One hundred and thirty years ago today, Thursday 23 May, Adelaide Zoo opened its gates to the public for the first time. Since its humble beginnings in 1883 as the South Australian Zoological and Acclimatisation Society the zoo has gone on to become a leader in animal welfare and the preservation of all creatures, great and small.

Giant Panda Funi enjoys a birthday treat. Photo by Dave Mattner © Zoos SA

From mid January to the beginning of March our beautiful female Giant Panda, Funi, went through her second pseudo-pregnancy, which saw her experience all the things she would if actually pregnant. Symptoms included hormonal fluctuations, loss of appetite and prolonged episodes of sleep. This is very normal for female pandas to go through even if they haven't successfully mated during a breeding season. This year has been very different to last in the way she has behaved and we were thrilled with what we have seen knowing that next year it could actually be the real thing!

Adelaide Zoo's beautiful Giant Panda, Funi, loves to smile! Photo by Dave Mattner © Zoos SA

There's a new species on display at Adelaide Zoo this week with two female Highland Cattle, the first to ever reside at the zoo, joining the family.

Highland Cattle hail from the highlands of Scotland. Photo: Dave Mattner

From ice blocks filled with meat, fish or fruit to water misters and wading pools these are just some of the methods zookeepers at Adelaide Zoo use to keep its animal residents cool during scorching weather.

Adelaide Zoo's resident giraffe enjoys a carrot filled ice block. Photo: Dave Mattner

Sumatran Tiger, Tuan, takes a nice cooling dip. Photo: Dave Mattner

Karta, our Sumatran Orangutan, is due to give birth roughly around the middle of December but just like humans it wouldn't be unusual for her to give birth a couple of weeks either side of the anticipated date. With Karta's due date approaching rapidly we've been noticing quite a few changes in her behaviour. Now that she's in her last trimester, we've noticed that her food preferences have changed. Some days she's ravenous while other days she can't seem to be bothered to get up and get her food. Her tastes have changed as well. She went through a period where she couldn't get enough carrots and then the next week didn't want them at all. Some days she will want fruit and other days she will just leave it or even spit it out once she puts it in her mouth.

Karta's pregnancy diet is keeping zookeepers on their toes! Photo: Dave Mattner

Sadly the difficult decision was made to humanely put Janice the Pygmy Hippopotamus to sleep as her quality of life had significantly deteriorated due to various age related illnesses. Janice was not only one of Adelaide Zoo's longer-standing residents but the last of her kind at Adelaide Zoo. Janice has had her fair share of medical issues in recent years, having suffered at least three distinct episodes of seizures since July 2008, and early on Wednesday morning she was discovered fitting at the rear of her hut on exhibit. She had been on anti-seizure medication for some time so although this fourth major seizure was not unexpected, it was certainly more severe than previous occasions. A flurry of organised activity followed shortly thereafter, with vets, zookeepers and others nearby helping to get Janice on to a tarp and into her off-limit area where she could be made comfortable and observed easily. A heavy sedation calmed the convulsions for a time but the twitching resumed later and by mid-afternoon the decision was made to put her to sleep.

Janice will be sorely missed by staff, volunteers and visitors.

The Giant Panda breeding season has now come and gone. Unfortunately Wang Wang and Funi were not successful this time around. As the pair is still so young it was decided to allow them another natural mating attempt this year. This decision was made to ensure the team, and the pandas, had the chance to experience two full breeding seasons naturally to further develop and learn from what occurred last year. There were many positives to come from this year's season. It seems the continued introductions between Wang Wang and Funi throughout the year really helped. Funi, again, did remarkably well and seemed much more composed this year, trying to stop most of the play behavior from creeping in. Wang Wang also improved this year, particularly on the second day of introductions when he showed he had the ability to take control of the interactions and be a more dominant male.

Wang Wang and Funi are a compatible pair but a bit too young still to mate successfully.

With the 2012 Giant Panda breeding season now complete plans are underway for the use of artificial insemination in 2013.

Although Wang Wang and Funi are clearly a compatible pair, young age and inexperience has prevented a successful mating in their two breeding seasons to date.

Adelaide Zoo is very excited to have a new addition in our Red Panda family, no not a cub...at least not yet! It's been an interesting journey for the family which has seen lots of movement within the group, including a new face arriving and some old favourites departing.

As animal keepers, we constantly have a lot of different projects on the go at once. In the Adelaide Zoo orangutan world, we have been so busy concentrating on getting Karta ready to breed that this has become the focus of many of our training sessions as we try to get Karta accustomed to as many different gadgets and behaviours as possible. Obviously both Kluet and Puspa watch these training sessions and we know that sometimes they just want to have all that attention too.

