UPDATE: Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s reopening date has been changed from April 1, 2020 to April 17, 2020. This is an update to the Zoo’s official statement from March 16, 2020, which you can find below.

(Colorado Springs, Colo.) – At Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we believe we have multiple responsibilities to our community, in addition to our responsibilities to the natural world. Our unique atmosphere allows friends and family to spend quality time together, while providing our guests an opportunity to spend time in the outdoors, which has been shown to improve both physical and mental well-being. All of these were reasons that Cheyenne Mountain Zoo remained open to the public through today.

While we had support from city and county government officials to remain open with our already strong precautionary measures, the time has come to support our country’s decision makers and unite behind a common goal. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is announcing a temporary closure of its public operations in response to today’s request by President Donald Trump to join together to suppress the COVID-19 virus. The closure will be effective tomorrow (Tuesday, March 17, 2020), and we are already beginning to plan our reopening on April 1, 2020, assuming that the current 15-day guidance has not been extended. As soon as possible, we want to provide a beacon of hope for our community in this unusual time.

During the closure, the Zoo’s staff will keep busy, not only providing our excellent standard of care for our animals, but also with other important work around the Zoo. The closure will provide Zoo staff with the opportunity to continue to prepare for Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation inspections scheduled for this summer, which is something that happens once every five years. Staff will also focus on detailed preparations for the opening of the Zoo’s new hippo and African penguin exhibit, Water’s Edge: Africa, which we hope will open sometime in May. We are thankful to be able to keep all of our Zoo family employed through the 15-day closure.

All public EdVenture programs originally scheduled through March 31, 2020 are canceled or will be rescheduled, including Spring Break Camp, Stroller Safaris, WildNights, ZOOMobile outreach programs, birthday parties and any other public programs. Please email edprograms@cmzoo.org or call (719) 424-7827 for information about refunds or other questions.

While the Zoo is closed, the public is encouraged to stay virtually connected to our animals through our social media channels and website. On nice days, fans of our giraffe herd will continue to be able to watch the herd shift into their outdoor yard via the Zoo’s YouTube channel or at cmzoo.org/giraffecam. Zoo staff also will also continue to provide updates on our animals through our social media feeds: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Any further updates on the status of the Zoo’s closure will be updated via the green “alert” message on our home page at cmzoo.org.

About Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society was founded in 1926. Today, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, America’s mountain Zoo, offers comprehensive education programs, exciting conservation efforts and truly fantastic animal experiences. In 2019, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was voted #6 Best Zoo in North America and CMZoo’s Rocky Mountain Wild was named #5 Best Zoo Exhibit in North America by USA TODAY 10Best Readers’ Choice Awards. It is Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s goal to help guests fall in love with animals and nature, and take action to protect them. Of the 233 zoos and aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is one of just a few operating without tax support. Cheyenne Mountain Zoo depends on admissions, membership dues, special event attendance and donations for funding.

Although Water’s Edge: Africa’s opening date hasn’t been set, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is steadily preparing to welcome home Zambezi (zam-BEE-zee) and Kasai (kuh-SIGH), two female Nile hippopotamuses who are taking an extended vacation at Dickerson Park Zoo, in Springfield, Missouri. They moved there in 2016 to allow us to build a new state-of-the-art exhibit for them.

Patty Wallace, Water’s Edge: Africa lead animal keeper, worked with Zambezi and Kasai for six years at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. Wallace spent five of those years as their primary trainer. She is excited for guests to get to know the girls again and to see them in their brand-new home.

Kasai is 20 years old and larger than her older sister, Zambezi. Kasai is easily identifiable by the pink spots on the tops of all four of her feet. Zambezi is 27 years old and has a more consistent skin tone than Kasai. Both hippos enjoy participating in training, but Kasai tends to have a more dominant personality, which often means she’s the first to investigate new enrichment or food.
Zambezi, Nile hippo eating
“I’m really excited about rekindling our relationship and getting to know the hippos again,” said Wallace. “We can expect them to be a little cautious coming into this new building, because they’ve never been there before. Part of the challenge is getting them back to the level of comfort they had before. They’re both really food motivated, so I expect it will take a lot of patience, understanding and watermelon to help the girls gain confidence in their new space and with keepers again.”

Only 30 organizations accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums in North America house hippos. In addition to their somewhat rare presence in zoos, Wallace says part of the CMZoo hippos’ appeal is their generally calm and gentle demeanors.

“Hippos are known as one of the most dangerous animals in the world, with incredibly impressive strength and size,” said Wallace. “Zambezi and Kasai have grown up in human care, so they’re used to people. They may scuffle with each other from time to time, but they really are gentle giants.”

