Pumpkin Spice Raccoon

Absolutely love this, but not 100% sure where it originated from.  I found it on the facebook page of the AZA's Small Carnivore Taxon Advisory Group.  If it is from somewhere else and you know its origins, please let me know so I can pay proper credit to the creator!

Encounters with a Giant

The crowd was thick at ZooTampa when I approached the exhibit.  The visitors were three or four deep as the pressed to the wire.  The opportunity was worth the crush - the chance to get up and close, even to touch and feed - one of the largest, rarest, and most extraordinary of earth's mammals - the Indian rhinoceros.

For centuries, zoos and aquariums have provided visitors with the opportunities to see, hear, and smell a variety of creatures.  All of this, of course, was before we had David Attenborough and Animal Planet and IMAX.  Even with all of these other media, the attraction of zoos still remains strong.  Still, for some visitors, there remains the desire for something more - the chance to form a deeper connection.  The chance to get closer.

Many zoos now offer special encounter programs, essentially single-species behind-the-scenes tours that let a small group of guests meet animals up close and personal.  At Chicago's Shedd Aquarium you can get into the water with a beluga whale.  At Newport Aquarium, you can mingle with African penguins.  Walruses at the Indianapolis Zoo, moose at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, alligators at Saint Augustine Alligator Farm.

As a zookeeper, I've visited a lot of zoos and aquariums, either for work purposes or for personal pleasure.  Whenever I do, I try to look up friends or colleagues working at those places and finagle my way backstage to meet an animal or two.  These have resulted in some of my fondest zoo memories, such as encountering the last US-zoo Sumatran rhinoceros in Cincinnati Zoo.   In return, I have taken zoo friends of mine back with sloths, wolves, and bears, among other critters.  But why should we zooies have all the fun?

Zoo Review: ZooTampa at Lowry Park

It's very rare for me to a visit a zoo for the first time without already knowing a decent amount about it.  When I was a kid I had my copy of Alan Nyhuis' guidebook to American zoos.  These days, I have the internet and, with increasing frequency, the experiences of friends and colleagues who have been to or work at the zoo I'm planning on visiting.

There's never been a zoo that I've had the pre-visit introduction to, however, like ZooTampa, formerly Lowry Park Zoo.  For me, my initial visit to the famed Florida facility was colored by the book Zoo Story, Thomas French's fascinating inside-expo on all the juicy drama that was playing out behind the scenes at the Zoo during one of its most turbulent times.  The drama may have died down on the bay, but the excitement hasn't - rebounding from its seesawing highs and lows, ZooTampa has continued to expand and develop into one of Florida's best zoos.

Like Jacksonville Zoo and Zoo Miami, ZooTampa places a heavy emphasis on native Floridian wildlife.  You can see spacious enclosures for the big carnivores - Florida panthers, American black bears, a breeding pack of red wolves - as well as bald eagles, sandhill cranes, and, of course, alligators.  Here, the stars of the Zoo are the manatees; Tampa boasts an excellent manatee hospital, making the Zoo a critical resource in the efforts to rehabilitate and release these endangered aquatic mammals.  The manatees were unfortunately off-exhibit on the day when I visited as their enclosure underwent repairs.  Even drained of water, however, it was easy to see what a spectacular habitat it must be and to imagine how cool it would be to walk down the dark hallways as the gentle giants drifted alongside me.  The manatee building double-functions as an aquarium, with saltwater and freshwater displays of Florida aquatic life.  This building also serves as the focal point of the Zoo's reptile and amphibian collection.

Tigers are the star of the Asian Gardens (as readers of French's book might recall darkly).  Ironically, they might have been the animals from the section that I spent the least time looking over.  Instead, I remember the clouded leopards, the sloth bears, the Komodo dragons, and a pool of gharials.  There is also a walk-through Asian aviary, a lorikeet feeding aviary, and an Indian rhinoceros exhibit with a contact area.  There was also an exceptional collection of tropical Asian ungulates - Visayan warty pigs, babirusa, lowland anoa, and a wallow for Malayan tapirs.



