Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium

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Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium


Location	Highland Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
Land area	77 acres
# of Animals	over 4,000
# of Species	475
Accreditations/ Memberships	AZA
Major exhibits	Asian Forest, African Savanna, Tropical Forest, Bears, African Ravine, PPG Aquarium, Water's Edge, Kids Kingdom, Worlds of Discovery
Website
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The Pittsburgh Zoo is one of only six major zoo and aquarium combinations in the United States. Located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's Highland Park, the zoo sits on 77 acres of park land where it exhibits over 4,000 animals representing 475 species, over 70 of which are threatened or endangered. The zoo also participates in 64 Species Survival Plans.

1 History
2 Breeding achievements
3 Future projects
4 External links

[edit] History

The Pittsburgh Zoo opened on June 14, 1898. It added a children's zoo in 1949, and the aquarium center (now the PPG Aquarium) was added in 1967. The PPG Aquarium was the second largest in the country and the first and only public aquarium in Pennsylvania at the time.

The zoo has added several new features in the last generation, included among these is the Asian Forest (1983), the 16-acre African Savanna (1987), and the five acre indoor rainforest Tropical Forests, housing 150+ species of primates (1991), which was one of the best of its kind and won many awards when it opened.

Kids Kingdom, the award-winning children's zoo opened in 1995. It features a California sea lion exhibit, a walk-through deer yard, a walk-through kangaroo yard, a petting zoo, two play areas, several domesticated animals, and a large building housing various reptile species, meerkats, and bats called Worlds of Discovery.

PPG Industries in 2000 partnered with the zoo to modernize and expand the aquarium exhibit. The updated 45,000 sq. ft. complex cost over $17 million and boasts nearly 400,000 gallons of salt and fresh water with 40 aquatic exhibits.

With over 4,000 aquatic animals from throughout the world the PPG Aquarium hosts large exhibits of penguins, electric eels, jellyfish, stingrays, and many types of exotic fish. It also has an exhibit featuring regional and North American fish on the outside of the complex as an entryway.

[edit] Breeding achievements

The Pittsburgh Zoo has made several different breeding achievements over the years. A litter of rare Amur leopard cubs was born several years ago. The zoo has also had many gorilla and oranguatan births at the Tropical Forest complex.

On September 12, 1999, one of the zoos female African elephants, Moja, successfully gave birth to a female calf, later named Victoria. This was a major feat for the zoo, because Victoria was the first African elephant to be born and survive in North America since 1982. Also, she was the first to be born to a captive-born mother. A second calf, a male named Callee, was born to another female named Savannah almost exactly one year later on September 19, 2000. The father of both of these calves is a bull named Jackson, who is currently the only male African breeding naturally in North America. Both Moja and Savannah are pregnant with their second calves and are due around May or June 2008.

Recently, on August 8, 2006 the Zoo's female Amur tiger, Toma, gave birth to a litter of three cubs. This is also a major accomplishment because Amurs are critically endangered, and every successful litter counts a great deal. Although one of the cubs died of a heart defect in September, the other two are healthy and doing well; their future looks very bright. The surviving cubs are a male named Petya and a female named Mara.

In May 2008,two baby elephants are to be born via two different mothers,but the same father.

[edit] Future projects

Work is currently underway to build a new 2-acre exhibit that will display polar bears, sea otters, and walruses. The new exhibit will be state of the art and probably one of the best of its kind. The polar bear exhibit opened late 2006, the walruses will come spring 2007, and the otters later that year.