PR Bits

Meet megasoma elephas, the elephant beetle.

As part of an on-going collaborative research project between YOUR San Antonio Zoo, the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly Conservatory, MO, and El Bosque Nuevo butterfly farm in Costa Rica, the San Antonio Zoo is now home to this enormous elephant beetle. The male elephant beetle, featured above was brought back from Costa Rica last week and is now in the Wild Wonders exhibit. This research project has the interest and support of both the Costarican government and the management of the Guanacaste Conservation Area, Costa Rica, and is funded by your San Antonio Zoo, along with a grant from the Terrestrial Invertebrates Taxonomic Advisory Group of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

 

 

 

Ploughshare Tortoise

The San Antonio Zoo welcomes the temporary return of a Madagascan ploughshare tortoise, Astrochelys yniphora- the rarest tortoise in the world. The Madagascan ploughshare tortoise is thought to be extinct in the wild- only a handful of adults and a number of young tortoises exist in a government managed Madagascan conservation facility. The San Antonio Zoo obtained a pair of these unique tortoises in 1973. The pair was sent out on loan to the Honolulu Zoo over thirty years ago. Unfortunately, the female passed away while in Honolulu, Hawaii. The lone male was later transferred to a private tortoise facility in Georgia. After a thirty eight year absence he has returned to San Antonio. Current plans are to send him to join the only two females in the Americas being held at the Behler Chelonian Conservancy- an AZA accredited facility specializing in the breeding of endangered turtles. The ultimate goal is to establish an out of country breeding assurance colony for this highly endangered tortoise. The male ploughshare tortoise is not on exhibit- he is being held in the San Antonio Zoo’s quarantine facility before awaiting his new adventure.

 

 

 

This beautiful and inviting plaza opened to the public on Friday, December 17, 2010. The new plaza includes new landscaping, paved walkways, rockwork seating areas, lighted poles, and a new flag pole. At the center of the plaza, the San Antonio Zoo's mission statement is embedded with bonze lettering encircling a world map as its focal point. What a great addition to the San Antonio Zoo.

 

August 2010: The new plaza project is underway!

 

JUly 2010: prep work begins for the construction phase.

 

June 2010: sketch of the new plaza.

 

May 2010: building and surrounding areas are fenced in for the demolition process.