Coming Attractions...

This month, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park unveiled its new Australian Walkabout, to critical acclaim (I mean, minus the embarrassing little incident where Maori singers from New Zealand were recruited to christian the Australian exhibit).  Kangaroos, wallabies, and tree kangaroos, as well as cassowaries, were there to greet visitors on opening day.  It looks like a great exhibit... but it seems that the best is yet to come.

I'd heard rumors about this off and on for the past few weeks.  I was having a hard time believing it.  Still, it looks like this is going to happen.  As early as next year, San Diego will be home to the first duck-billed platypuses in America in over 70 years.  I know where I'll be going next year... calling in every favor with every San Diego keeper I know.

Zoo Review: Quito Zoo in Guayllabamba

By 1997, the Quito Zoo, located in Ecuador's capital city, was feeling cramped.  That year, the zoo took a step that many facilities wish they could take.  It upped-stakes and moved.  Taking up residence in the Guayllabamba district north of the city, the zoo reopened on a beautiful, spacious new campus.  Given the opportunity to rebuild from scratch, the zoo was able to provide its residents with new habitats in keeping with modern zoo practices.

With the exception of lions and (for some reason) ostriches, all of the animals present in the Guayllabamba Zoo are native to Ecuador.  For such a small country, Ecuador contains a tremendous amount of biological and habitat diversity, from the rocky slopes of the Galapagos Islands to the steamy Amazon rainforest.  Included in the zoo's collection are some of the most iconic species that you would encounter in North American zoos, such as Galapagos tortoises, sprawled out in a large muddy yard and jaguars, which prowl a densely planted jungle yard (which, to my surprise, had an open top, a feature that made most US jaguar keepers shudder when I told them).  There are also Andean bears, Brazilian tapirs, pumas, and, of course, Ecuador's national bird, Andean condors, which inhabit a massive flight cage built into the side of a hill with a commanding view of the grounds.

For me, the chief pleasure of visiting a zoo in another country has always been having the chance to see animals that I've never met in an American Zoo.  Guayllabamba proved no disappointment.  Among the species I met for the first time while exploring the zoo were crab-eating raccoons and black-and-chestnut buzzard eagles, as well as brown woolly monkeys (currently only on display at one US zoo).  Ecuador has a major difficulty with the wild pet trade, and many of the animals - especially monkeys and parrots - are individuals which have been taken from the wild and proven to be impossible to rehabilitate and release into the wild.

Even without the pleasure of seeing other novel animals, Guayllabamba is just an excellent zoo.  The enclosures themselves were especially nice, comparing favorably with the best AZA facilities I've seen.  Many of the exhibits were exciting and interactive, different from any I'd seen before.  Among these was the mixed-species walk-through owl aviary.  The reptile collection was spare - apart from the tortoises, most were seen in a single greenhouse, where boas and iguanas lounge in the trees while turtles swim past the patient gazes of basking caiman.  The keepers that I spoke to (in my poor Spaish and their better English) were passionate and knowledgeable.  

There is an unfortunate tendency to look down on zoos of Latin America, Africa, and southern Asia as being inherently run-down and decrepit, full of starving animals in tiny, dirty cages.  Sometimes that's true.  Just as often, however, there are well-run facilities taken care of by devoted staff members.  Often, these facilities, which specialize in native species, provide a rare opportunity for urban and suburban populations to become acquainted with their natural heritage.  This was my experience at the Belize Zoo.  It was also the case with the Guayllabamba Zoo.

Quito Zoo en Guayallabamba

Memorial Day

Memorial Day - the start of the summer season, and a day that I tend to fear

This actually has nothing to do with zoos, except insofar as it relates to animals.  I saw this poem on a Facebook post by the International Crane Foundation and very much enjoyed it, so I thought I'd share it here as well.  Too often, we associate Memorial Day simply with the three-day weekend and the cookouts and (for the zookeepers) the huge, unruly crowds which threaten to trample us and our animals to death.  This poem, I think, speaks to an aspect of the true meaning of the holiday - remembrance.

"I sometimes think that warriors brave

Who met their death in bloody fight

Were never buried in a grave

But rose as cranes with plumage white

Since then unto this very day
They pass high overhead and cry.

