Rosamond Gifford Zoo Rosamond Gifford Zoo

Syracuse, N.Y. (September 4, 2013) – The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is pleased to announce the birth of a female Thorold’s white-lipped deer. Parents Fawn (mother) and Ty (father) welcomed the fawn on July 13. She is the pair’s first offspring.
The newborn was named Kaila by her keepers for Tibet’s Kailas mountain range, part of the Gangdisê Mountains where white-lipped deer are found in the wild. She weighed approximately 28 pounds at birth and has already doubled her birth weight.
“The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is thrilled to announce the addition of Kaila to our herd,” said Ted Fox, zoo director. “As one of only two accredited members of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums which breed white-lipped deer in the United States, this birth is significant to the North American population.”
White-lipped deer are native to Eastern Tibet, and are generally found on high hills and mountains. One of the largest deer species, they can reach six feet in length and weigh up to 600 pounds. White-lipped deer are herbivores and feed principally on grasses. Only males have antlers, which can grow to more than four feet in length and weigh up to 15 pounds each. Like reindeer (caribou), white-lipped deer make clicking noises with their hooves to keep the herd together in heavy snowfall. Their hooves are large and solid, which enable them to climb well. White-lipped deer are threatened in nature due to hunting, sale of their antlers and meat and habitat loss.
FUN FACT: White-lipped deer gain their name from the white markings in their deep brown summer coats, visible beneath the mouth and down the throat. In the winter, the brown coat is replaced by longer gray-brown hairs which make markings less obvious.
Kaila is currently on view with the herd in the white-lipped deer exhibit on the Wildlife Trail, across from Asian Elephant Preserve.
 
Arana, the first Hoffmann's two-toed sloth to be hand reared, has just gone on display. She was pulled when it appeared one of the other sloths was bent on hurting her. THeres also a younger sloth being parent reared at the zoo.

Baby sloth introduced at central NY zoo
 
I visited the Rosamond Gifford Zoo on a trip to upstate Ny. I really liked it and got to see many new species such as Patas Monkey, Big Hairy Armadillo, Guanaco, White Lipped Deer, and Fisher. Most of the exhibits were average to great. The tigers, hoof-stock and elephant exhibits all stood out. I will be posting a full review next week. One note was the adaptions section was closed for renovation.
 
zoo on tv

Monday 4/28 the RGZ was featured on Nat Geo Wilds Fish Tank Kings for the work they did on the zoos Giant Pacific Octopus exhibit. Currently it has been rerun a few times. Having personally seen the exhibit it is truly outstanding and features other fish and sea stars along with Ophelia the Octopus. RGZ is the only zoo in NY to currently have a Giant Pacific Octopus on display. I will try to get pictures soon of the new exhibit.
 
The plan looks amazing if they can pull it off, I nice blend of existing exhibits with many new experiences for longtime guests like myself. I would love for the gibbons to return to the zoo and mixed with otters is even cooler. The giraffes would be a big hit too, however one thing that bothers me with the new master plan is where is the penguin coast exhibit? It wasn't labeled but there was some "beach area" shown. Seems strange to close down an exhibit that is probably the biggest crowd pleaser, although they have had recent issues with leaks and keeping the water clear but it still seems silly to remove an exhibit that was so long in the making.
 
Does anyone find this flower of life plaza slightly disarming? Like its half the size of the elephant exhibit.

And this concession and retail area on wildlife trails. How can you build that into the steepest side of a drumlin with non-structural soils?
 
I'm sure the Plaza won't be quite as big as they are showing in the end, most of these plans never become what they originally start as. The Zoo originally planned to have Fur Seals with their Penguins and it was never done. As for the building on the trail if that is what it turns out to be could be built but it would take some careful engineering to pull it off. I wouldn't believe the firms they are working with would give them wrong info on what they could or couldn't build, going thru the slide show they presented it appears that they did a pre-planning where they went around and surveyed the current zoo to come up with future ideas. I'm hoping they go thru with most of these ideas to help better the zoo and make it better than ever. They are also in the process of creating a mini-master plan for the main building and indoor exhibits. Another interesting fact is the 30 Acres of land South of the Zoo where the old Syracuse Development Center was but is no longer being used. Possibly in the future the Zoo could acquire it to have an even greater expansion and could bring the zoos size to over 70 Acres.
 
A few changes and new additions at the zoo, visited Friday the 30th with my family. First off work is being done to renovate the Red Panda yard so they were moved to the woods area into the old red fox exhibit, and was fairly active. This is a good sign when they move him there permanently with the master plan. The fisher was also gone and replaces by one of the Chinese Muntjacs, not sure what happened to him but it could have passed since I believe it was old, should know when the next member magazine comes out.

The zoo also had a new Patas monkey born on May 17th and is currently on display with the rest. The zoo has had tons of success in a short amount of time with breeding them. I believe this is their fourth or fifth in about 4 years now.

And now for the biggest news, the zoo has recently added a new exhibit across from the swans and next to the Penguins for Blue Cranes from South Africa. The Zoo docent said they went on display the 29th and have a beautiful exhibit, pictures to come though the birds were shy in their house. This could be a good sign in the addition of the African themed area as they are an African species so a possible foreshadowing of things to come
 
Great review, I'm glad the zoo impressed you with some of their better exhibits. One small note, the zoo is actually about 60 acres in size, not all can be seen by guest however and can appear smaller. For a comparison Buffalo is in total 23 acres. Still not huge but a decent sized zoo.
 
I wouldn't say "no rarities" - as of a year ago this zoo had probably the only White-winged Vampire Bat in captivity [the last remnant of a colony of five,it was a female and would now be 18 if its still alive].
 
Tim Brown said:
I wouldn't say "no rarities" - as of a year ago this zoo had probably the only White-winged Vampire Bat in captivity [the last remnant of a colony of five,it was a female and would now be 18 if its still alive].
Click to expand...

I did not see it on, my visit. The exhibit appeared to be empty.
 
It is still there, I recently visited a week ago and it was in its usual place under the tree bark, but it is very hard to see
 
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