Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens News 2024

Nile Hippo Expert

Nile Hippo Expert

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Jambo said:
The three Malayan Tiger cubs born a few months ago to Cinta have been sexed as 1.2

Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens | Jacksonville FL
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The zoo has announced the names of the two uninjured tiger cubs. The male cub has been named "Machli", while the uninjured female cub will be known as "Beppy". The second, injured female cub's name will be unveiled on February 1.

Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens on Instagram: "PLEASE READ FULL DESCRIPTION FOR RULES: It's finally time to #NameThatTiger On November 5, 2023, we welcomed three critically endangered Malayan tiger cubs, one boy and two girls. Two of the cubs have been named by generous donors, but one of the female cubs, whose leg was previously injured, is still in need of a name! From January 17-31, you are invited to vote for your favorite name for a $5 donation (Note: A donation submission is required to vote and comments are not accepted as votes. Payments will not process unless a minimum of a $5 donation is selected.). As a 501-(c)(3) non-profit organization, donations directly support the care and feeding of the Zoo’s animals, and the protection of animals and plants around the world. The Zoo is matching up to $20,000 in donations through the naming contest. The name that raises the most funds will be the selected name for the female cub. The little one will finally have her own name on Thursday, February 1! The cub’s Care Specialists have chosen five names with South Asian origin as an homage to the Malayan tiger species: Nayla (NAY-la) meaning a winner, or one who goes ahead to get everything Mina (MEE-nah) meaning one who is unrelenting and determined Seniya (seh-NI-yah) meaning one who is praiseworthy Indah (IN-dah) meaning beautiful one Cahya (KAI-yah or ka-HI-yah) meaning one who is the light in darkness The two siblings have been named by donors; the male is Machli (MOCK-lee), a world-renown tiger of the Ranthambore National Park, and the female is Beppy, named after a beloved family member. Vote now ➡️ at #linkinbio "
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
3 Western Lowland Gorillas will be coming to Jacksonville Zoo from Busch Gardens Tampa, their names are Bolingo, Enzi, and Oliver, this was annoucned on Busch Garden's facebook

Likewise some Gorillas from Jacksonville will also be moving to Busch Gardens in the near future

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The three gorilla boys have officially moved to Tampa. The troop that Jacksonville got in return from BGT was a 1.2 family troop consisting of father Jim (36), mother Tinga (19), and daughter Whimsie Adepa (8).
 
some news and notes from my visit today

  • in the south America indoor area, they now have a March's Palm Pit-Viper on display
  • the Vampire Bat exhibit now houses Jamaican Boa and the Vampire Bats now cohab with the Seba's Short-Tailed Bats
  • In the Africa reptile house, the western gaboon viper was moved in with the West african green mamba and a puff adder has gone into its old enclosure. also the cape cobra has been replaced with a snouted cobra
  • the bird exhibit outside that used to contain White-Crowned Robin-Chat, White-Bellied Bustard, Golden-Breasted Starling,and straw-colored fruit bat, now has Spotted Dikkop, Chestnut-Breasted Malkoha and straw-colored fruit bats now.
  • construction for the new Manatee care center has caused some parts of the florida loop to be closed off, anything past the alligators up to the rescue manatee area.
  • I had luck seeing both the Jaguar and Malayan Tiger cubs which was neat!
  • Both the Rhinoceros Hornbill and Wreathed Hornbills were off display
  • the former Lappet-Faced Vulture exhibit has had all signage removed
  • One of the aviary's across from the siamang was being demolished
  • the Yellow-Billed Storks and Wattled Crane were sitting on a nest
  • not technically zoo related but there were wild alligators in the bongo and rhino habitats
this is some tidbits I got told from one of the tiger keepers I had a conversation with
  • the zoo may get Sumatran Tigers again if the SSP decides to do so, though this wouldn't be until the Malayan Tiger cubs are grown, currently the dad of the cubs is using the old sumatran habitat
  • he told me about how one thing the AZA is looking into is importing pure African Leopards or a tropical asian leopard subspecies, but currently not enough zoos have ready exhibits or interest for them to pull the plug, so they want interested zoos to build the habitats before doing any imports. Other than African Leopards, Sri Lankan Leopards are one of the tropical subspecies being looked at alongside South China Leopards. Jacksonville when it does its next Asia expansion plans to have a leopard exhibit, but plan to use Clouded Leopards or Amur Leopards if the import plans fall though, as eventually the plan is to have a warm weather leopard program running alongside the Amur. I really want this to happen!!! Is their a public masterplan, I'd like to see what the next asia phase entails beyond the rumored leopards.
  • we then talked about giraffes as they sign theirs as reticulated and he was telling me that the AZA is asking zoos to test their giraffes to see if they are hybrids, Busch Gardens found they have a herd of pure reticulated giraffes so they wont allow any new giraffes in to avoid contaminating them with generic blood, he said Bronx Zoo is doing the same with their pure Nubian/Kordofan giraffes. the AZA is focusing on increasing Masai populations but is still wanting to locate any pure reticulated, kordofan or nubians that then can be potentially moved to avoid hybridization. I was under the impression that only pure masai giraffes remained so this was cool to hear.
  • and lastly many zoo herp divisions are slightly panicking over the Eyelash Viper species split and are trying to figure out what they have, I asked about green anacondas and he said its gonna be a similar story.
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
some news and notes from my visit today

