My co-worker, who we will call "Clyde," had a patchy, scraggly assortment of facial hair, like someone had glued black cottonballs haphazardly across his face. These provided him with the perfect camouflage for one of his favorite pranks. Clyde would approach a colleague (in one case, me) with a question or some light conversation, edging closer and closer as the talk wore on. Eventually, the person he was engaging would notice that a good-sized patch of Clyde's facial hair was moving.
There, nestled into his attempt at a beard, would be a tarantula, clinging to the side of his face. Sometimes, he would only be a foot away before the other person would notice.
When Clyde pulled that stunt with me - who he knew had a thing about large, hairy spiders - I almost walloped him across the face with a metal feed pan. The only thing that stopped me was fear of hitting the spider.
As zookeepers, we have access to a lot of animals that many people find scary, such as rats, snakes, spiders, and cockroaches. When you work a lot with these animals, you can develop a fair amount of comfort with them, which can make the out-sized fear that some people have seem ridiculous to you. You will definitely get tired of hearing people say "The only good snake is a dead snake," or point to your tarantula and scream, "Kill it with fire!" You may decide to take it upon yourself to teach them a lesson.
Don't do that.
Playing pranks with animals will in no way help convince people that snakes, spiders, etc aren't bad. It'll just reinforce that they are scary things to be feared. It'll leave you liable to a potential lawsuit, especially if the person ends up hurting themselves (I once innocently showed a visitor to our zoo a large Dumeril's ground boa without knowing she was terrified of snakes. She ran away, looking over her shoulder... and ran smack into a locked door. Thankfully, when she came to, she was understanding).
Lastly, if none of these provide sufficient motivation, you could end up with your animal being seriously hurt, possibly killed, if the person's fight-or-flight reflex veers towards "fight." Consider the following, from Reddit:
There is a lot of fun that you can have with Halloween at the zoo. You can teach about scary animals. You can have trick-or-treating (with orangutan-friendly candy) and other fall-themed events.You can have beer festivals.
But leave the animal pranks out of it. Your snakes and spiders will thank you.
Recently, I saw an advertisement for the new season of the TV show "The Secret Life of the Zoo," detailing life behind-the-scenes at England's Chester Zoo. This accompanies the two "The Zoo" series - one at the Bronx Zoo, one at San Diego - as well as "Secrets of the Zoo," filmed at the Columbus Zoo, and "The Aquarium," at the Georgia Aquarium. These shows have all done a great job in helping the general public better understand the role that zoos and aquariums play in conservation and education, as well as to better appreciate all of the dedication that goes into caring for the animals.
Neither are the first zoo TV show to be made, however. There have been several earlier programs, but one special one comes to my mind. Firstly, because it largely took place away from the zoo. Secondly, because it's the sort of thing you wouldn't see being filmed anymore. Thirdly, because it helped introduce to the world one of the most popular television presenters who has ever lived.
In the early 1950s, David Attenborough joined the BBC. Most English families at the time didn't even own TVs, and the concept to television shows was still somewhat in its infancy. This was just as well for Attenborough. If the medium had been more popular, he might never have gotten his chance. As it was, he barely was given one anyway - his producer thought that he wouldn't be any good on camera. His teeth looked too big, it seemed. However, Attenborough got his chance and began producing a series of programs, some about the natural world, some not. For those programs that featured animals, he utilized animals from the London Zoo.
It was at the London Zoo that Attenborough befriended reptile curator Jack Lester, who took his new friend into confidence and invited him on a special project. Lester wanted to travel to Sierra Leone, in West Africa, and try to capture one of the rarest, most unique birds on earth - Picathartes gymnocephalus, the white-necked rockfowl. He would try to catch the bird, while Attenborough would produce a documentary about the efforts. The program was to be called "Zoo Quest."
The plan began to unravel when Lester was stricken by disease and was unable to go on. He never was able to recover, and died a few years later. Attenborough took over the role, presenting the quest for the rockfowl to the public. It was a hit. In 1954, the first Zoo Quest, in black-and-white, was aired.
There would be a total of eight Zoo Quest specials, filmed around the world from Madagascar to Guyana. Some were single episode programs, while others sprawled on for five or six episodes. The show's natural history spectacles were combined with insights into local anthropology and culture; Attenborough was commended for his open-minded, unbiased approach to depicting cultures that, to most members of his audience, were just nameless faces of the still-intact (barely) British Empire. Combining the expanding knowledge of wildlife biology with the new advances in filming, the series was groundbreaking. The footage captured for the fourth show, Zoo Quest for a Dragon, was a first film ever of Komodo dragons in the wild.
By the time Zoo Quest's eighth special, Quest for Capricorn (exploring Australian wildlife), Attenborough felt ready to move on from the concept. The concept of capturing animals for zoos was losing its appeal with the public, with more emphasis being placed on breeding endangered animals within zoos. Attenborough shifted his focus back to the management side of television, becoming an administrator for BBC Two and pursuing higher education. He kept a clause in his contract, however, which allowed him to continue to produce programs himself.