Africa is well represented by a full compliment of the large mammals - giraffes, white rhinos, and, of course, the famous African elephants that were brought over from Swaziland as part of a rescue operation.   Visitors are given the chance to enter one of the crates that was used to transport the elephants.  Also on the loop are meerkats, Aldabra tortoises, okapi, and African wild dogs.  Of special interest to me was the exhibit of rarely-displayed shoebills, African stork-like birds renown for their grotesque, mottled beaks.  It may have been the shoebills that I was most keen to see, but if animal in the Zoo stole my heart, it was the baby pygmy hippopotamus that I saw frolicing in the water by her mother's side.

A small collection of Australian wildlife can be seen in the children's zoo, including wallabies, flying foxes, and koalas.  The center of the Zoo is dominated by a series of island habitats for primates.  Orangutans, chimpanzees, siamangs, while lemurs, tamarins, and other small primates occupy side enclosures.  Right inside the entrance of the Zoo is a walk-through aviary, where a host of bird species from around the world fly over the heads of visitors.  Included in their ranks are Raggiana birds of paradise, scarlet ibises, and spotted whistling ducks, with great hornbills and other species occupying side aviaries.  Sloths and more flying foxes can also be encountered here.

I enjoyed ZooTampa very much.  The landscaping was lush and green, taking advantage of Tampa's subtropical climate.  There were elements of the Zoo that I found a little too amusement-parkish.  The renovations to the Florida area that were underway while I was there are slated to include a log flume ride.  I'm aware that some zoo professionals dislike inclusions of these types of attractions into zoos, feeling that they cheapen the experience and the animals.  Considering that ZooTampa had it's origins as a children's theme park, it's actually a little appropriate.

ZooTampa at Lowry Park

Leaf It Alone!

Happy Autumn!

Yesterday marked the first day of fall, my favorite season... and not just because Krispy Kreme has those awesome pumpkin spice cake donuts (though I am very partial to those).

Early autumn is a great time of year.  The craziness of the summer has died off, the fall field trips haven't started up yet, it's still warm enough for most of the animals to be out enjoying themselves, and it just feels like there's more time to get stuff done.

We get some great, long-overdue projects done this time of year.  We also get a lot of raking down.  You'll note that I didn't include that in the former.

Raking leaves is something we all wind up doing for aesthetic purposes.  In our exhibits, there can be a health benefit too.  I try not to leave the enclosures looking bare and sterile, with just dirt, but every once in a while I like to rake the entire thing out, just so I'm sure that any hidden fecal matter, uneaten food, etc is cleared away.  Then, I let a new blanket of leaves accumulate.  It's a fun substrate for animals to play in and forage in - plus, have you ever seen a snow leopard jump into a giant leaf pile?  It's pretty awesome.

Outside of the animal areas, however, I try to just let leaves be.  They provide a habitat for all sorts of small animals, including a substrate that might be essential for hibernating critters.  I'd also hate to think of how many small animals I've scooped up and sent off to the compost heaps while raking.

If you can get away without it, consider skipping raking once in a while.  Give your local wildlife - and your back - a break.  Leaf it be...

Adventures in Enforced Monogamy

"Well there's a rose in a fisted glove, and the eagle flies with the dove,

And if you can't be with the one you love, love the one your with"

- Stephen Stills

The Andean cock-of-the-rock is a stunningly beautiful bird; it would be easy to imagine that every zoo would want a pair to shine in their aviaries.  The same could be said of the birds-of-paradise, which makes it surprising that these birds are so uncommon in zoo collections.  The reason why is quite simple - they tend to be difficult to breed.  And the reason that they are difficult to breed is that they refuse to do so on our terms.

Zoo visitors tend to look at animals through the lens of a nuclear family.  If you have two individuals in an exhibit, they immediately assume they are a male and female, and ask you if they are going to mate.  If there are three, they assume that it's a mommy, a daddy, and a baby.  Zookeepers and managers have a tendency to look at things in a similar vein.  The only problem is, that's not how it usually works in nature.

Monogamy is an exception, not a norm in nature, and even most species that we think of as monogamous often aren't really.  The Bronx Zoo once ran some DNA tests on an aviary of scarlet ibises - and after checking on the parentage of the chicks in the nests, it turned out there was a lot of funny business going on on the side among those supposedly faithful pairs.  And that's in a zoo, with relatively limited options for cheating.  You can imagine what goes on in the wild.