  • in the south America indoor area, they now have a March's Palm Pit-Viper on display
  • the Vampire Bat exhibit now houses Jamaican Boa and the Vampire Bats now cohab with the Seba's Short-Tailed Bats
  • In the Africa reptile house, the western gaboon viper was moved in with the West african green mamba and a puff adder has gone into its old enclosure. also the cape cobra has been replaced with a snouted cobra
  • the bird exhibit outside that used to contain White-Crowned Robin-Chat, White-Bellied Bustard, Golden-Breasted Starling,and straw-colored fruit bat, now has Spotted Dikkop, Chestnut-Breasted Malkoha and straw-colored fruit bats now.
  • construction for the new Manatee care center has caused some parts of the florida loop to be closed off, anything past the alligators up to the rescue manatee area.
  • I had luck seeing both the Jaguar and Malayan Tiger cubs which was neat!
  • Both the Rhinoceros Hornbill and Wreathed Hornbills were off display
  • the former Lappet-Faced Vulture exhibit has had all signage removed
  • One of the aviary's across from the siamang was being demolished
  • the Yellow-Billed Storks and Wattled Crane were sitting on a nest
  • not technically zoo related but there were wild alligators in the bongo and rhino habitats
this is some tidbits I got told from one of the tiger keepers I had a conversation with
  • the zoo may get Sumatran Tigers again if the SSP decides to do so, though this wouldn't be until the Malayan Tiger cubs are grown, currently the dad of the cubs is using the old sumatran habitat
  • he told me about how one thing the AZA is looking into is importing pure African Leopards or a tropical asian leopard subspecies, but currently not enough zoos have ready exhibits or interest for them to pull the plug, so they want interested zoos to build the habitats before doing any imports. Other than African Leopards, Sri Lankan Leopards are one of the tropical subspecies being looked at alongside South China Leopards. Jacksonville when it does its next Asia expansion plans to have a leopard exhibit, but plan to use Clouded Leopards or Amur Leopards if the import plans fall though, as eventually the plan is to have a warm weather leopard program running alongside the Amur. I really want this to happen!!! Is their a public masterplan, I'd like to see what the next asia phase entails beyond the rumored leopards.
  • we then talked about giraffes as they sign theirs as reticulated and he was telling me that the AZA is asking zoos to test their giraffes to see if they are hybrids, Busch Gardens found they have a herd of pure reticulated giraffes so they wont allow any new giraffes in to avoid contaminating them with generic blood, he said Bronx Zoo is doing the same with their pure Nubian/Kordofan giraffes. the AZA is focusing on increasing Masai populations but is still wanting to locate any pure reticulated, kordofan or nubians that then can be potentially moved to avoid hybridization. I was under the impression that only pure masai giraffes remained so this was cool to hear.
  • and lastly many zoo herp divisions are slightly panicking over the Eyelash Viper species split and are trying to figure out what they have, I asked about green anacondas and he said its gonna be a similar story.
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Can you tell about the Pure Giraffes at the other zoo that are not Masai Giraffes, what’s going on and where can I find sources on this?
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
some news and notes from my visit today
this is some tidbits I got told from one of the tiger keepers I had a conversation with
  • the zoo may get Sumatran Tigers again if the SSP decides to do so, though this wouldn't be until the Malayan Tiger cubs are grown, currently the dad of the cubs is using the old sumatran habitat
  • he told me about how one thing the AZA is looking into is importing pure African Leopards or a tropical asian leopard subspecies, but currently not enough zoos have ready exhibits or interest for them to pull the plug, so they want interested zoos to build the habitats before doing any imports. Other than African Leopards, Sri Lankan Leopards are one of the tropical subspecies being looked at alongside South China Leopards. Jacksonville when it does its next Asia expansion plans to have a leopard exhibit, but plan to use Clouded Leopards or Amur Leopards if the import plans fall though, as eventually the plan is to have a warm weather leopard program running alongside the Amur. I really want this to happen!!! Is their a public masterplan, I'd like to see what the next asia phase entails beyond the rumored leopards.
  • we then talked about giraffes as they sign theirs as reticulated and he was telling me that the AZA is asking zoos to test their giraffes to see if they are hybrids, Busch Gardens found they have a herd of pure reticulated giraffes so they wont allow any new giraffes in to avoid contaminating them with generic blood, he said Bronx Zoo is doing the same with their pure Nubian/Kordofan giraffes. the AZA is focusing on increasing Masai populations but is still wanting to locate any pure reticulated, kordofan or nubians that then can be potentially moved to avoid hybridization. I was under the impression that only pure masai giraffes remained so this was cool to hear.
  • and lastly many zoo herp divisions are slightly panicking over the Eyelash Viper species split and are trying to figure out what they have, I asked about green anacondas and he said its gonna be a similar story.
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Thanks for your informative review from your visit.

