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Franklin Park Zoo Franklin Park Zoo News 2016

Discussion in 'United States' started by ZooElephantMan, 21 Feb 2016.

  1. ZooElephantMan

    ZooElephantMan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    that is a message in an email with NN FAQ sent to volunteers
     
  2. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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    Indian Rhino have been the talk the last few years. SoWR were to join GS way back, but the powers to be at the time, signed off on the 2,200sf giraffe barn. Which was done wrong, had to be reconfigured, as it was laid out backwards. Reminds me of the time they put the air conditioning for cougar and jaguar on the reptile side. :p Wasted expense, much like most of their projects back then. If it cost $7.2 million for NN, a proper rhino barn would cost ZNE about the same. Factoring in, all the mishaps and such. :p
     
  3. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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    I was thinking, since the open of NN on 9/1, there has been zero news coverage. No articles, not even a blurb on their site. Only mention was weeks ago. I find that odd. Slow news cycle or are they embarrassed with the outcome? Food for thought. :p
     
  4. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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  5. ZooElephantMan

    ZooElephantMan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    It is admittedly cool that dragonflies are laying eggs in the turtle pond
     
  6. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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  7. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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    The website doesn't really give much info on species found in NN, especially, the aviary portion. I don't care for birds, but people have asked about the birds. So along with what is listed, there are also buffleheads and eiders.

    Ostrich have hatched. Believe they're zoo-mix, but not sure. They're cute, though.
     
  8. Gulo gulo

    Gulo gulo Well-Known Member

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  9. vogelcommando

    vogelcommando Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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  10. wensleydale

    wensleydale Well-Known Member

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    Wonderful Hopefully I'll get to see it when I go this fall.

    How come the adult pair can't reproduce? Are they infertile or just incompetent?
     
  11. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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  12. ZooElephantMan

    ZooElephantMan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    I went to FPZ yesterday for the first time since last spring. It was so hard, trying to make time. I took one of my friends, who also really likes animals, but hasn't been to a zoo in 7 years, with me. I was worried he wouldn't like it, because FPZ usually gives a bad first impression, but i guess I did a good job showing him around, because he liked it a lot. We got to the zoo at around 10:50 or something. I was surprised we weren't the first people there. I usually get there in the morning and run strait to the lions before they go to sleep for the rest of the day, but we also got there too late to watch the lions do anything. Or the tigers. Only the orange tiger was on exhibit, and paced ALL day where the white tiger usually is. Maybe the white tiger was having a medical checkup, and the orange tiger was nervous because they don't like being separated? We also saw Ino, the male pygmy hippo. He was swimming and eating lettuce leaves floating on the surface of the water. The corpse flower died. The giant middle tall part is drooping. We saw Azize, who was climbing up the roots of the fake trees, and jumping off and landing on the ground over and over again. And we saw Jana and Amari. That was nice. I noticed small things around the zoo have changed. Theres the giraffe statues, for one. When they redo the entrance if they redo the entrance they should incorporate the statues in somehow, instead of having the statues be random in not official looking places. I also noticed how A lot of signs around the zoo are changed since the last time I was there, to look more official, like the GS sign and stuff like that. The big thing to see was natures neighborhoods. It was ok. I wasn't too disappointed with it, the biggest disappointment was the bang for their buck. The red panda exhibit struck me the most as being too small, especially for 2 red pandas and a muntjac. The other exhibits aren't as bad, in terms of size. The prairie dogs spend all day underground, though. The turtle area was fine, except one of the 2 pools was closed for maintenance.
     
  13. ZooElephantMan

    ZooElephantMan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    New female 1 year old bactrian camel. Hasn't met gulliver yet.
     
  14. ZooElephantMan

    ZooElephantMan Well-Known Member 5+ year member

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    Saving Tapirs and Wild Places in Nicaragua | Franklin Park Zoo

    Some important guy who has done conservation work for tapirs in nicaragua will be at the zoo speaking to people this saturday.

    After thinking more about the zoo getting a new female camel, it struck me as odd for a few reasons. First, its weird they only got one new camel, since Gulliver, the zoo's old camel, is pretty old and not in too good shape, and in a few years if and or when he dies, it would be weird to leave the new camel all alone. Also, in a video the zoo posted, they show walking the new camel all around the zoo, so maybe she is also an education animal and they will walk her around the zoo as enrichment? Also, I was under the impression that the AZA was discouraging small zoos from getting new camel exhibits, because they are domesticated and so there is minimal conservation value
     
  15. GraysonDP

    GraysonDP Well-Known Member

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    As for the last point, Bactrian camels are endangered so don't they have conservation value?
     
  16. Kudu21

    Kudu21 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Wild Bactrian camels (Camelus ferus) are critically endangered, yes; however, there are none of these in captivity outside of range countries (are there any other than those in the captive breeding program in Mongolia?). All Bactrian camels you see in zoos are domestic Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus). Recent genetic evidence suggests the two species diverged between .7-1.5 MYA.