Oakland Zoo Oakland Zoo News 2018

14 female bison came to the zoo from the Blackfeet reservation. I think this will be the first purebred breeding herd of bison in the US (unless there are others I don’t know of)
It will be the 2nd purebred herd. The Bronx Zoo received a herd from the Blackfoot reservation last year and had six offspring already. However; it is exciting to see the California Trail coming soon. Looks like it will be a great addition.
 
It will be the 2nd purebred herd. The Bronx Zoo received a herd from the Blackfoot reservation last year and had six offspring already. However; it is exciting to see the California Trail coming soon. Looks like it will be a great addition.

Funnily enough, I was just about to add that as an edit but then you beat me to it!
:D

Also @Arizona Docent, I unfortunately cannot personally meet you at Oakland as my family is also very excited that our zoo is growing so I’ll be going with family as Oakland has been the zoo of memories. It was my first zoo and the reason I love zoology. There is a possible chance you might see me at opening day with my family though.
 
Two male bison from Yellowstone national park will be brought to the zoo in the fall according to their Instagram page. So opening day of the exhibit will have an all female herd and the zoo will most likely not see a bison calve until spring 2019. Still can't wait to see the exhibit!
 
A few breeding predictions for the future (I was unsure where to put this so I thought it would be fitting to put it in the news thread)

I have noticed that Oakland zoo doesn't really tell the public if an animal has been born unless it is a fan favorite species at the zoo (ABC). I actually recently learned after asking about the breeding success of both flying fox species (Malayan and Island) that they are all males. I don't know why they don't have any females but that is what inspired me to do some more background research on the zoo's breeding success with all species and plans for upcoming ones to draw a picture for this and next year.

Oakland zoo said that they plan on breeding the grey wolf pair and hopes to get a litter by next year. So I predict they will accomplish this task as the zoo is very good with native species.

Bison will most likely breed as well when the males arrive and babies can be expected during spring or summer of 2019. Most likely summer as a bison's gestation period is around 9 months.


I don’t know much about raptor breeding and if babies are left on exhibit but the condors on exhibit might breed as well. A chick at the end of this month is a possibility.

The zoo has always had good success with baboons and otters. One or two baboon babies or another otter litter might pop up this year (one or the other and probably not both)

There could also be a curassow chick since they are a male-female pair. Birds in the African aviary also had previous success so its possible there could be a few chicks in the coming months.

In the case of the other animals I don’t think they will produce offspring for a few reasons...

The animals are old and cannot breed anymore
The animals were rescued from certain situations and cannot breed
The animal is in a bachelor or an all female group.
Animal group are all siblings

Of course Oakland is working hard for the captive breeding of many animals that are off exhibit but Oakland can always improve and maybe one day they can be in the big leagues with San Diego and bronx. (Please note that I understand the captive breeding situations of different individuals is different for the zoo and the animals. Every zoo is different. All I’m doing is making predictions based on previous information.)
 
Unsure if this piece of news is important or anything but a female wreathed hornbill is going into her nesting season phase. I'm not well educated on hornbill breeding and such but is this a sign of the female getting ready to lay fertile eggs? She just turned 27 today so I'm not sure if she is too old to produce offspring.
 
How is the zoo in terms of animal acquisitions for California Trail? Do they have all of the animals for this exhibit or are they still waiting to receive some species and have them in quarantine? I know that they have the bison and black bears, but how are they coming along with the birds and the other carnivores?
 
How is the zoo in terms of animal acquisitions for California Trail? Do they have all of the animals for this exhibit or are they still waiting to receive some species and have them in quarantine? I know that they have the bison and black bears, but how are they coming along with the birds and the other carnivores?
Pumas are in the exhibit (young orphans) and wolves are in the exhibit (a pair I believe). I don't know about jaguar.
 
How is the zoo in terms of animal acquisitions for California Trail? Do they have all of the animals for this exhibit or are they still waiting to receive some species and have them in quarantine? I know that they have the bison and black bears, but how are they coming along with the birds and the other carnivores?

As @Arizona Docent said, There are 3 young pumas that are in their exhibit and a confirmed breeding pair of wolves in their exhibit. Oakland zoo did say most of their animals will come at late May. The only actual info for any of the other animals is that 4 orphan grizzlies will be coming to the zoo from Alaska. The cubs do have different mothers so breeding is a possibility. Besides that, they didn’t say where they’re getting the other animals. My guess is that condors will come from one of their facilities and the other animals will come from other zoos.
 
I hope so. I just recently found out that the zoo doesn’t have much breeding success because most of the animals live in sibling, family, or all gender groups (siamang, cotton top tamarins, flying foxes, lions, etc). I hope the Californian trail changes the ideology of the zoo and they start bringing in some animals for breeding purposes.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top