Is that not why we often gaze

In silence as the cranes go by?

In far-off foreign lands I see

The cranes in evening's dying glow

Fly quickly past in company,

As once on horseback they would go.

And as they fly far out of reach

I hear them calling someone's name.

Is that not why our Avar speech

Recalls the clamor of a crane?

Across the weary sky they race

Who friend and kinsman used to be,

And in their ranks I see a space -

Perhaps they're keeping it for me?

One day I will join the flock of cranes,

With them I shall go winging by,

And you who here on earth remain

Will listen to my strident cry."

- Rasul Gamzatov

Sporcle Quiz: Sporcle at the Zoo - Flamingos

Sporcle at the Zoo - Flamingos

There are four species of flamingos - the American and Chilean, the greater and the lesser - that can be encountered fairly often in zoo and aquarium collections.  Test your knowledge about these beautiful, fascinating birds!

Species Fact Profile: Northern Bobwhite (Colinus virginianus)

Northern Bobwhite

Colinus virginianus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Range: Eastern North America, Central America
Habitat: Grassland, Open Woodland, Forest Edge
Diet: Seeds, Berries, Insects
Social Grouping: Solitary, Pairs, Small Family Groups.  May congregate in larger flocks in winter, up to two dozen birds
Reproduction: Polygynous/polyandrous.  Either parent may incubate clutch of eggs for 23 days.  Nesting tends to have poor success, so they clutch often - may lay four nests in a season in order to get one to hatch.  Nests of dead grasses.  Average clutch 12 eggs.  Fledge at 14 days old.  Sexually mature at 1 year old
Lifespan: 6 Years (Wild)
Conservation Status: IUCN Near Threatened, CITES Appendix I

• Body length 20-25 centimeters, wingspan 30-33 centimeters.  Weight 140-170 grams.  Birds at the northern extreme of the species range tend to be larger than those at the southern
• Plumage is red-brown with grey mottling and white striping on the flanks.  Males have a white throat with a black stripe on the brow.  Males are more brightly colored then females
• Common name comes from its characteristic, whistling call, "bob-WHITE"
• Parents will protect their nests by feigning broken wings to lure predators away.  Predators include hawks, raccoons, skunks, and foxes
• Spend most of their time on the ground, average flight lasts only 5 seconds, and usually only a sudden burst to escape danger
• There are several subspecies found across the range of the species.  One, the masked bobwhite (C. v. ridgwayi) of northern Mexico, is considered endangered
• Popular bird for sport hunting  Have been introduced to Europe (France, Spain, United Kingdom, Ireland), New Zealand, and the western United States for sport
• Populations are in decline, largely due to habitat loss due to agriculture
• One of the most widely studied wild bird species on the planet, both as a laboratory specimen and for game management

Rain, Rain, Go Away

"He had read somewhere that the Eskimos had over two hundred different words for snow, without which their conversation would probably have got very monotonous... Rob McKenna had two hundred and thirty-one different types of rain entered in his little book, and he didn't like any of them."

- Douglas Adams, So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish

A former boss of mine once told me that, apart from farmers, no one watches the weather more closely that zookeepers.   There's certainly a element of truth in it.  For one thing, we have to pay constant attention to the temperature and weather conditions for the well-being of the animals under our care - is it too hot, too cold?  For another, there's the annoying fact that, whatever the weather, we have to be out in it.

There's snow and thunderstorms and droughts and many other things we have to cope with.  Some pose an actual danger to our safety as we work with our animals.  And some are merely annoying.

Like rain, for example.

The Rainforest exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo provides occasional rainstorms on some of its habitats, which presumably allows the animals to spend the rest of their day reminding themselves of how lucky they are that they don't actually live in a rainforest.

It's my greatest source of frustration that my zoo just doesn't work in the rain.  Anything more than a gentle drizzle turns our paths in streams, our exhibits into ponds.  Just the other day, I put a food bowl down in one of the keeper areas.  It actually floated away.

