The zoo has had four Pere David's Deer and at least one Ring-Tailed Lemur born. The WCS's Run for the Wild will also be held at the zoo this Saturday, April 29th. Anyone going? ~Thylo
According to the WCS News- Eastern Hellbenders are in a new exhibit in the World of Reptiles. There is video on YouTube that shows the exhibit with at least two fish species (rainbow or brook trout?) with the hellbenders. I am curious to know which exhibit they renovated for this, I thought it could have been the snake neck turtle exhibit, but it's not as deep as that one was.
I will look on Saturday. Perhaps the caiman lizard enclosure? Whichever exhibit it is it looks pretty great. Another wonderful species on-show at Bronx! ~Thylo
Today was the zoo's ninth annual Run for the Wild, which had a turnout of about 5,000 people and I was one of them. Have to say, though, I am a bit disappointed this year. Your entry in the event no longer covers entry into the extra admission exhibits, which is a shame considering it's $80 per person. Of course it is a fundraising event but you'd think they'd be able to still allow everyone who participated to get into the exhibits without having to pay an extra $15 to get an upgraded ticket. Despite not seeing the whole zoo, I still enjoyed myself greatly and found a good few new things: -The zoo's two zip-line obstacle courses are coming along nicely, the one near the Asian Parking being quite large. It's a bit sad seeing the African Plains area being converted. -I talked to a keeper and the zoo has 1.1 Daurian Pika on-show, though I only saw a glimpse of one hiding under a log. -The Lesser Kudu finally seem to be out regularly. -There's a good number of Oriental Magpie-Robins on-exhibit in the final room of JungleWorld. A few Grosbeak Starlings have been added here as well. The huge aviary was looking very full today and most of the animals were quite active. The Indian Gharial are a fantastic addition and there seem to be a few extra turtles and a tortoise mixed with them. My only complaint is that many of the larger fish have been moved out of the pool with underwater viewing but can still be seen from the overhead views in the small pools. The Sulawesi Dwarf Hornbill seems to be getting very well in the aviary. I saw both the chevrotain and the Sri Lankan Junglefowl as well. -The weevil beetle Macrochirus praetor and a few more inverts in are now in JungleWorld as well. -The new African enclosure in the Pheasant Aviaries has Buff-Crested Bustard, Kenyan Crested Guineafowl, Superb Starling, and I believe Von der Decken's Hornbills but they were unlabeled and had spots on the wings which I think suggest Jackson's Hornbill but they didn't seem to have as many spots as Jackson's do from photos. -The Australian enclosure in the Pheasant Aviaries has a new pair of Australian Brush-Turkeys which makes two megapode species for the zoo. -The new Hellbender enclosure has not replaced any old enclosures but in fact is just a brand new enclosure build into a previously unused portion of the wall near the entrance. I didn't see the animal, though. -The Frilled Dragons have moved from JungleWorld to World of Reptiles and the Burmese and Reticulated Python enclosures seem to have new rock and branch structures allowing the animals to climb a bit and making the enclosure look less bare. -There are a few Scarlet Ibis and Black-Faced Ibis in the aviary near the sea lions. -The kiwi signage has been correctly to the right species. -I am fairly certain that the skimmer that was rescued by the zoo has died as there was no sign of it and the signage for it has been removed. -The new finch enclosure in World of Birds is extremely underwhelming and a huge loss from the quetzals that used to be there. -There's a Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise chick on-exhibit and a Tawny-Frogmouth chick on-exhibit. The nursery held a pair of Green-Winged Macaw chicks. -I still have yet to find either seedeater or the grassquit in the South American aviary despite spending quite a good amount of time in there with binoculars. I am left to wonder if other members sightings are just misidentifications as there are a couple of unsigned passerines in the exhibit. I don't question anyone's claim, I'm just curious as to how I manage to keep missing them. That said, I did find one unknown passerine that's still TBI and a pigeon that looked like a Band-Tailed but I'm not sure. I heard quite a few stupid comments throughout the day such as a whole bunch of people referring to the Okapi is a "giraffe-zebra-horse" but the winner has to be the girl who went on about how zoos should mix predator and prey species together in order to be completely naturalistic. ~Thylo
If it's any help, the majority of the seedeaters (black and white) that I saw were female. The grassquit I got only a moment's glance at.
