Does anybody know what happened to San Francisco Zoo's Mountain Tapirs? ISIS does not list them as having them anymore, and their website does not list them anymore.
I had heard that the San Francisco Zoo is downsizing their animal collection due to budget constraints. Since all the Mountain Tapirs belong to the Los Angeles Zoo, perhaps that would be a good place to inquire.
I was looking in ISIS and it shows LA having 5.2, which means that the tapirs were indeed sent to LA because they used to have 4.1.
yes i can confirm they did indeed move back to LA. i think it was about 4-6 wks ago. they were cute, will miss them. goober the bairds taper is my fav. there just something about tapirs, they have the cutest faces.
there are alot of good exhibits. aside from the obvious savannah and lemurs, the warthogs, mandrills, patas, gorillas, dukiers, black buck, muntjac, all those are really nice i think, from a visitors opinion. yes some are aged and have gotten sprucing up over completly being redone, but it all takes money! there are still some little things though that i think can be done in some. i try to submit my ideas and hope they are taken into consideration.
San Francisco is one of the most beautyful cities int he world with one of the most boring zoos in the world...A shame, the citiy isn't giving money to the zoo, in every zoo, the zoo is one of the first golas of many tourists, so its a very important attraktion for the city, but some capitals,as like as London,Paris or San Francisco, didn't realize that, they all giving a ot of money to theathers and opereas, but not to the zoo, but how many families are going tot he opera with their kids ?
The mountain tapir moving back to LA Zoo leaves a high profile species out of the collection. I do hope that LA can re-invigorate the SSP mountain tapir programme (it would be nice to have 2 unrelated males ex Meso-America be imported for breeding purposes). As for SF Zoo: I have always been convinced that the zoo itself is generally not at fault and quite a good collection with a reasonable at home conservation outreach. Just the investment has been lagging in new exhibits or developing the zoo according to its masterplan. In this whole affair SF City Council is the one I blame most as the lagging authority with no vision. They showed their true colours when the whole tiger saga came along, no backbone and no money (so damn easy)! *** leo811, can you tell us how the moving of the black rhino into their new exhibit has fared? Any plans to bring in another female for breeding (as cow Ellie is now way to old and hopefully will be allowed to have a long deserved rest at SF Zoo new exhibit)? Any chance, they might move out the Indian rhino bull too, since I assume there will be no female around for him? That would be a wise move somewhat fitting the savannah set up and allow more emphasis on the long term success with black rhino at SF Zoo (a conservation success story ... folks)!!! Regards, K.B.
zebraduiker- it is sad that the city doesn't seem to embrace the zoo. i don't know what money if any is given by the city in support of the zoo, but i do know that recently there was info released that the zoo owed the city 2+millions for back utility bills. to me, it seems that those types of things should be absorbed by the city as it is a city park technically. ... the other sad thing in reference to the city and frankly it residents, is that the zoo even though in such a financially dire position, still participates in monthly free days. i think to "keep up with the jones", meaning that the museums and some other such type places all offer it. for a short time i had a gig (at the zoo) with an outsourced company, and i saw first hand what happens at free day (as a member i had never gone on that day before). it is packed first of all. even though the rules have changed for 2009 and only residents are free, seems some folks didn't get the memo and complain complain complain. the ones who did come in and look right at the donation box, read the sign that says something like suggested donation of $1 per person and its for the animals and then pass right by. i was disgusted. a family saves about $45 in entrance fees and they can't spare $4 bucks. it made sick. that was april. in may an unadvertised free day on mother's day, let everyone in for free. people donated. so, i'm led to believe that the cheap peeps are sf residents. as well having no entrance fee brings in low lifes and animal torturers, but that's another thread all together!
KB- i don't know which animals are or aren't on the SSP unless one of ours gets a recommendation, but baby tapirs would be cute! we have goober, who is our male bairds tapir. he is solo and i don't know if he's ever been matched up. will have to ask about that. i think there is a good collection also. i started researching views on yelp to see what people are saying so i could present some ideas to the director accurately and not just from my opinion. its curious to me when i read comments that people say there aren't that many animals. i'm not sure what these people are doing when they are there, but i've probably gotten to only half of them on my blog and that's probably 60+. so far they have only moved gene, the male black rhino. he was moved almost two weeks ago. i've been to the zoo 5-6 times since then and still haven't seen him out. i was there the day after the move and a keeper told me that he peeked outside and came back in. i heard he's been out for short times, but whether or not that's progressed i haven't seen one of their keepers out to ask. they have held off moving ellie because they realized they needed to make some adjustments to the flooring in the barn. they found that it would be too slippery for her. not sure the progress on that. i'm going tomorrow, so hopefully someone will be out and about, cuz i'm curious as well. ellie was up moving about the other day and i told her not to worry, her man is waiting for her i havent heard anything about new acquisitions for rhinos. i would hope they don't move gauhati (asian rhino) i love him and would miss him. i would hope they would not bring in a new female as gene and ellie are very bonded. even though they are separated by a barrier (becuz his romeo advances would be too much for her) they are very close. they are always laying side by side. the new enclosure has the capability for them to also have access to both areas. in the old one she was always in the smaller one. so this makes me happy. i have made an inquiry tho why there is never any grass areas in the rhino's (all three). there's just dirt and it doesn't seem natural or provide any different options for them. anyone have any info on other zoo's rhino and for that matter elephant enclosures (since our asian rhino is in the old elephant enclosure)? leo811 goober's sf zoo friends: welcome!
KB, I think you have made a very accurate assessment. The city of San Francisco is extremely indifferent to their zoo, attacked the zoo after the tiger attack, helped drive out the director who was bringing in a more diverse, younger animal collection and actually turned the zoo around financially. I don't have much hope for the future of the SF Zoo and think the Oakland Zoo will be the major zoo in the Bay Area.
Thanks you both leo811 and gnuzoo! It has been enlightening too. I have been somewhat flabbergasted at times over the SF Zoo saga. I do love their conservation outreacht work. Sure some exhibits need upgrading, but hay you need cash for that ... and the Mun is not exactly helping there. On mountain tapirs: my understanding is that these are being phased out as all related and no new ops for importing new founders. The SSP TAG is switching to Baird's ... so, hopefully you might get a female from Central America some time soon. As far blacks: I am not sure as to recommendations there ... The SF line is though quite important (a daughter of Ellie has just started to breed/has calved). K.B.
KB- i too get frustrated at times with the zoo, becuz i think there are little things that can be done at little cost to endear more people to the zoo, and that would bring in more people=more gate sales. it seems though that the zoo doesn't want to put forth this spin that i approached them with. rather keep on going the same way (as far as visitor outreach) and its just not working. since the tiger event there has and still is a cloud of negativity. my goal in my putting my ideas and comments out there to them is to enlighten the visitors and get them coming back more often. i want visitors to feel the way i do, that the zoo isn't a "thing to do" once a yr, but a plce they are drawn to on a personal level. yea about the tapirs! goober is 14 now, do you know the life span/breeding time frame? great that you mentioned ellie's daughter. if you have visited my blog you will see i am very much into the history and family of the residents. it was just last wk when i thought it would be cool to find ellie's babies and see how their lives are. please forward and info to me you have on where they are at. i asked one keeper , she is too new too know and referred me to a long time keeper that by description didn't even sound like i've ever seen this gal. ok i'm off to the zoo! if i get any info on the rhino's i'll post later! hope gene is out this am. i haven't seen him in two wks and miss him! i get freaked out a bit when i don't see an animal for a period of time. i didn't see gauhati (asian rhino) for almost a month. he has been choosing to stay inside alot lately. leo811
