San Antonio Zoo San Antonio Zoo News & Updates 2021

nczoofan said:
Jaguars, B’alam and Arizona are moving to the Roosevelt Park Zoo during the renovation. The zoo had been looking for a zoo to quickly take them, so they could begin and finish the project this year. The pair is expected to return once construction is completed.
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Hopefully, they can act as advocates for jaguar reintroduction project in Texas on return home.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Hopefully, they can act as advocates for jaguar reintroduction project in Texas on return home.
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Almost 0 chance of that. I mean personally I would prefer the state and feds focus on connecting the existing ocelot population, potentially spreading their range farther East in the Rio Grand Valley (which is what they are currently doing). Also the mountain lion is slowly expanding east from what I know. Their should be some adequate territory for this in the hill country and the rest of the border counties. But for Jaguars their is neither the appetite or suitable land in Texas along the border to support a larger population. I mean the issue with Texas is it is 96% private land, which makes many things conservation wise difficult (compared to the other border states that are about 50% federal land on average).
 
I know what dear @nczoonfan and @Arizona Docent are getting at and underlining the realities on the ground. However, I am sure that while underlining this jaguar reality may never happen, it goes to show where there is a fundamental disconnect between conservation needs within the state and socio-cultural divisions existing preventing this from going forward. BTW: this idea is propelled into the limelight by Luke Hunter from the Panthera organisation when retweeting a WCS project (published on Twitter May 11).
LINK:
A) https://twitter.com/DrLukeHunter
B) Now is the Time to Think about Reintroducing Jaguars into the U.S.

Please note, this observation and rationale was thoroughly supported by Texas representatives of the DoW coalition and that the SW US needs to have that conversation some time sooner than later.

Equally, and this is where I agree and hope first fundamental change may and will happen is getting mountain lions back into Texas. The comments made over ocelot distribution and reestablishment eastwards are certainly interesting and actually indicate that the Federal State of Texas like various other southern states (Arizona-New Mexico) are in an overlapping faunal zone with Meso American fauna. This reality pre-existed ... and faunal elements like ocelot and jaguar actually were part of Texas range before their extirpation.
 
Link A from @Kifaru Bwana above shows Luke Hunter (Panthera) tweeting a link to the article shown in Link B, which is a proposal from conservation groups. It is interesting that Luke Hunter would promote this because the former head of Panthera, the late Alan Rabinowitz, opposed it.
 
Arizona Docent said:
Link A from @Kifaru Bwana above shows Luke Hunter (Panthera) tweeting a link to the article shown in Link B, which is a proposal from conservation groups. It is interesting that Luke Hunter would promote this because the former head of Panthera, the late Alan Rabinowitz, opposed it.
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Out of interest: Why did Alan Rabinowitz oppose the idea and/or project?
 
Arizona Docent said:
Link A from @Kifaru Bwana above shows Luke Hunter (Panthera) tweeting a link to the article shown in Link B, which is a proposal from conservation groups. It is interesting that Luke Hunter would promote this because the former head of Panthera, the late Alan Rabinowitz, opposed it.
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I mean Texas isn't even part of this proposal, for good reason. The link by the WCS lays out that the majority of the Arizona/New Mexico potential reintroduction area is public land. Arizona and New Mexico overall being 45% federally owned. WCS even knows how untenable it would be to try to do such reintroductions in Texas.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Out of interest: Why did Alan Rabinowitz oppose the idea and/or project?
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Center for Biological Diversity (I forget if they were joined by other groups) sued US Fish & Wildlife to create a jaguar recovery plan, which is the one mentioned in the article that goes from Interestate 10 south. They only created that plan because the lawsuit forced them to. At the time the suit was still in progress (if I remember correctly) Alan Rabinowitz came out to southern Arizona and concluded the area was not needed for jaguar recovery since their primary range is in Latin America. He felt the effort was diverting time and money from US Fish & Wildlife that could be spent better on projects supporting species that are endemic to the United States.
 
Thanks for your responses and Dr. Rabinowitz's position is one of setting priorities for conservation. I believe that in recent times (since mid 1990's) reports have come in of jaguars frequenting parts of the former US range (I am sure that @AD can confirm or deny this to be a reality).

Whereas Texas is not in the current project proposal remit, the historical range of jaguar in the southern US paints a different pictures. See the graphs and population study below.

