The Greenville Zoo is excited to announce Ahsa, the red panda, is now on exhibit in our Asia corridor. Ahsa has come to us from Zoo Knoxville. She has a spunky personality and a proclivity for bananas and bamboo. There are fewer than 2,500 adult red pandas in the wild. Ahsa plays an important role conserving her species through the Species Survival Plan (SSP). The SSP is one of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ many conservation programs whose primary role is to serve as a breeding program for selected endangered or threatened species. The goal is to maintain a healthy and genetically diverse population for these animals in order to increase their numbers.
The homeschool theme this month was Cycles, Recycles, and Upcycles. Students learned about the natural cycles of life and how matter flows through an ecosystem. They created bioactive terrariums to learn about ecosystems using upcycled and recycled supplies. The Greenville Zoo provides monthly homeschool programs for grades K 5 - 8th. To learn more about next year's themes and sign up for the homeschool zoosletter email us at zooed@greenvillesc.gov .
The Greenville Zoo partnered with FieldTripZoom to present a live stream program focused on ‘Genetics in the Modern Zoo’ this week. FieldTripZoom offers educators unlimited access to virtual field trips that are broadcast every week with a subscription. These programs reach students all over the globe who otherwise may not have the ability to go on a school field trip.
The zoo’s maintenance team is working on the construction of a brand new roof for our ambassador animals outdoor exhibit space. This addition will allow our ambassador animals to have access to the outdoors for longer periods of time in a protected environment and allows for additional animals to be housed in our collection who can be housed outdoors year-round.
Big Al the American alligator celebrated his (approximate) 25th birthday on May 11, 2022. At over 12 feet long and 500 pounds, Al’s birthday cake consisted of 10 pounds of rodent meat in the form of frozen and thawed jumbo rats. Alligators can live up to 50 years and we expect Big Al to celebrate with us for many years to come.