Smithsonian National Zoo Smithsonian National Zoo News 2023

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Sarus Crane said:
With the Giant Pandas leaving what would replace them? Would the Amur Tigers move from the Great Cats complex into the Panda yards like what happened once the pandas left Toronto?
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In theory, they will be replaced with a new pair. At least that's what the zoo has said they hope to do. Whether or not that happens we will see. If any US zoo could get them back, I would think it would be the Smithsonian. It would also cost a lot to retrofit/renovate the yards for big cats such as the amurs, but that wouldn't be a bad idea. Also given the federal government status any permanent replacement would be YEARS down the line if pandas do not return.
 
A few updates today from my visit:

Africa Trail: According to a keeper I had the pleasure of talking to, the hoof stock are slowly being relocated in preparation for the long awaited renovations that are set to being end of this year/ early next. The Ruppell's Griffon vultures will move to the Bird Plateau during construction. They were unsure about the ostrich. The cheetah would return to Front Royal, VA.

As a disappointment, they also mentioned that any hopes for giraffe would not occur for decades and as they put it "within our reasonable lifetime". Until the Zoo addresses it's parking situation with a garage, the planned location of any giraffe exhibit can not move forward.

American Trail: The Andean bear cubs were a delight to watch and were busy climbing their exhibit tree, taking turns playing king of the mountain.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned (I didn't see an update in this year's thread, but perhaps this is 2022 news), but the Manned wolves are to be replaced with Red wolves according to a posted exhibit sign.
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NAIB Volunteer said:
A few updates today from my visit:

Africa Trail: According to a keeper I had the pleasure of talking to, the hoof stock are slowly being relocated in preparation for the long awaited renovations that are set to being end of this year/ early next. The Ruppell's Griffon vultures will move to the Bird Plateau during construction. They were unsure about the ostrich. The cheetah would return to Front Royal, VA.

As a disappointment, they also mentioned that any hopes for giraffe would not occur for decades and as they put it "within our reasonable lifetime". Until the Zoo addresses it's parking situation with a garage, the planned location of any giraffe exhibit can not move forward.

American Trail: The Andean bear cubs were a delight to watch and were busy climbing their exhibit tree, taking turns playing king of the mountain.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned (I didn't see an update in this year's thread, but perhaps this is 2022 news), but the Manned wolves are to be replaced with Red wolves according to a posted exhibit sign.
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And again we come full circle. That exhibit was previously reds, then Mexican, then generic, then maned
 
NAIB Volunteer said:
A few updates today from my visit:

Africa Trail: According to a keeper I had the pleasure of talking to, the hoof stock are slowly being relocated in preparation for the long awaited renovations that are set to being end of this year/ early next. The Ruppell's Griffon vultures will move to the Bird Plateau during construction. They were unsure about the ostrich. The cheetah would return to Front Royal, VA.

As a disappointment, they also mentioned that any hopes for giraffe would not occur for decades and as they put it "within our reasonable lifetime". Until the Zoo addresses it's parking situation with a garage, the planned location of any giraffe exhibit can not move forward.

American Trail: The Andean bear cubs were a delight to watch and were busy climbing their exhibit tree, taking turns playing king of the mountain.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned (I didn't see an update in this year's thread, but perhaps this is 2022 news), but the Manned wolves are to be replaced with Red wolves according to a posted exhibit sign.
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Do you know where any of the hoof stock or hornbills are going? The nearby Maryland zoo keeps almost all of these species, but still I wonder where the kudu, sitatunga, and hornbills will go. I presume the hogs, zebra, and addax are all gone by now too?
 
Polar bear fan said:
I presume the hogs, zebra, and addax are all gone by now too?
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The last red river hog passed away a while ago, and the last zebra was moved to the Bronx I believe last year.

The addax were still there during my visit earlier this month, and while things could've changed if the ostrich was still there its safe to say the addax probably are as well. A keeper I talked to in the past mentioned how the addax and ostrich came from the same facility and were on loan to the zoo, and once that ended they would be sent back.
 
Andrew_NZP said:
The last red river hog passed away a while ago, and the last zebra was moved to the Bronx I believe last year.

The addax were still there during my visit earlier this month, and while things could've changed if the ostrich was still there its safe to say the addax probably are as well. A keeper I talked to in the past mentioned how the addax and ostrich came from the same facility and were on loan to the zoo, and once that ended they would be sent back.
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Thank you, I forgot about the move to the Bronx and couldn’t remember if the last hog had died. Very interesting note about the addax and ostrich, moving them in now made very little sense to me before.
 
Cheetahs, addax, ostrich, hornbills, and kudu still at the "Cheetah Conservation Center"/ Africa Trail as of 4/29!

