Find out about the farmyard animals at Brooklands Zoo.
Diet: Dry tussock grass and megaherbs (species that have grown to large sizes due to no competitive vegetation on the subantarctic islands)
Home: Campbell Island, subantarctic islands, New Zealand
This breed of sheep began as Merino crosses that were taken to Campbell Island, located 600km south of Stewart Island in 1895. After 1931, humans farming stopped on the island and the sheep were left alone to develop into one of New Zealand’s rarest sheep breeds.
On Campbell Island, it rains an average of 320 days a year. This has meant that the sheep have developed a resistance to foot rot making them ideal for grazing in NZ pastures.
In the 1958, the island became a wildlife reserve. 10 sheep were removed to live in a government owned flock. The rest of the sheep were culled from the island to allow other species like Southern Royal Albatross, Elephant seals and Campbell Island Teal to flourish. There is now an estimated 40 breeding female Campbell Island sheep in the world (all in New Zealand), making them extremely rare.
80% of males have full horns while most females have small nubs making them easy to tell apart. Brooklands Zoo’s Campbell Island sheep are on loan from Avonstour Island.
Diet: Chicken pellets, vegetables and small bugs such as worms.
Home: Domestic chickens live all over the world!
The chicken is one of the most common and wide spread domestic animals, with a population of more than 24 billion. They were domesticated around 8,000 years ago. There are more chickens in the world than any other bird, with more than 150 different varieties of domestic chickens.
The rooster is a male chicken and crows all day round. Chickens’ life expectancy is between five and eleven years, with the world’s oldest chicken living until 16 years of age. They have four to five toes on each foot and have a heart beat of up to 315 beats per minute. The largest chicken egg ever laid weighed 450g and an egg was once found that contained nine yolks.
Diet: Crawling insects, seeds, rodents, fruit and vegetation.
Home: Africa
The guineafowl population is unknown worldwide as their numbers are too high. In the wild they inhabit grasslands, forest and bush areas. They prefer to run rather than fly and roost in trees.
They are a social animal with a life span of up to 15 years, and are monogamous. They are often used and raised on farms to control parasites on farm stock.
Our guineafowl are pearl grey and lavender in colour. They can lay up to 20 eggs at a time and the young are called keets. They are also both monomorphic and monochromatic – both sexes look and act alike, although a male’s wattle is much larger a female’s.
Diet: Omnivorous. Their wild diet includes vegetation, bark, roots and small mammals and birds. At Brooklands Zoo they are fed grass and browse daily as well as vegetables, pellets, fruit and a small amount of protein. Unlike other pig breeds, they require less protein and can live very well off pasture.
Home: Discovered in New Zealand but now farmed worldwide - how the Kune Kune was introduced to New Zealand is unknown however they have a strong association with Māori. Kune Kune translated means ‘round and fat’. They can have tassels (or piri piri) which hang under their lower jaws which are very soft and fleshy. There is no such thing as a miniature pig - while Kune Kune are smaller than other breeds, the miniature refers to the height at which they stand at the shoulder which doesn’t mean they can’t weigh well over 100kg. Did you know? In the 1970’s there were less than 50 Kune Kune left. A concentrated breeding program brought this breed back from the brink of extinction. Brooklands Zoo’s Kune Kune pigs are on loan from Avonstour Island.
