I knew there had to be a joey in there! I visited the zoo yesterday and her pouch was undeniably full and she was spending a lot of time cleaning the joey inside the pouch.
I was at the zoo for the 14th annual Run for the Wild. This year's focus was hornbills. The event was fun, and the zoo has really done upped what they do for the runners. They once again provide free snacks and water at the finish line, as well as plenty of free merch for different donation tiers. There were performers and music in Astor Court as well as a hornbill mural concept art by one of the sponsors that children were asked to help color in. The mural will apparently be painted somewhere by the sponsor at one of their facilities but I don't know who or where. The zoo was also closed until 1pm so that participants of the run had the entire first half of the day to themselves, which was really great since historically the run day has always been one of the busiest days to visit. Free parking and admission was given to all run participants as well as discounts on all food and gift shop purchases.
-In addition to the
Craspedocephalus brongersmai, the zoo seems to have bred Santa Catalina Island Rattlesnake, which is also exhibited in the nursery atm.
-The adult Chinese Alligators are back on-exhibit now next to the Cuban Crocodile, who is enjoying all its new space in the former Sunda Gharial pool. The old Cuban pool is still empty.
-On the monorail, the Chital are definitely still on-exhibit. I didn't see any but the hog deer have apparently had some fawns.
-There may have been another babirusa born this year as well.
-The monorail guide also mentioned that an Indian Rhino had been born less than a year ago which I don't remember ever having been reported on? I'd find it weird for the zoo to have not announced or especially exhibited a rhino calf, though, and am wondering if maybe they've received a <1 year-old male instead?
-In the Mouse House, the harvest mouse habitat is under renovation now.
-The Damaraland Mole-Rat habitat has finally reopened as a new tunnel system. The animals still have the option to access an open "surface" are similar to what the habitat looked like before, which is where all the animals I saw were
-Two of the habitats on the left wall when you walk in are now connected for giant sengi in addition to the larger habitat in the corner.
-The old hairy armadillo habitat has been converted into a second cloud rat.
-Dancing Crane Café indoor dining is open again.
I remain completely baffled on the zoo's response to HPAI. The cranes and flamingos are still off-exhibit, as they have been all year. The cranes, however, can all clearly be seen in the "off-show" open-topped pens behind the Emu (which is on-exhibit). Both bird houses remain open, as does the Pheasantry, Butterfly Garden, SeaBird Aviary, and Birds of Prey (the latter two have mesh that wild passerines can pass through). No birds appear to have been removed from JungleWorld, Madagascar!, or any of the zoo's indoor or outdoor walkthroughs either.The ibis are still on-exhibit near the sea lions, though the neighboring monal and laughingthrush don't appear to have been on-exhibit all year, despite that aviary having some of the finest mesh at the zoo. Unlike on my visits in January and March, Northern Ponds has now been almost entirely emptied of waterfowl. This makes sense since fowls have been the primary victims and spreaders of the disease this year. The swan geese have also been removed from the Pere David's Deer habitat. That said, I said NP had been "almost entirely emptied" because, while the vast majority of waterfowl were removed, the zoo's
Aythya sp.,
Mergus sp., and Hooded Mergansers were all still present on exhibit. It's possible some of all of the Hooded Mergansers I saw were genuine wild birds but the other species definitely weren't. The Whooper Swan pair was also still on-exhibit with the deer despite the geese before removed and despite the Trumpeter Swans in NP moving off-show. I'd have also expected at least the pheasants from the Pheasantry moving off-show since gamefowls can clearly be infected as well, but as I said this was not the case. The adjutant storks are also off-exhibit, though the night-heron walkthrough aviary in the Children's Zoo is open. There was even a staff member hanging around the heron aviary commenting on how there was a wild night-heron displaying to the zoo's females and this was concerning because of the potential for disease transmission. All birds bar the flamingos in the Children's Zoo were on-display. The farmyard even had Domestic Ducks and homing pigeons free-roaming. Behind the stork aviary, there was another crane and I spotted the zoo's swan geese and Bar-Headed Geese. It's hard to tell but it didn't look as though any of them were in a covered aviary. I did not swing by the pelican pond to see if any birds were on-exhibit there. No pelicans had been moved inside of the ABH, though.
~Thylo
