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Month: September 2022

White Rhino

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White Rhino

(Ceratotherium simum)

Seneca Park Zoo is home to one southern white rhinoceros named Jiwe. He was born in December, 2016 at Fossil Rim Wildlife Center in Texas and came to the Zoo in 2020. The rhino habitat is located in Animals of the Savanna.

Experience: Rhino Encounter

Animal Facts

The white rhino is one of five species of rhinos. The others are the Javan rhino, the Sumatran rhino, the Indian rhino and the black rhino.
Full-grown adult white rhinos weigh between 5,000 to 7,000 pounds and measure 6-feet tall at the shoulders.
Our white rhino is fed 10 pounds of grain, 5 pounds of produce (lots of bananas!) and hay every day.
The name white rhino comes from the Dutch words “wijd” or “weit,” meaning wide and refers to their wide, square shaped upper lip.
Rhinos have a poor vision. They can see movement, but not details more than 100 feet away. They do, however, have excellent hearing and a keen sense of smell which enables them to detect odors up to a mile away.

Diet

Grasses, fruits and grain are the primary foods.

Status in The Wild

  • Near Threatened

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

The squared lip that the white rhino is named for is an adaptation to the African grasslands that it grazes for food.

The rhino is built to graze the open grasslands and floodplains in pockets of eastern and southern Africa. When the rhino Species Survival Plan committee decides where to place rhinos in facilities, a number of factors come into play, including the rhino’s age, sex, genetics and exhibit availability.

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Ball Python (Ambassador Animal)

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Ball Python

(Python regius)

The Zoo’s male ball python was born in 2009 and came to Seneca Park Zoo in 2013. He is a part of the Zoo’s program animal collection.

Animal Facts

The name ball came from its tendency, when stressed, to curl into a tight “ball” with their heads hidden inside, often for long periods of time!
Due to its limited size, these snakes are becoming increasingly common in the pet trade.
Females tend to be slightly bigger than males.
Sometimes these are referred to as ‘royal pythons’ due to the story that Cleopatra supposedly wore a ball python around her wrist.
Pythons also have the tendency to hiss loudly when threatened.

Diet

Ball pythons feed primarily on rodents, but will also eat other small mammals and birds. Ball pythons only eat once every few weeks; they can go up to several months with no food.

Status in The Wild

  • Vulnerable

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

The ball python lives in western and central Africa. They can be found in open forests and dry savannas.

Usually they reside in areas near open water where they can cool themselves during hot weather.

Ball pythons are considered threatened in the wild. They are a highly-exploited species and are very important to the pet trade because of their beautiful skin. The ball python mates only every two to three years, so more effort is needed to protect and propagate this species.

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Buffalo Weaver

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Buffalo Weaver

(Dinemellia dinemelli)

Seneca Park Zoo is home to two white-headed buffalo weavers. They reside in the aviary, which can be found inside the Animals of the Savanna building.

Animal Facts

Flocks and family groups can sometimes include starlings.
Other bird species, such as the African pygmy falcon, often prefer to use weaver nests instead of building their own.
Weavers typically live in small flocks and build multiple nests, and it is common to see a large number of nests in a single tree.
They are noisy and conspicuous when climbing about in trees and are reminiscent of parrots with their acrobatic maneuvers and habit of hanging upside down.
Nests may have several rooms, with a soft inner lining and thorny branches on the outside to help guard them from predators.

Diet

Buffalo weavers are omnivorous, foraging for fruits, seeds and invertebrates such as beetles and butterflies.

Status in The Wild

  • Least Concern

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

The range of buffalo weavers extends throughout eastern Africa, from Tanzania to Somalia.

They prefer savanna and shrubland habitat, using grass and thorny branches to weave elaborate nests in trees. Potential threats for this species are habitat loss and fragmentation.

