Rosamond Gifford Zoo
5513230
223780778
2008-07-05T19:44:38Z
68.198.207.42
{{Infobox zoo
|zoo_name=Rosamond Gifford Zoo
|image=Rosamond Gifford Zoo.jpg
|image_caption=Main building and entrance to the zoo
|date_opened=1914; 1986
|location=[[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]], [[New York]], [[United States|USA]]
|members=[[Association of Zoos and Aquariums|AZA]]
|num_animals=1000
|website=http://www.rosamondgiffordzoo.org/
}}
'''The Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park''' is a [[zoo]] in [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]], [[New York]]. It is owned and operated by [[Onondaga County, New York|Onondaga County Parks]]. The zoo is home to over 600 [[animals]]. Highlights include a renowned [[elephant]] exhibit, several wildlife trails, a [[petting zoo]], [[waterfowl]] ponds, a [[social animals]] building, an [[aviary]], a successful Amur tiger breeding program, and a new [[penguin]] exhibit. The zoo also houses a [[conservation biology|conservation]] and education center.
==History==
===Origins===
The first incarnation of the zoo was a small, four [[acre]] affair in [[Burnet Park]] owned and operated by the [[Syracuse Department of Parks and Recreation]]. After opening in 1914, the zoo's first expansion began in 1916 with the construction of stone exhibits for [[bears]] and a waterfowl pond. By 1933, the zoo had doubled in size, and by in 1955 a [[children's zoo]] and [[monkey]] exhibit had been built.
===Decline===
The zoo's decline began in the early 1960s as Syracuse's [[tax base]] started to shrink and financial support for the zoo began to erode. In 1974, two teens broke into the zoo and managed to kill and injure about forty animals. The city's financial position and the break- in fueled public debate over the future of the zoo. Despite the creation of the [[Friends of the Burnet Park Zoo]] in 1970 and a grant received by the city to enlarge the Zoo to eighteen acres, add a [[boardwalk]], a western plains [[habitat]], and construct a new perimeter [[fence]], the City of Syracuse transferred control of the zoo to [[Onondaga County]] Parks in 1979.
===Renewal===
A study by County Parks staff produced a forty page renovation plan for the zoo which involved shutting down the old zoo and constructing another. The plan was approved by the [[Onondaga County legislature]] in 1981. The old zoo was closed in 1982 and the thirteen million dollar project (ten million of which was provided by the county and the rest by the Friends of the Burnet Park Zoo) began in 1983.
The zoo reopened in 1986 and received its accreditation from the [[Association of Zoos and Aquariums]] the following year; it was reaccredited a decade later. The zoo initiated a capital campaign in 1998 to fund a new conservation and education center and [[tiger]], penguin and [[rainforest]] exhibits. Following a two million dollar endowment by the [[Rosamond Gifford Charitable Corporation]] in 1999, the zoo was renamed the Rosamond Gifford Zoo at Burnet Park.
The next several years saw the introduction of the zoo's first [[lion]] cubs in over a decade, as well as the creation of a [[tiger]] trail featuring a family of [[Amur tiger]]s, a social animal exhibit, and a penguin exhibit, which was completed in 2005 and featured eighteen [[Humboldt penguin]]s. Since then the zoo has successfully raised numerous penguin chicks. During this period the zoo became the second in the [[United States]] to successfully raise [[red panda]] triplets.
==Exhibits==
===Wildlife Trails===
The animals include:
*Bald eagle
*Red-tailed hawk
*Grey wolf
*Red wolf
*Red fox
*Red panda
*Spectacled bear
*Eurasian lynx
*Amur tiger
*Snow leopard
*Collared peccary
*White-lipped deer
*Chinese muntjac
*Reindeer
*American bison
*Domestic yak
*Turkmenian markhor
*Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep
*Peregrine falcon
*Himalayan monal pheasant
*Andean condor
*Tundra swan
*Humboldt penguin
*Giant Canada geese
===Outdoor Birds===
The animals include:
*Chilean flamingo
*North American wood duck
*gray call duck
*American common goldeneye
*smew
*ruddy shelduck
*hooded merganser
*North American ruddy duck
*magpie goose
*Humboldt penguin
*turkey vulture
*broad-wing hawk
*red-tailed hawk
*bald eagle
*merlin
*American kestrel
*Lady Amherst's pheasant
*golden pheasant
*Indian peafowl
*great horned owl
*eastern screech owl
*kookaburra
*Eurpoean blackbird
*Eurasian jay
===Outreach Animals===
These animals are used for educationaloutreach program. The animals include:
*emperor scorpions
*blue-spotted salamander
*spotted salamander
*barking tree frog
*eastern painted turtle
*Blanding's turtle
*inland bearded dragon
*leopard gecko
*northern blue tongue skink
*royal/ball python
*Honduran milk snake
*cockatiel
*red-lored amazon
*yellow amazon
*golden conure
*Electus parrot
*European polecat
*eastern box turtle
===Social & Rainforest Animals===
The animals include:
*Hyacinth macaw
*Von der Decken's hornbill
*White-winged vampire bat
*Ring-tailed lemur
*Black and white ruffed lemur
*Golden lion tamarin
*Common squirrel monkey
*Vervet
*Mandrill
*Siamang
*Slender-tailed meerkat