Today, Sir David, as he is now known, is famous for his breathtakingly beautiful BBC series documenting life on earth. There is Life of Mammals, Life of Birds, Life in Cold Blood, Blue Planet, and, of course, his magnum opus, Planet Earth. I have a shelf in my home lined with these masterpieces. Having produced so many specials, it's hard not to notice that Sir David tends to repeat himself a bit, with certain species popping up a disproportionate amount of the time. Take birds of paradise, for example. It sure seems like Attenborough shoehorns these avian jewels in every chance he gets, with constant footage of their breeding displays and courtship behavior. I can't help but notice that he devoted a six-episode series to them in Zoo Quest for the Paradise Birds. The same could be said for chameleons and lemurs (Zoo Quest to Madagascar).
It certainly seems that the animals and habitats Sir David Attenborough encountered during his Zoo Quest days made quite an impression on him, both as a naturalist and as a television producer. After all, that show is where his career really began. In celebration of the naturalist's 90th birthday, the episodes were re-mastered and released in color. It's nice to think that, because of the London Zoo and an obscure West African songbird, we've been lucky enough to have one of greatest voices for conservation that our society has ever known.
I saw this cartoon being shared, but I have not been able to find any information about the artist/creator. If anyone does happen to have that, please let me know so that I can give proper credit:
Halloween is a time to face our fears, and someone stupidly deciding to go into an enclosure is right up near the top of my fear list. Sometimes people fall in by mistake. Other times there's a mental illness/suicide reason behind it. Other people just really don't understand that the animals would hurt them, and not want to play.
And yes, I've met lots of idiots who have thought that they could "take" the animal - be it a gorilla, a grizzly, or a saltwater crocodile. Here's a newsflash for you, Kyle... NO YOU CAN'T. And guess who has to clean up the mess afterwards?
I've worked with many reptiles over the years, including many species that scared the willies out of many visitors, such as pythons, crocodiles, and venomous snakes. Even many of the harmless reptiles I've worked with - chameleons, skinks, rat snakes - have elicited fear from many people. The one group of reptiles which (almost) no one seems to fear are the turtles and tortoises. And, in direct opposition to the snakes, the bigger these guys are, the more lovable people find them.
I've worked both of the giant tortoises, Galapagos and Aldabra, as well as many other good-sized ones, such as spur-thighed, leopard, and radiated. It seems like everyone has memories of giant tortoises from some time in their youth. Many involve riding them.
Offering (very slow) giant tortoise rides was a common feature of many zoos in decades past, including such renown institutions as the Bronx Zoo and San Diego Zoo. Nor was the practice strictly limited to zoos. Walter Rothschild rode the tortoises in his private collection, and even the premier biologist of all-time, Charles Darwin, took a break from his groundbreaking fieldwork on the Galapagos to go for a wild tortoise ride.
Walter Rothschild riding a giant tortoise, from the archives of the London Natural History Museum
If pony, camel, and elephant rides are far less common in zoos today than they used to be, tortoise rides are even rarer. Out attitudes towards animal welfare have evolved tremendously, and there is concern about sitting on what is essentially the backbone of an animal. The fact that tortoises are rather stoic by nature and don't readily show pain or discomfort in a way that many people will readily interpret is problematic as well.
To be honest, unless we're talking about an NFL linebacker or two, I doubt a person riding a tortoise will inflict pain. In the wild, the female tortoise has to bear the weight of the massive male clambering on top of her without issue. A small child certainly is a managable load in comparison. Maybe not for all day, but unlikely to do any harm. I found myself once clinging to the top of a big Galapagos tortoise's shell as I tried to steer him into his winter quarters, and he essentially carried me for a few dozen yards. If I'd been a butterfly that had lit on top of his shell, I doubt he could have cared or noticed less.
I feel like the real reason that we've phased out tortoise rides is messaging. Camels and ponies are at least domestic animals, and while they are less and less common, elephant rides have centuries of tradition behind them. Letting visitors just sit on the back of a wild animal and see if it does something is treating the animal like a toy or a prop, not as a focus of the zoo's mission.
If we're going to let children sit on wild animals, we might as well go all-in and try it with polar bears or jaguars - you know, let the animals get some enrichment value out of it too. Or we could just put up life-sized statues of tortoises for kids to sit on. Most won't know the difference.
Midway through a lifetime spent with wild animals, I’ve come
to the conclusion that all animals are amazing – there are no boring
animals.There are some, however, which
go beyond amazing, bordering on the unearthly.Look at an elephant, for instance – that massive size, the tusks, the
ears, the trunk, the social and behavioral complexity – any one of those things
would make it a very special, unique animal, but to have them all wrapped up in
one package?It’s incredible.
That’s how I feel about chameleons, as well.
Nothing about a chameleon is “normal,” from the prehensile
tail to the projectile tongue to the weird, pincer-like mittens that it has for
feet, to say nothing of the frills and horns that adorn many species.The eyes, each mounted independently and swiveling
back and forth, like the turrets on a tank, are especially bizarre.Even
at a cursory glance, you’d never mistake a chameleon for a skink, a gecko, or
any other kind of lizard.
Of course, none of those traits are what make chameleons
famous.Instead, they are renown for
their ability to change color – the ultimate masters of disguise.
Except that’s not really how it works.
