Zoo Miami Zoo Miami 2019

Kudu21

Kudu21

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
"Cita", a nearly 51-year-old female African elephant, has passed away after a confrontation with another elephant. From the zoo's Facebook page:

It is with great sadness that Zoo Miami reports that “Cita,” a nearly 51 year old female African elephant, died Friday evening shortly after having a confrontation with “Peggy,” another African elephant, where she was knocked down and was unable to recover. Cita underwent an extensive necropsy that included a variety of tests to help determine the cause death. Though the results of some of those tests will not be known for several weeks, there are some indications that a blood clot may have been a major contributing factor.

Being over 50 years old, Cita was suffering from a variety of age related issues that included a general loss of body condition, muscle wasting and advanced arthritis. It is believed that the combination of these issues contributed to Cita’s inability to stand after being knocked down by Peggy and eventually led to her death from a suspected thrown blood clot. Elephants are very social animals and have a strict hierarchy within their groups. Confrontations within those groups to reinforce an individual’s status are not uncommon. Unfortunately, because of Cita’s advanced age, Peggy’s effort to reinforce her dominance resulted in Cita being knocked down. The Zoo Miami team made several efforts to assist Cita while providing her with medications and other supportive measures to alleviate pain and stress but were unfortunately unsuccessful in getting her back on her feet.

Cita, and another female named Lisa arrived at Zoo Miami on April 19 th , 2016 from the Virginia Zoo. They joined our resident African elephants, Peggy and Mabel on the African elephant exhibit and were affectionately called “The Golden Girls” because of their advanced age (all in excess of 40) and the fact that Zoo Miami was where they would spend their retirement. Lisa died of a mesenteric torsion in August of 2017.

This is a very difficult time for the Zoo Miami family, as well as the staff and volunteers at the Virginia Zoo where Cita had lived for decades. This is especially difficult for the elephant keepers who have a very special bond with these magnificent and charismatic animals that they so passionately dedicate themselves to caring for.
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I visited the zoo today and can address a few topics from last year. There is a yard exhibit in the Asian loop that is currently empty with a sign that it will hold dholes in the near future. The Australia area appears slightly refreshed, one of the three yards is empty with a sign in the exhibit that whatever lives or will live there is not there...so perhaps it will be the rumored wombat.
 
Does anybody know where the kiwi exhibit is in Zoo Miami? Do they have a nocturnal exhibit for them?
 
DavidBrown said:
Presumably they intend to exhibit them? Maybe not, as San Diego and Smithsonian National no longer do.
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From the zoo's facebook page:

Zoo Miami is presently incubating a second egg that is expected to hatch within the next 9 days. Both chicks will remain out of public view for at least several months until their sex can be determined and a special area is created for them to become ambassador birds.
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:eek: Jesus. That's awful. Think the zoo will be conducting a review to ensure this doesn't happen again?
 
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