Date: March 14, 2019 Each bullet indicates an enclosure. Species that were seen are marked in bold, unseen species are in regular text. Species that were seen but unsigned are marked in italics. The zoo is very small, so instead of categorizing by area I will simply list them, with each line being a separate enclosure. Total Species (by signage or sight): 51 Mammals: 16 Birds: 23 Reptiles: 11 Amphibians: 1 Fish: 0 Invertebrates: 0 Species American Flamingo, Orinoco Goose, Crested Screamer, Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle (Ocadia sinensis) Malayan Tiger Binturong Red Panda *White-crested Laughingthrush, Red-vented Bulbul, Lady Amherst’s Pheasant, Black-naped Fruit Dove Indochinese Ratsnake** African Crested Porcupine Red-legged Seriema, Patagonian Mara Red-flanked Duiker Great Curassow Emu, Bennett’s Wallaby Bat-eared Fox Fossa Prehensile-tailed Porcupine, Yellow-headed Amazon, Ring-necked Parakeet Common Marmoset, Southern Tamandua Red-fronted Macaw, White-eared Titi (Plecturocebus donacophilus) Great Horned Owl Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey Burrowing Owl, Greater Roadrunner American Alligator Blood Python** Gila Monster Prevost’s Squirrel Madagascar Giant Day Gecko, Spider Tortoise Dumeril’s Boa Panther Chameleon Madagascar Collared Iguana (Oplurus cuvieri) Brown Mantella (Mantella betsileo) Radiated Tortoise Greater Vasa Parrot King Vulture Fisher Von der Decken’s Hornbill, Blue-bellied Roller, White-cheeked Turaco, White-faced Whistling Duck, Guira Cuckoo *This is a brand-new aviary with no signage. The new red panda exhibit area is also supposed to have Reeves’ Muntjac, Asian Brown Tortoise, and Nicobar Pigeon but I did not see any and there was no signage; the red pandas were signed but not seen. **I did not record the Latin name for these species; the common name for the rat snake implies Ptyas korros
I’ll pre-empt @DavidBrown this time and give my thoughts on the place. It’s very small; I took over 100 photos and spent a little bit of time at several enclosures and I was still done in 45 minutes. It’s so small that from most points you can see the zoo in its entirety. It is on par with the Wildlife Learning Center in Sylmar, CA as the smallest American zoo I’ve ever visited, with the tiny Henson Robinson Zoo in Springfield, Illinois still being noticeably larger. It appears to be what you’d expect from a very small facility: mostly basic cages and small pens, an interesting mix of common fare and unusually rare species (fisher, tamandua, duiker, fossa, curassow, vasa parrot) and the humble charm of a small town establishment finding its way in a constantly evolving zoo world. I think there’s potential for this place, and it seems to be doing alright; there was a class of college students touring around with a staff member, but even besides them there were some parent-children duos and trios and maybe a couple (in contrast, I visited Henson Robinson in summer and at any given time I was one of only two or three people there). While some of the enclosures (and maybe species) are probably best replaced at this point, there were some that I thought actually looked good. The new red panda exhibit is done very well, with the only sticking point currently being lack of shade. The fossa exhibit is fairly large, with shade, lots of branches to climb on and a good hiding hole. The mixed bird exhibit at the front of the zoo is nice and allows for close viewing of the animals. On the downside, the vultures and tigers should probably be phased out and the fisher lived in a cage that definitely looked too small. The bat-eared foxes are also in a very small enclosure, but I overheard that this is a temporary arrangement. This little zoo has plans. I’m not what the end product will be, other than definitely a Madagascar-specific area (probably where the lemurs and Malagasy reptiles already are). The staff member described the zoo as being in a “transitional period”, which implies a lot more change is on the way. Hopefully someone will visit again in a few years and we can document the changes.
I was told by a keeper a few years back that a new tiger exhibit is the priority after the red pandas were done. Plans always change of course, but a new tiger exhibit is urgently needed as you note. They had a master plan concept drawing on their website several years ago that had the biodiversity hotspot theme laid out with South American, Into-Malaysian, African, Madagascan, and Indonesian zones. Okapis and pygmy hippos were the anchors of the African zone. Tigers and red pandas for Asia. Andean bears and tapirs for South America. Fossa and lemurs for Madagascar (mission accomplished). Fisher, Channel Island fox, and a shorebird/sturgeon exhibit for California. Not sure how much of this they still plan.
@DavidBrown They are going to need a lot more space to pull off even some of that. Okapis and pygmy hippos alone could easily take up a third or half the zoo. Personally, I'd rather not see them build a new tiger habitat on the current footprint. Most smaller zoos have trended either towards displaying smaller species in larger enclosures or expanding the footprint of the zoo; I can't see them making a lot of progress without going one of those two routes. Also just realized that I forgot 3 species and exhibits: Meerkat Ring-tailed Lemur Galapagos Tortoise Updated Total: 54 species (18 mammals, 23 birds, 12 reptiles, 1 amphibian)
Just realized that I actually forgot another enclosure and 3 species: Giant Anteater, Scarlet Macaw, Blue-and-Yellow Macaw Additionally, Charles Paddock holds Aldabra Tortoise, not Galapagos. Updated Total: 57 species (19 mammals, 25 birds, 12 reptiles, 1 amphibian)
Some updates according to the zoo's website (new as of February this year) (bold indicates that I was able to confirm its presence separately by Instagram/news post): - The zoo lists the signed Asian species I didn't see when the new red panda exhibit opened (Reeves' Muntjac, Nicobar Pigeon, and Asian Brown Tortoise). - Species on their website that I did not see in March 2019: Bernier's Teal, Madagascan Partridge, Troupial, Curl-crested Aracari, Green Aracari, Red-lored Amazon, Blue-crowned Motmot, Crested Oropendola, Snowy-headed Robin-chat African Clawed Frog, Axolotl, African Bullfrog [Big-headed Turtle*, Burmese Star Tortoise, Red-footed Tortoise, Yellow-footed Tortoise, Vietnamese Pond Turtle, Forest Hingeback Tortoise, Yellow-margined Box Turtle, European Pond Turtle, Giant Asian Pond Turtle, White-lipped Mud Turtle, Spiny Hill Turtle, Southeast Asian Box Turtle, Pan's Box Turtle, Asian Leaf Turtle, Common Snapping Turtle]** *listed under Madagascar species, but is Madagascar Big-headed Turtle even kept in captivity outside its home country? Do they actually mean Big-headed Turtle from Asia? **The high number of turtle species is probably due to the zoo's Turtle Lab, which AFAIK is off-display for visitors. I am not sure how many of the other species are bts. - Species not listed on website that I saw in March 2019: Fisher, Emu, Madagascar Giant Day Gecko, Panther Chameleon, and Chinese Stripe-necked Turtle. - Species listed but confirmed to currently be absent: Fossa
Yes, kept sometimes in big US zoos such as Omaha, SDZ, and I think even DWA has or has in the past. Madagascar big-headed turtle - ZooChat
