Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo Catoctin Species List, October 2022

[TinoPup]

Since I made a species list two years ago (Catoctin Species List and Review, October 2020 [Catoctin Wildlife Preserve and Zoo]), I guess I should post an updated one after my recent visit. I'll be including map photos again with areas circled in purple, though I'm grouping the first couple of areas slightly differently than previously.

Once again, I didn't go on the safari ride, this time because it was closed.



Hot Stuff: Africa's Deadliest Snakes
Cape cobra (pair)
Caastinga lancehead
Collett’s snake
Desert death adder (pair)
Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, rattlesnake hybrid (eastern diamondback x timber)
Eyelash viper
Indonesian pit viper, signed as White-lipped Komodo Island pit viper (pair)
King cobra
Mangshan pit viper
Mangshan pit viper juvenile
Okinawa habu
Puff adder (pair)
Puff adder juveniles, three, born summer 2022
Rinkhals (pair)
Sharp-nosed pit viper
South American bush master
Sri Lankan green pit viper (at least three)
Timber rattlesnake, albino, small
Urutu (pair)
West African Gaboon viper
Mexican fire-leg tarantula



Front Loop
Linneaus's sloth, red-footed tortoise, owl monkey (previously signed as Azara’s, now three-striped)
Eastern box turtle
Macaws (empty due to weather, previously had blue &gold, harlequin, hyacinth, military, red & green, scarlet)
Empty?, unsigned bird exhibit, previously held great horned owl
Pied crow
Booted macaque
Abyssinian ground hornbill (unseen, in old booted macaque exhibit)
Olive baboon
Empty?, unsigned indoor exhibit with small attached yard, previously held Burmese mountain tortoise
Asian small-clawed otter (empty)
Sun bear
Butterfly garden



Madagascar, Australia
Fossa, two exhibits
Empty?, unsigned bird exhibit, previously held greater vasa parrot
Laughing kookaburra
Empty?, unsigned bird exhibit, previously held white-eared pheasant (now in a bigger yard)
Barbary falcon
Tibetan white-eared pheasant, unsigned speckled pigeon (a bunch)
Golden pheasant
Lady Amherst’s pheasant (pair)
Domestic pigeon (several breeds), Mandarin duck (including an albino), Radjah shelduck, ruddy shelduck, Temminck’s tragopan
Cockatiel, budgerigar, possibly others (dark mesh drapes over sides)
Black swan
Dingo
Bennett’s wallaby, red kangaroo, emu
Southern cassowary (unseen)
Lesser yellow-headed vulture
Empty?, unsigned bird exhibit, previously held cockatoo

Herp area:
Speckled hognose snake
Mertens’s water monitor
Jungle carpet python
Burmese python (pair)
Madagascar giant hognose
Black-headed python
Golden thread turtle (pair)



Latin America & surrounding area
Petting area # 1 – Empty (usually holds fallow deer, “Asian sheep”)
Amur Leopard
European white stork
Capybara
Red crowned crane
Koi, goldfish
Mute swans

Giant Reptiles building:
Meerkat
Green Anaconda
Yellow Anaconda (pair)
Argentine Boa
Reticulated Python (three)

Latin America:
Jaguar (black)
Green iguana (off exhibit for winter)
Black-handed spider monkey
Patagonian mara
*Construction going on here

Petting area #2 - Suri alpaca of various ages, several sheep and goat breeds, pair of domestic cattle calves, scimitar oryx pair, addax pair, common eland calf, fallow deer



North America
Eurasian lynx
Great horned owl (pair)
Barn owl (unsigned)
Barred owl (four)
Collared peccary
American Alligator (nine, none fully adult), unsigned large slider turtle
Empty?, unsigned bird exhibit, previously held Marabou stork
Seba's short-tailed bat
Egyptian fruit bat

*This map on their website says 2021, but the coyote and wolf areas still aren't open



Back Area
Dingo
Eurasian eagle-owl
Indian peafowl
African lion (trio of sub-adults, including a white male)
Bongo
Empty exhibit, previously held New Guinea singing dogs
Visayan warty pig
Petting area #3 – goats, you can no longer go inside
Green monkey
Kunekune pigs
Aoudad, ostrich pair

Tortoise yard was empty due to weather, previously held leopard and sulcata

Safari animals that were viewable from the path: common eland (five, including two males), plains zebra, domestic yak, bison (regular and white)

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

Was the new exhibit for the macaques finished? When I last visited back in spring it appeared to be completed and was populated, but the path was closed and you couldn’t get close to the windows

 

[wild boar]

How many macaques does the zoo have?

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

How many macaques does the zoo have?

A lot, and breeding.

 

[wild boar]

Are they pure booted macaques, or macaques that were hybridized with another species at some point?

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

Are they pure booted macaques, or macaques that were hybridized with another species at some point?

It’s hard to tell for sure. I believe years ago they had also displayed a few signed as Macaca tonkeana, in a separate cage. The ones they have now look like ochreata, however it’s impossible to be fully certain that they are pure. Catoctin is not ZIMS member (so there are no ZIMS records), there is no studbook, and no other zoo I know of has this species or had it in the recent past (except possibly in Indonesia), so any info is hard to come by.

 

[birdsandbats]

Got to love how many non-Neotropical species are in that Latin America complex!

