Zoo acquires new endangered residents

His first day after arriving at the Southern Nevada Zoological Park, the Chinese alligator didn't feel much like socializing.

Zoo director Pat Dingle watched the four foot-long animal lounge at the bottom of a murky, artificial pond and explained that the new resident may not come up for some time.

"He flew in just yesterday from the Bronx," Dingle said. "He may need to get comfortable for a while."

At the other side of the zoo, two fossas -- members of the mongoose family that look like a cross between a cat and dog -- also played coy, though they had nearly a week to get accustomed to their new, woody digs.

The brother-and-sister pair from San Diego may have been taking a pre-lunch nap in their personal miniature jungle.

"We built a new exhibit for them," Dingle said. "It's 80 feet long, 10 feet tall, and so thick it's like a jungle in Madagascar. They went bonkers over it."

The fossas -- tentatively named Farrah and Bob -- and the Chinese alligator are what Dingle calls "major home runs" for the small Las Vegas zoo. A fourth animal, an Indo-Chinese tiger, was set to arrive from the Cincinnati Zoo in the next few days.

"Our zoo has been here 22 years," Dingle said. "This is the most significant (news) we've had yet.

"We have a lot of endangered species and a lot of rare stuff, but this is the direction we're going now, with even more rare animals. Las Vegas is unique, so it's only appropriate the zoo collection is unique -- no sissy stuff."

The Chinese alligator is a critically endangered species, with only an estimated few hundred left in the wild and, according to Dingle, 140 in captivity around the world. It is one of the smaller crocodilian species, reaching a maximum of about six feet in length. The animal's diet consists mostly of fish and snails.

"They're really good-looking animals," Dingle said. "They're cute -- if you can use 'cute' and 'alligator' in the same sentence."

Though not currently considered endangered, the meat-eating fossas also may be a species in trouble.

"They are vulnerable because of loss of habitat and hunting in (their native) Madagascar," said Carmi Penny, curator of mammals at the San Diego Zoo.

And only about 1,500 Indo-Chinese tigers still survive in the wild, with about 60 living in zoos in Asia and the United States.

So how did the modest, three-acre zoo near Rancho and Vegas drives score these rare, exotic animals?

The fossas are on permanent loan from the San Diego Zoo.

"The San Diego Zoo knows who we are and they've been our mentor for the last 20 years," Dingle said. "This has been in the works for over six months. (Penny) came up last month and declared the fossa exhibit the largest, best fossa exhibit in the country."

Penny visited the Las Vegas zoo to examine the new fossa habitat before sending San Diego's spare set of fossas here.

"We've worked with the (Las Vegas) zoo for a number of years off and on," Penny said. "We think (Dingle) has some good ideas. He's trying to maintain a nice community zoo. He's upgrading it. He knew we were looking for a place for our fossas where they would have space and be able to produce offspring and serve educational purposes. The size (of the exhibit) is fine and should work for them."

One of the reasons the Southern Nevada Zoological Park was chosen as the new home for an Indo-Chinese tiger, Dingle said, is because the zoo's own tiger died last year.

"The top tiger experts in the world recommended us," he said. "Our tiger died of old age. She was 23 and a half years old. No one knew of an older tiger." Dingle said most tigers in captivity live only up to their late teens.

The local zoo is now taking part in the Species Survival Plan for Chinese alligators. Workers built a special exhibit for the still unnamed animal right next to the plot belonging to Sweetness, the zoo's much larger, fiercer-looking American alligator. With his Chinese neighbor still loafing beneath two feet of pond water, Sweetness bared his teeth and glared at visitors.

"He came after my feet the other day when I was in there," Dingle said.

Thank goodness for sturdy fences.

The Southern Nevada Zoological Park is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $7 general, $5 for seniors and children under 12. For more information, visit www.lasvegaszoo.org.


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