The baby Andean bears (in my profile picture) are incredibly cute and entertaining to watch, but they're only out between 9-11 AM. This is worth noting because if you haven't been to this zoo before, the Andean bear exhibit is really tucked away from the main drag and near the opposite end of the zoo from the main metro entrance, so time and plan your visit accordingly if you want to see them! (If you take the other pedestrian entrance at the bottom of the zoo, you'll be closer to the bears, but it is an uphill road.) They were the highlight of the visit for me and I spent almost half an hour watching them play and hunt for fruit.

There's still a lot of construction going on both on and around Lion/ Tiger hill, including pathway closures.
 
SaritaWolf said:
The panda bots have made social media comments sections unreadable…
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The craziest part is that it's so easy to disprove their claims that the pandas are being starved or only given old bamboo. Short clips from the panda cams are going viral out of context. I spent almost an hour by the panda habitat on Saturday and watched Xiao Qi Ji playing with an enrichment toy full of food and then saw him and his mom both eating massive quantities of fresh bamboo and bamboo shoots, then saw a keeper place more food in their enclosures.

But I don't even think all of these posters are bots; yes, many are, but the way some people are responding to these clips reminds me of other conspiracy theorists I've met. Once you believe in some dark conspiracy, everything you see is a sign reinforcing that. (Especially when there are bot accounts designed to reinforce your beliefs.) This is that conspiracy theory about people being trafficked in Wayfair furniture all over again.

Also, I guess I can kinda see why people believed the rumors the Memphis Zoo was starving Ya-Ya-- she happens to be a small bear with patchy and discolored fur-- but the DC bears look very well-nourished. A lot of the posts decrying the zoo for their treatment of the pandas are actually using photos of Ya-Ya.
 
TheGytrash said:
The craziest part is that it's so easy to disprove their claims that the pandas are being starved or only given old bamboo. Short clips from the panda cams are going viral out of context. I spent almost an hour by the panda habitat on Saturday and watched Xiao Qi Ji playing with an enrichment toy full of food and then saw him and his mom both eating massive quantities of fresh bamboo and bamboo shoots, then saw a keeper place more food in their enclosures.

But I don't even think all of these posters are bots; yes, many are, but the way some people are responding to these clips reminds me of other conspiracy theorists I've met. Once you believe in some dark conspiracy, everything you see is a sign reinforcing that. (Especially when there are bot accounts designed to reinforce your beliefs.) This is that conspiracy theory about people being trafficked in Wayfair furniture all over again.

Also, I guess I can kinda see why people believed the rumors the Memphis Zoo was starving Ya-Ya-- she happens to be a small bear with patchy and discolored fur-- but the DC bears look very well-nourished. A lot of the posts decrying the zoo for their treatment of the pandas are actually using photos of Ya-Ya.
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Like a lot of conspiracy theories, it's started by bots/people with a major agenda, and gets pushed enough until people start actually believing it. There's political conspiracies and outlandish beliefs that have been directly traced to Russian bots, for example.
 
NAIB Volunteer said:
A few updates today from my visit:

Africa Trail: According to a keeper I had the pleasure of talking to, the hoof stock are slowly being relocated in preparation for the long awaited renovations that are set to being end of this year/ early next. The Ruppell's Griffon vultures will move to the Bird Plateau during construction. They were unsure about the ostrich. The cheetah would return to Front Royal, VA.

As a disappointment, they also mentioned that any hopes for giraffe would not occur for decades and as they put it "within our reasonable lifetime". Until the Zoo addresses it's parking situation with a garage, the planned location of any giraffe exhibit can not move forward.

American Trail: The Andean bear cubs were a delight to watch and were busy climbing their exhibit tree, taking turns playing king of the mountain.

I'm not sure if this has been mentioned (I didn't see an update in this year's thread, but perhaps this is 2022 news), but the Manned wolves are to be replaced with Red wolves according to a posted exhibit sign.
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It’s always great when another zoo gets Red Wolves. Is it known where the zoo will be acquiring them from?
 
