From the News: Drive Through the San Antonio Zoo

San Antonio Zoo offers 'one of a kind' drive-thru experience as Texas prepares to emerge from coronavirus quarantine

Public Health Announcement

Just a healthy reminder out there for everyone - don't drink Chlorox.  Be safe!

Book Review: Born Free - A Lioness of Two Worlds

"Elsa was now twenty-seven months old, almost full-grown.  We had always known that we could not keep her free indefinitely at Isiolo.  Our original idea had been to send her to join her sisters at the Rotterdam Zoo... But now she had taken her future into her own paws, and her latest developments were decisive in altering our plans for her... To release Elsa back to the wild would be an experiment well worth trying."

The life of Joy Adamson changed forever on the day that her husband, George, shot a lioness in northern Kenya.  There was nothing too unusual about that.  George Adamson was a senior game warden, and one of his myriad responsibilities was to track down and destroy lions which were proving dangerous to Kenya's human inhabitants, either as cattle-killers or man-eaters.  After dispatching this particular lioness, however, Adamson soon found three newly-orphaned female cubs.  These he promptly brought home to his wife, who took to hand-rearing them.

The two larger of the cubs were eventually sent to the Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands, where they lived fairly conventional lives.  The third and smaller of the cubs, the one who had most endeared herself to the Adamsons, they decided to keep for a little longer.  Her name was Elsa.

Born Free is the story of Elsa's unusual life with the Adamsons, traveling across the wilderness of northern Kenya in their company and undertaking a series of adventures, from chasing poachers to meeting elephants and rhinos to swimming in the Indian Ocean.  Any story of a person living with a full-grown lioness is bound to be unusual in itself, but what makes Elsa's story extra unusual is what happened next.  Coming to terms with the reality that they couldn't keep her forever, they decided to do what at the time many considered to be impossible - to release her into the wild.

There are several cases of zoos and aquariums releasing animals back into the wild, but nothing quite like Elsa.  She was hand-reared, had almost no experience with other lions (apart from her own sisters, parted at an early age), and had never made her own kill.  With no parents or pride to teach her how to interact with other lions or how to hunt, preparing her for life in the wild was a daunting challenge, and the Adamsons encountered more than a few setbacks in their efforts.  Eventually, they are met with success - Elsa lives a wild life in the company of wild lions.

Born Free has also been dramatized and turned into a movie (best known, perhaps, for its irritatingly sappy theme song), which better introduced Elsa to popular audiences. 

Ironically, despite the title, I consider Elsa's story to be an asset for zoos and aquariums.  It demonstrates that animals reared under human care (and Elsa might as well have been born in a zoo - before her adoption by the Adamsons, she and her sisters had never even left their den or been in "the wild") can be successfully reintroduced in the wild, live, hunt, and breed.  If a hand-reared pet lion (a social animal that receives a lot of teaching from a parent prior to independence) can be released, then there is hope for other behaviorally-complex species, especially if they are set up for success from birth with their eventual reintroduction being the consistent goal. 

I've sometimes heard zoo-critics say that breeding programs are a waste of time because many animals wouldn't be able to thrive in the wild.  My argument would be, if Elsa can do it, almost anyone can do it.

Born Free: A Lioness of Two Worlds at Amazon.com

Happy Birthday WCS

Today marks the 125th Anniversary of the founding of the New York Zoological Society, popularly known as the Bronx Zoo.  In that century-and-a-quarter, the Society has grown into so much more.  Not only does it manage four other facilities - Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and New York Aquarium - it also operates a network of conservation programs around the globe, working to protect and restore wildlife populations in their natural habitat.

WCS has perhaps the most colorful history of any American zoo, full of history-making firsts and pioneering new ideas.  Its staff has featured many luminaries of the zoo and conservation world, from William Hornaday, William Beebe, and Raymond Ditmars over a century ago to legendary field biologists such as George Schaller in modern times.

This isn't the way I'm sure WCS wishes they were celebrating such a milestone, with gates shuttered and daunting economic challenges - but they've survived the Great Depression, September 11th, and Two World Wars.  I'm sure they'll make it through this and continue to thrive as a leading light for American zookeepers and conservationists. 

Shared Thoughts - Katie W.

I've been seeing a few - not a lot, but enough to irk me - posts, memes, etc comparing life in quarantine to life as a zoo animal, with the not-so-subtle hint being that if we don't like being in quarantine, animals must be unhappy in zoos.  All I can say is, right now, I wish we were lucky enough to be treated like zoo animals...

The following is a post by a zookeeper that sums up my feelings on the subject.  It was shared on a few zookeeping groups, but I removed all of her last name except her initial and did not feature photos that included her face.

