WILD... IN K-ZONE

News Source: K-Zone, page 40 & 41, August 2004
By: Sally Townsend
Web: www.kzone.com.au

Wild… With Sally Townsend from Australia Zoo

Hi, guys! My name is Sally and this is my gorgeous little friend, Jinky, the Tasmanian Devil joey! Jinky and her sister, Tula, were born at Australia Zoo in June 2003. While they were once common on the mainland of Australia, Tasmanian Devils can now be found only in Tasmanian. They are very shy, nocturnal creatures so they are rarely spotted in the wild. Till next time… Remember, Crocs Rule!

Crikey! It might not be spring, but there are a lot of baby animals at Australia Zoo! Three of the most popular baby animals here, are our adorable Sumatran Tiger Cubs. The litter of one female and two male cubs were born at Mogo Zoo in NSW on April 1 this year. As ambassadors for their cousins in the wild, they will play a very important role in the conservation of tigers.

These drop-dead gorgeous cubs came to Australia Zoo at two weeks of age and were hand raised by our big cat handlers. The relationship they are building with their handlers will last throughout their life span. In the wild, tigers live for an average of 10-12 years, however, in captivity they can live up to 20 years of age!

Sumatrans are the smallest of the tiger subspecies, but what they lack in size, they make up for in speed and agility. The Indonesian island of Sumatra is home to the Sumatran tiger and there are only 200-400 left in the wild. Holy smokes! That makes these beautiful creatures highly endangered. It is a sad fact that we may witness their extinction in only a few short years.

At Australia Zoo, we’re doing our very best to ensure this doesn’t happen by allowing our visitors, who are 10 years and over, the opportunity to have an up close and personal tiger experience. All proceeds go towards tiger conservation. Our new little ‘big cats’ will also help by eventually participating in an international breeding program. What are ripper!

Isn’t she gorgeous! In May 2003, two of Australia Zoo’s Common Wombats, Chisel and Minibus, gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Burrow. Two months after witnessing the mating, our native mammal keepers began checking Minibus’ pouch for signs of a joey. At this stage, it had no fur and looked like a pink jelly bean!

After six to eight months in the pouch, the joey will begin to venture outside, but it will be 18 months before it becomes independent and leaves the pouch for good. From the time the joey leaves the pouch, it begins to substitute its mother’s milk for grasses and plants.

The Common Wombat is, funnily enough, the most common of the wombat species ahead of the Southern Hairy-Nosed Wombat and the Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat. In the wild, wombats usually live for five years, but can live up to 20 years in captivity.

Have a go at this… A baby echidna is called a ‘puggle’. Echidnas are ‘monotremes’, which are mammals that lay eggs. The only other monotreme is the platypus!

After koala joey’s are born, they make their way to the pouch and latch on to a teat for four months before emerging from the pouch. A koala joey’s first solid meal is a substance called ‘pap’, which is produced from the mother’s rectum and contains symbiotic bacteria. Pap is more commonly known as poo!

The gender of a crocodile hatching is determined by the egg’s incubation temperature. Freshwater crocodile eggs keep at 32c will produce male embryos, while those kept a few degrees above or below will be female!