From a recent newsletter:
Male snow leopard Moutig will be moving to the
Bronx Zoo as part of a breeding recommendation for this endangered species. A curious cat known to keepers for his distinctive vocalizations and his strong dislike for Como Zoo’s neighboring lions, Moutig first came to Como Zoo in 2016 from France as part of an international effort to diversify the genetics of European and North American snow leopards, and was selected to make this move by representatives from the snow leopard species survival plan. While keepers Hans Jorgensen and Caitlin Alessi are sorry to see him go, Jorgensen jokes, “He’s a big city cat, and with his vocalizing he could make it big on Broadway.” Au revoir Monsieur Moutig!
Reggiano and Ilsamar | Trying to guess the gender of Como Zoo’s emperor tamarins can be a bit tricky—the males, females and young of this endangered species
all have very distinguished mustaches. This season Como welcomed two new individuals—Reggiano, a 3-year-old from the Buttonwood Park Zoo, and Ilsamar (Ilsa), a 2-year-old from the Dallas Zoo—as a new breeding pair put together by the AZA’s Species Survival Plan. While it’s too soon to say if their partnership will be a success, primate keepers have observed breeding behavior between the two.
The newest resident of Como Zoo’s Aquatic Animals Building is Snow Cone, an adolescent epaulette shark. Now living in the building’s largest new tank, visitors can see that this nocturnal shark species exhibits some surprising behavior—appearing to “walk” across the ocean floor with its fins. A denizen of isolated tidal pools, epaulette sharks have adapted to survive severe oxygen depletion by shutting down some neural functions.
Yoshi | When one-year-old Yoshi arrived at Como’s bison habitat in January, it took her no time at all to bond with two-year-old Ruby, another young bison from Minnesota’s Bison Conservation Herd. “They were very excited to meet each other initially, and when you visit the zoo, you’ll see them side by side,” says keeper Aaron Nelson. “Because they’re both young, and have been in a larger herd setting, you’ll also see some more natural behaviors out of them, like one we call bluff charging, to establish dominance over us.” While Como Zoo’s hoofstock keepers have a healthy respect for the young bison, who will grow to be over 1,000 pounds, “we also think it’s pretty cute, that little bit of attitude and spunk. They’re letting us know that they’re big, and they’re in charge.”
New Faces and Fresh Starts - Como Friends