taronga news » Taronga Zoo

taronga news
05-06-2007

zoofriends mag arrived today....
-two cassowary chicks are being handraised by zoo staff for a new exhibit underneath the rainforest aviary. unbelievable, i love cassowary and have wanted the zoo to get them back for years
-great southern oceans may be completed by the end of the year. from the photos looks amazing, id suggest to any of our interstate members considering a trip to nsw to hold off until it opens, it would be worth the price of admission alone
-one of the koalas sent to thailand's chiang mai safari park has given birth. cant be too bad there, though i wonder if the joey will end up on the menu?
-inland taipan and binturong have recorded births and a breeding program for the threatened booroolong frog has begun

19-09-2007

With my family down from Brisbane, we all went to Taronga yesterday.

Some of this may be of interest:

A "new" pigmy hippo is now on display (from Melbourne?) and is housed in the former malay. tapir enclosure next to the meerkats. The original pigmy hippo remains in it's yard up above the big cat enclosures, and opposite the south american tapir, which was being groomed and petted by it's keepers. They were also carefully wiping around it's eyes. (I know sth. americans don't have the same eye problems as malays, but they were taking no chances.)

Taronga formerly had just one Goodfellow's tree kangaroo, but there were two in the enclosure yesterday, so they've got another one from somewhere (America?)

The refurbished and planted out spider monkey enclosure doesn't look too bad, considering.....

Construction of the much-discussed cassowary enclosure just below the walk-through aviary has only just begun - fences are at an early stage of being put up.

Great Southern Oceans looks pretty close to ready. The completion date is still supposed to be 2008, but it looks good to me - planted out, shade sails erected and all.

The only sour note of the visit was caused by the fact that the gorillas were not on exhibition. Not only that, but you couldn't even get a look at the display area - all access roads were barricaded off, and there was some heavy equipment there. My daughter was SERIOUSLY UNIMPRESSED. Twice now in the last two years she's come down from Brisbane, gone to Taronga and the gorillas have been off exhibit - she hasn't seen them yet. She reckons that they don't really have any, and that next year she will go to Melbourne zoo instead!

19-09-2007

lol everytime i have been they have been on display

i wonder what happened to the peccaries, who were on display in onld malays?

19-09-2007

if it is he only just arrived in the last couple of weeks. otherwise it could very well be the female from adelaide. either way i wish they bloody hurried up.

hmmm. not sure. i have heard nothing of an import. but lets hope so!

she should. the gorilla exhibit there is 10 billion times better.

19-09-2007

Yes, from Adelaide.

Yes, from San Diego (along with another animal that is destined to be paired with an animal at Currumbin).

19-09-2007

excellent news about the tree kangaroos. thats a much needed little influx of fresh blood into the region eh?

but whats the deal with the hippos? i thought both are considered close, or a little past reproductive age now. since the two are an unrelated pair, why has it taken soooo long for them to be paired?

19-09-2007

Thats a very good point Pat, why has it taken so long to pair up any remaining animals?
could this not have been done some years ago when they were somewhat younger with more chance of breeding.

19-09-2007

but didnt Taronga have a second pigmy hippo already that died last year? maybe the fact that they already had two was the reason as they would have no where to put a new Hippo

19-09-2007

i see were every one is comming from, but as is identified, the 2 at taronga were mother daughter, mother died, but melb had a male, and then there was1 empty exhibit there, so why couldnt we do a huge swap, well i ahve no idea? some one will ahve to ask a zoo vollie or keeper

19-09-2007

well im a zoo volli but in a diffrent department so i cant help

20-09-2007

A minor update to my previous update regarding pygmy hippos - both the Adelaide and Melbourne animals are now at Taronga, awaiting pairing with each other. The older Sydney animal will be housed separately in the short-term.