Phoenix Zoo would never House a polar bear. They won't House anything that can't handle our summer heat. Reid Park Zoo down in Tucson tried having polar bears, but thankfully they sent their surviving one to pittsburgh. Currently they have a brother/sister wild-born grizzlies that seem to be doing quite well.
I'm surprised nobody has posted about Fernando, the zoo's first ever sloth. I hope to see him next week. I'm not a huge sloth fan, but since we've never had one before it's pretty interesting. I also want to see where they are with the Sand Cat exhibit and find out, hopefully, what's up without Suriya, the female Sumatran Tiger who seems to be off-exhibit for more than she's on. Meet Fernando: Linne's two-toed sloth to make his debut at Phoenix Zoo soon
Sloths are very cool animals actually. Unfortunately, it sounds like he is going in one of those ugly (with a capital U) cages along the otherwise scenic Forest of Uco trail.
It is nice to see all through the hurdles of this establishing this captive assurance colony they have now overcome 3 critical hurdles: in species biology, their territoriliaty and susceptability to noise and climatic stressors. I do hope the next breeding season 2017/18 will eventually get the breeding group of 3.2 individuals to produce surviving offspring and help grow the extremely low numbers (wild populations only 35 and with 80% of their habitat now completely destroyed by fire disasters and human encroachment on their habitats)!
I don't know a whole lot about them, to be honest. But you're right, I believe he is going into one of those ugly black cages in the Forest of Uco. If he's out of quarantine when I go next week, and I think he probably will be, then I'll try to get pictures.
Fernando made his official debut at the zoo today. Apparently he will be on the Kids Trail (children's zoo) and not on the TropicsTrail / Forest of Uco as they originally stated.
The dinosaur display has been open since October 2017 and will continue through March 2018. The newly redesigned cafe with indoor seating is now open. It features huge floor to ceiling windows, one section of which has a cool looking stained glass window of kudus (which they reclaimed from another Phoenix building). The following new projects all state "completion winter" on the website, but no specific dates are given. Winter is now, meaning I expect them to open over the next two or three months. - Sand Cat Exhibit (yes, yes, yes!) - Galapagos Tortoise Habitat - Aldabra Tortoise Habitat - Wildlife Amphitheater
There are not many concrete designs (no renderings that I know of), but here is the update page that does have a couple photos of the new cafe (as well as the timeline for new projects): Construction Updates - Phoenix Zoo
(All from zoo Facebook page...) A wild juvenile trumpeter swan has been seen in one of the zoo lakes. Staff believe this is the first "official" sighting of a trumpeter swan in Phoenix. Saturday, February 10 will be Wild Arizona day with special events and talks on native wildlife. This is to celebrate the anniversary of Arizona statehood. Wednesday, February 21 photographer Joel Sartore will give a talk and slide show in the evening (advance tickets required). If you are not familiar with his Photo Ark project (using zoo animals under studio lighting), there is a thread on it here: Book - The Photo Ark
Updates from my visit today (January 23, 2018), based on personal observations and discussions with a keeper. New giant tortoise yard is being built (looks like it's almost done) across the path from the current exhibit. It is on the hill above the path down to the old fashioned covered bridge to children's farm. It has a holding building and low curved-in rails along the outside. Another unlabelled exhibit with the exact same fencing is being built on the other side of the zoo opposite side of path from fennec fox. Since railing is identical and almost any other animal could jump over or through, my guess is that Aldabra tortoises will be moved there and Galapagos tortoises will go in the one described above. Once tortoises move, their current area will be used to expand the elephant exhibit. The temporary dinosaur exhibit takes up the Desert Trail, meaning you cannot see the Desert Trail (Arabian oryx and bighorn) unless you pay the extra five bucks for the dinosaur experience. There is a new complex of three connected reptile exhibits in the Forest of Uco area, across the path from the main entrance to the spectacled bear loop (overlooking one of the ponds). The exhibits are fenced in but not climate controlled, so all had signs "temporarily off exhibit" which I assume is due to cold weather. Species listed on signs are San Esteban chuckwalla, Grand Cayman blue iguana, rhinoceros iguana. Ocelot in children's zoo has died and the exhibit is now occupied by Linnaeus' two toed sloth. Sand cat exhibit is nearing completion and is connected to the Modene Event Center. The only way to see it will be from inside the building if you are part of a class or special event. The general public will not be able to see the sand cats. (I am reaaally biting my tongue not to comment on this).
That’s terrible news about the Desert Trail (Desert Lives?) being junked up and marred by robodinos. It’s a magnificent experience and highlight of the zoo and should not be disrespected in this way.
I assume it is part and parcel of reno / rebuilding work. Once completed I am sure you will enjoy these. To put it in some broader perspective: we would clap our hands if there would be any great outside exclosures for reptilians in our parts of the Western hemisphere. Sadly, our longitude / latitude probably preclude that .... BTW: my home town zoo does have an outside giant tortoise / rhino iguana yard, but it is certainly not the best ... (still better than nothing at all). Aside this, A QUESTION: how many yards for the new Galapagos exhibit (Please note they now have 2 pairings of like purebred Galapagos species (the ideal would be mutiple males in both to stimulate breeding even further ...)?
