that have come out of the taronga and melbourne troops. hes unrelated to all other gorillas in our region except for mzuri and his offspring (all at jersey)...
He certainly used to attack Betsy when he was introduced to her years ago, and he beat up on Yuska a couple of times from memory. I don't think any other attempts have been made to introduce him to other females though. It's a shame, because he is definately one of the finest looking silverbacks I've ever seen.
Actually, he and Yuska both came from the Cameroons, at about the same age, via the same animal dealer. It was thought that there's every chance that they came from the same troop in the wild, but I don't think DNA tests have been done to verify that.
Actually, he and Yuska both came from the Cameroons, at about the same age, via the same animal dealer. It was thought that there's every chance that they came from the same troop in the wild, but I don't think DNA tests have been done to verify that.
and it was yuska who was mzuri's mother, so they may in fact be half-siblings.......um, has anyone ever done an IQ test on mzuri?
agreed he is a spectacuarly good-looking silverback. that sounds a bit weird but for those that haven't seen him he has that absolute quintessential "king kong" look about him and he is still somewhat the posterboy for the gorilla troop, his image on so many melbourne zoo books, advertisements and posters...
ccertainly, i think he deserves better than what has been provided for him in the past. melbourne definately now need to start working on transforming the old ape grottoes into a new african rainforest entry with a second, albeit probably smaller gorilla enclosure for rigo and hopefully some friends. with the orangs moved, melbourne has the facilities to trial an introduction....
agreed he is a spectacuarly good-looking silverback. that sounds a bit weird but for those that haven't seen him he has that absolute quintessential "king kong" look about him and he is still somewhat the posterboy for the gorilla troop, his image on so many melbourne zoo books, advertisements and posters...
ccertainly, i think he deserves better than what has been provided for him in the past. melbourne definately now need to start working on transforming the old ape grottoes into a new african rainforest entry with a second, albeit probably smaller gorilla enclosure for rigo and hopefully some friends. with the orangs moved, melbourne has the facilities to trial an introduction....
Taronga Gorillas.
I'm intrigued by this. Are they still 'owned' by Apenheul, despite Taronga paying a very large amount of money for them? Maybe that still didn't give them full 'ownership'. It seems wierd to send any all the way back to Europe.
As Apenheul still have nine females of their own and are introducing a new male this winter (December 2006), they certainly don't need the two young females from Taronga, now in Adelaide. Presumably they will go to other European zoos on breeding loans? It really would have been better for them to stay in Australia- they are unrelated to all the four males currently at Melbourne, so could have formed the basis of another troop either there or elsewhere in Oz.
I'm intrigued by this. Are they still 'owned' by Apenheul, despite Taronga paying a very large amount of money for them? Maybe that still didn't give them full 'ownership'. It seems wierd to send any all the way back to Europe.
As Apenheul still have nine females of their own and are introducing a new male this winter (December 2006), they certainly don't need the two young females from Taronga, now in Adelaide. Presumably they will go to other European zoos on breeding loans? It really would have been better for them to stay in Australia- they are unrelated to all the four males currently at Melbourne, so could have formed the basis of another troop either there or elsewhere in Oz.
yeh, thats all well and good, but im sure the studbook keepers are doing their jobs and im sure if the two taronga females are going to europe, as two have before, its because they are needed there now, to pair with mature, suitable males now. not in ten years time when perth develops and exhibit for them, etc, etc.
taronga is already utilising its old (but high standard) guenon exhibit for bachelor gorillas, and i dont think, with such limited room here, that melbourne needs to establish a second troop in a sub-standard enclosure when these two animals are needed in europe for breeding.
taronga is already utilising its old (but high standard) guenon exhibit for bachelor gorillas, and i dont think, with such limited room here, that melbourne needs to establish a second troop in a sub-standard enclosure when these two animals are needed in europe for breeding.
i think the guenon enclosure at taronga is pretty pathetic and far too small. a refurbished ape grotto at melbourne would be better than that. whilst it doesn't look that great, between the 4 enclosures (which have small gates in the walls connecting the pits), it at least provides more space and a view...