It does sound like you had a good day, even though it must have been crowded and hot for April. I am sure when I see the "Adventure Playground" on the old African Plains site I will also be sad. Is it taking up only the old gazelle exhibit or also the blesbok exhibit that was next to it? It seems like the zoo continues to add new reptiles, birds, invertebrates and small mammals. I do wish a new megafauna species (or major exhibit area) was on the horizon. For now the pikas, hellbenders, hornbills and other species are great. What animal did the pika replace in the Mouse House? I am curious if they are looking to breed them. I am really happy the Gharials are back, especially since it really is a great ending to Jungle World to see them. Now if Jungle World can get Proboscis monkeys again... What did you think of the hellbender enclosure? I am glad that it was newly created space and looked really nice. Were there several fish species with them? Did you see the bushmaster? Where did the frilled dragons move to? I am going to the zoo in two weeks so I will try to keep a look out in the World of Birds for the seedeaters. I don't really have luck photographing the small species, but I will keep a look out for them. I can understand finches are not the best replacement for the quetzels, but it seems like they have several species and maybe they could eventually introduce a parrot species (king, eclectus, rosella) to give the exhibit a little more pop. On the outside of the Mouse House, was it still the red pandas or did the tamarins return?
It was extremely crowded and hot. For now it seems to only be taking up the enclosure directly across from Wild Asia, though there is construction equipment up in the neighboring enclosure. It was also sad to see the state of Rare Animal Range as the run takes you through there. I agree, it'd be nice to see some more hoofstock in African Plans and a few more species added to CGF. Cheetahs should be going on-exhibit eventually, though. New small species are great, though! I do wish Bronx had a proper small mammal house on par with their bird and reptile houses. The pika replaced the Short-Eared Elephant-Shrews, which moved next to the chinchillas, which replaced the California Mice, which moved next to the skunks, but that enclosure was a second one for the skunks so nothing was lost. There still seem to be a few duplicate enclosures in the house. There are only Red Pandas outside the Mouse House still. For some reason they don't seem to put the monkeys out until the height of summer, which is a shame. There are really so few small mammal enclosures at the zoo so it's a shame that those outdoor enclosures go unused except for more Red Pandas (now the third enclosure for them at the zoo). I'd love to see the small primates and the Palawan Binturongs get usage of the space. The Hellbender enclosure is very nice, probably my favorite I've seen for the species. That, of course, also will make it tough for visitors to actually find the animal It's a bit shallow but it was nice length and height. There are two fish species in with them, though I do not know which. There was only one individual trout. There's also signage about the zoo's work with the species. I did see the Bushmaster. The Frilled Dragons are after the Bushmaster in WOR, though I couldn't tell you what used to be there. Definitely look out for the pigeon species and try to photograph it! I don't think my photos will be identifiable. A parrot species would make it a lot better, along with maybe a small ground bird. I just wish the quetzals would go on-show elsewhere in the house. I also wish the Guam Kingfishers would go back on-show. ~Thylo
It's also great to see that the Pheasant Aviaries aren't going neglected as just a surplus space to dump surplus birds with it being in a back corner of the zoo. The new Australian and African enclosures look very nice and I forgot to mention that another large space there is undergoing renovation atm. ~Thylo
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154479206773314 According to the facebook page, 4 Pere David deer have been born.
I posted that about a week ago According to an Instagram post, the zoo has had a Collared Lemur born as well. ~Thylo
Besides Bronx, both the Duke Lemur Center and Lemur Conservation Foundation in Myakka City, Florida have breeding animals. Zoos with breeding pairs are San Diego, Omaha, Dallas, and Binder Park.
They do, but they only have one. I was listing facilities that had breeding pairs. Zoos that have them but do not have breeding pairs are Disney's Animal Kingdom, Lowry Park Zoo, and Emporia Zoo in Kansas.
They're a great species and I hope they spread out more. Hamerton Zoo in England breeds them regularly and I believe was the initial importer of the whole captive population (along with the Sanford's Lemur). ~Thylo
Not sure about in Europe, but all of the collared lemurs in the US are descended from wild imports at DLC.
Would this species have been in the original 1960 import of 18 lemurs as a gift from the Madagascan government to DLC? I've been tracking DLC's imports as I can get info but I never learned the contents of this import.
The 1960 import included fulvus and rufus, but not collaris. The first collaris came to DLC just a couple years later in 1962. Interestingly, at that time all of these, among other species, were considered subspecies of E. fulvus; I'm not sure if they knew the subspecies/species at the time of import or if it was figured out in retrospect.