On the evening of March 21, 2018 the zoo will host a book release party and forum discussion on the brand new book Ark and Beyond, which has a thread here: Ark and Beyond (book on zoo conservation) On the week of April 10-15, 2018 the zoo will host the annual convention of the Association of Zoo and Aquarium Docents. The summer evening openings (called Prowl & Play) for 2018 will be June 9 and August 4.
That's a shame about Padfoot. I didn't often visit him because I rarely found myself in the Children's Zoo, but it was always amazing to hear people call him a baby Cheetah or Baby Jaguar, all the while staring at the sign that said "Ocelot". I was afraid of the Sand Cat only being viewable as part of the Modene Event Center. That makes me very..............very.........that distresses me greatly. I have really been looking forward to the return of Sand Cats and for them to do this is just....I have no words. Why would they do that?
Why would they do that? Obviously because they hate us! Just kidding. I can only speculate, but reasons might include (1) the general public couldn't care less about such small animals (2) they are too shy/nervous to be in front of large crowds (especially if you want to breed them) (3) to give people an added incentive to sign up for special events.
Why? This is the norm with zoos. I visited the Turtle Back Zoo today. A brief once over of the map and I counted 75 or so species of animal on exhibit. Off exhibit? There were at least 20 more, and those are just the ones I know about. Many zoos keep a sizable portion of their collections behind the scenes. Just think how the rest of us feel when something we want to see is... by the way, there’s another big zoo keeping sand cats off exhibit in the southwestern US. There are multiple reasons. Besides those AD lists, husbandry is also very iffy for this species and perhaps the location of the new exhibit is the best the zoo could offer to meet these needs.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! I think we have a winner with both 1 and 3! hahahaha. They hate us, but they want our money enough that they're willing to let us pay extra to see them. I have a work friend who is a member of the Antler Society because she willed everything to the zoo so she'll probably, at some point, get invited to an event where she'll get to see them, but she agrees with us. She wants them viewable by everyone. I know they're a shy animal and limiting their exposure to large crowds is a good idea IF they want to breed them, but is that their plan? To breed them? I haven't heard anything about that. It's not the norm for the zoos in Arizona. Very, very few animals are off exhibit. I think the only ones that are belong to educational shows and those are mostly birds and tortoises and the like. We had Sand Cats years ago and they were kept in an out of the way exhibit, which seemed to work. Not many people knew they were back there and you had to go off the main route to get to them. As for the location being the best place to meet their needs, it's not likely. It's part of the EVENT CENTER. Meaning gobs of people will be able to looks at them all at one time when there's an event and there's a lot of events, particularly at night when the cats will be active so they'll have people staring at them while they're awake. Can't imagine how that would be better for them. The only other facility I'm aware of that has Sand Cats in this part of the world is the Living Desert and according to their map, theirs is on exhibit. I don't know if the Exotic Feline Breeding Center is Rosamund, CA is considered Southwest. If it is and that's the zoo you're referring to, then yes, they keep their off-exhibit. Their main focus at that facility is breeding and they have had great success with their Sand Cats. I've only been there once and didn't remember seeing any, but then I saw they got their first one in 2011, I believe, and I was there in 2010.
Well... no and yes. I highly doubt they hold any grudge against people that would have them keep a species behind the scenes just so nobody could see them. But they do want your money. It’s a business. A nonprofit business, yes, but all businesses need money to function on a day-to-day basis. For a zoo, that’s a lot of money. Add in the conservation efforts on top of that, and the number needed increases. So if a zoo can do something to bring in just a little bit more, why on earth wouldn’t they? Not every zoo has a strong base of voters who would vote for tax support or constant backing from generous benefactors. Why would the zoo not want to breed them? They are a SSP species so that’s kind of the point. Otherwise they would just be a holder for excess animals which is also a necessity considering the lack of space for small cats in the AZA at present. Are you quite sure that’s the case? At Phoenix alone: black-footed ferret and several other native species, multiple reptiles, and oh, the only Pemba flying fox in captivity in the world. Who doesn’t want to see birds and tortoises? Many charismatic species are found among them, particularly parrots. I have seen groups of people gathered around exhibits for both birds and tortoises. Yet nobody’s whining about them not being able to be seen by the public all the time. Are you familiar with the husbandry of sand cats? Being shy is the least of their problems. The most important part of their husbandry is actually, from what I’ve gathered, humidity, or rather the lack of it. Being a strictly desert species, they can’t handle very high levels and keeping them indoors (which is where they will be kept now at Phoenix it seems) is the best way to control this. Sand cats are really the most fragile of cat species kept in zoos currently. I’ve never personally heard of stress being a major factor in their husbandry, but as with most animals less exposure to the public is generally better. The “gobs of people” in the event center only during events won’t be more than they’d be exposed to being on exhibit every day to the general public, will it? And I’ve found sand cats to be more active in diurnal than nocturnal exhibits. I’d consider EFBC southwest I suppose, but no, that’s not the facility I was referring to. Just goes to show that things are kept off exhibit all the time, whether you think they are or not.