It makes me happy that so many keepers and zoo professionals are speaking up to defend not their careers, but their callings.  I'm only sorry that we keep on having to distract ourselves from the important work of caring for animals to do so.

Earth Day Reflection

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Earth Day.  Earth Day, it's worth remembering, was not started to celebrate the planet - it was started to protest what seemed like its imminent demise.  Air and water pollution was far worse in the 1970's US than it is in the 2020's US, and there was no Endangered Species Act, no CITES, not much in the way of real legislation to protect wildlife.  Earth Day was a call to arms, and in some ways, it was a successful one.  Progress has been made on many fronts.

That's no excuse to sit on our collective laurels.

The current situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has been a hard one, and we're still not out of the woods yet.  Many of us, I'm sure, are very much looking forward to a return to normal.  Still, I wonder if there are a few lessons that we can take away from this period that we may carry over to our post-coronavirus society.

For one thing, this whole "Work from Home" concept - obviously not a solution for many people, including police, firefighters, medical staff, and zookeepers.  Still, a decent percentage of the population has been able to work from home.  Might we carry that over, at least to a degree?   Right now, one of the major forces threatening the environment is climate change, which is caused in part by emissions from vehicles.  More people working from home (at least for a few days a week)  means fewer vehicles on the road - less pollution, less fossil fuel usage, and better traffic for those of who do need to travel.

I'm hopeful that the pressure that this pandemic has placed on the wildlife trade will stay in place.  If governments don't have the will to protect endangered species for the animals' sake, perhaps they will remember this (and SARS... and Ebola... and a host of other zoonotic diseases) as being cause enough to take a hard line against wildlife trafficking. 

Along those lines, It would also be great if this would extend our appreciation for the outdoors.  Maybe after two months of this (if we're lucky), everyone will be screened-out and be ready to explore the outdoors again.  It would be nice to think that a society that's been cooped inside for so long will be ready to newly appreciate the natural world - and want to protect it.

Species Fact Profile: Giant Otter (Pteronura brasiliensis)

Giant Otter

Pteronura brasiliensis (Gmelin, 1788)

Range: Northern and Central South America (Amazon, Orinoco, and La Plata River Systems)
Habitat: Slow-Moving Freshwater Rivers, Lakes, Canals, Wetlands
Diet: Fish (especially catfish and perch), Crustaceans, Small Reptiles
Social Grouping: Family groups of 5-8 (up to 20 reported), consisting of a monogamous pair and their offspring.  Territories of about 12 square kilometers
Reproduction: May breed year-round, but primarily spring and early summer.  1-5 pups are born after 65-70 day gestation period; if the litter does not survive, females may have a second litter later in the year.  Cubs are born blind and helpless; eyes open at one month, at which point they begin to follow their parents out of their den.  Mature at 2 years old
Lifespan: 8-10 Years (Wild), 15-17 Years (Zoo)
Conservation Status: IUCN Endangered, CITES Appendix I, USFWS Endangered

• Longest of the world's otter species (the sea otter is more compact and heavier), measuring 1.5-1.8 meters long and weighing 22-32 kilograms; females are slightly smaller.  There are historical records of animals over 2.4 meters long, which may be an exaggeration or may be an indication that the species grew larger before hunting from humans favored smaller animals
• Males and females look alike, with fur various shades of brown (from fawn to reddish to dark), often with an irregularly-shaped cream or white patch on the throat and chest and some white speckling on the face.  When meeting, otters rear up, displaying their throats, possibly using these markings to help recognize one another
• Well-adapted to aquatic life - the feet are heavily webbed, the tail is flattened with a thick, muscular base for paddling, and the nostrils and ears may be closed to keep out water when diving
• Highly social and very vocal, with over twenty reported vocalizations, including a bark for danger, a growl for aggression, a squeak for attention, and a coo for reassuring.  Vocalizations differ from group to group.  Groups may violently defend their territory from outsiders
• Primarily fish alone, but will sometimes work together to capture large prey
• No significant natural predators, but may be taken by jaguar, puma, or large caiman or anaconda (with the otters themselves preying on smaller caiman or anaconda)
• Latin name translates to "Wing Tail of Brazil," referencing their broad, flat tails
• Historically, these otters were heavily hunted for their fur, which is waterproof and luxurious.  They are active by day and very conspicuous, which made them easy to hunt.  Hunting was banned in the 1970s
• Today the major threat is loss and degradation of habitat, as well as depletion of food sources through overfishing.  Sometimes killed by fishermen who view them as a nuisance or competition for fish; otters may also be accidentally caught in fishing nets and drown.  Pups are sometimes illegally taken to be sold as pets.  Also susceptible to diseases, such as canine parvovirus.
• Appear in many native myths and folktales, often in the role of "water people" or allies to humans.  Some myths suggest that humans and giant otters used to fish cooperatively, as still occurs in other parts of the world