When we pair animals up in a zoo, we often do so with demographics or genetics in mind, but doing so sometimes takes away one of the key factors in an animal's life - mate choice.  Some animals just don't care - the male will mount any female of the species that he can get atop of, and the female will let him.  Others are quite picky.  Cheetahs, for instance, can be very selective about their mates, and females are most likely to select a male after they've been given a chance to browse the aisle and compare brands, as it were.

We're slowly starting to learn how to accommodate these behaviors, more easily in some species than others.  Gorillas were once almost impossible to breed, mostly because we assumed that they lived like people - put an "Adam" and an "Eve" together and hope for the best.  You can hope all you want - it wasn't until they started being housed in groups that breeding began.  Zoos of the future will need to start housing multiple potential pairs of some species so that males and females can find the partner that bests works for them.  This has been a large part of the inspiration behind the movement towards the Conservation Centers for Species Survival.

This approach has its drawbacks.  Having more enclosures holding more members of the same species may lead to less diversity within the collection of a zoo - you may have four pairs of clouded leopards instead of a pair of clouded leopards, a pair of snow leopards, a pair of jaguars, and a pair of pumas.  It may result in more demands on off-exhibit holding space, a resource that's already in critically short supply at many zoos.  And it may mean sacrificing some perfect genetic pairs because that's not who the animals have selected for themselves. 

It will, however, have the potential to result in more breeding success as animals form pair bonds of their choosing, and more control over their own lives and welfare.

Species Fact Profile: Andean Cock-of-the-Rock (Rupicola peruvianus)

Andean Cock-of-the-Rock

Rupicola peruvianus (Latham, 1790)

Range: Northwestern South America
Habitat: Cloud Forest
Diet: Fruit, Insects, Small Vertebrates
Social Grouping: Solitary, Breeding Leks
Reproduction: Polygamous.  Males mate with multiple females and do not assist in rearing the young.  Nests are made of mud and vegetation, held together with spit and plastered on caves or on crock outcroppings.  Two white eggs are incubated by the female for 25-28 days.
Lifespan: 7 Years
Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern, CITES Appendix II

• Body length up to 32 centimeters, weighing up to 300 grams.  Males are larger than females
• Strong sexual dimorphism - the male is bright red or orange while the female is duller brown.  Males also large disk-like crests above their beaks.  The tail and wings are black, the beak yellow in males, dark brown in females
• Breeding males congregate in leks - several males gathered together to competitively display for females.  Displays take pace when the lighting is right to highlight the plumage of the males.  Displays consist of calling, jumping, and flapping wings, but is seldom observed by humans due to the shyness of the birds
• One of two cock-of-the-rock species (the other is the Guianan (Rupicola rupicola), which does not overlap in range), there are four subspecies, varying in coloration
• Latin name translates to "Rock Dweller of Peru" from habit of nesting on rock walls
• Will sometimes follow army ants, seizing small animals that are escaping the ants
• Selected as the national bird of Peru

Zookeeper's Journal: I'll never forget my surprise at seeing my first cock-of-the-rock.  It's not a species that a lot of visitors make it a priority to see, so it wasn't listed on the website of the Bronx Zoo.  It was a complete surprise when I rounded a corner at the Bronx Zoo's World of Birds and saw a magnificent, gleaming flame of a bird eyeing me from a perch.  It was a bird that I'd always wanted to see, but at the time had no idea that any were in the US.  Relatively few zoos display these beauties - and not without reason.  Their lek breeding system requires a special set up to allow females to choose their males - you can't just throw a boy and a girl in an aviary and hope for the best.  Or you can... but that hope won't come to anything.  For a zoo to breed the cock-of-the-rock, there has to be a set-up in place to allow for mate choice. 

A Step Into the Wild

Reintroduction stories - like those of the California condor or the Arabian oryx - are the greatest, most feel-good stories of the zoo world.  Unfortunately, they aren't as common as we wish they were.  They are expensive, difficult, and usually used as a last-ditch effort to save a species that's already on the brink.

