Roger Williams Park Zoo Roger Williams Park Zoo news 2024

I went for a short afternoon visit to the zoo on the first of the year, for the second year in a row. It was pretty quiet, except for a small group of annoying teenage boys that always seemed to be where I was. Aside from their disruptions, it was a very nice visit. There was a zookeeper watching the bat-eared fox and the pair of cranes, who was very happy to tell me about their personalities. Staff in Faces of the Rainforest were friendly as well.

animal updates:

The third Australia snake-necked turtle has moved in with the other two and some of the emerald tree boas in World of Adaptions.

Two of the radiated tortoises were off-exhibit.

Continuing the naming trend, the blue-throated guan chick, a male, has been named Chip. A few years ago, his parents, mother Cookie (who was recently euthanized) and father Monster, raised three chicks that were collectively known as ‘The Crumbs.’ The giant wood rail chicks have been given the names Natalie and Elijah.

There are once again two eastern rosellas with the Bali mynas.

Bat-eared fox Norman has some new female company. Apparently she’s pretty sassy.

exhibit/physical updates:

A new wall is up for the left hand side of the anteater enclosure. It has a small holding shelter thing built on the outer side of the wall. I can post a picture if anyone would like it.

The window with views into the indoor North American river otter space was covered.

The soft substrate that was in the tamandua and toucan enclosure for the agoutis, a prior resident, has been removed. I don’t know how long ago this was but I’m just noticing it.

A few perching frames and several small trees have been placed in the aviaries at the front of the zoo. Interestingly, they’ve decided to go with more trees, including apple trees, than other frames. There is a single door that I presume staff will walk through between two aviaries (with mesh separating them).

Excellent signage has been added to the other side of the tortoise wall explaining the differences between turtles and tortoises. Unfortunately, there was a group of obnoxious teenagers in the way, preventing me from getting a picture.

Judging by the appearance of the building, the red panda building is nearing completion. I was hoping (before construction started) that the zoo would be phasing-out red pandas, because multiple other zoos in New England have them, and not having red pandas probably doesn’t affect attendance rates at zoos as popular as this one, but I am nevertheless very happy that the species is receiving an upgrade enclosure-wise.



To give Frye and Saluda the red wolves some extra privacy while they are getting to know each other, the upper viewing of their enclosure has some temporary barriers preventing visitors from going right up against the enclosure as is usually possible. They can still be seen from that spot if they are against the far wall.

Construction on the serval enclosure has started, with most of the wood materials in place.

animal highlights:

The cheetahs were all snuggled together in a pile of straw. It was fun to see them resting and alert together.



Many of the birds in Faces of the Rainforest were very friendly yesterday. The scarlet ibises, blue-throated piping guans, and one of the sunbitterns were comfortable either perching a few feet from guests or walking on the pathways away from people by similar distances (two to four feet).

 

Where will the new serval exhibit go? Is another exhibit shrinking to make space for it?

 

I thought this had already been said but I guess not. My bad. It will be adjacent to the aviaries. No structure for outdoor space has been started yet, though.

 

Has the zoo started construction on the serval exhibit? Does anybody know where it is supposed to be?

 

Oh! I got an answer on their youtube account. It will be located beside the zebra/watusi/wildebeest habitat. it will be done late spring/early summer.

 

Oops! Totally did not see the response here. My bad, Zoochat is being a bit wonky on my end.

 

A second serval has arrived - a male named Sav from Capron Park.

Providence zoo gets its second exotic serval

 

Another one of the cheetah sisters passed away. Becca was euthanized recently after zoo teams reached the conclusion that her gastritis had become too severe. One of her sisters, Johari, who I remember is regarded as the most sassy of the four, was euthanized in early November, 2022, also due to complications from gastritis. The Facebook post mentions zookeepers thought she was the sweetest of her siblings. This news is plainly very sad, I imagine for her caretakers especially.

excerpt from the Facebook statement:
"Becca battled with gastritis, a common ailment among cheetahs, which poses challenges for animal care and veterinary teams. Despite intensive efforts including dietary changes, medications, and specialized medical interventions, her condition continued to worsen. During a recent examination, it became evident that further medical treatment would not be feasible, leading to the difficult decision to humanely euthanize her."

"Born in 2013, Becca was just over ten years old. She arrived at our Zoo in 2015 with her siblings, quickly capturing the hearts of staff and guests alike. [Janga and Abbey, the zoo's other cheetahs and Becca's sisters,] will receive continued care and support."

 

The red panda exhibit is now open:

Roger Williams Park Zoo unveils new red panda sanctuary | WPRI.com

The zoo celebrated the completion of Kendji and Zan’s brand new sanctuary with a “bamboo cutting” Friday morning. The two-story sanctuary includes a spacious outdoor exhibit and a climate-controlled indoor habitat.

The habitat also boasts climbing structures, private dens and ample bamboo for optimal snacking.

