Milwaukee County Zoo Milwaukee County Zoo News 2019

According to what I’ve been told by the zoo ambassadors, the introduction to Themba hasn’t gone well. He shows no interest in the females and the introductions that have occurred have been less then ideal. So at this point they are figuring that Themba will stay a bachelor, as for what that means for the zoo’s lion SSP, we will have to wait and see.

 

I believe the SSP recently recommended that Milwaukee's females be transferred to be bred elsewhere, and Milwaukee would receive a mother and her two daughters from the Sedgwick County Zoo to breed with Themba.

 

Where'd you hear this

 

Well, the weather outside was not very frightful, so I had a visit yesterday that was delightful. Here are some updates (apologies if some of these are repeats or not as significant, but some of these were quite a treat, especially as I haven't been since June):

*There were only three otters present on display that I could tell. Anyone by chance hear anything about the fourth one?

*Small Mammals: Rather than staying on the top plateau of the mixed habitat, the male agouti was on the ground floor for a brief little bit - it was nice to see that section get utilized a bit more for once. Additionally, Quinn, the new female prehensile-tailed porcupine, seems to have added some life into what was becoming a pretty empty and tired section of the Zoo. She was climbing all over the branches of her primary enclosure, and would occasionally pop into the other two exhibits next-door. She seems to get a kick out of chasing the two armadillos around!

*The male giraffe born in July, Desmond, was cute to see. He and older half-sister Maya were hanging out together for most of the time I saw the giraffes.

*Adventure Africa: I passed through the section twice on my visit, both which yielded different positive results. With Impala Plains, I saw the two new male zebras in the morning, and the female ostrich pair was out in the afternoon - both species of which were the first time I've seen them on display in the new complex. Whereas the large birds were a bit more skittish, especially if a vehicle would pass nearby, the zebras were fairly content with wandering around and grazing. With the elephants, during the first round, Brittany and Ruth were hanging out in the main room of the barn, with Belle in a separate section towards the back (nice to get my first glimpse of the new pachyderm by the way ). Round two was more exciting, with the barn being closed while Belle and Ruth were getting introduced to one another. From what I could see through the windows, although they were separated by bars and a center aisle, they were reaching their trunks towards one another. As for Brittany during this time, she was taking in the chilly yet sunny day in the main habitat (see my "Highlight of the Day" section for that).

*ARC: The red-bellied piranhas look great in their new home, which is part of the African Lakes section of the building - an improvement over their previous tank (currently blocked off), which was quite small and had little detail. There are also a couple new snake additions to the building. One is a red-tailed ratsnake that has joined the green tree pythons, the other is a red-tailed boa residing with the green anaconda.

*With our discussion on Milwaukee's lion situation, I can confirm that while talking to someone I learned that the girls, Savannah and Amali, do indeed dislike Themba, and thus will not be introduced to each other.

*The following are in quarantine: red-tailed ratsnake, red-tailed boa, and American avocet.

*Construction: I'll admit, I'm having a hard time figuring out where the back wall of the hippo exhibit is going to be. From what I could tell, there is a large narrow hole with red framing where I imagine the pool and underwater window will be, followed by a narrow stretch of land; it would be far too small for the river horses if this were the entire exhibit space. However, there is also a dirt-filled area that used to be the bongo yard that looks like it was surrounded by the new rock work. I'm hoping that this section will also be hippo area, as while it might still be a bit tight, at least it could be an improvement in terms of land space. Can anyone confirm? On a side note, the deck that's in between the gazelle and former bongo yards is still standing; I imagine this won't last long though.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: As briefly mentioned before, I finally got to see at least one elephant enjoying the primary outdoor yard. While Belle and Ruth were meeting each other inside, Brittany had a little peace and quiet outside. She was just about all over the place, from one of the enrichment walls, to going along the edge of the watering hole. The best view came from one of the window slits by the watering hole entry. Although she was on the other side of the entry munching on some hay, it was a thrill to see her that close with just a bit of glass separating us.

I'll hopefully get some photos up soon.

 

I was there yesterday as well, but more during the morning, but I can add some things I noticed
1. I haven't seen the Owl Monkey in the exhibit it was in before, there were Ring Tailed Lemurs in the exhibit I remember seeing it in last
2. The Red Tailed Boa was on exhibit from what I saw, it was actually on the light fixture, sadly I didn't take a photo of it

 

1. Funny you mention that, I didn't even think about the owl monkey while I was there! Hopefully it's just off-display temporarily then, as it could mean another unique species loss for Milwaukee . There was indeed one single ring-tailed lemur on display, hopefully another one or two join her in the future.
2. Yes, that is exactly where I saw the boa too.

 

Is the American avocet in/will be in the shore birds exhibit?

 

I remember seeing them in there

 

That's what I remember too

 

The zoo's latest issue of the Alive magazine newsletter gave some interesting information about some things to expect in the early months of 2020...
- The zoo received 2 leaf-tailed geckos and plans to put them on exhibit soon. (My guess is they'll be in the chameleon exhibit) Very unique-looking species I'm excited to see the zoo display!
-Two halmahera pythons arrived in fall and will be included in an upcoming exhibit "Snakes of Indonesia" to debut in early 2020. This sounds like an interesting exhibit to me, with potential for more new species coming in. Hopefully the Snakes of Indonesia is in the old turtle tank, which has set empty for at least a year or more.
-On Adventure Africa, the hippo exhibit construction is going well and as of right now, is still set to open in mid-June.
- As for the rhino exhibit, the design phase will start in 2020, and major fundraising is to start by the end of the year. The zoo wants to use the former elephant exhibit and roof-in the gap between the two isles for the rhinos and hippos to use in the winter months.
I'm excited and cautiously optimistic about what 2020 will bring to the zoo

 

Are they wanting to enclose the pachyderm mall?

 

Yes. Apologies if I wasn't clear with my wording; tat's what I meant by "roof-in"

 

And by "roof-in" does this mean a completely new rhino/hippo barn or merely enclosing the existing stalls?

 

For the designs I’ve seen it looks like a renovation. They’ll close in the mall way and then reconfigure the inside, with a similar set up. The former mall way will be a larger area for the animals to roam durning the colder months, while the sides of structure will still be where the stalls are. Although things can change, so who knows.

 

Will visitors be able to go inside?

 

I don’t believe so, from what the original designs from the master plan, it appears that we will be able to peer in but not enter.

 

So what will happen with the red panda and snow leopard exhibits? They should really get some more animals for that little viewing area like where the Asian bear use to be held...

 

As for that area, it will still exist. Not sure on the full pathway for that area but it’s looking like the the exit for that area would be where the former tapir and bear exhibits were, between the rhino and camel yard. Again this was according to their master plan and things do change, so who knows that it will actually look like, other then the red panda and snow leopard are staying where they are for now.

 

Interesting... so all the area on the right side of the walkway would remain for the rhinos? And are they getting a male to breed with Jozi?

 

That is the current plan that has been talked about. So we’ll have two side of rhinos, rhino where the elephants used to be and where the two we have are currently.