Columbus Zoo and Aquarium Columbus zoo news 2011

A couple of weeks ago I did the Wild Encounters Health Care Center tour at the Columbus Zoo. If you're interested in becoming a vet or want to work at a zoo then I highly recommend this tour. If you are hoping to see animals up close and intimate then this tour is not for you. Read my full review here.
 
The new elephant Hank is going on exhibit today. He's huge, he currently is about 23,000 lbs. To put this in perspective, Coco was 10-12,000 lbs.
 
A very impressive elephant. I was surprised to hear that so few Asian elephants had been born in the AZA zoos of the US. Hopefully Hank can get to work soon and improve that figure!
 
During a visit to the zoo yesterday we were shown a very detailed satellite image on a employee laptop of the new African Savannah work site.It starts from behind the current polar bear yard and stretches across what used to be Powell Road and is currently a service road used by the zoo and accessed from Riverside Drive.Sources have told us that work that has begun is very preliminary and that it is unclear how the zoo plans on connecting the area with the existing zoo.

Team Tapir
 
Only one of the two female elephants, Phoebe, in Columbus is able to breed. With just one female, even the most fertile bull can`t do much for the AZA zoo population. It doesn`t look good at all and that two of the very few AZA zoos that breed asian elephants have active TB in their herds (St. Louis and Albuqerque) doesn`t make the situation any better.
 
Yassa said:
Only one of the two female elephants, Phoebe, in Columbus is able to breed. With just one female, even the most fertile bull can`t do much for the AZA zoo population. It doesn`t look good at all and that two of the very few AZA zoos that breed asian elephants have active TB in their herds (St. Louis and Albuqerque) doesn`t make the situation any better.
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I know elephants have complex social structures but it would be good if they could group infertile animals together and get the ones that can breed together. I know this is best done by moving young a males around and keeping females were they are but for the good of the captive population in the US things might have to change.
 
You can get a sneak peak at pre-lim construction by driving around the northern side of the zoo. There is a housing development, off of Creighton Drive, that the Africa exhibit will butt-up to.
 
Whow, I lived in Cleveland 2009-2011, so great to see the enclosure finally open. Did they include the space to include a juvenile bull with Hank? In Cologne, the younger Bulls learn how to behave properly while staying with the 41 year-old Bindu (who is massive, too). Before the 5-6 year old males started to get into trouble with the cows, and trying to mount their little sisters. Together with an adult bull, they kind of can let off their steam.
 
Exhibits that need improvement...

In the Cleveland-Zoo I found the giraffe house far too small to house the large herd in Winter. They spent almost 3-4 month day and night in there, running in circles.. They could have planned a bigger house, which can be visited by Winter-visitors. During January and February, the Zoo was almost devoid of any visitors during week-days in 2010 and 2011, probably because of the cold.
Does anyone know if the old Hippo still living in the Giraffe house?

Regarding the much-criticized Cat-Monkey-Aquarium: certainly outdated, but it houses some real treasures in terms of species (black-footed cats!), and I could not observe much stereotypical behaviour. Most animals had some very creative type of enrichment in their enclosures (swimming pool for swamp monkeys, giant hamster-wheel for the Fossa..). For me, if I have only time for one place of the large Zoo, this house is the place to go. Also an opportunity for a nice walk uphill.
 
team tapir said:
We really hope that considering the amount of species that the zoo cut out of Polar Frontier that the zoo keeps most of the animals that have been rumored to be included in the project.As of now the Savannah is to consist of Giraffes,Zebras,Gazelles,Hippos,Hyenas and African Elephants.Other rumored species are Olive Baboons and Black Rhinos moving from the Pachyderm Building to AF with Indian Rhinos moving in.The Savannah is going to be opening in phases.

This is an idea of ours and not something we have heard in any of the Savannah plans.Moving the African Lions out of their exhibit behind Asia Quest and into the new Savannah.The Zoo could then convert the old lion exhibit into a new Snow Leopard enclosure which would fit right into that areas geographic theme.The current lion exhibit is really one of the only bad exhibits at the zoo.Any thoughts on this?

Team Tapir
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HoA is now open and is spectacular. I enjoyed feeding giraffes and riding a camel. There are giraffes, zebras, gazelles (Dama, slender-horned and Thompson's), and vervet monkeys instead of olive baboons. The lions are in HoA and the snow leopards are moving into the former lion exhibit. If the zoo moved their black rhinos and got African elephants, the current Pachyderm Building would have Asian elephants (if the zoo kept them) and Indian rhinos for the Asian Pachyderm Building. That makes sense because the current Pachyderm is right outside Asia Quest. At least Columbus only has one non-geographical exhibit now- the black rhinos in the Pachyderm Building, outside Asia, but some people may view the Pachyderm as separate from Asia. The South American Humboldt penguins are kinda by the Congo River Market and the insect playground, but they are more near the Reptile House (in Shores).
 
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