The Clay Center Kansas Zoo

10/17/2025

It's a Fabulous Friday! The African spurred tortoises wanted to tell everyone farewell for the season!

The tortoises, large parrots, and Willie the water monitor have all been moved indoors as the temperatures start their downward slope into this beautiful fall weather.

African spurred tortoises, sometimes called sulcata tortoises, are native to the shrub lands of Northern Africa. These large tortoises have been recorded growing over 200 pounds and living well over 100 years old. They are very popular in the pet trade but it should be known they are not only big in size but in commitment and attitude. They are usually solitary creatures in the wild and both males and females can be aggressive, competing for feeding grounds and burrowing areas. This behavior is common in the breed and sometimes involves ramming, biting, and attempts to flip one another over. These large herbivores have a diet of about 80% high fiber grasses, plants, and hay. With the rest of their diet being dark leafy greens, vegetables, and some fruits as the occasional treat.

Just recently our tortoise friends got some big pumpkin treats they really enjoyed!

10/16/2025

Thank you so much to our friends at Creekside at Fall Color Farms!! Your generous pumpkin and apple donations have made for some very happy animals!! Everyone is enjoying this pumpkin season and we still have plenty more for a few more special days! The Clay Center Zoo is so very grateful to receive donations like these for the enrichment of our zoo animals.

10/03/2025

It's time for some fun Friday learning again!! Can you believe it's the first Friday in October already!?

In honor of it being the 3rd and because we missed the last factual Friday (We apologize! We got swept up in piotiqe preparations) let's dive right into our two trio groups!

Now many of you zoo visitors may have already met these friends of ours but let us introduce the "golden girls" and the "rainbow gang"!

The golden girls aka the sun conures are some of the aviary's first residents. These 3 females native range is in South America most commonly found in Brazil. They have a lifespan of up to 30 years and are considered fully mature enough to breed at 3 years old. In the wild they eat lots of fruits and vegetables along with some nuts and seeds. These girls love posing for photos and getting peanut butter snacks from our Aviary visitors. Sun conures are very intelligent birds with excellent memory and problem solving skills. Our girls are always learning new things but have become pros at spinning, point training, and peek a boo. The Golden girls favorite foods would have to be apples, grapes, peanuts and dried papayas. Peanuts and papayas are what we use for training purposes the most.

The rainbow gang aka the rainbow lorikeets were introduced into the Aviary fulltime roughly 5 months ago. Before being fully introduced they did make temporary visits off and on until they were welcomed in by the other birds. Rainbow lorikeets native range is Australia where they specialize in eating nectar. Rainbow lorikeets have very unique bristle-like tongues to help drink nectar from flowers however they also eat fruits and vegetables. Rainbow lorikeets can live up to 25 years and are considered mature enough to breed at 2 years old. These birds are very social by nature and love landing on our Aviary visitors. They are messy loud little guys with big personalities! Their favorite foods would have to be fruit juice, apples, bananas, and grapes.

If you have any questions about our feathered friends or any of our other zoo residents please ask away! We love sharing our knowledge about these amazing animals!

09/19/2025

Woohoo it's Friday again!
Before we get into today's facts The Clay Center Zoo would like to extend a major thank you to everyone who donated at yesterday's match day. The Zoo truly wouldn't be here without the support of this community! We are so grateful for the donations we get not just on match day but throughout the year. Your generosity helps us purchase toys, treats, medications, and funds all the new enclosure renovations.

This year's match day was amazing! Especially for one of our favorite animal residents.
Moe our salmon crested cockatoo got a new "match" of his own. Chiquita a white umbrella cockatoo has become a new member of our zoo family! Both Moe and Chiquita are endangered cockatoos from the eastern islands of Indonesia. They are very intelligent and very social birds with long life spans. Salmon crested cockatoos (Moe) live on average 60-80 years, are salmon-pink in color, and are the largest of all cockatoos. White umbrella cockatoos (Chiquita) live on average 40-60 years, are pure white with a bit of yellow under their wings and tail, and are a much smaller cockatoo.
Moe is in his early 30's and Chiquita is in her early 20's. It is highly unlikely that Moe would have ever seen another salmon crested cockatoo as they are heavily protected and no longer are imported in the pet trade. Their numbers in the wild have significantly decreased due to habitat loss and over collecting for the pet trade. However, we count ourselves very fortunate to have had the opportunity to introduce him to Chiquita. Moe has captured so many hearts here in the community it won't be long until he woos this new beautiful girl too!
As you come to the zoo to visit our fantastic feathered friends please keep in mind that Chiquita is still very new and a bit shy so please use calm gentle voices and you'll hear just how much she likes to chat.

