Riverbanks Zoo and Garden Riverbanks Zoo News

This really stings after Greenville also lost both of their boys this year. Both zoos have plans for improved lion exhibits, yet none of their longtime male residents will get to enjoy them. It's really sad.
 
On September 12th, the zoo announced that 2+ black tree monitors hatched which are on display in the Aquarium & Reptile Conservation Center's nursery exhibit. This is the first successful hatching of the species at the facility.

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden

On October 1st, the zoo announced they closed the gardens and the West Columbia entrance to the public due to Hurricane Helene, though the zoo is still open.

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden
 
Any news from the breeding group of Galapagos giant tortoises since their former breeding male Abrazo left for Philadelphia Zoo to breed with their 2 female Chelonoidis porteri females (FF Mommy and Little Girl)? New attempts at breeding with the other male Bravo and the two females Conchita and Alberta? Eggs laid or any new hatchlings since 2019?

Would also appreciate any news about how things are getting on at Philadelphia Zoo with the 1.2 breeding group!
 
Just left the zoo, minor notes:
  • The Australian aviaries were all empty. Not sure if they're doing something with this area or if this was just a routine maintenance/caregiving thing.
  • There seemed to be a lot of species I didn’t recognize in the aquarium (5-6 or so), but I’m not the best with aquatics so I’m not totally positive on most of them. I can say for sure that the Japanese spider crab was new, at least. I didn’t take notes of what all may have been new but off the top of my head I recall Y-bar shrimp goby and a filefish species, but maybe these have been there idk
  • The last terrarium I’d previously noted as connected to the revamped Komodo dragon area is now inhabited by a snake. I am very phobic of snakes so I try to make a point to not retain any information on them so I couldn’t tell you what it was. Some kind of python, maybe? Nothing that struck me as rare sounding, at least.
  • Crested wood partridge were back in the myna/broadbill exhibit after what feels like an absence of several years.
  • Prehensile tailed porcupine, toco toucan, and Hamadryas baboon were all off exhibit. The former two had no signage (although the Conservation Outpost changes theirs as needed with their exhibit rotations so that one makes sense).
 
Astrotom3000 said:
That list is correct, I posted a species list of Riverbanks shortly after my visit which you can view here -> Riverbanks Zoo and Garden Species List and Review - May 2023 [Riverbanks Zoo and Garden].

I contend that the Conservation Outpost is the absolute worst part of the zoo and really needs a bulldozer as no amount of makeovers can make it look good. The idea that it once held large carnivorans like Hyenas and Cougars were kept in there is hard to swallow. Riverbanks is planning on expanding the zoo across the river to where the gardens are (but not replacing them), so I hope they can move the outpost residents into more modern enclosures and do something about the outpost. Even if the animals there are small species, the exhibits still feel way too small and cramped. It honestly feels like it's much older than it actually is.
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Astrotom3000 said:
That list is correct, I posted a species list of Riverbanks shortly after my visit which you can view here -> Riverbanks Zoo and Garden Species List and Review - May 2023 [Riverbanks Zoo and Garden].

I contend that the Conservation Outpost is the absolute worst part of the zoo and really needs a bulldozer as no amount of makeovers can make it look good. The idea that it once held large carnivorans like Hyenas and Cougars were kept in there is hard to swallow. Riverbanks is planning on expanding the zoo across the river to where the gardens are (but not replacing them), so I hope they can move the outpost residents into more modern enclosures and do something about the outpost. Even if the animals there are small species, the exhibits still feel way too small and cramped. It honestly feels like it's much older than it actually is.
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I heard that they do hope to bulldoze it at some point. Maybe after the bridge to the wild is completed.

My son (6 now) has been absolutely torn up ever since the binturong left a year or 2 ago. Animals are his very special interest and the binturong has been top of the list for a long time. A zookeeper told him (if i remember correctly) that the binturong was unhappy and not adjusting well to a diurnal schedule, so they sent it back to a zoo in Ohio (Cleveland? Cincinnati? It started with a c,) to be with its old keeper and hopefully reproduce with its old “girlfriend.”

My son wanted to know why they never tried moving the binturong to the middle of the tunnel instead of keeping it right next to the exit where it was bright. The zookeeper said it really needed a true night house and that they do hope to replace the conservation outpost with a night house as soon as they can get to a new project. And hopefully there would be a bintlet born in Ohio and they will send one back to us. (This is all my memory from what a zookeeper said about a year ago, so obviously I could have misunderstood or forgotten some details.)
 
SteamedVans said:
I heard that they do hope to bulldoze it at some point. Maybe after the bridge to the wild is completed.

My son (6 now) has been absolutely torn up ever since the binturong left a year or 2 ago. Animals are his very special interest and the binturong has been top of the list for a long time. A zookeeper told him (if i remember correctly) that the binturong was unhappy and not adjusting well to a diurnal schedule, so they sent it back to a zoo in Ohio (Cleveland? Cincinnati? It started with a c,) to be with its old keeper and hopefully reproduce with its old “girlfriend.”

My son wanted to know why they never tried moving the binturong to the middle of the tunnel instead of keeping it right next to the exit where it was bright. The zookeeper said it really needed a true night house and that they do hope to replace the conservation outpost with a night house as soon as they can get to a new project. And hopefully there would be a bintlet born in Ohio and they will send one back to us. (This is all my memory from what a zookeeper said about a year ago, so obviously I could have misunderstood or forgotten some details.)
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I hope this is true and actually something they want to work towards. That would be a dream come true.

I also never saw the binturong in probably more than a dozen visits during its tenure there. Once I saw it shuffling around in a crate, but it wouldn't have been enough to even make out which species it was if I didn't already know. I assume they didn't want to put it in the inner exhibits since it's a slightly smaller species than most of the others inside the outpost - the fishing cats occupy the next largest exhibit, and they can't easily move because theirs is set up to be flooded.

If your son is still dying to see a binturong (and who could blame him? they're a favorite of mine too!), consider checking out Eudora Wildlife Safari Park near Aiken. It shouldn't be terribly far from you and they have at least one individual in their walkthrough section that I saw over the summer.

Edit: I HOPE that if they're doing something with the Conservation Outpost, it will be able to be done parallel to the Bridge to the Wild stuff. That project is slated to take a decade to complete.
 
Whoops, rereading my post, I obviously meant that the binturong is slightly larger than the other inhabitants, which are mostly small primates. Makes sense that they wanted it in the largest available exhibit, but it's a real shame that it never seemed to work out.
 
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