Compliments of the Sloth Institute of Costa Rica. There is absolutely no point in sharing this other than it made me smile, so I hope it does the same for you.
Well, this is certainly a new twist on the "Visitor-Falls-or-Jumps-into-Exhibit" motif. I guess I'm just glad to see what this isn't a uniquely American phenomena (this incident took place in Uzbekistan). Thankfully the child in question is safe (as is the bear). This really is one of those cases where I feel like the journalist could have offered a few more details. I have so many questions as to exactly what the heck happened. This is not something that I expected to hear about outside of movies. What really makes the story the more surprising was that the woman in question was the girl's mother.
This article was spotted by someone working public relations at my job, who forwarded it to the entire staff. Granted, there's nothing in it that any of us couldn't have told you five or ten years ago - sometimes before our management ever could have. Still, I'm always happy to see articles like this circulating around in the media. It's a great opportunity to reintroduce ourselves to the general public, to remind themselves of who we are (and, sometimes just as importantly, what we are not) and why we do what we do.
Ever since COVID-19 made the scene, it has been the subject of immense concern among zoo and aquarium professionals. Not only can it make visitors and staff members sick, but it has the potential to sicken, in some cases kill, the animals that we care for. Fortunately, many zoos are used to working around zoonotic diseases (diseases which can be transmissible between humans and animals), and already have biosecurity parameters in place. Which is just as well because, as events this past week have shown, COVID isn't the only risk to animal health that we're having to deal with.
Avian influenza poses a serious threat to birds, both in the wild and under human care. In the later cases, we tend to worry about it mostly in the poultry industry, where huge numbers of birds are housed together in close quarters, and disease can spread like wildfire. It is no less of a concern, however, for zoo birds, which could potentially catch the disease from wild birds flitting in and out of their enclosures. Currently, the disease has been documented in the eastern US, so facilities are taking precautions.
The North Carolina Zoo, for instance, has closed its aviary to the public. Sylvan Heights Bird Park has gone a step further and shut down the whole facility temporarily. Other zoos have implemented travel restrictions on staff or are limiting which keepers have access to potentially vulnerable birds. Keeping animals healthy takes constant vigilance and adjusting to changing circumstances. I'm glad that so many of my colleagues are up to the task.
Happy Fifth Birthday to the World's most famous hippo, the fabulous Fiona from the Cincinnati Zoo! There's probably no more famous zoo animal in the country at this time. The story of her birth and survival against daunting odds, her relationship with her caretakers and visitors, and her overall hammy personality have made her an internet sensation. Hope she has a great day - and stay spoiled!
Social Grouping:Solitary. A breeding pair may share and defend a territory, but usually avoid each other
Reproduction: Long-term (maybe lifelong) monogamous bonds. Nest is a heap or leaves on the ground, usually butted against a fallen log or tree trunk. Single grey, blotchy egg is incubated by bother parents for 33-37 days. Chick may remain in parents' territory for years after hatching, but does not assist in rearing younger siblings
Lifespan: 20 Years
Conservation Status:IUCN Endangered, CITES Appendix I
Measures 55 centimeters long, weighing 700-1100 grams. Wingspan is 75-80 centimeters, but the bird lacks the musculature to really fly (it is capable of short glides)
Feathers are ashy-gray to white, with some barring on the primary feathers. In adults, the bill and legs are bright red. There is an erectile crest which can be fanned out when the bird is displaying or otherwise excited. Unique among birds, there are structures covering the nostrils, presumably to keep dirt out of the nose when the bird is foraging
Hunt by sifting through leaf litter, sometimes digging in soil with the beak or wading in shallow water. Sometimes hunt from an elevated perch and watch for prey to come below. Prey is detected by sight, then seized with the bill
Only living member of its genus, though there is a larger, now-extinct sister species, R. orarius, known only from fossils, believed to be have wiped out by first humans to the island
The Latin name translates to "Crested Nose-Corn," referencing both the crest and the unusual growths over the nostrils. The common name is the native Melanesian name for this species
Decline caused by hunting (for food, but historically for pets overseas) and habitat loss (mining and deforestation), but primarily through predation from introduced cats, dogs, and pigs. Predator removal and captive breeding/reintroduction programs are in effect
Important cultural history with native peoples of New Caledonia, with its crest being used in the headdresses of chiefs, calls incorporated into war dances. In modern times, its call was played on TV as the local station's sign-off. National bird of New Caledonia
Monday, January 17th of this year, would have been Betty White's 100th birthday. Unfortunately, she passed last month. To celebrate her life - and commemorate her longstanding devotion to zoos, aquariums, and other wildlife organizations, the #bettywhitechallenge was launched, encouraging her fans to make a donation to such an organization in her honor. I've seen results shared from many animal and conservation nonprofits, with some reporting increases in donations three-fold from what they experienced in January 2021. So, all that we can say is... thank you for being a friend.
