A hot and steamy Indonesian swamp forest habitat teeming with plant and animal life – including one of the world’s largest crocodilians - now open.
The innovative new animal habitat and visitor experience, created within a large climate-controlled tropical dome, completes the build of the zoo’s South East Asia Jungle Track – the largest and most ambitious renewals project in the zoo’s 100-year history.
“Like all of the habitats within this track, the swamp forest enables us to provide the highest levels of animal care, and at an international level, places us at the forefront of what a good modern zoo is all about – for both animals and people,” says Auckland Zoo’s head of animal care and conservation, Richard Gibson.
Visitors are immediately transported to the tropics on entering the 28-degree, 70-90 percent humidity environment - currently home to threatened Sunda gharial crocodiles, 13 different fish species (including Asian arowana), and thousands of plants from more than a 100 species.
“We’ve worked to create a really authentic habitat – down to the finest detail of the types of marginal plants growing along the riverbanks. And just like in the wild, the crocs have water with a range of depths for swimming and shadowy places for resting, as well as land areas where they can haul themselves up onto and bask in the heat,” explains Richard.
He says visitors are in for a rich, unforgettable, multi-sensory immersive experience that’s like nothing else in New Zealand.
“From the heat, humidity, sounds and smells, to the feel of the mist and rain, to seeing exquisite orchid species and stunning shoals of fish and the extraordinary Sunda gharials underwater, the swamp forest is a celebration of the abundance of life - of the biodiversity and biomass that can live in a verdant healthy tropical rainforest.
“We are now at a time in our history when humans are having an alarming impact on our planet; there’s huge loss of biodiversity, and increasingly, people are more disconnected from the natural world. As a conservation organisation, we want people to connect in nature with each other – to enhance their own wellbeing, and to fall in love with wild places and wildlife like these and be inspired to join us and do what they can to help. This can be simple everyday things like only buying sustainable timber, fair-trade organic coffee, and products that use sustainable palm oil, to donating towards the zoo’s many conservation projects - which supports many South East Asian wildlife conservation projects,” says Richard.
The South East Asia Jungle Track also includes a high canopy habitat for orangutans and siamangs, and a lowlands habitat for Sumatran tigers and Asian small-clawed otters. At the heart of these interconnecting habitats is a lake and wetlands (with filtration and water-purifying functions) experienced via a visitor boardwalk, and via aerial pathways – extended climbing range/habitat for the orangutans and siamangs. As part of this project, a wharekai and function venue, Te Puna café, which overlooks the zoo’s lake, has also been built.
Auckland Zoo’s acting director, Jooles Clements, says as part of the Auckland Council whanau, the zoo is hugely appreciative of council’s support to enable the undertaking of this vital renewal programme.
“With the support of Auckland Council, we have been able to transform almost one fifth of the visitor area in the zoo. Along with world-leading upgrades to animal habitats, the South East Asia Jungle Track project has also enabled the essential renewal of century-old infrastructure, such as power and water. With the inclusion of new services, such as natural stormwater filtration and data, we are ensuring that the zoo will continue to be a place for future generations to connect with wildlife and each other.”
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