Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens Zoo News 2013

The December 17 Commission Minutes have been posted. Meeting highlights include:

ROA is 95% complete, and there is discussion of a tentative grand opening for April during Spring Break.

Jaguar exhibit open bids were set for January; this month.

Mara the female hippo from Topeka Zoo was received, and is on quarantine exhibit.

Discussion was raised for establishing a permanent reindeer exhibit, but it was concluded that the climate was not suited for cold weather wildlife.

http://www.lazoo.org/about/commission/minutes/December2013Minutes.pdf
 
Reggie (alligator) is off-show while his exhibit is renovated. Look for him to be back in mid-February.

The Zoo placed 1.3 Western Gray Kangaroo on exhibit. They are from Cleland Wildlife Park in Oz.
 
Gulo gulo said:
Reggie (alligator) is off-show while his exhibit is renovated. Look for him to be back in mid-February.

The Zoo placed 1.3 Western Gray Kangaroo on exhibit. They are from Cleland Wildlife Park in Oz.
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Glad to hear that they've decided to exhibit Gray Kangaroos again.
 
Woodland Park Zoo announced that they will be sending a pair of lions (1.1) to Los Angeles in the next month. How is the lion exhibit looking these days? I remember it being terrible on my visit in 2008.
 
snowleopard said:
Woodland Park Zoo announced that they will be sending a pair of lions (1.1) to Los Angeles in the next month. How is the lion exhibit looking these days? I remember it being terrible on my visit in 2008.
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It is the same lion exhibit, sadly.

The LA Zoo very much needs new big cat exhibits, except maybe for the snow leopard exhibit. The jaguar and lion exhibits are terrible. The tiger exhibit is okay, but kind of small by modern standards.

There is a new jaguar exhibit on the near horizon (hopefully 2015 completion). No such luck for the lions - hopefully in the next round of master planning (and most importantly, funding) that has been mentioned by zoo management.
 
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What a great video! They reminded me of dogs sniffing each other in circles. And its impressive to still see Adhama flipping around like that as such a big boy. Reminded me of the videos San Diego shared of him when he was a baby frolicking around the exhibit with mom.
 
I talked to the hippo keeper at the San Diego Zoo today about Adhama and Mara and asked if they were going to breed them. He said Adhama is still too young but Mara is on birth control. But our female hippo Fumani had 3 1/2 doses of birth control and she is pregnant.
 
A Hippo pregnancy is good, is there a reason behind Hippos being so underpopulated in the AZA compared to similar animals (elephants rhinos)?
 
I think the problem is the cost not only of building their exhibits but also maintance because they poop a great deal in the water and its hard on the filtration system. Adding to the problem is the fact that males need to be kept seperate in order to prevent pregnancy most of the time. Birth control frequently fails and castrating the males has proven very difficult due to anatomy... I read a cool article about it a few months ago. If kept together they are prolific breeders. Pregnancies can happen almost straight after birth. So to keep from having way to many hippos they are often forced to keep males and females seperate.

I think in the future Mara and Adhama will have to be kept seperate given that birth control issues exist in both lines. Mara had an unplanned pregnancy herself due to contraceptive failure. And as already mentioned Adhama is about to be a big brother against San Diegos wishes.

I wouldnt be too surprised to see an accidental pregnancy here. Last month in Calgary stillborn twins were delivered by their female Sparky who was on birth control and believe to be too old while her mate/grandson Lobi was thought to be too young at 7. Theres a big difference between 3 and 7 but Mara was moved away from her 3 year old son Vision a year earlier than planned because he started getting frisky and they wanted to avoid inbreeding. They might be rolling the dice and hoping the birth control works.
 
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