Yesterday, on 31 of January, 2017 I visited Skopje zoo in R. Macedonia, after snowy rains in the last 2-3 weeks, and very cold mass (actually nothing, because cold is almost nothing, literally) that hit the country in the second week of january. Here is the review: -Animals originating from tropical regions, were all indoor and quite difficult to spot because of simple reflecting glass and not-so good illumination of indoor enclosures. -Zoo animals that were in the outdoor enclosures were: California sea lions, Amur tigers, leopards, wolves, golden jackal, lynxes, Eurasian brown bears, American bison, fallow deers, Himalayan tahrs, Griffons vultures, liamas, horses, sheeps, doemstic fowl, and maybe some other that I have eventually dismissed. -The zoo now holds just one common hippo, and the other female hippo was sent to second zoo in the country - in Bitola zoo (that built new enclosure for her); -The zoo got another siamang, now they are two. I have no idea from where. -The zoo got a golden jackal. -The zoo is building elephant and chimpanzee encosure, with some photos in the gallery. The demography of some zoo animals was: -Amur tigers: 2; Leopards: 2; Jaguars: 2; Meerkats: 4; Brown bears: 3; Golden jackal: 1; Gray wolves: I counted 8; California sea lions: 2.0. -Giraffes: 3; Common (river) hippo: 1; Przewalski horse: 3. -Siamangs: 2; Cherry-crowned mangabey: 2; Red-handed tamarins: 3; Pygmy marmosets: 2; Hamatryas baboons (above 5); Pig-tailed macaques (above 5); Patas monkeys (above 5-8); Ring-tailed lemurs (above 10). -Bird and reptile collection remains poor (and amphibian non-existent, and invertebrate represented only with tarantula, and no fishes) and under-average for a zoo, as it is the whole country is (underdeveloped). -The scenery with snow and zoo-animals was beautifull, especially with the Amur tigers and wolves - in their wast snowy enclosures.
Unfortunately, uppseting news, one of the sea lions was found death this morning in Skopje zoo. Reasons unknown. The dead animal was sent to Faculty of Veterinary Medicine Skopje for postmortal examination and tissue sample collection. -Do you know what are the more common reasons for mortality of California sea lions in zoos? -I've made a research on net: Some reasons were myocardial fibrosis (again not exactly know reasons for such development). They are also prone to infection with distemper virus from canids (dogs, jackal); dogs were forbidden in the zoo. New jackal introduced in the collection. They may also contract infections (eg. pneumonia) from the water in the pool, especially if water is non-saline and dirty. The water in the pool in Skopje zoo is not (or was not) saline I think, and it was not dirty, but it should be cleaner. Other reasons may include tissue damage (eg. brain, heart) from eventual not balanced diet in regards to vitamin E, selenium and tiamine due to fish-diet (raw fish rich on free radicals and tiaminase). This male sea lion was recieved from Zagreb Zoo in Croatia, two years ago, together with it's male fellow wich is the only California sea lion remaining in the zoo.
Namely, the reason for death was due to obstruction of the esophagus with a rock with the size of avocado fruit. I don't read further explanations, but such an obstruction may eventualy lead to rupture of the esophagus (compressive necrosis) and sepsis. According to zoo officials, someone trown a rock in the pool and the seal ingested it, thinking of it as a food.
