Since he was an adolescent, male Warthog Rylee has lived in a behind-the-scenes African Savanna habitat. While his Wildlife Care team did the best they could to optimize that space for Rylee, they wanted to explore other habitat options that could offer a greater variety of substrate.

Over the summer, motions were made to move Rylee over to the African Rainforest pavilion for introductions with his sister – all in the hopes they could live together.

He was quickly crate trained and by the end of September, he made the smooth transition to his new habitat where he could begin introductions to not only his sister, but to an outdoor space with grass and trees!

'Rylee’ immediately took advantage of everything his new habitat had to offer! He was frequently seen doing laps around the space at full speed, eating grass, rubbing on trees and digging in the dirt. He was also able to interact with another warthog. He did not want to come back inside during those first few days of introduction.

While he did return to his behind-the-scenes winter habitat for the cold months, we all look forward to seeing him enjoying the African Rainforest pavilion with his sister again this spring!