Zuberi the young female African elephant has tested positive for EEHV. The good news is after the vet team begun treatment immediately, they’re hopeful they’ve caught it in time: Sedgwick County Zoo elephant has potentially deadly virus The zoo says weekly blood test results on Wednesday showed that 12-year-old Zuberi has elevated levels of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV). The zoo says it began aggressive treatment on her immediately. It says she is willingly participating in the procedures as a result of the animal care team’s training efforts. So far, Zuberi is not showing any symptoms of the illness. Her care team is hopeful they caught the virus in time.
Why wouldn't it be necessary. They won't risk her dying. In the past, EEHV was underestimated in African elephants, but two young cows, Kalina and Nyah, died in Indianapolis. Then the young bull Kedar and the young cow Zahara also fell ill. Fortunately, they were saved. Maybe if they started researching the virus on the others after Nyah's death, they could save Kalina. But the zoo did not think at that moment that it could die on EEHV. It is better not to underestimate anything. Since the death of the elephants in Indianapolis, zoos with African elephants are very wary.
While I agree it's always better to be safe than sorry, historically EEHV has had nowhere near the same effect on African elephants as it has Asian. This is probably due to the fact that EEHV evolved in Africa and most elephants there usually live and reproduce fine with it. It's Asian Elephants, who picked it up from Africans, who are fatally affected. Though as said, better to take precautions just in case. ~Thylo
I think EEHV screening and treatment will be the new norm with all captive elephants regardless of species. The events in Indianapolis really brought to light the lethal potential in the African species, that I think we assumed was not the case for a long time. It seems since then, all US AZA zoos that hold Africans are screening routinely as Asian population has been screened for years now.
Sedgwick County Zoo's newest addition, Ravi the red panda, now on exhibit The zoo has a new male red panda now on exhibit. His name is Ravi, he is currently on exhibit.
Sedgwick County Zoo It is good that they started acting immediately. Zuberi began to show signs of illness, she was tired and lethargic. They had a blood transfusion on her. Then it got better again. There is a good chance that he will recover.
Sedgwick County Zoo More updates on Zuberi disease. It is better and the level of EEHV in the blood has dropped.
On July 2, the zoo decided to euthanize Omaha the pronghorn, due to health issues. She was the zoo's last pronghorn, there are no plans to get another one. She will be missed!
Hopefully something that, when viewed from the boat ride, the experience is just as magical as Clayton Freheit once saw it when said pronghorn drank from the water with no discernible barriers. (Maybe they could expand the bison yard over yonder and maybe move the elk down?)
I visited two years ago and there were pronghorn in that exhibit, i’m glad I saw them when I did! I believe there were two. Hey Sedgwick, there’s a peninsular pronghorn program that needs your support, knock it off with the domestic sheep.
My understanding is they used to keep Peninsular but they did not do well so they phased them out for nominate. @Ituri would be able to confirm/correct/provide more details maybe. ~Thylo
I believe they kept peninsular and nominate simultaneously. I’m not really sure of the details though.
Chinese alligators bred again ( from Facebook ) : "The team at Sedgwick County Zoo are very happy about the important breeding success of the Chinese alligator. We are also very glad over the young alligators. It is a great contribution to the survival of the species ex situ."
The link below contains an article that costs money to view (therefore I didn't read it), but there are five images of the upcoming new leopard exhibit that can be seen for free. If you click on the slideshow then you'll see some fascinating plans. The last image shows that there will be 4 leopard exhibits (plus two more "private habitats") all directly next to Tiger Trek. https://www.bizjournals.com/wichita/news/2020/11/30/sedgwick-county-zoo-new-leopard-exhibit-opening.html#:~:text=Site work has already started,to open mid-July 2021.
I did not pay for it either, but did notice a detail that the habitats would be for both Amur and snow leopards, so a similar function to the San Diego Zoo’s Asian Leopards complex. One of the habitats will be where the Brow-antlered deer exhibit is, I’m always dismayed at the loss of hoofstock exhibits, especially relatively new ones! However I think this will be another fine addition to this fine zoo.
It is a shame you cannot see the article at all. Worse though is that the overall design map is viewable, beyond a tiny peek into it (all the text is intelligible). I agree with geomorph that losing the brow-antlered deer exhibit is a great loss. Will they come back else as the Burmese species is not exactly well represented across the Americas?