Zoo Review: The Wilds

Sprawling across over 9,000 acres of former strip coal lands in eastern Ohio, The Wilds is one of the most remarkable conservation facilities in North America.  Ironically, what was once environmental wasteland has since become a haven for some of the most endangered species on the planet, as well as a thriving ecosystem for native Ohioan wildlife.  I suppose you could think of it as a northern, eastern cousin of the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, though stripped of much of the showmanship and panache (and a zoological collection much more focused on hoofstock).  Or, I suppose you could think of it in the vein of Florida's White Oak Conservation Center or the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, though unlike those facilities, it is open to the general public.

Officially opening to the public in 1994, The Wilds, along with the previously mentioned facilities (among others), The Wilds is part of the Conservation Centers for Species Survival, a zoo initiative that seeks to bolster species sustainability (primarily of ungulates) by maintaining large breeding herds that can't be held in traditional zoo settings.  To that end The Wilds is very successful.  You won't see an enormous variety of species there, but you will see them in impressive numbers in spacious living conditions.  The results are some of the most spectacular memories I've had of some species under human care.

The walk-around portion of The Wilds is fairly small - the average visitor won't get too much exercise here.  There's a small building that displays hellbenders (one of the facility's native conservation projects), a small visitor center, and an overlook of some of the pastures.  To see most of the animals, you board an open-air safari bus, driven by a guide, and drive out among the animals.  The drive consists of a serious of pastures, with rolling green fields, steep hillsides, tall brush, and lakes and ponds.  Which animals are in which pastures may vary from time to time, as animals are moved for breeding access, parturition, and separation, and the enclosures are large enough that just because an animal is in a habitat, doesn't necessarily mean that you'll see it.  Nor are the enclosures arranged by geography, as the field exhibits at SDZSA are - you might see species from different continents intermingled.  

Rhinos - both white and Indian - and giraffes are the star attractions for many visitors, and are the largest animals present.  Also filling the pastures are an impressive assortment of deer, antelope, and equids, with something of a bias towards northern species which are better suited to the Ohio weather.  Among these are Bactrian camel, Bactrian deer, Pere David's deer, onager, and Przewalski's horses, as well as the largest (by far) herd of takin that I've ever seen, practically covering a hillside.  Which isn't to say that the more tropical species aren't also represented.  There are Grevy's zebras and a reasonable assemblage of African antelope to be seen as well.

Midway through the tour, the ride stops at the mid-sized carnivore complex, where visitors can get out and take a stroll alongside pens of cheetah, dhole, and African wild dog, seen either from ground level or from elevated boardwalks.  The habitats are enormous, spacious, and modestly-furnished, suited for cursorial species which benefit more from room to roam than mock rockwork and waterfalls.   After completing a self-guided loop, visitors are back in the vehicle to complete their transit of the park.

This is the casual visitor's experience, of course, because that's what I was.  The facility also offers ziplining, hiking, horseback riding, fishing, and glamping in a variety of settings, including yurts which overlook the vast pasture habitats.

Facilities such as The Wilds provide an excellent resource for zoos, allowing animals to live and breed in quarters and social structures that promote their welfare and reproduction.  One could think of these facilities as factories that generate animals not only for other zoos, but for potential reintroduction efforts in the future.  Indeed, an animal living in a situation like this probably already has a leg-up on animals from other facilities when it comes to being prepared for future release efforts.  Besides that, it's an excellent, encouraging reminder of the regenerative powers of nature, and how even the most desolate of landscapes can become a haven for wildlife, both free-living and under human care.  I saw countless (wild) bird species as I toured the facility, from bobolinks darting alongside the wheels of the safari car to bald eagles nesting in trees as rhinos grazed underneath.  Such sights would have been unimaginable a few decades ago.

A rhino and a cheetah adorn the logo for The Wilds - but they could just as easily have been replaced by a phoenix. 

