Zoo Review Updates, 2025

Akron Zoo is in the midst of a renovation of its Legends of the Wild area.  Some species are being phased out, some new species brought in, and other habitats being reimagined for the species that they currently hold.  I'm not sure if the theme will be the same, or if it will be redone as a zoogeographic area.  The next new construction will be an expansion of the African area, which will bring giraffes to the zoo.

Aquarium of Niagara has expanded its campus with Great Lakes 360, a new building that highlights the fish, herps, and inverts of the region.

Arizona Sonora Desert Museum has announced plans for an expansive new habitat for its Mexican wolf pack.  There had been some suggestions in recent years that the Museum had been overlooking/reprioritizing away from the zoological aspects of its collection, so this project is a very welcome one!

Chicago's Brookfield Zoo completed the massive outdoor annex to its iconic Tropic World building, giving outdoor access to gorillas, orangutans, and South American monkeys, as well as adding an additional indoor gorilla habitat.  The koalas that were on loan to the zoo have since left, but the species is expected to return as part of the highly ambitious masterplan.  The old Pachyderm House is shuttered as a first step towards the construction of the new African area.

Photo Credit: Brookfield Zoo Chicago

Cincinnati Zoo celebrated its 150th anniversary with a renovation of the old bear grottos into larger, more natural habitats for American black bears and, a new addition to the zoo, sea otters.

Clearwater Marine Aquarium has a new manatee exhibit, joining the Florida institutions that are rehabilitating and exhibiting these giant aquatic herbivores.

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo continues work on turning the Rainforest building into a new Primate Forest (which is not to say that non-primate residents, such as the gharials, will not be returning).  The orangutans will have outdoor access, and the gorillas will move down here from their current home in the Primate, Cat, Aquatics building.

Phase I of the North America renovation at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is complete.  Mexican wolves, American black bears, North American river otters, and bald eagles are featured, along with trumpeter swans and a recreation of one of the zoo's most unique exhibits, the North American songbird aviary.  There is also an indoor exhibit space to highlight the zoo's local conservation commitment to species such as hellbenders.  Phase II will see the renovation of the habitats of wolverines, Canada lynx, caribou, moose, and sandhill cranes.

Detroit Zoo is preparing to unveil its Discovery Trails, a new children zoo.  Besides the expected domestics, the trail will feature a stingray touch pool, prairie dogs, giant anteaters, and, a bonus for zoo enthusiasts, rarely-exhibit bush dogs.

The new Aldabra tortoise exhibit has opened at the Indianapolis Zoo.

Los Angeles Zoo has sent their two Asian elephants, Billy and Tina, to the Tulsa Zoo, leaving an enormous, empty habitat in the heart of the facility.  What will become of this space - and whether elephants will return to the zoo in the future - is not yet known.

We'll look at more zoo updates tomorrow!

Shocking Around the Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas from the Tennessee Aquarium with their electric eel-powered Christmas tree lights!

The Odds (and Rocks) are Stacked Against Hellbenders

Earlier this year, rangers at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which straddles North Carolina and Tennessee, reported finding a hellbender which had been killed by a fallen rock.  This animal's death wasn't exactly natural causes, though - the rock which had crushed it was part of a stack made by park visitors in a stream, for... reasons?  The Park responded by issuing a statement/making social media posts requesting visitors not do such things in the future.

I very much doubt that the people who made the rock stack intended any harm.  I like to think that, if they knew what would happen, they wouldn't have done it.  People do stuff like this all the time as a sort of self-expression or creativity, a way of saying "I was here," and there are ways to do that that are safe and fun and creative.  This just ended up not being one of those things.  It's understandable that this wasn't on everyone's radar, but now that it is, it should be a "Well, now we know, let's not do that" lesson.

What blows my mind is the response from so much of the public.  Claims that its their God-given right to stack rocks.  Refusal to believe that it matters at all - since rocks move naturally in, say, storms or floods, and we can't control that, there's no harm in stacking rocks ourselves.  Refusal to believe that hellbenders are actually rare ("We see them all the time, everywhere, we just call them mudpuppies" - nope, different animal.  Also not okay to crush less-endangered animals with rocks).

I think of all the zoos working so hard to restore hellbenders to the wild, just to loose them because someone wants to make a cool rockstack for an instragram post (yeah, I wish I could convince myself that this was just kids playing).