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Burmese Python

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Burmese Python

(Python bivittatus)

Seneca Park Zoo is home to two Burmese pythons, both males. Garrett and Caulkins, reside inside the Zoo’s Creatures from the River’s Edge building. They were hatched in 2016 right here at Seneca Park Zoo. Their parents were longtime zoo residents Abby and Mr. Slithers.

Animal Facts

The Burmese python is one of the largest of all snakes, growing up to 20 feet and weighing up to 200 pounds. It continues to grow throughout life.
Females are typically larger than males.
The Burmese python is not venomous; it kills its prey via constriction.
This species has a reputation for docility, but they are very powerful animals that can inflict severe bites.

Diet

The Burmese python eats appropriately sized mammals, reptiles, and birds.

Status in The Wild

  • Vulnerable

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

The jungles and scrublands of Myanmar (Burma), Malasia and Thailand compose the Burmese python’s habitat.

It has been slaughtered to supply the world leather market, as well as for folk medicines and captured for the pet trade. In recent years, extensive captive breeding has helped reduce the threat to Burmese pythons in their native habitat. However, the unauthorized release of pet Burmese pythons into the Everglades has led to the introduction of an invasive species, disrupting the fragile ecosystem.

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Four-banded Poison Dart Frogs

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Four-banded Poison Dart Frog

(Dendrobates leucomelas)

There are two yellow and blue poison dart frogs (Dendrobates tinctorius); and four yellow-banded poison dart frogs (Dendrobates leucomelas) at the Zoo.

Animal Facts

Natives living in the habitat of the poison dart frog have been known to use the frog for poison-tipped arrows, where they get their name.
The bright coloring acts as a warning to predators of the poison.
They are diurnal, meaning they are awake during the day.

Diet

Diet includes ants, termites, crickets, small beetles, spiders and occasionally frog tadpoles.

Status in The Wild

  • Least Concern

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

These species are found only in South America. They are poor swimmers and are never found in the water.

The wild population of these species is not known. However, the destruction of rainforest habitat by fires and by humans for farmland has contributed to the decreasing numbers. The illegal pet trade has also negatively impacted their existence.

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Yellow and Blue Dart Frogs

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Yellow and Blue Poison Dart Frog

(Dendrobates tinctorius)

There are two yellow and blue poison dart frogs (Dendrobates tinctorius); and four yellow-banded poison dart frogs (Dendrobates leucomelas) at the Zoo.

Animal Facts

Natives living in the habitat of the poison dart frog have been known to use the frog for poison-tipped arrows, where they get their name.
The bright coloring acts as a warning to predators of the poison.
They are diurnal, meaning they are awake during the day.

Diet

The poison dart frog is an insectivore though it eats non-insect arthropods as well. Its diet consists of ants, millipedes, beetles, flies, mites, spiders, maggots and caterpillars.

Status in The Wild

  • Least Concern

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

These species are found only in South America. They are poor swimmers and are never found in the water.

The wild population of these species is not known. However, the destruction of rainforest habitat by fires and by humans for farmland has contributed to the decreasing numbers. The illegal pet trade has also negatively impacted their existence.

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Rose Hair Tarantula (Ambassador Animal)

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Rose Hair Tarantula

(Grammostola rosea)

The rose tarantula at the Zoo is named Rosie. She came to the Zoo in May 2014.

Animal Facts

These newly-found and studied spiders are thought to live about 15 to 20 years, but future research may show that they live considerably longer!
They are common in the international pet trade.
In the weeks following fertilization, the female produces around 500 eggs and the male dies.
As a defense mechanism, rose hair tarantulas can fling urticating hairs () at a predator. These tiny anchored hairs act as an irritant, and can be harmful if ingested or stuck in eyes.

Diet

Insects and other arthropods and occasionally small animals.

Status in The Wild

  • Not Evaluated

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

Chilean rose-haired tarantulas are found in deserts and scrublands.

