Something similiar almost happens to a hippo in Taman Safari as well, but not a pingpong ball. A plastic filled with trash was literally thrown into it, which thankfully was discovered before any of it was swallowed.
Zoo Losses of Tragic Proportion
Something similiar almost happens to a hippo in Taman Safari as well, but not a pingpong ball. A plastic filled with trash was literally thrown into it, which thankfully was discovered before any of it was swallowed.
December 2019: A fire at African Safari Wildlife Park killed 10 animals: 10 animals were killed in a fire at the African Safari Wildlife Park in Ohio | CNN
The "Giant Eland Tragedy" situation created the loss of an opportunity for a viable giant eland population in North America: Giant Eland Left in North America
The "Giant Eland Tragedy" situation created the loss of an opportunity for a viable giant eland population in North America: Giant Eland Left in North America
The all but inevitable loss of Chapultapec Zoo's pandas is sad. They're down to one and after this one passes they will have to lease. It sounds like there is no interest in leasing.
Down to its last panda, Mexico ponders what could come next
Down to its last panda, Mexico ponders what could come next
North America in general is loosing their panda population, leasing or otherwise, so it seems. Shortly we will be down to Atlanta and National, with a rather uncertain future.
It has been a couple of years but in 2021 all the stingrays at ZooTampa and 7 out 10 African penguins at the Florida Aquarium died.
The Zoo eventually said it was due to a "supersaturation event" and ended up demolishing the whole touch tank area and are rebuilding it (to open this year). The aquarium never said what happened and quickly replaced the birds. The aquarium opened a decidedly terrible exhibit in early 2022, however they are planning (2024/5) a new large outdoor habitat.
news link
The Zoo eventually said it was due to a "supersaturation event" and ended up demolishing the whole touch tank area and are rebuilding it (to open this year). The aquarium never said what happened and quickly replaced the birds. The aquarium opened a decidedly terrible exhibit in early 2022, however they are planning (2024/5) a new large outdoor habitat.
news link
I also wouldn't call it "tragic" that North America may no longer have giant pandas in zoos. If anything, I'd argue the "tragic" part is that there are still multiple US zoos willing to take out $1.1 million a year loans from the CCP in order to keep pandas. Giant pandas are one species that I truly wish no zoos would invest in.
Fair enough and a reasonable opinion, even if I disagree.
What about Toronto?
Is it just because of the cost you think zoos shouldn't invest in them? Not arguing, just curious.
Corangurilla
Well-Known Member
Sent em to Calgary, then the pandemic happened and they couldn’t afford to keep them, so they went back to China.
Also the moral value of the cost. It'd be one thing if the money was all going to conservation efforts, but it's not. It's going to the Chinese Government, which isn't exactly transparent about where it is going. In the current day and age, I just don't think it's acceptable for the zoos to be sending that money without knowing what it going to be used for, especially not in light of what has been happening in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Everything surrounding the panda diplomacy situation is inherently political, and it simply just isn't something that I morally feel zoos should be wading into at the moment.
I still have my doubts whether or nor to trust their reasoning....
Nile Hippo Expert
Well-Known Member
This is an old post, but that is sadly not the case, 0.1 Mette at the Copenhagen Zoo unfortunately died in May that exact same way. The Detroit Zoo hippo that died in 1971 was named Barney, and his death after swallowing the ball made national headlines. Two female Nile hippos died this same way in at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1937 and 1954, the one in 1937 was discovered to have also swallowed pennies.
EliasNys
Well-Known Member
Some more tragic incidents I can think of:
-surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet but Prague's floods were devastating for the zoo. Elephants, hippos, a lot of animals died. I didn't even fully realize the extent of these floods until I saw the "flood poles". Also the zoo has plenty of signage around the zoo about the floods, for example in the old pachyderm house. Only due to the city coming to help with funding the zoo recovered eventually.
Blijdorp in the Netherlands also seems to have a lot of bad luck. Almost their entire hyena herd died. Asiatic lions died after incident. And the sea turtles... and the Malayan tapir.. I could go on with tragic incidents...
-surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet but Prague's floods were devastating for the zoo. Elephants, hippos, a lot of animals died. I didn't even fully realize the extent of these floods until I saw the "flood poles". Also the zoo has plenty of signage around the zoo about the floods, for example in the old pachyderm house. Only due to the city coming to help with funding the zoo recovered eventually.
Blijdorp in the Netherlands also seems to have a lot of bad luck. Almost their entire hyena herd died. Asiatic lions died after incident. And the sea turtles... and the Malayan tapir.. I could go on with tragic incidents...
Velas
Well-Known Member
Parque das Aves lost more than a 170 Chilean and Greater flamingos in 2021, due to a mother-son Jaguar pair that invaded their exhibit to hunt, with only four individuals remaining. Their flock was at the zoo since 1995 and had an amazing breeding sucess.