It's important that the animals be provided with shelter, although to be frank, I've never noticed many of them actually using it.  There are few things more exasperating that looking at a torrential downpour, and seeing all of your animals sulking in the rain when they have perfectly adequate shelter right next to them.  It's also not adequate to have a dry head - you must provide for dry feet as well.  It's no good giving the animals a roof over their heads if under that roof is a flooded mess.  Also, the animals must be provided with a place for their food to go where they will not be soaked in the rain and turned to mush.  There are few smells that I have encountered that are fouler than a bowl of Nebraska Bird of Prey meat that's been sitting out in a downpour.

Whether they use the shelters or not, the animals at least have the option of staying dry.  Keepers don't.  We have to be out in the rain, if only to get from exhibit to exhibit (unless you're one of those smug reptile house keepers).  To my intense dismay, no one has ever invented rain gear which actually keeps its wearer dry.  Just yesterday, I was wearing three raincoats, one under the other.  I still ended up soaked.  So do my socks - even if the boots are waterproof (and it's only a matter of time before holes and tears develop), some rain inevitably comes in over the tops.  The neck develops a painful crick from being held down in an attempt to keep the rain out of the face.  And that's not nearly as annoying as the welts that I wind up with on my legs from the constant smack, smack of the sides of the rain boots on my calves.

A little rain can be fun when you're visiting a zoo.  It thins out the crowds, cools the air, and often makes the animals more active.  A little of anything, of course, can be fine.  It's a lot that gets to be problematic.

Memorial Day Weekend - The Pool is Open!

I had a hard time appreciating the fact from where I was working today, but we are only a week away from Memorial Day Weekend, which is the unofficial start of summer.  That means it's the busy season for us - as well as for amusement parks, beaches, and public swimming pools.  

Enjoy this YouTube clip from the Cincinnati Zoo, who would like to remind everyone that Fiona isn't their only bathing beauty.

From the News: Caged Tiger at Prom

Caged Tiger at Prom

I'm a huge fan of zoos and aquariums.  I've written before about how having animals on a college campus or other venue isn't necessarily a bad idea. I often wish that there were more ways that we could incorporate animals into our lives. 

This was not a good idea.  Not only that, it's one of those things that I don't see how any animal care professional could have imagined for a moment would work out well.  Hold a prom at a zoo where teenagers dance among the animals, which are in their own enclosures made for their comfort?  Sounds fine to me.  Bring a tiger to a prom and plop it in the middle of the dance hall?  Not so much.

It's stunts like this that give all of us who work with wild animals a bad rap, and allows groups with PETA the chance to paint all of us with the same brush.

Documentary Review: 60 Minutes - Matchmaking for zoo animals

60 Minutes: Matchmaking for zoo animals

This weekend, 60 Minutes aired a special on population management in zoos and aquariums.  When I first heard about it, it was with a sense of dread.  I'd heard that it was going to feature, among other things, an emphasis on the culling practices in European facilities, such as the infamous episode of Marius the giraffe.  With that in mind, I was bracing myself for something tawdry and sensationalist.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Yes, the topic of population management culling was addressed, but in a thoughtful manner that provoked conversation, not shrill screaming.

Correspondent Lesley Stahl with Ron Kagan of the Detroit Zoo, CBS

For the most part, however, it was an excellent introduction to the concept of Species Survival Plans, conservation breeding programs, and population management.  It shows that there is so much more to the breeding programs than producing cute babies for visitors to ooh and aah over.  The show's producers to a fair job of explaining everything that goes into sustainable population planning - demographics, genetics, and plain old attraction between the animals involved.

Population management is a complicated subject.  The best storytellers have a knack for taking a complicated subject and reshaping it in such a manner that an audience finds it easy to understand, compelling to follow.  Genetics and demographics can be hard to relate to - after all, it's not how we pick our mates - but everyone understands Match.com.  I plan on using this program to help educate new staff members about SSPs and cooperative breeding programs.  I would recommend that zoos share it to their websites to help better explain the issue to their visitors.

Watch the entire program by clicking the link at the heading of this page.  I hope you enjoy!

From the News: Cheetahs chase family at safari park

Happy Mother's Day!  Today, many zoos and aquariums offer discounts or free entry, either to mothers or to fathers (with the understanding that fathers will take the kids to the zoo and give the mothers a day off).  If that's how you're spending the day, I hope you have an enjoyable, memorable day.   Just not as memorable as the visit these morons had...

