Baby Flamingos Hatched at Busch Gardens

More great news out of Busch Gardens Tampa!

TAMPA, Fla. — Since June 3, seven baby Caribbean flamingos have hatched at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay – the most recent, born on Sunday, July 25. The babies are on display along with approximately 125 adult flamingos in the Bird Gardens area of the park.

As these babies prove, newly hatched chicks are not pink, but in fact have gray or white down feathers. Their pink coloring comes from the carotenoid pigments they consume as part of their diet. They won’t lose all of their darker feathers for a few years.

Flamingos have long resided at Busch Gardens. Their bright color and gentle nature have made them a favorite of park guests for many years.

Help Name the Manta Ray

From the Georgia Aquarium:

Help us find the perfect name for our new manta ray! The new female joins manta rays Nandi and Tallulah in the Ocean Voyager gallery, built by The Home Depot. One winner will receive four Annual Passes to the Georgia Aquarium and four passes to participate in our swim program, Journey with Gentle Giants! No purchase necessary. Contest ends Aug. 31, 2010. 

Enter the contest today!

Two Baby Giraffes at Busch Gardens Tampa

Busch Gardens guests are getting to see two new additions to the park this week… two baby Giraffes which were introduced to the rest of the herd on the Serengeti Plain for the first time. The first was born on April 6 and was the fourth calf for mother Tesa. The second was born April 24, and is the first calf for mother Chloe. Both are males sired by father Sterling. The giraffe heard at Busch Gardens Tampa now has 17 members. Great new indeed!

It's Official: Wild Animal Park to Become Safari Park

I was hoping this was still just a rumor at this point but it appears that it's written in stone now.

The San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park will soon be renamed to help visitors better distinguish it from the zoo in Balboa Park and to finally lose that terrible acronym: WAP. The new name: San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Read the full article here.

Elephant Incident at Toledo Zoo

Apparently there was recently an incident at the Toledo Zoo where Louie, a seven year old male African elephant, attacked his keeper who entered the enclosure and startled him. Elephant experts who have reviewed the tape of the incident do not think the attack was intentional,the elephant was simply startled and reacted. There are many unanswered questions here: Why did a very experienced elephant manager break protocol? Why did he approach the animal in such a way as to startle it? The zoo is currently in a legal battle over release of the video. What do you think?

San Diego Wild Animal Park Considering a Name Change

This has to be one of the most ill conceived ideas I’ve ever heard of. According to recent rumors, the famous San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park may be preparing to change the name of the park itself to “San Diego Zoo’s Safari Park” along with a marketing tagline of “Wild at Heart”.
    On top of being one of the lamest sounding names I’ve ever heard, the very idea of changing the name of the very well known Wild Animal Park is just plain dumb to even suggest. Why the change? According to our source the marketing types want to change the focus of the park away from the animals (really?!) and focus more on the “rides” and “adventures” being offered.
    Digging a little deeper, I did uncover that the San Diego Zoo did in fact just register the SanDiegoZooSafariPark.com domain address on July 8, 2010, prepaying it for the next ten years. Sigh...this park is just slipping and sliding down into a deep dark hole that they’ll never get out of. It all started going downhill I think when they closed the popular (and free) Wgasa Bush Line tour around the park and replaced it with a bunch of upcharge jeep tours. That's the first big mistake right there, removing the tour line. That was the whole point of visiting the park. Now it's just a zoo. oh wait, you cn still do a jeep tour- for $150/person.
    I’ve been sent more confirmations about the name change plans in place for the Wild Animal Park. Right now management’s plans are to slowly roll out the name bit by bit to the public, making the name change final and complete by Spring 2011. According to those who’s already seen the new “Safari Park” logo, they describe it as looking like something a small child drew up in 5 minutes with crayons… and hardly professional nor giving the respect this famous animal attraction deserves.
    You know, if management there just has their heart set on adding the name “Safari” to the park, why not just make a minor change and call it “Wild Animal Safari” instead of “Safari Park”. The later just sounds so generic… like one of those bargain bin video game zoo simulations that Wal-Mart couldn’t sell for full price and is now begging people to take off their hands for $2.99 instead. Is that what they really want for the Wild Animal Park?
    The funny thing is that when Disney went to build the Animal Kingdom park in Florida, they based a lot of ideas for it on the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. They even went so far as to originally name it as Wild Animal Kingdom because they felt the name had so much impact. The threat of a possible trademark lawsuit due to it sounding too similar to the old “Mutal of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” TV show forced Disney to drop the “Wild” part of the name. It just seems daft that the San Diego Zoo is so eager to give that name up now after using it for close to 40 years.
    Go here to vote and tell them how much you dislike this plan!