Oklahoma City Zoo Oklahoma City Zoo News 2024

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Zoofan15 said:
Male Indian rhinoceros arrives:

Oklahoma City Zoo welcomes 5-year-old Indian rhino

According to the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, the new rhino, named Mohan, came from the Buffalo Zoo and is currently in quarantine at the Zoo’s rhino barn and outdoor habitat.
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It will be a good few years before this male will be ready and acceptable for a mate for breeding female Niki.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
It will be a good few years before this male will be ready and acceptable for a mate for breeding female Niki.
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I see from records the youngest recorded sire for Indian rhinoceros was seven years old upon conception, so yes, it will be at least two years (possibly longer) before Mohan can breed.

The female Niki (2006) previously gave birth to calves in 2014 and 2020, so given it’s been four years since her last birth, it would be preferable to see her conceive within at least the next 3-4 years.
JAG said:
I like how the second article specifies that one of the females is the oldest Indian rhino in human care in North America. You know, as opposed to the wild Indian rhinos in North America. ;)
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They always throw in the human care/captivity line when talking about an animal’s longevity - I see it all the time in big cats. While I accept it’s not possible to verify with 100% accuracy a lion in his 20’s is older than every wild lion in Africa, it seems ridiculous to add in the line when you consider the average lifespan of a wild male lion.
Nile Hippo Expert said:
The link doesn't seem to work, here is a better one that works.
https://kfor.com/news/local/oklahoma-city-zoo-welcomes-5-year-old-indian-rhino/
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The link works, you just need to count to nine for it to progress beyond the blue screen. :)
 
Visited recently. Guatemalan beaded lizard is on exhibit in the Herpetarium and ploughshare tortoises(!!!) are on exhibit in a yard outside the Pachyderm Building. Hasn’t seen either mentioned here, and with both (but especially the latter) being rarities wanted to give it a mention.
 
jayjds2 said:
Visited recently. Guatemalan beaded lizard is on exhibit in the Herpetarium and ploughshare tortoises(!!!) are on exhibit in a yard outside the Pachyderm Building. Hasn’t seen either mentioned here, and with both (but especially the latter) being rarities wanted to give it a mention.
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How many Guatemalan beadeds and ploughshare tortoises do they have?
It seems that Guatemalan beaded lizard is now an AZA focal species and ploughsare tortoises are getting exhibited at a number of new collections. I think the herp curator is probably also very switched on for new developments and animals!

Any more news from their Galapagos tortoise program (more fertile eggs or hatchlings from their Chelonoidis vandenburghi Cerro Alcedo Galapagos giant tortoise)?
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
How many Guatemalan beadeds and ploughshare tortoises do they have?
It seems that Guatemalan beaded lizard is now an AZA focal species and ploughsare tortoises are getting exhibited at a number of new collections. I think the herp curator is probably also very switched on for new developments and animals!

Any more news from their Galapagos tortoise program (more fertile eggs or hatchlings from their Chelonoidis vandenburghi Cerro Alcedo Galapagos giant tortoise)?
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I saw 1 of the lizard and 3 of the tortoise, though I admit I was a bit rushed for time so I didn’t look very thoroughly at the lizards, since I have them closer to home. Atlanta’s breeding success with the lizard is definitely helping the species get spread around to different zoos. The zoo has had ploughshare for a while, just not on exhibit. The only other US zoo with them on exhibit I’m aware of is Knoxville - are there more?

As far as I know, no further news on the Alcedo tortoises.
 
JAG said:
Another news nugget I forgot to mention is that the main African savannah exhibit was still under construction and no animals were in it yet. The giraffes were confined in their indoor quarters, and twe were able to see addra's gazelles, ostriches, and zebras in some smaller paddocks. No wildebeest or elands that we noticed, although their signage was in place on the main exhibit.

My visit to the OKC Zoo was a mixed bag. I'll get the negatives out of the way first. My four siblings and I got to the zoo around 12:30 or 1PM, something like that, so we didn't have much time. Don't do that. It's a fairly large facility with a lot to see, and there's walking involved. You need to get there early and allow several hours to comfortably stroll around and enjoy yourself. Also, don't go at the height of summer, because the Oklahoma sun doesn't play games and the zoo's distribution of shade is very uneven. Some areas have plenty, some have literally none. Long stretches of path and viewing areas around big-ticket exhibits where all you can do is roast. So be prepared. Navigational signage is severely lacking, too, so prepare to walk in circles and be unsure where you're going a lot of the time.