The Wilds

The Faces Behind the Scenes

A few months back, I spent a month focusing on the many different professions other than those directly working with the animals that all contribute to the success of the zoo.  I recently read this article from the University of Southern Indiana that details the operations of the Mesker Park Zoo in Evansville - a mid-sized AZA facility.  It's a fun series of interviews that introduces many of the jobs of the zoo, including director, registrar, educator, and horticulturalist.  I wouldn't say that these job are secret per se, but it's true that they certainly aren't talked about a whole lot, especially with the general public - which is unfortunate.  All of them are essential, and it really does take a village to run a zoo.

Secrets at the Zoo

The Zoobender

I'll never hear about a proposal to relocate a zoo and *not* think of this scene from Avatar: The Last Airbender.  I suspect the folks at Sacramento Zoo could only wish it would be this easy...

 

On the Move

There are three major zoos in California's Bay Area.  San Francisco Zoo has the history.  Oakland Zoo is on the rise.  And Sacramento is... well, it's Sacramento.  For years, the zoo of California's state capital has chaffed at the limits imposed upon it by its borders and its infrastructure.  As is the case of many city zoos, it has steadily shed species over the years, acknowledging that its facilities don't adhere to current standards of animal care.

Sacramento Zoo will relocate to Elk Grove

All of that is about to change.  The city council of neighboring Elk Grove has voted, and the zoo has officially be cleared to move to a new location in that neighboring city.  They'll get the chance to do what so many zoos have longed to do - start fresh, from the ground up.   I know of several zoos which have, with varying degrees of seriousness, contemplated such a move before.  Few have actually followed through (Miami and Nashville being two examples, the later being one of the most recent).

It's an exciting opportunity to create animal habitats as they could ideally be, rather than try to build around what is already there, or engage in expensive, disruptive demolition.  Right now, I'm torn.  Do I hurry back to the Bay Area and try to see Sacramento's current zoo while it's still there?  Or wait a little bit, and let myself be surprised?

Single and Ready to Flamingle

As popular as they are as zoo animals, flamingos pose some significant challenges for zoo management.  The care of their feet, as noted in an earlier post, is definitely one.  Managing their diet, so that they maintain their expected pink coloration, is another.  And yet another is their reproduction.

With some birds, breeding is as simple as putting a male, a female, and suitable nesting materials together... and some will even forgo the nesting materials.  For flamingos, courtship and breeding are a community affair.  You can't get a pair of flamingos to breed in a zoo.  You also can't really get two pairs to do it either.  You need numbers - and the more flamingos you have in the flock, the more likely they are to breed.  A pair of flamingos, which is what many early zoo exhibits consisted of, won't experience the stimulation.  Shove flamingos together like chickens in battery cages and they'll be delighted.

There's a biological rationale for this.  Flamingos in the wild have very specific requirements for their nesting sites, and since there aren't so many of those sites around, they tend to get pretty crowded as birds cram into them.  If a flamingo pair is by itself and doesn't see other birds around, they may think there's something wrong or unsuitable with the site.  If the place is crowded with birds, then it must be a good place to breed, in their minds.  Besides, flamingo nesting grounds are popular haunts for various predators.  A lone flamingo pair has little chance of defending their eggs or chicks, so why bother even laying?  A flamingo in the middle of a vast flock has much better chances of safely raising young.

I've seen some pretty good-sized flocks of flamingos in zoos - some numbering near 100 birds - which is more than enough to encourage breeding, but nowhere near the size that flocks can get in the wild.  Zoos and aquariums looking to breed flamingos have resorted to various methods to encourage their birds to breed.  Some zoos can mix different flamingo species into one flock (I commonly see Chilean and American flamingos housed together) to give the numbers needed to make a bigger flock.  Some zoos will even surround their smaller flamingo flocks with mirrors, creating the illusion that the actual birds are standing in the middle of a flock that stretches to infinity.

Species Fact Profile: Lesser Flamingo (Phoenicoparrus minor)

                                                                  Lesser Flamingo

                                            Phoenicoparrus minor (G. Saint-Hilaire, 1879)

Range: Sub-Saharan Africa (and Yemen), with disjunct populations on coastal Madagascar.  A smaller population exists in South Asia (eastern Pakistan and western India).

