Wellington Zoo update » Wellington Zoo

21-02-2008

great review chlidonias.

currently a pair of caracal (ex-melb i think) at adelaide and a geriatric clouded leopard are at melbourne. however both species are being phased-out of australia and thus the region.

many a zoo director/owner seems to want to hold onto clouded leopards however, but i imagine they are hard to get hold of from overseas due to low numbers.

i was told wellington had/has a sth african director, hence the "wishful thinking" list of african antelopes. new zealand, with its harsher import restrictions than australia believe it or not CAN import antelopes, so its not actually out of the question.

australias hopes for importing artiodactyls seem lie with negotiating for import from new zealand only so when/if new zealand does start importing antelopes - expect imports of species already in the region, even if they are not currently in new zealand but held in australia.

this will be a reflection of the current situation with primates, where new zealand can only import them via australia.

if it happens it will better open the door for ARAZPA to manage all its member collections as if they truly are a "region".

21-02-2008

The species that leapt out at me the most was the harpy eagle. I mean, that just seems completely out of the blue.

The only caracals I've ever seen in NZ were a pair at the Mini Zoo in Christchurch in the late 1980s. I don't know where the zoo's owner Bill Grey imported them from but they were the only ones in NZ. They disappeared from the collection quite a while before the zoo closed down and I suspect they died.

Of the other species I mentioned from the development plan that aren't in NZ at the moment -- [fossa, capybara, harpy eagle, pigmy marmoset, Philippine deer, chevrotain, clouded leopard, Francois' langur, impala, nyala, bushbuck, ground hornbill, crowned crane, "vulture", bongo, colobus] -- the only species I've seen before in NZ is the capybara, at Wellington on my c.1988 visit and these were probably the only ones in the country. I doubt any of the others have been in NZ for a very long time (if ever, in many cases).


NZ zoos are generally always poor in birds. Private aviculture in NZ centres on parrots and finches, with the small addition of several species of pigeons and a few pheasants and waterfowl. The zoos' bird collections naturally mainly consist of the species thus available. That is why I liked Wellington's formerly more diverse collection so much, because they had many species that weren't just the usual run-of-the-mill species. Even when a zoo did have a good bird collection in the past it often fades away almost entirely (as at Orana Park which used to have many non-native birds), or the more-exotic less-easily-replaced species bow out and are replaced with common ones. Although there have been no private bird importations for many years in NZ, the ban on importing birds doesn't apply to zoos (except in as much as they need to abide by biosecurity regulations etc). So the lack of exotic birds in NZ is more to do with the zoos not putting the effort into them than anything else. The impression I always get here (in NZ) is that the zoos seem to think that the bird section isn't popular enough to warrant much attention put into it. People want to see lions and monkeys after all, so why bother with fancy birds when a few cockatoos and doves will do.

If "S.A. Aviary" does stand for "South American" I suspect it will contain conures and macaws and probably little else (they'll probably stick the agoutis and so forth in here too). The Asian aviary will have pheasants on the bottom, a few Psittacula parrots, a pigeon or two, mandarin ducks, and maybe mannikins -- unless they plan on importing some hornbills or something like that.

And yes the NZ section does seem small (the only labels there were tuatara, kiwi, weta, and NZ Aviary, although the latter may mean an aviary complex rather than one large aviary), as does the Australian section (Australian Aviary, and parma and rock wallabies -- although note that the plan was made before the wallabies on Kawau Island were exterminated by poisoning so there may not be any parma or rock wallabies left in the country(?)).

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21-02-2008

Did you notice the Black Leopard as well..?

I didn't hear about that on Kawau..? Was this a DoC plan..?

21-02-2008

can u upload those pics into the agllery plz- maybe we can get a larger file with original

thanks!

21-02-2008

just a note on the pygmy marmosets.....several years ago auckland zoo did state they were part of long-range plans....
back to wellington zoo, and wombat and leopard are both species ive heard thrown around as possible exhibits. sorry to dig my heels in here, but if wellington does acquire another few species of carnivore id rather see them end up with snow leopard or even maned wolves rather than an entirely new species.

22-02-2008

Chlidonias,

The extermination of parma wallaby on Kawau Island. Conservationwise is that a good + a planned thing or is NZ exterminating mainland Oz biodiversity there?

Anyhow, will follow the Wellington zoo development closely and hope to get round to finally making it down under sometime in 2009 or 2010 (..sake it is still ages away ...

22-02-2008

Kawau Island was once owned by Sir George Grey (Governor of NZ) and he used it as a private free-range menagerie of sorts, introducing all manner of foreign animals including five species of wallabies. If he had introduced thylacines as well that would have been great but he didn't and the wallabies went out of control with no predators. The island is an important kiwi and weka area and the wallabies are destroying all habitat. In 1992 the Pohutukawa Trust New Zealand was formed by private citizens on the island with the aim of eradicating the wallabies and possums on Kawau. They are supported in this endeavour by DoC and the Auckland Regional Council. Their plan was for all wallabies to be gone by 2005. I'm not actually sure if it has been completed yet, but large-scale poisoning was definitely carried out a few years ago.

Parma wallabies had previously been exported to Australia (at that time they were thought to be extinct in Aus). The tammar wallabies turned out to be a mainland subspecies formerly also thought extinct. Before poisoning was carried out, many parma, tammar and brush-tailed rock wallabies (endangered in Aus) were exported to Aus to establish captive populations there. There are still large numbers of tammar around Rotorua which are probably descended from Kawau animals. There are also thousands of red-necked (Bennett's) wallabies in the South Island.

With possums and wallabies eradicated from Kawau the island will become another island sanctuary for NZ species such as kokako, saddleback, etc etc.

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22-02-2008

BIG AGREE'D THERE FROM ME..!

22-02-2008

if you look at the species on the plan, even if some of them seem odd choices (harpy, fossa, etc) others are obviously because those species are, were, or were planning on being, part of managed programmes in Australia (eg, Francois' langur, Brazilian tapir, pigmy marmoset, etc); and as patrick (and I think Nigel earlier in the thread) said, the antelope selection is due to the South African director. So most of them are explainable.

Maned wolves, which Nigel was discussing previously in the thread (but aren't on the development model), have been on the cards for several NZ zoos for years now, as have clouded leopards and snow leopards. They're always talking about getting them. Whether it happens or not is another matter.

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22-02-2008

there are two views of the model on the gallery now

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22-02-2008

snow leopards are an obvious choice for new zealand zoos. - what with your cold weather and zoo populations of monal, derbyan parakeet, red panda and tahr, hopfully some genius will realise a "himalayan highlands" might just be a mega-exhibit worth creating. i imagine it lends itself well to wellington's facade as well!

22-02-2008

never thought about that. A Himalayan exhibit in NZ would work really well.

We also have yaks in NZ, so they could be thrown in there as well.

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22-02-2008

no, but i did! i should be employed as a freelance "think tank"!!!

22-02-2008

Patrick what are you doing to me, your tiger has morphed into a frog and I thought you were a completely different person!!

22-02-2008

And yet another great idea from the ultra creative Patrick