Tasmania Zoo has welcomed two new faces in zebras Atreyu and Zia. Video by Aaron Smith (23/5/2024)
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00:00 We've just recently had two zebras arrive here at Tasmania Zoo.
00:04 So they're the first zebras we've ever had here and hopefully going to be our breeding pair.
00:09 Atreyu came from Werribee Zoo in Victoria. He's been in a couple zoos previously as a breeding
00:14 stallion so plenty of experience and then Zia has come from Darlingtown Zoo and she's never bred
00:19 before so hopefully it will be first time pairing and he will show the ropes. So these guys are here
00:25 as part of an Australasian managed breeding program and we were asked to set up a new breeding herd
00:30 here. So it's all been quite successful so far we've already seen plenty of mating with Atreyu
00:35 being an experienced stallion he kind of got in straight away and did what he needed to do so
00:40 hopefully about a year away from now we'll have some babies here as part of that breeding program
00:45 which will be awesome. So the plan is that this will be the basis of what will hopefully become
00:50 a decent size herd. We'll breed up the numbers and maybe down the track look at swapping out
00:54 Atreyu to mix up genetics but yeah the plan is to build up a herd. Yeah so they should get along
01:00 really well with the giraffe so we haven't quite introduced them just yet just letting the zebra
01:06 settle in into their new environment but giraffes are usually not very curious they'll come over
01:13 have a look and then once they realize that they're just zebras they're going to get bored of
01:16 them pretty quickly I reckon. I think a lot of people want to come out and see a zebra so hopefully
01:20 they'll be a good draw card for us. Not many people in Launceston have seen zebras around
01:26 the area so hopefully this will be a nice new attraction for the zoo.
01:30 you
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