Animal collection

A number of new animals were added to the collection during the year.

Highlights were:

• Tahi, a male Kiwi, arrived from Massey University. The lower part of his right leg had been amputated due to being caught in a gin trap. We worked with Weta Workshop and The New Zealand Artificial Limb Centre to create a prosthetic leg for him. The leg is currently working well and we plan to use Tahi as an educational “advocacy” bird.
  
• A rehabilitated morepork, that is unable to survive in the wild, has come to live in the Twilight exhibit.
  
• Several other animals were relocated from within NZ; four Otago skinks arrived from Wainuiomata,
  
• A female Barbary sheep arrived from a private farm
  
• Ten parma and four tammar wallabies arrived from Kawau Island and are now on display in the Zoo. One of the Parma wallaby females has a young joey in her pouch.
  
• Madagascan giant day geckos and leopard tortoises from Auckland Zoo are on display in the Elephant House and Scaly Nursery respectively.
  
• We exchanged or imported several animals to support breeding programmes.
  
• We imported a male agouti from Adelaide for breeding.
  
• Our male serval was moved into the revamped old panda enclosure, where a female from South Africa joined him from quarantine in August. We have high hopes they will all reproduce.
  
• Six meerkats from South Africa have moved into an enclosure that used to be the elephants’ bath next to the Elephant House.
  
• Two male and one female African crested porcupines arrived from Marwell Zoo, United Kingdom, after two years of bureaucratic red tape. Efforts to secure more porcupines for breeding purposes are continuing.
  
• A red panda, Amy, arrived from Melbourne Zoo. She is soon to be joined by a male red panda from Mogo Zoo and in the hope that they will breed.

Breeding
A number of significant species reproduced during the year.

• Two Campbell Island teal eggs were transferred to Mount Bruce as part of a joint relocation programme. One of these hatched.
  
• Three African wild dog pups were born and are doing well.

Collection planning
Adhering to the new Strategic Plan, a small project team is continuing work on the collection plan. The essential Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF) approvals for importing new species and new individuals of existing species are complicated and in addition, endangered species are notoriously difficult to obtain. This means our plan must be flexible in response to species availability.

We have made significant progress in our working relationship with MAF on Import Health Standards and we now have an Import Health Standard for Southern African porcupines from the United Kingdom and hoofed stock from the USA, Canada, and South Africa.

We have submitted applications to the Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA) for the importation of maned wolf.

We have received approval to import leopards and wombat from ERMA. We are still consulting with MAF to obtain an Import Health Standard for the wombat.

The Zoo is taking a leading role working with MAF on the containment standard for all zoo animals.

Facilitated research
We are still hosting a postgraduate project, which is examining the chimpanzees' priorities and using the information to improve their physical and behavioural well-being.

Several shorter projects are being conducted with help from our staff as needed: for instance, aggression in baboons; captive mammal enrichment; anti-predator behaviour in tuatara, food preferences in kaka; baseline sun bear blood chemistry; browse effects in captive giraffes; and metabolic bone disease in fruit bats.

Collaborative research
Two of our veterinarian staff, Katja Geschke and Kerri Morgan, are working with Biosecurity NZ, Auckland Zoo, Massey University, and the poultry industry on business continuity response to a possible avian flu outbreak. This should be in place by the end of 2006.

Another of our Zoo staff, Mandy Richards, in conjuction with Unitec and Auckland Zoo, is exploring whether the female tiger's reproductive cycle can be mapped using hormonal analysis of faeces. For four months our keeping staff collected faecal samples three times a week and recorded the tiger’s behaviour over two hour-long sessions each day.

The "Comparative facial anatomy of Southern Ocean Ziphiidae (family of Beaked whales)" is an important cooperative project between the Wellington Zoo, Pacific Radiology and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Three rare species of whale, Andrew's beaked, Gray's beaked and dense beaked whale have been examined using CT and MRI technology. This world-first study is part of a project investigating the comparative facial anatomy of Southern ocean beaked whales and will contribute to international studies of the ears and melon structure of these very rarely seen and enigmatic species.

The Kereru Discovery Project was launched recently, with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa as its patron. It is an innovative joint conservation project, conducted in association with Te Papa, the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, Victoria University and the Pukaha/Mt Bruce National Wildlife Centre (Department of Conservation). The aim of the project is to have the public identify and connect with urban wildlife, in particular the kereru, our native wood pigeon.

Landcare Research is conducting the first large-scale screening of feral and native birds for avian malaria in New Zealand over 50 years. Wellington Zoo provided samples for this major study.

During the year we made the most of Pacific Radiology's sponsorship to help Department of Conservation staff identify subspecies of dogfish, using radiographic films.

Together with endocrinologists from Wellington Hospital, our veterinary department conducted an investigation into pituitary failure in a hamadryas baboon the results of which will be published next year.

Click here for a full list.

Our own research

Dr Geschke presented a paper on chronic cystic pulmonary disease in the kea and health assessment of free ranging Hector dolphins at a recent American Association of Zoological Veterinarians’ conference in Omaha.

Edy MacDonald, Alison Lash, and Beth Houston all attended the 2006 ARAZPA conference in Perth. Edy presented a paper on research in zoos, Beth and Alison jointly presented on crisis management and response.

Veterinary advances

New hospital
We are making progress on our exciting and long-overdue exotic and native wildlife hospital, and the architects’ plans have now been completed. The hospital is to be centrally located and is intended to become a fascinating part of the visitors' experience. We have secured a generous sponsorship of hospital equipment as well as audio-visual equipment that will allow vets to communicate with visitors as they work in the operating room. The hospital construction will begin in July 2007.

Animal training and conditioning programme
In this fascinating programme, animals are trained to present themselves, for routine health checks and medical interventions. The health benefits are enormous because the animals don’t need anaesthetics, the whole process is virtually stress-free for both animal and staff, and the animals get frequent health monitoring.

The main elements of the programme are regular activities like weighing, body and mouth inspections, rectal temperature checks, blood-drawing, vaccinations, crate training, and, for some animals, artificial insemination or encounter training, etc. As new animals join in, long-term plans are drawn up for them that match their likely requirements.

Already trained for many of these activities are: giraffes, lions, tigers, chimps and gibbons, spider monkeys, lemurs, servals, peccaries, sun bears, red pandas, otters, tamarins and several species of parakeet and cockatoo. Visitors are able to attend some of these training sessions as part of the Zoo’s Close Encounters programme.

A story with a successful outcome, our keeping staff noticed that Sean the sun bear’s penis seemed to be painful. Through a conditioning process, our training staff were able to teach Sean to present his penis for inspection instead of having him anaesthetised. This early inspection showed that Sean’s penis sheath was constricted and we were able to call on Massey University’s surgical services to remedy it. Sean should be able to breed now and we hope to see offspring soon.

Encounter/Educational Animals

The training team’s number of educational advocacy animals has increased with the addition of Tahi the one-legged kiwi, Nui the morepork, and Jess, the New Zealand falcon. We also hope to include serval kittens if that breeding programme is successful.

Various encounter animals have participated in various television and other media events including What Now, international news coverage and off-site projects with Te Papa and Otari Wilton Bush.

Horticultural development

The Strategic Plan policy for complementary horticultural design – as seen in the red panda enclosure – will continue to be applied to new projects. The giraffe house building programme and its innovative landscaping has been delayed but is hoped to be underway in the next couple of months.