Zookeeper's Journal: As a zoo-buff growing up, I viewed the giant otter with the same fascination as giant pandas, Komodo dragons, Sumatran rhinos, and koalas.  At the time, all were near-mythic animals that could only be seen in a single US zoo.  Philadelphia Zoo was the facility that laid claim to America's only giant otters and it was there that I first saw them.  Philly had the distinction of having bred the species, which was no small task - early books that I'd read on otters dismissed the possibility of the species ever being bred - it was hard enough to keep them alive and healthy.  Today, things have changed dramatically.  I won't call these guys plentiful, but I've seen them in half-a-dozen US zoos since my first encounter with them in Philadelphia as a kid, and while I've never worked with them as a keeper, I have gone behind-the-scenes with them and hand-fed them.  For any keeper who's spent time working North American river otters, the giants are incredible up close, so deserving of their Spanish name, Lobo de Rio - River Wolf.  I wouldn't like to share space with them directly - I've heard at least report of a keeper from a South American facility being killed by one.  Looking one of these man-sized weasels in the eye, I can imagine it.

A Sloth's Tour at Texas State Aquarium

It's like there's a point where we're all just going, "Heck, no visitors again?  Let's just keep showing the animals to other animals."  Be safe everybody!

Livestream Calendar

Wrapping up another week of zoo and aquarium closures here... to help break the monotony, AZA has launched a calendar of what zoos are doing live feeds with their animals.  It's an incomplete list as a lot of things are being planned spur-of-the-moment, but it's a decent place to start looking!  Keep your eye on the Facebook/Twitter/Instagram of your local zoo or aquarium for more!

Livestreams Calendar

Gizmo the opossum takes in the sights of the Red Sea Tunnel at the Virginia Aquarium while the facility's closed during the coronavirus pandemic.(Virginia Aquarium)

A Review Hiatus

COVID-19 has altered the travel plans of many people, whether for business or pleasure.  This spring I had planned a trip to visit a new round of zoos, partially for work, partially for fun, but with the added perk being that I would have new facilities to review for the blog.  Unfortunately, with the trip cancelled... I'm all out of zoos.  I've visited plenty of zoos which I have not reviewed yet, including some absolutely great ones (Fort Worth, Nashville, Rosamond Gifford) but it's been so long since I've been to them that they'd be woefully out of date.  I may spend the slow season updating a few of the older reviews to add more detail and pictures.  Be safe everyone!

Scrub Your Paws

One afternoon a few years (and a few zoos) back, I entered the break room, ready to clock out, when I heard a bunch of my co-workers gossiping.  They were talking about one of our teenage volunteers, who had been working in the reptile house (part of my usual section) over my last day off.  "And can you believe it," gasped one of the farmyard keepers, who had been covering for me that day, "she just reached in and picked up the snake poop... with her bare hands!"  

"Oh my God, who does that, where did she even get that idea?" scoffed a primate keeper.

On the other end of the room, I just tried to act natural and avoid eye contact.

She learned from me.  It was how I cleaned many of the reptile exhibits.  For some of them, it seemed like the only way to make sure you got every urate, every scrap of shed skin, and in the case of the herbivores, every piece of dried lettuce.  It never bothered me.  I'd cleaned worse things bare-handed.  Once, frustrated by how my raking was tearing up the grass in a wallaby exhibit, I just walked through with a bucket and picked up every piece of poop by hand.

Do you ever forget to wash your hands before you eat?  I don't.  I've become a compulsive hand-washer over the years.  Sometimes, I wash my hands, start to walk away, and then turn around and wash again because I feel like I didn't get it right.  Sometimes, I know they're clean, but I just can't get a smell out, so I wash again. 



I wash hands between exhibits to reduce the risk of germ transmission between exhibits.  I wash hands after handling an animal for the same reason.  I wash hands - thoroughly - before eating (and have regretfully missed out on some break room treats because I wasn't able to wash my hands before getting to them).  I was hands before prepping animal diets (and afterwords, if meat or fish are involved).  I wash hands after going to the bathroom.  Heck, I wash hands before going to the bathroom.

Since I know my hands will be clean before I do anything that might put me at risk, I don't mind using them as tools and getting them dirty between washes.

The hand-washing fascination that has sprung up in our COVID-19 world has been one of the more satisfactory changes that society has seen in recent weeks (and heaven knows that there have been few enough of those).  So, and I just want to put this out here for everyone, you don't have to be in the middle of global pandemic to develop a strong fondness for washing your hands.