Habitat:  Alkaline and Salt Lakes, Wetlands, Mudflats.  Prefer lakes with high levels of sodium and potassium salts, as well as calcium and magnesium ions

Diet:  Microscopic blue-green algae (such as Spirulina, Oscillatoria, and Lyngbya), Small Aquatic Invertebrates

Social Grouping: Flocks of up to 1,000,000 Birds

Reproduction:  Courtship behavior is initiated by males in ritualized group displays, which may occur year round but increase during the breeding season (typically October through February).  These consist of head and neck movements, walking forward in an erect posture, snapping their bills, vocalizing, and giving wing salutes.  Females may copulate with several males during a single breeding season. Single chalk-white/blue egg (rarely two) is laid in a conical-shaped, flat-topped mound built of mud, rising 15-20 centimeters out of the water.  Flamingos nest colonially, with nests typically 1-2 meters away from one another.  They may defend the area immediately around their nest from other flamingos.  Both parents incubate the egg for 28-31 days, taking turns going off to forage.  As the chick hatches, parents will call to it to help it imprint.  Chicks weigh about 50 grams at hatching.  Fledge at 70-90 (usually 75 days)

Lifespan: 25-30 Years (over 40 Years in Zoos)

      Conservation Status:  IUCN Near Threatened.  CITES Appendix II

• Smallest of the flamingo species.  90-125 centimeters tall (this includes the long neck – the typical standing height is 80-90 centimeters) with a wingspan of 1-1.1 meters.  Weight 1.5-2.7 kilograms, with males being heavier and taller than females.  The feet are fully webbed. 
• Both sexes look alike.  Plumage is pinkish-white, the result of photosynthetic pigments in the flamingos’ food, some darker markings on the back and wings.  Chicks are born with a gray natal coat (paler on the underside) that is replaced with a courser, browner coat at about two weeks of age.  Eyes are gold with a purple ring around them.  The legs are red
• The curved black bill (with dark red towards the tip) is specialized for filtering algae near the surface of the water and is outfitted with up to 10,000 microscopic lamellae
• Although found across a very broad range, the species primarily breeds in the Rift Valley lakes of East Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya, and Tanzania), with smaller breeding congregations in West Africa, South Africa, and South Asia.  The species has a network of potential breeding sites throughout its range and responds to environmental stressors by shifting from one to another
• Vagrants may be found as far to the northwest as Morocco and Spain; vagrants from the Asian population may be found as far west as Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.
• Migrates from feeding grounds to inland breeding colonies where it gathers in the thousands upon thousands, often in association with the greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus).  The timing of the breeding season depends upon the rains (flooding is necessary to isolate the breeding site from terrestrial predators, as well as to provide mud for nesting); sometimes years may pass without a population being able to breed.  
•  Upon fledging, chicks join crèches, which may number over 100,000 individuals.  These crèches are supervised by a few adult birds who will guide them to freshwater, a trek (on foot) that may reach over 30 kilometers.  Once they are old enough to fly, they will follow adults to the feeding grounds.  
• In rough water, they have been reported to congregate and form dense feeding flocks, which encircle a small body of water and help to calm it, facilitating feeding for birds at the center
• Several predators, including canids and felids, hyenas, honey badgers, baboons, marabou stork, and African fish eagle.  Chicks and eggs may be also preyed up by vultures
• Chicks may face additional mortality from the development of balls or rings of crystallized soda around their ankles, which may become heavy enough to weigh them down and drown them
• Still the most abundant of the world’s flamingo species with an estimated population of 2.2-3.3 million birds, of which approximately 650,000 are in the Asian population and the majority in the Rift Valley.  However, the population can be difficult to monitor due to the large-scale movements of the birds, capable of traveling over 450 kilometers in a single day.  Some migration has been observed between Africa and Asia
• Breeding sites are threatened by development, such as soda-ash mining (especially at Lake Natron, the most important breeding site) and proposed hydroelectric development.   These sites may be contaminated by heavy-metal poisoning, killing birds.  Some breeding sites have been lost
• Introduction of invasive brine shrimp can decrease the availability of algae the flamingos feed on
• Other threats include water pollution and collision with electrical lines
• Earliest records in North American zoos are from the late 1950s, the first successful captive reproduction did not occur until 1989 at SeaWorld San Diego
• Minimum flock size recommended for zoo populations is 20 birds; sometimes housed mixed with other flamingo species to form larger flocks for better breeding success 

Look Good, Be Good?

