Houston Zoo Houston Zoo News 2023

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Milwaukee Man said:
Another ten Humboldt penguins have arrived for the new Galapagos complex.

Houston Zoo welcomes 10 Humboldt penguins for new Galápagos Islands exhibit
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According to the article that you included a link to, only two more penguins have arrived, for a total of ten.

wild boar said:
I was surprised to see that the Galápagos reef tank will have bonnethead sharks and blacktip reef sharks, neither of which are common in the archipelago. I am fairly certain that whitetip reef sharks are easily acquired, so that species would have been a better choice in my opinion. Scalloped hammerheads or blacktip sharks (not blacktip reef) or both might have been better choices, too, but I am not sure if they could be sourced appropriately.
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King of Komodo Dragons said:
I'm surprised that they don't have any Galapagos Sharks planned for it, considering that a few aquariums in the US have them, and while not excusive to the islands they are named after them. Scalloped Hammerheads and Blacktip Sharks are not common from what I know, but it is strange that they don't have Whitetip Reef Sharks there a dime a dozen and fit better thematically, I can understand the blacktip reef sharks serving as a stand in for blacktip sharks, but no one would confuse a scalloped hammerhead with a bonnethead.
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Are any of the species in the large Pantanal yard in a breeding situation. Based on various photographs and videos, the zoo has pairs of tapirs, anteaters, screamers, and swans, in addition to several capybaras and around four rheas, so I figure at least some of them are recommended to breed. I ask all of this because it is quite the interesting mix and I figure there must be some anticipated aggression between one species and the offspring of another.
 
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wild boar said:
Are any of the species in the large Pantanal yard in a breeding situation. Based on various photographs and videos, the zoo has pairs of tapirs, anteaters, screamers, and swans, in addition to several capybaras and around four rheas, so I figure at least some of them are recommended to breed. I ask all of this because it is quite the interesting mix and I figure there must be some anticipated aggression between one species and the offspring of another.
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This isn't an uncommon mix by any means, and aggression should be minimal. I'm sure the zoo has sufficient areas to separate out mother/young groupings if necessary.
 
wild boar said:
But are any of those species at the zoo for breeding purposes?
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As far as I know, the capybaras (who recently had pups), the anteaters (who’s son Traci died in 2021 sadly), the rheas, and the tapirs are. The screamers and swans I’m not sure on.
 
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King of Komodo Dragons said:
I'm surprised that they don't have any Galapagos Sharks planned for it, considering that a few aquariums in the US have them, and while not excusive to the islands they are named after them. Scalloped Hammerheads and Blacktip Sharks are not common from what I know, but it is strange that they don't have Whitetip Reef Sharks there a dime a dozen and fit better thematically, I can understand the blacktip reef sharks serving as a stand in for blacktip sharks, but no one would confuse a scalloped hammerhead with a bonnethead.
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Something tells me the sharks are a similar case to the penguins. They might be part of an SSP which was prioritized over geographical accuracy. I might be wrong but I’m certain Galápagos sharks are incredibly rare in captivity and also are often released after only a few months in captivity, so although it is frustrating I understand why the zoo would just go with out of place species that the average zoo guest wouldn’t think twice about. That brings me to another question though. If more zoos dedicated areas to the Galápagos Islands and it’s conservation, would that make it more possible for zoos to acquire these species rather than just Houston alone?
 
King of Komodo Dragons said:
I'm surprised that they don't have any Galapagos Sharks planned for it, considering that a few aquariums in the US have them, and while not excusive to the islands they are named after them. Scalloped Hammerheads and Blacktip Sharks are not common from what I know, but it is strange that they don't have Whitetip Reef Sharks there a dime a dozen and fit better thematically, I can understand the blacktip reef sharks serving as a stand in for blacktip sharks, but no one would confuse a scalloped hammerhead with a bonnethead.
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If I'm not mistaken, scalloped hammerheads are not present at many aquariums, but aren't the most difficult to obtain. In any case, whitetip reef sharks would have been a great and easy inclusion.
TheImmigrant1 said:
Something tells me the sharks are a similar case to the penguins. They might be part of an SSP which was prioritized over geographical accuracy. I might be wrong but I’m certain Galápagos sharks are incredibly rare in captivity and also are often released after only a few months in captivity, so although it is frustrating I understand why the zoo would just go with out of place species that the average zoo guest wouldn’t think twice about. That brings me to another question though. If more zoos dedicated areas to the Galápagos Islands and it’s conservation, would that make it more possible for zoos to acquire these species rather than just Houston alone?
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From what I know, there is no SSP for bonnethead sharks, so I don't think the decision was made solely by what species have and don't have SSPs.