It doesn't have to be that way, though.

This week, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park sent a very special package to Tanzania.  Eric, a black rhinoceros, has already made his mark in the US captive-breeding program.  Now, he's setting his reproductive sights on the wild ladies.  He'll be living in a semi-wild setting, where he'll be able to introduce his genetic material into the small, threatened population.  The Tanzanian government hopes to use this population to reintroduce black rhinos to the Serengeti Plains, an ecosystem where they have been absent for many years.

If this works, there's probably lots of potential for zoo-bred animals to be used to new genes into wild populations.  That would allow these genes to be passed into wild-born animals, saving populations from inbreeding depression that could potentially lead to extinction.  Similarly, zoo-laid eggs of birds and reptiles can be slipped in wild nests.  There's already precedent for the puppies of endangered Mexican wolves to be stealthily swapped, exchanged genetic material between the zoo and wild populations.  This is just the next step.

If I was one of Eric's (hell of a name for a rhino, by the way), I'd be very proud... and a little terrified.  I mean, East Africa... where rhino's are heavily poached.  I know that he'll be kept super-protected, but man... that's a lot to worry.  During his North American life, Eric lived at the Safari Park among herds of giraffe, antelope, and buffalo in an enclosure bigger than most whole zoos.  Now, he'll get to see how the other half lives.

Pictures from San Diego Zoo Facebook page

Book Review: The Feather Thief - Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century

The other day, I received a text from a coworker on one of my days off.  She was cleaning our American flamingo exhibit when a guest approached the railing and asked if he could have a few feathers that were lying around the yard.  She excused herself for a moment, then nipped around the corner to text me on whether or not it was allowed.  I told her that flamingo feathers were fine, but it was illegal to distribute the feathers of some of our other species, such as the bald eagles.

I should have told her to keep an eye on that guy later.  These feather people can be weird.

As "Exhibit A" in that case, I present The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson.  Johnson recounts the story of Edwin Rist, a young American who became enraptured with the pastime of... ornamental fly tying.  As in, for fly fishing, only never to actually be used in fishing, because man, these things are priceless and intricate and you just don't throw something like that in the water to get swallowed by a fish, apparently.  Speaking of "apparently", apparently the best fishing flies are made from the combined plumage of several exotic bird species, many of which are threatened with extinction.  To secure feathers, both for his own use and to sell, Rist broke into the British Museum of Natural History, and looted the vaults of birds-of-paradise, cotingas, and other specimens.  Some of them dated back nearly two-hundred years and were collected by Darwin's collaborator, Alfred Russell Wallace himself.

It's worth nothing that, prior to escalating to these James-Bondesque stunts, Edwin Rist would write to zoos that housed birds that he admired, asking for moulted feathers.

Let's not beat around the bush.  People like Rist are weird, and a major part of Johnson's book's attraction is the chance to gawk and poke fun at how weird these hard-core fly fanatics are... and that would have been an enjoyable enough book.  What makes the book special, however, is all of the diving into the details and backstory the author goes.  Johnson describes the biological and historical stories behind these stolen birds, detailing how some of them were used to solve the mystery of evolution.  He tells the stories of bird collectors and private zoos (especially that of Lord Walter Rothschild, who irked his rich father by having cassowaries and bears delivered to their mansion doorstep) and the unexpectedly fascinating history of fly tying.  He does some of his best work describing CITES and how it regulates the trade in endangered species... thereby making birds-of-paradise, fruit crows, and other species of interest hard to acquire... and therefore valuable.

Obsession is a fascinating thing to behold, especially when it takes a form that you wouldn't normally expect.  Still, as strange as I find his case (which I'm taking pains not to spoil), I have to cut the wayward Mr. Rist a little bit of slack.  Some birds are worth obsessing over... though maybe not to the extent that some people are willing to go...

The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century on Amazon.com

From the News: Zoos, Aquariums, and Florence

As Hurricane Florence lashes North Carolina coastline, zoos prepare for the worst

Stay safe, flamingos. How Riverbanks Zoo prepares animals ahead of hurricane

Zoo moves 1,600 animals inside ahead of Hurricane Florence

How the Virginia Aquarium prepares for a hurricane

'Ride-out team' cares for aquarium animals during Florence

The Seal and the Butterfly

It's a good rule of thumb I try to implement.  Every time that things get too dark and depressing, the cure is a cute animal video.  This treat features a harbor seal at the Oregon Zoo, who has just discovered a butterfly flitting past the underwater viewing window of the enclosure.

