I don't know how relevant this is but the local amateur baseball team, the Asheboro Copperheads, recently rebranded themselves as the Asheboro Zoo Keepers in homage to the zoo.
North Carolina Zoo North Carolina Zoo News 2022
- Thread starter Breckenridge
- Start date
The zoo announced on Facebook that it has acquired three male Grey mouse lemurs from Duke Lemur Center and they are on exhibit in the nocturnal part of the Desert building.
OkapiFan
Well-Known Member
What a fantastic edition to the zoos roster! Though I have no clue which exhibit they went into, afaik all the exhibits in the nocturnal area are occupied (vampire bats, sidewinder and the combined Sand Cat exhibits) I guess they went in to one of the sand cat exhibits and the cats just have a smaller space?
There was also the lizard exhibit in there and an empty exhibit behind that, which could easily be combined into a new exhibit for them.
OkapiFan
Well-Known Member
Some news coming from the zoos Alive magazine and the NC Zoo society website.
- The renovated Baboon habitat should open in 2023
- The zoo plans to open a stingray touch tank called Stingray Cove that will contain ~25 Cownose Rays, ~4 Southern Stingrays, and three species of sharks.
- Unfortunately, it seems to be a paid attraction.
- There is nothing on where this will go, but I assume it'll be Junction Plaza.
OkapiFan
Well-Known Member
Today, I was looking back at the older posts of this thread, and the plans for Asia. I then came to the thought that since Red Pandas have been dropped, what will happen to the space that they were going to go in? I'm hoping they may bring in a different species of roughly the same size to go there.
Binturong?
Those aren’t native to Asia…
OkapiFan
Well-Known Member
I meant a civit species, but I wrote genet... my bad.
I thought it was supposed to open in 2024?
OkapiFan
Well-Known Member
That's what I thought too.
Here's the article: NC Zoo's long-planned Asia exhibit gets started under state budget
Mouse Lemurs!? Wasn't expecting that.
My guess is that they could go into the former Ringtail exhibit (currently the leftmost Sand Cat exhibit) since that exhibit is tall and was designed for a climbing animal to begin with. I don't think the current beaded lizard exhibit would be sufficient, even if it were combined with that empty space in the background.
Also definitely surprised at the slated openings for both the renovated Baboon habitat and Asia; was expecting the Baboon exhibit to be finished this year and I, too, last remember Asia being slated for 2024. Sounds like the pandemic caused quite a few delays.
The Stingray touch tank seems completely out of left field, but I can see them putting it in Junction plaza. If not, the kids area across from Rocky Coast would also be a good spot.
OkapiFan
Well-Known Member
I guess, but I really don't see them shirking the Sand Cats exhibit. I'll be going to the zoo in just a couple weeks, so I'll see what they ended up doing when I go.
Yeah, I do understand that is taking space away from the Sand Cats, but where else are they going to go? The former Ringtail exhibit is the only exhibit I can think of that doesn't require a major renovation or swapping out a species to be suitable for mouse lemurs. All they would need to do is add some climbing branches, which they had back when it held Ringtails.
I should also mention that it appears the lemurs are already on exhibit at the time of announcement, which would not leave any time do revamp the other exhibits unless some stealthy renovation took place or a species was actually swapped out (which I find unlikely as the lineup there has been otherwise pretty stable for the past 7 years).
The zoo answered on Instagram a while ago, apparently the mouse lemurs are between the vampire bats and the sand cats. That makes me think it's the former beaded lizard habitat.