09/19/2025

On behalf of the Clay Center Zoo and Utility Park, we thank this community for your continued support of our Match Day fund. It was another record breaking year for our fund and for the entire Clay Center Gather for Good Match Day Fund. We truly appreciate your generosity and we strive everyday to make Utility Park and the Clay Center Zoo a better experience for everyone.

Send a message to learn more

09/19/2025

Yesterday was Gather for Good Match Day in Clay Center and all we can say is that our community is AMAZING!

The Uptown Girls made a decision when we first opened the kitchen and drink bar that we would not accept tips, however if customers wanted to leave one we would give 100% of our tips to the Clay Center Zoo. 🐾

Yesterday we counted up the tips and presented $618.51 to Scott & Garrett at Match Day! Thank you to all our customers who have supported us in this new venture. We’ve loved it so much and can’t wait to give more! ❤️

09/12/2025

Can you believe it's Friday again already!? Time for some fast facts about our fastest animal.

Yep you guessed it! Today will be all about Nala and Kneesa our two female cheetahs. Nala and Kneesa are sisters and are 2½ years old. They are the fastest land animal reaching speeds of 70 mph. Even more impressive is how fast they can reach those speeds. In 2.5 seconds a cheetah can go from 0 to 45 mph! Cheetahs have quite a few adaptations that have helped them achieve their title of fastest land animal. For example, these fast cats have enlarged hearts, lungs, and nasal passages to help support their bodies during high speed dashes. Cheetahs have a very strong muscular tail that acts as a rudder, helping them make sharp turns. They even have their own built-in kleets. Unlike other cats they do not have retractable claws, meaning they get constant traction while running at high speeds.

Cheetahs are very unique in the big cat family in many ways. One way is their inability to roar. Cheetahs unlike other big cats purr and chirp to communicate with one another. Most big cats have what is known as a fixed hyoid bone in their voice boxes. This fixed bone is connected to their skull by very strong ligaments to create loud full throated roars. Cheetahs on the other hand have a flexible hyoid bone in their voice boxes which allows vibrations but is not strong enough to support roaring.

Next time you visit Nala and Kneesa here at the zoo take a listen for their chirps hello! You may even mistake it for the birds!

09/05/2025

WE ARE BACK!!!! And just in time for Factual Friday!

The Patagonian Maras also known as the Patagonian Cavies are back in their outdoor enclosure!

As some visitors may have noticed our rodent friends have been off exhibit since early July. Patagonian Maras are very timid creatures so keeping them off exhibit as they adjusted to parenthood was in their best interest. Yes you read that correctly! New mom Leia and her mate Lieutenant welcomed twin boys into the world on July 2nd! Not long after new mom Dolly and her mate Sarge welcomed twin boy and girl into the world on July 7th!

If it's your first time coming to see them you might mistake them for a hybrid of rabbit and deer. However, don't be fooled, these large rodents are actually more closely related to guinea pigs. They are native to the same general region of Argentina, have almost identical diets, and make similar squeaking calls as the domesticated guinea pigs we are all familiar with.
These unique rodents have fascinated scientists since the late 70's when it was discovered that Maras are monogamous! This means Maras form lifelong bonds with their mates which is highly unusual for rodents. In the wild they are usually seen traveling in pairs. However, they have communal relationships when raising young. Expectant pairs come together to dig large burrows that are shared, sometimes holding up to 30 pairs! This large group of Maras is called a Warren or a Creche. Research has shown that young Maras have higher survival rates the larger the Warren/Creche is because there are more pairs to protect them from predators.

Our first time parents have gotten the hang of things and are showing us that they'll be taking great care of their babies until they're old enough to venture off on their own.

If you get the chance come on down and see our new additions!

06/23/2025

Please use the old zoo entrance by the duck pond today, Monday June 23, 2025. Our construction crew is working to get sidewalks formed up in the rear of the Welcome Center.

06/16/2025

The zoo will open at 1pm today, Monday June 16th, 2025. We are pouring sidewalks and the concrete needs to set before we can open. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.