Maleos, Geladas, and Spray Toads, Oh My! Mid-April Trip Thread

Nobody I know, including a keeper friend who works there, has ever seen the cloud rats at the LA Zoo. The only cloud rats I have seen were at the Bronx Zoo in a nocturnal exhibit.

I visited the New York Aquarium when I was a kid in the early 1980s and they had belugas and bottlenose dolphins. Does anyone know when they ceased exhibiting cetaceans?

 

Interestingly, a recent Facebook post indicated there's at least one still at the zoo:
Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens
Perhaps that transfer just hasn't gone through yet? Regardless, it really is a shame that they never rigged up a nocturnal exhibit for the species. They had the space, in some cave area or another near the building they were kept.

Also, you're a bit off regarding jumping rats:
Bronx Zoo 0.1
Moody Gardens Rainforest 2.0
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo 0.2
Philadelphia Zoo 1.1 (they're siblings)
Prospect Park Zoo 2.0
I've seen several sleeping bundles of fur, though they were off exhibit entirely the day I was at Prospect Park. It seems that at least some of the American population is (was?) part of the EEP:
Madagascar Giant Jumping Rats – Moody Gardens

In the gallery I found a post that said the belugas went away (to Georgia Aquarium, I think) in 2005. Can't provide details other than that, sorry.

 

I think they do still have some cloud rats at the zoo; the signage is still up on all of their enclosures, which have not been filled with other species. Perhaps they were only sending some away and not all of them. And I agree, the problem is the lighting in the enclosure, it makes no sense.

I did not know that about the jumping rats; last I read there were only 4 left in the whole country, but perhaps that information was out-of-date. Where did your numbers come from? Also interesting that of those 6 zoos, none appear to have a breeding pair.

 

That is interesting then, because the wording on the document said something along the lines of "returning 2.2 cloud rat to Jihlava as the European coordinator requested because we have limited success with the species." That's paraphrased a bit but the same general gist. With a population so small in captivity, wouldn't you return them all? Unless they have some on loan from another place as well, or have actually imported some of their own.

Well, I've actually been fortunate enough to visit all of those zoos except Omaha in the last year (a bit longer ago, a year and a month or so, for Moody Gardens). I met with keepers, and looked at websites and news articles. For Omaha, I contacted someone who knew the answer. Of course, it's just 5 zoos now with the national zoo no longer keeping the species. Perhaps, if they are all members of the EEP, they just hold surplus, but transfers can be made to breed if necessary? I know Philadelphia's pair were born in the US.

 

Those 2.2 were sent to Jihlava last year according to ZTL; I just don't know if that was all of them. Perhaps the others came directly from the source in the Philippines rather than through Europe. I'll try to find more info.

 

Bronx Zoo: JungleWorld
What I honestly expected to be of sub-par quality turned out to be one of my favorite jungle buildings I've visited to date! It opened in 1985 and has been home to some cool species over its history. One of the coolest was proboscis monkey, which left in the early 2000s. Though they're gone, there are still the beautiful ebony langurs, among other species.
Outside the building is a rather boring first exhibit- a cliffside aviary for waldrapp ibis. It is more than suitable for a really neat species, just not exciting. Inside is where things begin to get exciting. The first pair of exhibits are mid-sized, and home to Mastchie's tree kangaroo and Asian small-clawed otter. The kangaroo exhibit could be better, but then again, I haven't seen a single truly outstanding exhibit for the species. The otters I barely looked at, they're everywhere (though I think I saw more northern otters on this trip rather than Asian small-clawed). This was followed by a small corridor with an exhibit for reptiles, and then one of the premier species of the building: the ebony langurs. A large chain of false trees (presumably emulating mangrove trees due to the area's name of "Mangrove Forest") is home to a troop of five of these rare (in America anyways) monkeys. Only one other troop persists in the country, six or so at Tanganyika Wildlife Park, imported from Howletts several years back. I did enjoy seeing these beautiful langurs for the first time, such a strikingly colored animal!