The infuriating truth is that so many people take immediate umbrage to even the kindest of suggestions that they do something slightly differently, like "How dare you tell me what to do, you're not the boss of me!"  The saga of the squashed hellbender reminds me of a saying that I heard long ago.  We know what needs to happen to save virtually every species from extinction.  We know how to do it.  The problem is, most of it involves changing human behavior - and that's something we've never figured out how to do.

Book Review: The Book of Wilding - A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small

"A wilder, more resilient world is within our reach."

As the year winds down and January approaches, many people begin to look ahead and think of their New Year's Resolutions.  Resolutions are all about doing better - for yourself, for your friends and family, for your community.  This year, why not consider expanding your circle to include the whole planet?

At first glance, The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small might look more like a textbook than a light read.  The hefty tome, written by Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell, focuses on the art and science of modifying our human-dominated landscapes to create a more sustainable world for wildlife.  The book's central example is an ancient family farm that Burrell inherited years ago, poorly suited and unprofitable for farming after years of unsustainable practices.  Instead of giving up, the authors worked to rehabilitate the land to create a nature reserve, a slice of Ancient Britain.

When rewilding is discussed in the press, the focus is largely on the reintroduction of large carnivores, such as wolves, some of which may have been absent from a landscape for centuries.  This book acknowledges that such events are unlikely, distant-horizon projects, and instead focuses on smaller-scale, more sustainable rehabilitation efforts.  Emphasis on large animals is largely limited to herbivores - both long-absent large herbivores as well as proxies for extinct species - which the authors see as the landscape engineers which shape habitats both in their lives and their deaths.  While much of their book is focused on larger landscapes, such as farms and urban parks, there is also a chapter on the smallest-scale of rewilding, our own backyard plots.  (The book is well-organized in such a way that you can easily skip over parts that aren't relevant to your case and move ahead to sections that are).

Also, whereas many critics of rewilding sense a distinctly misanthropic streak in the concept ("Four legs good, two legs bad, humans out of everywhere), this book strongly acknowledges the realities that humans need places to live, work, and raise food, and we're not going anywhere.  The emphasis of the book is on finding ways for all species - including our own - to coexist and thrive together.  So much of what is bad for the natural world, it is pointed out, really isn't that great for us either.  Likewise, many people seem to think that rewilding is about going back to a set point in time, a pre-human age where everything was perfect, and then freezing it there.  The authors disagree with the notion, noting that natural landscapes are always in flux, and there is no perfect past postcard that we should be trying to recreate; that's in part why they call their work The Book of Wildling, not Rewilding.  

Written in the aftermath of COVID-19, the book highlights how isolated so many of us have become from the natural world, and much we benefit from connection with wild spaces.  In improving the world for wildlife on any scale, we improve it for ourselves.

The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small at Good Reads

Keeping with Crab Cakes

There was a recent conference - one that I didn't go to, but I was talking to someone who did attend.  They mentioned a comment made by one of the presenters that stuck with them: "Don't do for the animals that which the animals can do for themselves."  It was a very simple statement, but it did seem to sum up an excellent point about animal care.

Some keepers and curators have a tendency to want to baby their animals, swaddle them up and do everything for them, with the feeling that this represents optimal care.  It can make life easy for the animal... but in a zoo setting, easy is the kissing-cousin of boring.  Life for a wild animal isn't easy.  There's challenge and struggle.  Some of that we can't - and arguably shouldn't - be recreating in a zoo.  But by doing everything for the animal, we deprive the animal of opportunities to fully utilize the body and brain like they would in a natural setting.

Suppose you and a friend went to a seafood restaurant.  You order a crab cake.  Your friend orders a few steamed crabs.  The food comes out, and your friend is picking up the crabs, examining them.  Maybe it's a food item they don't eat too often.  They have to figure out how best to open the crab, then crack the shell and tediously pick out the meat.  It's a process that takes quite a while.  You, on the other hand, have finished your crab cake in less than a minute.  Your meal has taken a fraction of the time and zero of the thought and effort compared to your dining companion's experience.

It goes beyond feeding.  Some keepers I know pre-make nests for their birds to encourage them to breed, when in reality, the act of selecting a site, choosing the materials, and actually building the nest is an important part of courtship for many birds.  You could churn up a mud wallow or dust bathing site for some of your ungulates, or let them make their own.  

Just think back to when you were a small child, and you first started picking out your own clothes to wear, or got a knife and fork at the dinner table, so you could cut up your own food, rather than have an adult do it for you.  For a child, it's an empowering experience, one that makes them feel a little more grownup, even if they can't do the job as well as the grownup can.  The more opportunities you give the animals to do things for themselves and make their own choices, the more in control of their lives they will feel. the more natural behaviors they will be able to express.

