Adelaide Zoo has received a young male bongo. The animal was born at Taronga Zoo
and Adelaide are hoping to obtain a female sometime next year.
Ashtons Circus have sold their elephants and the three elderly females will
now be retiring at a special
retirment home for elephants in Victoria.
Perth Zoo has aquired a pair of Bolivian squirrel monkeys.The two males, Timmy,
15 months, and Marvin, 27 months, were born at Taronga Zoo.
A further seven
white rhinos will be imported into the country from Krueger
National Park in South Africa. The group, mainly males, will will be settled in at Monarto
Zoo first and later five will be sent to other zoos in the country.
Taronga chimp, Lisa, has provided the zoo with onlyits second baby in six years.
The young female is about four weeks old and has been named Lani. Mum is experienced
and has bonded well with her baby.
At fourty years old, bachelor leopard tortoise Oupa is now sharing
a home with two females for the first time. Leopard tortoise numbers are declining
due to habitat destruction and the illegal trade in reptiles. The females, Kopjie
and Ufutu were confiscated at Wellington airport when they were tiny babies.
For the interesting story behind Oupas life, see the
Auckland zoos website.
I mentioned in the
May news that lions were on the move from Auckland Zoo. Well it
certainly gets complicated. The three cubs of lioness, Sheeka have moved to
Wellington Zoo where they have joined elderly male Sam. Three of Kuras
cubs headed of to Taronga for quarantine, after that two of the young females will
be going to Adelaide Zoo to join their male, Maalo, to form a breeding pride there.
But that is not all. Aucklands two breeding males, brothers
Tombo and Tonyi, are now headed for Melbourne Zoo to replace the deceased
male Tsavo. This will leave Auckland Zoo with just three females, Sheeka, Kura
and Kuras daughter.
Baby rhino, Inkosi has just been introduced to his father, Zambezi
for the first time at Hamilton Zoo. Father has accepted his son well and the
rhino group are safely integrated.
As part of the lion musical chairs mentioned above, Adelaide Zoo is sending one of
its two male lions to Western Plains Zoo. Befoe he left, Jasiri needed to be
vasectomised as most of the lions at Western Plains are related to him He leaves
behind his brother, Maalo who will be greeting the two young females.
Werribee Zoo has had a rush of misfortune in the last two months. On
the 2nd of May One of their female
hippos, Primrose, accidently crushed to death her two week old calf. This was later
compounded when Primrose and her mate later charged into the enclosure of the
neighbouring hippos and killed the 15 month old calf,Kijana. Hippo
deaths like this aren't uncommon, either in the wild or in captivity. Only about
a third of hippo calves survive to adulthood.
Giraffes at the zoo also suffered a setback when two of the males died. Jandamarra
, a young Perth Zoo
and is the second of the offspring
of Perths former breeding male, Anthony to die this year. Chitumbi , another
son had died at Hamilton Zoo.
A second giraffe died at Werribee when Oscar was put to sleep. He had been ill
for a while and had fallen awkwardly.
