Our two female Lesser Kudu. Meringue, born January 2013 @ The San Diego Zoo (CA) and Lemon, born April 2010 @ The Kansas City Zoo (MO). Ritter, (our Buck) born March 2010 @ The St. Louis Zoo (MO) was also out on this fine day.
Brothers Bud and Davis, born October 2014 and transferred to the Maryland Zoo in 2018 from the Omaha Zoo's Wildlife Park (NE). For a few years now, the Maryland Zoo has participated in the SSP (Species Survival Program) of the Cheetah by being a holding institution for surplus males. These guys love their rock.
Addie (Adanna) was born July 2015 @ the Idaho Falls Zoo in Tautphaus Park (ID). She is the youngest of our three female Burchell's Plains Zebra. She is also the ornery one, or perhaps "spirited" would be a kinder way of describing her personality.
One of our ten adult female Sitatunga. We also have 2 adult males and Noel (below) our latest birth. She was born in October of 2019. Our Sitatunga SSP is one of the most successful in the country.
Many zoos have specialized foci when it comes to supporting and maintain species. In conjunction with the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums--the most respected accrediting organization in the country) there is an extensive network of interconnected breeding programs. The AZA maintains studbooks with the provenance of every member of many key species in all of its institutions going back generations. Committees of zoo professionals meet and make recommendations that move animals from one zoo to another in order to ensure the greatest possible genetic diversity. At the Maryland Zoo, besides the Sitatunga, we are also leading the fight to keep other species from going extinct. Most notably (but not only), Polar Bears, Panamanian Golden Poison Dart Frogs, Bog Turtles, and African Penguins. The African Penguin colony at the Maryland Zoo is the largest and most successful breeding colony in North America. We have over 90 penguins and birds from our colony routinely transfer to colonies at other AZA institutions from the Lehigh Valley Zoo in Schnecksville, Pennsylvania to the San Diego Zoo in southern California.
African Penguins are not the only African avian species that resides at our award winning African Coast habitat. There are also trios of Pink-backed Pelicans and White-breasted Cormorants. There are two of our White-breasted Cormorants. Sometimes I think that the other birds get lost in the crowd of adorable penguins!
Members of our flock of Caribbean Flamingos. Most of our colony are males. I don't know why. I was just told that by a keeper once. There are 4 major species of Flamingo. Two are found in the "new world" and two in the "old world". There are subspecies that are rather idiocyncratic and also reside in the "new world" half of the globe. Of the 4, each is pretty distinguishable. The two major species in the Americas are the Chilean Flamingos and the Caribbean Flamingos. These are Caribbean. Among other things they are smaller that other species, and they are definitely the most deeply orange-pink in color. At the Maryland Zoo, they also belong to a very exclusive club of animals not native to North American or Africa where nearly all of the other animals on display trace their heritage back to. The other notable exception is Sofiya, our Amur Leopard, whose ancestor call Asia home.
Josie, one of our two Bobcats. Josie began her zoo career at the Tulsa Zoo (OK) and came to us in December of 2016. She is 7 years old. In the wild, Bobcats average 12-13 years in age. In captivity, they have lived to be as old as 33! It's a tough world out there if you are bobcat.
I will end this little visit with one of our 5 Black-Crowned Night Herons. You can find them in our Marsh Aviary in the Maryland Wilderness area of the Maryland Zoo. They're are clearly worth the effort! 
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