Bringing the Zoo to You!

Join us for updates of what our furred, flippered, and feathered friends are up to and how our zookeepers are caring for them. Check out our 2025 Bringing the Zoo to You library below, along with links to 2020-2024.

2025 Features

Our South American wetlands is home to a variety of birds – from waterfowl and flamingos to white ibis and roseate spoonbills. Stop by to see our diverse and functioning ecosystem in The Fondren Foundation Birds of the World.

https://bit.ly/43TfaOW

Can you see the resemblance? 🤔 Denver, our blue-and-gold macaw, is a modern-day descendant of the Herrerasaurus that lived during the Triassic period. It’s a prehistoric reptile that used to be bipedal and its arms evolved to be wings. Nerd out on more dino facts and get a sneak peek of TXU Energy presents Jurassic Giants open now through Sept. 1 in this week’s livestream.

Two of our California sea lions, Jonah and Calypso joined us on this week’s Facebook Live to kick off Memorial Day weekend! Calypso turns 22 this Sunday while Jonah turns 29 on June 15. A common misconception our animal care team gets is confusing sea lions with seals. They are cousins, but a few key differences with sea lions are:

💙 Have large front flippers – a third of their overall body size
💙 Have small ear flaps that is an adaption to help them hear better on land
💙 Very agile on land and have a rotating hind hip bone to help climb rocks and to walk on all fours

Learn more about our flippered friends on this week’s livestream.

We spent our morning with our bachelor elephants inside their pool!

This month we are celebrating some of our herd members birthday’s including Methai (turning 57), Tucker (turning 20), Nelson (turning 5), and Teddy (turning 4!) Stop by this month and visit our McNair Asian Elephant Habitat to wish them a happy birthday!

During your next Zoo visit, be sure to check out our newest space, Wildlife Workshop, near the John P. McGovern Children’s Zoo. The former Swap Shop has been reimagined into a physical space for all ages where you can collaborate, learn, and celebrate wildlife-saving behaviors.

Don’t miss out on Camp Zoofari this summer! Our Camp team took over this morning’s Facebook Live and shared more info on the exclusive benefits of our summer program like meeting ambassador animals, behind the scenes experiences, and more. Save your kiddo’s spot here!

Rojo has grown leaps and bounds since he was born on November 6! He’s the second jaguar cub born in three years at an AZA facility, so he’s a very special little (big) guy. Rojo has been exploring his new habitat with mom, Vida, for the past three weeks and has made significant strides when it comes to training, even voluntarily receiving his recent set of vaccines.

Today we went up close with our vultures inside of our African Savanna in the Fondren Foundation Birds of the World exhibit. Vultures are known to be scavengers and are different from buzzards who are known to be hunters. Make a plan to visit our vultures and stop by to see TXU Energy presents Jurassic Giants this Spring Break.

Our newest resident Ravioli can be often found swimming and exploring his exhibit!! You can see him and our other North American River otter, Belle, inside of the John P. McGovern Children’s Zoo.

Inside our Reptile & Amphibian House we house a variety of rattlesnakes, including western diamondback rattlesnakes, which are one of the largest rattlesnakes native to North America.

Rattlesnakes have one of the fastest acting muscles in the animal kingdom. They have a specialized tail muscle known as a “shaker” muscle and enables that classic rattle, going off about 50x a second. Learn more from Herpetology Supervisor Audrey.

#YearoftheSnake

Let’s hear it for Kirby! This cutie is now 2.5 months old, weighing in at 539 pounds. Kirby is an inquisitive elephant and has been hitting milestones on nursing, using her trunk, receiving baths, and exploring her surroundings. The best time of day to see Kirby is between 10am-2pm. Get your Kirby fix during your next visit. She’s usually with mom Shanti, Methai, and Winnie.