FAQs

Just like you name your pets at home, the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium has names for many of its animals. From polar bears to ostriches, use this guide to learn how to identify your favorite zoo residents!

For a complete list of animals at the Zoo, check out our animals page.

African Painted Dogs:

• Chewy (m)
• Voltron (m)
• Veaga (f)
• Shahia (f)
• Destiny (f)

Our African painted dogs had a litter of eight puppies on January 13, 2011.

Alligator: Hatched in Florida in 1990, Otis(m) now weighs around 400 pounds and is more than 10 feet long.

Amur Leopards: Native to eastern Russia, Amur Leopards are critically endangered, with fewer than 50 left in the wild.

• Dima (m) is 7 years old.  He likes being outside when the Zoo is quiet, so he can usually be seen very early in the morning or after 4 p.m.
• Katerina (f) is 16 years old. She gave birth to three cubs here in 2000, but is now spayed. She is currently a bit overweight, so it is difficult to tell the two apart by size.

Leopards are solitary animals, so you won’t see them outside at the same time.

Black Bears:

• Stanley (m)
• Susan (f)

Camel: Molly (f) is 16 years old.

Bornean Orangutans:

• Kimberly (f) is 34 years old.
• Ember (f) is 31 years old.
• Goyang (m) is 13 years old.
• KecongKahan (m) is 13 years old
• Jiwa Hati (m) is 6 years old.

Elephants:

• Tasha (f) is largest of our elephants. This 31-year-old is the matriarch of the herd. Tasha has two tusks, but they are hard to see. Normally just the buds can be seen.
• Nan (f) is 28-years and missing her left tusk. The right tusk is full. She is the only zoo elephant with a missing tusk.
• Angeline (f) is one of our two babies. Zuri is the other. Angeline is larger than Zuri, for now, but it changes all the time. They have similar growth spurts, so size isn’t the best way to tell them apart. The easiest way it the ear tip flip – Angeline lacks it.
• Moja (f) is large and has two full (and quite long) tusks. She also has an ear flip on both ears, where the top part of her ears curls, like our own.
• Victoria (f) is Miss Longlegs!! She is 11-years old and her front legs are much taller than her back ones. She also has the ear tip flip.
• Zuri’s (f) head hair is much redder at times and she has the ear tip flip. She can be quite comical when she appears to dance around.

(Sometimes it is easiest to identify our elephants by learning the family groups. Moja is typically with Victoria and Zuri, and Nan is with Angelina. )

Giraffes: We have a pair of Masai giraffes who both have a leaf-like pattern rather than a spotted one.  The easiest way to tell them apart is by height. 

• Mel (m): Taller of the two, approximately 16 feet in height.
• Sox (f): Smaller giraffe, standing approximately 12 feet high.

Gorillas

• Zakula (f) is a three-time mother and at over 40 years old, she is the oldest gorilla in Pittsburgh.  You can tell her apart from the others because she walks slowly, is missing hair on her head and back, and has bent knees due to arthritis.
• Mrithi (m) was the first gorilla born in Pittsburgh.  His parents are Zakula and Mimbo, but he is the leader of the troop. You can recognize him from his confidence and that all the other gorillas move out of his way.
• Harry (m) arrived in Pittsburgh from Cincinnati when he was about two years old. He gets along well with the babies that were born here.
• Ibo (f) just turned 21 years old.  She is often seen sitting on the rock overlooking the Safari Plaza.
• Moka (f) came to Pittsburgh from Miami nearly five years ago to be the mate for Mrithi.  She is often seen with Harry or Zakula.
• Moka had a baby on Feb. 9, 2012, but he hasn’t yet been named!

Kangaroos: You can easily identify our kangaroos by looking at their colors and their ears.  The males are both gray kangaroos, and one has markings on his ears.  The females are red kangaroos.  They are new to the Zoo and you can tell them apart by the colors of the tags on their ears.

• Alex (m) is 14 years old and has a few notches on both ears.
• Frankie (m) is 17 year old and has perfect ears.
• Jane (f) is 2 years old and has a blue tag.
• Shelia (f) is 2 years old and has a green tag.
• Bindi (f) is 3 years old and has a yellow tag.

Lions: We have five lions at the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium: sisters Mhina and Kaidi, and Shiba, and new to the Zoo we also have two males.

• Mhina (f) has a much smaller frame than Kaidi, a more randomly spotted nose, more belly spots, and darker whisker spots.
• Kaidi (f) is  larger than Mhina, has a line mark on the right part of her nose, fewer belly spots, and a much larger face than Mhina.
• Shiba (f) is over 20 years old but can still be very energetic.
• Ajani (m)
• Razzi (m)

Penguins: We have three species of penguin: King, Gentoo and Macaroni.  Each differs in size and some have distinguishing features.

King Penguins: Largest of the species at the zoo and have very long beaks.

• Kai (m)
• Clark (m)
• Noel (f)
• Mal (f)

Gentoo Penguins: Medium sized species that can have a height of up to 2 feet and weigh up to 16 pounds.

• Magnum (m)
• Moose (m)
• Cora (f)
• Isabel (f)

Macaroni Penguins: The smallest of the species at the zoo and they have a bright yellow feathers on their heads.  They are part of the crested penguin family.

• Humpty (m)
• Zucca (m)
• Mickey (f)
• Fleury (f)

Ruffed Lemurs:

• Boscoe (26-year-old male)
• Lance (27-year-old male)
• Fresca (4-year-old female)

Sand Tiger Sharks:

• Bruce (m) is the largest male and weighs around 280 pounds. He has scars all over his body.
• Wolverine (m) is the smallest male shark and the smallest shark in the tank. He has a very small notch in his left pectoral fin.
• Large Marge (f) is the largest shark in the tank, weighing nearly 340 pounds.
• Storm (f) has very few marks on her, except for a few very small ones on her right pectoral fin.
• Rogue (f) has three very defined notches in her left pectoral fin. She also has a square notch at the tip of her right pectoral fin.

Sea Lions:

• Seahawk (m): is huge. He is the talker as well. His forehead is much more defined than any of the girls, since he is growing into his adult body.
• Selina (f): She is the smallest and tends to play the most, being a baby. She loves the sun as well.
• Maggie (f): is never far from Selina, so if you see Selina go up to another sea lion, it’s probably Maggie.
• Zoey (f): Almost by process of elimination, she is identifiable by being the other female without a small sidekick.
• Cali and Summer (f): Our friendly house guests who will be visiting with the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium until 2012. Cali recently had a pup in June.

Sea Otters:

• Alki (m)
• Chugach (m)
• We recently welcomed an orphaned pup, but he doesn’t yet have a name!

Skunk:

• Willow (f)

Snow Leopard: Chaney (f)

Tigers:

• Max (m) and his two sisters: our three new cubs born in October 2010. Max is named after Max Talbot and is considerably larger than his two sisters.
• Nikita (f) is one of the young females who are similar in size, but she has markings that look like Nike swooshes (which is where she got her name).
• Simsa (f) looks much like her sister, but she has heart-shaped markings by her eyes.
• Toma (f) is the mother and has an “L” on her right side (a backwards “L” on her left side) broken-circle eye markings and a single dot on her nose.
• Taiga (m): is much larger than Toma. He has a sideways “Y” on his right side,”Y” eye markings (or more of a seagull silhouette,) and a pink nose with tiny spots.

White-cheeked Gibbons: 

• Mai (f) is easily identifiable not just because she’s blonde, but also because she only has one arm.  Even one-armed, she still gets around as good as ever.
• Picard (m), her companion, is the darker one.

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