San Diego Zoo Safari Park San Diego Safari Park News 2021

Three Milky Storks have hatched! The national population for this species stand around 24 individuals spread across both San Diegos. More information from the article attached:

“The Safari Park’s breeding program is focused on the latter. In March, the park received the last milky storks in North America not already under the care of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — eight birds from the Audubon Zoo of New Orleans. Those new arrivals joined six storks at the Safari Park in a large enclosure meant to mimic their native mangroves, lush with trees and long grass and ponds packed with papyrus and cattails. The ponds are stocked with live fish for the storks to hunt. Wild frogs and snakes have snuck in, but that’s just fine, Tibbott, says, as the storks enjoy snapping them up, too.

It didn’t take long for the birds to start pairing up, with males and females preening one another and clicking their bills at each other — a stork’s way of greeting and courting a potential mate. Around late May, one female began laying eggs, all three of which hatched between June 21 and 23. For now, each chick is essentially a cloud of white feathers with a black bill and an insatiable appetite for regurgitated food from its parents. In about a month, they’ll make their first forays outside their nest. It’ll take them longer to learn how to fly and to acquire their characteristic yellow bill and red head. An adult milky stork stands about 3 feet tall and can live up to 30 years or more in captivity.

There are seven other milky storks at the zoo, including a chick that hatched earlier this year. All of them will likely join the Safari Park group later this summer. The birds will be in a part of the park guests generally don’t have access to, where keepers care for a number of endangered bird species. And while that means you probably won’t see these storks any time soon, Tibbott says, the work of preserving this embattled species will quietly continue.”

Full article: There are only 24 of these storks in North America. The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park have all of them
 
WhistlingKite24 said:
Three Milky Storks have hatched! The national population for this species stand around 24 individuals spread across both San Diegos. More information from the article attached:

“The Safari Park’s breeding program is focused on the latter. In March, the park received the last milky storks in North America not already under the care of San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance — eight birds from the Audubon Zoo of New Orleans. Those new arrivals joined six storks at the Safari Park in a large enclosure meant to mimic their native mangroves, lush with trees and long grass and ponds packed with papyrus and cattails. The ponds are stocked with live fish for the storks to hunt. Wild frogs and snakes have snuck in, but that’s just fine, Tibbott, says, as the storks enjoy snapping them up, too.

It didn’t take long for the birds to start pairing up, with males and females preening one another and clicking their bills at each other — a stork’s way of greeting and courting a potential mate. Around late May, one female began laying eggs, all three of which hatched between June 21 and 23. For now, each chick is essentially a cloud of white feathers with a black bill and an insatiable appetite for regurgitated food from its parents. In about a month, they’ll make their first forays outside their nest. It’ll take them longer to learn how to fly and to acquire their characteristic yellow bill and red head. An adult milky stork stands about 3 feet tall and can live up to 30 years or more in captivity.

There are seven other milky storks at the zoo, including a chick that hatched earlier this year. All of them will likely join the Safari Park group later this summer. The birds will be in a part of the park guests generally don’t have access to, where keepers care for a number of endangered bird species. And while that means you probably won’t see these storks any time soon, Tibbott says, the work of preserving this embattled species will quietly continue.”

Full article: There are only 24 of these storks in North America. The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park have all of them
Click to expand...
It seems this must be a good omen for breeding the storks.
 
Visited the park today and have a couple updates:
  • Like expected, there are a bunch of baby hoofstock in the savanna! I personally saw Cape buffalo, Sable antelope, Grevy’s zebra, nyala, and Soemmerring’s gazelle calves but there is a really good chance other species have reproduced recently as well.
  • There was a baby Nubian Ibex in the nursery, I'm really glad to see that the park is continuing to breed this magnificent (and quite rare) species! I also saw a baby bontebok with the Nubian Ibex kid, and there was also signage for Nile Lechwe and Red-flanked duiker calves but they were both no-shows.
  • There was also a new female Southern pudu fawn, she was born just a couple weeks ago and is very adorable!
  • I also saw a couple Chacoan peccary piglets, I'm not sure how old they are but they looked to be a couple months old.
  • At Africa Woods, both the bontebok and giant eland were off exhibit and they had removed the signage for both species.
  • Our tour guide for the Africa Tram said that the Rhino Rescue Center is currently home to 5 adult female Southern White Rhinos, but I'm pretty sure there are 6 of them. So either the tour guide was mistaken or one of the girls has sadly passed away recently.
  • Arthur, the hand-raised Southern White Rhino calf, is doing great at the Rhino Rescue Center and seems to have integrated well into the crash.
  • Our tour guide also said that the park is "taking a break" from breeding Roan antelope, and that's why all the males are seperated from the females. I didn't necessarily see any youngsters either so I hope the park isn't planning to phase out the species as I don't think they are too common in US zoos and are a beautiful antelope species.
 
