Syracuse, N.Y. – Dan Meates, who has served as interim director of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse since last May, has been promoted to director.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon announced the appointment during a press conference at the zoo Tuesday.
Meates was appointed interim director when longtime director Ted Fox retired in May 2025.
McMahon said Meates had a successful tenure as interim director, providing steady leadership and advancing the zoo’s mission of conservation, education and animal welfare.
Prior to becoming interim director, Meates was general curator at the zoo for nearly 10 years. During that time, he was responsible for all aspects of animal collection management, oversaw exhibition planning and supervised staff and volunteers involved in animal care.
Before coming to the zoo, Meates, a native of Wales in the United Kingdom, held various zoological positions, including head falconer at a wildlife center in the U.K., bird keeper at the Toledo Zoological Gardens and curator of carnivores, birds, training and programs at the Wellington Zoo in New Zealand.
He also held positions with the Texas State Aquarium, the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in Montana and the Niabi Zoo in Illinois.
McMahon also announced the arrival of a pair of black and rufous elephant shrews and a critically endangered Amur leopard.
The zoo is now one of only a few institutions in North America to house black and rufous elephant shrews, small mammals native to the forests of East Africa. The insectivores have pointed snouts that resemble an elephant’s trunk.
There are fewer than 100 Amur leopards in the wild, making them among the rarest of the big cats.
