Bye, Bye Bo

Louisville Zoo’s 3-year-old giraffe relocates to Wisconsin                     

By Kara Bussabarger
Public Relations Manager
 

The Louisville Zoo recently said goodbye to Bo, the Zoo’s 3-year-old hand-raised Masai giraffe, when he relocated to Racine Zoo in Wisconsin.

The move was a planned Population Management Plan (PMP) relocation.

PMP is the American Zoo and Aquarium Association’s cooperative animal management program designed to facilitate the population management of select species in captivity.

Click here for more information on PMPs. (http://www.aza.org/ConScience/ConSciencePMPFact/)

Bo was born at the Louisville Zoo July 26, 2004, to mom Malaika and father Mulberry. When Malaika didn’t show mothering instincts, Bo was hand raised by staff and bottle fed.

“I helped raise him since he was a baby, and am very attached to him,” said Louisville Zoo Assistant Animal Curator Candy McMahan. “So yes, my staff and I miss him. But, we know that this move is what is best for Bo and his species. When you work in this field, you come in knowing there is a cycle of life and that animals die or relocate to other Zoos. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t hard. We will definitely miss him.”

The public will miss Bo too.

“The public certainly had a connection with Bo,” McMahan said. “Visitors to the Louisville Zoo have seen Bo grow up and have even been able to be up-close-and-personal with him during our daily giraffe feedings.”

For now, with Bo’s departure, the giraffe feedings have been postponed.

“But we are going to work hard to train our new arrivals (Zahara and Walker) and hope to have them participate in our giraffe feeds in the future,” McMahan said.

Zahara, 2, arrived from Toledo on June 26, 2007. She is easy to identify with her small size and crooked neck (she had an injury to her neck when she was younger. While she is fine now, she still has some residual effects from the injury.)

Walker, 14, will be coming from Cleveland Metroparks Zoo soon. After a routine quarantine, Walker will be out on exhibit. It is the Zoo’s hope that in the future Zahara and Walker will produce offspring.

For more information on Masai giraffes, visit http://www.louisvillezoo.org/collection/animals/MammalFS/Giraffe-Masai.pdf.