Auckland Zoo opens The Tropics for new alligators

Visitors to Auckland Zoo will be able to check out four impressive new American alligators at a newly built exhibit that opens this Queen’s Birthday weekend.

The eight-year-old female alligators arrived from Australia Zoo earlier this month, waiting out a quarantine period at the New Zealand Centre for Conservation Medicine before joining the zoo’s long-time resident alligator Doris in their new home.

Auckland Zoo Exotic Birds and Reptiles team leader Lana Judd says that it will be great for 30-year-old Doris to have other alligators for company.

“Doris has lived alone for more than 10 years now, so it will be a massive change for her, but we’re confident that all the alligators will get on well together.

“The new exhibit is fantastic - it really brings to life the American alligator’s natural habitat of the swamps and wetlands of the south-eastern United States,” she says.

Auckland Zoo Life Sciences Manager, Kevin Buley, says that the new exhibit will be a part of a greater precinct called The Tropics, which will completed and open to the public later this year.

“The new exhibit and precinct will allow our visitors to take a journey through the tropics of the Florida swamps to the tropical rainforests of South America,” he says.

The Exotic Birds and Reptiles team will be putting on special alligator encounters for the public at the new exhibit on the Saturday and Sunday of the long weekend at 10.30am and 1.30pm.

The zoo is calling on members of the public to help name its four newest residents. Along with having their suggested name chosen, the four winners will get the opportunity to meet with one of the zoo’s reptile keepers at the exhibit to learn more about the alligators.

Visit www.aucklandzoo.co.nz for more information.

How to enter the naming competition:

o email zoonews@aucklandcity.govt.nz by 9am on Tuesday, 8 June with your suggested name. Please put ‘Alligator naming competition’ in the subject line
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o your chosen name should reflect the south-eastern United States’ bayou region. If applicable, please include the meaning or translation of your suggested name
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o include your contact name, address and phone number
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o the four winning names will be selected on Monday, 14 June and the winners notified by phone, with details of the names posted on www.aucklandzoo.co.nz
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o the prize consists of free one-day entry into the zoo for each winner and a caregiver if applicable. It does not include transport.
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Notes to editor

Alligator Fast Facts

o the collective name for a group of alligators is a congregation
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o the American alligator was saved from the brink of extinction and is now classified as “recovered”
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o the average adult female grows to 2.6m and the average male grows to 3.4m
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o the zoo’s long-time resident alligator, 30-year-old Doris, is 1.9m
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ENDS

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