Philadelphia Zoo Philadelphia Zoo 2021 News

Thanks for the update and photos!!

 

Some strange news, the Rare Animal Conservation Center is open to the public and the Rodrigues Flying Foxes have moved exhibits. They no longer live in the first exhibit across the naked mole-rats, meaning guests won’t have to smell the bat musk.

I’ve also seen pictures of the dinosaur animatronics and I am quite impressed. The size is very impressive, and many unused parts of the zoo are being used now for the dinosaurs.

 

The Small Mammal House has reopened. Also reopened is the first level of PECO Primate Reserve. The upstairs remains closed for social distancing.

 

Is Simon on exhibit?

 

No. Simon is very old and is now retired.

 

Who's Simon?

 

I looked up "Philadelphia Zoo Simon" on Google and found a prehensile tailed porcupine.

 

Yeah, I know he's old, but I was hoping he could still be on exhibit.

He's the Mexican Hairy Dwarf Porcupine.

 

Simon used to be an education animal. In 2019, he moved on exhibit to the Small Mammal House. I heard last year that he is already in his mid-to-late 20s. I haven’t heard anything since last summer so I’m not even sure if he’s still alive today. The average lifespan is 12-17 years and about 20 in captivity. That was his retirement home. But once the zoo got the new sloth pair, he was moved off exhibit because the zoo thought they might not get along. At his age, there are a lot of factors.

 

Update: I’m not sure about the stats of the Small Mammal House. I heard from someone it was open last Friday. I also heard from someone that it was closed. It may have been open Friday and not Saturday, or I’m not sure. It might be open some days to manage crowds. I want to see the meerkats, vampire bats, and sloths. RACC and the downstairs level of PECO Primate Reserve are definitely open. In RACC there are quite a lot of elderly animals, and endangered animals which some have been there a long time. It’s a very old building, but was renovated in 2001.

 

A male Andean bear cub is being transferred from Salisbury Zoo:

Salisbury Zoo bear cub to move to Philadelphia Zoo - 47abc

 

Went to the zoo today while my puppy was at the vet.

-The first bathrooms on the right are now only accessible before you go through the ticket area. The other bathrooms open are kidzoou and the ones on the left near the food trucks.
-The path is generally one way but it's not enforced, especially when doing bird valley, bears, etc.
-As stated earlier, rare mammal center is open. The bats now occupy the large exhibit right in the middle, across from those center doors. It's an odd use for the space! No indication of what they're doing with the end exhibit.
-KidZooU is open up to just past the pigeons, so people can use the bathrooms. The hoofstock were all on the trails, with the ponies in the middle of the one that runs along the main walkway and the goats/sheep on the bridges, where hay had been placed to encourage them to remain visible.
-Primate reserve is still only open on the first floor, I assume to prevent congestion on the stairs. Aye-ayes are also closed. For some reason the gorillas were all indoors, which seemed odd on a busy day with fantastic weather.
-Big Cat Falls now does the full loop.
-The open eateries are the big cat falls place (indoor dining closed) and Dino Bites, which occupies that long yellow building that's pretty much always closed. There is one line for each.
-The dinos don't look half bad in person. It's entered/exited by walking past that eatery and does a loop. The entire area was landscaped just for this. There's a small tented gift shop at the exit with a surprisingly limited amount of options. A lot of the dinos can be seen without going in, and the juvenile t-rex is outside the entrance. Kids were running right up to them, touching them, etc. For being sold out for the day, it looked fairly empty, so they're really limiting tickets.
-Colobuses and spider monkeys have switched exhibits.
-Play area in that back corner is closed.
-Didn't see the cheetahs or maned wolf Could smell the wolf, though.
-Water Is Life is open. Two otters were in the big pool, being very vocal. Didn't see the other two. Fossa was in third exhibit, both red pandas were in 4th.
-There's a pair of southern ground hornbills in the condor exhibit. Fantastic use of space
-Saw one spectacled bear, no sloth bears.
-STILL CLOSED: reptiles, birds, small mammal house. The current map on the website is up to date.
-The only gift shop open, other than the dino one, is the front one. There was a long line to get in so I didn't bother.

I'll have some photos up tonight or tomorrow.

 

Sheesh! The southern ground hornbills just can't get a permanent home, can they? (Maybe some VULTURES can live in Princess' former home and they can move the hornbills to The Phase?)

 

They seemed pretty happy! But why give a huge flight cage to ground birds?!

 

Princess's exhibit was originally made for ibis, and ground hornbills can fly. I used to see them at the very top of their exhibit in Carnivore Kingdom (now Water is Life).

 

I remember seeing them in the phase (that’s the large savannah exibit that currently houses the hogs and storks right?) a while ago. I wonder if they clipped their wings for that?

 

I visited the zoo today and I saw some changes:
-Black-and-white ruffed lemurs are in Monkey Junction. Colobus monkeys are now in PECO Primate Reserve and they time share with the gorillas. The zoo eventually hopes to mix them together.
-Squirrel monkeys no longer share space with spider monkeys. They are still at the zoo, however off-exhibit.
-Another baby Francois langur was born April 5th. I did not see any of the langurs. Someone in front of RACC told me that with the new babies, there are select times they they are out so they are not going to be out all day.
-There are now sloths in the mongoose lemur exhibit in RACC. Argyle is in the exhibit as soon as you walk in with the pied tamarins. Jabba and Latte used to live in Small Mammal House but have moved to RACC. Not sure what is in their old exhibit. I only saw one, I suppose it’s Jabba because Latte is usually higher up in the exhibit. Last year I heard that the elderly mongoose lemur pair that used to live in there is now outside with the ring-tailed lemurs. Not sure if they are still their today, I didn’t see them.
-I only saw two of the three red river hogs
-Only saw three of the four saki monkeys. All three males. Didn’t see the golden lion tamarins that live with them either.
-Only saw one sloth bear

 

I saw the baby langur last week, I assume the older one. I also saw both sloths, there's photos in the media section. The other was in the exhibit second from the end. Both were high up, one hanging and the other in a basket.

I didn't know there was three hogs, I've only ever seen two.

 

I heard some updates from keepers about some of the animals, a lot in the zoos closed areas.
-In the reptile house, the yellow rat snake passed away.
-In McNeil Avian Center, the crimson-rumped toucanet and one of the red-whiskered bulbuls passed away.
-In McNeil Avian Center, several birds have started nesting behavior like the Raggiana birds-of-paradise and Bali Mynas.
-In PECO Primate Reserve, there is only one jumping rat left with the aye-ayes. The other one died.

 

More news, one of the elephant shrews gave birth.