Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden News From the Cincinnati Zoo 2011 #2

The zoo recently received a young pair of Andean Cock-of-the-Rocks which are now on exhibit in the Butterfly Garden in the World of Insects building.
 
Does anyone know if they have started work on the small cat breeding center on their farm in another county? They got a million dollar state grant for it three years ago, which was mentioned in press releases, but I have not heard anything since. A Google search just shows up those three year old news releases - nothing current.
 
I'm not exactly sure what the status is on the small cat portion of the breeding center, but the Mast Farm facility itself has been up and running for a while now. The zoo keeps many of their rarer ungulates, birds, and the majority of their cheetahs there at the farm.
 
That's what I thought, but I wasn't completely confident as little has been announced about the facility. I'll have to ask around and see what I can find out about it. On October 1st I'm planning on taking my father to the ZooGrass festival (A bluegrass music festival the zoo holds every year. Though bluegrass isn't exactly my cup of tea, my father loves it.) at the zoo. I'll see if I can find anything out then.
 
I knew that they kept some of the excess and retired children's zoo animals there as well, but do they no longer keep Grevy's Zebras and Tufted Deer at the farm? Not necessarily all that "rare", but rather at least threatened in the wild. I was just recently speaking with a Wildlife Canyon keeper about the deer. I remember reading, and hearing from docents, that in the past the Chinese Gorals and Giant Eland were also held at the farm. Is the farm no longer used much for what it was originally set up to be used for? I remember that all of the local newspapers and new channels made a surprisingly big deal out of the farm and how it was supposed be a private breeding facility to allow the animals more space and privacy to encourage breeding. I think I have a copy of an article from a newspaper about the farm somewhere. I generally try to save newspaper articles about the zoo to refer back to.
 
I don't think Giant Eland were held out at the Mast Farm - they did have a big herd of common Eland out there. They have the Grevy's Zebra and the Tufted Deer currently, I believe. But the farm has long held Alpaca and other children's farm hoofstock. Not just for retirement, but for breeding too.

The farm was set up to be a private breeding facility to allow the animals more space and privacy to encourage breeding. Alpacas need loving just as much as antelope do.
 
gerenuk said:
I don't think Giant Eland were held out at the Mast Farm - they did have a big herd of common Eland out there. They have the Grevy's Zebra and the Tufted Deer currently, I believe. But the farm has long held Alpaca and other children's farm hoofstock. Not just for retirement, but for breeding too.

The farm was set up to be a private breeding facility to allow the animals more space and privacy to encourage breeding. Alpacas need loving just as much as antelope do.
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Thanks for the confirmations and information gerenuk. It's quite a possibility that the Giant Eland weren't held at Mast Farm. That's just what I remember the article saying. As we all know, news journalists certainly aren't always animal experts! I always assumed that the children's zoo animals were bred there, I just don't think that it ever crossed my mind as, say, "purposeful" breeding for some reason. I guess the initial idea of a breeding center and how it was portrayed by the media triggers that thought of pure "conservation." Of course Alpacas need loving too :p
 
CincinnatiZooTube's Channel - YouTube
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New video about the zoo's Fossas.

CincinnatiZooTube's Channel - YouTube
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New video about the zoo's Mexican Wolves.

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Wolf Woods and Wildlife Canyon are truly the least visited exhibits in the entire zoo. This is likely due to the fact that they are quite difficult to get to, and to some visitors they are "unrewarding". Many visitors have no idea that Wolf Woods is even there. Wolf Woods is located in the almost dead center of the zoo, and is quite difficult to reach after the zoo closed down several pathways when they renovated the Children's Zoo. Wildlife Canyon is, well, a canyon for one thing, and many people don't bother to make the trek down there only to find "boring" ungulates and yet "another" type of rhinoceros.
 
Probably (for Wolf Woods) is that because it has Foxes that are never ever active, not really a lot of people want to see Eastern box turtles, and the Wolves only hang out in the top left corner to the left of the aviary.
 
Kudu21 said:
New video about the zoo's Fossas.


New video about the zoo's Mexican Wolves.

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Wolf Woods and Wildlife Canyon are truly the least visited exhibits in the entire zoo. This is likely due to the fact that they are quite difficult to get to, and to some visitors they are "unrewarding". Many visitors have no idea that Wolf Woods is even there. Wolf Woods is located in the almost dead center of the zoo, and is quite difficult to reach after the zoo closed down several pathways when they renovated the Children's Zoo. Wildlife Canyon is, well, a canyon for one thing, and many people don't bother to make the trek down there only to find "boring" ungulates and yet "another" type of rhinoceros.
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Surprised that presentation is not high on the list then?
 
The Zoo's website is starting to put a "Where to find them:" thing for the animals, and I was looking at the the Emperor tamarin's, and they said it was in Jungle Trails, White-handed gibbon was on Gibbon islands, Lion-tailed macaque was on Monkey Island (which I could see happening knowing that they are both macaques, I actually hope this is true), Potto in Jungle Trails (doubt that too), Bactrian camel was in the CHILDREN'S ZOO????? (okay maybe all these are just mistakes now), American alligator in the Reptile House!!!!? (geez did a kid do this?), Alligator snapping turtle in Insect World?????!!!?! (animal location and name of the exhibit are both wrong), and they didnt start working in the birds yet, soooo, if the next person going to zoo very soon could you please respond to this? please, thanks. If these aren't true, then they need to get someone else to work on it. I found out why the Barred owl took the Sea eagles place, it died if anyone didnt know that.
 
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I need one more gorilla name for my Tour/review/opinions. There are 10 of them, so far I have Muke, M'linzi, Chewie, Madge, Samantha, Bakari, Jomo, Kwashi
 
Went to the zoo today. Awesome zoo weather and not much of a crowd. I saw Night Hunters for the first time and was disappointed to see that many of the cat displays remain pretty much the same. I did like some things, though. The aardwolves were very active, moreso than I've ever seen an aardwolf. The vampire bat exhibit was almost too big. The new cougar enclosure outside the building was a major improvement over the old indoor one. I't at the very least adequate and easy on the eyes. Can't wait to see the new snow leopard and tiger setups next year.

There was plenty of digging going on in the parking lot that is to become the new African exhibit. It will be really interesting to see what species end up in the hoofed stock exhibit. I also hope that baboons return to the zoo as tentatively planned. I'd kill to see a cape buffalo group as well, but this is not likely.

On my way out, I got to mingle with a red river hog on a leash. It was very cool as I'd never seen that species so socialized. He was like a 140lb dog. He even tried to make a meal of my boot laces.

Despite poor opinions of this zoo among many respected Zoochatters, I firmly believe that this zoo is slowly getting on track. I am very excited to see what the park will look like in 15 years.
 
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