The SF Zoo's Newest Flamingo Chick Has Had It With Your Shenanigans

Considered a "near threatened" animal by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the Chilean flamingo is known (I am told apocryphally) as one of the more personality-laden representatives of the species. Nowhere is that more clear than in the demeanor of one of the SF Zoo's newest residents, a chick who as you can see from the photo above is completely over whatever it is that you think you are up to.

According to the SF Zoo, their first flamingo chick of the season was born on September 17, and has already doubled in size. The second one hatched last weekend, and given the number of eggs their adult flamingos have laid more are likely to follow throughout their breeding season, which runs through October.

Speaking of the breeding season, here's some hot Chilean flamingo sex prose, via Wikipedia: "During breeding season, males and females display a variety of behaviors to attract mates, including head flagging — swiveling their heads from side-to-side in tandem — and wing salutes, where the wings are repeatedly opened and closed."

Once the wing salutes, head wagging, and inevitable shagging reaches its natural conclusion, "Males and females cooperate in building a pillar-shaped mud nest, and both incubate the egg laid by the female...Both male and female flamingos can produce a nutritious milk-like substance in their crop gland to feed their young." In other words, flamingo dads are more involved parents than many of ours were.

And before you start spreading paternity rumors based on the babies' lack of resemblance to their parents, let the Zoo straighten you out: Baby flamingos, they say, are all born with that fluffy white and gray covering, which they lose by the time they're three years old. The Rosamond Gifford Zoo explains further, saying that the adult flamingos' "pink coloring comes from a carotenoid pigment consumed through its food. In most captive populations this pink color must be artificially added to the diet, or else these birds would appear a significantly duller color."

"Duller," eh? Who you calling "duller"?????

Marianne Hale/SF Zoo

Article and images sourced from http://sfist.com/2016/09/30/the_sf_zoos_newest_flamingo_chick_h.php%23photo-1#photo-1

Sifaka Exhibit Opens!

Get ready to have a new favorite animal at SF Zoo! We have a brand new exhibit opening August 19, featuring Coquerel's sifaka! If you like lemurs, you're going to love sifaka. These animals move in a unique way that's often described as jumping or dancing. The newly-constructed exhibit is an extension of the Lipman Family Lemur Forest and includes a Baobab tree climbing structure along with other plants native to Madagascar. Stay tuned for more information coming soon! 

Article and images sourced from http://www.sfzoo.org/announcements/sifaka-exhibit-opening-weekend

The SF Zoo offers paintings by resident animals for ZooFest 2016

Who knew the animals at the San Francisco Zoo were such brilliant artists? 

Several mammals and reptiles lent their creative skills — or in most cases, just stepped around canvases with paws dipped in paint — for pieces of art, all to be sold in an online auction to benefit ZooFest 2016. 

"Each framed painting is accompanied by a special note featuring information about the animal artist," Zoo spokesperson Rachel Eslick writes in a release. "100% of the proceeds help the Zoo accomplish its mission to connect people with wildlife, inspire caring for nature and advance conservation action."

Paintings were illustrated by chimps Cobby, Maggie and Minnie, the rhino Gauhati, the Sumatran tiger Leeann, European ferrets named after the Spice Girls, Angie the Mandrill, Tenzing, the zoo's celebrity red panda, and more. 

The paintings are currently up for bidding at eBay.

Article and images are sourced from http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/The-SF-Zoo-offers-paintings-by-resident-animals-7298803.php

Jeans for Giraffes

Jeans for Giraffes @ SF ZOO

 

 

We're celebrating our long-necked friends on the first annual World Giraffe Day, June 21, which also happens to be the longest day of the year. Actually, we love giraffes so much, we decided to celebrate the whole weekend! World Giraffe Day is a global celebration of these amazing animals and an annual opportunity to raise public awareness about challenges they face in the wild. To mark the occasion, we're scheduling extra keeper talks and an interactive enrichment-building experience, and receiving donations of old jeans for Jeans for Giraffes, which is a project that supports giraffe research and protects giraffe populations in Africa. Visitors who donate denim for the Jeans for Giraffes will be entered in a raffle to win a behind-the-scenes visit with our beloved herd of giraffes. So join us all weekend at the African Savanna to appreciate these majestic beauties ... and don't forget those jeans!

World Giraffe Day Weekend Schedule

• 9:00 - 10:00 am Members' Morning in Bernard Osher Giraffe Lodge (Sunday only)
• 10:30 am Keeper Talk at North Overlook
• 2:00 pm Enrichment making at acacia plaza
• 4:30 pm Keeper Talk in the Bernard Osher Giraffe Lodge
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

We Will Not Apologize For More Photos Of The S.F. Zoo's New Red Panda

Yesterday we met the San Francisco Zoo's unnamed Red Panda. We learn today that Mr. Red Panda (as we will call him until he gets an official name) has an adorably vicious thirst for plush toys and bamboo. Although our new ginger friend appears to be giving that toy fox a brutal mauling, we would still gladly take this little guy out for Thai food, because he would pick out all the bamboo shoots from the pad thai, obviously.

Mr. Red Panda won't be on public display until Saturday, May 10, but the folks from Animal Planet are currently hard at work on his fancy new treehouse, which comes complete with a covered, wraparound deck and lengthy, reclaimed wood promenade leading to a second sun deck. This is one red panda who can totally get behind a little temporary human encroachment — even in the Outer Sunset, those sort of amenities are expensive.

Also included here: an adorably arboreal koala bear who got some face time with Animal Planet this week. Koala, you can definitely come along for Thai food too!