Lions » Taronga Zoo

Lions
27-09-2007

Anyone know where Taronga's lions came from?

Are they related to each other?

27-09-2007

jambo came from mogo zoo. kuchani was born in auckland. i think her father may have been imported from south africa.
dubbo's 2 females are Jambo's sisters.

straight from Auckland Zoos mouth .....
03-10-2007

Yup, Kuchani is one of Kura's offspring who was
transferred to Taronga.
Her father is either Tombo or Tonyi, who were
transferred from
Philadelphia zoo.

03-10-2007

tombo and tonyi....

i'm pretty sure they are the two males now at werribee.

03-10-2007

They are, after breeding successfully at Auckland (at least two litters) they were sent to Werribee and Auckland received two males from South Africa.

06-10-2007

I hope Werribee has as much breeding success as Auckland did , if not more !!

06-10-2007

i beleibe werribee is a non-breeding institute atm

the 3 girls i belive are quite aged

07-10-2007

no - pretty sure one female is young. she is the sister of the four males at melbourne and the daughter and grand-daughter of the two females she lives with at werribee. the zoo is probably waiting for all the lions to get a little older, as staggering the ages would allow for slightly easier management. for example when the two older female lions die, the youger one might be towards the latter end of her reproductive life. they breed her then, maybe just once, and then can castrate the mature males. any female cubs born can therefore grow up in the same exhibit with their father and the male cubs can be housed in the second enclosure at werribee that their father(s) used to be kept in.

hypothetical, but would make sense. of course it doesn't take into account if they even what to breed these cats...

08-10-2007

if you have a look at the designof the exhibit, it's not set up for breeding, have u been behind the scences? the moat that sepates them is absically a 90 degree drop down, very step, and i was told, not the best for cubs to run around!

22-10-2007

I thought the reason the the lions were moved to Werribee was because any breeding would be done from there in future. The girls were moved to Werribee and two new males brought in from NZ. If they weren't going to breed the original group they could have been desexed and kept together, couldn't they?

From what I understand the whole idea of the moat is to keep the males and females separate (but from the visitors viewpoint it looks like they're together because you can't see the moat) as there's a health concern with contraceptive implants in female lions.

The females are related the Melb boys. The youngest female (Jarrah) is from the same litter and she'll turn 8 on new year's eve (or is it 7?). She is with her mother (Jasper) and aunt (Gopa). The grandmother (Juliana) died (aged 16, I think) just before the move to Werribee....which is probably just as well as there were concerns about moving her. The father of the cubs (Tsavo) died a bit earlier than all this and his skeleton is at Werribee.

22-10-2007

i think its disappointing that you cant see the male lions up close at werribee. not having two proper viewing for the second enclosure was a bad design element as far i'm concerned. i find it frustrating.

the original concepts released to the media suggested two seperate prides in each enclosure with upclose viewing of both. somehow thats became one pride, separated split into two exhibits with proper viewing only for the females.

22-10-2007

I agree. When the two males arrived from NZ they were in the current Snow Leopard enclosure......so you could get really close (or they looked close because they were so big!)

.....this is the post for NSW Lions....they might get upset if we talk too much about Vic Lions.

22-10-2007

as zookipah said, its a form of contraception, when i went to werribee a year back, i was told on my private tour that the exhibit wasnt really designed for cubs, and if you see it from the back you would understand why. but then again things chnage.

22-10-2007

Zooboy, I have no idea what's going on.......when the lions were moved from Melbourne we were told that lions were moving to Werribee because we were no longer breeding lions at Melbourne. You're right about the moat....not good for cubs. However, since the girls were moved I've heard nothing about breeding them and the youngest female is 7ish and I think she should have been used for using years ago.

I haven't seen the off limits area and always assumed it was designed for breeding. Melbourne's old facilities seemed to work OK....we have the 'nursery' area where cubs (or any sick or recovering animal) and their mum could be kept safe away from the rest of the pride but still be able to see and smell them up close. Simple enough and it's worked in the past.

22-10-2007

the facilities would be ok, like back of hosue, 4 individual large holding areas, male female holding, and each female lion is put in a feeding chute like melbourne (males simpilily in diff dens) it coyuld easily hold cubs, but its the moats. i have pictures, but since they was taken on a private tour of the areas of the zoo most dont see, i dont think i should publish them.