Continuing our tour of the Northeastern Wisconsin (NEW) Zoo…
Compared to the first half of the zoo, the
Northern/Wisconsin area is considerable more natural, with larger, more
attractive habitats.It’s here that the
zoo aficionado is also more likely to see species of interest.One of the first exhibits likely to be seen
is the Great Plains, a spacious habitat for American bison, elk, and
pronghorn.Visitors view the animals
from a boardwalk stretched over a pond that it inhabited by trumpeter
swans.The Great Plains yard is so large
that the bison can actually seem small as they stand towards the back of their
field, and it took me a while to even see a pronghorn.
Wisconsin’s nickname is “the Badger State,” so, fittingly
enough, there’s a badger exhibit here.This actually might be the first time I’ve seen an American badger on
display – all of the other ones I’ve seen were education animals.The animal has a side-by-side exhibit with
prairie dogs (a natural prey animal).As
with many zoos, there’s a tunnel that lets visitors (well, the short ones,
anyway) pop up in the middle of the prairie dog habitat.This one lets you pop up in the badger
exhibit as well.
More small mammals can be seen along the trail in the form
of raccoon and North American porcupine, their attractive, open air exhibits
framing the entrances of a modest North American aviary.Like most North American aviaries, this one
is very waterfowl-heavy, though American white pelicans and black-necked stilts
also make their homes here, while a side-habitat contains bald eagle.Outside is a very attractive habitat for
North American river otter.It’s one of
the few river otter exhibits I’ve seen that doesn’t include underwater viewing,
but honestly, I didn’t mind – it seemed to enhance the naturalism.
Many of the Wisconsin habitats are wrapped around an enormous
white-tailed deer and wild turkey yard, peppered with towering pines.Along one side of the yard is a series of
mesh-enclosed habitats for the three northern wildcats – puma, Canada lynx, and
bobcat… as well as decidedly un-American red pandas.Nearby is a small aviary for snowy owls.Habitats for red wolf (not from Wisconsin,
but a species that’s always in need of more holders as we try to rebuild the
population), red fox, and American black bear round out the trail.I’d call the bear exhibit the weakest of the
exhibits in this half of the zoo (I consider bears notoriously hard to build
great exhibits for), but I’d still compare it favorably with any of the
habitats in the international section of the zoo.
Near the cats, a small spur of a trail leads off to a
boardwalk overlooking a marshy yard.Here, visitors can observe moose, one of the largest yet most
rarely-displayed animals in the New World, as well as rare whooping cranes in a
separate yard.I probably spent more
time at the moose exhibit than I did at the rest of the zoo put together, so
excited was I to see one.The habitat
was very attractive as well, with plenty of space, a natural setting, and an
unobstructed view.If there was one
thing that I would have liked, it would have been to have the chance for a
closer view, preferably on ground level, so I could have gotten an appreciation
for just how big the animals are.
The moose and cranes can be seen from an elevated platform
that encircles the Riley Building, a hodgepodge collection of small animals,
mostly native, such as black-footed ferret and burrowing owl, but with
cotton-topped tamarins thrown in as well.Animals are viewed from the outside of the building as visitors walk
around the perimeter (in this age of COVID, I’m always appreciative when I
don’t have to go inside with strangers to see animals).It was noteworthy to me in that it was one of
the few times I’ve seen a black-footed ferret awake and active.
Overall, the Wisconsin/Northern section was sufficient to
make me wish that there had been even more of it – or at least that the rest of
the zoo was built to its standard.I’ve
heard that NEW zoo has a masterplan in the works, so I’m interested to see what
changes and developments it makes.There
are plenty of things that the zoo does well, and I hope that they build on
those successes rather than try to do what might prove to be beyond its
abilities to do well.
Despite what its acronym might suggest the Northeastern
Wisconsin Zoo, commonly called “the NEW zoo” isn’t that new. It was founded in the 1950s as part of an
effort to re-establish lands outside of Green Bay which had been lost to a
forest fire. To give the facility its
full, proper name, it is the Northeastern Wisconsin Zoo and Adventure
Park. That second half of the title is
important – in addition to animal attractions, the facility offers zip-lining,
a ropes course, and rock climbing. These
features of the park are separate from the zoo, though it should be noted that
they are rather unobtrusively incorporated into the landscape of pine
forest. Visitors can purchase tickets to
the zoo without adding on these adventure features.