Red Wolves in the Eye of the Storm

As I write this, Hurricane Florence begins the final stretch of its slow approach to the American mainland.  Whenever a natural disaster of this magnitude arrives, I naturally think of the zoos and aquariums in harms way, with special thoughts for the safety of the staff and animals.  Of course, not all animals are under human care when these disasters occur - many are in the wild.  And few are more vulnerable right now than the last wild red wolves, huddled on the fringes of eastern North Carolina, with the hurricane approaching.

In her Secret World of Red Wolves, T. Delene Beeland gave me food for thought when she called to mind a threat to America's rarest canines that I had previously never considered - climate change.  With all of the wild red wolves on earth living in a single coastal habitat, it wouldn't take much of a change in sea level - or a killer hurricane - to wipe them out.  It looks like the Red Wolf Coalition has had similar thoughts.  Below is their statement on Hurricane Florence:

The Red Wolf Coalition thanks everyone for the outpouring of concern about the red wolves and us!  This storm poses the threat of an unprecedented storm surge, not only from the Atlantic Ocean but from the water in northeastern North Carolina's inland sounds.  A look at the map will show you what we mean.  Some important updates as of Wednesday morning, September 12th:

1.  The captive red wolves at Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in Dare County (close to the coast) and the two wolves at the Red Wolf Education Center at Pocosin Lake NWR near our office in Columbia (40 miles west of the Outer Banks beaches) have been transported to the NC Zoo in Asheboro, NC in the middle of the state.

2. The known wild red wolf population (fewer than 25) lives on the Alligator River NWR in Dare County on the Albemarle Peninsula. This area is surrounded by water on 3 sides. As we said in a couple of recent posts, wolves hunker down and ride out these storms. They are great swimmers and resilient survivors. However, this storm has us worried because of the potential storm surge.

3. The tragic irony is that Hurricane Florence is due to wreak its havoc on the very day that red wolves were reintroduced to the wild at Alligator River NWR - September 14, 1987. We ask that you commemorate this anniversary by keeping the wild reds in your thoughts. We in "Red Wolf Country" hope we will be able to celebrate yet another milestone in the saga of red wolf survival in the face of impossible odds.

A Stopgate Against Extinction

This past week, my newsfeed saw several friends posting an ominous article about bird extinctions.  Most of them opened with the revelation that the Spix's macaw - best known as the bird that the animated film Rio is based on - has been declared extinct.

Spix's Macaw heads list of first bird extinctions confirmed this decade

What most of those articles fail to mention is the three very important words that follow.  In. The. Wild.  Spix's macaw is now most likely extinct in the wild.  That means that there are still some left.  That means that there is still a chance to save the species.

As a matter of fact, the population of these extremely rare parrots under human care is inching upwards.  This is an excellent example of why zoos, aquariums, and other managed wildlife facilities are needed.  Even as Spix's macaw winked out of existence in the wild, some were left under the care of persons knowledgeable enough about the care and husbandry of these birds that they were able to collaborate and form a breeding program. 

What's tragic isn't that it came to this.  What's tragic is that there are many endangered species - the vaquita coming to mind especially these days - which we were not able to do this for, for one reason or another.  The vaquita, I suspect, will very soon be extinct.  Without a qualifier.  Spix's macaw, I feel, still has a chance.

Spix's Macaw, Copyright Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation

Chez Vulture

One of the most popular zoo animals at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm isn't an animal... are at least, not a real one.  It's the artificial zebra carcass located in their African vulture exhibit.  At feed time, the keepers reassemble the fake dead equid (who definitely looks like he'd seen better days, apart from being fake and dead), toss the birds' diet inside, and let the assembled vultures and storks go to town on it.  I've seen similar models at other zoos - sometimes as a carcass, sometimes as a skeleton, with birds perched on horns and snaking tidbits out from between the ribs.