Sure, I was really interested on what got mentioned in your conversation with the tiger keepers. This relates to actually all 3 - Malayan/Sumatran tiger, tropical leopard and giraffe.

A long standing interest of mine are the giraffe and I am glad it seems that AZA has turned a corner to genetically test more and more their giraffe in order to determine which giraffe in which zoos are pure-bred. You mentioned that Busch Gardens has a pure-bred herd of reticulated giraffe ... (I think their original imports came out of Longleat, I believe). I know the old international giraffe studbook has some information on their herd (and one in Canada).

Of course there is the original Masai giraffe studbook / species conservation breeding program that has steered clear of any hybridisation and cross-breeding that has impacted all other giraffe in US/North American zoos. I am glad that finally AZA is moving towards investigating in earnest the genetics of all giraffe in the generic reticulated/Rothschildt's giraffe program. It has been long overdue.

Interesting what you say about Bronx oo and Nubian/Kordofan giraffe (these should be referred to as Rothschildt's I suppose. But perhaps you can correct me on this.

I would suggest to continue this discourse under a specialist giraffe genetics in North American zoos thread. I leave it up to you and others active in the US/Canada fora on giraffe in North American zoos to do so (for now) as I am more involved with the European EAZA EEP's for reticulated, Rothschildt's, Kordofan and Cape as well as Angolan giraffe - all of which are part of a centrally managed species coordinatorship with branches for each species (reticulated and Masai) and / or sub species (northern giraffe - Kordofan and Rothschildt's and southern giraffe - Cape and Angolan giraffe).
 
I can tell you that BG's giraffes are not pure retics. If that was the case at least two other facilities would because of transfers
 
Thomas said:
Can you tell about the Pure Giraffes at the other zoo that are not Masai Giraffes, what’s going on and where can I find sources on this?
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he only mentioned Bronx and Busch Gardens as the only place with know pure animals, according to him they currently don't want to bring in new giraffes for fear of contaminating the pure lines. I assume other zoos that don't have masai will need to do genetic testing, giraffe taxonomy is still a bit of a mess and depending on who you talk to there can be anywhere from 1 to 4 to 8 distinct species and a number of subspecies, which is making the process difficult. sorry about sources, this is the employee's info not mine I just wanted to share it
 
Two in the last 3 years, the giraffes are also co-owned by IAE
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
he only mentioned Bronx and Busch Gardens as the only place with know pure animals, according to him they currently don't want to bring in new giraffes for fear of contaminating the pure lines. I assume other zoos that don't have masai will need to do genetic testing, giraffe taxonomy is still a bit of a mess and depending on who you talk to there can be anywhere from 1 to 4 to 8 distinct species and a number of subspecies, which is making the process difficult. sorry about sources, this is the employee's info not mine I just wanted to share it
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No, it is not a mess as the lines are very very clear cut.

I wish all would use the Giraffe Conservation Foundation website for good measure.
Link:
A) GCF Home - Giraffe Conservation Foundation
B) Giraffe Species - Giraffe Conservation Foundation


It is high time the whole conservation community would stop producing hybrids and cross-breeds with no conservation value outside range. Really, if we should take the One Plan Approach seriously.