As for your question, I think that the AZA would be given access to some species by the Ecuadorian government if there was significant evidence that ex-situ holding would be beneficial to the conservation of species and enough facilities were interested. I'm not really sure what these would be though. Some of the finches and mockingbirds are facing the plight of extinction, as is one of the owls, but I'm not sure that they would be good candidates for the typical zoo setting.
 
wild boar said:
As for your question, I think that the AZA would be given access to some species by the Ecuadorian government if there was significant evidence that ex-situ holding would be beneficial to the conservation of species and enough facilities were interested.
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Doubtful. Ecuador dislikes exporting endemic wildlife and it is unlikely they would even consider it unless there was a severe disaster on the Galapagos.
 
wild boar said:
Are any of the species in the large Pantanal yard in a breeding situation. Based on various photographs and videos, the zoo has pairs of tapirs, anteaters, screamers, and swans, in addition to several capybaras and around four rheas, so I figure at least some of them are recommended to breed. I ask all of this because it is quite the interesting mix and I figure there must be some anticipated aggression between one species and the offspring of another.
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Most of these species (tapir, capybara, and anteater at least) were already living together when they were in the yard at the end of the now remaining hoof stock which the zebra now occupy.

That exhibit did have rhea at least at one point and I swear they put their maned wolfs (which are odd to be gone as Houston had them for a long time and propped them up as kind of an iconic species) in there too for some time.
 
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Trowaman said:
Most of these species (tapir, capybara, and anteater at least) were already living together when they were in the yard at the end of the now remaining hoof stock which the zebra now occupy.

That exhibit did have rhea at least at one point and I swear they put their maned wolfs (which are odd to be gone as Houston had them for a long time and propped them up as kind of an iconic species) in there too for some time.
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They sure did have Maned Wolves, they only ever shared habitat with the anteaters as I assume the Rheas and Capybaras would have issues with them since in the wild a maned wolf would have no problem snatching up either of their young for a meal. It’s so strange to see them phased out of Houston, they would’ve fit right in in South America’s Pantanal and you’d think they would’ve atleast been part of early concepts but they just weren’t. Other species like Squirrel Monkeys, Black Caiman, and even Giant Armadillos were planned to be in the Pantanal but didn’t make it for different reasons, but the Maned Wolf just wasn’t ever considered.
 
Trowaman said:
Most of these species (tapir, capybara, and anteater at least) were already living together when they were in the yard at the end of the now remaining hoof stock which the zebra now occupy.

That exhibit did have rhea at least at one point and I swear they put their maned wolfs (which are odd to be gone as Houston had them for a long time and propped them up as kind of an iconic species) in there too for some time.
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The Capybara, Rhea, and Tapir lived in what was until recently the Pygmy Hippo habitat, the habitat the maned wolves and giant anteaters lived in was torn down during the construction of the Pantanal. I know one early plan for the Pantanal included Giant Armadillos and i'm still gutted that never came to light, it's strange Maned Wolf got phased out. as a conciliation at least, Dallas Zoo nearby got Maned Wolfs earlier last month!
 
Houston Zoo had Maned Wolves (with Giant Anteaters in a mixed-species exhibit) as recently as 2015. I took this photo on July 25th, 2015:

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King of Komodo Dragons said:
The Capybara, Rhea, and Tapir lived in what was until recently the Pygmy Hippo habitat, the habitat the maned wolves and giant anteaters lived in was torn down during the construction of the Pantanal. I know one early plan for the Pantanal included Giant Armadillos and i'm still gutted that never came to light, it's strange Maned Wolf got phased out. as a conciliation at least, Dallas Zoo nearby got Maned Wolfs earlier last month!
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The former Anteater/Maned Wolf habitat is still in tact, its now a zebra yard right beneath the Gorillas. The enclosures that were destroyed were an empty warthog enclosure, a zebra enclosure, a second okapi enclosure, the shoebill stork aviary (wasn’t destroyed but repurposed), and the final one I believe had saddle billed storks. That whole right side of the zoo was always a simple and frankly boring line of square exhibits for interchanging hoofstock so it becoming the Pantanal was a complete upgrade.
 
And the Houston Zoo Baby Boom just keeps going! From Cougar cubs to Meerkat pups to now FIVE capybara pups born to father Rio and first-time mother Poppy. They can be seen in the smaller habitat that their older cousins Pepa and Bruno once occupied in the Grasslands exhibit of the South America's Pantanal. It seems the enclosure is now overrun with capybaras.
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