Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium Did anybody here see Chuckles the boto?

[DavidBrown]

I just got back from my first visit to Pittsburgh and its zoo, which I quite enjoyed, aside from the abominable primate house.

The zoo's aquarium is quite good, and was obviously built to feature the zoo's then-star resident, Chuckles, the last Amazonian river dolphin in North America. If my history is correct, the current aquarium opened in 2000 and the dolphin lived there for only a short time, croaking in 2002.

Did anybody here actually see the boto when he was alive? I'm curious what that experience was like? Was he curious about zoo visitors, and did he interact with them? What was the dolphin exhibit like prior to the existing aquarium? Was there a previous aquarium?

Did the zoo just have the one boto, or was Chuckles the last survivor of a pair or a larger group?

Any anecdotes or historical information that anyone wants to share about Chuckles, and the history of botos at the Pittsburgh Zoo would be appreciated.

 

[Chlidonias]

You will like this article: Chuckles the River Dolphin: Pittsburgh Treasure, Defier of Odds

The zoo opened its AquaZoo in 1967 and filled it with animals collected in Columbia. The article includes a newspaper account listing all the species collected. Amongst them were three Boto (two adults which died almost immediately, and a baby which survived about four months). While the baby was still alive, a further three adult Boto were obtained - the article calls these "porpoises" but I think that might just be the author's misconception that dolphin and porpoise are interchangeable names. It doesn't say how long these three lasted, but seven more Boto were imported in 1970. None of these lasted long either, apart for Chuckles. Some died from swallowing objects thrown into their pool by visitors, and - as was discovered later - because the tank was too deep with no shallow areas for the dolphins to rest.

The last two Boto in the USA were Chuckles, and Buster at "Niagara Falls, New York" who died in 1987.

The AquaZoo was renovated and reopened in 2000 as the PPG Aquarium, and Chuckles was moved into a pool five times bigger than his old pool. He died 20 February 2002.