Adelaide Zoo's Primate Team is happy to announce that Karta the Sumatran Orangutan is expecting a baby towards the end of the year! While it's still early days and not traditional to announce the pregnancy this early, there have been lots of whispers and questions about a possible pregnancy due to Karta's shape and size.

Karta's expecting a Christmas baby! Photo: Dave Mattner

In May 2011 one of our zookeepers, Nathan Langley, traveled to Franklin Island in the Nuyts Archipelago National Park, just off the coast of Ceduna, to catch greater stick-nest rats to supply an insurance population on the Australian mainland. Franklin Island is one of the last places the indigenous rat occurs naturally; by the 1930s they had become extinct on the mainland due to predators and increased grazing pressure from introduced herbivores. Adelaide Zoo's stick-nest rats live in the Nocturnal House and have designed and built their own exhibit, very impressive given its small size!

Adelaide Zoo's stick-nest rat family is expanding! Photo: Dave Mattner

The China Panda Conservation Challenge is a 12 day journey that allows participants to travel to China, enjoy amazing experiences and fundraise for Zoos SA's conservation efforts. One of the highlights of the trip is a visit to the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre in Chengdu; somewhere I have been lucky enough to experience for myself.

Visiting the Bifengxia Giant Panda Breeding Research Centre is one of the trip's highlights!

Recently, the world's attention has been shone on northern Sumatra where conservation organisations are currently fighting to save the last remaining Sumatran Orangutans and the forest of the Tripa peat swamps, in the Aceh Province Indonesia. The Tripa forest once held the largest orangutan population density in the world but the critically endangered species is now facing local extinction. If you aren't already aware of what is happening, the Tripa forest is being converted for large scale palm oil plantations. But the legality of this forest conversion is being contested in a high profile legal case as much of the forest clearing has been done illegally as has the burning of the land and the illegal establishment of huge drainage canals that will drain this unique and critically important wetland of its principal life force.

Please help save my wild cousins!

A new multi-purpose stage was recently completed on the Central Lawn at Adelaide Zoo providing an additional, professional site for presentations, functions and events as well as a much needed alternative for the Macaw Free-flight Presentation. This will alleviate the inconvenience of being near main pathways, crowds and traffic flow, making the presentation a more enjoyable and safer experience for the public, Keepers and macaws.

The new stage draws attention to a once forgotten area of the central lawn.

For the first time during the April school holidays the McDonald's Zoomobile ran weekday presentations that delighted families with an up close and personal encounter with live zoo animals, along with live music and fun interactions.

On Thursday, March 18, the Zoomorphic art exhibition opened with a red carpet cocktail extravaganza! More than 200 guests filled Adelaide Zoo's premier exhibition hall, the Santos Conservation Centre, to celebrate the opening of a new art exhibition featuring the weird and wonderful creatures of Adelaide and Monarto Zoos.

Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design student, Chris Calver's bronze sculpture of Dalia the chameleon

Adelaide Zoo is a great place to work for Bird Keepers as it houses many species that are not found in other Australian zoos. One such species, and one of my all time favourites, is the Palm Cockatoo. I've been fortunate to work with Adelaide Zoo's resident pair, Ben and his lady, and have been involved in helping them to breed successfully.

Hi, my name is Juan, I'm a University of Adelaide Masters student working on my final project researching the efficiency of solar panels at Adelaide Zoo. Solar Power technology has been studied and developed for many years with investigations demonstrating that solar panels have problems operating above 25oC. Green roof technology is the suggested solution for this issue due to its ability to maintain ambient temperature around 24 to 37oC. The main goal of my project is to research if solar panel efficiency is increased when it's installed on a green roof. For the purpose of this research solar panels were installed on the Envirodome building green roof at Adelaide Zoo.

1a) Green roof solar panel structure

Work has commenced in Adelaide Zoo's orangutan exhibit to build a fantastic wooden structure that will provide extra shelter and shade as well as plenty of new enrichment points. Previously, on really hot days, the shadiest spot in the exhibit was at the back where the orangs can be hard to spot amongst the foliage. This will soon change with the new structure able to provide lots of shade not only on the ground but throughout its various levels. At this stage the first platform is finished with work starting on the second platform this week. Eventually hammocks will be added to the top of the structure and a number of puzzle feeders will be attached, not only to encourage the orangutans to use the space but to keep them occupied while they get used to the new equipment.