A big part of helping the hippos gain confidence in their new home is training the keepers to control the myriad of new building features that will help them care for Zambezi and Kasai. Keepers are getting accustomed to underwater shift doors, hydraulic doors, garage doors, cable-and-bollard systems, water filtration systems, heating and cooling systems, lighting, behind-the-scenes kitchen and enrichment preparation areas, and more.

“We’re also planning our animal demonstrations and enrichment activities, considering how the girls might like to interact with us in this space and what will give our guests a memorable experience,” said Wallace. “We have a ton of opportunities to help guests fall in love with hippos, thanks to the design of this awesome new space.”

Water’s Edge: Africa’s indoor hippo demo space allows guests to get right up close to the hippos, with only bollards in between them and the animals. In the same area, guests can stand on a scale that helps them see how many humans it takes to weigh the same as a hippo. Near the outdoor hippo yard, a nature trail takes guests to a rope bridge that hangs above the hippo yard, giving guests a first-time bird’s eye view of the girls in water and on land. A knife-edge outdoor pool will help guests see the hippos as the hippos see them – just above the water line.

“You can be eye-level with a basking hippo at the knife-edge pool’s viewing area,” said Wallace. “It is going to be such a cool experience. I can’t wait for everyone to visit the new exhibit and hopefully form long-lasting relationships with these beautiful girls.”

At Dickerson Park Zoo, keepers are working with the girls to make them as comfortable as possible for their trip home to CMZoo, including building the hippos’ comfort level with their transport crates.

“We situated their transport crates so they’re part of the entrance to their yard, which allows them to travel through them and be around them regularly,” said Tracy Campbell, senior zookeeper at Dickerson Park Zoo. Campbell has worked with the girls since they arrived in 2016 and has worked with hippos for 20 years. “Once we have an exact timeline for their trip back to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we’ll increase their crate training time, but for now we’re keeping them acclimated by walking through them.”

Wallace was part of the transport training when the girls first traveled to Springfield.

“We trained with them for about three months before their last transport,” said Wallace. “They traveled in separate crates made of wood and steel. Like Dickerson Park Zoo is doing, we positioned the crates as entrances to the building, so they could walk through them and gain confidence with them over time. They were hesitant at first, but since they’re so food motivated, it didn’t take them long to get the hang of it.”

The trip between Dickerson Park Zoo and Cheyenne Mountain Zoo takes about 11 hours. The hippos travel in their crates inside an enclosed and climate-controlled flatbed truck. Once the hippos are comfortably in their crates, a large crane is used to move the 1.5-ton animals onto the truck. During the transport, the hippos are monitored to address any needs along the way. All went smoothly last time, and CMZoo keepers stayed with the girls at DPZ for about a week to help them settle in.

“I’m excited to have the girls home again,” said Wallace. “In the mornings, I would call ‘good morning, hippos!’ and they’d vocalize and poke up out of the water to look for me. They’d watch and wait for me to prepare their breakfast – and they’d let me know if I was being too slow. They’d walk up the ramp and stare at me, watching my every move. I can’t wait to see them and our guests exploring this amazing new exhibit.”

About Nile Hippos

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List categorizes Nile hippopotamuses as a species vulnerable to extinction in the wild, estimating 125,000 to 150,000 remain in their native habitats. The primary threats are habitat loss and illegal and unregulated hunting. Hippos are hunted for ivory, which is found in hippopotamuses’ canine teeth, and meat.

Back to The Waterhole

 

Bob Chastain, CMZoo president and CEO, is back with the latest update from Water’s Edge: Africa. We’ve refilled the void in the soil under the indoor hippo pool and waterproofed the new concrete. Soon, we’ll do another water test to measure continued water loss.

Get an up-close view of the micro cracks that we’re repairing with a filler product that has some elasticity. We hope the lining material we apply next will stop those leaks.

Also, in this video, we’re giving you a first-time sneak peek at the Water’s Edge: Africa vacation yard. This outdoor yard and pool will be used by a variety of animals and will be visible to guests on their way to Primate World.

Although we don’t yet have an opening date, we’re getting closer! We’re still aiming to begin introducing animals to the building sometime in March. We’ll keep you posted!

Bob Chastain, CMZoo president and CEO, is back with an update on Water’s Edge: Africa! From the indoor penguin pool, Bob gives the details about the pool and underground excavation, soil testing (good news!), and reconstruction of the hippo and penguin pools. The next step is additional water testing, which involves measuring how much the pools’ water levels are dropping overall, and establishing how much of that water is evaporating, rather than leaking. It’s a complicated process when you consider the intricacies of the pools, the indoor and outdoor elements and multiple surfaces.