It’s true, chameleons are masterfully camouflaged.Their flattened bodies resemble leaves, and
the slow, jerky way that they walk along branches is reminiscent of a leaf
fluttering in the breeze.If the purpose
of changing color was to stay camouflaged, however, chameleons would be green
virtually all the time.The base color
of most chameleons is actually what their primary camouflage would be – green,
with some patterning to break up their appearance.Instead, chameleons change color for a
variety of reasons, mostly related to their mood (useful for frightening off a
rival) and temperature (as it can affect how much sunlight the lizard absorbs
or reflects).It can also denote
reproductive status – a female chameleon that is gravid with eggs can use her
coloration to let an interested male know that she is not, in fact, interested
back.
The mechanism by which a chameleon changes its color is
remarkable.It is due to a series of
special cells in the skin, which change shape and thereby change how light
reflects off of them.
Like many animal attributes, the ability of a chameleon to
change its color is somewhat exaggerated.You can’t put a chameleon on a checkerboard and watch it turn into a
patchwork of black and red squares.I’ve
actually met plenty of visitors who have felt somewhat let down at how “limited”
their ability to camouflage is.I’ve
found that ridiculous.Lots of animals
can change color, to one degree or another, but few terrestrial animals can
match the chameleons in terms of the beauty of their displays.
Of course, as cool as I find chameleons, I’d rather people
think that they are boring rather than decide that they needed to have one as a
pet.Compared to many of the agamas and
geckos, chameleons are rather delicate under human care, and they are not
especially forgiving of bad care. Ventilation and humidity are very important
variables to maintain correctly.They also
stress easily, a reason that most zoos will adamantly keep males segregated
from one another (even if that would result in some cool color displays).They are also fairly intolerant of handling –
fine for a zoo animal, less so for a pet that people are interested in “playing
with.”
I’d put chameleons in the same category as I would most
pieces of non-living artwork.Beautiful
to look at.Better not to touch.
Range: East Africa (Tanzania to Mozambique) Habitat: Woodland, Savannah Diet: Insects, Spiders, Occasionally Small Lizards and Birds Reproduction: Females use color changes to let males know if they are ready to breed. Females may store sperm from the male for several months, using it to fertilize multiple clutches. Up to 80 eggs are laid in a hole in the ground, which is then covered up with leaves. Social Grouping: Solitary Lifespan: 12 Years (Wild) Conservation Status:IUCN Least Concern, CITES Appendix II
One of the world’s largest chameleons, and the
largest on the African mainland.Body
length 60-75 centimeters, with the tail representing one-third of the length.Weigh up to 600 grams.Females generally smaller than males.Stout body, relatively small head, and short
crest
A small horn protrudes from the tip of the snout
(often not seen in captive chameleons), believed to be used by males to compete
for females.Like other chameleons, have
fused toes to allow a better grip for climbing and eyes capable of rotating
independently
Sexes look alike.Base coloration is bright forest green and white
or yellow stripes, with brown and black spots of varying size.Like other chameleons, they can change their
color, but do not do so to blend in with their environment, but to communicate
with each other, as well as a result of changes in temperature, health, or
reproductive status
Projectile tongue can extend up to 50
centimeters and is used to capture prey
Named after botanist Charles James Meller
Known for its extreme delicacy in the pet trade,
sometimes referred to as “the 90 day chameleon” due to its short lifespan with
many collectors.This is largely due to
the earliest animals available being wild caught with heavy parasite loads,
extreme stress.Captive-bred individuals
are now available, but still recommended for only experienced caretakers.
As Halloween approaches, here is a classic zookeeping ghost story. Or maybe I should call it a zombie story... because this story refuses to die.
By many accounts, the last known thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, that the world ever saw died of neglect. It had been a hot day in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart, followed by a freezing cold night, but the animal's caretakers forgot to provide the animal with access to its sheltered sleeping quarters. With its demise, the thylacine joined the ranks of the passenger pigeon, Carolina parakeet, and other extinctions of the 20th century...
... or did it?
Yes. It almost certainly did. But unlike the species itself, the legend of the thylacine dies hard.
This week, a news article announced that there have been several sightings of the world's largest modern carnivorous marsupial. Many of the younger zookeepers I work with, or associate with online, have been gaga with the news. Some of them have had to be restrained from starting to map out new exhibit space. For those of us who have been around for a while, the news hardly warranted a raising of the eyebrows. We'd heard this one too many times before.
Ever since its official extinction in 1936, there have been sporadic sightings of the Tasmanian tiger. The only other recently-extinct animal I can think of which has generated nearly as much controversy as to whether it exists or not is the ivory-billed woodpecker in the US. There have at least been some reasonable sightings and arguments for the woodpecker. What there has never been for the thylacine is anything other than wishful thinking - as in, hard evidence. A freshly killed specimen, shot by a suspicious sheep farmer, or laid out on the side of the road, a victim of traffic. A even remotely usable photograph or video clip. A fecal sample or hair scraping from which DNA could be gleaned. Anything at all...
When I was about 6 years old, shortly after I learned what a thylacine was, I became convinced that I saw one. It was a greyhound - an orangish greyhound with black stripes. That was my youthful experiment in wishful thinking.
Yes, it can be impossible to say with 100% certainty that a species is extinct - you can't prove a negative. And yes, every once in a while, extinction has proven to us that she is bluffing, and a thought-to-be extinct animal shows up out of the blue.