The park can be roughly divided into two sections.One, closer to the entrance, features an
international assortment of wildlife.The other is focused on North American species, which a special (but not
exclusive) focus on the wildlife of Wisconsin.We’ll begin with the “miscellaneous” section, covering the
Northern/Wisconsin section tomorrow.
Of the two halves, the international area is definitely the
weaker.There’s little in the way of
planning to it, with exhibits cobbled together in a manner that sometimes seems
to suggest theming (as in there is a rough grouping of African animals
together, Asian animals together), but it doesn’t quite hold up.Many of the exhibits are simple constructs of
wood and wire, with some viewing windows.Some of these left me slightly concerned for safety reasons.The sandhill crane exhibit for instance (no
idea why these guys were here and not in the Wisconsin section) were in an
enclosure which, if a visitor was so inclined, could have been grabbed at, or
otherwise touched – and the touching can go both ways.Having worked with some homicidally
aggressive sandhill cranes, it left me uneasy.I had visions of someone getting a beak in the eye.
In others, the aesthetic gets a little… odd.Consider the Aldabra tortoises, for instance,
which have a perfectly conventional yard to plod around in.As is not uncommon in northern zoos,
immediately adjacent to the yard is their indoor habitat – a building with
viewing windows set in the front.What
makes the building odd, however, is that it is shaped like an enormous tortoise
shell.It’s kind of cool looking,
actually, and the tortoises certainly don’t care what their building looks
like, but it is just another example of a zoo that seems cobbled together,
rather than planned.
The international section is relatively small, but it has a
decent cross-sampling of popular zoo animals, such as Japanese macaque, snow
leopard, and American alligator (the alligator exhibit was probably my least
favorite in the zoo, seeming small, dark, drab, and completely indoor).Snow leopard and macaque were kind of shabby
as well (I didn’t see the leopard during my visit – the macaque exhibit was
suitably sized, but leopard was not, in my opinion).I understand the zoo has plans to set up a
canopy trail system to allow these species more roam and greater stimulation,
which I think is a great move.
There were a few touches of more modern zoo thought – the
lion and giraffe exhibits, for example, while neither particularly impressive,
were set up to allow a predator-prey vibe.The African penguin exhibit was probably the crown jewel of the section,
and even had a small underwater viewing area, but if you’ve ever seen a large
colony of penguins, it’s hard to be too dazzled by this one.Other species scattered around the area
included macaws, agouti, blue duiker, and wattled cranes, as well as a small
children’s zoo, in which it is possible to mingle with domestic animals or feed
the giraffes.A few small reptiles,
amphibians, and invertebrates occupy a fairly dull “Education and Conservation
Center.”
So far, I was pretty underwhelmed by the NEW Zoo.My appreciation for the facility picked up
considerably when I crossed over into the other half.
“Are we somehow wanting to live in the past by bringing back
a species which has not been there for at least seven decades? Because it is important for Indian ecology
and conservation to be forward-looking to meet the challenges of the future.”
-Ravi Chellam, Metastring Foundation
In an age in which we are losing so much of our biodiversity,
the concept of rewilding has always had a special appeal for me. It’s not just enough to hold on to a few
tattered scraps of the natural world, keeping them carefully preserved in a few
highly managed parks like family heirlooms.
We should be trying to weave those scraps back together, restoring the
ecological integrity of the planet as much as we can. Some of the boldest rewilding proposals out
there (apart from, say, cloning mammoths) are those concerned with the
restoration of large carnivores.
Not surprisingly, those are also the most controversial.
The Indian subcontinent already has the world’s most diverse
assemblage of the great cats.There are
tigers and leopards and clouded leopards, snow leopards in the Himalayas and a
relict population of Asian lions.The
picture isn’t complete, however.There
is one absent member of the cast.
The last confirmed records of wild cheetahs in Asia date
back to 1948 (though sightings have persisted), a lifetime ago for humans (and
several lifetimes for cheetahs), a millisecond on the evolutionary
timescale.Today, only a tiny population
of cheetahs remains in Iran.Since the
1970s, even before the Iranian Revolution, there were talks of using Iranian
cheetahs to repopulate India’s grasslands.The miniscule numbers of Asian cheetahs, combined with Iran’s frequent
pariah status among nations of the world, has stifled these talks in recent
years.
