BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – March 3, 2023 – The family at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo is saddened to announce the unexpected passing of Sedge, a male North American river otter (Lutra canadensis). He was four years old. Sedge was recently under medical care for an infection. His necropsy, standard for all animals who pass from an undetermined illness, will be performed by the Pathology Lab at the University of Connecticut. Results may take several days to several weeks.
 
Sedge arrived in 2021 from the Alexandria Zoological Gardens in Louisiana as a companion for Tahu. Four-year-old Tahu is in good health.
 
“Sedge will be deeply missed by all of us here at Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo,” said Zoo Director Gregg Dancho. “He had a unique personality and related well both to his companion, Tahu, and to his animal care staff. It has been our privilege to have known him for two years.”

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – March 2, 2023– Connecticut’s Beardsley Zoo, one of 57 zoos nationwide with Mexican grey wolves in its collection, recently welcomed Cheryl Asa, Ph.D., as part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA)’s Mexican Wolf Recovery Program. The bi-national Recovery Program is managed by the AZA’s Species Survival Plan (SSP) in concert with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Mexican counterparts. 
 
Asa, a reproduction advisor in the recovery program and affiliate scientist of the Saint Louis Zoo, came to Bridgeport with her colleagues Rebecca Bose and Louisa Gagliardi from the Wolf Conservation Center to collect semen samples from the Zoo’s two male Mexican grey wolves. Declared extinct in the wild in 1980, the Mexican grey wolf (Canis lupus baileyi), known as “el lobo,” faces ongoing genetic threats to its survival. The current Mexican grey wolf population comes from just seven original “founders,” wolves captured by three private breeders before their numbers plummeted. Genetic diversity suffered as those separate pairs of wolves were inbred. Genetic analyses and careful breeding after zoos in the U.S. and Mexico acquired the wolves and initiated the recovery program has created a genetically healthier population.