Latest News from Adelaide Zoo
Viet's Baby
Life and death are part of the natural fabric of life in the wild and in zoos. Unfortunately Viet’s baby has died. Everyone is very sad understandably as all seemed to be going so well with them.
The baby was looking very strong and suckling and Viet was doing such a wonderful job of mothering her. White Cheeked Gibbons are a very sensitive species and known to be quite difficult to breed in captivity. Other zoos who have bred them have commented that they are usually not good first time mothers, so we were very surprised that Viet was doing so well. Mothering is such a complex mix of natural and learned behaviours and it is often difficult for inexperienced primates to get everything right at the same time.
Freezer Full of Poo
So, we have an Australian Sea Lion pup on the way and have three beautiful Serval Kittens... so what about some cubs from our Sumatran Tigers? Our breeding pair, Assiqua and Tuan, have both been at Adelaide Zoo for about a two years and after several unsuccessful introductions we are trying some new slides and some very interesting scientific tests.
First of all, we wanted to increase the interaction time between our breeding pair. We have 3 tigers and 2 exhibits; being that Tigers are solitary animals, only two Tigers will be on exhibit, with the third one spending the day off exhibit. If the Tiger spending the day off exhibit happens to be one of our breeding pair then they had no interaction all day with the other one due to our solid slides. So we got out fantastic Maintenance welder, Mark, to make some mesh slides, allowing our Tigers to see, hear and smell each other.
ZIMS
Adelaide and Monarto Zoo are amongst a select few Zoos around the world selected to be first users or early adopters of the Zoo community’s brand new all encompassing records program Zoological Information Management System (ZIMS).
It replaces a handful of older outdated stand alone programmes and integrates them all in a web based, real time record and management system that enables zoo staff to share a huge amount of animal data instantly.
Ady & Tasko Update
Well, the most exciting news would be that Ady is pregnant (see video blog), due any time in the next couple of months. Yes, I am going to be a Sea Lion auntie! Words can not describe how happy our team is.
Ady is doing very well, steadily putting on the kilos; she has gone from a trim 83 kilos to 100 kilos, making movement a bit slower and she does a very pregnant waddle. She is a little less active at the moment, as any pregnant lady is allowed to be, so if you are looking for her she may be sleeping on the rocks, having a day off exhibit or hanging out in the maternity pool.
African Wild Dog Enrichment
You can probably tell from my other blogs that I love enrichment, however I am finding that what I think the animals will love is not always the case!
Recently I saw Gary, one of our great BEEZA (Behavioural and Environmental Enrichment for Zoo Animals) volunteers, with a shopping trolley full of paper mache balls for the Tasmanian Devils at Monarto Zoo. I took one look at them and thought they would be the perfect size for our African Wild Dogs. Gary happily agreed to make six and also put some dry kibble and dried liver treats inside, not only making the ball rattle but a nice surprise inside for the dogs.
Orangutan Birthdays (part 2)
The orangutans had a brilliant day for their birthday bash! Kluet and Karta shared a party celebrating their birthdays, which are only 4 days apart. The wonderful Zoo volunteers prepared them a huge birthday box that was filled with other boxes and cardboard rolls which had all sorts of treats inside like sultanas, peanuts and some popcorn (unsalted and unbuttered of course so it is nice and healthy!) .
They both gobbled up the treats quickly but that did not mean the fun was over!
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