Philadelphia Zoo Philadelphia Zoo News 2022

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Kevin2342

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5+ year member
It’s a new year and might as well create a new thread. Luminature ends this weekend and there are currently no daytime visits until February 4, 2022. After Luminature, the zoo is in hibernation until February 4. I plan to visit in early February and I haven’t gone in two months by then, that’s the longest time I haven’t been to the zoo since April 2021.

The zoo will be open Friday-Sunday starting in February.
 
The zoo posted on Instagram that today is a red river hog's first snow day. The hog in question is named Wilhelmina and she is from the San Diego Safari Park. When did this hog come to the zoo?
 
CarLover said:
The zoo posted on Instagram that today is a red river hog's first snow day. The hog in question is named Wilhelmina and she is from the San Diego Safari Park. When did this hog come to the zoo?
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I have mentioned this quite a few times but when the zoo was down to one elderly female red river hog, Charlotte, Wilhelmina and one other female red river hog from SDZSP came last fall. I never actually knew the names of either the new hogs. For several months, Charlotte was showing signs of depression after the other two hogs died, so they searched for a new companion and in fact, they got two.
 
The other rrh is a male named Pork Chop, not a female. He's 9, Wilhelmina is 7.

A non-breeding pair of bush babies arrived last month. Their names are Akinlana and Runako, and they came from Busch Gardens.

The zoo will go back to being open every day on Feb 25th. They're currently closed until Feb 4th, and then will be open fri-sun Feb 4-20.
 
TinoPup said:
The other rrh is a male named Pork Chop, not a female. He's 9, Wilhelmina is 7.

A non-breeding pair of bush babies arrived last month. Their names are Akinlana and Runako, and they came from Busch Gardens.

The zoo will go back to being open every day on Feb 25th. They're currently closed until Feb 4th, and then will be open fri-sun Feb 4-20.
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The zoo already had bush babies for a few years, but they have only been kept on one side of the nocturnal hall. Since there is a second pair, will they now occupy both sides? And are the non-breeding pair old individuals since they are non-breeding?
 
Kevin2342 said:
The zoo already had bush babies for a few years, but they have only been kept on one side of the nocturnal hall. Since there is a second pair, will they now occupy both sides? And are the non-breeding pair old individuals since they are non-breeding?
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The impression the write up gave is these are the only bush babies they have. I have no idea.
 
I went to the zoo today on its second day of reopening, first time I have been there in two months.
I have some updates.
-First, in terms of the timber rattlesnake. I was able to talk to a reptile keeper, and unfortunately the black snake passed away about two months ago. He was off exhibit in October due to a cancer. However, he did not have the cancer for long and it was a new thing. Although he was on exhibit a little bit in November, he passed away shortly after. They wouldn’t tell me what treatment they used, but when I saw him in November his rattle was removed so I think he had cancer on his rattle and had surgery at one point. It could’ve spread to other parts of his body before he died, there is much unknown about cancer in reptiles. So anyone knows in future visits you will not see him again. The exhibit has been redesigned for the other snake, and it was in its typical log spot.
-Several reptile exhibits have been redesigned including the timber rattlesnake, cottonmouth and beaded lizard/desert tortoise exhibit. Some are in the process of redesigning like the eyelash gecko and splendid tree frogs.
-Mason, the Nigerian dwarf goat, is allowed back outside for the winter months since his allergies are better. He will still stay inside during the summer to prevent sunburn. However today due to the cold he chose to stay inside.
-During cold weather days, all the goats in the side yard are in the contact yard so they can go in if they want to. There was a locked door with a few goats in it since they wanted to stay in.
-Much less animals in African Plains, Bear Country, Water is Life and a few exhibits along the way due to the cold.
-Due to the weather, I heard Wings of Asia won’t be reopened until April.
 