Do the vultures themselves care?  Probably insofar as it offers a feeding challenge and an opportunity to express some natural feeding behaviors.  You could probably achieve the same effect with any number of puzzle feeders, boomer balls, and firehose toys.  So yeah, you could probably come to the conclusion that this is largely done for the visitors.

Not that there's anything wrong with that.  A zoo should be just as focused on conservation as it is education.  A major aspect of education is letting visitors see animals behave as thy would in the wild, and that's what this does... even if the fiberglass is a little chipped these days.

From the News: "Joe Exotic" charged in Murder-for-Hire plot

A few years back, I wrote a review of the Virginia Safari Park, located in Natural Bridge, Virginia.  In passing, I made mention of the strange story of the Mogensens - father and son zoo owners who have facilities practically next door to one another but are completely estranged.  At the time, I joked that someone should write a novel or something.

Hell with that - someone needs to make a movie about this craziness.

You may have encountered "Joe Exotic" if you watched Morgan Spurlock's Inside Man special on zoos - his facility, along with PAWS and the Detroit Zoo, were highlighted to show the... ummm... range of options for exotic animal care in this country.  Joe Exotic has long been known for his questionable big cat practices (especially regarding hybridization), as well the substandard animal care at the zoo.  Both of these - along with his alliances with other tiger-mills - brought him into contact with Tampa-based Big Cat Rescue and its founder, Carole Baskin.

I'm not a fan of Carole Baskin myself, but it never crossed my mind that she deserved to die... which is apparently the conclusion ol' Joe drew.

"Joe Exotic" indicted for murder-for-hire plot, justice department confirms

Species Fact Profile: Cape Vulture (Gyps coprotheres)

Cape Vulture

Gyps coprotheres (Forster, 1798)

Range: Southern Africa
Habitat: Savannah, Open Grassland
Diet: Carrion
Social Grouping: Large Colonies
Reproduction: Nesting season is April through July.  Single egg is laid in a stick platform nest or on a rock ledge.  Both parents incubate the egg and care for the chick.  Chicks fledge at 140 days
Lifespan: 30 Years
Conservation Status: IUCN Endangered, CITES Appendix II

• Body length 95-115 centimeters, wingspan 225-260 centimeters.  Weight 7-11 kilograms.
• Buff-gray plumage with dark flight feathers and tail feathers.  Undersides of wings are pale grey, almost silver.  Adults are paler than juveniles, may appear white from a distance
• Two patches of bare skin at the base of the neck are believed to be temperature sensitive, serve to help the vultures detect warm air thermals which can be used for soaring
• Forage in loose networks, spread out gliding on warm air thermals.  When one vulture spots a carcass and begins its decent, other vultures will see and move in on the location
• Primary threats include poisoning (farmers put out poisoned sheep and cattle carcasses to kill mammalian predators), as well as collision with power lines.  Also threatened by hunting for traditional medicine, loss of habitat

(Don't) Eat Lead

It's always great to know that organizations like VulPro are out there, fighting the good fight for vulture conservation overseas.  Just because you aren't off in Africa or Asia, however, doesn't mean that there aren't battles to be fought to save vultures in your own backyard.  If you are a hunter, for example, there's a relatively simple change you can make that will literally be life or death for vultures and other scavengers.

It's easy - change your bullets to non-lead.

One of the leading causes of decline of the California condor was lead bullets - and not from being shot at with them.  The condors were scavenging the remnants of animals shot with lead bullets, and were in turn ingesting little bits of lead.  This caused the condors to sicken and die.  This similarly impacted bald eagles, ravens, and other scavengers. 

Efforts have been made to reduce or (ideally) eliminate the use of lead shot in the range of the condor, but it's a hazard for birds all over the world.  Some problems are solved with enormous, sweeping legal actions.  Just as often, they can be solved by hundreds or thousands of people agreeing to make a change - sometimes a big one, sometimes a small one - in order to make a better world for wildlife.

VulPro

There are many great conservation organizations which have taken up the mantle of conserving Africa's most unloved birds.  Perhaps the most prominent of these is VulPro, a South African organization which declares its intent to be "the leading vulture conservation programme for advancing knowledge, awareness and innovation in the conservation of African vulture populations."  That's an ambitious task and requires a multi-faceted campaign.  Fortunately, VulPro seems to be up to the challenge.

