A video of a chimpanzee catching and killing, and then playing with a squirrel that has entered its enclosure at the zoo.
Maryland Zoo Expecting New Additions to Chimpanzee Troop.The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is happy to announce that two of the female chimpanzees in our troop, Joice and Bunny, are pregnant.
Maryland Zoo Announces Death of Snowy Owl.The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore is sad to announce the death of Sophie, a 4-year-old snowy owl, who died Saturday, March 3 during surgery.
* The area behind the tortoise exhibit is under construction. They are planning to build a state of the art barn for their sitatunga when they are off exhibit. * In animal news, I was listening to the polar bear keeper chat and she provided some interesting information about their oldest female. Alaska was one of the eight polar bears to be rescued from a Mexican zoo. A couple years ago they discovered that she is completely deaf. She has spring allergies and was the first polar bear to get medication for it (the same kind used for house hold pets).
Although no official press release yet, I believe Joice, the champanzee, gave birth in the past couple of days. On their facebook page someone wrote "Congrats Joice!" and the Maryland Zoo and one of the chimpanzee zookeepers liked the status. I am going to try to go tomorrow so I'll try to find out. That is if I can convince my fiance to endure the heat and humidity for me.
Maryland Zoo Announces Death of Newborn Chimp Maryland Zoo Announces Death of Newborn Chimp | The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore This is the second baby chimp to die at the zoo this year
@ gorgeousingray - I was unable to speak to anyone about the elephants. I had a difficult time tracking down any zookeepers. With their wonderful program that makes kids actually attend the keeper chats in order to get a stamp (overall winner gets a behind the scenes tour), none would be able to do that yesterday. Here are these big signs saying where and when the chats were, but no keeper there. I was able to speak to the polar bear keeper, but that was only after waiting ten minutes and my fiance going up to her by the Arctic fox exhibit and asking, "Is there a polar bear chat today?" I attended two others and walked by one around the time it was supposed to happen, and no luck. I'm hoping that there's more consistency in this during the summer. But with the people I did speak to, here's what I learned: * Anoki and Magnet are the breeding pair, but he's usually exhibited with Alaska, who tolerates him. Alaska is a match for Magnet, but she's too old to breed now. We joked with the keeper that with Anoki's mother being artificially inseminated and being a good mother, she should come down to Maryland and give her pointers. No breeding was seen done this year, but they are hopeful for the future. They are participating in a program to determine the pregnancy of a polar bear through stool samples. * The search for another snowy owl is a slow process. They are hard to come by. West Nile flu and other diseases affecting birds in common in the area. Although none of the birds died from this, it's a risk factor they have to deal with. * The situtanga barn is coming along. I was also told a section of it is going to be used to house okapis off exhibit and start a breeding program for them. * The male zebra moved to another zoo and they got two female zebra fowls. * The new goat kid who was born is named Lanna. * Fun fact: The prarie dog exhibit used to be the Kodiak bear grotto!
In response to a question posted on the zoo's website: "Currently, the Zoo has several major construction projects underway, including a new Sitatunga Barn, upgrades to the Giraffe House, a rebuilt Marsh Aviary and starting this fall work will begin to construct a brand new, state-of-the-art penguin exhibit in the middle of the Zoo which will be somewhat dramatic."
* Situtanga Barn is coming along nicely. Pictures to be posted soon. * Exhibit work being done on the Sifaka lemur exhibit. * The giraffe barn is closed with the giraffe windows papered up. A worker told us they are acquiring a young female giraffe. * There's a pathway in the back of the okapi exhibit to get a better view of them.
I forgot to mention, someone asked me recently to find out about the breeding of elephants. According to a docent, Tuffy is not a match with any of the females. Felix is the only possible female they are considering to breed in the future. The zoo is waiting for another zoo to take Tuffy if they need him. His genes may be valuable, but until they find him a mate, I'd love if they'd send him to the bachelor herd in the Birmingham Zoo.
The national elephant center seems like the best bet! All the slots in Birmingham are unfortunately filled. I hope they breed Felix soon. Do you know if AI is an option?
Was Samson conceived through AI? If so, I would imagine they would do it again, especially since their only male is not compatible with the females.
The zoo's recent newsletter has a design sketch for the new African penguin exhibit. You can view it here (on page 13): http://www.marylandzoo.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Zoogram_fall2012.pdf
The sketch of the new exhibit is terrific, and the zoo is ambitious as attendance has increased in recent years (now over 400,000) and the future penguin habitat will be designed to accommodate 100 of the birds.