Zoo History: A New Deal at the Zoo

The public health fears stirred up by the Coronavirus pandemic have been shadowed by considerable economic anxiety.  Unless you are Amazon, Ubereats, Purell, or Lysol, your business (or, in our cases, nonprofits) are probably bleeding money right now.  Job loss is shooting through the roof.  Plenty of comparisons have been made to one of the darkest of times in American economic history, the Great Depression.

Which is a little ironic, really.  The Great Depression actually lead to a pretty great time for zoos.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt won the White House in 1932, he promised a "New Deal" for impoverish Americans.  A big part of that New Deal involved getting people back to work.  Since many of those who found themselves recently unemployed were manual laborers, a job type that was much more common back then then it is today, it made sense to harness their energies into a series of public building projects.  Collectively known as the Works Progress Administration, this massive government project sought to hire the unemployed - on the federal dime - and put them to work on projects that would be for the public good.

American zoos were among the greatest beneficiaries of FDR's vision.  Soon, virtually every major American zoo was the site of bustling construction projects.  In some cases, entirely new zoos were born out of the Depression, and others were completely redone.  The dilapidated menagerie in New York's Central Park was torn down and replaced with an entirely new zoo, one which lasted for another fifty years before it was again closed, renovated, and reopened in its current form.  Other zoo transformations were less dramatic, but still very impressive.  Many of the National Zoo's current exhibit buildings, including its Elephant House (still in use today) were built during this era, as were the Small Mammal House and Bird House.   The latter is currently shuttered for a massive renovation, but one which will still preserve its shell, built during the Depression.  Toledo, Pittsburgh, and Seattle were among the other zoos which saw massive new construction at this time.  Little Rock, Arkansas, basically got a brand new zoo out of the deal.

Nor was the work limited to zoos and aquariums.  Construction and improvement took place at many parks, museums, civic buildings, and universities.  It provided a chance for America to remake itself in a better image of itself.

Toledo Zoo's Aviary, built by the W.P.A. during the New Deal

It's worth remembering that, prior to the 1930's, most American zoos were little more than animal dumps.  With a few exceptions, such as Philadelphia Zoo and the Bronx Zoo, they were clapped-together collections of animals in ramshackle enclosures, kept in poor conditions.  The New Deal, in many ways, changed everything.  New, customized enclosures were built that provided stable, secure homes.  An increase in the number of new modern buildings allowed zoos to keep species that they had not been able to before; the Depression really was the birth of professional reptile keeping in most US zoos, as this is when the reptile houses were built.  Some zoos, such as Denver, even began to experiment with natural exhibits for the first time.

Most zoos were public, municipally-run attractions at this time, and many were still free of charge to enter.  Those that did charge admission were relatively cheap.  They provided a welcome sanctuary from the struggles and misery of the Depression and gave people a chance to escape from their worries for a little while.

There are parallels between the Depression and now... but not really very many.  Unlike the Depression, no one can visit their zoos or aquariums right now due to health concerns rather than economic ones.  There also isn't likely to be a surge of new construction that we're going to see after this.  During the 2009 financial crisis, the resulting stimulus package specifically mentioned zoos (alongside golf courses and casinos) as not being eligible for stimulus funds, which was a short-sighted decision in my opinion.  Zoos and aquariums have been active at soliciting funds to help hold them over until this ends, but there has been a lot of belt tightening, and while I am sure that animal care standards will be maintained, this is probably going to put a dent in exhibit construction and expansion for many facilities.

There are a lot of tragedies associated with the current situation, the greatest of which obviously being the loss of lives.  Still, if there's one thing I've seen, it's been the power of zoos and aquariums to share their animals with people in a way that comforts the upset and cheers the discouraged.

Hopefully this current scare will be over before too much longer, and we can welcome visitors back soon.  When you do take your next visit, keep an eye out for any particularly old buildings, which may or may not have some carvings on them.  You might just see the initials "W.P.A."

Here Comes the Easter... Bilby?

Happy Easter, to those of you who celebrate it!  Even many of those of you who don't probably take a nod towards the more secular-side of the holiday, perhaps by decorating Easter eggs, or eating chocolates and Peeps.  It's almost certain that rabbits are involved in this mix somewhere.

Rabbits were a part of Easter before it even was Easter - they are a symbol of the pre-Christian religious celebrations of the spring.  Why rabbits, instead of, say, badgers or hedgehogs?  Because spring is the time of rebirth, and few animals make a better poster-species for fertility than rabbits.

Of course, that fertility can be a problem, especially if you DON'T want lots of rabbits breeding everywhere... say, if you are Australia, and rabbits are an invasive species which is threatening the survival of your native wildlife by eating them out of house and home.

