I was amongst others rightly referring to her leadership. But a leader cannot be that without a good and committed and fired-up team of senior management and general services workers and keeping staff.
Twin Ring Tailed Lemurs have been born to parents, Finn and Remi. The Honolulu Zoo welcomes twin baby lemurs to their ohana
Honolulu Zoo have imported 1.1 Reticulated giraffe! Honolulu Zoo welcomes 2 endangered giraffes The pair came from Albuquerque Biological Park: 1.0 Neelix (Jan 6, 2019) 0.1 Sandi (July 5, 2019) They join Honolulu Zoo's elderly male, Squirt - who was the last giraffe to be born at Honolulu Zoo in 1999. The zoo had been planning an import since Squirt's older sister died last year aged 24 years.
Thats quite a journey for those giraffes, or really any animal to this zoo. Hence why it always seems to take a while to fill exhibits, for larger animals.
I don’t believe so. The zoo is just getting off the ground again after a pretty rough decade. Last month it finally got its AZA accreditation back, a process that involved a lot of behind the scenes infrastructure investments at the zoo. Thats not to say the haven’t done things in recent years they have, most notably the new reptile complex and hippo renovation. The zoo has mentioned replacing the outdated primate exhibits as a priority, so i’d imagine thats next. As well they want to update the tiger exhibit. After that who knows, although from everything I know about the zoo, not much is outdated.
From what I saw in 2017 the main outdated parts are what you mentioned. The gibbon and spider monkeys are ancient and unattractive exhibits, although possibly marginally still functional. The tiger exhibit is a series of large cages that are well-planted, but visually unattractive. It would be great if they expanded their native Hawaii exhibit to include native honeycreepers.
I’m surprised they haven’t considered doing a Hawaiian monk seal exhibit yet unless they have one. Rescues are probably around if not uncommon and a great seal exhibit is always a crowd drawer that can bring a lot of attention and money to the zoo. What Hawaiian natives are kept currently?
The monk seal exhibit is across the street from the zoo at the Waikiki Aquarium (there are lots of pictures of it in the gallery). When I visited the only Hawaiian native species on exhibit at the zoo were nenes and a Hawaiian hawk.
@DavidBrown Do you remember much else about their bird collection? Supposedly they have a really great tropical bird collection, but I don't remember where exactly I read that or what particular species they hold.
They do have a great tropical bird collection. The 2012 review by Hix has a good species list, which has probably not changed much in the last decade. If you go through the Honolulu Zoo gallery he also documented many of the species.
I know a lot about their bird collection, since Honolulu Zoo was where I got my professional break in to the zoological world! Re the honeycreepers, they do house and (at least in the past) did breed them. While I was there they had Oahu Amakihi, and going further back they had Iiwi and Apapane and I think one or two other species as well. The issue with them is they tend to be fairly shy and easily disturbed, and are also INCREDIBLY prone to avian pox and malaria. So there were housed off display in mosquito proofed aviaries. They would be somewhat challenging to publicly display, but I suppose it would be possible. In addition to the Nene and Io (and Amakihi if they still have them), Honolulu also houses Hawaiian Short Eared Owl, Red Footed Booby, and Barn Owl.
When I visited in 2017 the former Hawaiian owl exhibit had only a barn owl in it. There was no booby exhibit, so must have been behind the scenes if they still had it.
You might want to enquire what is on and off-show. I seem to remember recently reading up on a newspaper / news channel report that Honolulu Zoo was addressing the need to look after native fauna. I must do some digging there as I do not have it now on hand.
The Honolulu Zoo has euthanised their 25 year old female Malaysian Sun Bear, Juwita. Honolulu Zoo euthanizes ailing sun bear Her death leaves the Zoo with one male, Blackie, and the Honolulu Zoo and the SSP are working to find him a new mate.
I though sun bears were on phase out in North America / AZA? Would it not be better to have the male Blackie relocate to an institution able and willing to hold sun bears indefinitely (and given he is a male and probably still able to breed ...)?
It appears, as the article states, that Honolulu are willing to continue holding and breeding Malaysian Sun Bear. If zoos in the region are looking to export their Sun Bears, than it should be easy to find a suitable companion for Blackie.
In that case, it would be nice if they would align with a region that intends to breed with sun bears. (Which does not alter much my previous argument)
