Latest news with #BioPark
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
How ABQ BioPark is working to save Rio Grande silvery minnows
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) — They were once found all throughout the Rio Grande, but they now inhabit less than 7% of their historic range. The Rio Grande silvery minnow is considered one of North America's most endangered freshwater fish, and the ABQ BioPark is playing its part in making sure the minnows don't go extinct. Story continues below Community:ABQ bus driver speaks out on her experience of safety issues on Central route News:Homeland Security: 11 people arrested at New Mexico dairy were 'undocumented' Trending:Mexican gray wolf Asha gives birth to litter of pups Food: Two Albuquerque restaurants make Yelp's 'Top 50 Cheap Eats' list Prior to the rain, parts of the Rio Grande had begun drying out. This threatened to strand and kill native fish as temperatures increased and water receded. BioPark biologists worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists to rescue fish, including reproductively-ready silvery minnows, from isolated pools. Those fish were brought to ABQ BioPark's Aquatic Conservation Facility where they successfully spawned. Half of the eggs were hatched, and 30,000 minnows are now growing at ACF. The remaining eggs were sent to the Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center. 'We're up against the realities of climate change — and this year shows just how important it is to be ready to act under any conditions,' said BioPark Director Brandon Gibson. 'Whether the river is running low or rising fast, we're doing everything we can to support silvery minnow recovery.' Back in early May, a temporary release of irrigation water mimicking natural spring floods was coordinated – also known as a 'pulse flow.' This pulse alongside the rain sparked a spawning event and 46,000 eggs were collected from the river. 'These fish form the base of the food web and indicate the health of the entire river ecosystem,' the BioPark stated in a news release. 'If lost, far more than a single species is impacted.' The efforts are part of a long-term recovery program which has seen over 1 million silvery minnows hatches and released. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
ABQ BioPark corrects issues after getting red flagged on food inspections
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – They'll be some of the most popular places in Albuquerque for snacks and ice cream this summer, now the ABQ BioPark is making changes inside a handful of zoo cafes after food inspectors hit their kitchens with red and yellow tags. Story continues below New Mexico Insiders: Leader Of Albuquerque FBI Steps Down News: Video: Santa Ana police officer arrested for DUI and alleged battery Community: Poll: Where is the best place to go camping in New Mexico? 'So, the red flags you guys saw were just momentary red flags, and all those actions were minor and corrected that day,' said Brandon Gibson, director of the ABQ Bio Park. Right in the heart of the Albuquerque zoo, the popular Cottonwood Cafe was hit with a red tag after the City of Albuquerque's Environmental Health Department's Food Inspection Team found ten different violations, including problems like food holding at the wrong temperature. It's one of three eateries recently cited for issues the Bio Park said it quickly moved to resolve. 'None of them were safety issues or food health issues, and mostly education for staff, making sure staff,' said Gibson. Out of the 11 cafes in zoo, The Cottonwood Cafe, The Africa exhibit's Matunda Cafe, and Penguin Chill Cafe were all flagged each for between 10 and 16 issues each ranging from food storage to chemical storage issues and employee sanitation protocols. 'No restaurants here at the Bio Park were closed; all of the citations were very minor and correctable within the site visit. All of our restaurants have passed, and the Bio Park is a safe place to come, a safe place to eat,' he said. Since the inspections, the Bio Park said it has made corrections alongside the food service operator, Service System Associates or SSA. 'We were notified immediately about the potential flags and also the correction that day, and there's going to be follow-up as well. But we've been in talks and making sure they also have the tools and resources that they need to maintain compliance,' said Gibson. With a majority of its food staff being younger in age, the Bio Park said it's going through extra staff training. 'We will do a late-night training here just so all the brand-new hires working on these areas understand those environmental health standards,' said Gibson. The system worked, and our inspectors helped the restaurants learn what they were doing wrong. One service that Environmental Health provides is education for restaurant workers, and in these cases, our staff was able to educate SSA's staff so they learned about proper sanitation. We did warn the restaurants about these minor issues, but we also helped them fix the issues so they were in compliance by the time our inspectors left, and we did not have to close the facilities. Our team will follow up with SSA to make sure they don't have any issues moving forward. Mark DiMenna, Deputy Director, Environmental Health Department Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Albuquerque BioPark building new endangered wolf facility
May 5—People living next door to the Albuquerque botanic gardens might hear howling wolves in their neighborhood come winter. The ABQ BioPark is increasing its capacity to care for and breed endangered Mexican gray wolves with a new behind-the-scenes facility near the botanic garden and adjacent to the bosque. The BioPark has been working on Mexican gray wolf conservation since 1976. "We want to be champions of New Mexico conservation, and the wolf is a keystone species here. It's iconic," said BioPark Director Brandon Gibson. Seven of the endangered wolves call the zoo home, and 79 wolf pups have been born at the BioPark. The last litter of wolf pups was born at the zoo in 2020. The BioPark has a main wolf exhibit and two back holding areas. The five-acre area will have several layers of fencing and three foot cement dig barriers. The initial habitat fence is under construction, and the facility is slated to be finished in August, said Lynn Tupa, BioPark associate director. The $3.3 million facility is being funded by $400,000 from Fish and Wildlife and money collected from a gross receipts tax, which was approved by voters in 2016. The amount collected through the city-based tax varies depending on Albuquerque's economy. The BioPark anticipates collecting $22 million this fiscal year, Gibson said, but a few years ago it was $16 million. The wolf facility