Photo credit: Save the Bilby Fund

Among those species that are threatened by rabbits (as well as introduced predators in the form of foxes and house cats) is the bilby, an adorable little marsupial which, coincidentally, has rabbit ears (unless we are to assume that rabbits have bilby ears).  Outside of its native Australia, the bilby is poorly known.  Inside of Australia, it's rapidly fading into history.

10 reasons Australians should celebrate bilbies, not bunnies, this Easter

In an effort to raise awareness and money for saving these little fellows, the Save the Bilby Fund has launched an ambitious PR campaign - to dethrone the Easter Bunny and replace it with the Easter Bilby.  Proceeds from each chocolate bilby go towards native species conservation efforts, as well as raising awareness about the plight of the endangered marsupials.

Does the bilby really have any chance of replacing the bunny as an icon of Easter.  No, let's be honest.  That doesn't mean this quest is quixotic, though.  Instead, it stands to benefit from possibly redirecting a portion of the vast sums of money that are sent on Easter chocolates towards conservation, while raising the profile of a little-known, little-loved species in need of help.  So far, it does seem to be gaining some traction.

Who knows what could be next.  Cadbury Platypus Cream Eggs?

A Tiger Keeper's Take

I really didn't want to have yet another post devoted to Joe Exotic, Tiger King, and that entire freak show.  Thankfully, someone else wrote one.  Besides, at this point it comes down to either gawking at the train-wreck or contemplating the unfolding apocalypse, so the least I can do is alternate between the two.

The following article was written by zookeeper Carolyn Mueller Kelly, describing her feelings about the hit Netflix docuseries.  The words are all hers, but I couldn't agree more.

I'm a Real Tiger Keeper.  Here's What Disturbed Me About 'Tiger King'

Photo Credit: Megan Turner

The Split Shift

Despite the sensationalism from folks about the recent COVID-19 tiger case in New York, we're not seeing too much of a direct impact of the virus on zoo animals (knock on wood).  The biggest concern from the profession is making sure that the animals aren't negatively impacted by staffing issues.  Many zoos and aquariums are being forced to furlough employees, though so far permanent animal caretakers (as opposed to seasonal or part-time staff in other departments) are still coming in and getting paid.  All of this could change, of course, depending on how things progress.

A zoo's nightmare, of course (well, one of them... we are all pretty friggin' neurotic) is that the virus would sweep through the staff and lay them all low which, in addition to the obviously being bad for health and safety of the staff, would also mean fewer people to care for the animals.  The thinner the staff, the greater the risk of mistakes, be it missing a health problem or accidentally causing an escape.

Zoos and aquariums are working hard to prevent this from happening.  One method has been to send away those who can be - if you can work from home (and even if you never thought you could before), well, now's your chance.  Another is to clean, obsessively, every door handle, keyboard, and other frequently touched object.  Another is to split the staff.

Many zoos and aquariums are now dividing their staffs in half, having an "A" team that works three days one week while "B" team covers the other four; then "A" team is on for four days and "B" for three, and so on.  There is no overlap between the teams.  That way, if someone in "A" gets the virus and spreads it to their colleagues, at least "B" team is (theoretically) safe.

Of course, if "A" team is out of action, then that just leaves team "B" to cover all seven days a week...

These have been - and will continue to be - a brutal few weeks for everyone.  Hopefully this is going to turn soon and we can all get back to seeing all of our coworkers again... even some I never thought I'd miss.

Species Fact Profile: Lowland Anoa (Bubalus depressicornis)

Lowland Anoa

Bubalus depressicornis (H. Smith, 1827)

Range: Northern Sulawesi (Indonesia)
Habitat: Undisturbed lowland rainforest and wetland, below 1000 meters
Diet: Aquatic plants, ferns, grasses, saplings, fallen fruit
Social Grouping: Solitary, sometimes gather in small herds ( <5)
Reproduction:  Breed year round in captivity, but unknown if reproduction is seasonal in the wild.  Single calf (twins are possible) born after a gestation period of 275-315 days.  Calf weaned at 6-9 months.  Sexually mature at 2 years old
Lifespan: 20-30 Years (Zoo), Unknown in Wild
Conservation Status: IUCN Endangered, CITES Appendix I, USFWS Endangered

