Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens LA Zoo News 2011

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Blackduiker

Extremely crowded on my visit today, Good Friday. There are now Gray's Monitors on exhibit in the space that recently housed the Komodo Dragon hatchlings. In the Children's Zoo of course. I will be uploading photos tonight. I was also able to photograph the newborn Desert Bighorn Sheep, Koala, and Sichuan Takin.

But the most significant news was Billy's unfortunate breakage of the tip of one of his magnificent tusks. I believe the left side. I spoke with one of the volunteers, as she was phoning it in. Billy, currently in musth, was having a sparring match with one of the palm trees that sits in the Elephants of Cambodia yard. He seemed to have the upper hand until the large crowd gathered on the observation deck, including myself, heard a loud POP; as if someone had fired off a pistol. He didn't seem to be in any pain, except for his pride. He then made his way down towards the barn, at a quick pace, and remained there for the duration of my viewing.

I will be uploading the very photo of his battle with the palm, as well as the broken tusk tip shortly. Kind of sad to see such an impressive set damaged now.
 
Wow, Billy breaking his tusk is very unfortunate. He had some of the most amazing tusks of any Asian Elephant bull in the zoo world. I once saw him sparring with those same palm trees, but I was more worried of the palm trees falling than him breaking a tusk.

A similar incident happened not to long ago with the male Giant Eland as he was sparring with something in his yard (not really sure with what). One of his horns broke right in the middle and was treated immediately to stop the bleeding.
 
The young female volunteer told me they were performing an "elephant run" today. They were allowing them to all journey through each yard under the supervision of several keepers. Probably explains my seeing Tina and Jewel in the Elephants of India yard for the first time.
 
I have really sad news...I just found out through facebook that Lionel, the zoo's male Lion, passed away on Saturday. The cause of death is still unknown. Hopefully Cookie will be okay without him...
 
That is so sad about Lionel. I will sure miss him. I was there on Thursday and only Cookie came out, but she did exchange a roar with Lionel not long after she came out.
 
Lionel was quite old, but very spectacular to watch and photograph. He was one of my favorite subjects and will be sorely missed.
 
I just saw him on the 20th and took some pretty nice pictures of he and Cookie. I second that about the wife...I'm quite concerned that she might suffer quite a bit from Lionel's passing...she's probably never been alone before and it's no stretch to think that she could pine herself sick if nothing is done.
 
I wonder if the zoo will try to acquire another lion. I think the problem though is that she is 22 years old and with heart problems, so introducing her to a new lion will be very stressful for her, which can ultimately lead to her death...
 
Blackduiker

Not meaning to usurp the usual announcement of mstickmanp of the latest minutes release from the Los Angeles Zoo commission. But seeing that he has overlooked it for April 19, here are several highlights:

A $2.00 non-member admission increase.

A Family Membership increase from $89.00 to $99.00.

17 bids were received on March 30 for Rainforest of the Americas, ranging from $11.4 million to $16.4 million. The city engineer estimates the cost at $14 million.

Animal transactions included the acquisition of a Greater Roadrunner, Howler Monkey, and the births of two Peninsular Pronghorn fawns and a Tufted Deer.

The zoo also has 300 Mountain Yellow Legged Frog tadpoles that will be released into the wild.

http://www.lazoo.org/about/commission/minutes/April2011Minutes.pdf

Mario I hope you will excuse my announcement on your thread. :o;)
 
Not really zoo news, but Google Earth has finally updated the map for Los Angeles! It has been 2 years since the last time the map was updated, so it is now possible to see Elephants of Asia and the new parking lot from above. Unfortunately Google Maps has not been updated, so the only way to see it is through Google Earth.
 
Blackduiker said:
The May 17th Commissioners meeting minutes. A highlight is the acquisition of 5 additional Peninsular Pronghorns to increase their genetic diversity in the US.

http://www.lazoo.org/about/commission/minutes/May2011Minutes.pdf
Click to expand...

Thank you for posting this - interesting read as usual. It is kind of nice to see that the three California Condor chicks are not really that sensational anymore - for me they are very special anyway. I am happy they seem to do well these days !
 
I have a hunch, that the LA zoo is going to import some young female elephants from Sri lanka/ Thailand, to increase genetic diversity, and allow Billy to be represented.. I don't know why I feel like this is going to become an option...
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
The news I have been wanting to hear for some time now.

Any indication when the new pronghorn will come in and how they will be distributed between the participating zoos?
Click to expand...

At this point all I know is what it says in the link. Hopefully we'll get more info soon.
 
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