TinoPup said:
I agree that it's probably a lot of this, plus others reading the nonsense in the state sponsored stuff and thinking all pandas in the USA are being abused. It couldn't be further from the truth, and the Chinese monitor the pandas daily (hourly? constantly?) remotely, so if there was an actual issue, they would have sent their own people here to check on them. Unfortunately I think the harassment is going to keep anywhere else from wanting to try and get the species.
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EXACTLY!! For real the haters have been spamming Smithsonian National Zoo facebook page, with all these false claims. It's like just because one panda died at ONE other zoo (which autopsy showed it was a heart issue), and one other had a skin issue and was very old they started generalizing all the zoos with pandas as if they are the same. Smithsonian National Zoo takes so good care of their pandas. Like these so called videos on tik tok that they claim to be mistreatment aren't even that. Like a panda eating a apple doesn't mean it is hiding it's food as if it was their last meal. It is just eating. I saw another video claim they put alcholol on the blanket and that is why they are rubbing their face on it. But like I can gurantee it is probally a scent the panda really likes and it's having the same reaction like a cat with catnip. I even saw a video claiming the panda has skin issues because it was having a nice scratch against a tree. Like that is just normal typical behavior. Scratching against a tree doesn't' mean skin issues. It has to be determine by how long and how many days this occurs and by physical signs as well. The bear look pretty healthy to me. Oh and my faviorte one was the people claiming they were sleeping for "too long" like pandas sleep 12 hours a day.. Idk I just hope it doesn't hurt the zoo in anyway and I hope they will still have their pandas for many years to come. (especially for next year, I am planning a trip there for summer 2024 with my best friend.
 
Jena said:
EXACTLY!! For real the haters have been spamming Smithsonian National Zoo facebook page, with all these false claims. It's like just because one panda died at ONE other zoo (which autopsy showed it was a heart issue), and one other had a skin issue and was very old they started generalizing all the zoos with pandas as if they are the same. Smithsonian National Zoo takes so good care of their pandas. Like these so called videos on tik tok that they claim to be mistreatment aren't even that. Like a panda eating a apple doesn't mean it is hiding it's food as if it was their last meal. It is just eating. I saw another video claim they put alcholol on the blanket and that is why they are rubbing their face on it. But like I can gurantee it is probally a scent the panda really likes and it's having the same reaction like a cat with catnip. I even saw a video claiming the panda has skin issues because it was having a nice scratch against a tree. Like that is just normal typical behavior. Scratching against a tree doesn't' mean skin issues. It has to be determine by how long and how many days this occurs and by physical signs as well. The bear look pretty healthy to me. Oh and my faviorte one was the people claiming they were sleeping for "too long" like pandas sleep 12 hours a day.. Idk I just hope it doesn't hurt the zoo in anyway and I hope they will still have their pandas for many years to come. (especially for next year, I am planning a trip there for summer 2024 with my best friend.
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Really it's not an issue about welfare - it's a geopolitical issue. They aren't even necessarily trying to be factually correct - it's about balances of power and pandas are a great way to wield it. Plus a new 'China bill' is just about to be introduced into Congress (or maybe it already has been, I can't remember) so I'm sure that this is part of the reason why the zoo is seeing in increase in engagement on the issue.
 
TheGytrash said:
Cheetahs, addax, ostrich, hornbills, and kudu still at the "Cheetah Conservation Center"/ Africa Trail as of 4/29!

The baby Andean bears (in my profile picture) are incredibly cute and entertaining to watch, but they're only out between 9-11 AM. This is worth noting because if you haven't been to this zoo before, the Andean bear exhibit is really tucked away from the main drag and near the opposite end of the zoo from the main metro entrance, so time and plan your visit accordingly if you want to see them! (If you take the other pedestrian entrance at the bottom of the zoo, you'll be closer to the bears, but it is an uphill road.) They were the highlight of the visit for me and I spent almost half an hour watching them play and hunt for fruit.

There's still a lot of construction going on both on and around Lion/ Tiger hill, including pathway closures.
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The website shows the sitatunga is no longer on exhibit. Did he already move to another facility or he died?
 
Jena said:
EXACTLY!! For real the haters have been spamming Smithsonian National Zoo facebook page, with all these false claims. It's like just because one panda died at ONE other zoo (which autopsy showed it was a heart issue), and one other had a skin issue and was very old they started generalizing all the zoos with pandas as if they are the same. Smithsonian National Zoo takes so good care of their pandas. Like these so called videos on tik tok that they claim to be mistreatment aren't even that. Like a panda eating an apple doesn't mean it is hiding it's food as if it was their last meal. It is just eating. I saw another video claim they put alcholol on the blanket and that is why they are rubbing their face on it. But like I can gurantee it is probally a scent the panda really likes and it's having the same reaction like a cat with catnip. I even saw a video claiming the panda has skin issues because it was having a nice scratch against a tree. Like that is just normal typical behavior. Scratching against a tree doesn't' mean skin issues. It has to be determine by how long and how many days this occurs and by physical signs as well. The bear look pretty healthy to me. Oh and my faviorte one was the people claiming they were sleeping for "too long" like pandas sleep 12 hours a day.. Idk I just hope it doesn't hurt the zoo in anyway and I hope they will still have their pandas for many years to come. (especially for next year, I am planning a trip there for summer 2024 with my best friend.
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The pandas are expecting to leave at the end of this year, but in the past the loan has been extended three times, so it’s very possible they will extend it again…
 
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