And that's a wrap...2019!

We’re on the eve of 2020, the perfect time to share some highlights from the past year and say a big THANK YOU and KA PAI for all of the things you helped us to achieve for wildlife and wild places this year.

In 2019 we welcomed waterbuck male Roy from Werribee Zoo and females Etana, Kwacha and Ina from Hamilton Zoo, porcupine Bruce from Zoo's South Australia and Asian arowana fish for our new South East Asia habitat!

We’ve seen the birth of zebra foal Eve, TWO sets of cotton-top tamarin twins, a new yet-to-be-named red panda cub, three otter pups, six nyala calves, lace monitor hatchlings, 15 Operation Nest Egg kiwi chicks with our partners Kiwis for Kiwi and 3 zoo chicks, 16 kākāriki karaka (orange fronted parakeet), 1 whio and 23 pāteke ducklings for release into the wild, and literally thousands of endangered wētāpunga hatchlings – only to name a few of the many ectotherms and birds that were born this year.

It was also a HUGE year for our vets, keepers, volunteers and partners Kākāpō Recovery with the biggest kākāpō breeding season on record. At the start of the season we spent 4,804 field hours monitoring, hand-rearing, health checking and transporting chicks alone.

We’re also seeing the finishing touches put in place on phase one of our South East Asia Jungle Track including our new café and there’ll be more news on this in the new year!

All of this amazing work couldn’t be achieved without YOU! We’d love to see you this summer holidays at the zoo.