Sad Day At John Ball Zoo – 18 Stingrays And 3 Sharks Found Dead

A very sad Friday for the John Ball Zoo, as employees arrived to work to find that 18 cownose stingrays and 3 bamboo sharks had died the night before.  Zoo staff are still investigating what exactly happened to cause the fish to die, but it looks like it was due to the rainstorm Thursday night.

According to zoo officials, Thursday nights heavy rainfall caused flooding that caused one of the two pumps in the Stingray Lagoon to short circuit.  Then the backup system that usually alerts zookeepers when a pump fails also malfunctioned.

When staff checked water samples Friday morning, they found the oxygen levels in the water were very low.

The Stingray exhibit was a very popular attraction at the zoo.  Patrons were able to pet the stingrays as they swam around and zoo employees worked daily with the fish.  The zoo is already planning for a new stingray exhibit and working on finding a way to memorialize the animals lost.