Oklahoma City Zoo Oklahoma City Zoo News 2022

O

Okie

Well-Known Member
Two items of note:

1. The zoo broke its all time attendance record in 2021 with 1,088,599 visitors. After a challenging 2020, that is great to see. Here’s an article about the zoo’s attendance.

2. For the first time in DECADES, the zoo is organizing a conservation trip to Africa for anyone in the area who would like to go (and pay, of course.) It’s ten days in Tanzania to see the wildlife, coupled with presentations from zoo staff. There’s also an optional 3-day extension to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Here’s the info.
 
Okie said:
2. For the first time in DECADES, the zoo is organizing a conservation trip to Africa for anyone in the area who would like to go (and pay, of course.) It’s ten days in Tanzania to see the wildlife, coupled with presentations from zoo staff. There’s also an optional 3-day extension to see the mountain gorillas in Rwanda. Here’s the info.
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Wow that is an awesome offer! I imagine that's a great experience for those who can afford it while also being a great way for the zoo to raise some conservation funds.

~Thylo
 
@Kifaru Bwana That write-up leaves out quite a bit of what’s in the project. It does include upgraded exhibits for several species already in the collection. It will also introduce a number of species not currently on display in OKC such as: wildebeest, eland, dik-dik, lemurs, honey badger, dwarf mongoose, several new herps, naked mole rat, hissing cockroach, African cichlids, etc.
 
Kudu21 said:
While there might not be many dik dik to go around, there certainly are blue duiker... The SSP is in desperate need for new holders. The main breeding facilities are overrun with them right now :p
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Glad to see a turnaround in the program. One of my favorite ungulates. I love seeing the trio at San Antonio.
 
nczoofan said:
Glad to see a turnaround in the program. One of my favorite ungulates. I love seeing the trio at San Antonio.
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They are a fun little species. I'm glad to see an interest and commitment to them (though, of course, I'd love to see the same with dik dik!). The program has been doing quite well, with a good number of calves on the ground. Unfortunately, most of these calves have been male, which is why there is such a desperate need for new holders. Male blue duikers cannot be housed next to each other because they will fight through the fence or displace their aggression on the females or keepers.
 
8-year-old make ocelot, Raif, has returned to OKC as a result of a breeding recommendation. From the zoo’s press release:

The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden is excited to announce the arrival of Raif, an 8-year-old male ocelot to its Cat Forest family. This is a homecoming for Raif who was born at the OKC Zoo’s Cat Forest habitat in 2013 then moved to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015 as part of a breeding recommendation through the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Ocelot Species Survival Plan® (SSP). The ocelot SSP program recently recommended that Raif relocate to the OKC Zoo to be paired with its female ocelot, Arieta. Arieta, 8, arrived at the Zoo in 2021 from the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona.
 
Okie said:
8-year-old make ocelot, Raif, has returned to OKC as a result of a breeding recommendation. From the zoo’s press release:

The Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden is excited to announce the arrival of Raif, an 8-year-old male ocelot to its Cat Forest family. This is a homecoming for Raif who was born at the OKC Zoo’s Cat Forest habitat in 2013 then moved to Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in Cleveland, Ohio in 2015 as part of a breeding recommendation through the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s Ocelot Species Survival Plan® (SSP). The ocelot SSP program recently recommended that Raif relocate to the OKC Zoo to be paired with its female ocelot, Arieta. Arieta, 8, arrived at the Zoo in 2021 from the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Arizona.
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These are part of the AZA Brazilian ocelot (pure-bred founder stock) program.
There also remains a generics ocelot studbook.

I continuously wonder whether it would be helpful to have a north Mexican/southern US ocelot ex situ conservation program. The in situ resident US population is reportedly some 50-80 .... It would make a welcome recovery effort (same goes for Texan-Arizonan jaguar).
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
There also remains a generics ocelot studbook.

I continuously wonder whether it would be helpful to have a north Mexican/southern US ocelot ex situ conservation program. The in situ resident US population is reportedly some 50-80 .... It would make a welcome recovery effort (same goes for Texan-Arizonan jaguar).
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There's a generic AZA studbook? I've never seen an Ocelot in the US that wasn't listed as part of the Brazilian program.

There is currently a project underway by Texas A&U, ABQ BioPark, Cincinnati, and some others experimenting with artificially inseminating captive Ocelot with sperm collected from wild US animals and vice versa, as well as eventually released captive bred animals into the wild to bolster the US population's numbers. All is well and good except it looks like they no longer care about genetics or subspecies and will be releasing generics with maybe some Texas blood into the wild to wipe out the pure native population for good.