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thats true, the guenons have been removed and replaced with the bachelor gorillas. the guenons bred well in that enclosure and even in the old exhibit where wollemi now is. to the best of my knowledge the last breeding was 2000-it may have been more recent though if a male who was supposed to be imported from barcelona ended up coming...
i actually really liked the exhibit, though it could have done with some seats in there so you could sit and watch the monkeys. it seemed to look better some times than others. at one stage they had remulched it and there was a thick stand of wild tobacco oscuring most of the rock wall which obviously enhanced the look of the exhibit. but to accomodate the two gorilla males the palms were razed and most of the plants have been killed.
in the future i would like to see colobus in there.
i actually really liked the exhibit, though it could have done with some seats in there so you could sit and watch the monkeys. it seemed to look better some times than others. at one stage they had remulched it and there was a thick stand of wild tobacco oscuring most of the rock wall which obviously enhanced the look of the exhibit. but to accomodate the two gorilla males the palms were razed and most of the plants have been killed.
in the future i would like to see colobus in there.
ust to clarify, i think the exhibit was fine for guenons - just useless for gorillas!
de brazza are listed as a phase-out species due in part to a lack of breeding success in australian zoos for many years. i find this a terrible shame, since they are a spectacular looking primate and live in both rainforest and certain east african woodlands making them suitable to multiple immersion settings. they are mixing well with the gorillas at melboune, but zoo atlanta has an excellent mixed mandrill/guenon exhibit (though with a different guenon species) that could work well here...
de brazza are listed as a phase-out species due in part to a lack of breeding success in australian zoos for many years. i find this a terrible shame, since they are a spectacular looking primate and live in both rainforest and certain east african woodlands making them suitable to multiple immersion settings. they are mixing well with the gorillas at melboune, but zoo atlanta has an excellent mixed mandrill/guenon exhibit (though with a different guenon species) that could work well here...
gorillas & guenons.
Glyn- there are very many more female gorillas in Europe than in Australia. The two in Adelaide aren't necessarily 'needed' in Europe, 'wanted' may be a better description as females are always valuable to add to other existing groups. Studbook keepers are not necessarily the people who instigate the moves anyway- they weren't the people that decided Taronga should have gorillas in the first place, it was a 'deal' between two zoos....
As for Melbourne not starting a 2nd group 'in substandard accomodation' it seems that's going to happen anyway now- tho' probably with 3 males...
Taronga De Brazza monkeys- were they never mixed in with the Gorillas? This has worked very well in a number of zoos- maybe the Taronga enclosure wasn't suitable for that?
Glyn- there are very many more female gorillas in Europe than in Australia. The two in Adelaide aren't necessarily 'needed' in Europe, 'wanted' may be a better description as females are always valuable to add to other existing groups. Studbook keepers are not necessarily the people who instigate the moves anyway- they weren't the people that decided Taronga should have gorillas in the first place, it was a 'deal' between two zoos....
As for Melbourne not starting a 2nd group 'in substandard accomodation' it seems that's going to happen anyway now- tho' probably with 3 males...
Taronga De Brazza monkeys- were they never mixed in with the Gorillas? This has worked very well in a number of zoos- maybe the Taronga enclosure wasn't suitable for that?
the enclosure at taronga was far too small to put in the debrazz'a along with the gorillas. the only zoo in the region doing this is melbourne zoo who houses the two together. however the main melbourne gorilla exhibit is not only very large , but also contains many matured trees, hotwired for the guenons to get away from the gorillas.. that said the other day when i was there one guenon was happily sitting amongst a group of gorillas almost intimidating them. apparently the whole guenon family is known to give motaba a hard time, putting him into a king-kongesque rage!!
as for the batchelor troop at taronga, i suppose the orangs have only just moved out of the ape grottoes now, creating the opportunity, but really if the zoo had the incentive, they could very quickly fiz up those grottoes and bring in the taronga batchelors to live with rigo...
as for the batchelor troop at taronga, i suppose the orangs have only just moved out of the ape grottoes now, creating the opportunity, but really if the zoo had the incentive, they could very quickly fiz up those grottoes and bring in the taronga batchelors to live with rigo...
i have the floor plan for the gorilla dens at taronga and from what i can see there is no way for the guenons (if they were still there) to bypass the gorilla dens out into the main exhibit without contacting the gorillas-not an ideal situation during an introduction phase or if there was an aggressive incident (and these have been documented).
i would hesitate to call the bachelor accomodation useless-it was designed for gorillas and was only used for guenons until the gorillas needed somewhere to go.
and grant, if there is no need for the female gorillas to go to europe, then why are they going? im sure the studbook keeper has a good reason or two...
i would hesitate to call the bachelor accomodation useless-it was designed for gorillas and was only used for guenons until the gorillas needed somewhere to go.
and grant, if there is no need for the female gorillas to go to europe, then why are they going? im sure the studbook keeper has a good reason or two...