Houston Zoo News 2011

News 2011,
On March 2nd, primate staff at the Houston Zoo were thrilled to discover that mother orangutan Kelly had given birth overnight. Unfortunately Kelly neglected her baby within the first 24 hours so Zoo staff were forced to intervene and care for the infant. Fortunately the baby is doing quite well and the Houston Zoo is optimistic that the one month old ape can be reunited with mom or introduced to a surrogate who will raise the baby as its own.

 

Also news: Thai, the zoo's bull elephant, is now in the same enclosure as the rest of the herd, including the two babies. Good idea/bad idea? Anyone?

Who’s Your Daddy? | Trunk Tales - the Elephants of the Houston Zoo

 

The zoo must have a lot of trust in the male not to hurt the calves, well, I just he isn't in musth.

 

I remember seeing photos of Thai with Tucker (Tess' first born) some time ago when he was quite young, so the Zoo does have experience with him with calves.

Attached is a photo from the zoo's website showing Thai with Tucker.

 

What is the current zoo population and if possible do you know the d.o.b?

 

The updated 2011 map now includes the new African Forest area, as well as a shaded outline of the elephant expansion. Does anyone know the timeline and tentative completion date for the elephant habitat?

http://www.houstonzoo.org/attachments/wysiwyg/79589/HoustonZooMap_2011.pdf

 

I was there a month ago, work was well underway and i was told about 6 months for completion.

 

Revamped cougar exhibit now open:

Houston Zoo opens redesigned and improved cougar exhibit - Your Houston News: Entertainment:

 

Lucky me. I was at the zoo yesterday and saw it. I hadn't seen any press releases so I had no clue how long it had been open. It looks good, much more open, you can see the cats now. The cactus and other plants are a nice touch. It has the same shape as the previous exhibit, lost the "cave" near the front, and the part that comes inward is now covered in a cave area that visitors look out from through glass and includes a hatch with a glass octagon shaped roof. I can imagine meat can be dropped from above through the mesh onto the glass hatch for creative feeding times.

With this done, all the cat exhibits have now been remodeled in since 2007. I can't imagine what's next, there is a vacant bear grotto that still needs filling.

Also, I checked in on the elephants. There are signs saying opening late June, but it doesn't look like it. Late July I could see, but not June. All the old buildings are gone, it is new dirt with some posts in place and the ceramic casting for the new pool is in place. It'll take a while, but will be nice when it is done.

 

Elephant Expansion Looks Ready to Go

I took a visit to the Houston Zoo yesterday and the elephant expansion looks good to go. It's a mix of grass and dirt, has a large tiered pool, a nice grassy hill in a corner that the elephants can hide from the public view behind, and has an elephant demonstration area that looks nearly identical to the one Oklahoma City set up (just with smaller bleachers). It's nothing to set the world on fire, but it looks good. The 2 bulls will be spread between the two existing yards.

When asked what's next, a keeper told me there was going to be a redoing of the water splash area int he children's zoo, and a second splash area next to the giraffes in the African Forest. And the robotic dinosaurs are coming back next summer . . .

African Forest Part 2 is still only confirmed to have gorillas, likely move the bongos into a new habitat, but as of right now, it's just fundraising for part 2. Phase 3 is still hopeful to have hippos and crocodiles. I did hear the Forest is likely to expand into the hoof run that goes next to the elephants and the yard occupied by the Watusi cattle providing the Forest with much more land and leaving the zoo with very little that has not had a serious remodel at some point in the last decade (this would leave the bird gardens, the other hoof run, duck lake, the Wortham World of Primates, and the lion and tiger exhibits as the only things not to get a serious face lift). With those mentioned exhibits, the Primates was built in '94 and the hoof run and cat exhibits got new viewing platforms in the last decade.

So . . . there ya go.

 

Tapirs at Houston Zoo

at the zoo yesterday, i noticed they had removed all animals,signage, and fencing from the enclosure that has housed lowland tapirs,giant anteaters,maned wolves, capybaras, and brocket deer at different times and in different combinations. the other lowland tapir area had one visible male tapir and they appeared to be re-filling the pool / creek area. what are the plans for tapirs at the zoo ?
also, one of the two fossa enclosures was marked as not being used. i saw one fossa in the other enclosure.

 

From my trip 2 weeks ago the large exhibit only had maned wolves in it. I didn't stay too long looking at it. On previous visits I had seen the giant anteaters there too. I hadn't seen the capybaras in a long time and the tapirs had been moved only to the exhibit a few stalls away (glass wall, large pool, used to house the pygmy hippos). The signs had been gone for quite some time. The tapirs are supposably one of the director's favorite animals along with the giant eland, okapi, and Kiba, the male giraffe, so I wouldn't expect them to go anywhere.

I know the zoo recently acquired a caracal. Probably adjusting to the other exhibit, or something. 2 Fossa exhibits seemed a bit much for only 5 or 6 small cat cages. (1 large one for leopards, closed leopard, ocelot, fossa, and now caracal. That cover it? Maybe there is a Margay enclosure)

 

How long until the elephant expansion is complete and formally opened?

 

When I went 2 weeks ago they said they were hoping to have it open yesterday (Saturday Sep 24) for enrichment day. They mentioned some of the elephants had been walking in it before hours testing it out.

 

The zoo posted a video showing the new part of the elephant exhibit:

 

It looks like Elephant Odyssey with a little grass thrown in.

(If you have read any of my posts on Elephant Odyssey, you will know that is most definitely NOT a compliment).

 

It's closer to Oklahoma City, a near clone of it.

 

Other than the metal poles I don't really see any similarities to Elephant Odyssey.

 

A barren expanse with a concrete pool on one end and pole and cable barriers.

 

It looks more like an open field. Yeah, it's pinned by poles and wires, but it's a good looking field with the green grass. As I said, it's just a mini-version of the new Oklahoma elephant exhibit. This large years takes the land that was previously held by cheetahs and giraffes and will hold MeThai, Tess, and Shanti as well as the two calves, Baylor and Tupelo. Tucker and Thai will each get their own yard of the remaining two that already exist. For what Houston had to work with, it's pretty good.