Birmingham Zoo (Alabama) Birmingham Zoo News

The Red Panda cubs are now on exhibit with their parents. Being twin males, Harry Potter fans will love the Zoo chose to name them what else? Fred and George.

I have a question about Kumar. Its been written several times that all US tigers formerly classified in the US SSP as Indochinese prior to 2004 are actually descended from founders from Malaya. So naturally you guys have changed Kumar's signage from Indochinese to Malayan. I just read articles from IUCN and Nat Geo that specifically pointed out Birmingham and the National Zoo as being zoos that specifically held tigers that were confirmed Indochinese based on their genetics. So was that referring to another tiger before Kumar? Have genetic tests been done on him specifically?
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The Red Panda cubs are now on exhibit with their parents. Being twin males, Harry Potter fans will love the Zoo chose to name them what else? Fred and George.

I have a question about Kumar. Its been written several times that all US tigers formerly classified in the US SSP as Indochinese prior to 2004 are actually descended from founders from Malaya. So naturally you guys have changed Kumar's signage from Indochinese to Malayan. I just read articles from IUCN and Nat Geo that specifically pointed out Birmingham and the National Zoo as being zoos that specifically held tigers that were confirmed Indochinese based on their genetics. So was that referring to another tiger before Kumar? Have genetic tests been done on him specifically?
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Just to get the timeline right, what dates were the articles and did they mention when the test was carried out?
 
The articles I found were from 2010, and 2013 though they have the same wordage so they may be copy pasta. They mentioned those two zoos being the "handful" with "true" indochinese. The reason is as late as 2010, Kumar was exhibited with Indochinese signage. When they remodeled his exhibit they put up Malayan signage. These changes were reflected on the Zoo website on both the Animal List and the SSP participated in list. Now they don't list any tiger subspecies on the SSP list and are going BACK to listing Indochinese on the exhibit and the website.
 
I contacted them and it seems to be some form of misinformation/weird copy pasta because Kumar (who is an older tiger) is Malayan it was just awhile before the former Predator keeper had updated the records. One source saw the records and that is where the misinformation seems to stem from.
 
Birmingham recently hatched 3 Kori Bustard chicks. These three join their parents and their older brother hatched last year. This brings the Zoo's total up to 6.
 
Great news about the Kori Bustards tschandler71 ! Still a difficult species which is bred in to few collections !
 
That brings Birmingham's herd back to 5

Jalil - 7 - M
Willow - 5 - F
Zuri - 3 - F
Keyara - 3 - F
????? - JalilxWillow - M

The all new Kiwanis Giraffe Encounter can house up to 7 or 8 giraffes. Being this is a relatively young herd, I would like to see another couple of young females added. There are pictures in Gallery for you guys to check out. Birmingham has one of the few exhibits for Giraffes that house them under natural tree cover. They not only have the newly built exhibit but their former open exhibit as well. They have to go back to it each night to access their previously built/remodeled night house (seen in the video and photos on TZ's links to Al.com).

All of the newly built and renovated exhibits that are parts of the new exhibit all connect to each other and make the Trails one long trail exhibit. Animal introductions are still ongoing but the following animals currently share at least some of the space together. Some interact currently, some will in the future, and some only use the Flex exhibit while the others don't.

2.4 Rothtic Hybrid Giraffes
1.2 Ostrich
1.5 Grant's Zebra
0.1 Grant's Gazelle
1.2 Southern White Rhino
1.0 Hippo
4.0 African Elephant
 
Tigers, Sumatran Orangutans, Siamangs, Sun Bears, Lar Gibbons, Asian Pheasants, Aviary, and probably some of the already in place Asian animals

White Naped Crane
Komodo Dragon
Asian Small Clawed Otter
Pallas Cat
Spectacled Langur
Red Panda
Chinese Box Turtle
Crested Wood Partridge
Marbled Teal

One thing that Birmingham did with Trails is integrate the small African birds they already possessed (Bustards Startlings African Song Birds) with the Megafauna. I would guess the same thing would happen with this Asian Forest design.

When Snowleopard visited in 2008/2009 he gave the large diversity of birds a mention.
 
What are the names of the bulls at the zoo? (elephants)

Bulwagi - 33
Callee - 13
Ajani - 13
Tamani - 9

Tamani is Bulwagi's offspring

Tuffy, Thabo Usami, and several other bulls have been mentioned as eventually joining the herd. The original idea was to have an older male with juveniles but after Callee/Ajani there is an age gap between the young males in AZA zoos. So the thought is that once Ajani gets a breeding recommendation, one or two elderly bulls may be added. That would be the male version of what Dallas does at Giants with females.
 
Wasn't Bulwagi at Lion Country Safari, Dallas and DAK?

As far as I know

Bulwagi - Born at Lion Country, then went to DAK, then to Birmingham. I've never heard about the Dallas thing.
Callee - Pittsburgh Zoo then Birmingham
Ajani - Indianapolis Zoo then Birmingham
Tamani - Tampa Zoo then Birmingham
 
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