I'm not 100% convinced that the last thylacine diet in the Hobart Zoo in 1936. Maybe there were a tiny number of stragglers in the wild, isolated from one another, too wary of hunters to venture out and find each other, until they all winked out like lights, one after the other. It's been over 80 years since anyone has had a verifiable sighting of the animal, though. This isn't a question of a single, elusive animal evading cameras and traps - it would be an entire population, of whatever size would be needed to keep the species going for eighty plus years. Hundreds of animals, perhaps - and not one of them every leaving hard evidence behind. In this day and age, when every single person keeps a camera in their pocket, where we have the most accurate methods of census habitats for rare, unseen animals ever, and a large mammal in a reasonably occupied, developed corner of a first-world country, yeah, I'm skeptical.
If evidence of the thylacine's continued existence ever does pop up, I promise that I'll share it here, and I guarantee, you'll never see anyone as happy to eat crow as I would be. I'd love to be proven wrong. But I don't think I will be.
The bizarre slime mold going on display at the Paris Zoo has been affectionately (?) named "the blob" by its caretakers, a homage to the 1958 horror movie of the same name. The blob is hardly the first organism to be immortalized in a cheesy horror movie. There is an entire zoo's worth of species which have had their own dubious depictions on the bigscreen: Alligator, Orca, Anaconda, Piranhas, Arachnaphobia, The Bear, and, most famous of all, Jaws.
I remember when I was a kid, my best friend and I went to see the move Anaconda. The next day, I heard him breathlessly telling all of our other friends (friends with parents who wouldn't have let them within a hundred yards of the theater) all of the "facts" that he'd learned from the movie.
These movies tend to be cheesy, campy, and not at all realistic. The public loves them. Zoo staff tend to cringe, as they depict an inaccurate, negative representation of animals that we care about, and that can really impact efforts to educate visitors and inspire them to care about the species. It's hard to convince people that snakes aren't that bad when you just watched one vomit Jon Voight onto Jennifer Lopez and Ice Cube.
Perhaps there is a way to get ahead of this, though, and use these movies as fun, campy teaching aides. Many large zoos - and even more aquariums - have IMAX theaters. Imagine an October of evening events focused on animal-themed horror movies. Visitors could come see the movie, and then afterwards meet an animal ambassador or take a guided tour of an exhibit to learn the truth about the animals that they just saw on screen. Watch Eight-Legged Freaks, then meet a tarantula brought out by an educator. See Lake Placid, then get the chance to touch an education alligator, or watch a feeding demo with larger ones.
Like the popular October beer festivals that many zoos hold, it would be a way to introduce the animals to audiences that might otherwise not think of the zoo as a place for childless adults to visit. More importantly, it could help visitors separate the fact from the fiction of some amazing animals, while still having a good time with a bad movie.
We're just about two weeks away from Halloween, which is a special time at the zoo. It provides a great opportunity to highlight animals that many people fear, such as snakes, spiders, rats, and bats. It may not have had the holiday in mind, but the Paris Zoo has decided to celebrate with the unveiling of a creature straight from the B-movies: a brainless protist slime mold, which demonstrates the ability to move and to solve problems. Oh, and it has over 700 distinct sexes.
Being a protist, the blob isn't an animal, which might make its inclusion in a zoo seem odd. I love the idea, though. I think it would be fascinating to display this organism, perhaps alongside a representative plant and fungi species, maybe some bacteria under a high-powered microscope, so that visitors can begin to understand a question that may seem very simple at first - "What IS an animal, anyway?" What makes a lump of coral, which many people mistake for a rock, an animal, while this moving, "thinking" mold is not?
Previous attempts to maintain these slime molds - Physarum polycephalum - were short-lived, but that was decades ago. Hopefully the Paris Zoo staff will be able to take advantage of all that we've learned about these organisms since and help their display colony thrive. If they do, these blobs could be a fixture at zoos and aquariums and botanical gardens and museums around the world.
Researchers grew the zoo's "blob" - a protist species thought to exist for billions of years - in petri dishes. (Photo by Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images)
Outside of Expedition
Tanzania and Tropical Trail, most
of the remaining exhibits at the Reid Park Zoo are located in two
unincorporated zones.Grizzly bears are
among the most popular animals in the remainder of the zoo, occupying a habitat
just down the trail from the elephants.Their habitat is a former polar bear exhibit, and it’s not hard to
imagine why the zoo made the decision to switch out bears (I’ve seen polar
bears in warm climates before, including San Diego, but Arizona might seem like
a bit of a stretch, even for me).Because of the former nature of the habitat, the exhibit is equipped with
a deep pool, which I’m sure that the bears enjoy on hot days.There is also an underwater viewing gallery,
which can let visitors get inches away from swimming bears.Like most grizzlies in US zoos, the bears on
display here were animals that were removed from the wild after they were
deemed nuisance/problem animals, and the exhibit places a heavy focus on
explaining bear-human conflict.One of
my favorite parts came when I was looking off the other side of the path
towards the giraffe exhibit, when I noticed something swaying from a tree
branch – a bear bag.
Down the trail from the bears are habitats for Aldabra tortoises, ring-tailed lemurs, and great hornbills, as well as flock of Chilean
flamingos wading in a picturesque millpond – including a millwheel.There is also a second walk-through aviary,
this one more eclectic in its selection of tropical birds from around the
world.These exhibits are grouped around
the Brown Family Conservation Learning Center, which houses classrooms and the
education department.The building
itself is impressive, especially if you notice some of the many green features
built into it, such as solar panels and rain collection.The public space has some educational
displays – as well a handful of small reptile and amphibian displays – though I
really feel like it could have utilized more exhibits, both animal and
interactive.Visitors will be the most
drawn to the one wall of the building which serves as a viewing window into a
habitat of lion-tailed macaques.These
beautiful black monkeys, which lion-like gray manes and tail tufts, are far
less common than they used to be in zoos, and I hadn’t seen any for quite some
time.It was a great exhibit with indoor
and outdoor viewing opportunities and plenty of climbing options for the
monkeys.
