San Francisco Zoo San Francisco Zoo News 2018

Chimpangeek said:
She Jillian was housed with her mother at the SF Zoo until she left a year ago at age 4, and was in close proximity to her father as well. I wonder if the lack of companionship/socialization was challenging for her and caused her stress? Or maybe Sacramento Zoo wasn't giving her enough enrichment?
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Jillian was assigned to the B-grotto today. Saw her exactly once just before the zoo closed for the day, for about a minute. She stuck her head out and then decided to head back inside after seeing people. Had a chance to speak with a keeper who said she almost only comes out at night, and spends the day sleeping in her night house. Acclimatization is a slow, ongoing process.

Ana, the zoo's new female snow leopard, is nearly full term pregnant. They're expecting her to give birth any day now. She has complete access to the night house and the yard. Raj, now "Jimmy G.", has been moved up to the Feline Conservation Center until sometime after the birth.

The zoo's howler monkeys are now off exhibit because of "animal management", and the lone siamang has access to both spaces now. I didn't see how he could access the new addition.
 
TheEthiopianWolf03 said:
I think they should just give the lone siamang to Oakland as they already have two. Isn’t the species very social?
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Gibbons are maintained pair-wise and to introduce another unrelated individual into an existing pair bond is not a good thing. (one could consider that positively suicidal or husbandry malpractice if done). So, a definite negative all around.
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Gibbons are maintained pair-wise and to introduce another unrelated individual into an existing pair bond is not a good thing. (one could consider that positively suicidal or husbandry malpractice if done). So, a definite negative all around.
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Well In that case is the zoo just trying to phase the species out? If there’s only one wouldn’t that make the animal depressed?
 
Buldeo said:
Jillian was assigned to the B-grotto today. Saw her exactly once just before the zoo closed for the day, for about a minute. She stuck her head out and then decided to head back inside after seeing people. Had a chance to speak with a keeper who said she almost only comes out at night, and spends the day sleeping in her night house. Acclimatization is a slow, ongoing process.

Ana, the zoo's new female snow leopard, is nearly full term pregnant. They're expecting her to give birth any day now. She has complete access to the night house and the yard. Raj, now "Jimmy G.", has been moved up to the Feline Conservation Center until sometime after the birth.

The zoo's howler monkeys are now off exhibit because of "animal management", and the lone siamang has access to both spaces now. I didn't see how he could access the new addition.
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I was told the Howler Monkeys would be moved to the Puente Exhibit aviary.
The remaining Siamang is in his 40s so I’d say the zoo will want to keep him since moving would be stressful.
The zoo plans to do a major renovation of the Primate Discovery center, so it’s llikely the zoo won’t expand its current collection until the renovation is complete
 
Aside; the SF siamang pair is well represented within AZA zoos. They are more or less mated for life. There is also the SSP studbook to consider.

Oakland Zoo still hold a brother pair???
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Aside; the SF siamang pair is well represented within AZA zoos. They are more or less mated for life. There is also the SSP studbook to consider.

Oakland Zoo still hold a brother pair???
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Yeah Oakland still holds a brother pair. That’s how they work with many of their animals hence the lack of breeding news from some of the animals (Lions, Bats, Siamangs,etc). I’m not saying that Oakland zoo is not trying hard enough but it feels weird being excited for even one baby animal or two in the whole year being born at Oakland zoo that’s not a baboon every time where as zoos like Woodland park or San Diego have breeding success almost every few months. This is only a minor complaint and I still think my home zoo is my favorite.
 
Chimpangeek said:
I was told the Howler Monkeys would be moved to the Puente Exhibit aviary.
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Which could be a good location for them. The aviary will need some work obviously, but it could be a good spot. Especially if they take over both sides.

Chimpangeek said:
The zoo plans to do a major renovation of the Primate Discovery center, so it’s llikely the zoo won’t expand its current collection until the renovation is complete
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I don't necessarily want to them to expand their collection so much as to make a decision -- what is the area going to be? And it shouldn't require pulling teeth either. Management may think they're keeping state secrets, but they're not.

That said, I've heard the same. Except that the renovation won't occur until the remaining chimps pass on.
 
I just took a quick trip to San Francisco zoo today morning and uploaded some of my better pictures onto the site. A few things I noticed during the trip...

The trail going to the snow leopard’s exhibit was closed for some odd reason. Most likely because of the recent births.

Black bears were play fighting today which was very interesting to see up close.

I saw the new Komodo dragon exhibit which was a huge upgrade from the trashy exhibit the lone male used to have. Looks like they’re doing something with the old exhibit and the aviary next to it as there was a bit of construction going on.

I heard there was a new fossa but I couldn’t find it anywhere so I just skipped it.

I also didn’t even know about the Pudus at the zoo. Are they new?


I was going to photograph the wolverine but I just missed it as I was going to the exhibit.


The pied tamarins were very active today. They came up to my camera and looked and tried to grab it as well. Unfortunately I couldn’t photograph them since they run the second I’d reposition for a good shot. Eventually I just gave up and left for the day.
 
Turns out that the old dragon exhibit is now a Californian conservation corridor. This exhibit houses western pond turtles and red legged frogs from what I’ve heard so far. There’s very little information so if anyone can visit the zoo and check it out that would be very helpful. It might also look like the aviary is now a dragonfly pond exhibit but I’m still unsure.
 
A lot of changes at the SF Zoo will be taking place.

The Primate discovery center Primate ensloures closest to lemur forest will be demolished and replaced with the “Madagascar center” featuring a Fossa exhibit, Madagascar rainforest exhibit with other native Madagascar species

The Francois Langurs, howlers, squirrel monkeys, Colobus monkey and siamang will be moved to other exhibits throughout the zoo

The Ape expansion will eventually extend into the big indoor glass building via an overhead walkway.

The snow leopard exhibit will expand in the direction of the hippo exhibit and eventually a whole new exhibit next to the bobcat grotto enclosure
 
Buldeo said:
This is all anecdotal, but when I had occasion to visit Sacramento, Jillian spent the entirety of the day in the back of her exhibit, near the night house door, and as soon as it was open, she was inside.

The rest of the cats spent more time roaming throughout their exhibits. And while I'm not fond of San Francisco's cat grottoes, they are leagues better than what Sacramento is working with*. I don't have exact figures, but I am almost certain that it barely meets AZA's current requirements.

I sort of feel bad too, after saying that Sacramento shouldn't have big cats given their current space restrictions.

* - There is an empty exhibit space between the anteater and snow leopards that could be repurposed for an exhibit extension. It's currently walled off so the zoo might already have plans for it.
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While I definitely agree the zoo should use the old hyena exhibit to give there snow leopards and giant anteater more space, I'm happy happy to report that they'll at least be using the no-longer-in-use tiger habitat to double the space of the currently very small lion habitat. Do I think the lions need even more space? Definitely, but it's at least a start.
 
Back from drowning in schoolwork which might render me unable to do much on the site until maybe winter break. Glad to see SF zoo coming up with an interesting plan for the future. Seems that a few of the bigger zoos in Northern California are making some very nice changes and plans. If only one particular zoo would do the same...
 
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