Conservation
Altina’s mission is to create and maintain memorable educational and unique visitor experiences in the hopes that this will inspire all in joining us in conserving wildlife and the environment. Through the support of generous businesses and visitors, Altina has managed to assist in the conservation efforts with many species within Australasia as well as others dancing on the boundary of extinction worldwide.
Some of Altina's successful achievements are with the programs involving species such as: Maned Wolves, African Wild Dogs, Scimitar Horned Oryx, Addax Antelope, Przewalski Horses, Hog Deer and just recently, the Southern White Rhino Project.
Without the kind support of sponsors, donators & adopters Altina would not be able to continue this critical conservation work; Help Us To Help Them!
Maned Wolves
Altina was first alerted of the diminishing numbers of Maned Wolves within Australia shortly after opening in 2004. From here we began to make steps to acquire these animals to begin conserving the few animals left in the country. Altina officially acquired 5 Wolves in 2008. After ensuring the health of these animals by making a few changes in diet, we began to work on importing a female from Russia 'Olinta' to improve the Australian genetic pool and ensure this species not only survived but thrived, Olinta landed at Altina in 2009. Since then Altina has imported a Male from Sweden named 'Pepe' and an additional female from Texas 'Tepin'. With these imports Altina managed to increase the Australian population from 5 to 22 within a matter of a few years. Altina owe this breeding success to a discovery made by the team that these animals were in fact not Monogamous animals, this discovery allowed the genetic pool to diversify immensely and not only helped the Australian population but Maned Wolf populations around the world. In the last 3 years Zoos around Australia such as: Hunter Valley Zoo, National Zoo & Aquarium, Crocodylus Park, Shoalhaven Zoo & Adelaide Zoo with more still on the waiting list; have all jumped on board with the Maned Wolf Conservation project and have now included these magnificent animals within their own collections.
African Wild Dog
African Wild Dogs would have to be one of the most difficult species to handle and are incredibly highly strung. With a complex social group, assisting this species has not been an easy job. To make matters even more difficult only the Alpha Male & Female are allowed to breed within the group. In 2010 Altina received a bachelor pack of African Wild Dogs to assist the program as a holding facility. Shortly after in 2012, Altina was the first Private Zoo within Australasia to be recommended to receive a breeding pack to assist with the conservation work already in place for this challenging species.
We are happy to announce that from when Altina first began this journey this species was classified as Critically Endangered but to date numbers have increased sufficiently world wide bringing the species classification to Endangered. Altina contributed to this monumental effort by successfully breeding 18 pups in the last 4 years and we are very hopeful this species will make a full recovery and eventually make change its IUCN rating down further to one of being of 'Least Concern'.
Scimitar Horned Oryx
Regarded as Extinct in the Wild, there have been no confirmed sightings or evidence of this species in the wild since the early 1990s. This is despite extensive surveys dedicated to detection of Sahelo-Saharan antelopes carried out in Chad and Niger.
This species has had it extremely hard for quite a long period of time, with an IUCN listing of 'Extinct in the Wild' and “Critically Endangered” in captivity, Altina was very keen to help conserve our world's very own unicorn myth. Two years after first acquiring this species in 2010, Altina had its first 2 babies born, and things were starting to look up. Now Altina has 26 individuals and has profoundly assisted the revitalisation of the Australian Oryx population from 26 in 2011 to a wonderful 50 and rising.
With the hope to reintroduce these animals back into their native homeland there is still a lot of work to be done, as we need to keep a healthy genetically viable species which will save them from total extinction.
Addax Antelope
Addax are listed as Critically Endangered, mainly due to the total population estimated to number under 100 individuals. Numbers continue to decline due to poaching and disturbance from oil exploration. It is likely that of these 100 individuals less 50 are mature individuals. Addax Antelope are known to be very difficult to breed in captivity due to their susceptibility to disease and parasites making their fight to survive that much more difficult.
Altina began their journey with the Addax Conservation program back in 2011 and since then we have been fortunate enough to breed 7 babies. We are hopeful that with the continuation of breeding programs such as those at Altina, we as a nation may be able to preserve this species and enable them a future for years to come.
Przewalski Horse/Mongolian Wild Horse
The Przewalski or Mongolian Wild Horse was previously listed as Extinct in the Wild from the 1960s up to a re-assessment in 1996. The species was then reclassified as Critically Endangered (CR) due to at least one surviving mature individual sighted in the wild. Subsequent reintroductions from a combination of Zoos have resulted qualifying this species for reassessment. The population is currently estimated to consist of more than 50 mature individuals free-living in the wild for the past several years. This species is listed as Endangered as of 2011.
Altina jumped on board this program starting with 4 males in 2006 before acquiring a breeding stock. To date Altina has bred 3 young - 2 females & 1 Male and we continue the hope that assisting this vital program will boost Australian numbers and eventually the World population to bring this species back from the brink of extinction.
Hog Deer
In 2006, Altina's directors came across and fell in love with the unusually cute Hog Deer which was only shortly after officially opening as 'Altina Wildlife Park' in 2004. Altina acquired 1 male and 3 females at this particular time, in the hope of combating this species IUCN listing of 'Endangered'. Since then Altina's Hog Deer numbers have been increasing by 6 or more new births every year. With numbers consistently increasing Altina has been fortunate enough to enlist the support of Halls Gap Zoo who has come on board to assist us with this particular program.
Southern White Rhino
Only a mere 5% of the population of Rhinos living across Africa and Asia in the 20th century are alive today. White Rhinos are severely threatened due to poaching by humans and habitat destruction, leaving them with limited living space and minimal food supply. In fact, large-scale poaching has left as few as 20-50 Southern White Rhino living in the wild as at the end of the nineteenth century.
The reason for rating this species as Near Threatened and not Least Concern is due to the continued and increased poaching threat and increasing illegal demand for horn, increased involvement of organised international criminal syndicates in Rhino poaching (as determined from increased poaching levels, intelligence gathering by wildlife investigators, increased black market prices and apparently new non-traditional medicinal uses of rhino horn). Current successful protection efforts have depended on significant range state expenditure and if these were to decline (especially in South Africa) rampant poaching could seriously threaten numbers even further (well in excess of 30% over three generations). Without conservation measures, within five years the species would quickly meet the threshold for the IUCN classification of Vulnerable, and potentially plummet further if poaching rates were to further increase.
Altina has made a commitment to fight extinction with our Conservation and Captive Animal Breeding programs. Without the support of our visitors, donators and adopters we simply could not succeed in these crucial tasks. Your kind animal Adoptions and/or Donations allows Altina to fund long term programs and definitely help us to make valuable contributions in saving many beautiful species for all generations to come.