There’s a 33-year-old emu called “Moo” (inspired by the American mispronunciation), who has seen the National Zoo and Aquarium grow over 36 years from a native animal park and aquarium, to circus animal rescue, to today’s 19-hectare tourism attraction.
Moo would be ideal to give a first-hand historical account of the zoo but … he’s a bird, so human Sabrina Lloyd, senior education officer, is giving a history tour as part of the Canberra and Region Heritage Festival (11 April – 10 May).
When the zoo first opened in 1990, it was just a native animal park and aquarium – the largest and only inland aquarium in Australia.
When private owners Richard and Maureen Tindale took over in 1998, they began taking in exotic rescue animals following bans on the use of exotic animals in the circus.
“We had three brown bears that had come from a circus and a couple of rescued lions and tigers,” Sabrina said. “We also ended up with tigons – this lion-tiger hybrid is completely illegal now, but they were bred accidentally at a circus. So, we took them in and we were able to rehabilitate them. They formed our original inhabitants.”
Because Canberra has a city zoo (roaring lions can be heard in suburbs three kilometres away) the owners decided not to take large animals like elephants. Instead, they built enclosures that were on average 20 to 30 per cent larger than the national standard size.
When the 2003 bushfires claimed the neighbouring pine plantation, the land was put up for sale and the zoo acquired the space, doubling its size.
As visitors move towards the back of the zoo, they enter the newer open-plain section, home to African animals like giraffes (which eat 30-40kg of hay a day) and rhinos (which eat 60-65kg a day).
At the very back you might spy Solo the cheetah – the first and only cheetah born at the zoo, hence his name. Solo is significant because he’s part of the zoo’s successful breeding programme, which also includes 27 zebra foals to date.
Interestingly, animals at the National Zoo and Aquarium are not bought or sold. Instead, the zoo is custodian of each species they protect.
“We don’t have monetary exchange for animals,” Sabrina said. “We are selectively breeding animals to ensure no inbreeding occurs, no over-breeding occurs, so in 50 years from now we will have a healthy, genetically-diverse population. One of the major purposes of zoos in Australia today is to conserve these animals.”
Back to 33-year-old Moo, who may not be the zoo’s oldest inhabitant (that’s “Speedy” the Coahuila Box Tortoise who is over 60 years old) but he he’s seen a lot in his time.
“We now have people employed at the zoo as keepers and guides who say, ‘when I was a kid on a school tour I remember feeding Moo’. And he’s still here and now they are running tours where they get kids to feed Moo.”
The most difficult animal to take care of is not what you’d expect.
“If you ask any keeper, the hardest animal they’ve ever had to look after was the dog [“Zama”], she was pretty energetic this one,” Sabrina said. “When Solo [the cheetah] was a baby, he grew up with a dog because his mum abandoned him. As a substitute companion we got him a dog and they were together three and a half years.
“The number of alarmed phone calls and guests we’d have at our reception point saying someone has thrown their dog into the cheetah enclosure and you need to help. In fact, the dog is the one in charge and stayed the one in charge for the whole time they were together.”
To book a history tour of the National Zoo and Aquarium from Saturday 11 April to Saturday 9 May, visit environment.act.gov.au/heritage/heritage-festival/nested-content/event-details?eventId=3021564&referredBySearch=true
