Zoos South Australia part of an international and national network working to breed up endangered species
Zoos South Australia was breeding one of Australia's most endangered native birds, the orange bellied parrot, as its part in a global network to conserve birds and animals.
Image courtesy Zoos South Australia
Events of world and national significance were being played out every day in the 21st Century at South Australia’s zoos as they played their part in a global network to conserve birds and animals.
Within their precincts, Zoos South Australia's Adelaide Zoo and Monarto Safari Park were engaged in nurturing the breeding endangered species from the Sumatran tiger to the Australian orange-bellied parrots. Zoos South Australia also supported conservation efforts overseas including Zambia, Kenya, Tetepara in the Solomon Islands, and giant panda work in Sichuan province of China.
Typifying the ongoing historical nature of the zoos’ work, in 2018, Australia's oldest Nile hippopotamus Brutus has his 53rd birthday at Adelaide Zoo while 11-year-old Sumatran tiger Rhani arrived from the National Zoo and Aquarium in Canberra. Hippopotamus Brutus was born at Taronga and arrived at Adelaide Zoo in 1975 with his female breeding partner Susie, who had 17 calves. She died in 2017.
Tiger Rhiani joined 18-year-old Assiqua in Adelaide. Tiger populations were at an all-time low, with less than 400 individuals believed left in the wild.
In 2017, Adelaide Zoo welcomed the first birth in six years of a mandrill, a species of monkey classed as vulnerable to extinct in the wild. A few months later, a baby hamadryas baboon was born at the zoo, along with of meerkats, capybaras, golden lion tamarin twin babies.
Zoos South Australia also took on the challenge of breeding one of Australia's most endangered native birds: the orange bellied parrot. It trialled enclosure lighting to try to bring on early mating, creating a greater chance of more eggs being laid throughout the year. One of only three migratory parrot species in the world, the orange-bellied parrot (neophema chrysogaster) migrated annually from coastal southwestern Tasmania to south-eastern Australia every winter. It was estimated that there were less than 50 parrots left in the wild. after threats from loss of habitat and introduced cats and foxes. Zoos South Australia was represented on the orange-bellied parrot recovery team, with partners including Birdlife Australia, Zoos Victoria, Taroona Breeding Facility, Tasmania government primary Industries and water epartment, and the Australian government environment department.
In a success story starting in the 1990s, Adelaide and Monarto zoos started a historic journey to bring the yellow-footed rock wallaby back from the brink of extinction. In 1994, the zoos began a captive breeding that led to releasing 12 wallabies back into the 44 square kilometres Aroona Sanctuary near Leigh Creek in South Australia's north on 1996 – a world first for a macropod species. The wild wallaby population was holding strong, with more than 85 recorded at the sanctuary.
With Adelaide city council, Adelaide Zoo had a mural by Dvate painted facing Frome Road to celebrate the wallabies’ revival.Patience was part of the breeding programme. Adelaide Zoo received its first western swamp tortoises in 2003 and had its first successful hatchlings in 2012.