Altough my local zoo was the first and only in Brazil to have reproduced elephants, unfortunately the story with the species has been quite tragic, and might come to a sad ending:
The first African elephant bull that lived here, called Joca, died in his early 20's due to both tuberculosis and ingestion of plastic bottles thrown by the public in 1995.
In 2010, an African elephant call named Dandara died at 15 years old due to not being able to give birth to her first calf, who was a stillborn.
In 2021, another cow named Beré died at 46 years old due to a generalized infection due to both pulmonar and uterine infections, the latter which resulted due to problems with her very first pregnancy. If it weren't from these uterine problems, she probably could've had more sucessfull pregnancies.
And lastly, about a month ago, the last bull in Belo Horizonte, 29 year old Jamba, passed away in a cirurgical procedure made to treat a problem in one of his hind legs. This one really hurt me, as not only he was very dear to me, being part of my whole childhood and adolescence, but also because now the future of the species in Belo Horizonte is uncertain, due to only an elderly cow remaining here.
Altough my local zoo was the first and only in Brazil to have reproduced elephants, unfortunately the story with the species has been quite tragic, and might come to a sad ending
:The first African elephant bull that lived here, called Joca, died in his early 20's due to both tuberculosis and ingestion of plastic bottles thrown by the public in 1995.
In 2010, an African elephant call named Dandara died at 15 years old due to not being able to give birth to her first calf, who was a stillborn.
In 2021, another cow named Beré died at 46 years old due to a generalized infection due to both pulmonar and uterine infections, the latter which resulted due to problems with her very first pregnancy. If it weren't from these uterine problems, she probably could've had more sucessfull pregnancies.
And lastly, about a month ago, the last bull in Belo Horizonte, 29 year old Jamba, passed away in a cirurgical procedure made to treat a problem in one of his hind legs. This one really hurt me, as not only he was very dear to me, being part of my whole childhood and adolescence, but also because now the future of the species in Belo Horizonte is uncertain, due to only an elderly cow remaining here.
Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
Dudley zoo lost 65 Humboldt penguins out of the 70 to avian malaria in January 2022
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Strathmorezoo
Well-Known Member
Birdland, Bourton on the Water, lost at least 6 Humboldt penguins in 2022 because of avian malaria.
filovirus
Well-Known Member
Necro-quoting this to point out that this is unnecessary fear mongering.
B. anthracis isn't found in the air we breathe, but it is found (relatively frequently) in soil all over the world. It's a known problem with livestock and some years see a lot of hoofstock dying because of naturally-occurring anthrax infections; a 2024 outbreak in Wyoming saw over 50 animals die. I can't find a source for it but someone in the Chester Zoo 1964 thread suggests that the source in this instance was imported skins, which is extremely believable, and also not-at-all intentional or premeditated. Sometimes these things just happen. B. anthracis is an incredibly hardy sporulating bacteria and is able to survive for great lengths of time, at great distances, in extreme conditions. In zoos it's a particular problem in carnivores if meat isn't sourced properly. In 2014 two pumas died of anthrax at Kayseri Zoo in Turkey; they were likely infected by eating infected carcasses.
In Knoxville given that the animals impacted were primarily snakes I find it much more believable that there was some sort of food contaminant- an accidental toxin exposure- that impacted only some animals and not others. An environmental toxin would've likely led to all of the animals in the building dying (vs leaving 18 alive).
All of this disregards Occam's razor. What's more believable- that some food was contaminated, or there was a gas leak? Or that someone went out of their way to intentionally expose 34 animals to a toxin?
I don't mean to be super snarky, I just want to emphasize to folks reading this thread that sometimes disease- including accidental toxin exposures, including anthrax- just happens. It's tragic, but the vast majority of things do occur on some level in nature, and thus can make their way into a zoo.
Zoo and anthrax.
Plzen zoo first opened in 1926 directly on bank of local river Radbuza, in area called Doudlevce and was rather small in area. But it had some interesting animals at that time, including saigas etc. In autumn 1962, anthrax infection was found there and within short time majority of its animals died of it. The zoo was closed and never opened again at its original location. You can visit the original site, but it has only few ruins of original cages. Instead a brand new zoo was built in Lochotin area and opened in 1963 when it was just a construction site with few animals on show.
Plzen zoo first opened in 1926 directly on bank of local river Radbuza, in area called Doudlevce and was rather small in area. But it had some interesting animals at that time, including saigas etc. In autumn 1962, anthrax infection was found there and within short time majority of its animals died of it. The zoo was closed and never opened again at its original location. You can visit the original site, but it has only few ruins of original cages. Instead a brand new zoo was built in Lochotin area and opened in 1963 when it was just a construction site with few animals on show.
splendens
Well-Known Member
I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned the death of the last known female Yangtze giant softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) at the Suzhou forest zoo. None of the eggs she laid ever developed or hatched. She underwent an artificial insemination procedure and survived but later died the next day. Currently no known females of the species exist, and if none are found they will likely go extinct.