Interesting enough they got the mole rats from a University in South Africa. There was a professor there that loved all species of mole rats and had colonies of them. Sad enough the professor died and the University didn't want them anymore. so somehow the curator of the Peoria zoo found out and called them up and the received a Male and Female Zambian Giant Mole rats in 2002. Now there the only zoo in the United states to successfully breed them. theres a total of 20 in the country. 4 are at DAK behind the scenes and theres another zoo with with 2 and I cant remember. sadly the breeding pair are getting old for this species of Mole rat and wont produce anymore. all of them are related and this species will most likely die off in captivity. With new importing laws the Peoria zoo is having a tough time getting new genes of this species in the US. This species is at 1 german zoo but there elderly. The keeper I talked to had to call a zoo in Germany to found out what they eat and how they live. its not easy holding this species. they eat sweet potatoes, carrots, a special type of lettuce, they do import this rice stuff from Africa. The keeper built a cool tunnel system out of plastic acrylic tubes. inside the tubing is lots of dirt. the keeper says they seem to live peaceful and enjoy it and it doesn't bother them.
Interesting enough they got the mole rats from a University in South Africa. There was a professor there that loved all species of mole rats and had colonies of them. Sad enough the professor died and the University didn't want them anymore. so somehow the curator of the Peoria zoo found out and called them up and the received a Male and Female Zambian Giant Mole rats in 2002. Now there the only zoo in the United states to successfully breed them. theres a total of 20 in the country. 4 are at DAK behind the scenes and theres another zoo with with 2 and I cant remember. sadly the breeding pair are getting old for this species of Mole rat and wont produce anymore. all of them are related and this species will most likely die off in captivity. With new importing laws the Peoria zoo is having a tough time getting new genes of this species in the US. This species is at 1 german zoo but there elderly. The keeper I talked to had to call a zoo in Germany to found out what they eat and how they live. its not easy holding this species. they eat sweet potatoes, carrots, a special type of lettuce, they do import this rice stuff from Africa. The keeper built a cool tunnel system out of plastic acrylic tubes. inside the tubing is lots of dirt. the keeper says they seem to live peaceful and enjoy it and it doesn't bother them.
Very unfortunate about the lack of genes.... If only Africa would lift imports for mammal trade-if only just for a day! I did see that three hyrax species were imported from Africa this year, and that will be the only time that will happen for a while.
Mole rat are very interesting creatures. I read an excerpt about their care. None the less, it seems very difficult to care for them and their complex husbandry took zoos a while to get the hang of it.