Now, the Indian government seems poised to make its move –
not with Iranian cheetahs, but with Africans.A genetically diverse (well, as genetically diverse as cheetahs get)
sampling of African cats will be released in Kuno National Park, historically
home to cheetahs, lions, leopards, and tigers.The cheetahs selected for this project will be ones accustomed to living
alongside other big carnivores.The plan
has the potential to restore an integral component to the plains of India,
where cheetahs historically chased down spotted deer, blackbuck, Indian
gazelle, and other ungulates.
A male Asiatic cheetah in Iran (Wikimedia Commons/Erfan
Kouchari)
Some conservationists are pessimistic about the
project.They point out that, though they
are the same species, African cheetahs were physiologically different than
Asians, both in proportions and in coats.Will the Africans be able to adapt and thrive in an environment
different from that which they came from?There are also some concerns that, with so much conservation work
remaining to be done in India, this isn’t the time to be adding a new
endangered species to the mix, rather than focus on species already on the
ground.Is this conservation, then, or a
feel-good story put out by a government that wants a win with
environmentalists?
Ideally, the Asian subspecies would be used to repopulate
India, if such a repopulation were going to occur.But that might never prove possible – Iran’s
cheetahs having been hanging on by a toenail for years – and this is a case in
which using living animals is at least theoretically possible.What of situations in which the animal in
question is extinct.Is it acceptable to
use a “close enough” substitute to fill an ecological niche once held by an
extinct animal?Or do we, and the
environment, have to move on?
I don’t know what the answer is.The Indian government seems set to move ahead
with the release of these cheetahs, so, for better or worse, cheetahs will soon
be running across the grasslands of India for the first time in decades.Whether they are ready for India – and whether
India is really ready for them – is something that will remain to be seen.
“Thousands and thousands of burrow entrances stippled into
the hillside like flecks in tweed. This
was a puffin colony with maybe 2,000 burrows in it. You could have expected five or six thousand
birds to be there. But this evening,
there were none. I looked hard and then
out to sea, and found with my binoculars about twenty puffins, circling
forlornly in the ocean of air.”
One of the best things about birdwatching is that it’s a
hobby that you can engage in virtually anywhere. Birds are found from jungle to desert to
tundra to the hearts of our busiest cities.
They are even found flying over or diving into the most desolate
stretches of the open ocean. The
seabirds are a diverse group of birds found across the world. They don’t represent a single taxonomic group
– despite their similar appearances, gulls are not in the same order as the
albatrosses, nor are puffins akin to cormorants. Instead, what binds them together is their
ability to make a living on the margins, where the land meets the ocean.
In The Seabird’s Cry:
The Lives and Loves of the Planet’s Great Ocean Voyagers, author Adam
Nicolson recounts his experiences with a cross-sampling of the world’s
seabirds.In ten chapters, he skips from
island to island (mostly focusing on the North Atlantic), offering a peak into
the lives of these remarkable birds.Seabirds have a long history with humanity, both as a source of legend
(Homer, Coleridge, and other authors are visited throughout the book) as well as
of more practical, earthly concerns, such as meat, oil, and egg.Sometimes the relationships have been
mutually beneficial, such as the Chinese fishermen who train cormorants to help
them catch fish.In other cases, it’s
been devastating for the birds – one chapter is devoted to the lost giant of
the seabirds, the now-extinct great auk.
For as long as we’ve had an association with seabirds, our
interactions have largely been largely limited to the land.Humans have visited them (and hunted) them on
the rocky cliffs where they have nested, but have had little idea of what
they’ve done once they’ve left the roost.Where do they go?How far do they
travel?How on earth do they find their
way (and their food) across the endless, seemingly uniform oceans that they
traverse?Nicolson explores how
developments in science have allowed to us track seabirds over the ocean and
better understand where they go, what they do, and how they survive.Which is all very good to know, because that
survival can’t be taken for granted anymore.
All across the planet, populations of many seabirds are
plummeting.Some of the more adaptable
and omnivorous species are holding their own – even expanding their ranges – in
the face of humans.Others are finding
themselves in a world that is increasingly hostile to their survival, largely
because of us.Overfishing has depleted
food stocks around the globe.Global
climate change has raised the temperature of ocean waters, altering the very
first links of the food chain on which so many seabirds are dependent.Nesting sites are disturbed, with some years
passing without successful reproduction.Birds become entangled and drown in fishing nets.Rats and other invasive species eat eggs and chicks.