 

[Dassie rat]

Hot Stuff: Africa's Deadliest Snakes
Cape cobra (pair)
Caastinga lancehead
Collett’s snake
Desert death adder (pair)
Eastern diamondback rattlesnake, rattlesnake hybrid (eastern diamondback x timber)
Eyelash viper
Indonesian pit viper, signed as White-lipped Komodo Island pit viper (pair)
King cobra
Mangshan pit viper
Mangshan pit viper juvenile
Okinawa habu
Puff adder (pair)
Puff adder juveniles, three, born summer 2022
Rinkhals (pair)
Sharp-nosed pit viper
South American bush master
Sri Lankan green pit viper (at least three)
Timber rattlesnake, albino, small
Urutu (pair)
West African Gaboon viper
Mexican fire-leg tarantula

Surely the name 'Africa's Deadliest Snakes' has to change.

 

[Chlidonias]

Got to love how many non-Neotropical species are in that Latin America complex!

The title of that section in the list is "Latin America & surrounding area" which looks like it is just TinoPup's name for the grouping for the sake of simplicity. The American species are labelled on the map as "Tropical Garden" which is just a small part at upper left of the circled area. Other labels in there are, e.g., Japanese Garden, Giant Reptile Building, and Petting-Feeding Area.

 

[TinoPup]

Was the new exhibit for the macaques finished? When I last visited back in spring it appeared to be completed and was populated, but the path was closed and you couldn’t get close to the windows

Yes, there's just one window section unfortunately

 

[TinoPup]

How many macaques does the zoo have?

A bunch. I saw a dozen or so? Including young ones. They had free access to inside, though, so I can't give an accurate number.

 

[TinoPup]

It’s hard to tell for sure. I believe years ago they had also displayed a few signed as Macaca tonkeana, in a separate cage. The ones they have now look like ochreata, however it’s impossible to be fully certain that they are pure. Catoctin is not ZIMS member (so there are no ZIMS records), there is no studbook, and no other zoo I know of has this species or had it in the recent past (except possibly in Indonesia), so any info is hard to come by.

A few other USA zoos now have them, but they all came from Catoctin.

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

A few other USA zoos now have them, but they all came from Catoctin.

Yes, there's just one window section unfortunately
View attachment 582463

Still much better exhibit for them than the cage they lived in before, for both the visitors and the animals, I’m sure Huge improvement! Twice I took my friends from overseas specifically to see them in their old quarters, but neither could take decent photos, and were highly disappointed…

 

[TinoPup]

The title of that section in the list is "Latin America & surrounding area" which looks like it is just TinoPup's name for the grouping for the sake of simplicity. The American species are labelled on the map as "Tropical Garden" which is just a small part at upper left of the circled area. Other labels in there are, e.g., Japanese Garden, Giant Reptile Building, and Petting-Feeding Area.

Sort of! Latin America is a named section with a sign, but the other animals aren't in any particular area so I combined them to make the lists easier. There's nothing at the zoo that says "Tropical Garden".

Sections at the zoo with signs:
Hot Stuff: Africa's Deadliest Snakes


Amazon Aviary


Madagascar: Africa's Island Neighbor


Outback Australia (photo from previous visit)


Giant Reptiles & Meerkats


Japanese Koi Feeding Experience


Latin America


North America

 

[TinoPup]

Still much better exhibit for them than the cage they lived in before, for both the visitors and the animals, I’m sure Huge improvement! Twice I took my friends from overseas specifically to see them in their old quarters, but neither could take decent photos, and were highly disappointed…

I got a couple of good photos in the past, but it was hard to get the lighting and the fencing looks awful. Now there's plenty of light, but little viewing space to take photos

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

I got a couple of good photos in the past, but it was hard to get the lighting and the fencing looks awful. Now there's plenty of light, but little viewing space to take photos

View attachment 582474

I’ve got a few photos myself, including several in the same wire tunnel That was always the easiest spot for me to take pictures, and I’ve noticed that even zootierliste has a photo from the same tunnel But then I’ve been a regular visitor for many years and was able to wait for the right lighting, unlike my friends…

 

[TinoPup]

I’ve got a few photos myself, including several in the same wire tunnel That was always the easiest spot for me to take pictures, and I’ve noticed that even zootierliste has a photo from the same tunnel But then I’ve been a regular visitor for many years and was able to wait for the right lighting, unlike my friends…

It was the only spot that had direct lighting, with the solid dark roof! This is the new exhibit

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

It was the only spot that had direct lighting, with the solid dark roof! This is the new exhibit

View attachment 582475

View attachment 582476

Thanks for the info! I’ll probably come again in spring and try for myself. I think spider monkeys and bongos are also new since my last visit. Are spider monkeys easy to photograph or are they in a cage similar to what macaques used to have?

 

[zoo_enthusiast]

Surely the name 'Africa's Deadliest Snakes' has to change.

Years ago they used to have two venomous snake houses, both with massive collections. One was exclusively North American, and it had all species and subspecies of rattlesnakes and other North American pit vipers one can wish for. I specifically remember 3 subspecies of copperhead in a row, 2 or 3 subspecies of cottonmouth, etc. The other building (Africa’s Deadliest Snakes) at the time did not have any North American species, but still was not exclusively African by far (king cobra, taipan, bushmaster, etc). However, the North American house, despite great collection, was kind of shabby and only lasted for a season or two. Most of the collection disappeared, and some rattlesnakes were moved to Africa’s Deadliest, this further diluting African species

 

[TinoPup]

Thanks for the info! I’ll probably come again in spring and try for myself. I think spider monkeys and bongos are also new since my last visit. Are spider monkeys easy to photograph or are they in a cage similar to what macaques used to have?

The spider monkeys have a big, new yard!







The bongo has a really big yard as well, next to the peafowl/across from the lions (which are where the wolves used to be, I think it held lions before the wolves?). I saw one male who was being kept in the back area, he wasn't out in the full exhibit yet. They're clearing most of the trees past it, below where it says "zebra loading station" on the map, hopefully for more ungulates or something?