On the other end of the zoo is a second cluster of assorted
exhibits, featuring black-and-white ruffed lemurs, American alligators, and
grey-crowned cranes.Serviceable – but plain
– habitats for white-handed gibbons and tigers are found by the entrance.
The tigers and gibbons are some of the animals who will be
benefiting from the next phase of the zoo’s very ambitious master plan, which
will introduce a new Asian area to the zoo.Besides new habitats for those two species, the plans call for a new
Asian aviary (perhaps siphoning the Asian species from the aviary outside the
Conservation Center, leaving that one as a pure African aviary?), small-clawed
otters, and flying foxes.The almost
non-existent reptile collection will be bolstered by a new reptile house,
starring Komodo dragons.
The next phase will renovate and expand parts of the African
area, followed by renovation and expansion of South America.New animals slated for inclusion are African
wild dogs and hippopotamuses.I was a
little surprised by the hippos, though I don’t know if I really should be.Other zoos in the southwest have hippos –
Denver and Albuquerque come to mind – but those are existing exhibits.I wasn’t sure what the environmental impact
would be in terms of water usage in building a brand new, state-of-the-art
hippo exhibit in the Sonora Desert.That
being said, given all of the green elements that Reid Park Zoo has incorporated
into other structures it’s built (and how far our ability to conserve and
filter water for exhibits has come), I’m sure the zoo has taken this into account.
A very unique feature of the zoo which is not well-known is
its leadership in the field of zoological oncology – the treatment of animal
cancer.A special partnership with the
University of Arizona Cancer Center allows the zoo to use different therapy
methods to treat animals.As zoo animals
continue to live longer and longer lives (Reid Park just bade farewell to a
23-year old jaguar, the oldest in an AZA facility at the time), their
caretakers are confronted with new medical problems that animals in the wild
would not live long enough to suffer from.
Reid Park Zoo is smaller, more manageable, and (depending on
your tastes) a little less theme-parkish than the Phoenix Zoo.It’s a nice place to stroll around for
half-a-day to see some very interesting animals in (mostly) natural
exhibits.New habitats, such as those for the African
elephants and squirrel monkeys, have been very impressive, while also being
built in an environmentally responsible manner.Furthermore, with its eclectic collection of animals from around the
world, it makes a fitting companion to Tucson’s other animal care facility, the
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, just a short drive away.
Not many American cities can boast of two zoos; Tucson,
Arizona is one of the few that can.
With so much emphasis placed on its world famous Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, it isn’t surprising that the more conventional city zoo is often
overlooked. While it’s not as unique as
the Desert Museum, nor as massive as the Phoenix Zoo (about an hour and a half
to the north), the Reid Park Zoo is certainly still worth a visit. It features an impressive collection of
animals in attractive, naturalistic habitats, with more expansion and
development coming in the near future.
At 24 acres, the zoo is of a relatively modest size,
especially compared to Phoenix. Most of
the animals can be seen along one of three trails. Upon entering the zoo, most visitors will
take a looping path to their right, leading onto the Tropical Trail, which
features animals from Latin America. The
first habitat displays Andean bears.
Andean bears are one of the most arboreal bear species, and their
habitat is well provisioned with trees and climbing structures, as well as a
small pool. Continuing up from the
bears, there is a series of yards, blending together as one landscape, for some
of South America’s largest land animals.
Capybara, giant anteater (the zoo’s logo), Galapagos tortoise, and
greater rhea are found here, as well as Baird’s tapirs. The tapir habitat includes a pool with
underwater viewing, and given how warm Arizona mid-days can be, it’s not
unusual to see the pig-like mammals bobbing in the water at eye-level with
visitors. These exhibits curl around a
walk-through aviary, one of two in the zoo, that houses South American birds,
including scarlet ibis and blue-crowned motmot.
Exiting the aviary, visitors may encounter jaguar, as well as a pool of
giant pacu fish.
Rounding out the Tropical Trail is one of the zoo’s newest
habitats, the Temple of Tiny Monkeys. In an indoor-outdoor habitat, a troop of
squirrel monkeys swarms through the branches.
The squirrel monkeys are an interesting addition to the trail because,
apart from the aviary, they are one of the only really “rainforest” additions
to the trail. Most of the other species
featured on the trail are grassland, scrub, or mountain species, which makes
sense when you think of the climate that the zoo is working with and the
benefits of being conservative with water.
It’s a position that the zoo seems to be possibly rethinking in regards
to some of its planned future expansions, but more on that later. I sort of wish that the zoo had decided to
more boldly go all-in on the non-rainforest South America. Many visitors are under the impression that
South America and the Amazon Rainforest are interchangeable, and it would be
great to explore some of the many diverse other ecosystems that make up the
continent, such as the Pampas and the Chaco (both arid regions that look very
similar to Arizona).
