Blog Archives

Lunar New Year

2/3/2023

Written By: Zoe Glover
Zoo Educator

Here at the zoo, we have domestic rabbits located in the farmyard area and a domestic rabbit in the education department. She, along with the other ambassador animals in the education department are handled by staff for programs and outreach, which helps to support our zoo mission in education and conservation.

What is Lunar New Year? Lunar New Year is a multi-day celebration that is important in East and Southeast Asian Cultures and starts on the first day of the new moon until the arrival of the full moon. The purpose of the celebration is to honor “household and heavenly deities and ancestors.” [1] This year, Lunar New Year will start on January 23rd, 2023, and lasts until February 9th, 2024.

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Wildly Successful: The Asian Lion

2/1/2023

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Written By: Jim Knox

If you were to ask most kids and adults the difference between tigers and lions, they would invariably respond that tigers are orange with black stripes and lions are tan or golden brown in color. They would then inform you that tigers live in Asia and lions live in Africa. Aside from some anomalies in coat color, they would be correct. It is also true that all the world’s tigers live in Asia. Lions, however, might surprise you. Although most of the world’s lions live in the eastern and southern regions of Africa, these great cats are more widespread than you might suspect, and they hide their secrets well.

The Asiatic or Asian Lion (Panthera leo persica) is simultaneously a beast of legend and mystery. At a casual glance, this big cat is one in the same with its African cousins, yet a studious eye begins to tease out the subtle distinctions among these great cats. Unlike its better-known cousin, the Asian Lion typically sports a fine peppering of black or buff-gray spots in its coat. Aside from certain skull differences, males possess shorter, more sparse manes, rarely exceeding four inches in length, leaving their ears visible. All Asian Lions also possess a much larger tail tuft, a skin fold along their abdomen and typically attain smaller sizes than their African counterparts with males rarely exceeding 9.5 feet in length and 380 pounds in weight.

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