Remembering ‘Kenickie’

We are saddened to share that last month, we said goodbye to our 5-year-old male rock hyrax ‘Kenickie’. After observing subtle changes in his behaviour over a few days, he suddenly became critically ill. Our Animal Care, Health & Welfare team transferred him to the Animal Health Centre for emergency care. Once stabilized, an exam revealed multiple calcified enteroliths (intestinal ‘stones’) causing a severe intestinal obstruction, necessitating emergency intervention and surgery.

During surgery, our Animal Health team identified significant damage to part of Kenickie’s large intestine, and an ultrasound also revealed serious underlying heart disease. While the intestinal stones were surgically removed and Kenickie initially recovered from anesthesia, he sadly died while in intensive care approximately one hour after surgery.

Necropsy findings confirmed part of the large intestine tract was severely compromised, likely leading to septic shock, with his heart condition also contributing to his passing. Kenickie had been eating well until the blockage occurred. At five years old, Kenickie was considered a senior for his species and was near the median lifespan for rock hyraxes in human care, which is 5.4 years.

Kenickie was born at the San Antonio Zoo on September 6, 2020, and joined our zoo family in May 2022. As a breeding partner for four-year-old ‘Oshana’ and five-year-old ‘Kikami’, Kenickie successfully sired seven pups during his time with us: three were born to Oshana in 2024 and last year, Kikami gave birth to one pup and Oshana to three.

Kenickie was a patient dad to all his pups, often seen at the bottom of a potato pileup in their African Savannah habitat. He was known for his particularly loud vocalizations and brought joy to guests, staff, and volunteers alike.

While Kenickie will be deeply missed by all who visited or cared for him, his legacy lives on in his offspring and we’re happy to share that we are cautiously optimistic that both Oshana and Kikami are once again pregnant, continuing to grow the family group he helped establish.

To support Oshana and Kikami during this important time, our nine-month-old pups, males ‘Karas’ and ‘Kavango’ have moved to the Animal Health Centre to give the expectant mothers some additional privacy and space in their African Savannah habitat. Our nine-month-old female pups, ‘Etosha’ and ‘Tibesti’ remain in the habitat with Oshana and Kikami.

Kenickie will always be part of this family group’s story, and the impact he had continues to live on today. Join us in keeping your paws crossed for possible pups on the way.