·  Head and body length 180 centimeters.  Tail length 40 centimeters.  Stand 95-110 centimeters at the shoulders.  Weigh 200-300 kilograms. 
·     Horns are 35-50 centimeters long, triangular in section and flat and wrinkled, growing straight backwards from the forehead.  They tend to lie relatively flush against the back of the head, possibly to keep them from becoming entangled in overhanging vines.
·    Limbs are short, body is stocky.  Males tend to have thicker necks than females and their horns tend to be slightly longer
·   Calves are reddish-brown when born with dark brown legs and a black dorsal line; fur turns darker with age, turning slate-gray at 3-4 years old in both sexes (some adult females may be more brown than black).  White crescent-shaped throat bib.  Some white markings may be present above the hooves, on the inner lower forelegs, or in the ears.
·  Frequent saltlicks.  If they cannot find saltlicks, they may drink seawater
·   Largest land animal on Sulawesi, adults have no significant predators apart from humans.  Only significant predators of calves are the pythons and possibly civets
·  Not very agile in the forest.  Primary method of locomotion is a slow trot, occasionally with a clumsy leap.  Good swimmers, have been observed swimming long distances to offshore islands
·   Males are territorial, marking their territory by scratching at trees with their horns and pawing up the soil after urinating or defecating.  Particularly unsociable for a cattle species, in the wild as in zoos.  Captives have been known to kill one another if kept in groups or to act aggressively towards humans.  
·   Local superstition maintains that anoa will come out of the forest at night to impale domestic cattle with their horns, earning them the nickname “demon of the forest.”  No evidence of this occurring, though would be in keeping with the territorial nature
·    Elusive and poorly studied in the wild.  Seem to be more active during the night, spending the day hiding in dense vegetation, though this could be a response to human disturbance.  Wallow in mud to keep cool.
·   Has a closely-related sister-species, the mountain anoa, Bubalus quarlesi (“anoa” is the Celebes world for “buffalo”).  It was debated for a while whether they might be one species – both are found only on Sulawesi and both in small populations.  DNA analysis has shown that they are two separate species, though some interbreeding does occur.  They appear to be segregated by habitat preference. 

·     ·    Population has declined due to hunting (mostly for meat, which local superstition holds will give the powers of the anoa to the consumer, but also for skulls and horns, which are used in traditional medicine), as well as habitat loss for logging and agricultural development.  The more habitat loss occurs, the more exposed the remaining anoa are to hunters.  Also threatened by disease transmission from domestic cattle.  Hunted with snares (often set primarily for wild pigs), spears, or with dogs.  Skulls and horns are also sold to tourists to the island as souvenirs 

COVID-19 at the Bronx Zoo

After days of circulating rumors, yesterday it was officially announced the cases of COVID-19 had been diagnosed in big cats at the Bronx Zoo.  The impacted animals, which had displayed some symptoms similar to humans, are expected to recover completely.  Zoos across the world are responding to this new information by modifying their animal care practices to reduce the risk of exposure to zoo animals.  The official statement for the USDA is in the link below.

USDA Statement on the Confirmation of COVID-19 in a Tiger in New York

Two major takeaways from this.  First, there have been a lot of people screeching on social media about how a tiger got tested when so many people haven't.  The Bronx Zoo put out a statement that clarified that the test was a different one than humans use, was processed by different medical professionals, and in no way competed with humans for tests or treatment .  In other words, calm down.  The zoo is responsible for the welfare of the animals in their care - the City, State, and Federal government aren't responsible for them, it's up to the zoo to make sure that their health is being safeguarded.  It is not their fault that testing rates for Americans has been so regrettably low.

Secondly, please, please, please do not take this as an invitation to panic and abandon pets for fear that you'll get the virus from them.  Many people are immediately making the connection between big cats and small cats here, but there is no reason to fear your pet.  Besides, we've all been cooped up together for days anyway.  If one of you has it, both of you already have it.

On a grim, ironic note, you know who else was just diagnosed positive?  Joe Exotic...  and yes, there have been a lot of "Blame Carole Baskin" memes floating around.

The Great Divide

The statement made by AZA CEO Dan Ashe about the Netflix docuseries Tiger King was a necessary one.  It did, however, strike a little bit of a nerve within some corners of the zoo community.   It highlights the difference between AZA and non-AZA zoos and aquariums, and offers a somewhat simplistic answer.  One is good, we are told, and one is bad.

Few things are truly simple.  Accreditation is one them.

For starters, it's worth pointing out that being a member of AZA can be expensive.  That expensive is tailored to the size of the facility, but the price tag can still be hefty.  There are also many requirements that are not directly related to animal care or welfare, but branch out into every aspect of the zoo.  At one small facility where I worked, the AZA inspection team critiqued the size of our parking lot, for Pete's sake.  Animal people by nature tend to be a fractious lot, each convinced that they and only they know what they are doing (Pittsburgh's decision to leave AZA was motivated by a dispute over how it manages its elephant program).  It's a joke that I've heard that if you put ten zookeepers in a room, the only thing you will be able to get nine of them to agree on is that the tenth one is doing something wrong.

