I am not aware of these species in any US zoos.
Zoo Tampa at Lowry Park List Of Species On Exhibit 8/2/19
- Thread starter geomorph
- Start date
-
- Tags
- species list
I am not aware of these species in any US zoos.
As @geomorph said, this species is gone from US zoos. It was previously held at Lowry Park and San Diego.
drill
Well-Known Member
and Memphis
How original
Did they use to have shoebills?
They certainly had Shoebill in 2013.
The aviary the shoebills were in - one of the best exhibits in the zoo may I add - was destroyed at the end of 2017. As far as I'm aware the zoo no longer has the species.
I had a quick search on Googling - a blog from 2018 specified that they were still there, and a blog from this year specified that they were now gone.
I visited the zoo in March of 2018 at it was gone. Unless they were off exhibit, that isn't accurate.
"It" being the aforementioned aviary? If the aviary was removed in 2017 then of course it wasn't still there in March 2018.
Correct, the aviary was destroyed. What I'm saying is I don't see how that blog post is accurate.
In 2013 the zoo has Shoebills in two aviaries. Just because the main aviary (which I agree was absolutely superb and it's beyond me why they'd want to destroy it) doesn't mean they didn't still hold the species elsewhere. I think it's really ridiculous they phased-out their Shoebills, though, considering they're the only US zoo to breed the species.
~Thylo
That's a great loss! Here is an image of the spacious aviary from 2012 (including two shoebills in the shot):
I completely agree, however I actually did some digging and luckily it seems shoebills aren't gone for good! This link for the zoos 2020 plans calls for a an entirely new exhibit for them as well as a few other species. Some excellent news.
ZooTampa ends 2019 with record achievements, launches ambitious 2020 calendar of events - ZooTampa at Lowry Park
That's a great loss! Here is an image of the spacious aviary from 2012 (including two shoebills in the shot):
Wow! That must have been a really nice exhibit! Surely they would want to keep it, even just for the flamingos... ?
That's great! Hope they eventually make it back on-show!
Yes, it was an amazing exhibit it is too bad they took it down. Glad I saw shoebills, at least.
Just to update this thread, the Shoebills are back, they have a new aviary beside the pygmy hippos. It is a very nice enclosure, but still not as nice as the old large aviary in this thread.
Randomly came across this thread, wanted to touch on the old shoebill aviary discussion:
The large lake aviary was unfortunately structurally unsound. It had to go or risk collapse and/or death of most of the animals within. I learned this from a keeper during a visit last year. The zoo did keep the shoebills since that aviary closed; they were behind the scenes until the new exhibit opened. They also now share their new exhibit with Cape teal.
The large lake aviary was unfortunately structurally unsound. It had to go or risk collapse and/or death of most of the animals within. I learned this from a keeper during a visit last year. The zoo did keep the shoebills since that aviary closed; they were behind the scenes until the new exhibit opened. They also now share their new exhibit with Cape teal.