A lot of the exhibits (apes, elephants, tigers) have multiple viewing areas, which is great in terms of allowing opportunities to see the animals, but does contribute to the navigational confusion. Signage on the exhibit barriers tends to be pretty clear and common, though, so it's rarely hard to figure out what is supposed to be in an exhibit once you walk up to it. Points for that.

Positives now. I'm new to the zoo nerd community, so I don't know what animals in OKC's collection are rarities, if any. I'm not great at in-depth exhibit analysis, either, due to lack of experience. From my perspective as a noob that hasn't been to many zoos, the standouts were:

- The massive elephant complex. There were at least three yards I remember, one of which was very spacious. There were viewing windows into the indoor quarters, too, though those were empty. It was great to see a multi-generational herd of elephants as opposed to the usual two or three. They seemed happy and active, less bored and frustrated than Atlanta's elephants looked in their old exhibit. Most of the herd was in the main yard, gathered around eating a pile of fresh branches. Two of the mid-sized animals broke off and had a pool party right in front of the viewing walkway, splashing around and diving underwater. That was a treat to watch. The largest bull was separated in another yard.

- The grizzly and black bears both had large exhibits with room to roam and places to hide. Nice landscaping and water features for the grizzlies, too. We were very disappointed that the grizzlies were no-shows; they were one of the main things we wanted to see. The black bear gave us a decent show, though, walking up to the glass a few times before flopping down on its cot for a nap up against the window. The building with the indoor bear viewing was fairly nice in general, with a large fish aquarium, otter viewing, burrowing owls, and several rattlesnakes. Everything but the grizzlies was out and visible. The whole Oklahoma Trails area was nicely landscaped, with lots of lush trees and tame wild birds and squirrels gathering around looking for handouts.

- The ape exhibits weren't as nice as Atlanta's gorilla setup, but that's to be expected. Still large and full of climbing opportunities and multiple viewing angles, though. It was too hot for the apes to be doing much outside, but we got great looks at all of them in their indoor rooms. The female orangutan came up to the glass and was using a stick to scrape something edible out of a crevice along the window. The whole family of chimpanzees were relaxing on or around a log inches from the glass. The big male was playing with a tiny toddler, who gave us a great performance. He did a lot of climbing and hopping around, playing with my sister by jumping at the glass a few times. He and his father were both interested in my sister's phone when she showed them some videos.

We had some nice interactions with a spider monkey and a friendly black goat that wanted its ear scratched. We didn't go through the petting zoo, and ran out of time so we missed some things in that part of the zoo. We never made it to the herpetarium, Raptor Ridge, stingray pool, or the smaller mammals in that area. Unfortunate, but that's how it goes, I guess. The Okapi was obliging enough to approach the fence and give us a good look, and a keeper fed a melon to one of the Indian rhinos to get it to (sluggishly, half-heartedly) climb out of its pool and move around for us.

Admission is very cheap, I'll say that's a big point in the zoo's favor. Five people visiting for something like $80? Yeah, I'll take that all day. Concessions are readily available and not too unreasonably overpriced. We bought drinks and split two decent chicken tender baskets for lunch. The gift shop was pretty meh. Great selection of cute stuffed animals, underwhelming otherwise. There were two books on the history of the zoo, which was interesting... I was tempted to pick them up, but ultimately passed. Lots of the merch featured animals the zoo doesn't have, like hippos or African rhinos. I bought a magnet, two of my siblings bought eagle t-shirts. We got out of it for about $200-250 for the whole trip, or thereabouts. We'd have spent that just walking in the door at pricier places like the Georgia or Tennessee Aquariums.
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i found out the names of the zebra herd: The stallion is Mars, the two mares are Calypso and Nebula and their daughters who are named Selene and Nova
 
Piece of August 2024 News Worth Mentioning:

On August 21st, the zoo announced they transferred a ringtail to the Little Rock Zoo in Arkansas.

Little Rock Zoo

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On October 15th, the zoo announced they transferred (1.2) African lions named Mshango, Neema, and Zahara to another unspecified facility.

Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden

On October 16th, it was reported that the zoo acquired 4 leopard darters and 2+ Arkansas River shiners from the Tishomingo National Fish Hatchery in Oklahoma which are now on display in the Oklahoma Trails area.

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King of Komodo Dragons said:
A 0.1 Plains Zebra was born. the subspecies of plains zebra wasn't mentioned but I assume Grant's as Burchell's are fairly easy to tell apart and not that common in the AZA.

Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden
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There really aren’t many/any purebred plains zebras left in North America (or in captivity, in general, for that matter), and they aren’t managed as separate subspecies anymore, so just saying a plains zebra was born is more than appropriate.
 
Kudu21 said:
There really aren’t many/any purebred plains zebras left in North America (or in captivity, in general, for that matter), and they aren’t managed as separate subspecies anymore, so just saying a plains zebra was born is more than appropriate.
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I see, I did not know this, I was under the impression that Grant's Zebras still made up the majority of zebras in collections.
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
I see, I did not know this, I was under the impression that Grant's Zebras still made up the majority of zebras in collections.
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They might be labeled as such and might mostly match phenotypically, but genetically, that isn’t the case — similar to how many generic giraffes in North America might more phenotypically match reticulated or Nubian/Rothschild’s but are still just hybrids. This isn’t a unique problem to North America, though, most of the plains zebras in Europe are also likely hybrids, despite what zoos still might proclaim.
 
I saw the foal yesterday and I can confirm that the signage for the exhibit simply labels the zebras as "Plains Zebra." I too didn't realize that the AZA population was being managed as a generic population, but it makes a lot of sense because Plains Zebras have been bred in captivity for so many decades that there would have to be a lot of zebras born prior to the 1980s with uncertain parentages. Thank you for explaining that.
 
Kudu21 said:
There really aren’t many/any purebred plains zebras left in North America (or in captivity, in general, for that matter), and they aren’t managed as separate subspecies anymore, so just saying a plains zebra was born is more than appropriate.
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Is this why the AZA are more eager to support the programs for the Grévy's zebra and the mountain zebra?
 
Ituri said:
How long has this been the case?
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Likely a very long time. Looking at import records and some generics testing, it looks like some hybridization happened fairly early, likely decades ago, when zebras were being imported in large number. The phenotypical alignment we see with specific subspecies now, is likely largely due to introgression over the decades since (similar to the aforementioned giraffe situation). Grant’s do seem to be the subspecies that was imported in the largest number, so it is possible that there are some purebred animals remaining, purely by chance, but likely not very many. Speaking with Equid experts in Europe, this seems to be what has happened with their plains zebra stock, as well, aside from the maneless zebras, which were imported later and more closely managed.

tigris115 said:
Is this why the AZA are more eager to support the programs for the Grévy's zebra and the mountain zebra?
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It likely plays some role, yes, but I think the overwhelming push to focus on the other two species comes down to conservation status, and of course, hybridization only weakens the value of the plains zebra population further.
 
Kudu21 said:
Likely a very long time. Looking at import records and some generics testing, it looks like some hybridization happened fairly early, likely decades ago, when zebras were being imported in large number. The phenotypical alignment we see with specific subspecies now, is likely largely due to introgression over the decades since (similar to the aforementioned giraffe situation). Grant’s do seem to be the subspecies that was imported in the largest number, so it is possible that there are some purebred animals remaining, purely by chance, but likely not very many. Speaking with Equid experts in Europe, this seems to be what has happened with their plains zebra stock, as well, aside from the maneless zebras, which were imported later and more closely managed.


It likely plays some role, yes, but I think the overwhelming push to focus on the other two species comes down to conservation status, and of course, hybridization only weakens the value of the plains zebra population further.
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IDEA

given that equids aren't ruminants, how possible would it be to start a maneless zebra thing here?

Probably unviable but I wanted to ask you
 
tigris115 said:
IDEA

given that equids aren't ruminants, how possible would it be to start a maneless zebra thing here?

Probably unviable but I wanted to ask you
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I think it would make no sense to be the only facility in North America to have maneless zebra. It is far more cost effective if the AZA would establish a pure-bred Grant's or other steppe zebra SSP .... (ATM, from what I know they do a mix/hit and miss with them).
 
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