Animals R AMAZING! said:
Our tour guide also said that the park is "taking a break" from breeding Roan antelope, and that's why all the males are seperated from the females. I didn't necessarily see any youngsters either so I hope the park isn't planning to phase out the species as I don't think they are too common in US zoos and are a beautiful antelope species.
Click to expand...
I’m not too worried because Omaha (another breeding giant) has a heard.
 
Animals R AMAZING! said:
.
  • At Africa Woods, both the bontebok and giant eland were off exhibit and they had removed the signage for both species.
Click to expand...
That marks the end of the giant eland on display at the safari park then. I knew it was supposed to happen before the end of the year. I was hoping they’d last long enough for me to see them again in a few months. The bontebok are just moving behind the scenes to be managed there.


Westcoastperson said:
I’m not too worried because Omaha (another breeding giant) has a heard.
Click to expand...
Kifaru Bwana said:
I would be given that SD-WAP has the space to exhibit a herd of giant eland.
Click to expand...
Omaha has a herd of sable not roan, which is what that post was referring to @Kifaru Bwana ”giant breeder”, as in breeds a lot of animals. The safari park is, indeed, taking a break from breeding roan (and other animals), but they are not phasing them out. They are no longer free breeding their herds and will instead be implementing a more intensive management style to ensure that the populations are sustainable and are not having booms and busts, which is what got a lot of the hoofstock populations in the situations they’re in currently.
 
Last edited:
Kudu21 said:
That marks the end of the giant eland on display at the safari park then. I knew it was supposed to happen before the end of the year.
Click to expand...
That's really unfortunate, I'm really glad I got to see them one last time a couple weeks ago. Are there any other holders of giant eland in the US left?
Kudu21 said:
The safari park is, indeed, taking a break from breeding roan (and other animals), but they are not phasing them out. They are no longer free breeding their herds and will instead be implementing a more intensive management style to ensure that the populations are sustainable and are not having booms and busts, which is what got a lot of the hoofstock populations in the situations they’re in currently.
Click to expand...
That's good to hear, with the park phasing out so many of their hoofstock species I was pretty worried that they were going to phase out roan as well. Hopefully, they are sucessful with the intensive management and are able to create a much more sustainable population for the rest of their hoofstock!
 
Westcoastperson said:
Ah sorry my bad. Shame about the eland, I was planning on taking a trip to the Safari park in the coming weeks and hoped to see them. Are they just behind the scenes for breeding or are they gone forever?
Click to expand...
When I saw them a couple weeks ago, there were only a couple (maybe 3 or 4) so it's likely that the remaining animals recently passed away or are being sent away.
 
@Westcoastperson and @Animals R AMAZING! — The giant eland are gone-gone. They’ve been working on sending all of their remaining animals out. There is a male at the zoo, so if you go to the zoo you can still see one. Otherwise, Miami has a couple of females and the African Safari Wildlife Park in Sandusky, Ohio has some (the company that runs it owns all of them), but that’s it.
 
Kudu21 said:
@Westcoastperson and @Animals R AMAZING! — The giant eland are gone-gone. They’ve been working on sending all of their remaining animals out. There is a male at the zoo, so if you go to the zoo you can still see one. Otherwise, Miami has a couple of females and the African Safari Wildlife Park in Sandusky, Ohio has some (the company that runs it owns all of them), but that’s it.
Click to expand...
Might I ask why the phase out? Also if the ones at the Safari park will be replaced
 
Westcoastperson said:
Might I ask why the phase out? Also if the ones at the Safari park will be replaced
Click to expand...
Politics— The owner is notoriously difficult to work with, and after years of fighting an ultimatum was given and they didn’t agree to the terms, so the safari park and Miami have made the decision to phase them out. Their exhibit will become a new home for different species.
 
Kudu21 said:
Politics— The owner is notoriously difficult to work with, and after years of fighting an ultimatum was given and they didn’t agree to the terms, so the safari park and Miami have made the decision to phase them out. Their exhibit will become a new home for different species.
Click to expand...
Sounds similar to a very large country in Asia also fighting with the San Diego zoo, what a shame we have these monopolies on animals. Well, I hope they are replaced by the time I make my trip.
 
Ituri said:
Wouldn’t the San Diego animals have gone to IAE?
Click to expand...
Yes, they are all being returned— Well, most — I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the older females stay behind due to the danger of shipping older animals. The last male at the zoo will also stay. Some of the younger females are on display at the African Safari Wildlife Park already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top