Little Rock Zoo Little Rock Zoo

TeamTapir223 said:
The world is certainly a different place now.Moronic people are everywhere !
Click to expand...
So insulting them is not that bad.
And their existence, besides such 'tragedies', causes exhibits to be changed so normal people get a worse view.
Animals are observed and photographed best in open exhibits - glass is often reflecting, and mesh/bars look awful.

Btw Russian zoo visitors are one of the most retarded - each year a predator feels the taste of idiots (or their offspring) at least once.
 
I was surprised to here that LR had an open jaguar exhibit. Jaguars are such powerful cats with strong leaping ability. I would expect all outdoor jaguar and leopard exhibits to be behind some type of netting or mesh. I have seen some attractive mesh exhibits for these cats with still reasonably good viewing. And I am not a fan of pit type exhibits anyway.

It said the boy fell 15 to 16 feet down into the exhibit. It seems like an adult jaguar could leap up 15 to 16 feet if it really wanted to. And in the photos I saw, I did not see any hot wire on the inside edge of the wall. Maybe I am over estimating jaguar abilities.

I wonder if the AZA has any specific design requirements for jaguar and leopard exhibits. Maybe someone on here will know.

Also wonder if this exhibit was originally designed for another species and LR had repurposed it for jaguars.
 
mikek21 said:
It said the boy fell 15 to 16 feet down into the exhibit. It seems like an adult jaguar could leap up 15 to 16 feet if it really wanted to. And in the photos I saw, I did not see any hot wire on the inside edge of the wall. Maybe I am over estimating jaguar abilities.
Click to expand...

Zoo jaguars are often overweight. They can't leap so high and don't have stimuli to do so.
 
Elephas Maximus said:
Zoo jaguars are often overweight. They can't leap so high and don't have stimuli to do so.
Click to expand...

You can't design exhibits with the assumption that an animal will not have the "stimuli" to get out of the exhibit.

San Francisco Zoo's big cat grottos successfully contained lions and tigers for decades until one of their tigers was teased enough (or in the tiger's mind, threatened enough) to strike back and was able to leap out of the exhibit.

An exhibit must be designed, or at least should be designed, to contain an animal in all situations. An excited, stressed or frightened animal can do things it would not do in normal situations.
 
mikek21 said:
I was surprised to here that LR had an open jaguar exhibit. Jaguars are such powerful cats with strong leaping ability. I would expect all outdoor jaguar and leopard exhibits to be behind some type of netting or mesh. I have seen some attractive mesh exhibits for these cats with still reasonably good viewing. And I am not a fan of pit type exhibits anyway.

It said the boy fell 15 to 16 feet down into the exhibit. It seems like an adult jaguar could leap up 15 to 16 feet if it really wanted to. And in the photos I saw, I did not see any hot wire on the inside edge of the wall. Maybe I am over estimating jaguar abilities.

I wonder if the AZA has any specific design requirements for jaguar and leopard exhibits. Maybe someone on here will know.

Also wonder if this exhibit was originally designed for another species and LR had repurposed it for jaguars.
Click to expand...

I agree with a lot of what you said, and you may find this interesting. Saint Louis and Little Rock are two zoos that have had open-topped jaguar exhibits for years, and here is a thread that lists 13 open-topped cougar exhibits:

http://www.zoochat.com/22/open-topped-cougar-exhibits-382030/
 
mikek21 said:
It said the boy fell 15 to 16 feet down into the exhibit. It seems like an adult jaguar could leap up 15 to 16 feet if it really wanted to. And in the photos I saw, I did not see any hot wire on the inside edge of the wall. Maybe I am over estimating jaguar abilities.
Click to expand...

In Burgers Zoo a sumatran tiger escaped out of its enclosure by jumping over the 4.5 meter high wall (13-14 feet) without apparent reason, it was shot quickly afterwards, without killing people, one woman wis lightly injured.

So I would guess a jaguar could be able to do the same.... (not to speak of the tigers in Tierpark Berlin, when the moat is dry.....)
 
The internal review of the little boy falling into the jaguar exhibit is complete. It praises staff for their quick response and states the exhibit meets all requirements. They recommend more signage about barriers (not that it helps when people choose to be blind), and the signs list an emergency number to reach staff immediately (a decent idea in the cellphone age though Im sure teens will abuse it).

City of Little Rock Finalizes Internal Review of Little Rock Zoo - Arkansas Matters
 
Just because no violations were found that does not mean they wont be sued by the boy's family. Hopefully they realize they were the ones at fault.
 
Fossey, named after Diane Fossey, was truely an amazing gorilla, the son of Bongo and Bridgit and the only half sibiling to Colo's offspring. He was the first gorilla born in captivity to be raised by his parents. Before him it was common practice to raise baby gorillas in a nursery like human babies. When he was 16 months old his mother suddenly died and he was then raised soley by his father, which at the time was unheard of. I have observed him several times over the years showing an extereme amount of tenderness and closeness to both his offspring, much more than most silverbacks do. I'm sure that came from being raised by his father.

This loss leaves the family group, Sekani, Adelina (3yr), and Catherine (infertal) without a breeding silverback. There is another silverback , Brutus, at Little Rock, but according to the keepers he was raised by humans and will not have any thing to do with other gorillas. He currently lives with Trudy (age 58). I've never seen the two interact, they just tolerate each other.

Incendently, according to the keepers, Trudy is reconized as the second oldest gorilla in captivity. Second only to Colo in Columbus. Colo is reconized as the oldest because being the first born in captivity her exact birth date is known. Trudy was wild born and captured in June 1957 at which time she was estimated to be 5-7 months old which makes her born about the same time as Colo. So, she may be older or younger, no one knows, but the third oldest (in Germany, I think) was born a year later.

Fossey will be missed here by those of us that love gorillas.
Here's a link reporting the death.
http://http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/aug/11/silverback-gorilla-lr-zoo-dies/
Here's a link to a video of Fossey playing with Sekani and Mosi, his first born, around 2008.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCPx8xBc_dA
 
I was at the LRZ yesterday watching the female gorillas, Sekani with her 3yr old daughter Adelina, and Catherine, 10 days after the death of their silverback Fossey. I noticed some interesting behaviour changes in the group. The adult females seemed to be much more on edge and unsettled, espesially Sekani. She was much more alert to the actions of the visiitors. Sekani with Adelina on her back would circle the entire enclouse at least once an hour, stopping in the 2 corners where Fossey liked to sit. Catherine would always follow her but, stay 20-30 ft. behind and Sekani always kept an eye on her. The adult females seemed to show several agressive displays toward each other. I always thought Sekani having produced two offspring was the dominate female, but now I think without Fossey to protect that status, Catherine is challenging it. The baby, Adelina, seems to be staying very close to her mother, and not exploring and playing like she used to. Although, showing some agression toward each other, the females seem to be staying relative close together and watching out for each other.

If this occured in the wild, I'm sure a new silverback would have taken over or the females would have joined other groups. Since neither is an option for these gorillas, I'm curious if this type of behaviour is consistant with other family groups that unexpectantly loss their silverback. Has anyone else observed behaviour changes in captive populations when a silverback dies? I know it hasn't happened much, but it has happened.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top