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jayjds2 said:
The owner doesn’t like being told what to do with his animals. It is rather hypocritical that the zoo still participates in a few SSPs.
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His attitude kind of shows in a lot of the enclosures that can be seen in the zoochat gallery of this zoo. Very poor exhibits and I pity the animals that are being kept in them.

In Brazil at least there is a legitimate excuse for zoos having enclosures that are outdated or lacking as this is the developing world and funding and materials are hard to come by.
 
I have Metro Richmond's individuals on a Google Document, I'll check it later and post them in this thread. I believe they have Bornean Orangutans, but they may also have both species..
 
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jayjds2 said:
The San Diego Zoo keeps one female on exhibit in the bear canyon. That one and the four at Metro Richmond seem to be the last five outside Africa (though I'd be glad to be proven wrong).
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Two zoos in Japan keep African clawless otters (Ise sea paradise and Noichi zoo). The species is listed in JAZA's list of animals to preserve but I wonder what JAZA has in plan with such a small population.
 
nczoofan said:
From what I can find it seems the orangutans in the train ride exhibit should be Sumatran, while the orangutans in the walkthrough zoo bornean and maybe some hybrids.
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I don't believe they participate in programs either, so they may hybridize their individuals to fill their enclosures.
 
nczoofan said:
From what I can find it seems the orangutans in the train ride exhibit should be Sumatran, while the orangutans in the walkthrough zoo bornean and maybe some hybrids.
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I am afraid all Metro Richmond Zoo orang utans are considered hybrids.
 
EsserWarrior said:
Tasha, Rory, RJ, Patrick, Farley, and Lucu are the names of their individuals. I believe they have both Sumatran and Borneans, they may possibly hybridize too.
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@ncfan, if @EW's info is anything but current - and I have no reasons whatsoever to do so - all these individuals are hybrids.

Tasha was born at Kansas City, Rory was born at Colorado, Lucu ex Greenwich and both Patrick and Farley came in from Levine. BTW, RJ was born in Richmond (RoryxTasha) in 2015. There "used" to be another orang in Zoe (RoryxRosie - Rosie died in Richmond in 2010.

I am not sure which you had in mind with the individuals ex Connectictut (if it is Patrick and Lucu ex Greenwich ..., well I do am sorry)?
 
I'm not surprised that they're all hybrids. Metro Richmond doesn't participate in the SSPs, so I didn't put much effort into the facility. Not to mention that I have accurate populations recorded for over 50 other facilities :p (Plus I keep track of all the Western Lowland Gorillas in the United States and help keep track of the worldwide Bonobo Population.) So, if you're curious, be sure to check out my thread: North American Orangutan Population if you'd like to see the status of all the other orangutans in zoos across North America.
 
EsserWarrior said:
I'm not surprised that they're all hybrids. Metro Richmond doesn't participate in the SSPs, so I didn't put much effort into the facility. Not to mention that I have accurate populations recorded for over 50 other facilities :p (Plus I keep track of all the Western Lowland Gorillas in the United States and help keep track of the worldwide Bonobo Population.) So, if you're curious, be sure to check out my thread: North American Orangutan Population if you'd like to see the status of all the other orangutans in zoos across North America.
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To be honest I have never seen more babies of different species on display, I mean almost every species was breeding. Not that this is sustainable, I mean I don’t wanna ask where the animals end up :oops: Gonna be posting my review of the place soon, once I get back from my current trip.
 
The former Leo Zoological (Greenwich, CT) orangutans went to Gulf Breeze zoo in FL (ironically were some originally were from). As far as I know none were aquired by Metro Richmond.
 
nczoofan said:
To be honest I have never seen more babies of different species on display, I mean almost every species was breeding. Not that this is sustainable, I mean I don’t wanna ask where the animals end up :oops: Gonna be posting my review of the place soon, once I get back from my current trip.
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I've got a strong feeling that they're not going to AZA facilities. Not all private facilities are bad, but the chances of them going to a bad facility are much higher than if they were to go to an AZA facility.
 
@EsserWarrior you would be correct in never being an AZA member but the facility has a high reputation. When VA zoo was building their Asia section some of the species (malayan tapir, asiatic black bear, cassowary) were held at MRZ until it was completed. I know of one major AZA facility that sourced quite a few hoofstock from them as well to add to their new Africa Savannah a few years back (which actually is my favorite African Savannah exhibit in last decade+). MRZ is not the most aesthetically pleasing facility but definitely successful at what they do.
 
PSO said:
@EsserWarrior you would be correct in never being an AZA member but the facility has a high reputation. When VA zoo was building their Asia section some of the species (malayan tapir, asiatic black bear, cassowary) were held at MRZ until it was completed. I know of one major AZA facility that sourced quite a few hoofstock from them as well to add to their new Africa Savannah a few years back (which actually is my favorite African Savannah exhibit in last decade+). MRZ is not the most aesthetically pleasing facility but definitely successful at what they do.
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I'm not 100% sure what your question meant, but if you're asking if it's okay to be a high-quality facility without being AZA, I'd say yes. You don't have to be an AZA member to participate in SSPs, you just have to be in compliance with everything the studbook coordinators say. There are some non-AZA zoos that have nicer facilities than some AZA zoos.
 
Not really a question, more a statement but you are correct again. Especially the last sentence of your statement.
 
Just from a collection stand point, I had to go there about 2 years ago, and not since a Cleveland visit in the mid 2000s have I seen a larger primate collection. I counted almost 30 different species.
 
PSO said:
Not really a question, more a statement but you are correct again. Especially the last sentence of your statement.
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I just reread what you typed and realized that I read it as: "Would you be correct in never being an AZA facility but being a facility with a high reputation?" I've never visited the facility, so I don't know what their exhibits look like.
 
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