Bronx Zoo the wild. In December 2012, five Chinese yellow-headed box turtles, a critically endangered species, were born. In December 2015, the zoo rescued a juvenile Indian cobra which had stowed away on a cargo ship destined for New Jersey. The snake was found in poor condition being dehydrated, cold, and exposed to oil residue. The animal was brought to the zoo for recovery. It's unclear how the snake got onto the ship since it set out from Singapore, which is outside of the species' natural range. On July 29, 1985, two female Amur tigers killed 24-year-old animal keeper Robin Silverman after
Phoenix Zoo animal husbandry and research projects for selected species that are in need of conservation efforts. In its first years, the zoo hosted a captive breeding program ("Operation Oryx") with the specific goal of reintroducing the almost extinct Arabian oryx to the wild. By the early 1990s this program was still one of only two programs (the other being the golden lion tamarin) to have gone through the full wilderness-zoo-wilderness sequence. Nine oryx had been caught or donated for the breeding program. However, two pairs were delayed, so the "World Herd" was started in Phoenix in 1963 with only five animals