 

The exhibit looks good, but could use some plants, cause besides the climbing frames it feels kinda barren

 

Log in to Facebook

The zoo has a new baby southern two-toed sloth, named Nico, born to first-time mom Beany and dad Riley.

 

According to a Facebook post by the zoo, the golden lion tamarin Raff gave birth to a male on March 21. Kyle is his father.

 

Roger Williams Park Zoo visit on April 7, 2024

This visit was very pleasant, sunny day at the zoo. Many of the animals that aren't usually very active were, so I was at the zoo for much longer than is normal. As per usual, there were staff in Faces of the Rainforest to answer questions I have. I really enjoy how that is one of the education staff assignments, because I'm always curious to learn more about the exhibits' inhabitants. With every visit, the building seems to get more and more lush!

Animal Updates

A few weeks ago, golden lion tamarin Raff gave birth again to a male! Some of Raff and Kyle's other offspring, Colin, Hildreth, and Archie, are all still at the zoo.

White-faced saki mom Suni and black howler Piper have recently been transferred to other zoos. The zoo currently only has three howlers, dad and mom Finley and Ramone, and their son Tucker, so one of the others left in the more distant past.

Monster, the blue-throated piping guan dad, was transferred to another zoo. A new female, Donna, has arrived and is in the Faces of the Rainforest atrium. Soon she will be introduced to Chip, the most-recently hatched chick of Cookie, who passed away about half-a-year ago now, and Monster.

The older female giant wood rail, Rachel, passed away recently, as did Frenchy, one of the scarlet ibises who arrived at the zoo a few years ago. There have been a few bird deaths in Faces of the Rainforest lately, which is pretty sad. I'm hoping some more birds are brought in soon.

The zoo has acquired two young domestic pigs! They appeared to be separated from Petunia right now, and were being held in the second stall at left.

The Matschie's tree kangaroo born in the summer of 2022, Paia, is moving to Zoo Miami. She hasn't been in the public enclosure on my most recent visits, so I haven't seen her since she was separated from Keweng, but when they were together, I enjoyed watching her antics. I will miss that, but hopefully there will be a new tree kangaroo baby in a few years time.

Construction Updates

The outdoor red panda space appears to still not be quite finished, as there was a construction cone, some wood slabs, and a few tools in the space. The substrate is also currently just concrete. Also, the windows for their indoor space are currently covered. I'm guessing something unexpected happened that forced the zoo to block-off views into their space, because it only opened a few days ago. I'm not sure what is going on with the red-crowned cranes, but it looks like their enclosure will soon go up against the red panda building.



The serval building is still under construction. The foundations for their outdoor space appear to have just been put in place.





Apparently, some of the birds that would have soon been debuting in the new Fabric of Africa aviary aren't getting along with others, so a second aviary is being constructed where the giraffe feeding deck was located prior to its destruction for this project. There are still long-term plans to train giraffes Cora and Providence for public feeding opportunities.



Animal Highlights

Nutmeg the "plains bison" was very active when I was watching her. She was running around her enclosure, and occasionally knocked one of her feeder balls around. She was a lot of fun to watch today when I usually see her resting.

Snow leopards Sabu and Asha were napping together toward the front of the enclosure. While they weren't active, I thought they looked adorable cuddling with each other.



I am surprised that the golden lion tamarin family was more active than I've ever seen them, because they were already always so energetic. The infant is super cute!

 

The zoo updated its online map with a new design as well as other details.

 

Interesting to see they are changing the names of some exhibits. North America is on the map as "Wild Woodlands", Marco Polo Trek as "Himalayan Trek", and Plains of Africa is split into "Lower Savanna" and "Upper Savanna". The upcoming penguin exhibit is labeled as "Coastal Habitat".

This map is a very large change from the current map- going from almost exclusively using words, to almost exclusively using images to represent exhibits. I did notice a few pictures that look like the wrong species, which is a shame.

 

The one change I noticed off the top is a Tortoise Icon in the Our Big Backyard area. Did they build a new tortoise exhibit in that area?

 

Overall I like this new map a lot, but I do think it is a shame they renamed the Marco Polo Trail. That was one of the zoo's most unique exhibits, and I would be disappointed if it was rethemed as a more generic Himalaya complex.

 

Yes- since last summer, the Aldabra tortoises have had a seasonal home in the Big Backyard.

To be fair, with the Marco Polo Plaza being closed for at least a few years now, it's not like the theming really shone through much at the moment. Furthermore, I've always felt that there could be ways to incorporate the theming much more cohesively- such as including signage with excerpts from his actual journals and featuring species that Marco Polo wrote about more. Whether they keep it Marco Polo or change it to Himalayas, either way it's an impressive exhibit with one of the best snow leopard exhibits in the country and a brand-new red panda exhibit.

 

I agree with you here, although by renaming the complex it seems like they are instead heading in the opposite direction

 

True, but turning it into a Himalayas exhibit doesn't necessarily mean they are changing anything- what I was getting at in my post is that it isn't like the Marco Polo theming is really strongly engrained throughout the entire exhibit complex.