will have five large pens that could be further divided into eight holding pens, potentially allowing the zoo to house four to eight breeding pairs. Captive breeding of the wolves is carefully coordinated with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and other zoos to ensure any wolf pups born have adequate space and can potentially be released into the wild. Fish and Wildlife has a cross fostering program where pups born in captivity are introduced to a wild litter of pups in the experimental population area, which straddles central New Mexico and Arizona, to help grow the wild wolf population. "They're finding it's more successful that way than introducing adults, because adults, it takes a skill to learn how to hunt and kill. They get the natural learning from the ground up," Tupa said. Logistically, it's easier to move wolf pups from the Albuquerque BioPark to the experimental population area than from other breeding zoos like the Brookfield Zoo in New York, Tupa said. The new facility is away from the public, because even hearing human voices can taint a wolf's ability to succeed in the wild, Tupa said. The holding pens will also provide more space for the BioPark to care for injured wolves. The BioPark's veterinary team has treated four wild wolves since December. The most recent was a yearling female wolf who had been trapped in a leghold. Ranchers sometimes leave leghold traps for coyotes that the endangered wolves can inadvertently be caught in, said the BioPark's head veterinarian Dr. Carol Bradford. The wolf's leg had to be amputated. "Amputated wolves have done successfully in the wild. They hunt in a pack, so they have their friends and family helping them hunt, and they've even reproduced after amputation," Bradford said. Unlike animals who call the zoo home, wild animals have to be released quickly, and balancing the need for speedy treatment with medical care can be a challenge. "We understand the biologists' need and desire to get them out as soon as possible, so that their pack doesn't move on, or so that they're not too accustomed to people," Bradford said. The yearling wolf was brought to the zoo in mid-March and was back in the wild by March 25. "I love taking care of BioPark animals, but to be part of conservation projects and to contribute to a critically endangered species and to help them survive, to me, that's extremely fulfilling and rewarding," Bradford said.
Yahoo
21-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
CBD and Tigers? Clovis Zoo tests out new treatment for arthritis
CLOVIS, N.M. (KRQE) – He's the first of his kind in the United States to receive an unusual treatment for arthritis pain. Meet the Clovis Zoo residents, experiencing positive results. 'He's very friendly as much as a tiger can be friendly,' said Stephanie Chavez, Clovis Zoo Director. Sooner is the 13-and-a-half-year-old tiger who calls the Clovis Zoo home and has been suffering from arthritis. 'He would wake up, especially during wintertime, he was very limpy, he would like whine, he would hold his feet up and put his paw up, and he would lick them a lot,' said Chavez. BioPark readies Heritage Farms renovations debut To treat the disease, Sooner was put on Tramadol and Gabapentin. But to try and avoid liver and kidney strains, which often accompany those medications, caretakers thought outside of the box. 'And then our vet, who works at Clovis Veterinary Hospital, Dr. Scott, she said she had read about a case study where CBD was used on lions,' said Chavez. And that's when Sooner became the first tiger in the country to use CBD. 'He gets one mil in the morning and one mil at night with his big chunk of meat, and it was just, like I said, it was a big game changer for us,' said Chavez. The zoo received its CBD product from Enchanted Desert Farms in Portales and is seeing positive results. 'He's doing amazing things that, you know, a younger tiger would be able to do,' said Chavez. Great Ape-ril Adult Night at the ABQ BioPark From chuffing to rubbing against fences, and overall greater movement capabilities, zookeepers report the treatment has completely changed Sooner's quality of life for the better. 'How do you tell a tiger is happy? You can just tell, you can just tell,' said Chavez. 'There's so many benefits that have come from CBD, and I think a lot of zoos in the world would benefit from it, especially when it comes to our older animals,' said Chavez. The Clovis Zoo hopes other zoos across the country will learn from Sooner's experience and that they're able to use the same treatment with other animals. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- General
- Yahoo
ABQ BioPark works to restore Mexican gray wolf population with new facility
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The ABQ BioPark is getting ready to welcome wolves to Albuquerque's Bosque. It's part of the effort to expand recovery for the native endangered Mexican gray wolf population. 'Here at the Albuquerque BioPark Botanic Garden area, we're building a new five-acre home that will be a great place for rehabilitation and breeding for Mexican gray wolves,' said Brandon Gibson, director of the BioPark. Right now, crews are well underway, building across five acres along the Bosque trail, that will soon offer new space for breeding, rehab, and pre-release preps for the endangered Mexican gray wolf. 'Well, the BioPark is a true champion of conservation efforts. That's one of our biggest goals, and so to have sites like this where we can take wolves that are injured in the wild, help rehab them and get them back in, as well as have a great site for the wolves to breed,' continued Gibson. By the 1970s, the Mexican gray wolf was nearly hunted from existence across the southwest, but over the last several decades, conservation efforts, including the BioPark's, have helped rebuild the new facility west of Old Town at the end of Mountain Road is expected to help the BioPark do more. 'We've had a lot of wolf pups born, a lot of wolves rehabbed and reintroduced into the wild, but this facility is going to be five times as large. We're going to be able to really help meet the demand as we help sustain this population of Mexican wolves in the wild,' emphasized Gibson. They said the new facility in the secluded Bosque will help keep the animals from getting used to people, 'As you can see, there's a lot of very high fencing being built, so we want to make sure that the wolves are safe, the BioPark is safe, and the neighborhood stays safe as well,' shared Gibson. The BioPark is putting in three layers of fencing across the five-acre habitat to keep wolves from getting out. They'll also have around-the-clock monitoring from staff. The project should be done by August. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
