The Pana‘ewa Zoo and Rainforest Gardens has added several new animals this year and is planning future inhabitants including the possible return of pygmy hippos to the facility after more than 20 years.
The youngest zoo residents are two 5-month-old axolotl that arrived just before the last Saturday in May, which the zoo deemed Salamander Saturday.
The cartoonish axolotl — an Aztec name that is pronounced like the phrase “axe a lot” with an “L” sound added to the end — are an aquatic salamander variety native to Mexico City that Pana‘ewa Recreation Complex Administrator Mindy Runnells said were acquired through the local pet trade.
Runnells said animals brought to zoos come from generational lineages bred and raised in captivity to avoid removing specimens from the wild and to help preserve threatened species through breeding programs.
“The forests are being cut down at an incredible rate, and people are hunting, not just poaching, but because they need food,” Runnells said of captivity-based lineages. “So, the arc we are providing in human care is vital.”
The zoo’s first newbie of the year arrived in February: a 2-year-old Southeast Asian binturong, a species known to be a “bearcat,” though Runnells quickly clarifies they are neither bears nor cats and are most closely related to civits.
The young male, who was named Chandler Bing-turong the Binturong, joins 16-year-old female binturong Keoki Anne, who was born at the zoo in late 2009. Though they prefer to each be in their own space, Keoki Anne and Chandler get along well, Runnells said.
“He’s extremely food-motivated,” she said of Chandler, who may be eligible for breeding when he comes of age in a few years, but for now is just mastering getting on a scale and into his crate by himself. “He’ll do anything for a piece of banana.”
Chandler came to the zoo from Belgrade, Serbia, after Runnells found him through the global database ZIMS, the Zoological Information Management System. This is the same system Runnells is using to source the pygmy hippos that will be reintriduced to the zoo through coordination with the same European source that fascillitated Chandler’s transfer.
“They could eat 150 pounds of grass a night in the wild,” said Runnells of the small African hippos. “Living with people, you’re trying to cover that nutrition and natural grazing behavior, so we’re looking into some of that.”
In addition to the hippos, Runnells said the zoo is in the process of acquiring a second ‘alala, the native Hawaiian crow that went extinct in the wild due to predation by the native ‘io hawk. The crows only exist now through breeding efforts by organizations like the Keauhou Bird Conservation Center, which provided the zoo with 11-year-old male ‘alala Loli‘ana in 2021 when he was retired from their breeding program.
The aviary Loli‘ana will share with the incoming new male ‘alala from KBCC needed to be retrofitted with special mesh that foregoes some visibility in order to protect the rare birds from mosquito-borne diseases.
Other enclosure additions in the works include a large area for the many South American species, and a new exhibit for the Colobus, an African monkey species. The zoo is down to its last Colobus, a male they call Spunky the Monkey, who Runnells hopes to give up to five companions when the new enclosure is complete.
Runnells is hopeful that the entry fees being introduced to the zoo on Aug. 1 will allow it to continue providing the animals with top-tier food and medical care while also upgrading facilities, adding new exhibits, and expanding the zoo’s footprint.
Linda Cava, who has worked as a keeper at the zoo since 2008, said she missed the pygmy hippos at the zoo by about five years, leaving her excited for their possible return. However, when asked what her dream addition to the zoo would be, she wished for something Runnells called a “base need”: more staff.
“The workload is my only hesitation,” Cava said of the zoo’s expansion goals, explaining that there are six staff members who work with the animals, and that at least three need to be working at once for optimal animal support.
Cava, who specializes in working with primates, said her other dream is for the animals she works with to have living spaces as large, open and multifaceted as the enclosure shared by the zoo’s beloved tigers, which has two levels, multiple water features, and plenty of spaces to hide.
The big cats — orange female Bengal tiger Sriracha and white male Bengal Tzatziki — will be the focus of another annual Tiger Fun Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
The zoo will celebrate the fact that both tigers just turned 10 with activities and vendors to welcome the summer.
To learn more about zoo activities, or to support it through online donations, purchasing gifts for the animals off of the posted wishlist, or symbolically adopting an animal, visit www.hilozoo.org.
Email Kyveli Diener at kdiener@hawaiitribune-herald.com.