*Lion
*Panther chameleon
*Brazilian Agouti
*Fossa
===Domestic Animals===
These animals can interact with zoo visitors. These animals include:
*miniature donkey
*Guinea hog
*llama
*domestic dog
*domestic sheep
*domestic pony
*domestic goats
*[[Asian elephant]]
===Diversity Aviary===
These animals include:
*scarlet ibis
*roseate spoonbill
*Nicobar pigeon
*palawan peacock pheasant
*black-necked stilt
*pied imperial pigeon
*macaw species (hybrid)
*fairy bluebird
*Shama thrush
*melodius laughing thrush
*white-crested laughing
*thrush
*yellow-billed cardinal
*emerald starling
*turquoise tanager
*ringed teal
*inca tern
*blue-winged leaf bird
*blue crowned motmot
*radiated tortoise
*Blue-throated macaw
*Golden lion tamarin
*Bleeding heart dove
*Australian shelduck
*Himalayan impeyan pheasant
*rainbow loorikeet
*common barn owl
*white-throated king fisher
*chestnut mandible toucan
*golden oriole
===Antiquities Aquarium===
These animals include:
*aggregate anemone
*giant green anemone
*crimson anemone
*plumed anemone
*white-spotted anemone
*painted anemone
*red rock crab
*keyhole limpet
*top-shell
*blood star
*sea cucumber
*bat sea star
*green sea urchin
*purple sea urchin
*pencil urchin
*decorator crab
*spot prawn
*giant millipede
*large milkweed bugs
*Madagascar hissing cockroach
*Chilean rose-haired tarantula
*ochre sea star
*turban snail
*feather duster worm
*giant red sea urchin
*axolotl
*tiger salamander
*hellbender
*green & black dart frog
*blue dart frog
*yellow banded dart frog
*dyeing dart frog
*phantasmal dart frog
*Golfodulcean dart frog
*golden mantella
*Bernhards mantella
*Bronze mantella
*collared lizard
*desert iguana
*radiated tortise
*spotted turtle
*bog turtle
*giant Amazon river turtle
*yellow-spotted Amazon river turtle
*dwarf caiman
*cone-headed iguana
*desert chuckwalla
*prehensile-tailed skink
*reticulated python
*blood python
*granite spiny lizard
*white spotted bamboo shark
*channel catfish
*yellow bullhead
*rock bass
*black crappie
*yellow perch
*pumpkinseed
*bluegill
*smallmouth bass
*largemouth bass
*mudskipper
*queen angelfish
*African lungfish
*scrawled cowfish
*lookdown
*yellow head jawfish
*algae
*green magpie
*San Blas jay
*Prevost's squirrel
*shiner
*false silvertipped tetra
*rummynose tetra
*serpa tetra
*neon tetra
*Raphail catfish
*corydoras catfish
*plecostomus
*dusky squirrelfish
*white perch
*blue hamlet
*indigo hamlet
*porkfish
*blue angelfish
*rock beauty
*blue chromis
*freshwater angelfish
*peacock clownfish
*Spanish hogfish
*princess parrotfish
*gunnel
*blackeye goby
*blue tang
===Adaptations===
The animals include:
*North American river otter
*Egyptian fruit bat
*slow loris
*Hoffmann's two-toed sloth
*fennec fox
*naked mole-rat
*Lined seahorse
*Kenyan sand boa
*African pied crow
*Bennett's wallaby
*Brazilian agouti
==Elephant breeding program==
The zoo breeds and houses [[Asian Elephants]] and is regarded by some as one of the greatest breeding programs of its kind. The zoo's reputation, however, has been tarnished by a number of infant elephant deaths and practices deemed by some to be outdated and cruel. The zoo has had four elephant deaths during the period 1993 – 2005. <ref>[http://www.elephant.se/location2.php?location_id=198#deaths Syracuse Zoo (Rosamond Gifford Zoo)]</ref>
On August 4, 2005 Kedar, a four day old male elephant, was shown before a clamorous crowd of zoo-goers. The baby elephant escaped its mother's and sisters' watch and fell into a pool in the elephant yard. Kedar was alive when pulled from the pool. However, he died later in the day when his intestinal tract became twisted as a result of taking in too much air and water
during the incident.<ref>[http://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=783 Elephant database]</ref> The zoo was fined $10,675 by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for improper animal handling.
On Thursday, June 8, 2006, surgery was performed on the zoo's Asian elephant Romani in order to remove a dead calf from her womb. Romani had gone into labor four days earlier and was unable to give birth to the baby. Half of the six elephants born at the zoo have died, including Romani’s 3-year-old calf, Preya, who succumbed to a deadly herpes virus.
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo has been criticised by animal welfare organizations for practicing a circus-style form of elephant management that instills dominance and fear in the herd through the use of bullhooks. <ref>[http://www.savewildelephants.com/rosamond.asp Save Wild Elephants]</ref>
In December 2007, the Onondaga County Legislature approved a 6 million dollar expansion of the elephant exhibit. This expanision will allow the elephant breeding program to grow in the future.
==References==
<references/>
==External links==
{{commonscat}}
* [http://www.rosamondgiffordzoo.org/ Rosamond Gifford Zoo]
* [http://www.elephant.se/elephant_database.php?lang= Elephant Database]
* [http://www.savewildelephants.com/rosamond.asp Elephant-Free Zoos]
{{Zoos of New York}}
{{Zoos}}
[[Category:Syracuse, New York]]
[[Category:Zoos in New York]]
{{zoo-stub}}
[[de:Rosamond Gifford Zoo]]