Miller Park Zoo Miller Park Zoo News

Zoo flamingo project scaled back, rebid to cut costs

 

A male North American River Otter was born February 21st. The article also mentions that a new river otter exhibit is in the 1st phase of the zoo's master plan.
Baby otter debuts at Miller Park Zoo

 

New tiger:

New Sumatran tiger arrives at zoo

 

Two new harbor seals, Kilian and Oscar, have arrived from Sea World Orlando.

Miller Park Zoo Welcomes Two New Harbor Seals | WEEK News 25 - News, Sports, Weather - Peoria, Illinois | Top Stories

 

Two female snow leopard cubs were born. Unfortunately, they're being hand-raised.

http://m.pantagraph.com/news/local/...57f9-b3c0-be279502d664.html?mobile_touch=true

 

Just uploaded more photos of this establishment. Some notes I wanted to add:

- I saw the snow leopard cubs, and they were adorable! Climbing up the walls of the indoor enclosure and pouncing on each other. Their mother was in the outdoor enclosure, so I guess they are continuing to hand-raise them.

- I only saw one seal, instead of the three that should be there. In the article posted below, the zoo apparently claimed it has space for three seals, which is debatable, unless they have a very large off-exhibit area. It didn't really look adequate for the one I saw.

Seals beginning to feel at home at Miller Park Zoo

- The zoo is hosting King Vultures for the summer while Riverbanks constructs new aviaries for their raptors. I posted a photo of them in the gallery.

Article about the vultures: http://www.pantagraph.com/news/local/summer-guests-miller-park-zoo-welcomes-vultures/article_c4a51495-d853-5e8b-8856-f4859dac3625.html

- Has anyone ever heard a troop of ruffed lemurs barking and howling at each other? I must have stood by the cage and listened for over 5 minutes; it was incredible to listen to. I took a minute-long video, but had to delete it to make room for more photographs.

 

The Zoo has started construction on the flamingo exhibit.

Bloomington zoo to hold groundbreaking for flamingo exhibit - WREX.com ? Rockford?s News Leader

 

Nobody has updated this thread, but just so everyone is aware, the flamingo exhibit opened this summer.

Miller Park Zoo ready to open flamingo exhibit

 

Hi! I am actually a volunteer for this zoo but I did not know it had a thread here!!
The zoo is also starting construction on the smaller exhibits in the Animal Building and will be getting new species for the exhibits which should be completed in the late spring.

 

And in other news, a new female Red-Ruffed Lemur named Celeste has come in recently to breed with our resident male Masoala.

 

@Grant : That's great! We rarely get updates from small places like this. I enjoyed this zoo very much when I visited and I'm excited to see how their master plan develops. Speaking of which, do you know the status of the upcoming monkey exhibit? Do they have a construction timeline yet, and are they still planning to hold De Brazza's monkey?

 

Yes, they are still planning on holding De Brazza Monkey behind the new Flamingo exhibit! As for a timeline, I think that the city is still planning funds and money right now, so I would assume around a year or two. We also still have the snow leopard cubs from last year as well as this years, and I don't think the zoo even knows when they are leaving for other institutions.

 

@Grant : I read somewhere that they secured a $700,000 grant for the exhibit in addition to parking lot and entrance construction, but I expected it might still take a while to get the details of the plan ironed out.

Is the mother still there? Five snow leopards is so many animals for the small exhibit and only one holding space they have!

By the way, do they still have the sun bear, genet, Eurasian red squirrel, and Seba's bat colony?

 

Yes, the mother is still there with her 3 female cubs from this year and dad is there also, outside.
As for the other animals, the Sun Bear, Candy is still alive and doing well. She was born 2/14/82 I believe. The Rusty-Spotted Genet had to be euthanized in May due to cancer, as well as the Eurasian Red Squirrel this summer. We still have the Seba's Bat colony though and also have 12.0 Jamaican Fruit Bats in there as well.
So in total though the zoo currently has 1.6 Snow Leopards

 

@Grant: That's incredible. I thought that maybe the sun bear had passed on and they were using that space for snow leopards. I do hope some of those snow leopards get shipped out soon as I imagine it's quite crowded.

A shame about the genet, although I'm glad I got to see it while I was there. What are in those empty enclosures now?

 

Those empty enclosures are now holding 1.0 Three-Banded Armadillo and 1.1 New Caledonia Giant Gecko. Those two exhibits along with the Green Woodhoopoe exhibit are what is set to be redone.

 

Zoo Updates from today:

- Two new San Clemente Island Goat cleared quarantine and went on exhibit in the Children's Zoo
- A Crested Wood Partridge and Green Woodhoopoes are in quarantine
- 2.2 African Four-Toed Hedgehogs were born July 26th. They will be leaving soon for Sacramento Zoo
- Our last female Hedgehog born in March recently left for Fort Wayne Children's Zoo
- The zoo will soon get a male Burrowing Owl for our resident female "Harriet"
- 1.0 North American Porcupine is now on exhibit where the Prehensile-tailed porcupine is during the warmer months

 

1.0 Burrowing Owl cleared quarantine
Tentacled Snakes, 4.1 Cairo Spiny Mice, and Mudpuppies will soon go on exhibit

 

The area in the Animal Building currently holding Green Woodhoopes, Giant Geckos, and an Armadillo is set to be demolished. In it's place the zoo will build a new and improved set of exhibits dedicated to small Asian animals.

 

"Candy" the zoo's female Sun Bear turns 33 years old today, and is currently the oldest Sun Bear in North America.