The range includes habitats in Bolivia, northern Chile, and Argentina. Because of the widespread collection of this species from the wild for the pet trade, increasing regulation in the future is probably inevitable in order to protect it from becoming threatened and/or endangered.

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Plains Zebra

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Plains Zebra

(Equus quagga)

Seneca Park Zoo is home to three female plains zebra, Lydia, Liberty, and Dottie. Lydia came to the Zoo in November 2018 from Columbus Zoo. Liberty and Dottie arrived together in September 2018 from Hemker Park & Zoo. They share their habitat, located in the Animals of the Savanna area, with the Masai giraffes.

Animal Facts

Each zebra has a unique stripe pattern, helping them to identify each other.
Zebra stripes are thought to create motion camouflage, a method of confusing predators. When a herd of zebras move in multiple directions, their stripes add to the confusion by creating optical illusions.
The quagga, an extinct subspecies of the plains zebra, only had stripes on its neck and head. The body was plain and resembled that of a horse.

Diet

Zebras mainly feed on grass, but sometimes eat shrubs, twigs, bark and leaves.

Status in The Wild

  • Near Threatened

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

Plains zebra live in savannas, steppes, and woodlands in southern Ethiopia to northern South Africa, throughout most of the eastern side of the Nile River.

Plains Zebras are threatened due to hunting for their skins/fur, especially when they are located out of protected areas. Fencing around agriculture and protected areas block zebra migration corridors, affecting their ability to obtain crucial resources and escape predators.

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Polar Bear

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Polar Bear

(Ursus maritimus)

Seneca Park Zoo is home to one female polar bear, Anoki. She was born here at Seneca Park Zoo in 1996. She moved to Albuquerque Bio Park in 1998, and to the Maryland Zoo in 2008, before coming home to Rochester in September 2018.

Animal Facts

A male polar bear can be up to 11 feet tall and weigh up to 1,400 pounds. Females can weigh between 450 and 770 pounds.
Hairs on a polar bear reflect light, giving polar bears a white coloration. But a polar bear’s hair is actually translucent.
The large paws on a polar bear act as snowshoes, spreading out the polar bear’s weight and adding extra gripping ability.
A polar bear has blubber up to four inches thick.
A new born polar bear cub weighs about one pound.

Diet

The polar bear mainly eats ringed and bearded seals. It can sometimes be found eating whale carcasses, caribou, rodents, sea birds, fish, eggs, berries, and unfortunately, human garbage. Polar bears are completely dependent on sea ice to hunt seals. As sea ice decreases, so does their ability to get food.

Status in The Wild

  • Vulnerable

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

Polar bears are found on sea coasts, islands, ice floes and in open water in Arctic regions including the U.S., Canada, Greenland, Norway, and Russia.

The IUCN lists climate change as the most significant threat to the polar bear, as melting of its sea ice habitat reduces its ability to find sufficient food. Seneca Park Zoo is partners with polar bear conservation organizations like Polar Bears International (PBI).

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Giant Day Gecko

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Giant Day Gecko

(Phelsuma grandis)

Three giant day geckos, one male and two females, can be found inside the C.R.E. building.

Animal Facts

Millions of microscopic structures on the scales of the gecko’s feet, called setae, give these lizards an incredible climbing ability.
The giant day gecko’s bright colors help to camouflage it amidst the vibrant vegetation of the rainforest, useful for ambushing prey in the middle of the day.
When threatened, their colors turn darker, to better hide in the shade of leaves.
Geckos are the only lizards that can produce more than a hiss or other simple sounds. Their vocalizations range from squeaks and clicks to barks and croaks.
They have excellent sight and rely on it to obtain their food.

Diet

Carnivorous. Giant day geckos eat various invertebrates (especially insects), nectar, and occasionally small vertebrates.

Status in The Wild

  • Least Concern

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List status

The giant day gecko is native to the tropical and subtropical rainforests of Madagascar.

They are found in the uppermost canopies and often near human settlements and cities.

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