Houston Zoo Houston Zoo News 2021

The zoo’s female Ocelot (Geneveve), who arrived from Santa Ana Zoo last year, has begun introductions to their male Ocelot. The pair have a breeding recommendation and the zoo are hoping for kittens in 2021.

In other news, the zoo welcomed the New Year on Facebook by announcing they’ve managed to raise more than $1.8 million for their Emergency Zoo Fund. This was started as a response to the zoo having close for over three months due to the pandemic.

With a positive start to 2021, I wish the zoo all the best for the year ahead.

 

Two Pygmy marmoset babies debut:

ADORABLE TWINS: Baby pygmy marmosets make their debut at the Houston Zoo

The two babies were born on Nov. 14, to 7-year-old mom, Teek, who is also a first-time mom, according to the zoo.

Zoo officials said the pygmy marmoset family spent the past few months bonding behind the scenes before making their first debut in the rainforest canopy inside of their Natural Encounters Building last week.

 

Big news today! Tess and Tupelo are pregnant and are expected to deliver weeks apart this spring!

More Elephants to Love at the Houston Zoo, The Houston Zoo

 

Called it!

 

Wow! Great news! I've heard rumors about it, but it's great that it's true.

 

That is some welcome news, yes.

 

And Tupelo is a first time mom!

 

How many elephants does this bring Houston up to with these two pending babies included; 12?
As far as I'm aware they haven't sent any out this century.
Thai, Methai, Tess, Tucker, Tupelo, Joy, Tilly and 3 others who's names escape me.

At what point does the available space start to get tight? Not "within regulation," just concerning.

 

They have 11 right now, 13 after the births.

Thai
Methai
Tess

• Tucker
• Tupelo
• Tilly

Shanti

• Baylor
• Duncan
• Joy
• Nelson

Also for how many animals their exhibit can hold, I don't have an exact number, but as a rough estimate, probably around 5 independent bulls of various ages, and around 5 mature females + dependent calves (assuming each cow has two to three calves with her at any given time).

 

The zoo seems to have quietly shut down the tropical bird house. Originally it was slated to be closed down temporarily due to surrounding construction but now the website on the zoos capital campaign makes it clear that its not reopening. Its also been removed from the map. The adjacent bird garden has been closed for some time as well. At least in that case they will be replacing that sometime this year when the new avian conservation center opens. The zoos master plan does seem to suggest a new combined bird-reptile house will be built where the bird house once stood, yet at minimum this is years down the road.

 

That is unfortunate.

 

It looks like a state of the art exhibit and its brilliant that they are trying to evoke the feel of the Pantanal to the visitors and raise awareness.

Of course not everyone can afford to visit this ecosystem and see its biodiversity and given how badly it is impacted by both fires, climate change and agricultural conversion it is probable that it will be irreversibly changed this century.

However, there are a couple of things which are a bit frustrating.

I think zoos can go a bit overboard with cultural aesthetics in exhibits and it can really come across as a bit tokenistic or garish sometimes so I would hope Houston don't go over the top.

Also, disappointingly there are apparently some species that will be on display in this themed exhibit that are not from the Pantanal like the golden lion tamarin (endemic to the Atlantic rainforest habitat) blue billed currasow (endemic to Colombian lowland rainforest habitat so definitely not Brazilian) blue throated macaw (endemic to Bolivia`s Beni savanna ecosystem and why not the iconic and native hyacinth macaw?) and the Baird`s tapir (native to montane and tropical lowland forest in Colombia, Central America and Mexico and why not the iconic and native lowland tapir?).

 

I do see what you mean, more so with the exhibit animals displayed in the Pantanal exhibit. If I recall correctly, the exhibit was formerly called “Pantanal: Trail of the Jaguar” when they were developing the concept/design for the exhibit. So maybe the focus was more on the jaguars at the time and just scrapped the rest of the name to be more straight to the point, maybe using their interpretive signage that discusses or illustrates the importance of the Pantanal with the exhibits having been designed with influences of the actual environment. Perhaps the Baird’s tapir and blue throated macaws are symbolic representation for lowland’s tapir and hyacinth macaws which are known to be endemic to the Pantanal. And seeing that they are endangered species too, it was more an incentive to display them instead. I have yet to see a proper walkthrough video or photo gallery of the exhibit but am hopeful it does push forward the message of the significance of the Pantanal. Those are just my two cents and I could be way off with my guesses

 

No, I do think you are right and I agree these species are probably stand ins for the lowland tapir and hyacinth macaw and of course they are endangered too (with the Bairds tapir and blue throated macaw more threatened than the Braziilian tapir / macaw).

But the biology nerd part of me does feel a little disappointed by the biogeographic inaccuracy of the exhibit.

 

Oh don’t worry, lots of fellow Zoochatters would or do have a similar feeling when it comes to appropriate species in biogeographic themed exhibits. Since it’s the Pantanal, anyone familiar or well versed in the Pantanal as yourself would also question or feel a bit put off with the choice made for certain species displayed in the wrong setting. Nothing wrong with that, they went with the name so they need to live by it But ones you did bring up, the blue billed currasow and Golden Lion tamarins, what would be their actual representatives for in the exhibits? I’m curious to see what you’d choose bud

 

Interesting question.

For primates they have it right with the howlers for sure as these are native to the ecosystem and there are no callitrichids that naturally occur here.

For the currasow I would say the bare faced currasow would be a good option / alternative as it is native to the Pantanal, is declining in population (more so in SP state than in the Pantanal) and vulnerable according to the IUCN (although nowhere near as endangered as the Colombian species).

 

I just looked up that specie, a fitting choice indeed and still has that awesome Prince curly feathers on top like the blue billed curassow

 

Love the comparison with Prince, lol, perhaps they sing "when currasows cry".

 

Haha nailed it on the head with that one!

 

A Grant’s zebra filly has arrived:

Houston Zoo welcomes a new zebra