Amazon River Dolphin

Have you ever heard of a South American Amazon River Dolphin before? I hadn't until I stumbled upon the site Zoolex.org, which showcases the design of zoo habitats around the world. Today they featured this wonderful exhibit:

The Rio Negro exhibit shows the flooded forest habitat of a South American river system in a tropical hall. It is a new holding facility for the two Amazon river dolphins which have been kept at Zoo Duisburg since 1975. The facility and the life support system have been designed to be able to hold manatees (Trichechus manatus) in the future since the zoo decided not to acquire river dolphins any more.


Visitors move through a tropical hall, experiencing a dense riverine vegetation and animal species of the the Amazon region, such as sloth, tamarin, lesser anteater, toucan and macaw, besides the Amazon river dolphin. A wooden visitor hut offers a view into the tree tops. 

For more information and pictures visit ZooLex!


Learn how to draw zoo animals step by step

Wounded sea lion takes up residence at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

This is a very sad story to hear about but I am glad Six Flags is stepping in to help. The Sacramento River sea lion allegedly shot in the face by an angry fisherman in November will have his formal "coming out" on Friday at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo. The California sea lion, nicknamed Sgt. Nevis by his rescuers at the Marine Mammal Center, has been recovering at Six Flags since February. He was allowed to mingle with other sea lions at the park two weeks ago, which cleared the way for him to join other sea lions in the park's Seal Cove exhibit.

Who goes fishing with a gun? Seriously? It pains me that human beings are so cruel and viscious, whether to animals or other human beings. Even worse is knowing the animal cruelty laws on the books in most states are PATHETIC. It is time for accountability in our laws for such cruel behavior.

Jack Hanna Closer Than Ever to Polar Bears at the Columbus Zoo!

The polar bear habitat features a 1.32-acre yard with two pools including a brackish water still pool that is 167,000 gallons. The water will be kept between 55 and 65 degrees year-round due to underground geothermal tanks. The habitat offers viewing of the bears from above, at eye-level, and below beneath four feet of water. The windows are 5" thick acrylic.


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ZooAmerica Celebrates 100 Years

ZooAmerica Celebrates 100 Years

Great post over on News Plus Notes.

Akron Zoo Pictures

Just a few of the animals you can see on a trip to the Akron Zoo!



 Snow Leopard, Tiger, Red Panda, Sloth Bear.

Akron Zoo Review

 
I visited the Akron Zoo for the first time this past Saturday. While it may not be the biggest zoo in the world (quite small actually) it does have some first rate exhibits and animals. Actually, there were a few exhibits that I felt were the closest I had ever gotten to those animals before including, the tortoise, flamingos, and the barking deer.You could literally reach out and touch the animals if you wanted to (against the rules and not recommended) they were that close! Other highlights include:

The temperature was a perfect seventy degrees on our visit Saturday and the threat of thunderstorms keep the crowds away, which is good because the zoo was not built for crowd capacity.

I think this was the only zoo I've been to that doesn't feature and of your typical large mammals, such as elephant, zebras, rhinos, giraffes, bison, etc. I didn't realize this though until we had finished walking around. The zoo more than makes up for it with several interesting and unique species such as the sloth bears.

The Jaguars were very active and exciting to watch as well as the snow leopard.

One of the better Red Panda exhibits I've seen in terms of actually being able to see them!

Cute cabybara babies!!

The Akron Zoo has the most interesting predator/prey relationship setup I have seen at a zoo. There seemed to be quite a few exhibits were a predator could see directly into a neighboring prey's enclosure. Most notable of these were the snow leopard/Himalayan tahr and the Jaguars/Capybaras.

My only real complaint about the zoo was that a few seasonal exhibits were still closed but the admission price was increased from the winter to the summer rate, so that was a little disappointing but if the extra cash helps them bring in more animals and build more exhibits then I am all for it.

The Akron Zoo is a great way to spend a few hours and see some incredible animals! Stay tuned for the full set of pictures!