whats unfortunate is that the "new" species zoos are importing (such as coatis, anteaters, capybaras) are species that have all died out in australian zoos relatively recently. when it comes to saving a species, most zoos around the world are far from proactive. species in zoos suffer from the same sorts of problems that effect bird species in aviculture, species come in and out of flavour, different directors come and go and with that so do their tastes. they are preoccupied with collection sizes and allow their stock to become old and geriatric before suddenly making a last ditch effort to turn things around. the situation at melbourne will not change once they "free up some space" because sadly the zoo is not making any new space. the trend at the moment is for larger more elaborate style immersive exhibits - bit these exhibits are not generally much larger for the animals or offer the facilities to house more. they expense is all in the facilities for visitors. for example melbourne zoos new multi-million dollar orang-utan exhibit can hold three separate groups or individual orang-utans. thats pretty much on par with what was available to them them in the old ape grottoes. so whilst the new exhibit is a vast improvement for apes, humans and certain aspects of management of those animals, the zoos capacity for holding orangs hasn't much improved. and the breeding program is not much better off than it was before, from a population point of view. its worth noting also that to build one of these new mega-exhibits, zoos usually are required to demolish a number of smaller animal exhibits for a larger number of species and individuals. thus i think the trend is heading for a continued decline in the number of species in zoos and don't expect to see a spike in species numbers in the future.Nrg800 wrote:Importation is going through abit of a rough point right now (with mammals at least) The problem is that all the major organizations (zoos and such) are in the process of waiting for their animals to die. This may seem heartless, but most of them are packed to capacity right now, and can't fit anymore. Many of the animals are old and their being phased out (Puma's, for example are, great animals, but the ones at melboune are too old, the ones at Canberra are brother and Sister, and the ones at Dreamworld are castrated. So there goes the Puma). After the zoos have made enough room they're going to start importing again (Melboune zoo has already put in form for importing species such as Coatis, Capybaras, Giant Anteaters and the like. Once these start getting imported much of this should clear up, and importation should become easier. So in maybe 15 years I imagine that importing birds into Australia won't be as hard as it is now.
Another reason that none are being imported is that it takes alot of effort to import a species (or, more, do the paperwork for importation) and that's just to much for private aviticulturists. I'm trying to find the form for the Coatis that Melbourne is trying to import, and you'll see what I mean
the pumas may be replaced with anteaters, but likely a single pair, who will have two offspring, that end up at another zoo. and then the whole program once again runs out of space and we find ourself waiting for animals to die again.
much like aviculture, whats needed in zoos is someone who takes responsibility for an individual species. its fine if melbourne keeps the same 3 big cat species as taronga and adelaide, but would be a benefit to all if each zoo agreed to focus on holding a large number of a different particular species.
unfortunately, australian zoos are far from getting their stuff together in this regard.