Reading yesterday's editorial about flamingo welfare, there was one line that stuck out in my mind.  "Flamingos do not live on lawns outside of children's books."  

I've seen greater and lesser flamingos in the wild, albeit from a distance, in Lake Manyara in Tanzania.  They appeared mostly as a shimmering pink haze in the distance on the edge of a muddy, rather foul smelling lake.  And looking at pictures of flamingos in the wild, Manyara actually looks like one of the lusher places they inhabit.  From the salt pans of the Great Rift Valley to the high altitude grasslands of the Andes, flamingos often seek out the harshest, least pleasant places to live in order to raise their young in peace.  Despite their association with the tropics, these are not birds that are going to putter around on a touristy beach under the palm trees, or stroll across the grassy lawns past the cocktail bar, like the equatorial version of Canada geese.  And yet that is the image that we seem hellbent on recreating in zoos.

Why?  Because in these cases we aren't recreating the animals' habitat as it exists.  We're recreating what the visitor thinks the habitat looks like.  And in this case, that's incorrect.

It seems kind of silly to me now, but it was an epiphany when I realized this - that there can be a major difference between what we think of as natural and what really is.  In some cases, what actually is best for the animal might, to a visitor, appear inappropriate.  Flamingos on a grassy lawn ambling around a shallow pond probably looks a lot more appealing that flamingos on mud.  It probably would smell better, too.  I could easily imagine visitors, comparing the two habitats, leaving with the impression that the birds in the grassy habitat were happier and better cared for, while those in the muddy yard were dirtier, sadder, and perhaps less healthy... you know, because of the dirt.  I know for certain, however, which yard the flamingos would opt to be in.

I was reminded of this again the other day when I visited a zoo in which a pair of macaws were perched in front of a lush green backdrop - one which they had no access to.  Their flight feathers were clipped and they were largely confined to their perches, called "parrots on sticks" within the field.  Visitors expressed admiration that the birds were "free" (for so they seemed to be, not being in a visible cage), even though they had less room to roam and less opportunity to express natural behavior than a macaw in a reasonably-sized enclosure would have had.   Or perhaps it's the mentality that causes some facilities to put solitary or incompatible individuals together so people don't feel sad that the animals don't have "friends."

One of the most important things I've learned about animal welfare over the years is that sometimes there's a difference between what looks good and what is good.  When there is, always chose the later.  I'd rather have to explain an ugly enclosure than explain poor animal care practices.

The Pink of Health - Rethinking Flamingo Welfare

Our definition of animal welfare has evolved over the years.  It used to be taken for granted that, if an animal can be kept alive, in reasonably good health, and ideally breeding, the welfare must be ok.  In recent years, however, our standards have risen, and we continue to re-evaluate these standards.  Surviving isn't good enough - an animal can be kept alive for much longer than its natural lifespan even in suboptimal conditions.  The goal should be thriving.

We Don't Talk About Flamingos: Why Do Flamingos in Human Care Remain Such a Challenge?

I really enjoyed this article I cam across by Christopher Benjamin Kent, examining the welfare of one of the most common groups of birds in zoos.  Flamingos are a group of birds that, historically, we all seemed to think did just fine... with a few caveats.  One of those was that they were prone to foot issues, but the prevailing lore was that bumblefoot was just something one had to accept as a fact of life in caring for these birds, one to be treated as needed but largely inescapable.  Kent calls that into question, inviting the reader to consider how the natural history of these birds is at odds with their usual exhibit design, and how that leads to foot issues which can compromise their health and welfare.