In Europe, we have for a good few years now practised and perfected the genetics research to the degree to distinguish, determine and separate the pure-bred species individuals plus the subspecific individuals from purebred subspecies from the hybrids and cross-breeds.
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
this is some tidbits I got told from one of the tiger keepers I had a conversation with
  • the zoo may get Sumatran Tigers again if the SSP decides to do so, though this wouldn't be until the Malayan Tiger cubs are grown, currently the dad of the cubs is using the old sumatran habitat
  • he told me about how one thing the AZA is looking into is importing pure African Leopards or a tropical asian leopard subspecies, but currently not enough zoos have ready exhibits or interest for them to pull the plug, so they want interested zoos to build the habitats before doing any imports. Other than African Leopards, Sri Lankan Leopards are one of the tropical subspecies being looked at alongside South China Leopards. Jacksonville when it does its next Asia expansion plans to have a leopard exhibit, but plan to use Clouded Leopards or Amur Leopards if the import plans fall though, as eventually the plan is to have a warm weather leopard program running alongside the Amur. I really want this to happen!!! Is their a public masterplan, I'd like to see what the next asia phase entails beyond the rumored leopards.
  • we then talked about giraffes as they sign theirs as reticulated and he was telling me that the AZA is asking zoos to test their giraffes to see if they are hybrids, Busch Gardens found they have a herd of pure reticulated giraffes so they wont allow any new giraffes in to avoid contaminating them with generic blood, he said Bronx Zoo is doing the same with their pure Nubian/Kordofan giraffes. the AZA is focusing on increasing Masai populations but is still wanting to locate any pure reticulated, kordofan or nubians that then can be potentially moved to avoid hybridization. I was under the impression that only pure masai giraffes remained so this was cool to hear.
  • and lastly many zoo herp divisions are slightly panicking over the Eyelash Viper species split and are trying to figure out what they have, I asked about green anacondas and he said its gonna be a similar story.
Click to expand...
Just as a word of caution - although it is counterintuitive, keepers at zoos are generally not good sources of correct information for things like this, especially when it relates to animals outside those that they look after (in this case tigers) and even more so when it relates to other zoos. There are far too many things which can get crossed in transmission.

Edit:
I just had a quick look in the gallery for Busch Gardens and here is one photo (from 2011) showing the variability in patterning in their "pure" giraffe herd:
full
 
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Piece of February 2024 News Not Mentioned:

On February 29th, it was reported that the zoo transferred (0.0.2+) cownose rays to ZooTampa in Lowry Park in Florida a few months prior.

https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/...ray-shores-a-new-interactive-stingray-habitat

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SwampDonkey said:
To add to the above news post, the lorikeet aviary vestibule "burned down" early Monday morning. No birds were injured but all have been moved BTS until further notice. Some reports are saying the aviary burned down, but that is not accurate.
Facebook post from the zoo: LINK
Inaccurate news report: LINK
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On March 10th, it was reported that the zoo rebuilt the entrance vestibule to the aviary and is now back open to the public.

Jacksonville Zoo aviary exhibit reopens after fire in December | firstcoastnews.com

On March 15th, the zoo announced that a (0.1) Coquerel's sifaka was born in January.

Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens
 
Even during the height of the Easter weekend crowds, listed below are a few updates that I noticed during a very brief visit:

To start things off, a majority of foliage that was planted between the Play Park squirrel monkey enclosure from the main pathway were trimmed to the point that you can easily see the monkeys without going through.

Past this first area, new signage have been installed in/near the Trout River Plaza area, with the addition of some maintenance work that is being done on the central fountain.

By far the most notable changes were present in the zoo’s Australian-themed section. With the biggest being the addition of updated signage for both the land’s entrance and the neighboring Amphibian Conservation Center.

Equally notable is the updated entrance to the newly-named Lorikeet Landing, which I’ll add an image of to the media gallery momentarily. I should also add that new signage for this attraction was also added as part of the new entrance; which from there, concludes my update report.
 
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Disgustingly this zoo has taken to becoming a cashless,pre-booking establishment...in another tedious development the lack of paper maps ("we`re saving trees"...."oh really ? lets take a look in the gift shop at this type of thing plus plastic goods shall we?") is not supported by the number of stand-alone signeage maps (we could find one)..Clearly having a time-wasting and addictive device is becoming a pre-condition of being a zoo visitor in some circles. Are any other U.S. zoos following this tiresome policy? And where does it leave reciprocal entry?
 
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