Many of the seabirds are colonial breeders, nesting in great
numbers in a select few locations.Much
of Nicolson’s book describes the politics and romances, so to speak, or these
great assemblages of birds.Some of my
favorite zoo exhibits have been colonies of puffins and other colonial birds,
watching the constant action and interaction among the jostling birds.Some of the chapters make touching reading,
with passages of parents raising chicks in monogamous pairs.Other parts get a bit dark – we read about
murderous sociopathic “teenagers” that prey on their younger neighbors, as well
as parents who do the mental math, realize that they will not be able to feed
both themselves and their chicks that year, and opt to cut their losses.Nature is many things – forgiving it is not.
One group of seabirds that we are in little danger of losing
anytime soon are the gulls.These are
birds that many people consider to be a nuisance, something of a trash
bird.Even zookeepers aren’t immune for
the feeling.I’ve spent a lot of time
cursing under my breath (and, when there weren’t visitors around, over it as
well) as I tried to feed fish to a very shy flock of pelicans in their exhibit,
while ravenous, bold-as-brass gulls swooped down, sometimes catching the fish
mid-toss.Even so, it’s hard not to
admire their adaptability, capable of making a living in any environment.Perhaps it is because gulls are so common
that we don’t appreciate just how remarkable they are… that and the fact that
they are pretty obnoxious, to be fair.
For many of the seabirds (which, apart from puffins, don’t
have great representation in zoo collections), they are out of sight, out of
mind.We might see some gulls squabbling
over a bucket of French fries at the beach and assume that this is the life of
all seabirds.In truth, they are so much
more than awkward, noisy scavengers.They are beautiful, canny survivors who are masters of an alien
environment that we are only just beginning to understand.The question remains, how long will many of
them survive as we come to understand the impact that we have on them?
Zoos wear many hats. They are breeding centers for endangered species. They offer refuge to injured or otherwise non-releasable wild animals. They serve as educational facilities and living classrooms. They offer recreational opportunities for people of all walks of life. One aspect that we often overlook, however, is their research potential. That would be a mistake, as there are many things that zoos can teach us about the natural world.
Recently, two teams of scientists, one in the UK and one in Denmark, independently came upon a brilliant idea. Based on laboratory experiments, they discovered that DNA from animals could be detected drifting around in the air. Interesting, to be sure - but would the results be the same in the open air? To find out, both teams decided to go to the zoo - Hamerton Zoo Park in England and Copenhagen in Denmark. The theory was that the zoos would each have a wide variety of species of known origin, many of which would not be present in the surrounding area.
Danish scientist Kristine Bohmann collects air samples in the Copenhagen Zoo’s tropical rainforest house. Christian Bendix
The results were astonishing. Taking just samples from the air, the Hamerton study turned up 25 species, the Copenhagen team 49 species. They also picked up traces of wild animals on zoo grounds, such as hedgehogs, as well as traces of the meat from the diets of the carnivores. So, a scientist given this air sample, with no idea where it came from, would be able to name many of the species in the zoo without having any background information.
There are important implications for this for conservation. While some wild animals are easy to observe, many are decidedly not. They may be nocturnal, or arboreal, or fossorial, or just plain shy. Some biologists may never see their research subject in the flesh. For some species, we may not even know if they are still alive or not. Camera traps, fecal studies, even blood samples taken from leeches may provide some evidence - this is another tool which can help us fill in the gaps in our knowledge of the natural world. For example, we could take hundreds of air samples from all over Tasmania to try to determine if the thylacine does or does not still roam the island. Ditto with other maybe/maybe not extinct species. We can determine which patches of habitat boast the greatest species diversity and should be top priorities for conservation.
There are considerable possibilities for using this new technology to better conserve wildlife in the field - and zoos are a perfect place to hone the techniques.
I can imagine that there were some pretty ticked off herpetologists at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Here they are, trying to brighten up the dark, bleak, COVID-infested winter by spreading some joy in the form of the birthday of Funzo, the pig-nosed turtle, and what do they get? Lots of comments about how ugly their beloved little guy is. It's a good thing turtles can't read. I'd hate to see one cry.
Actually, they probably knew something like that was going to happen.
There's hardly a zookeeper anywhere who hasn't had the serenity of their day shattered by hearing some jerkface say, "Now that's an ugly looking animal!" Presumably, the few who have not had this experience work exclusively with pandas, koalas, and sea otters. This, of course, excludes the visitors who make the ugly animal joke in reference to keepers, all of whom apparently think that they are the first people ever to come up with that brilliant, original quip (See: Ten Things I Never Want To Hear From Zoo Visitors Again).
