Blog Archive

Posts for September 2010

Dental Day (part 1)

Even orangutans have to go to the dentist sometimes. When the keepers noticed that Karta seemed to have a sore tooth, they booked her into the vets to have it looked at.

Adelaide Zoo uses a specialist dentistry veterinarian from Melbourne when animals have the need for major dental work. Dr David came over to Adelaide to do procedures, not only on Karta’s sore tooth but also work on Tuan, our male Sumatran Tiger, and also have a look at Akbar, our male Sun Bear .

Karta was first off the ranks and, as you can probably imagine, she needed to be fully sedated to have the work done.

Don't Palm Us Off

Our CEO, Chris West, recently spoke to 891 ABC about palm oil labelling on food products in Australia. Click here to listen to this interview or read the transcript and let us know what you think about this important debate. 

Zoos South Australia Back Jennifer Croes

MEDIA RELEASE

Zoos South Australia is proud to support Jennifer Croes, Australian representative for the Chengdu Panda Base and Research Facility’s competition to become a ‘Global Panda Ambassador’.

Ms Croes is one of twelve representatives from across the globe who will fly to China this Tuesday to face an expert panel of judges from the Chengdu Panda Base.

Orangutan Blankets

We all love to snuggle up with a blanket on a cold winter’s day and the orangutans are no different!

Both Kluet and Karta enjoying playing with blankets or hessian sacks and these items can provide hours of fun for them as they cover their heads with the sacks and blankets or wrestle with each other under the blankets.

More Meerkats Babies!

On the morning of Sunday, September 12th, we discovered that our expectant breeding pair of meerkats had finally delivered another litter of pups here at Adelaide Zoo.

Over the next few weeks their mum, together with the rest of the family and keepers, will keep a very close eye on them while they remain in one of their heated dens.  However, occasionally you may see the babies being carried out by mum and left in the sun for their siblings to fuss over.

Our Little Boy is Growing Up

Anyone that has been to visit our two little Fennec Foxes lately would have noticed that they are sleeping curled up with each other and, no, it is not to keep warm during these last days of winter (they have a heat lamp for that)... it's because Tizga, our little boy, is becoming a man.

Tizga (3 years old) came to Adelaide Zoo last year from Taronga Zoo, where he was hand raised by keepers, meaning he has a natural affection towards people. I worked with Tizga at Taronga Zoo and when I started at Adelaide Zoo I was very excited to work with this friendly little man.

Teresa Palmer Visits Adelaide Zoo for National Threatened Species Day

MEDIA RELEASE

Teresa Palmer understands the importance of conservation and protecting indigenous species, so she is an enthusiastic ambassador to the cause.

“Conservation is a passion of mine as one of my early dreams was to work with an animal rescue service, and eventually open my own animal welfare agency,” said Ms Palmer.

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.