Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden News 2021

Cincinnati Zoo Update
Two updates from the zoo today

• Sabu the male Asian Elephant is in musth but no move is being made to let him breed with Jati.
• The second Large-Spotted Genet exhibit next to the Fennec Fox exhibit is being renovated

 

Haven't they given up on getting the two of them to produce more offspring?

 

Chance the cheetah passed away at age 17.

Cincinnati Zoo cheetah, Chance, passes away

 

Really sad news, even given his age

 

Staff are on birth watch for Linnaeus's two-toed sloth:

Practicing lightning with a sloth stuffed animal - Ohio News Time

 

The zoo has not fully given up as every now in then they put them together when he is musth.

 

The zoo is receiving 1.0 Nile hippo Bruce from the San Francisco Zoo as a mate for Bibi (credit for this find goes to @Polar bear fan !)

 

This is great news! My only worry is if the hippo exhibit can fit this many hippos.

 

Well by AZA standards Cincinnati's exhibit is at the bare minimum for being able to hold two hippos, so the announcement of a third arriving makes me wonder if Fiona is due to leave the zoo. It's also strange to be that the zoo would want to attempt breeding hippos again when the male will have to be shipped out the moment the female is confirmed as pregnant in order to avoid violating their AZA accreditation requirements.

~Thylo

 

I highly doubt Cincinnati wants to send Fiona away, she’s pretty much the star of the whole zoo. Fiona will be of breeding age soon, so maybe Bibi will be sent away instead. I guess only time will tell.

 

This whole situation shocks me. I mean 1,000 sq ft of outdoor space per hippo outdoors and even less indoors (having seen the videos from Fionas upbringing the barn ain't exactly spacious). I would hate to think the zoo would keep a hippo shut in there most the time. Yet after all Cincinnati built this exhibit just a few years ago so they seem to not care .

 

Well if the source says the mate is for Bibi then that only leaves one option. As you said Fiona is maturing so maybe the zoo wants a new star..

Or perhaps they'll just violate the AZA and try keeping them all until they have to send one away under threat of potential loss of accreditation. I imagine that's a little too dramatic for them though.

~Thylo

 

Yes, this article says that Bibi is the planned mate, I can’t imagine Cincinnati giving up Fiona under any avoidable circumstance so I guess we’ll just have to wait for their announcement.

The long goodbye: Suisun City boy will visit hippo before it leaves SF Zoo

 

I'd find it surprising but the exhibit literally cannot fit more than two hippos. Maybe that potential paring with the San Antonio hippo mentioned three years ago on both zoos' Twitters may finally come to light. At the end of the day, Fiona is a valuable breeding female for her species, not just a zoo celebrity.

~Thylo

 

Agreed. It was cramped with just Henry and Bibi let alone 2 adults and a subadult. Unfortunate that the exhibit was not built up to good size standards in the first place, seeing as this eventual situation was unavoidable...

 

Seeing how a PLAYGROUND was of utmost importance to the design...

 

As is again repeated in the ropes course beside the kangaroo walk-about

 

The current recommendation is an exhibit able to hold a breeding group of adults + calves at 3

 

I would still be very interested to see sources indicating that Cincinnati's habitat is undersized per AZA standards, if anyone has the relevant documents available or could point me in the direction of where to view them? I've asked on another thread as well.

I also haven't been able to find any officially published numbers on the size of Cincinnati's habitat (I've only seen that the exhibit is less than 3,600 square feet total, including the pool).

I'm not intending to challenge anyone, no offense or insult meant at all, I only find it very surprising that a non-compliant habitat would be built in an AZA accredited facility as recently as 5 years ago, and then receive breeding recommendations through the SSP for said non-compliant habitat. It's almost certainly my naivety as someone who's a much more casual enthusiast than many of the active Zoochatters here, but these particular claims are shocking and something I feel I'd have to see to believe.

If nothing else I'll continue searching and attempt reaching out to the relevant organizations to hopefully share any info that might back up the claims

 

I know, and unfortunately very few zoos in the US have exhibits which can live up to this recommendation. I imagine it's hard for the AZA to enforce these standards when most holders of the species aren't complying.

~Thylo