Recover Texas Ocelots - Study investigates reintroduction of ocelots
https://phys.org/news/2021-11-endan...BLg89ne4CpgQciT9fRUTrkUMCdDt3X47Th_-vabV4dxkk

You'd never see anyone suggest this is ok to do for tigers :(

EDIT: apparently their is a generic studbook and the Brazilian population is smaller than I thought!

~Thylo
 
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ThylacineAlive said:
There's a generic AZA studbook? I've never seen an Ocelot in the US that wasn't listed as part of the Brazilian program.

There is currently a project underway by Texas A&U, ABQ BioPark, Cincinnati, and some others experimenting with artificially inseminating captive Ocelot with sperm collected from wild US animals and vice versa, as well as eventually released captive bred animals into the wild to bolster the US population's numbers. All is well and good except it looks like they no longer care about genetics or subspecies and will be releasing generics with maybe some Texas blood into the wild to wipe out the pure native population for good.

Recover Texas Ocelots - Study investigates reintroduction of ocelots
https://phys.org/news/2021-11-endan...BLg89ne4CpgQciT9fRUTrkUMCdDt3X47Th_-vabV4dxkk

You'd never see anyone suggest this is ok to do for tigers :(

EDIT: apparently their is a generic studbook and the Brazilian population is smaller than I thought!

~Thylo
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@Thylo, yes, there are 2 parts to the studbook, one for the Brazil sourced ocelot Leopardus pardalis mitis) population and another for the ocelot generics. As far as I can see these are conscientiously managed separately.


I had already heard about this AI initiative already and in essence the Texas A&U, Cincinnati/ ABQ zoos project seems quite interesting. The AI procedure at work (not sure about the location ... CREW-Cincinnati or elsewhere):

QUOTE:
"However, we are optimistic that future procedures—using semen samples from this specific male and other frozen samples from living, wild ocelots—will successfully produce pregnancies. By the end of 2021, we plan to conduct two additional artificial insemination procedures with zoo-managed ocelots, followed by three or four more in 2022.

If any of these artificial insemination procedures result in the birth of offspring, it will be the first time kittens have been produced with frozen semen from a wild ocelot. They'll add greater diversity to the ocelot population managed in North American zoos, while improving our understanding of possibilities for increasing genetic diversity within wild ocelot populations. This success would help demonstrate the feasibility of producing kittens using frozen semen from the endangered Texas ocelot population.

Further refinement of the knowledge and techniques to create genetic exchange between wild and zoo-managed ocelot populations or among wild ocelot populations living in fragmented habitats will help ensure that these animals survive into the future."
UNQOUTE


Any reintroduction effort must / requires that - not just to my mind ... that is - for it to be a valid reintroduction/restoration effort that the reintroduction guidelines as set by IUCN/WWF are followed through upon. This requires that both the source population has to be or as as close to the original wild population as is possible. In this case, I would score this as a restoration / augmentation effort of an - already - in-country population of Texan/northern Mexican ocelot. Any AI effort would have to use both genetic materials from wild subspecies-like counterparts and captive ones that came from the same Texan/northern Mexican ocelot population.

In the case of the Texas/northern Mexico ocelot population that would mean instating a Federal or State(s) sponsored recovery effort, perhaps under the wings of the US FWS and/or a AZA/SSP+ZAA sponsored ex situ conservation breeding and release program. If you would care to check the studbook it would seem that there is some annecdotal evidence for confiscations of wild born ocelot from range States and quite possibly for the subspecies Texas-Arizona / Mexico.

As it is, the Brazil subspecies mitis is Vulnerable, but at estimated 40,000 individual. In all fairness the small Texas/Arizona/northern Mexico population Leopardus pardalis albescens is far less secure and listed as Endangered in both countries. Hence, I hold out hope for an international cross-border effort in situ and ex situ conservation support and breeding along the lines of similar cross-border Peninsular pronghorn and Californian condor efforts. I would favour this approach of augmentation and genetic support with a captive confirmed Texas/Arizona/northern Mexico subspecies founder stock / source population.

Ocelot
 
Does anyone know if some of the generics are actually ssp. albescens from Texas, Arizona or north Mexico.

In fact among those generics are most definitely purebreds from other subspecies. Ik is not like all individuals are admixed already. But if allowed to interbreed than yes generics. As such the term in use there is not fully correct, perhaps pointing to another form of population management.
 
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