Cheetahs chase family at safari park

An Uncomfortable Conversation

Earlier this week, I came across the article by Zookeeper Gear that I shared yesterday, lamenting the lack of racial diversity in the zookeeping profession.  I was very excited to see someone else put into words something which can been nagging me for some time.  I was less happy to see how some of my zookeeping colleagues on social media responded to the article.

To be fair, most people responded positively to the call for diversity.  In contrast, there were some pretty negative reactions.  Some were borderline racist, implying that there is something about African-Americans, Latinos, or other groups that makes them less fitting to serve as zookeepers, such as a lack of cultural appreciation of animals.  Others seem to worry that a push for diversity will lead to a quota where positions will be given to candidates based on race.  In a field as competitive as ours, I can understand how prospective white keepers could fear that their race would be a factor that would set them at a disadvantage, leading them to be selected against during hiring processes.

None of this is true.

First of all, clapping back at the racists.  They imply that there is no real advantage to having African-Americans, Latinos, etc keepers.  I disagree very much.  The idea that some races or cultures "just don't care about animals" is flat out wrong.  Just today, I gave two school presentations, one to an entirely white class, the second to a diverse, minority-majority group.  In both, the children (and their teachers and chaperones) were eager to meet the animals and learn more about them.  For both groups, I brought out our education department's boa constrictor.  In each class, the students were extremely enthusiastic about touching the giant snake and were overflowing with questions.

There is enormous benefit to having keepers with different experiences and worldviews, as they can bring different viewpoints to animal care.  Audiences of zoo visitors may respond more positively to keepers and other animal care professionals who look like them.  An African-American zoo visitor may find it much easier to approach an African-American zookeeper, to ask questions and learn about animals.  That might make it more likely to kindle a deeper, more passionate interest in wildlife and wild places.  The flip side of this is that mentors, consciously or not, tend to be more receptive to mentees that look like them.  Whether meaning to or not, white educators and zookeepers may find themselves focusing more on white members of their audience and reaching out to white students, interns, etc over those of color.  Diverse role models can help us better connect with diverse audiences.

This brings us to the second part of the riddle - if we've determined that having more diversity in zookeeping profession is desirable, how do we achieve it?  I think the best way is to reach out to minority communities and help foster the enthusiasm need to encourage a new generation of animal care professionals.

In the United States, racial minorities are most often associated with urban areas - it's a stereotype, of course, but one with some basis in fact.  Growing up in cities, it can be difficult to gain exposure to wildlife - fewer green spaces, fewer wildlife habitats, fewer chances to get acquainted with wildlife.  I can imagine zookeepers offering city children a chance to visit natural areas, as well as to meet animals in the zoo.  Such encounters could lead to a lasting love of wildlife.  Similarly, most zoos and aquariums are located in cities.  These facilities all have volunteer programs - they could make more of an effort to recruit local children as volunteers.  As these children grow to become leaders, they can serve as role models for others.

At AZA conferences and other congregations of zoo professionals, the faces are almost exclusively white.  I have met only a small handful of keepers of other races.  Many of them have been excellent keepers and conservation leaders.  Similarly, our field used to be entirely male.  The addition of women to our profession has added thousands of new insights and provided us with tremendous new leadership.  The change of our profession from all male to mixed-sex has fundamentally changed what it means to be a zookeeper.

It's made me wonder how many potentially excellent keepers, curators, vets, etc our field has missed out on because fewer people from different communities have been part of our extended family.

Zookeeper Gear: Zookeepers Have a Problem with Diversity

This is a really interesting article that address one of the major challenges that the zookeeping and aquarist profession is facing it.  I hope you enjoy it - I'll be weighing in with my thoughts and feelings tomorrow.  Thanks Zookeeper Gear for calling more attention to this overlooked issue!

Zookeepers Have a Problem with Diversity

Ask any zookeeper about the importance of diversity, and they’re likely to launch into a well-rehearsed speech about biological niches and the importance of the global diversity of species. Zookeepers are trained and passionate conservationists, and they know their stuff when it comes to this topic. But there’s another form of diversity that we don’t talk about nearly enough – zookeeper diversity. That is, the diversity of zookeepers themselves. It’s alarmingly low, and it’s something that we should really be thinking a lot more about.