Although we don’t yet have an opening date, we’re still looking at bringing hippos and penguins home as early as March, so stick with us. We’ll keep you posted as we progress through this next testing phase.

Thanks for your continued support!

We’re back with an update on our hippo and penguin exhibit under construction, Water’s Edge: Africa. Bob Chastain, president and CEO of CMZoo, explains why we’re experiencing delays and gives the most recent anticipated opening timeline. We really wanted a hippopotamus for Christmas, but (#spoileralert) it’s going to be at least a few more months until we can welcome the hippo girls home.

“When will the new hippo and penguin exhibit open?” has been a common question we’ve received both in-person and online for the past several months. Our President & CEO, Bob Chastain, is here to give you a few updates on why we can’t pinpoint an exact opening date for you just yet, and what has to happen before we can.

Some people are surprised to learn that seventeen chickens live in Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s My Big Backyard, where guests can also meet rabbits, koi fish, amphibians, insects, our honeybee colony, tarantulas, and more. The chickens are each named after famous chefs or tasty spices and all have unique personalities to match.

It’s not unusual to hear cooing chickens and guests giggling with delight, as they get the opportunity to meet these unique species of chicken up close and personal. Guests can interact with them during their daily “Chicken Parades,” when they run down the road from their chicken coop to their pen in My Big Backyard. Guests who would like to get even closer have the chance to do so for $1 during the chicken feeding experience. These interactions are available all day every day, when the weather is warm enough for these hearty chickens to be outside.

When they’re not on parade or connecting with guests, the chickens are training with their keepers. Here are a few fan favorites, and their current training efforts, to look for next time you visit My Big Backyard:

Rosemary is the flock’s only White Crested Black Polish chicken. Her fabulous frock of white feathers on the top of her head makes her easy to recognize. She may not be able to see very well because of the sheer volume of her feathery headdress, but she has phenomenal hearing and recognizes her lead trainer’s voice out of any crowd. Rosemary is trained to peck at a target, to jump onto hands and to turn around in a circle. People love Rosemary because of her funny head of feathers and her calm and outgoing demeanor. Rosemary is often one of the first chickens to attend off grounds ZOOMobile programs, as she doesn’t mind new surroundings as long as there is good food.

Martha Stewart is the CMZoo flock’s only Lakenvelder chicken. She has black feathers on her neck and tail, but her body feathers are white. Martha is a very eager eater, and you may see her running towards guests with food cups, or stealing tasty bugs from other chickens. Martha is learning how to tell the difference between colors. She is learning station training and target training. Keepers show Martha a blue paddle or a red paddle, and she walks to stand on a circle that is the same color as the paddle her keepers present. Most of the time Martha gets it right, but sometimes she gets really excited about her meal worm treats and forgets about the colors. Martha is also learning to go on ZOOMobile programs.
 
 
 

Guy Fieri is the newest addition to our chicken family. He is an Araucana rooster and lives in a side yard with Laredo, a Rio Grande turkey. Guy is a very “talkative” rooster. If you wait by his yard for a few minutes, you are almost guaranteed to hear him crow. Guy is settling in to the chicken family, approaching keepers and discovering which foods are his favorite. Guy is very mild mannered and spends his days exploring the yard and finding new areas to perch.

All the chickens in My Big Backyard have the option of staying in the yard and interacting with guests, taking a break in the side yard to just relax or maybe lay an egg, or flying out and exploring the Zoo on their own. If you see a chicken outside of the yard or coop, don’t worry. They are just exploring their spaces and looking for bugs to eat. They always come home to roost in their coop at night.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

New Hippo and Penguin Exhibit to Open This Fall – Water’s Edge: Africa Animal Care Manager, Jeremy Dillon, shares the latest from the hippo and penguin exhibit, set to open this fall.

CMZoo animal care manager, Jeremy Dillon, gives Waterhole readers the first look inside the hippo building, a sneak peek at the nature trail, and updates on the penguin exhibit. Water’s Edge: Africa is scheduled to open late summer/early fall 2019.

FIRST-TIME LOOK INSIDE THE NEW HIPPO BUILDING, SET TO OPEN EARLY FALL

HIPPO AND PENGUIN EXHIBITS TO OPEN IN PHASES, STARTING LATE SUMMER

CMZoo animal care manager, Jeremy Dillon, shows off some of the exciting features in Water’s Edge: Africa, the hippo and penguin exhibit set to open in phases starting late summer 2019.