Expedition Tanzania, the
sprawling African area, takes up the majority of the land at the Reid Park Zoo. The trail starts with three very different
African carnivores. Spotted-necked
otters, something of a rarity in American zoos, splash about in their pool,
while meerkats stand sentry in a desert yard next door (I would like to point
out at this time that meerkats, though African, live thousands of miles away
from Tanzania – as do some of the other African animals featured in this
trail. I sometimes get exasperated by
the lackadaisical approach that zoos take towards geography with their
exhibits). Across the path is a habitat
for lions. The lion exhibit, like the
jaguar exhibit on Tropical Trail,
didn’t particularly wow me. It was by no
means a terrible one. I just felt that in terms of space, complexity, and viewing
opportunities, there was the potential to do something better. But perhaps that is something that the zoo is
considering as part of its master plan.
Some of Africa’s largest herbivores can be found here as
well. Giraffes occupy a spacious yard,
equipped with a feeding station. Across
the path, white rhinoceroses share a habitat with tiny Speke’s gazelles, while
Grevy’s zebras and ostriches share a yard next door.
The stars of Expedition
Tanzania are the African elephants, several of which can be seen in a
sprawling, pool-fronted yard. The
elephants of Reid Park are, in their own way, a triumph of the zoo over animal rights
activism (or, you could prefer to view it as, a victory for animal
welfare). In 2006, there was a small but
vocal campaign called "Save Tucson Elephants", which was lobbying the city to
send the zoo’s two elephants to a sanctuary.
Instead, the city, emboldened by public support for the zoo, decided to
double-down on elephants. The result was
a spacious new habitat and a big, beautiful barn, capable of housing a good-sized
herd of elephants, including a magnificent bull. I was given the opportunity to explore the
barn, and while I can’t post any pictures here, I will say that I wish that
Reid Park had followed the lead of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Cleveland MetroparksZoo, and many other facilities in making their new barn at least partially
accessible to the public – I think visitors really do benefit from gaining an
understanding as to how much work goes into keeping zoo elephants happy and
healthy. Back outside, the public area
includes a training wall for the elephants, allowing keepers to safely perform
husbandry demonstrations via protected contact, as well as several cool
interactive educational devices (including a life-sized elephant backside,
which kids show a predictable – if weird - fondness for spanking).
I like to think that this exhibit is a reminder to
government and non-profit administrators that the answer for criticism from zoo
folks isn’t to drop a species or an exhibit just because of public disapproval.
(especially in regards to elephants).
Sometimes, it pays to face your critics and renew your commitment to
your animals. I’m not saying that
phasing a species out of a collection because of welfare concerns is never the
right decision – elephants and marine mammals both require tremendous
commitment in terms of resources and space, and not every facility is capable
of meeting those challenges. Sometimes,
however, it is best to stick with it, and this was one of those cases. The Reid Park Zoo habitat easily ranks as one
of the best elephant exhibits I’ve ever seen, and the improvement for the
elephants is obvious too. In 2014, a
female calf was born here, the first African elephant ever born in Arizona.
We'll continue the review of Reid Park Zoo tomorrow!
The days are getting shorter, the air is getting cooler, and
the summer crowds have petered away. It’s
autumn at the zoo, a lovely time of year to visit, but certainly not one of our
busier seasons. Of course, just because
the turnstile isn’t moving as much doesn’t mean that expenses aren’t continuing
to mount – animals and staff alike need to eat, regardless of the season. For the zoo to thrive, additional revenue
is always needed, and that means looking beyond the usual sources.
October is always good for Halloween events – not only can
we offer trick-or-treating, costume contests, and the like, but it’s also a
great opportunity to highlight snakes, spiders, bats, and other animals that many
visitors are scared of. I don’t know of
a single zoo that doesn’t do something for
Halloween.
In recent years, many zoos have decided to add more
adult-focused autumn-events. What candy
is for children, beer is for the grown-ups.
An increasing number of facilities have autumn beer parties, mostly named
after some variant of Oktoberfest (Croctoberfest? Octobearfest?
Also popular are “Zoo Brew” and “Brew at the Zoo”).
Events like these are a great way to broaden the zoo’s
appeal and attract visitors who might not otherwise come through the gates,
perhaps thinking that the zoo is just for kids or family groups. Once you get them through the gates – and with
a little proper social lubricant – these adult guests may remember just how
much fun a trip to the zoo or aquarium is, especially if there are cool enrichment
and training demonstrations or roving animal ambassadors to catch their
interest.
Some zoos have partnered with local breweries to even come
up with their own animal-themed beers.
These beers can be sold at the breweries and local restaurants as well
as the zoo’s festival, with a portion of the proceedings going either to the
zoo or to support the conservation of the species.
Of course, the only challenge that you have to worry about
with a beer event at the zoo is security.
There is always the risk of some visitors becoming very intoxicated,
either becoming belligerent, posing a health risk to themselves, getting behind
the wheel and causing an accident, or doing something stupid that’s more
zoo-focused, such as, I don’t know, falling (or climbing) into an exhibit. For events such as these, security is of the
utmost importance, as is having clear understandings of what is and isn’t
acceptable and when to cut people off.
Some zoos close the campus to non-event visitors for the event, or keep
the event confined to one portion of the facility just to make it easier to
control.
