NEWS
APRIL
- Elephants for Sale! As part of their restructuring program, Ashtons Circus
are retiring their three elderly elephants. The elephants are, Abu who is
estimated to be 64 and was rescued from a Singapore logging camp.
Gigi who is about 40 and came from Taronga Zoo and
Tanya about the same age and originally from Perth Zoo.
The circus wants over $200 000 for them and have some specific demands on the new owners.
They are not to be seperated (good) and the circus people want visitation rights. The Ashton
family are very fond of the elephants, regarding them as members of the family. The elephants
keeper will be going with the animals.
The elephants are the last of the exotic animals at the circus, all the lions, tigers etc
being retired last year.
- Wellington Zoo has three new arrivals. The first is the birth of a
hamadryas baboon to mother
Grit. This birth brings the number of animals in the troop to sixteen.
The other new arrivals are a pair of
Oriental small clawed otters, Te'eak a five
year old male, and Jaya an eight year old female. The pair have arrived from Auckland
Zoo and Wellington zoo hopes to breed from them. As yet the male is a little too young
and shows no interest in Jayas' overtures.
- Auckland Zoos eldest female giraffe, 17 year old Kiri is pregnant. The female
is due to have her baby in early 2003. But she is not the only one. It is also
thought that the zoos other female, Kay is also pregnant. This female has put on
quite a lot of weight, 120 kg in the past seven months and the zoo is waiting
on tests to confirm this possible pregnancy. If
she is pregnant it is thought that she will be due in December.
The father in both cases is Zabulu,
a young Rothschilds giraffe. He was born at Orana Park and These will be his first young.
The zoo staff are delighted but surprised as it was thought that the two females were
too old for natural insemination. Staff had been trying to condition the females
in the hopes of artificially inseminating them. Now they won't need to.
- Perth Zoos little cheetah cub is doing well. The five week old female has gained
weight after a struggle with an anaemic problem. It was unfortunate but unavoidable that
she has had to be hand reared.
- Two baby meerkats at Victoris Open Range Zoo have been recently named. They have been
named Wili and Pili, both names meaning two in Swahili.
- Berani, a male sumatran tiger
born at Perth Zoo is bound for a new home at Canberra's
National Zoo and Aquarium.
Here it is hoped that he will breed a new generation
of his species.
- Auckland Zoo is celebrating the birth of a tiny serval. The small cat is the first to
be born in the Australasian region for 10 years. Last year Auckland Zoo received a male
serval, Indlozi and is the father of the kitten. The first time mother, five year
old Mzimbi, is just getting used to the idea of parenthood. The zoo also has
another female that they hope will breed soon.
- A young cheetah cub that had been born through artificial insemination, (see
March News), had to be euthanised on the 29th April 2002.
The little female that had come to be known as Meeka was the first cheetah to be
born through this method in Australia. Unfortunately she wasn't able to suckle from
her mother and had to be hand reared. Though she gained weight and seemed to be getting
better, examinations showed otherwise and the staff had to make the heart wrenching
decision to have her put down. An ultrasound revealed that she was suffering
from a congenital liver condition which was causing liver and kidney failure. My
condolances to the zoo.
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