I just wrote out what I thought was an essay - but it all got deleted while I was trying to post, so this might just be a condensed version of it!
I can take a photo of the set up for the naked mole rats the next time I'm at the zoo - but it's pretty limited (i.e. stuck behind the glass at the chameleon section). I wouldn't have known it was the naked mole rat exhibit if I didn't remember what it looked like downstairs from years back. I could be wrong (misremembering), but I believe it's also a smaller subset of the original set up.
I was there on Saturday - and I skipped the Indo-Malay pavilion this time, but one of the keepers elsewhere in the zoo confirmed it was just Sekali that was pregnant. That doesn’t mean Ramai isn’t as well
@Jefferson, maybe this keeper was just sticking the party line until it was announced.
Other observations:
Australasia – I didn’t watch the recent echidna Facebook live event – but does Annie share with the wombats? Both wombats were more active than usual while I was there and moving between the two “rooms” in that exhibit. After being asked for the 20th time by my son, I finally looked up the Komodo dragon’s name (thank you
@TZFan for your naming list), so won points for that. After reading these posts – I tried to find the old lion fish tank – is it the little circle one where they now have the jelly fish babies? It looks pretty small. The lion fish was visible in the big tank and looked as happy as a lion fish can look.
I did see six kangaroos out and about, and they were moving as a mob, so I wonder if they were just fed while I was there.
Eurasia – Mila was on her own inside at the Amur tigers and Vasili and Mazyria were moving about in their respective outdoor enclosures (with the doors open). It took me longer than I’d like to admit to figure out why I thought Mazy’s name was Mazy, while @TZFan’s naming list had it as Mazyria… not a brilliant moment for me to figure out the abbreviation.
I did speak to the Red Panda keeper who said Paprika would be out of quarantine in two weeks, and that Pemba would be another month which isn’t unexpected. It was a bit sad to see the big “animals off exhibit” sign by the snow leopards. Across the water (with the trees off the leaves) I saw the yaks for the first time from the walking path. I’ve only seen them once before from the zoomobile (and it was quickly at that). I could also see some sort of goat (mouflon?) in the drive-through area hovering by the fencing. I struggle to remember which is which, and tend to skip those exhibits. There were also 2-3 (can’t remember the exact number) of the horses out across the water.
The animals in Tunda were very active, which isn’t that surprising. Juno was trying to get to treats frozen in an ice block by picking it up and smacking it, and crunching it with her teeth (which you could hear through the class – which was both interesting and alarming at the same time). The boys were playing together up on the hill. On our last visit two of the polar bears (maybe Nikita and Aurora?) were cuddling in the cave just off the pool. This time they were hanging out separately in the enclosure off the pool.
I know that no one cares about the snow goose – but there are a lot more in the exhibit than usual this time (usually there is just the one?). Not sure why.
We were only there 4 hours this time, so we skipped Americas and the Domain (which I am a fan of! Although with the grizzlies down for the winter – we might skip it a little more until spring), as well as the Indo-Malay pavilion.
In Africa – we made our second visit to the penguins and the new exhibit looks nice. I thought I took a picture, but I must not have, so can next time. I struggle to call the zip ties (or similar) “branches”, for the penguins to build nests on their respective mats, but maybe they’re more durable than branches which would break. Both times they’ve had the interior doors open for them penguins to move in an out. All the carnivores were out. Fintan was putting on a show for the second visit in a row harassing one of the female lions, and the lone cheetah was very active in his(?) enclosure. Charles was out with the family in the main gorilla exhibit, although still looking pretty straggly. They have opened the walkways through the pavilion (I think since the vaccine mandate came out?), so you can see a lot more of the pygmy hippos, and the spoonbills and other birds. The red river hogs were outside again for the day.
The giraffe house looks pretty good. On Saturday only Mstari and Amani were out together, but two weeks ago they had Kiko in with them. He was apparently in the back. Mstari looks pregnant (as much as I could tell when a giraffe looks pregnant), and apparently it’s going well. Someone asked if there was any word or movements on an Amani transfer – but nothing official yet.
We walked through Indo-Malay on the way out. The tigers were out and about and pretty active. We skipped the pavilion, but did see Bucky in with the gibbons two weeks ago (which has already been reported). The rhino house looked in pretty good order. Two of the rhinos were still out in the exterior exhibit two weeks ago, but everyone was inside, with only one visible on Saturday.
Also – not to be bitter, but after seven years of German (and the occasional Swiss/French/Scandinavian, Czech and Polish) Christmas Markets, the Holiday Market was a little underwhelming. Hopefully it still draws people into the Zoo, but as a die-hard Christmas Market fan, I only spent a couple minutes there. I recognised Dolf there (not this trip, but the last trip) while he was opening it, but I felt it might be a bit over the top to say “hi – I recognise you from LinkedIn and Facebook Live events”.