I’ve visited many zoos across the United States. And I’ve attended many conferences, workshops, meetings, and professional development courses over the years. And without fail, the vast, vast, majority of the zookeepers, aquarists, curators, and other animal care professionals that I’ve met and observed have not been people of color. While the last several decades have seen the zookeeping profession shift in a strong direction toward gender diversity (75% of zookeepers identify as female, according to a 2000 study by the American Association of Zoo Keepers), zookeeper diversity is still extremely lacking when it comes to race and ethnicity.

Read the rest of the article here

Fifty Shades of Hornbill

Perhaps more so than any other group of animals, birds are renown for their courtship an.d breeding behavior.  They sing beautiful songs, participate in stunning breeding displays, and build elaborate nests.  Many species are monogamous, some of them for life.  There is a reason that we say "love birds" and not, say "love turtles."

Some people think of doves, or nightingales, or cranes or swans.  When I think of dramatic displays of avian romance, however, I don't think of those birds.  I think of hornbills.

The hornbills of Africa and Southeast Asia are a peculiar lot of weird-looking birds, some of them small, flying birds, others lumbering ground-dwellers the size of turkeys.  Some dwell on the savannas, others in the rainforest.  Some are colorful, others dull and drab.  What binds them together - apart from those crazy beaks - is a peculiar breeding behavior.

Knobbed hornbills at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.  A barrel is taking the place of a nest cavity, where the female sits on her eggs, tended to by the male.

  

After breeding occurs, the female hornbill takes refuge in a hollow, usually a tree trunk.  There's nothing too odd about that - a lot of birds nest in tree hollows.  What is unusual is what happens nest.  The entrance of the nest is plastered up, bit by bit.  The wall is made of a mixture of mud and fecal matter.  When it is completed, all that is left is a small slit, just big enough for beaks to touch and to pass things.

The male, at liberty in the forest, collects food and faithfully brings it back to the female, hunched over on her eggs.  He passes it to her through the gap he has left in the wall.  Of course, she can only eat so much without having the opposite reaction.  Sitting on her eggs in a bed of her own feces isn't the healthiest of behaviors, of course, and certainly is no way to start her chicks off in life.  Instead, she passes the male her feces to dispose off (though some birds are able to defecate out of the small opening slit). 

The female also takes advantage of this time off her feet to undergo a molt of her feathers.  Even without the mud wall sealing her in, the female would be helpless without the male, unable to fly and feed herself.  Shortly after the chicks hatch, the female will leave the nest... and then seal the chicks back in for a little while.  Soon, they too will emerge from the tree trunk when they are ready to take to the wing.

Species Fact Profile: Rhinoceros Hornbill (Buceros rhinoceros)

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Buceros rhinoceros (Linnaeus, 1758)

Range: Southeast Asia, Indonesia
Habitat: Rainforest
Diet: Fruit, Insects, Small Vertebrates
Social Grouping: Pairs, Small Flocks
Reproduction: Females nest inside tree cavities, sealed up except for a small opening, through which food and feces are exchanged.  1-2 eggs are laid.  Once the chicks are fully feathered, the parents unseal the nest to allow the mother and chicks to escape.
Lifespan: 35 Years
Conservation Status: IUCN Near Threatened, CITES Appendix II

• Body length 80-90 centimeters, wingspan about 1.5 meters.  Weight 2-3 kilograms, with males larger than females
• Plumage is black with some white on the legs and tail.  The enormous bill is orange or red, the color coming from an oil gland above the tail.  The bill is topped with a massive curved casque, resembling the horn of a rhinoceros.  Casque of the female is smaller than that of the male
• Males and females look alike except for the eyes, which are red in males and pale in females
• The rhinoceros hornbill is the national bird of Malaysia; it is also the state bird of the Malaysian state of Sarawak
• The hornbill is believed by some native cultures to be the king of the birds and to have supernatural powers; foreigners sometimes have misidentified it as the symbol of the Malayan god of war
• Primary threat to survival is habitat loss, especially loss of the large trees that the birds need for nesting.  It is sometimes hunted for meat and for its feathers

Satire: You Can't Always Get What You Want

I saw this making the rounds the other day and got a kick out is - as has any other zoo professional who has tried doing anything for their animals while balancing the input and influences of a half-dozen other entities at their institution.  The picture appears to be credited to Alan Sharples of Atlanta Zoo (which makes me suspect it must be pretty old - it's been renamed "Zoo Atlanta" for decades).  If this is not correct, please let me know so I can give credit where it's due!

