Milwaukee County Zoo Milwaukee County Zoo News 2025

MKEbonoboluv said:
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On the topic of jaguars, no sign of new female Filly; only male Francisco was in the indoor room.

As to Filly, she is now in big cats but she has not been on habitat when the public is there. It will be a while or so we volunteers have been told as she acclimates to both the indoor and especially outdoor habitat. About a week or so ago on the Zoo's Facebook Page they placed a video of her exploring the outside habitat that you can probably see.

- On the prep kitchen board in Big Cat Country, only female Nyota was noted under the hyena section. Considering his age, I wouldn't be surprised if male Scruffy has passed away.

He was humanely euthanized in January, at the age of 26 he was having mobility issues so they felt there was nothing more the vet staff could do for him as it was a quality of life issue.

- Construction for Phase 3 of Adventure

- Signs for the red panda and snow leopard habitats have been added. Good idea as I'm sure they can be easy to miss at times.

Lots of new, good quality (for our winter) signage throughout the zoo. The new panda and snow leopard are very welcome by us volunteers.
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Has there been any new updates on a new male lion coming? I know the SSP gave them a recommendation to start a breeding program, and they had a male approved back in late February of 2024, but he had health issues leading to the zoo pausing their search for a male. Has anything changed?
 
Brian Gross said:
Has there been any new updates on a new male lion coming? I know the SSP gave them a recommendation to start a breeding program, and they had a male approved back in late February of 2024, but he had health issues leading to the zoo pausing their search for a male. Has anything changed?
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Good question. I don't think there's been any new information shared publicly yet, unfortunately.
 
Brian Gross said:
I’m probably going to head over there tomorrow morning, see maybe if the keepers can give any insights on if it’s issues with the holding or the male they had passed or got sent to another zoo.
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I don’t think that it’s the holding that may be the problem. It may be getting the right lion in at the moment. If the male lion they had lined up is no longer an option, they may be trying to see what new lion they can bring in instead. That includes transportation and sometimes organizing all that take more than a year to complete.

I was just there the other day and I didn’t see any new names on the feed board. Also the feed board is back!
 
MKE Zoo guy said:
I don’t think that it’s the holding that may be the problem. It may be getting the right lion in at the moment. If the male lion they had lined up is no longer an option, they may be trying to see what new lion they can bring in instead. That includes transportation and sometimes organizing all that take more than a year to complete.

I was just there the other day and I didn’t see any new names on the feed board. Also the feed board is back!
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Do you think they’re still looking? Or is it more so just waiting for the right opportunity from the SSP to get a new male? Idk Wednesday marked 5 years since Themba died and it feels like were missing an important piece of the zoo not having a male lion around.
 
Brian Gross said:
Do you think they’re still looking? Or is it more so just waiting for the right opportunity from the SSP to get a new male? Idk Wednesday marked 5 years since Themba died and it feels like were missing an important piece of the zoo not having a male lion around.
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I think they are actively looking, if not securing one already. It’s now a process of them getting the male here. The bongos took a long time to obtain a male, I think it was almost 2 or more years and they too had a male secured and then ended up obtaining a different one. The zoo understands the importance of creating a pride and the SSP wouldn’t send animals meant for breeding to the zoo if there wasn’t a plan to get a male. I would be surprised if there wasn’t a male at the zoo by next year if it was my guess.
 
MKE Zoo guy said:
I think they are actively looking, if not securing one already. It’s now a process of them getting the male here. The bongos took a long time to obtain a male, I think it was almost 2 or more years and they too had a male secured and then ended up obtaining a different one. The zoo understands the importance of creating a pride and the SSP wouldn’t send animals meant for breeding to the zoo if there wasn’t a plan to get a male. I would be surprised if there wasn’t a male at the zoo by next year if it was my guess.
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So there’s a good chance that we’re gonna see a new male lion at least sometime this year if not by the end of the year? Or is 2026 more so the target year?
 
Was just at the zoo this morning. Volunteers pretty much knew next to nothing. Talked to one of the keepers, gave kind of a vague answer. When I asked about updates based on the recommendation a year ago, they just talked about the issues with space, and when I asked if they’re looking for one at the moment, she wasn’t really sure. The male lion they had originally was meant for breeding with patty from how she made it seem, but my guess is they obv know what the plan is, they just can’t say. Also, no new names on the feeding board.
 
Brian Gross said:
Was just at the zoo this morning. Volunteers pretty much knew next to nothing. Talked to one of the keepers, gave kind of a vague answer. When I asked about updates based on the recommendation a year ago, they just talked about the issues with space, and when I asked if they’re looking for one at the moment, she wasn’t really sure. The male lion they had originally was meant for breeding with patty from how she made it seem, but my guess is they obv know what the plan is, they just can’t say. Also, no new names on the feeding board.
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That is pretty typical of the zoo nowadays. When asked about the female jaguar and the new master plan, I don’t want to say they stretched the truth but they definitely didn’t give a straight forward answer. I would say just watch the zoos social media accounts for animals being transferred in, sometimes they’ll let us know that animal got to another zoo. In general that’s where they’ve been doing their animal announcements, for some animals.
 
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