Historical range of jaguar in US:
http://population-dynamics-of-jaguars.weebly.com/uploads/4/3/2/2/43225617/3020191.jpg?290

Jaguar population and density study:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ion_-_Application_to_the_jaguar_Panthera_onca
 
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Visited a few days ago. I only spent like 2.5 hours there and I swung by after visiting the San Antonio Museum of Art. The museums only 10 mins from the zoo and has an excellent collection of Asian and Latin American art. Definitely would recommend if you are in town. But back to the zoo
  • The zoo's mask mandate has been removed. As well one way movement in Cat grotto, the aquarium, and the reptile house has ended.
  • Construction walls have gone up for the jaguar expansion. Not to much work yet although I believe they were relocating utility lines today.
  • Red River Hog have replaced the pair of bat-eared fox across from the Africa Live aviary.
  • Several exhibits in the bird cage rows were being renovated. This includes the second wreathed hornbill exhibit, which held an older chick. I imagine this bird has been relocated.
  • African lungfish have been added to the aquarium building.
  • The young Komodo dragon in the reptile house has been replaced by a Cuban Rock Iguana. Today I noted slender glass lizard and Northern Alligator Lizard (Barisia ciliaris) as new species on display.
  • The most exciting news though is the zoo is launching a capital campaign soon. Right now its in the private phase as it will remain until probably late 2022/early 2023, when they hope to have fundraising mostly done. This should be its largest campaign ever and will focus on developing and connecting the existing zoo with the undeveloped 12 acres across the highway. I don't know much more than that atm.
  • In the meantime the zoo is not stopping with smaller enhancements to the existing zoo. Up next is a brand new train for the railway through the surrounding park and a renovation to Tinytots Nature Spot. This will include renovations to the discovery house and construction of a permanent butterfly house, to replace the temporary structure in front of the aquarium.
 
Also just wanted to provide some examples of how the zoo has renovated exhibits in recent years. The zoo does has not had massive resources but has spent millions replanting and replacing concrete across the zoo. Here are a few examples to showcase this.

Andean Bear (top image 2010 then housing grizzly bear)
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White Rhinoceros (Top image 2010: then housing black and white rhino, bottom two 2021)
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Addra Gazelle mixed with grey crowned crane and guineafowl (top image around 2011)
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Giant Anteater (top image 2010 when housing Addax)
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nczoofan said:
Also just wanted to provide some examples of how the zoo has renovated exhibits in recent years. The zoo does has not had massive resources but has spent millions replanting and replacing concrete across the zoo. Here are a few examples to showcase this.

Andean Bear (top image 2010 then housing grizzly bear)
full


full


White Rhinoceros (Top image 2010: then housing black and white rhino, bottom two 2021)
full


full


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Addra Gazelle mixed with grey crowned crane and guineafowl (top image around 2011)
2008%2BC.jpg


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Giant Anteater (top image 2010 when housing Addax)
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Wow! Nice reconstruction Especially the giant anteater exhibit and addra gazelle exhibit is unrecognizable.
 
Visited this week. It was a short visit (like 2.5 hours) because of the crazy high temperatures but was happy to see the zoo busy. Since it's Texas summer my game plan is to visit before it hits 90 degrees :cool: But here are just a few updates. Not too much to note this visit
  • As always I didn't see the hyena pair. The pair seem to almost never leave there nighthouse.
  • Laotian Warty Newt have been added to the empty display in Amphibia (A lifer for me).
  • The guira cuckoo and boat billed heron from the Amazonia aviary have been relocated to the row of bird cages.
  • Red-rumped agouti (previously in Amazonia) have moved to the previously empty hoofstock yard next to the lory walkthrough. They were housed with crested guineafowl.
  • The crowned hornbill sign is still up in Africa live but the exhibit houses Von Der Decken's Hornbill I believe.
  • The Chilean flamingo are no longer in one of the larger moated bird displays. The flock seemed smaller and was housed in one of the smaller displays with black-crowned crane replacing them.
  • Its peak nesting season at the zoo for the wild birds. Hundreds of cattle egret and great egret were nesting over the flamingo pond. Made for a great smell :rolleyes:
 
Oh I forgot to mention that in yesterday’s post. They were putting up the tiger yesterday. I can’t wait til the plants grow even more to block out the structure but the animals look great on it.
 
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