Phoenix Zoo Phoenix Zoo News

The latest goings on at Phoenix:

New as of today: 8 baby Komodo Dragons are now on display in former Koala enclosure on the children's trail. They will be here until the Spring and then will be moving on to a zoo in Europe. They are on loan from the LA Zoo.

5 new Gerenuk are now on display in the former Mohr's Gazelle exhibit. 4 females and a male. They will not be combined with the 2 males on exhibit in the Savannah exhibit.

Caipura, the jaguar, has a new male companion named Harry from the Jacksonville zoo. They are being (VERY) slowly introduced in hopes of being able to breed them in the future.

A visitors center is currently under construction and then the next expansion will be a new Sumatran Tiger enclosure. It looks like it will be AWESOME and the hopes will be to breed the 2 Sumatrans in the collection.

The Stingray Bay is now a permanent exhibit. Industrial sized coolers were installed allowing the tank to be kept at a constant 80*, so this was the first summer the stingrays did not leave for another zoo for the summer. The 35 cownosed rays are now a permanent part of the collection.

The amphibian room was redone and it now reopened.

Sheik, the male African lion, passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. He is greatly missed by guests and staff alike. They are searching for a new companion for Cookie (his sister-still on exhibit).

I think that's about all the news for now! :)
 
What specifically was done to the amphibian room? (I assume we're talking about the one inside the AZ Trail aviary)
 
@Jesszoo - Welcome to ZooChat! Nice to have a Phoenix person active on the site (since Ituri moved to a different state and Talli seems to have dropped off the forum).
 
I uploaded close to 200 photos into the Phoenix Zoo gallery in the past couple of days, and so there is an updated and comprehensive overview of the zoo available on ZooChat. Also, does anyone know when the $3.2 million Entry Oasis, the $3 million Sumatran tiger exhibit and the $4.3 million staff headquarters are planned to open? The zoo is close to realizing its dream of a $20 million overhaul, and the Komodo dragon and orangutan exhibits have already been completed.

Capital Campaign:

The Capital Campaign
 
snowleopard said:
...does anyone know when the $3.2 million Entry Oasis, the $3 million Sumatran tiger exhibit and the $4.3 million staff headquarters are planned to open?
Click to expand...

I have not been there since last summer, but the gift shop was closed for expansion at that time. According to the last member magazine (which I did not keep), the front plaza was under construction, so I would think that means maybe a spring 2012 opening for the Entry Oasis? (Purely a guess). If you look at this link, there is a line that states they plan (or hope) to have all of the projects done by 2012 to coincide with their 50th anniversary.

The Capital Campaign
 
Ok, SnowLeopard's question got me obsessed with finding a date. Here is an obscure source that states June 2012 for sumatran tiger experience. The original article appears to have been deleted, but there is a response to the right of it. However, the article was posted way back in January 2009, so it may be too old to be relied on as a firm date.

causes.com | Anyone can change the world.
 
Here is a really nice 11 page document outlining the entire Capital Campaign. It lists the original target dates for the projects (including the June 2012 date for sumatran tiger). However, as you can see they are way behind schedule. For those of you who don't want to read the 11 pages, I will summarize the projects and dates after the link.

http://ws.elance.com/file/Phx_Zoo_C...yNDYyODQlMjZyaWQlM0QtMSUyNnBpZCUzRDMwMDg0NjM=

Komodo Dragon - est September 2009 (actual opening November 2009)
Orangutan - est January 2010 (actual opening April 2011)
Entry Oasis - est April 2010 (under construction as of October 2011)
Staff/Volunteer HQ - est January 2011 (either not yet started or under construction as of October 2011)
Education/Event Facility - est June 2012 (either not yet started or under construction as of October 2011)
Sumatran Tiger - est June 2012 (not yet started as of October 2011)
Endowment Fund - est June 2012 (goal not yet reached as of October 2011)
 
I just got my new issue of Wild Times, which is the Phoenix Zoo's magazine and they're still hoping to have the Sumatran Tiger Experience done by the end of 2012. They're also hoping to breed Jai and Hadiah.

I also found out today that they have acquired a male Lion and a male Andean Bear. Haven't been able to find out anything about them like ages or where they came from, but since the female lion is unbreedable (born as part of pet trade) I can't imagine another zoo giving up a breedable male to the Phoenix Zoo. I'm excited about the new additions, though! They're due to arrive sometime today by...get this...FedEx! hahaha. Last I heard they were on a layover at the Memphis Airport
 
@ azcheetah2 - Welcome to ZooChat! Great to have a fellow Arizonan join in. And (I assume by your user name) a cheetah lover as well - cheetahs are my favorite animal (although all wild cats are more or less a tie for me). Phoenix has a great cheetah exhibit - if they ever got a king cheetah I would go up to Phoenix every week!

(BTW, I assume you have heard that Wildlife World is going to expand to add an African Safari area and hopes to have cheetahs there as well.)
 
Thank you for the welcome. I am definitely a HUGE cheetah fan, but I like all cats, big and small, but mostly the big like Cheetahs and Tigers.

