Milwaukee County Zoo Milwaukee County Zoo news 2017

“A gift from the sea:” Meet Moana, sea lion rescued from storm sewer, now living at Milwaukee Co. Zoo!

 

Article about Dakota the American black bear, who moved to the old Asian black bear exhibit.

Black Bear Dakota Has New Home at Zoo | Milwaukee County Zoo

 

Was at the zoo today and it looks like they may be installing gopros around the future elephant area. Maybe soon they will be posting a timelapse or something online soon!

 

Looks like the goal is to finish construction of Adventure Africa phase 1 in September 2018, with the animals moving in at that time. Grand opening of phase 1 will be in May 2019. Demolition should be completed before the end of the month and footers for the new building should be started soon. Also, the west enterance and otters should open in May 2018.

 

I emailed the zoo regarding primate renovations, and I have received confirmation that the mandrills and siamangs are indeed rotating and the colobus monkey indoor exhibit is starting to go under renovations. Finally Milwaukee is getting the upgrades it needs.

 

I wonder how they will do the new Mandrill exhibit

 

A female western lowland gorilla was born last month.

Gorilla Born at the Milwaukee County Zoo | Milwaukee County Zoo

 

An Ayrshire Cattle calf was also born last month.

Family Farm Grows with New Calf Kelly! | Milwaukee County Zoo

 

Been trying to get to the zoo at least once a week to show the transformation of the former moose exhibit to the new elephant exhibit. They are starting to lay down the footers and getting the concret poured. Shouldn’t be long till they go vertical!

Milwaukee County Zoo Adventure Africa

On a side note it seemed way to cold for the elephants to be outside today, even the rhinos were inside though. Although the elephants sure were loving the pumpkins in their exhibit.

 

I’m not sure when this happened but we got a second snow leopard! Through out the summer there was a sign posted that more snow leopards were coming and a couple of weeks ago they now have a sign posted with pictures of both the animals!

 

Does anyone know why they’ve been keeping the black rhinos seperated?

 

@MKE Zoo guy Black rhinos are a solitary species other than mating and mom with calf. Milwaukee's two black rhinos are different subspecies: older cow Mimi is a southern, while younger cow Jozi is an eastern.

Also regarding snow leopards, female Orya arrived last year. I've heard she's extremely shy, so she must've finally gotten comfortable to go on exhibit on a regular basis now - especially if there's signage info about them now up. Unless something changed very recently, Milwaukee's count should still be her, young male Asa, and older female Tomiris.

 

I'm surprised how small the new elephant exhibit is gonna be. I would think it'd be 4 acres or more

 

I was too, especially from seeing the renderings to then seeing it in person. I’m kinda surprised, but then again they did mention that the exhibit was not big enough according to regulations to breed elephants, which is 5+ acres if I remember correctly.

 

@Milwaukee Man there’s been no mention of the snow leopard of Tomiris. For most of the year it has had that there are more snow leopards coming and now the sign reads Orya and Asa with their photos. So if there are more that’s awesome but the zoo is only promoting two at the exhibit.

 

Well today was eventful...

News and Updates:

More of the South American Yard was fenced off, and over half of the yard is covered in grass.

Another large pile of sand was installed in the other elephant stall

The former brown bear exhibit is almost completely gone, with just the back of the holding area intact

Animal Highlights:

Mimi the black rhino was cruising all over the exhibit then stopping to take a mud bath from time to time.

Ruth the African elephant was vocalizing up a storm, and I got a fantastic photo of her reaching for a tree at the top of the exhibit

African Elephant - Reaching Up High! by pachyderm pro posted 5 Nov 2017 at 10:09 PM

Adventure Africa Tidbit:
A couple posts back, MK Zoo guy mentioned that the zoo hopes to finish construction and move the animals by next September. Today a keeper reconfirmed this, but with an exciting catch. While the grand opening is intended for May 2019, there Will be a soft opening during the winter, where visitors will have access to part of exhibit.

Additionally, I will be posting a brief video clip on my YouTube channel about the upcoming exhibit, so stay tuned!

 

That's a pretty awesome picture PP!

 

Today was a fun adventure.

Looks like we got a new big cat in the big cat exhibit. In the former cheeta exhibit it looks like we got a Serval named Amos. He’s getting adjusted to his new exhibit so large portions of the exhibit are blacked out. Also it does look like we have three snow leporads (Tamiris, Asa, and Orya) not sure why they aren’t promoting Tamiris though. I also didn’t realize that we have 6 tigers either.

In other news the meerkats seem to be gone as they are making room for a new small mammal. The signage removed and exhibit has under construction is new in its place.

Overall the zoo looks to be ready for winter with just a few animals outside that are use to this environment. Construction is going on across the zoo with doing maintenance work as well as getting the elephant and otter exhibit finished. The otter exhibit is getting paint on its back wall, and the elephants barn has almost its footers poured.

 

As the release of information continues to trickle out about the phase 1 of Adventure Africa, we got information about what species are going joining the elephants. The bongos, impalas, yellow duiker, zebras are all moving over, with the possible additions of some African crown cranes and possible new African hoof stock not currently at the zoo.

As for some updates, the small mammal building continues to move their animals around in the building. There are several empty exhibits currently on both sides of the building (day/night). Although it appears that they are putting a few more illuminated posters on the mammals of the night side.

Many of the animals were inside as it was below freezing today and the African cat (serval) now has a small description in front of its exhibit. The exhibit is still mostly covered up.

 

Oh getting real now! The first three I've definitely heard about moving, but the zebras were varied in possibility of relocating. I'm glad they are now though - they need to get out of that dust bowl. Be interested in finding out what other new hoofstock could be coming in.

Did you find out yet about what's moving into the meerkat exhibit? Any photos of some of the recent developments and new arrivals?