Video Stories Archives

CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN ZOO WELCOMES SLOTH BABY – Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is thrilled to announce the arrival of a New Year’s baby: a Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth. Some call sloth babies ‘pups,’ ‘infants,’ or even ‘slow-bies.’ Everyone can agree to calling this wee one ‘adorable.’ With its dark brown eyes and a perfect pinkish-brown furless face, its cuteness is out of this world.

The baby, born on Dec. 18, seems strong, and has been learning to traverse Mom’s tummy. While its mom, Aysan, hangs upside down, her baby sprawls right-side-up on her belly, with its four long limbs wrapped around her torso.

“I love the way it lifts its head out of her chest fur and slowly looks around, just kind of taking it all in,” Amber Callen-Ward, lead keeper in Scutes Family Gallery, says. “Aysan has been a great first-time mom, grooming the baby by licking its face, which is so sweet. She and the baby have been bonding well. The baby is nursing, clinging to her and taking little bites of solid foods we offer.”

The two-week-old sloth is already trying pieces of plantain, romaine lettuce, zucchini and cucumber, but gets its main source of nutrients from nursing.

9-year-old Aysan’s care team knew she was pregnant. Thanks to their trusting relationship with Aysan, and Aysan’s voluntary participation in her own health care, they had been monitoring the baby’s development via ultrasounds and x-rays for the past few months.

Aysan moved to CMZoo on a breeding recommendation by the Hoffmann’s Two-Toed Sloth Species Survival Plan, with Bosco, the Zoo’s long-time male sloth, in June 2023. Sloth gestation typically lasts 11 to 12 months, so some things can happen quickly for sloths!

Bosco, a 32-year-old male Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth, became a second-time dad with this baby’s arrival. His first daughter, 5-year-old Bean, lives in The Loft at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Bean and Bosco are visible to guests who might need to process this baby excitement with a sloth visit right away.

While mom and baby bond for the first month or so, they’ll be behind the scenes in Scutes Family Gallery. Once they are visible to guests, CMZoo will share that news. The baby’s sex has not been identified, and there are no plans for a name yet. Stay tuned to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s social media channels for sloth pup-dates!

Quarters for Conservation Legacy Project: Palm Oil Conservation
The Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) recognized Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s collaborative palm oil conservation work at the RSPO annual conference in Bangkok last month. PalmOil Scan, a global mobile app that empowers consumers to choose companies that commit to using sustainable palm oil, won the RSPO Innovation Award.

The award acknowledges the work of World Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its members, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Chester Zoo, Auckland Zoo and Zoos South Australia, in developing the PalmOil Scan app.

PalmOil Scan is available in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Learn more at cmzoo.org/palmoil and download the free mobile app before your next shopping trip in the Apple Store or Google Play.

Palm oil is an edible oil found in about half of the products consumers purchase. It is used in candy, soaps, cosmetics, pet food and cleaning products. Because of high demand, unsustainable palm oil production has resulted in deforestation across Southeast Asia, and other tropical areas, which means critically endangered species like orangutans, tigers and elephants, are losing their homes.

However, when produced sustainably, palm oil is the most productive edible oil available. Oil palm trees produce four to ten times more oil than alternatives like soy, olive, canola and coconut. Switching to these alternatives would cause even more deforestation in tropical areas, which is why consumers must demand sustainable palm oil.

CMZoo has been a leader in sustainable palm oil advocacy for nearly 15 years. The Zoo launched a similar mobile app for consumers in the U.S. and Canada in 2014. More than 160,000 verified users have educated themselves by using CMZoo’s app. Its design, database and user experience served as the foundation for the design of PalmOil Scan, which has the potential to reach millions more people around the world.

Through Quarters for Conservation (Q4C), 75¢ from every admission and $25,000 from membership revenue, totaling more than $5 million since 2008, funds legacy programs – symbolized by the Q4C kiosks, where guests can place tokens representing their 75-cent contributions, in CMZoo’s admissions plaza. One long-time legacy conservation effort is palm oil education and advocacy for orangutan habitat preservation.

Back to The Waterhole

Winter at the Zoo is a magical experience! Bundle up and enjoy the mountain views with a cup of steaming hot cocoa in hand. Many animals are extra active on snowy days, while others have cozy indoor habitats. Almost all of the animals are visible to guests, even on the coldest days!

When you’re ready to warm up, head indoors for giraffe and budgie feedings, a visit with our hippos, great apes, sloths, skunks and more, or grab a snack in one of the eateries around the Zoo. Don’t miss the daily animal demonstrations schedule. Keeper talks and demonstrations are great ways to see animals up-close and learn a thing or two about them from our knowledgeable staff.

Visiting in the winter means you can experience the entire Zoo with fewer crowds and save some money while you’re at it! Take advantage of Value Days at the Zoo, happening now through February, and save $5 on daytime admission. Tickets are available at cmzoo.org.

Back to The Waterhole

During the cooler months, African penguins mostly focus on nesting and eating. As daylight hours decrease, they naturally pair up and settle in for snuggle season. While penguins don’t technically mate for life, they are monogamous and typically stay with the same partner during breeding season.

The sixteen ‘flockstars’ at CMZoo have been together since Water’s Edge: Africa opened in 2020 (and some were together before that). Most seem to have settled into their pairings or friendships. Bonded pairs can be identified by the color and placement of their bands. Females wear a band on the left flipper, and males wear them on the right. If you see two penguins with the same color bands, they’re bonded, which means they nest together. Twelve of the CMZoo African penguins are bonded, while the remaining four regularly hang out together but are not actively nesting with another penguin.

African penguins were recently relisted from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List. The number of wild breeding pairs has fallen below 10,000, and African penguins could be extinct in the wild by 2035. But, there is hope.