A small nocturnal section is next, with just one exhibit. It was a mixed exhibit for slow loris (signed as N. coucang but I believe someone said it is actually N. pygmaeus) and greater Malay chevrotain. It was great for the loris (with more privacy, but smaller than Columbus) but I think a bit small for the deer. A mirror along one side of the exhibit makes it hard to determine the true size of the exhibit.
The next large room has three main exhibits visible. Two are poor exhibits, which made me assume the rest of the building is the same, while the third is just fantastic. On the right is an exhibit for a pair of black leopards. The vertical height is great, but everything else is just too small. Any other number of taxa would be better suited, but I suppose the zoo will wait for this pair to pass away first. A good idea would be binturong, in my opinion, which the zoo already has. The other exhibit of disappointing quality is a boring beach for Malayan tapir. It's better than the tapir exhibits of the Henry Doorly Zoo, but obviously still not preferable. The last exhibit is an amazing large room that is mixed between mammals and birds alike. It's so huge that it is honestly hard to find even the largest creatures in it, the white-cheeked gibbons. Perhaps the only animal easy to find is the painted stork, several of which were perched on large branches.

The jungle of foliage is what truly makes this gigantic exhibit fantastic. It obscures animals of all shapes and sizes, from small mammals such as the Prevost's squirrel (which, needless to say, I did not see) to the larger aforementioned gibbons. The room has other viewing points, later on, with a much more interesting lower exhibit.
The next room is the last such corridor, with many smaller amphibians and invertebrates, to the larger mangrove snake, as well as a tree shrew. There is also a window to the bigger room, but I saw nothing from it. Then, the last room is reached. A long and winding "river" is seen first, and the source, a large body of water is soon seen. This entire stretch is home to gharials, a tortoise (what species?), and some waterfowl (scaly-sided merganser, Baer's pochard, others), as well as whatever other birds decide to "visit." There is a back view of the larger jungle area. By this point, all of the larger species, such as this South Sulawesi tarictic hornbill, can reliably be seen.

This is also where I saw smaller species such as magpie-robin. It is, unfortunately, the last viewing opportunity in the one-acre building. It was a fantastic exhibit, and is probably my third favorite rainforest building after Omaha and the Dallas World Aquarium. It has its downsides- tapir, leopard, and the simple lack of visibility of some smaller species, but overall I loved the building!

 

I had been following this thread since you started posting. Great zoo trip you had! Are you going to do an overall review of the Bronx Zoo or still go exhibit by exhibit? When you come back this summer are you going to try the Queens Zoo as well? It's a nice little zoo, so species are common (from the Americas), but for the most part the exhibit quality is good.

 

Thanks! I might continue to do exhibit by exhibit on this thread, but my available time is minimal right now. I have a plethora of tests coming up in school, and I'm actually on a bus right now to Disney World with a school trip (Animal Kingdom! ). I do intend to collect all of my thoughts about Bronx into one review thread, but I have no idea when that will be.

Not sure about what's going to happen this summer, as I already have 3-4 trips planned (I might do a trip thread on one, or perhaps a giant thread for all of them collectively). My tentative plans are to spend 3-4 days in New York and then move on up into Boston, but that is very subject to change. I haven't decided which zoos I'll get to visit in New York. I'll probably try to fit in Queens but the only guarantee is Bronx.

 

Sounds like an exciting summer. When you were at the Bronx Zoo, were the hellbenders on exhibit yet?
In Boston I would recommend the New England Aquarium; I have never been to the Franklin Park or Stone Zoo so I would be curious what you think if you end up going.
What (if you have any) were the highlight animal/animals you saw on this trip?

 

Yes, I can't wait! I don't recall if I saw hellbender; as I mentioned earlier, I went straight for the spray toads and only really paid attention to what was after them. Even then, I wouldn't rely on my answer
I plan to go to all three of this facilities, as well as some on the way there.
Most of the animals I saw were highlights
Maleo was cool to see, but probably the most infuriating to (fail to) photograph.
Montezuma oropendola was cool as well, the prettiest oropendola I've seen.
To avoid rambling on and on, basically all of the new birds
Siberian musk deer I had been wanting to see for a while, finally got to in Columbus.
Of course the zoos were nearly all fantastic, whether in collection, quality, or both. I don't tend to home in on just one species or family. I enjoy entire zoos, but it does help if they have the animals I'm more inclined towards (which is a strange and extensive list with no rhyme or reason). I don't like judging zoos just on rarity of species (I used to) but really of collections as a whole, with quality of exhibits also being a fair part of how I think of certain zoos. These zoos all did well on that front and I enjoyed them all thoroughly.