Several zoos and aquariums already serve beer. I remember being shocked when I saw it for
the first time growing up - I thought it
was a disaster waiting to happen, and that a drunk visitor riding a giraffe
would come barreling by at any minute.
Now, it’s much more common place; even my own zoo does a brisk trade in
beer (I mean… if you’re going to call what they sell “beer”). Like many other aspects of the zoo, from
mixed-species habitats to visitor-animal interaction, there is a chance that
something could go wrong. You just have
to plan for it and prepare for the occasional problem to arise.
Most visitors who come to these events are very
well-mannered and just want to come and have a good time with friends out among
the animals.
Years ago. there was a very bad storm where I lived, which knocked out power to our zoo for three days. The other keepers and I worked on average for 18 hours a day, which was just as well, since we didn't have power at our homes, either, so it wasn't like those were great places to be either. It was a searing hot summer, we had almost no access to water, food was perishing left at right, and it was a toss-up of who was going to die first, the generators... or us.
Oakland Zoo is one of countless entities - nonprofits, businesses, and homes - that is being impacted by the PG&E power shut-off, an attempt to prevent wildfires from destroying the area in the upcoming days. From the article, it appears that they are doing their best to prepare for it, and I'm certainly glad that they got notice. I'm sure it is still going to be a scary moment when the lights (and heat lamps... and filters... and pumps... and anything else not plugged into a generator) goes off.
Best of luck in the coming days.
Keeper Myra Daly attaches extension cords from an external generator to heat lamps crucial for keeping reptiles warm in the Sonoran Desert exhibit at the Oakland Zoo in Oakland, California, on Friday, Oct. 9, 2019.
Being a) interested in reptiles and b) from the eastern United States, I'd heard about bog turtles from an early age. I thought it was so cool that one of the world's rarest turtles was native to my backyard (I mean... not my literal backyard, but you get the idea). I didn't actually see on in the flesh until a few years ago, and I didn't see one on public display at a zoo until this year.
Sure, I lived in an area that bog turtles were native to, and if I had driven a half hour in certain directions and had known where to look, I might have even been able to find one Therein was the problem. I didn't know where to look - and that was partially by design. Biologists and conservationists who study bog turtles - and many other reptiles and amphibians - keep their locations secret.
I once heard a joke that, as soon as a new species of reptile is discovered, the first thing that happens is two Germans buy a plane ticket (or an American or two). Collection for the pet trade (or for food or traditional medicine) is a major cause of decline for many turtle species. As species become rarer, their value increases and the remaining wild individuals become that much more valuable. Some unscrupulous folks even make maps to likely collecting sites to sell to private collectors. Biologists and conservationists need to know where remaining populations are in the wild - but if that information is published or shared (as scientific data traditionally is) they may inadvertently put those populations at risk.
As a zoo professional, I've been invited to visit some habitat sites for some rare, special animals (not bog turtles, it's true, but wood turtles, timber rattlesnakes, and various other herps). I've loved to go and see animals in the field and take pictures, including a selfie or two. I don't share those pictures on facebook, however, and I certainly wouldn't share the location of those sites.
I'm proud to have been able to experience these animals in their natural habitat, but betraying those same animals to illegal collectors would be a poor payback.
Range: Eastern
United States, from western Massachusetts to northeastern Georgia is a highly
discontinuous range, generally described as a larger northern population
(Massachusetts through Maryland) and southern population (Virginia through
Georgia)
Habitat: Shallow,
spring-fed upland wetlands with muddy or silt-covered bottoms and lots of
grasses and sedges, open and unshaded conditions
Reproduction: Breed in spring. Courtship
consists of male budging and biting the female, then mounting her and thumping
her shell with his plastron. Females
nest from May to July, most eggs are laid in June. Nest on higher, dryer ground (but sometimes
in elevated tussocks in the middle of the bog).
Single clutch laid per year of 1-6 elongated white eggs (up to 3
centimeters long) with pliable shells. Multiple clutches per year have been reported
in captivity. Incubate 45-65 days. Hatchlings are 2-3 centimeters long when they
hatch, mature at 4-10 years old.
Social Grouping: Mildly territorial, may chase other turtles out of small areas around themselves. May share hibernation sites.
Lifespan: 40 Years
Conservation Status:IUCN Critically Endangered, CITES Appendix I, US Endangered Species Act - Threatened
Smallest North American turtle and one of the smallest in the world.Adult carapace length 7.9-11/4 centimeters.Adult weight 110 grams
Carapace is dark brown or black, may be marked with some light radiating lines or blotches.Skin is typically dark brown with variable red or yellow spots or streaks.Large reddish-orange or yellow blotch behind each tympanum, sometimes merging into a continuous band.Plastron is brown or black with light yellow blotches.Carapace often has rough rings and ridges on the scutes, though they may be worn smooth with age and wear
Genus name comes from the Greek for “Carved
Turtle.”Species name honors the
Reverend Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg, an 18th century
botanist from Pennsylvania who found the type specimen in his mill pond.