Flamingos are a great case study, because they're a group of birds so widely held in zoos around the world.  It makes one consider what other welfare problems have been out there for far too long which we've all taken for granted that we just have to deal with... but which could, with some critical thinking and fresh insight, be addressed.

Rarities on the Rise

Until 1971, the Chacoan peccary was considered an extinct species, known to the outside world only as a fossil.  Before 1996, none were to be found in North American zoos.  Today, they are a reasonably common species in American and European zoos.  I've seen them at about a dozen US zoos, most recently just a month ago.  From "not known to still be alive" to "fairly common zoo animal" in the space of a little more than 50 years.  Not too bad of a turnaround, really.  I know see this species more often than I see the once-ubiquitous collared peccary, which is native to the US.

Zoo enthusiasts have a tendency to grouse about how the diversity of species in zoos is going down.  And yes, it largely is.  It's somewhat disappointing that we can't see as many animals as we used to, but it really is, for the most part, probably for the best in many cases.  A lot of those species that we used to see were never really common themselves, only held in a tiny number of facilities, perhaps imported from the wild, and a lot of the living conditions left a fair bit to be desired.  Now, we see more emphasis on larger enclosures, larger social groups, and more sustainable populations.  Other species seem to have fallen out of favor, for one reason or another..  Macaques, for example, are shunned by many zoos due to fear of herpes viruses, while some zoos got out of exotic venomous snakes due to the expense of antivenin.

It's worth noting, however, that sometime it works the other way.  There are species that were extremely rare in zoos when I was young that are now very common.  Komodo dragons were once the ultimate rarity, found only at a single US zoo.  Then it became three zoos.  Now, I feel like I see them in the majority of AZA facilities I go to... and even in a few non-AZA.  When I saw my first fossa at the Dallas Zoo in 2008, I almost swooned I was so excited.  I took a lot of really bad photos but didn't care, because I was convinced I'd never see one again and I needed to have proof to myself that I hadn't dreamed it.  Now, they too are fairly common.

Panamanian golden frogs didn't occur in zoos at all until the early 2000s, and now are among the most popular of zoo amphibian species (within AZA only).  Titicaca frogs, a species that I'd once thought of as something impossible to keep and that I'd never see, are catching up with them rapidly.  I saw the only California condors on public display at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park in 2000; I've been to five zoos with that species since COVID.  

Yes, the trend has largely been in the opposite direction, and there are some taxa which have been hit harder than others.  Even some big name, extremely popular species have been in decline.  Despite being what feels like a professional zoo-goer some of the time, visiting dozens of a facilities a year, I didn't see a polar bear last year until October.  Still, it's nice to realize that, even as we lose some species in our facilities, we still occasionally gain new ones, even ones that would have seemed very unlikely not too long ago.  I wonder sometimes what surprises we will get in the future. 

Accidental Enrichment

 "A Nat Geo train wreck for my daughter's birthday, thanks Juniper!"

That's how the mother who took the above video captioned her post, in which Woodland Park Zoo grizzly bear Juniper jumped and scarfed down some ducklings that flew into her enclosure.  Things like this, unfortunately (or, if you're the predatory animal involved, fortunately) happen from time to time in zoos, perhaps more often than most visitors suspect.  A lot of times we find the damage done when we come in the mornings; perhaps even more often we don't find anything, because the prey animal involved was such a small snack that the predator left no evidence.

I've seen kookaburras and hornbills with snakes, snow leopards with squirrels, lions with groundhogs, and, in one incident when I still don't quite understand, wolves with the remains of a great horned owl.  For some visitors, watching such an incident is a horrifying, traumatic experience, something akin to the killings in the Coliseum of Rome.  For others, it's a fascinating display of natural behavior.  I always take the position that it's perfectly possible for it to be sad for the prey animal and an excellent opportunity for the predator at the same time.  

Woodland Park Zoo put out a very brief Facebook statement on Juniper's behalf.  It said, in summary, that while the zoo does what it can to discourage ducks from flying into the bear pool, but it can't always be prevented, and when it does happen... well, bears will be be bears.