Learn all about Koi Fish in this Bitesize Bonus episode of the Sedgwick County ZooCast.
READ AUDIO TRANSCRIPT
VIGNETTE (00:00)
EMILY BISHOP: I want to tell you a story. This story has been told for thousands of years, and its origins aren’t in Kansas, where this podcast is recorded, but on the other side of the globe, in China.
Long ago, The Jade Emperor, Yu Huang, who ruled heaven and earth, invited all the animals to a feast at his palace.
The Rat went to his neighbor the Cat and suggested that they go together, and promised to wake the Cat in the morning so they could visit the Jade Emperor together.
But when the day of the feast arrived, the Rat did not wake the Cat, instead the Rat rode to heaven on the back of his friend the Ox, leaping off his back as they reached the palace, ensuring that he would be the first to greet the Jade Emperor, followed by the Ox. Then the Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Horse, Snake, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, and Pig.
The Jade Emperor was so delighted by these twelve animals, that he decided to name each year in their honor, making them members of the Zodiac.
But the poor Cat, betrayed by his neighbor the Rat, overslept and missed the feast, failing to become a member of the Zodiac. And it is said that this is why Rats and Cats are enemies.
The Chinese Zodiac assigns each year in a twelve year cycle an animal. And 2024 is the Year of the Dragon.
Now, Sedgwick County Zoo is home to every animal represented in the Zodiac except the Rat. We have Ox, Tigers- three of them in fact
A Rabbit in the education department. A Clydesdale Horse. Dozens of Snakes and Goats. Two species of Monkeys, many Roosters, Dogs, and several Pigs.
Sedgwick County Zoo is even home to Dragons.
INTRO (01:57)
BISHOP: Hello, and welcome to the Sedgwick County ZooCast Bitesize Bonus.
I’m your host, Emily Bishop, and in this mini episode we’ll give you the Zoo Scoop on Koi Fish.
SCZ’S DRAGONS (02:16)
BISHOP: From the Intro and Title of this episode, you’ve probably pieced together that today we’re going to be talking about Koi Fish. But mere moments ago, I promised you a dragon. So how are Koi connected to Dragons? Well, let me tell you another folk story that’s almost as old as the Zodiac one this episode opens with.
At the top of a mountain sits a waterfall that cascades down thousands of miles to the Yellow River. This waterfall, called the Longmen or Dragon Gate, created a powerful current that forced all the carp in the river downstream. This meant the carp could not swim back to their homes upriver.
The carp told Yu the Great, the King of China, about their plight. And in turn, his wife, the Jade Emperor’s daughter, told her father about the carp. Taking pity on the fish, the Jade Emperor promised that any carp who could successfully swim up the waterfall and leap over the Dragon Gate would be rewarded.
So, every year, all the carp in the river gathered at the base of the mountain and held a competition. They would race against the current and swim with all their might up the waterfall and over the Dragon Gate. And the carp who were successful, were rewarded by being transformed into dragons, who would then fly off into the sky.
THE ORIGINS OF KOI (03:48)
BISHOP: So, that’s how Carp are connected to Dragons, and Koi are just carp that have been selectively bred to have more color variations than wild carp.
Sedgwick County Zoo is home to hundreds of Koi. They can be found in basically every body of water at the Zoo. Under the bridge into the Children’s Farm or the Bridge into the Downing Gorilla Forest. By the boat dock across from the Elephant Habitat, and in the waterways surrounding the Asian Big Cat Trek, these colorful carp are hard to miss.
Carp are large cold-water fish that can be found in Central Europe and Asia. Their ability to adapt to a wide range of climates and water quality make them ideal candidates for fish farming. And for thousands of years, they’ve been raised for their meat.
It wasn’t until the early 1800s that Koi began being bred for decorative purposes. This began along the northeastern coast of Honshu in Japan. Farmers began raising carp in terraced rice paddies. They would breed red, white, and black koi, and then cross bread them to create new color combinations in a single fish.
Raising Koi was fairly easy, due to the hardiness of the Carp. They added an element of beauty to the rice paddies, but if times were tough, they could be eaten just as easily as their less decorated predecessors.
By the 1880s, Koi breeding boomed. And it soon became a way for farmers to make additional income, by selling the fish. In 1914, the Koi Exhibit Association was formed by koi breeders, who exhibited their stock at the Tokyo Taisho Exposition. Visitors at the Exposition were awed by the fish, and following the end of the exposition The Association presented Crown Prince Hirohito with eight carp.
Going into the 1920s, Koi sales expanded, and in 1939, Koi were exhibited at the Japanese pavilion of that year’s World’s Fair held in San Francisco.
Throughout the 20th century and into the 21st, Koi keeping has spread worldwide as a hobby. Pet shops, aquariums, and specialist dealers are easy to find. These fish have come a long way from meat stock bred in rice paddies, to tri-colored beauties that reportedly have been sold for as high as 2 million dollars.
LEARN ABOUT ZOO MEMBERSHIP (06:15)
BISHOP: That’s what’s new at Zoo with Koi. But keep listening after a brief message about how you can experience more perks when you visit the Zoo to learn what a “Zodiac” really is.
Where can you find lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my! At the Sedgwick County Zoo, of course! Feed a giraffe, ride a train, and learn all about your favorite animal.
And Zoo members get to experience even more fun. For as low as $85 per person, you get to experience unlimited visits to the zoo, early entry, discounts on special events, and early access to the Sedgwick County ZooCast.
Become a member today! Visit scz.org/membership for more information.
WHAT IS A ZODIAC? (07:09)
BISHOP: 2024 is the Year of the Dragon in the Chinese Zodiac. But there’s also a Vietnamese Zodiac- which instead of having the Rabbit on its roster, does have the Cat. 2024 is also the year of the Dragon in the Vietnamese Zodiac.
There’s also Western astrology that is divided not by years, but months. You’re probably a little more familiar with this type of Zodiac, and you know if you’re a Capricorn, Taurus, Leo, and so forth based on when in the year you were born.
There are tons of Zodiacs, basically every culture across the globe has its own version. The Zodiac is a way of telling time and has been used in fortune telling. It has to do with the movement of celestial bodies in the night sky.
So, what does Zodiac mean? How are all these different calendars all Zodiacs?
“Zodiac” comes from “Zodiacus” which is a latinized version of an ancient Greek word which references how prevalent animals, real and mythological, are as symbols across all these calendars. The word “Zodiac” just means “circle of little animals.”
OUTRO (08:26)
BISHOP: Thanks for listening to this Bitesize Bonus episode of the Sedgwick County ZooCast.
For more information on Koi Fish, be sure to follow us on social media, which is linked in the description of this episode. And check out our website: scz.org
I’ve been Emily Bishop, and we hope you enjoyed this mini episode of the Sedgwick County ZooCast.
