San Antonio Zoo San Antonio Zoo News 2016

Chlidonias said:
how do they know which eggs are female?
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Using a needle, zoo staff will extract blood from a certain vein in the egg. It is sent to a lab and the results are back within a week. It's a tricky process, puncturing the wrong area can result in the egg no longer developing.
 
wensleydale said:
Blind Catfish fish are coming to the Zoo:

Rare blind catfish coming to San Antonio Zoo | WOAI
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that's cool. There's more information on the press release by the University of Texas at Austin:
Rare, blind catfish never before found in US discovered in national park cave in Texas | EurekAlert! Science News
An extremely rare eyeless catfish species previously known to exist only in Mexico has been discovered in Texas.

Dean Hendrickson, curator of ichthyology at The University of Texas at Austin, identified the live fish, discovered in a deep limestone cave at Amistad National Recreation Area near Del Rio, Texas, as the endangered Mexican blindcat (Prietella phreatophila). The pair of small catfish, collected by a team in May, have been relocated to the San Antonio Zoo.

The Mexican blindcat, a species that grows to no more than 3 inches in length, is known to dwell only in areas supported by the Edwards-Trinity Aquifer that underlies the Rio Grande basin in Texas and Coahuila. The new blindcat finding lends additional weight to a theory that water-filled caves below the Rio Grande may connect the Texas and Mexico portions of the aquifer.

"Since the 1960s there have been rumors of sightings of blind, white catfishes in that area, but this is the first confirmation," Hendrickson said. "I've seen more of these things than anybody, and these specimens look just like the ones from Mexico."

Jack Johnson, a caver and National Park Service resource manager at Amistad, first spotted some of the slow-moving, pinkish-white fish with no eyes in April 2015. After several attempts to relocate the species, Johnson and biologist Peter Sprouse of Zara Environmental LLC led the team that found the fish again last month. Mexican blindcats are a pale pink color because their blood can be seen through the translucent skin, and they dwell exclusively in groundwater.

"Cave-dwelling animals are fascinating in that they have lost many of the characteristics we are familiar with in surface animals, such as eyes, pigmentation for camouflage, and speed," Sprouse said. "They have found an ecological niche where none of those things are needed, and in there they have evolved extra-sensory abilities to succeed in total darkness."

The Mexican blindcat was originally described in 1954 when found in wells and springs near Melchor Múzquiz in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila. It was subsequently listed as an endangered species by the Mexican government, and as a foreign endangered species by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hendrickson led efforts to locate additional blindcat sites in Mexico and Texas for years but only located them in Mexico on previous expeditions.

"Aquifer systems like the one that supports this rare fish are also the lifeblood of human populations and face threats from contamination and over-pumping of groundwater," Johnson said. "The health of rare and endangered species like this fish at Amistad can help indicate the overall health of the aquifer and water resources upon which many people depend."

The fish are not yet on public display. They will be maintained alive in a special facility designed to accommodate cave and aquifer species at the San Antonio Zoo's Department of Conservation and Research.

"The San Antonio Zoo has a series of labs specially designed to keep subterranean wildlife safe and healthy," said Danté Fenolio, vice president of conservation and research at the San Antonio Zoo. "The fact that the zoo can participate now and house these very special catfish demonstrates the zoo's commitment to the conservation of creatures that live in groundwater."

Others involved in the discovery were Andy Gluesenkamp and Ben Hutchins of Texas Parks and Wildlife, Gary Garrett and Adam Cohen of UT Austin and Jean Krejca of Zara Environmental.

The finding brings the number of blind catfish species within the U.S. to three, all found only in Texas. The two other species of blind catfish in Texas, the toothless blindcat (Trogloglanis pattersoni) and the widemouth blindcat (Satan eurystomus), live in part of the Edwards Aquifer complex, the deep Edwards pool below the city of San Antonio.
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lowland anoa said:
Another article about the Lucky and Nicole elephants and a surprise visit from an USDA investigator to see if action is required for the both elephants.

Complaint filed with feds against San Antonio Zoo over acquisition of new elephant - San Antonio Express-News
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What a load of shiny balls ... this is. One World Conservation is a local SA organisation that is said to deal with animal conservation in the broadest sense and advertising they are not against animals in captivity and with an intent on improving their animal husbandry.

Well if one looks at their website and checks it over ...., it is all about captive animals and tearful stories, most on SA Zoo ...! The only thing that comes near to animal conservation is a sorta monthly conservation heroes chapter - for which sadly over half are those involved in charities relating to captive exotics -. Nothing of the sort that makes it look like they are actually contributing to wildlife conservation in the field ...

Really have these local animal welfarist nothing better to do? :D

Now it is my vision that in future we no longer have to deal with something so obsolete and that is also wasting taxpayers' dollars that might have been better spent on conserving wildlife in the field.

Amen!
 
In two days, there will be an event from 6:00 to 9:00 pm where people will be encouraged to catch Pokémon with the ever-popular Pokémon Go app. Admission is $7 for non-members, and free for members. Longnecks Bar and Grill will be having a happy hour, while the train in Brackenridge Park will be running to help visitors incubate eggs.

Pokémon Go at the SA Zoo: San Antonio Zoo - San Antonio Zoo - Pokemon Go
 
Concept art for the new lion habitat was unveiled today: https://www.facebook.com/SanAntonioZoo/posts/10154184708371539:0
There aren't any articles yet, but from what I can see, not too much is changing. There will no longer be a moat. Lions and visitors instead will interact through glass walls, or with a game of tug-of-war with the lions. New graphics (lion range map) will also be included. The changes seem to be almost entirely on the visitor's side, though the lions will have more space that was once the moat. It will be open in October.

Currently, the lions and tigers are rotating through the tiger habitat- not ideal as some have to spend a lot of time inside.
 
For the first time, the SA Zoo has bred New Mexican Ridge-Nosed Rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi obscurus).

28 American flamingos also hatched recently.
 
re: lions - the habitat was recently upgraded from cement to natural substrate, so there really is not much more they need to do. The picture shows a solid wall of glass panels replacing the current open moat view. As a photographer, this makes the changes less appealing but for the general public I am sure they will love getting closer.

re: ridge nosed rattlesnake - it appears to be a cream color (amelanistic may or may not be the proper term).
 
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Do the giraffe currently share the exhibit with any other species? Will there be plans to integrate additional species?
 
ctfctf7 said:
Do the giraffe currently share the exhibit with any other species? Will there be plans to integrate additional species?
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I can't give you the most current of answers, but when I visited in June it was still frustratingly bare (aside from the giraffes). It had been open 6 or 7 months by then, and that's plenty for the animals to get adjusted. My dreams of seeing topi were crushed :(. There are plans to add other animals and I know topi is one of them.
 
jayjds2 said:
Record attendance occurred in the most recently measured 12 month period, with more than a million visitors. http://www.bizjournals.com/sananton...antonio-zoo-attracts-historic-crowds-and.html

To celebrate reaching 100,000 likes on their Facebook page, the zoo is giving away $100,000 worth of tickets.
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The attendance sounds accurate, yet those numbers are, in a way, distorted. Looking at the 2014 attendance, it shows 1.17 million visitors, and the record of 1.2 million reached this fiscal year.

One difference was that the first annual Zoo Lights, which ran 40 nights from November to January, was included in the attendance, and the zoo's Halloween celebration ZooBoo ran 2 weekends instead of just one as in previous years. These could possibly be the reason why an additional 80k visitors was included in the "record breaking" attendance.

With the zoo doing more after hours events, such as the Pokemon Go on Fridays in August, I am sure they'll reach another "record breaking attendance" next fiscal year.
 
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