Male turtle has concave plastron and longer,
thicker tail, vent is posterior to rear edge of carapace when tail is
extended.Female has flat plastron,
thinner and shorter tail.Males also
tend to be slightly larger than females
Primarily active by day, may do some activities
such as nesting at night.Spend cool
days basking, hot days hiding in the vegetation.In winter, hibernate in burrows in the mud or
vegetation.May use same hibernation
site for several years in a row
Very small size makes even the adults of this
species vulnerable to many predators, including raccoons, skunks, foxes,
snapping turtles, and wading birds, which will also prey on eggs and hatchlings.The small shell offers relatively little
protection.Primary defense is to dive
into soft mud and swim through it
Despite highly fragmented range, no geographic
subspecies have been identified.It is
believed that the northern and southern populations became isolated from one
another due to habitat loss resulting from farming in Virginia’s Shenandoah
Valley during the American Civil War
In 2003, listed by the Turtle Conservation Fund
as one of the 25 most endangered turtle species in the world.Habitat loss and fragmentation is the main
threat to the survival of the species, both due to draining of wetlands as well
as pollution and invasive plant species.Both fire and cattle grazing can be beneficial for these turtles as they
help maintain open habitats.Illegal
collection for the pet trade is an additional threat.May be hit by cars when crossing roads.Increased difficulty in moving between
different populations can lead to loss of genetic diversity
A suitable follow-up to this week's tomfoolery. Personally, I thin it would have been funnier if the zookeeper had pointed to a "Don't Cross the Fence" sign, then tacked up the "Do Not Feed" afterwards. Thankfully, no one, human or animal, was harmed at the Bronx Zoo during the last incident, but that doesn't mean the next idiot will be as lucky. Please respect barriers at zoos and aquariums. They exist for a reason.
The California condor... the Kihansi spray toad... the Arabian oryx... the red wolf... and now... the Partula snail! Two tiny new species have joined the roster of animals that have been driven to extinction in the wild, only to be saved in zoos, bred in sufficient numbers, and reestablished in the wild. The Zoological Society of London, in partnership with others zoos, joined the government of French Polynesia to restore Partula rosea and Partula varia back to the wild.
Over a quarter-century ago, these pea-sized mollusks were wiped out by an invasive predatory snail species; Jeffrey Bonner's Sailing with Noah does a great job of recapping the story for anyone interested. Making the islands safe again for these little guys helps restore the natural balance of Polynesia. It also restores a part of the local Huahine culture; local people traditionally used the shells of the snails for jewelry, including crowns (though I would hope they are laying off that while the snails build their numbers back up).
What's happening with the Partula snails is a great reminder that zoos are one of the biggest forces for conservation in the world, and that their efforts aren't just limited to big, charismatic mammals.
Sometimes, the smallest of species require just as much help as the largest.
I was giving a tour of my zoo to a visiting colleague the other day, one who had never visited my zoo before. Midway through the tour, I realized something peculiar. I was spending about a third of my time talking about what used to be where... and another third talking about what was supposed to be where, according to scraped master plans.
Sometimes, both versions of the zoo - the past and the future-that-never-was - seem just as real to me as the zoo that I actually walk through.
When I started this blog years back, I knew that I was going to have to share a lot of zoo history - there are so many fascinating anecdotes from the history of zoos, going back to antiquity. A lot of my favorite history, however, is the relatively mundane. What exhibits were where. What species the zoo used to be in the collection. How they were cared for. How they were exhibited. I love going through old daily reports, old inventories, old zoo maps... they all help me recapture a zoo that used to be.
It's equally as fun for me to look at old master plans and see what visions people used to have for their zoos... especially before the cold, hard, reality of budgets settled over them. One zoo director I know proposed building a geodesic dome over his entire campus. It was not a small zoo. It reminds me of the doodles that I used to draw, mapping out of my dream zoos. Those were likewise designed without much respect for budgets. Or reality, for that matter.
There's a lot that you can learn about zoos by reading about their pasts. You can glean lots of interesting data on husbandry, breeding successes and failures, offspring growth and development, and social interactions. You can learn about past success and how to replicate it, and failures and how to not replicate those.
Mostly, you can have access to a great, meandering story, filled with some of the best characters of all - the animals and the people who take care of them.
Meanwhile, at the Bronx Zoo on this lovely fall day...
Now, from the perspective of the video (and from what I remember of the lion habitat at the Bronx), it looks like there is still a moat between the woman and the lion. At least, that's what it looks like. Regardless, this is a stupid, dangerous, and illegal thing to do that could have had very serious - potentially lethal - ramifications for her, the lion, or both of them. What if she had fallen into the moat? There would be nothing stopping the lion from going down after her - and it would be a lot harder for zoo staff to effect a rescue.
I'm making allowances her for the fact that this woman might be mentally ill or something, but if that's the case, bystanders should have done something, like try to restrain her, or at least run and notify zoo staff so the lions could be recalled to a secure area. Instead, people filmed and this went viral... which was almost certainly the point of this idiotic exercise.
I've heard of some zoos having alarm systems installed in their visitor guardrails to notify them if visitors cross. I've also heard of some rigorously pressing criminal charges against anyone who enters exhibits. I think both are great ideas. Most zoos hold animal escape drills; now many have also begun implementing visitor-in-enclosure drills. We've already seen how this sort of occurrence can end, both in cases where visitors have entered enclosures willingly and accidentally.
Accidents happen, and we can do our best to prevent them by being mindful and building secure barriers. Idiocy is a lot harder to protect against. As they say, nothing is fool-proof to the well-trained fool...
Edit: The women in question has been identified, and a warrant put out for her arrest. Hopefully, this will serve as a deterrent for future acts of stupidity