Some keepers are suspicious that AZA is too cozy with animal right's groups, such as PETA and HSUS.  It's true that there have been collaborations in the past, part of what Ashe calls his "Politics of Addition."  Carole Baskin's avowedly anti-zoo Big Cat Rescue, depicted prominently in Tiger King, applied for AZA membership but was rejected years ago.  This has led some keepers to call for an exodus from AZA and a clean start elsewhere.

The call doesn't seem to be getting traction.  Almost every zoo I know of that's left AZA in recent years - willingly or otherwise - is trying to get back in.  Even Pittsburgh, the original rebel, is facing increasing pressure from its community to rejoin the fold - especially since its lease with the city specifically requires it to have AZA accreditation, a point that had been overlooked for the past few years.

I still maintain that there are many good zoos who are not AZA members.  Some participate in Species Survival Plans and are vital to the sustainability of animal populations, which Ashe would do well to not ignore.  Some could be coaxed into joining.  Some have stubbornly insisted on their independence - and that's fine.  We can all still work together for conservation and animal welfare.

Ultimately, I do think, despite some flaws, that AZA is the best thing, the most active force for good that the zoo community has.  Only within its framework do we have the managed breeding programs for keeping sustainable populations of endangered species.  It has the power to speak with one voice at the federal level, to help steer legislation, to work with government and private entities, and to coordinate conservation programs (the new signature SAFE programs).

Like any of its member institutions, AZA isn't perfect, but it is the best we have right now.  We should be working to make it better.

AZA Response to "Tiger King"

The following is a statement by AZA's CEO Dan Ashe, made as a contribution to the public discourse surrounding the hit Netflix series Tiger King.  I think it fairly accurately sums up my feelings about the Joe Exotic saga and how it relates - or doesn't relate - to professionally managed zoos and aquariums. 

If I could have made an edit, I would have asked Mr. Ashe to acknowledge that AZA's managed breeding programs do rely, in many cases, on the support and participation of non-accredited facilities.  Some of them may be former member institutions which have left AZA for one reason or another, such as Pittsburgh Zoo.  Others may be private facilities which have developed consider expertise working with wildlife, such as Sylvan Heights Bird Park.  There are some non-AZA facilities which meet or exceed the standards set by AZA in terms of animal welfare, and we should be willing to acknowledge them.

Also, because I know some zoo critics would bring it up, I wish he had addressed the role of AZA's ambassador animals, and how a cheetah trained as a program animal, like Kris at the Cincinnati Zoo, differs from the cubs produced in the puppy mill-like depths of roadside zoos.  Unlike Joe's animals, AZA animal ambassadors are given proper socialization and the promise of full-life care, as well as handling in a manner that promotes the safety and well-being of humans and animals.  They are not discarded once they are too big to safely allow to snuggle with visitors.

And now, Dan Ashe...

"Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, a Netflix documentary series gaining wide viewership during this time of social distancing and increased online streaming, shines a light on the cruel, abusive trade and mistreatment of wild animals in the United States. 

People care deeply for animals and nature—We know that. It’s why nearly 200 million visit AZA member facilities each year. But Tiger King displays a malignancy that we must recognize and address. 

Private ownership of tigers and other big cats, chimpanzees and other primates, and a wide range of other “exotic” animals as vanity pets or for commercial exploitation in poorly run roadside zoos is a serious animal welfare problem and poses real dangers to both people and animals. In some cases, private ownership even increases the risk of a species’ extinction.  

Charismatic species like tigers are ruthlessly exploited for profit by unscrupulous people with damaging consequences.  When young and still pliable, these animals are taken from their mothers and used in paid photo opportunities. When they outgrow their value as photo props, they face a future of abusive mistreatment.

Tigers, threatened by poaching and habitat loss in the wild, are inbred to produce cubs with a recessive mutant gene—the result being the famous white tigers. But like any inbred animal, they can suffer serious congenital defects that require lifetime care—care that is often unavailable or denied by the unqualified people running these travesties. 

In 2009, Travis the chimpanzee was killed by police after nearly killing his owner’s friend. Zanesville, Ohio, has become infamously linked to the 2011 massacre of 49 animals—including 18 Bengal tigers, 17 lions, six black bears, three mountain lions, two grizzlies, two wolves, and a baboon—when the owner of the menagerie released the animals and killed himself, putting both the public and emergency responders at risk.

This deadly commerce in wildlife must end. We simply must start drawing clear distinctions between malignant actors and responsible parties. And no community is better positioned to lead this effort than the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Our community stands for excellent animal welfare and care; we do not hybridize animals to produce carnival freaks with no conservation value; we oppose private ownership of dangerous exotic animals and the illegal and unethical trade and commercialization that it supports. We depend upon the public’s trust that the welfare and wellness of animals is our highest priority, and that we are conservation organizations dedicated to their place in nature.

