australia zoo growing pains » Australia Zoo

14-06-2008

you cant turn around Yassa and tell me that zoos here in Australia arent doing enough for local conservation.
in this country its not up to zoos to decide what ENDANGERED native species need captive breedig/RELEASE programs, the state wildlife agencies decide this and once a zoo is asked to participate they always step up to the plate. conservation breeding programs here range from macropods right down to invertebrates and many of the breed-for-release programs have met with high success, in some cases it been possible to stop programs all together, such as with the Black-eared Miner. Other programs have been scaled down as the captive bred animals are now only being used to augment existing wild populations and not establish new ones...
as you may have gathered here in Australia the potential to display exotic species is hampered by tough quarantine. so when our zoos created an opportunity, at great cost admittedly, to secure an exhibit of Asian Elephants which will hopefully be spread out across all the regions zoos I couldnt object.
Australian zoos have had a long association with conservation projects for Asian Elephants; donating staff expertise, facilities and moneys for a range of projects. The focus on Asian wildlife should see these activites expanded upon in the future, and by having the Asian Elephants in the zoos the smaller programs for species like silvery gibbon, asian turtles etc are benifiting too from more people visiting the zoos and donating.

14-06-2008

Not strictly true Glyn I'm afraid. The state wildlife agencies are repsonsible for all recovery programs, which involve a relase to the wild component. In most cases these are managed by zoo staff with regards to maintaing studbooks and making annual transfer and breeding recommendations, but the overall program is always overseen by the state agencies and the appropriate recovery team.

There are many regional breeding programs for native species that are not part of recovery programs, and it is entirely up to the respective Taxon Advisory Groups, in conjunction with advice from ARAZPA, to determine which native species are actively managed, and which are not.

14-06-2008

Yassa,

I know where you are coming from and appreciate your concern for native species conservation by local zoos and aquaria. German zoos - especially the smaller Wildtiergehegen and Wildparken - are actually windows on our own flora and fauna and the importance of their conservation, both in- and ex situ. Yet in this day and age zoos worldwide can not shut their window on the world beyond their borders and we need exotic flora and fauna exhibits to have those at home appreciate the wonders of nature abroad and our ultimate need and duty to safeguard and conserve their habitats and the environment.

If I look at my home zoo - Artis Zoo (a name some of you readers may not be familiar with, but I like to use the local and only name for an establishment and that goes also for naming of cities or states, e.g. Lisboa Zoo instead of Lisbon. For if you ask any Lisboanas about Lisbon they will not know the heck you are talking about. Sorry, slight diversion) in Amsterdam - we have several temperate climate mammalian species of the middle European realm, yet currently few native species and only in the bird and amphibian/reptile sections is there any emphasis on a native species emphasis. Previously, we housed roe deer - and I simply just loved them - and I appreciated very much that Artis Zoo housed them exactly for the emphasis of a "non-descript" animal like a roe deer to demonstrate the value of our own Dutch plant and animal backyard. Yet when the collection plan and Masterplan were reviewed it was deemed their housing in a Minangkabau House of mid Sumatra suited an Indonesian themed exhibit on site better. The choice of species brought in was anoa (2 males, now 1 adult and looking for an unrelated female) and babirusa (yet to be imported ex Indonesia direct). The roe deer along with hog deer, pudu and duiker had to make way. Since no suitable enclosure or unused tract of land (Artis Zoo is only 12-13 hectares)was available to house the roe deer, they were relocated outside the zoo.

Whereas, I was sad to see them go ... I did and do appreciate the need to redefine the exhibit and applaud its current emphasis on critically endangered fauna from Indonesia's little known Sulawesi island. We already have crested macaque Macaca nigra, orang utan and Malayan tapir in the collection, so it will only augment the Indo-Malayan theme of our zoo and its future direction. Besides, the hornbills have recently been rehoused close by giving added impetus to the Indo-Malaya theme.

All I am saying is that Australia Zoo - while being quintessentially Aussie and exhibiting native species (and admittedly not as heavily invested in endangered native fauna like Healesville or Currumbin), it has every right (and duty) to ask our fellow Aussie friends to look beyond their outback and learn to appreciate the fauna of Asia or Africa and beyond. Whereas I myself I am not yet fully up to scratch on Australia Zoo's (as I do with Healesville, Dubbo or Monarto) native and exotic wildlife programmes, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt (allthough - as Mark is well aware - I do have major misgivings about the whole commercialised Irwin myth)!

The constructive morale of my expose and dragging in the perspective of my local zoo in this is ...
a) please let us all listen, respect and learn from oneanother.
b) let us also continue the healthy debates whether that is the Irwin myth clouding the conservation issue or the need to breed Komodo dragons in captivity. The diverse perspective of all is valuable to us all.
c) to agree that we do disagree and being aware that we are not uniform nor are we exempt from dropping assumptions, preconceptions and sundry.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,

Jelle

14-06-2008

sorry zoopro, should probably have clarified my point a little bit better, so thanks for doing that for me mate.

15-06-2008

Jelle, I never said that zoos (neither in Australia nor Europe) should focus on endangered native species only. I think it is very important that people can see exotic species which they will never see in their wild habitat at a zoo, and I fully agree with you that zoos can do very important work with (critically) endangered exotic species. The european breeding programs for roloway monkeys, white-crowned and red-capped mangabeys, phillipine spotted deer, visayan wart hogs, eastern black rhinos and many more are just a few examples. Which doesn`t mean that I think that zoos (in both europe and Australia) are doing enough to keep and breed critically endangered species, are doing enough to support in-situ programs for these species, or doing enough to save endangered native species. Zoos should and could do a LOT more!!

Just elephants are a really bad example for "conservation" though captive keeping and breeding because they are a) thankfully still far from being critically endangered and b) the cost of importing them and keeping them in captivtiy is so incredibly high that it stands in no relationship to the benefit for the species. So if zoos like Taronga and the Australia Zoo want to keep elephants, I have no problems with it (if they give them decent enclosures, but that is a different topic) but they shall NOT lie to people and tell them that it is "conservation" to bring elephants to Australian zoos.

15-06-2008

Hi Yassa,

This is fast going off track here and only partially relates to Australia Zoo. I will pm you on the subject and take it on from there.

We will continue the Asian eles debate here and talk about the rest in pm.

Fingers xxx,

Jelle

27-07-2008

Anyone know what species there planning on exhibiting?
Last time i visited they had started land development...