Kevin2342 said:
I went to the zoo today on its second day of reopening, first time I have been there in two months.
I have some updates.
-First, in terms of the timber rattlesnake. I was able to talk to a reptile keeper, and unfortunately the black snake passed away about two months ago. He was off exhibit in October due to a cancer. However, he did not have the cancer for long and it was a new thing. Although he was on exhibit a little bit in November, he passed away shortly after. They wouldn’t tell me what treatment they used, but when I saw him in November his rattle was removed so I think he had cancer on his rattle and had surgery at one point. It could’ve spread to other parts of his body before he died, there is much unknown about cancer in reptiles. So anyone knows in future visits you will not see him again. The exhibit has been redesigned for the other snake, and it was in its typical log spot.
-Several reptile exhibits have been redesigned including the timber rattlesnake, cottonmouth and beaded lizard/desert tortoise exhibit. Some are in the process of redesigning like the eyelash gecko and splendid tree frogs.
-Mason, the Nigerian dwarf goat, is allowed back outside for the winter months since his allergies are better. He will still stay inside during the summer to prevent sunburn. However today due to the cold he chose to stay inside.
-During cold weather days, all the goats in the side yard are in the contact yard so they can go in if they want to. There was a locked door with a few goats in it since they wanted to stay in.
-Much less animals in African Plains, Bear Country, Water is Life and a few exhibits along the way due to the cold.
-Due to the weather, I heard Wings of Asia won’t be reopened until April.
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A rattle is dead tissue and can't have cancer. If you cut it open, there's nothing inside.
 
TinoPup said:
The impression the write up gave is these are the only bush babies they have. I have no idea.
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The bushbabies from Bush Gardens are Mohol? Or Garnett's? It would surprise me a little if BG has Mohol Bushbabies, but as mentioned Philadelphia has been keeping the species.

~Thylo
 
TinoPup said:
A rattle is dead tissue and can't have cancer. If you cut it open, there's nothing inside.
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There is not much known about cancer in reptiles. But that makes sense, that a rattle is dead tissue, even though I didn’t know that. If so, that wouldn’t be the case with cancer. Then the snake just naturally shedded his rattle like all rattlesnakes do. The keeper said he didn’t know what cancer the snake had, and he wouldn’t tell me the medical treatments they used since it’s on the vet side. All I know is that he’s no longer alive anymore. He was very old at 24.
 
I visited the zoo today.
-Titi monkeys are back on-exhibit. There is a new pair currently on exhibit and one of the old three is behind-the-scenes. The goal is to introduce all three monkeys together. The other two from the old three moved to a different zoo.
-The pair of bush babies that came a few years ago has moved to another zoo and the new pair is currently in quarantine. They will move into the same space the old pair was, on the left with the mother-daughter aye-aye pair.
-Petey Pete the meerkat, Mason the Nigerian Dwarf goat, a kangaroo and a red panda have all died within the past two months. The zoo has been so tough recently with so many old animals, plus a 24-year-old timber rattlesnake that also passed away a couple months ago as I mentioned.
-Petey Pete the meerkat passed away just a week or two ago. He was battling a short illness shortly before he passed away and he was euthanized. He would have been 15 on February 27th, which is five years away from the oldest meerkat recorded. The zoo still has five meerkats, who are a mob of siblings that are 8 years old.
-Mason the Nigerian Dwarf goat passed away a week ago. The cause of death however was not his allergies. He and Buckley, another Nigerian Dwarf goat have a history of health issues, but his were more severe. The only issue Buckley has is a history of is ongoing arthritis that has been worse as he got older. Mason however, had a history of an ongoing stomach issue that caused him to be uncomfortable over time. He still had arthritis, but like many of the goats is a newer old age thing. The stomach issue just kept reoccurring, but every time they would fix it with special care like feeding him smaller sized foods and he would bounce right back. However, recently the issue has gotten severely worse as he aged and spread throughout a much larger part of his body and couldn’t be fixed, although he was eating, he was in lots of pain. The kind decision was made to euthanize him to prevent him from suffering more. Mason left us too soon. He was older at 9, but could have lived much longer well into his teen years. A shame he left us since he had very restricted outdoor access until recently and was only allowed to come out at night before the weather got cold recently.
-The big cats mostly were not allowed to come out due to a wind advisory. However later in the day I saw two tigers but no other big cats.
-There is an avian flu epidemic and many outdoor birds who are suspectible are not out to eliminate contact with wild birds.
-One of the wattled cranes moved to a new zoo. The zoo still has one left.
-The sifakas are not on exhibit with a new male who came recently, he and the older female, Julia, live behind-the-scenes but come out on the trail when it’s warm enough.
-The mongoose lemurs have changed. The three males on-exhibit were fighting so Ernesto, the dad, moved to another zoo. Zoe, the daughter has also moved, so the zoo is left with mom, Natasha, her three sons Bert, Oscar and Grover, and Clara and Toby behind-the-scenes. I think all the offspring are given Sesame Street character names is since they are named after their father, Ernesto, as he’s called Ernie for short.
-I didn’t see the Solomon Island tree boa in the Reptile House, I am hoping he was just hiding, but it’s worrying. Also didn’t see the golden coin turtle for the first time in a while, and only one of the two black tree monitors. The boa is well into his 20s and the black tree monitors are almost 20 so it’s worrying if they are okay. Black tree monitors only live around 10-12 and 20s is very old for most snakes.
 