No, I had not heard that about WWZ...I'm torn about that. It'd be nice to have another zoo in Arizona with Cheetahs, but I'm not a real big fan of that place. They breed for white tigers and they separate babies from their parents. I do like their Ring-tailed Lemur exhibit, though. One of the best I've seen and aside from the fighter jets flying overhead, they seem to be happy and don't mind the noise.

If Phoenix Zoo ever got their hands on a King Cheetah, I would seriously MOVE IN! hahahaha. That would be awesome. Am I allowed to post photos to threads like this or do I need to put them in the gallery? I have a Cheetah shot I think you'd really like that I took last week. He's running and you can actually see the flatness in his tail.
 
Go to the gallery, find the listing for Phoenix Zoo, and click add photo. Photos should be posted separately instead of an add-on to an existing photo thread.

(A bit off topic, but since you are a cat lover in Arizona, do you know that we have three - 3 month old lion cubs right now at Reid Park Zoo?)
 
Okay, thanks. I will definitely do that then. I'm glad there's a Phoenix Zoo gallery.

Yes, I've been 'following' the 3 cubs since I got an email from RPZ and saw it on FB. I saw Kaya when she was still at the San Diego WAP and I'm happy she has a family of her own now. I need to get down there to see them and the new Malayan Tiger they got to hopefully breed with Baheem. I haven't been there since before the 2 older lions were put down and there was still Kobe and Boris. I hope Kobe will find the Pittsburgh Zoo and her new male friend enjoyable.
 
According to the new member magazine, the zoo now has a group of ten dalmatian pelicans. This is one of only two groups of this species in the United States (the other being at San Diego Safari Park). Apparently they are in the pond in the childrens zoo, which has no barriers and they are free to walk onto shore and among the visitors.

BTW the new male andean bear is from Pittsburgh Zoo and the new male lion is from Colombus Zoo. The magazine also states new trees have been planted inside the andean bear (aka spectacled bear) exhibit that staff hope will eventually grow large enough for the bears to nest in as they would in the wild.
 
Thanks for the update. I saw the Dalmatian pelicans when I was there in January. Amazingly huge, dwarfing both the American white pelicans in the Wetlands and the pink-backed pelicans on Main Lake.

http://www.zoochat.com/596/childrens-trail-dalmatian-pelican-260836/

Also, the zoo has retired the Bennett's wallabies and is renovating Wallaby Walkabout to be something different. They have not yet announced what.
 
Oh! I should have been keeping up with this thread. Sorry, things have been busy at the zoo! I am now a train driver as well as an experience (exhibit) guide at the Phoenix Zoo and the busy season is gearing up to say the least.

Sumatran Tiger has not broken ground again but will hopefully break ground by the end of the year. Fundraising is not complete yet and they won't break ground until they are at 75 or 80% I think. Neely center is coming right along and should be completed by late spring and the grand opening is scheduled for June I believe. It will be nice to have it for use at Camp Zoo this summer.

Duchess (our Bornean Orangutan) will be turning 52 this month and Kahsi, the "baby" Orangutan just turned 6 years old...so not so much of a baby anymore. Kitambi, our new male Lion has been introduced to Cookie, our lioness and they are now on exhibit together daily. They have been together about 3 weeks now and other than a little dominance displaying by Cookie, it was a pretty uneventful introduction, so we are thrilled about that! Rizarro, our new Andean bear is doing well and has settled in well. We hope to be able to have him and Rio out on exhibit together soon, but at this point they are still being rotated.

Jai and Hadiah have been howdied in the hopes of being able to breed in the near future. Jai is excited but Hadiah has no interest at all. Basically the same story with Harry & Caipora, our Jaguars.

The Dalmatian Pelicans are settled in well. One in particular had been roaming about quite a bit. He has been named Gulliver (for his travels) and he has actually wandered up the Outer Tropics trail as far as elephant and has on more than one occasion blocked the train and keepers have had to be called to round him up and move him back to the lake. He is HUGE and they are quite intimidating even though they have shown no aggression nor posed any danger to anyone! He has stayed put more now that he has settled in.

What else? The baby Komodo Dragons will be leaving soon to travel to their new homes in Europe & Australia. It's been awesome having them though. Rheas are back on exhibit and they have a Patagonian Cavy sharing their exhibit as well. The Chilean Flamingos will be relocated from the Wetlands exhibit to further down the tropics trail where the Crested Screamers are now.

Wallaby Walkabout and Coyote are still empty as of now and there is still some discussion going on as to what will fill it. The Amphibian exhibit in the AZ Aviary has now been changed to a "Diversity in the Desert" exhibit. It holds snakes, lizards and amphibians. The Poison Dart frogs have moved into forest of Uco. Piranahs have been retired from Children's Trail.

Oh! And one of our White Rhinos passed away a few months ago. She was 41 years old and had been fighting a foot problem for some time. We still have our other White Rhino, Half Ear. She is also 41 years old and still going strong. We also lost our elderly Giant Anteater. Jezabelle was in her late 20's, which is quite old for an Anteater. Ebinezer (our old male Anteater) is doing well and we have recently acquired a young male Anteater who will be on exhibit at some point in the future. His name is Beaker. :)

I think that's about all for now. Will try to check in more frequestly, but like I said, with busy season upon us, I don't know how much I will be online. At least there aren't many night shifts anymore with Zoolights being over! :)
 
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