The Eye of the Beholder

Imagine that you are in a foreign country, perhaps one on the other side of the world.  You decide to spend a day at the zoo; the first exhibit you enter is the bird house.  You walk up to the first habitat and peer inside.

There are four birds in the enclosure, a male and a female each of two species.  You look at the larger birds first.  Not terribly big birds, but they make something of an impression.  Both are a pale blue, the color of a frozen lake, and banded with fine black markings, including a thin collar around the neck, while the belly is the purest white.  The tips of the wings and the tail are scaled like those of a butterfly.  The head of each is caped with a peaked crest.

The other pair is smaller, and the female isn't much to look at.  The male, on the other hand... it's as if someone dipped him in crimson paint - from the tip of his tail to his crested head, he is as bright red as a maraschino cherry.  The only break in the coloration comes at his face, which is rimmed in black.

Painted like this, these two birds compare favorably to the most exotic birds that I've seen in zoos around the country.  You'd think people would queue up to see them.  Instead, we ignore them as they flit around our fit as we walk from exhibit to exhibit.  They are the blue jay and the northern cardinal.

On a few occasions when I've visited other countries, I've been fascinated by seeing animals that to me are "zoo" animals - exotic, visually striking, unexpected - wandering about, sometimes in the most unexpected of places.  When walking down the streets of the Tanzanian city of Arusha, I glanced up once in response to some chattering in the trees overhead, only to find myself staring up into the eyes of a squabbling batch of fruit bats.  Later, as I sat on a park bench, I watched a trumpeter hornbill fly by.  Crossing the street later that day, I almost stepped in the road-killed mess that used to be a hedgehog.  Years later, when entertaining some naturalist friends from South America at my home in the US, I watched dumbfounded as they spent fifteen enchanted minutes watching gray squirrels outside my window.

Wildlife, no matter the time or place or the form, has its own spectacular beauty.  And beauty, as we are told, is solely in the eye of the beholder.

On a Wing and a Prayer

Every year, our backyards, our parks, and, yes, our zoos are the setting for one of North America's most spectacular wildlife pageants - the annual journey of the migratory birds.  Millions of songbirds make the perilous trek from North America down to Central and South America and back, some of them flying clear over the Caribbean.  The thought of such small, seemingly frail creatures journeying for thousands of miles seems so hard to imagine.

Birds on their migratory journeys are extremely vulnerable.  They are reliant upon a network of food sources and rest sites along their route.  If they lose those resources, their chances of survival decrease.  Conversely, if we want to help protect migratory birds, we need to protect those rest sites and those feeding grounds.  What this means, of course, is that to protect migratory birds, we need to know where those locations are.  We need to really understand where they are going.  But how do you track an animal that weighs a few ounces as it travels for thousands of miles across several countries?

One answer is Motus.

The Motus Wildlife Tracking System is a program where birds, bats, and even large insects are fitted with tiny GPS trackers then sent on their way.  As the bird, bat, or bug continues on its journey, it passes a series of GPS towers scattered across the landscape.  If the bird (for convenience, let's just stick with birds) passes within range of one of those towers, the identity of the bird will be picked up and recorded, uploaded on a database.  The data obtained from these towers can be used to help determine what birds are traveling where.  We can then determine what the priority locations are for protecting bird habitat.

It's easy for zoos, nature clubs, and other organizations to get involved.  They can raise funds to erect a Motus tower on their grounds or in another prominent location.  The more towers there are, the more of the country is covered with towers.  Already several zoos are participating in the program, with more joining.  They can also volunteer to assist scientists in trapping and banding animals.  Every banded animal generates valuable data every time it passes a Motus station.

Learn more about Motus and how you can get involved with it here.