If there is a way to get involved int he conservation of African vultures, VulPro is on it.  They do local education programs for South African children, teaching them the importance of vulture conservation, as well as what to do if they find an injured vulture (they've also produced a children's book, Grumpy and Loon, available on their website.  They do studies on the status of wild colonies, as well as veterinary research on vulture illness and treatment, producing several scholarly papers on the subject.  They take in injured birds for rehabilitation, releasing them back into the wild.  Birds that cannot be successfully released join VulPro's highly successful captive-breeding colony, where chicks are produced which can, in turn, be released back into the wild.

Despite their historic omnipresence, very few scientists have taken the time to really track where vultures go and what they are doing.  One of the coolest features of the VulPro site is its vulture tracking program.  Visitors to the website can choose from several vultures that the team has trapped, tagged, and released, then track the progress of the bird as it crosses countries.  Seeing first hand how these birds fly hundreds of miles across international borders is a sobering reminder of how the conservation of these majestic birds isn't a problem that can be tackled by a single country - it needs to be an international effort.

The journeys of African white-backed vulture Tag 380, as shared on VulPro's website

VulPro is supported in its conservation efforts by several zoos and aquariums, and has partnered with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for the Saving Animals from Extinction campaign for African vultures.  If you work with a zoo that houses any of the African vulture species, whether or not you are a member of AZA, you should strongly consider partnering with this amazing organization.  If you are just interested in vultures (and why wouldn't you be?), you can learn more at their website, linked below.

VulPro

International Vulture Awareness Day

"The Vulture.  Of all the creatures in the jungle, he has it the easiest.  The hard work of others becomes his work; their failure to survive becomes his nourishment.  Keep an eye on the Vulture - while you are hard at work, he is circling above.  Do not fight him, join him."

- Robert Greene, The 48 Laws of Power

These days, it seems like almost every single day is now some animal's special day.  There's Orangutan Day, Cassowary Day, Painted Dog Day... I think we're only a few weeks away from having Texas Blind Salamander Day.  Pretty soon, some of these critters are going to have to start sharing as the calendar fills up.

I don't normally focus on these days - there are just so many - but today is a special one.  This is International Vulture Awareness Day.  So... are you aware of vultures?

You should be.

Outside of Australia and the Oceanic Islands, virtually all of us live beneath the wings of at least one vulture species.  Whether its the ubiquitous turkey vultures and black vultures of North America, the imposing griffons of Europe, or the full cabal of species that soar over Africa, vultures are always with us.  Granted, their presence is not generally appreciated by many people.  They are viewed as dirty, disgusting, and greedy.  Their feeding habits nauseate many, as do their talents for cooling themselves (defecating on their legs) and protecting themselves (projectile vomit).

It's the sort of bird that was designed to appeal to ten-year old boys which, come to think of it, is about how old I was when I first fell in love with vultures.

As awesomely gross as vultures can be, we certainly need them.  They are some of the most efficient scavengers in nature.  Their clean-up services halt the spread of many disease, including anthrax and rabies.  In places where vultures have seen their numbers drop, we've seen major ecological and economical consequences.

In turn, vultures need us.  South Asia is only now starting to recover from a great vulture die-off.  Africa is in the midst of its own vulture crisis.  Some of it this tragic loss is accidental.  Some is deliberate.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums recognized this when it made African vultures one of the campaigns of its new conservation effort, Saving Animals from Extinction.  Efforts have included producing a Maa language film on the need to save vultures, supporting rehab facilities in South Africa, and, of course, maintaining conservation breeding programs for several African vulture species.  There's plenty of precedent for success - one of AZA's first ever reintroduction success stories was for our own giant vulture, the California condor.

Almost every AZA zoo has vultures, whether in an aviary, on display in a mixed-species exhibit with hoofstock, or as an educational ambassador animal.  We should embrace the opportunity to share these wonderfully weird birds with the public.  We need to preserve vultures, if not just for their sake, than for ours as well.  After all, someone has to clean up our messes...