To misquote John F. Kennedy, ask not what you can do for your animals.  Ask what your animals can do for themselves.*

*The caveat is, of course, to be mindful of when the animal can't do things for itself.  If you went to the seafood restaurant and your friend had an arm in a cast... maybe then the crab cake is the better option.

Snacking for Two

The Denver Zoo's tamandua, Winnie, is expecting!  The zoo highlighted the upcoming birth by showing off Winnie getting her ultrasound, with complimentary snacks for the mom-to-be!  95% of the comments on social media are some variation of women asking, "Why didn't I get snacks during mine?" - a fair question, to be sure.  And don't mom and dad look so proud of themselves, too?

Species Fact Profile: Malayan Flying Fox (Pteropus vampyrus)

                                               Malayan, or Large, Flying Fox

                                               Pteropus vampyrus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Range: Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Myanmar, Malayan Peninsula), Indonesia (Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Timor, and adjacent small islands), Philippines

Habitat: Tropical Rainforest, Mangrove Forest

Diet: Flowers, Nectar, Fruit

Social Grouping: Small groups of one male and several females and their young, but may congregate in colonies of 10,000-20,000 animals

Reproduction: Gestation period 180 days.  Births primarily occur between March and April, with seasonality varying somewhat across the range.  Usually give birth to single offspring, born fully-furred, with eyes open, and already 1/3 the size of the mother.  Young bats are nursed with two nipples near the armpits, cradled by the mother with her wings.  Males do not assist with rearing the young.  The young carried by the mother for the first few days, then left at the roost while the mother goes to forage.  Young are weaned at 2-3 months old

Lifespan: 15 Years (Wild), 30 Years (Zoo)

      Conservation Status: IUCN Near Threatened, CITES Appendix II

• One of the world’s largest (possibly the largest) living bat species.  Head-to-body length 27-32 centimeters.  Wingspan of 1.5 meters, forearm length 18-22 centimeters, body mass 0.6-1.1 kilograms.  Long, pointed ears and dog- or fox-like face and head.   Wings are short, rounded on the tips, allowing them to fly slowly, but with great maneuverability.  Males are slightly larger than the females
• The head and upper body in adults are covered with a dark mantle, color ranging from red to black, turning gold or orange in the males during the breeding season.  Remainder of fur is brown or black with a scattering of white hairs.  Juveniles are almost uniformly dull gray-brown.  Fur is longest on the mantle.  Males tend to have thicker, stiffer fur than females, as well as neck tufts.  Wing membranes are only haired near the body
• May fly up to 50 kilometers in a single night while foraging.  Circle trees in the air before landing – usually land on the branch tips in an upright position, then drop into an upside-down position to feed.  They do not echolocate, instead relying on sight and smell to find fruit.  
• Capable of eating half of their body weight daily.  Likely to be important pollinators and seed-dispersers for many trees within their range, as they are one of the few frugivores large enough and mobile enough to transport seeds and pollen considerable distances throughout the forest
• May drink seawater to obtain salt, other minerals absent from their very sugary diets
• Capable swimmers, using their wings as flippers; sometimes seen crossing rivers.  May fly across short spans of ocean to feed on nearby islands.  
• Spend much of the day hanging upside down from branches (especially from emergent trees) with its wings wrapped around the body, often restless until mid-morning.  If the bat becomes too warm, it will unwrap itself and fan itself using its wings    
• A natural reservoir of the Nipah virus, which has crossed over into (potentially fatal) humans and pigs.  Captives maintained in research labs have tested negative for the antibodies against the virus for several months before testing positive again, suggesting that the virus can maintain itself in flying foxes after periods of remission
• Genus name Pteropus translates to “wing foot.”  Species name is in reference to vampires, though this species does not feed on blood
• Seven subspecies recognized, sometimes each listed as a separate species;  the most threatened is P. v. lanensis, of the Philippines
• Primary threat is loss of habitat due to deforestation.  Hunted for bushmeat in parts of their range, such as Peninsular Malaysia, unlikely to be sustainable (hunting has more the doubled in recent years).  Some cultures believe that their meat has curative or medicinal properties, can treat asthma.  Most effective protection strategy so far appears to be protecting colonies on small, easy-to-monitor islands. Also persecuted by farmers who consider them agricultural pests.  Some farmers may use flapping or whirring devices, bright lights to discourage them from feeding on their crops