Every visit to CMZoo is conservation in action. Through membership dues and admissions, CMZoo guests and members have sent $159,675 to SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds), in support of African penguin conservation, since 2010.

Wild African penguin populations face many threats that continue to cause them to struggle in the wild, including:
— commercial overfishing – reducing the availability of prey species like sardines and anchovies
— habitat degradation – oil spills and plastic waste affects many marine species, including African penguins
— disease outbreaks – such as bird flu can compromise an already vulnerable species

In 2020, CMZoo joined AZA SAFE African Penguin. SAFE (Saving Animals From Extinction) is a collaborative conservation effort supported by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and their accredited members. Under this commitment, the Zoo sends $3,000 annually to SANCCOB in support of their Robben Island Ranger project. This ranger closely monitors the Robben Island penguin colony in South Africa, helping researchers keep track of the penguin population. The ranger also plays an important role in the direct care of penguins, and other seabirds, by identifying and transporting birds in need of medical attention to the SANCCOB rescue and rehab facility for treatment and eventual re-release.

Be sure to stop by Water’s Edge: Africa and see the flock during your next trip to CMZoo!

Back to The Waterhole

This fall, volunteers and conservation experts gathered near Las Animas, Colorado, to release 33 endangered black-footed ferrets (BFFs) into the wild, including some that were born at CMZoo!

2024 was a record-breaking breeding year for CMZoo’s BFF conservation program, with 37 kits born! It was also a pioneering year. CMZoo’s conservationists tested multi-partner breeding to see if females could conceive and whelp kits from different dads in the same litter. Out of seven females in the trial, two had litters with two fathers represented. Read more

BFFs were considered extinct until the 1980s. On Sept. 26, 1981, a ranch dog named Shep caught a BFF. Shep’s catch led to the discovery of a small population of the elusive animals in Meeteetse, Wyoming. That population became the hope for the recovery of the entire species.

Since then, zoos, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center and other organizations have banded together to breed, prepare, release and monitor BFFs to increase the population. CMZoo joined the fight to save ferrets in 1991, when its BFF breed-and-release program began. In the last 33 years, 647 kits have been born on Cheyenne Mountain. The Zoo is a major contributor to recovery efforts, releasing BFFs to protected wild places in Colorado every year.

Back to The Waterhole

It’s the howl-iday season at CMZoo, and our pack is thriving! CMZoo is home to five Mexican wolves: Navarro and his offspring — Hope, Shadow, Phoenix, and Uno. Sisters Hope and Shadow have stepped up as confident leaders, often being the first to investigate food, while Uno, Phoenix, and Navarro take a more laid-back approach.

To help keep the pack wild, keepers place food near the front of their yard and then leave, maintaining the wolves’ natural wariness of humans. This is especially important since our wolves or their future offspring could potentially be released into the wild to help bolster the endangered Mexican wolf population. Thanks to conservation efforts, wild Mexican wolf numbers are increasing, with an estimated 257 currently living in the wild in the U.S., according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

Back to The Waterhole

Bowie, one-year-old panther chameleon, has unique adaptations. From his eyes that can see the ultraviolet spectrum and rotate independently to his tongue that’s double the length of his body, Bowie is a great ambassador for teaching guests about these incredible chameleons. Don’t forget to stop by Scutes Family Gallery and visit Bowie during your next trip to CMZoo!

Back to The Waterhole

CMZoo has been pioneering innovative farming techniques in zoos since introducing its first shipping container farm, in 2021, followed by a second, in 2022. Today, only a few zoos are using hydroponic systems like these.

By producing their own fertilizer, the CMZoo horticulture team is saving money and resources while gathering essential data to fine-tune their methods, and yield amazing harvests.

The team is close to reaching full potential with crops like kale and lettuce, while continuing to make small improvements. The team is also growing beets, turnips, cabbage, dandelions and wheatgrass. The long-term goal is to expand, eventually sourcing 50% of the lettuce for the giraffe feeding experience and 80% of the Zoo animals’ lettuce from these farms. Next time you visit CMZoo, check out what’s growin’ on in the shipping container farms located across from Grizzly Grill!

Back to The Waterhole

Four-year-old Atka has grown impressive antlers this year, marking the end of the antler-growing season. Each year, male moose grow a new set of antlers. His antlers, once covered in velvet to help them grow, have now shed the fuzzy layer, revealing the iconic white antlers we associate with moose.

Once his impressive antlers have hardened, he will likely start using them. In autumn, male moose spar for territory and mates. Moose are typically solitary in the wild, and we replicate that for Atka at CMZoo while also providing him with plenty of opportunities to spar with trees and enrichment if he chooses. In the winter or spring, Atka will shed his antlers completely and begin the growth process again.

Stop by Rocky Mountain Wild to see Atka’s 2024 antlers before he sheds them this winter!

Back to The Waterhole

If you’ve been to Rocky Mountain Wild recently, you might have seen the three bandit-faced raccoons: Benton, Baker and Baldwin! The curious 6-year-old brothers are settling into their new home, spending their days exploring branches, playing on tire swings, napping in hollowed-out logs, and washing their long hands in the pond.

The boys recently came from an AZA-accredited zoo in Louisiana, where they were born in human care. Energetic, curious, and outgoing, these three will help remind visitors how to protect our native wildlife.

You can make a difference for wildlife by securing your trash! When raccoons or bears discover they can find tasty snacks at your place, they’re likely to become repeat visitors. This not only means dealing with scattered trash but also increases the risk of human-wildlife conflicts. Such conflicts can create dangerous situations for both people and animals and, in some cases, may lead to the euthanasia of wildlife that becomes too accustomed to human environments.

Back to The Waterhole