Saint Louis Zoo Saint Louis Zoo News 2021

Update on the Common chimpanzee infant:

Meet St. Louis Zoo’s Newest Primate — Raven The 2-Month-Old Chimpanzee

In October, St. Louis Zoo chimpanzee Utamu gave birth to a baby girl. Two months later, the infant — named Raven — is starting to reach exciting milestones, like reaching for objects and trying to mimic chimpanzee vocalizations.

Raven spends her days clinging to Utamu’s side. Boostrom said it will be at least a few months before Raven would venture even a few feet away from her mom. In the meantime, Utamu has introduced her newborn to the rest of the zoo’s chimpanzees.

While Utamu and Raven are the center of attention within the zoo’s chimpanzee community, it may be some time before the public will be able to see the pair. Boostrom said that Utamu will have the ultimate say of when Raven is ready for a public debut.

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/stlzoo/status/1352637897535610881

Zoo will now house Geoffroy’s marmosets, a new species for the zoo. Presumably they’re upping their monkeys/lemurs for the new Primate Canopy Trails extension of the Primate House opening later this year. I do hope they look into more endangered ones, too, though. The Geoffroy’s marmoset is relatively common.

 

On an unrelated note: the zoo has updated their webpage and says they hold 12,000 animals representing 500 species. Last year, it said 13,000 representing 555, and in 2019 it stated over 19,000 representing 603 taxa. I know most major zoos are reducing number of species to better provide quality care for ones they do choose to keep, but that’s a really significant drop-off. I can’t seem to find which species they’ve gotten rid of, which leads me to think it’s insects. Their insectarium species list online has always been woefully incomplete, though, so we may never know.

 

This post of mine from 2018 contains a complete list of species that were on exhibit then. If you can create your own list like this and cross-reference them, then we may get our answer, although I am sure many of the species lost will be behind-the-scenes.

 

The Zoo is transforming part of its Franklin County property into natural red wolf habitat for conservation and breeding. The wolves themselves will come in 2022.

PHOTOS: Saint Louis Zoo to help save critically endangered species

 

Sounds great. Seems to be like the NC Zoos setup. A large number of fenced in forest paddocks for the wolves.

 

It sounds almost like they are planning a reintroduction somewhere.

 

Their have been several small scale reintroductions of the Red Wolf in recent decades, yet since 1987 the focus has been on the site in eastern NC (Alligator river). Sadly the population is basically functionally extinct today, as reintroductions have been halted (due to a variety of issues, hybridization concerns, state politics, local landowner backlash...). So as of now it will basically persist in zoos. Sadly their aren't many or any sites where the reintroduction could go forward.

 

On Jan. 15 2021 a male Lowland nyala was born .

 

There are actually several potential sites that USFWS is considering reintroduction, including some in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas! There is a greater emphasis on getting local landowners to buy in this time. Hopefully, things will move forward under the new administration.

I'm very excited that St. Louis is adding more capacity for Red Wolves to that of the Endangered Wolf Center that is also in the St. Louis area!

 

I didn’t even know the zoo had a 350-acre nature preserve, which is completely separate from the 450-acre property it bought to develop into a safari park.

The Endangered Wolf Center in Eureka, MO was founded by Markin Perkins, former zoo director, in the 1970s and has done amazing work with imperiled canid species and subspecies for a long time now. Glad to see the zoo is now stepping in to do its part as well.

 

Two critically-endangered lemur leaf frogs were recently born at the zoo:

https://mobile.twitter.com/stlzoo/status/1359182773530075147

 

Three Chinese crocodile lizards were born recently:

https://mobile.twitter.com/stlzoo/status/1363876954601099265

And in other news, a little bird told me that the safari park will primarily focus on amphibians and endangered hoofstock, as well as large herbivores such as rhinos and elephants. The main zoo keeps Asian elephants and Eastern Black rhinoceros, so the safari park is looking into holding a herd of African elephants and Indian rhinoceros, possibly in addition to other Asian elephants/Black rhinoceros kept behind-the-scenes to maintain a healthy breeding population for the main zoo. The amphibians will have their own dedicated building on-site. But everything is still preliminary, and at least five years away from public display. So take all that with a grain of salt, although that seems to be the current thinking as of now.

 

Hoofstock and Amphibians make a lot of sense- these are the two groups of animals with the most ex-situ help needed, and with many struggling AZA programs (or in the case of amphibians very few to begin with). Ideally some rare bird species would also be managed here.

 

I believe an early plan shared in last year's thread referenced Kirtland's Warbler as a species they intended to keep.

 

On March 3rd, it was reported that the southern rockhopper penguin chick that was born in December has been given a name. Their name is now Opal, which got 36,000 votes.

Meet Opal: First rockhopper penguin chick hatched at Saint Louis Zoo in a decade

 

https://mobile.twitter.com/stlzoo/status/1368944848309346304

Asian narrow-headed softshell turtles are examined by veterinary staff in a cool video. I didn’t know they got so big!

 

Dinoroarus, the upcoming dinosaur exhibition, has received its prehistoric residents. According to the end of the article, the area will remain a children’s area in the reimagining process.

Saint Louis Zoo welcomes dinosaurs | ksdk.com

 

Kalista the tiger passed away on the 27th. Amur Tiger Kalista

 

A female Black-and-white Colobus was born on 8th April at Saint Louis: Saint Louis Zoo celebrates birth of colobus monkey