Saint Louis Zoo Saint Louis Zoo news 2008-2012

This is not the first we have heard of a zoo looking to acquire polar bears from the wild as Louisville has also expressed interest in this.Considering some of the drastic changes occurring in parts of the bears Arctic range.We would like to know how fellow zoo chatters feel about possible changes to the Endangered Species Act to allow zoos to rescue bears in certain scenarios.

Team Tapir
 
Yes in regards to polar bears and yes in regards to many other species. Considering the threats that polar bears face in the wild, the difficulty breeding them, and their proximity, it would be understandable for zoos to import rescued bears to try and establish a successful breeding program. It would not take be too difficult to transport the bears from Alaska, Canada, or Greenland. If I can recall correctly, all of the SDZ's zoos are rescues and a zoo in Texas just got a rescued polar bear cub. If zoos were to get permits to take polar bears from the wild, they would have to take precautions to make sure the most endangered individuals are taken. (i.e.: stranded cubs vs. adults in conflict due to human expansion)

As for other animals, the Endangered Species Act was to prevent individuals from importing endangered or threatened animals. Although, regulated institutions accredited by the AZA should be given permission to import these species or better preference in the permit-process to import species they really need faster. Historically zoos have taken animals from the wild to the point of devastating their wild populations, so zoos would have to take animals from the wild with the burden of proof that those individuals aid to conservation efforts that benefit to the species. Parts of the article seem that the actions of group of representatives go toward other species other than polar bears. Hopefully this will help speed the permitting of Indian gharials for importation into their SSP.
 
The polar bear is further protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This makes taking animals from the wild more difficult.
 
gerenuk said:
The polar bear is further protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. This makes taking animals from the wild more difficult.
Click to expand...

Ah! Forgot. Freaking overlapping legislature. So I guess permits for both would be required?
 
Addition to River's Edge

The zoo is advertising for contractors to begin work on construction. It is described as:

" the Saint Louis Zoo Rivers Edge Addition project. The project consists of new habitats for
3 animal species and will include a 3,650 sf building, site work, utilities, retaining walls, netting structures, viewing stations, artificial rockwork, and other thematic
elements."
 
Three species? What is the third? Andean bear and sun bear are the two I know about.

EDIT:

Nevermind, must be the fourth elephant yard being the third species.
 
Of course the fact that it is a free admission zoo makes high attendance numbers easier to achieve!

The fact that it is such a high quality zoo, probably in the top ten percent of the AZA, with zero admission income is simply mind boggling.
 
Ituri said:
Three species? What is the third? Andean bear and sun bear are the two I know about.

EDIT:

Nevermind, must be the fourth elephant yard being the third species.
Click to expand...

The third species to be added are African Wild Dog, a new species to the Zoo. They will be in an exhibit called Painted Dog Preserve, across from the Black Rhinos. It is mentioned here in this link, and also shows a rendering of the exhibit.

The Living Promise Campaign :: Saint Louis Zoo

Through a google search of African Wild Dog Saint Louis Zoo, it brought me to the Pangea Group. The link below shows a model of a meshed enclosure, possibly Sun Bear? There is no water feature in that model, making me think it is Sun Bear, because in the Andean Bear Exhibit rendering and description, it says there will be a water feature as well as underwater viewing.

http://www.pangea-group.com/engineering-projects.shtml#zoo1
 
If the mesh exhibit is for sun bears it look like there are two exhibits. The uner water viewing for andean bears must be a first.
 
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