I visited the zoo today.
-The McNeil Avian Center is temporarily closed due to the ongoing avian influenza. All the outdoor birds are not on exhibit to eliminate contact with wild birds, and the only birds visible are Ecletus parrots in RACC, pigeons(you can see them if you look inside the windows) and Royal Palm turkeys and chickens(if you know where to look, if you look inside the windows of the KidZooU building you can see them, the turkeys are located near the restrooms and the chickens across from the duck pond which ducks are not currently visible due to avian flu)
-In the reptile house, I did actually see the Solomon Island boa and both black tree monitors, so they are all okay. They were probably just hiding last time. I still however did not see the golden coin turtle, or the crocodile lizard(which the lizard is almost always hiding.) I have not seen the golden coin turtle in the last two visits so if I do not see it in a couple more visits it’s concerning(although I do not know his age.) This time however I only saw one of the two Madagascar tree boas but I will probably see both next time.
-A lot more animals today due to the warmer weather. All the African Plains animals were out except the white storks(due to avian flu.) I managed to see the mhorr gazelle for the first time since late November when the temperatures started to go down.
-Currently for the winter months when the goats are all in the contact yard, Sheldon the Arapawa goat and Spunky the Saanen goat are separated from the other goats since Sheldon can be aggressive around people.
 
Kevin2342 said:
The McNeil Avian Center is temporarily closed due to the ongoing avian influenza. All the outdoor birds are not on exhibit to eliminate contact with wild birds, and the only birds visible are Ecletus parrots in RACC, pigeons(you can see them if you look inside the windows) and Royal Palm turkeys and chickens(if you know where to look, if you look inside the windows of the KidZooU building you can see them, the turkeys are located near the restrooms and the chickens across from the duck pond which ducks are not currently visible due to avian flu)
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I'll be visiting the Philadelphia area in April. Do you expect that the Avian Center will be open by then? If it's still closed, I'll need to reconsider which zoo(s) I'll visit when down there.
 
Neil chace said:
I'll be visiting the Philadelphia area in April. Do you expect that the Avian Center will be open by then? If it's still closed, I'll need to reconsider which zoo(s) I'll visit when down there.
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There's no way to know, since the closures are based on an epidemic. Any zoo you go to in the area is going to have their birds off exhibit.
 
I visited the zoo today.
-The gazelle/red river hog/stork enclosure in African Plains is under renovation. I hope they can redesign the exhibit back with long grass like it was a long time ago, as it’s a very old area
-Sheldon the Arapawa goat is now in the side yard. He is in there along with a couple of young Oberhasli goats(which are also troublemakers.) all the other goats that formerly lived there are now in the contact yard, although I did not see Milan and it’s very worrying since she is 15 years old.
-I finally saw the golden coin turtle in the Reptile House, so it’s still alive.
-In the reptile house, splendid tree frogs are back on exhibit. The eyelash gecko exhibit was recently redesigned but today it was covered up again(so I’m not sure what is going on.)
 
Kevin2342 said:
The gazelle/red river hog/stork enclosure in African Plains is under renovation. I hope they can redesign the exhibit back with long grass like it was a long time ago, as it’s a very old area
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Are these animals off exhibit then? If so, when do you forsee them back on exhibit?
 
Kevin2342 said:
They are off exhibit, and I have no clue to when they will be back. That space deserves to be renovated, it used to be a lot prettier with tall grass
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Okay. I was really hoping to see the mhorr Gazelle on my visit next month (my first time at Philly Zoo). Hopefully it'll be back on exhibit by then. I'm guessing the eclectus is still the only bird species on display?
 
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