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness shines light on some of the most unsavory aspects of human nature, and thereby makes very entertaining reality TV. All the while, as the world struggles through a coronavirus pandemic, and beyond public view, real animal keepers, aquarists, curators, trainers, veterinarians, and facilities managers remain hard at work at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums. Clearly “essential,” these dedicated professionals continue to prioritize the everyday and life-long health and well-being of the animals in their care. Meanwhile, Joe Exotic sits in jail serving a 22-year sentence for violating the Endangered Species Act and engaging in a murder-for-hire plot to protect his inbred menagerie.

It’s way past time that this country ended operations like those depicted in Tiger King: Murder Mayhem and Madness. We can start by passing sensible laws like the Big Cat Public Safety Act and others to end private ownership of dangerous wild animals. Then we must tackle the very difficult issue of the trade in animals that is the literal melting pot for the pathogenic horrors that we give names like MERS, SARS, and now COVID-19. That will be my next topic, so stay tuned!

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its 238 members are ready. Ready to lead. Ready to follow. Ready to go! Join us!!" 

Documentary Review: Tiger King - Murder, Mayhem, and Madness

About a year and a half ago, when the murder-for-hire plot involving Joe Exotic and Carole Baskin first broke the news, I joked that someone needed to make a movie about it.  It looks like Eric Goode had the same idea.  The salacious saga of the Oklahoma-based big cat breeder and his Tampa Bay arch-nemesis had been a relatively private scandal, the grist of the zookeeper rumor mill for many years.  With the new Netflix documentary Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness, it's now out for all the world to see.  If you ever thought that sunlight was the best disinfectant, boy do I have some disappointing news for you.

It's entirely possible that, were it not for the home-quarantine that much of the world finds itself under due to Coronavirus, the series wouldn't get the traction that it does.  Maybe it's just too crazy not to be a hit even if three-quarters of the country wasn't on lock-down anyway.  When I first heard that this was being made into a miniseries, I was worried that it was going to paint Baskin, founder of Big Cat Rescue (an organization that I'm not terribly impressed with) as some sort of saint and portray all zoo professionals as Joe Exotic.  I was not prepared for Joe to be considered the hero by so many people...

In a nut shell, Joe ran a ramshackle zoo (you can see him and his animals interviewed in Morgan Spurlock's Inside Man) with a special passion for breeding and cross-breeding cats.  Carole Baskin, a former cat breeder and collector herself, had a Road to Damascus moment years back, decided that keeping big cats in captivity was evil, whether it was a shoddy backyard tiger pen or the world's best zoos, became a vocal opponent of his.  The two clashed with multiple accusations of animal abuse flying back and forth.  Joe took special delight in accusing Carole of the murder of her husband, who had mysteriously vanished years ago (this side story is perhaps the biggest takeaway that many viewers got from the show).  Carole tried to get Joe shut down.  Eventually, the feud boiled up to the point where Joe approached what he thought was a contract killer to take Carole out.  Turns out, it was an FBI Agent.  Awkward...

Baskin has not been thrilled with her portrayal in the series; while Joe's popularity is soaring as a result, with petitions for his pardoning circling around, she has become a meme, a series of jokes accusing her of murdering her husband, and the subject of increased legal scrutiny.  It would be a bizarre take if this were to all end with Joe free and her in jail, but weirder things have happened.  She had been under the impression that the series would be more about the exploitation of big cats in private hands in the US, and well it might have been... if it weren't for the fact that Joe Exotic is just so damn weird.

Seriously, it's hard to look away.  The meth deals.  The guns.  The straight-lovers-turned-gay.  The quixotic quests for public office.  Joe Exotic is just such a ridiculous, larger-than-life character that it's hard for people not to root for him.  He makes the world more interesting!  The only problem is the welfare of the animals.

Animals at Joe's GW Zoo (now in new hands and rumored to be preparing for a new location and new name) were kept in lousy conditions and received bad care.  It's that simple.  Don't get me wrong, I didn't want this to result in people coming to my zoo to protest how our big cats are housed, to be converted to Baskin's view that no cats should be under human care (except for hers), but it would be nice if viewers walked away with the understanding that animals in zoos require appropriate care, and what they see on this Netflix special isn't that.

The show has prompted AZA (what Joe once derisively mocked as "a country club for zoos") to speak out, highlighting the differences between the ramshackle operation seen on Netflix and quality, professionally run zoos with a mission of conservation and education.  I wish more viewers would walk away with that message... or at least without thinking that Joe is some sort of role model.