Some animals, such as warthogs and hyenas, get called ugly a lot. Other times, I've been surprised. Sloths. Capybaras. Porcupines. Tamarins. I once almost challenged a man to a duel after he called the Patagonian cavy that I had hand-reared "an ugly little rat-thing."
Even keepers aren't immune to it. I was unloading a kookaburra at one zoo - it was the first of its species ever displayed there. Fresh from the airport, I took the crate into quarantine, then let the bird out into holding. A keeper who was accompanying me appraised the bird as it flew to a perch, then stared back at him. "That," he declared after a moment of thought, "is the ugliest bird I have ever seen."
Ok, I've also called some of my animals homely before, but usually from a place of affection mingled with realism. Those have generally been individuals, though, not characteristics of a species. The truth is, I don't really think that any species is ugly. And even the ones that don't quite match up to our ideal of aesthetics (say, babirusa) have their own fascinating charm. Just because something is different (sometimes significantly) from our own standard of beauty doesn't mean it's "ugly."
Which is more than I can say about some of the kids that the parents drag around our zoo and expect us to fawn over. There. I said it.
The National Aquarium in Baltimore couldn't let the birthday of Funzo, the pig-nosed turtle, pass by without remembering to make a social media shout-out. What they perhaps did not remember was that people on the internet are awful, and that there were an unfortunate number of comments making fun of/expressing disgust at Funzo's appearance. Fortunately, the lovable turtle had defenders as well who rallied to say that no, the turtle wasn't ugly, the haters were. I like to think that, if nothing else, the post spread some awareness about Funzo and his species and got at least some people thinking of just how remarkable turtles are. #JusticeforFunzo!
Range: Eastern South America (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay)
Habitat: Grassland, Open Woodland, Semi-Desert
Diet:Foliage, Seeds, Fruits, Insects, Small Vertebrates
Social Grouping: During the non-breeding season form flocks of up to 100 birds, breaking into smaller flocks in the winter, prior to breeding
Reproduction:Breeding takes place during winter. Males display for females using their outstretched wings, waving his head in a figure eight. Males will breed with many females, all of which will deposit their eggs in a communal nest (a shallow scrape), which may contain up to 80 eggs from several females. The male alone incubates the eggs (4-6 weeks) and cares for the hatchlings. Chicks are sexually mature at about 14 months
Lifespan: 10-15 Years Wild, 30 Years Zoo
Conservation Status:IUCN Near Threatened, CITES Appendix II
Largest living bird in the Americas. Stand 1.4-1.7 meters tall and weigh 20-40 kilograms, with males being larger than females. Ostrich-like body plan (sometimes called "South American ostriches") with long, powerful legs and long, slender neck topped with a small head. Unlike the ostrich, it has three toes on each foot instead of two
Plumage is a drab grayish-brown, with black at the base of the neck. Males are typically darker than females. Hatchlings are grey with dark longitudinal stripes. Leucistic (white plumage, blue eyes) birds are not uncommon, either in the wild or in captivity
Primarily silent outside of breeding season, when males make a loud booming call
Predators of adults include puma and jaguar. Raptorial birds, grisons, and armadillos may take eggs and chicks. Chicks are largely fearless of predators when born; efforts to reintroduce rheas into wild require efforts to teach them to avoid enemies
Breeding males will sometimes employ subordinate males to help them incubate their eggs and look after their chicks
A small feral population exists in Germany, descended from escapees from a farm in 2000. Their population has reached over 500, and hunting and egg control is used to limit their numbers, considered something of an agricultural pest (still protected)
Five subspecies are redcognized, varying mostly based on variations and size and the extent of the black coloration on their throat, but are largely indistinguishable
In decline due to hunting, especially from farmers who view them as competitors for grazing lands with livestock. Some commercial farming for meat, eggs, leather, and oil (used in soaps and cosmetics)
With winter settling in, it's inevitable that the first snowfall of the season wouldn't be far behind. At many zoos, the change in the seasons and weather is reflected in the behavior of the animals. At almost any time of year, there are some animals which absolutely love what nature is throwing at them... and some that will absolutely hate it. If it's so hot that you could fry eggs on the pavement, a lot of the animals will be slumped in the shade, but it might be the best time to see any reptiles in outdoor exhibits as they alternate between basking, feeding, and retreating back to the shade. Conversely, when it's cold, there can be no better time to see polar bears, Amur tigers, or snow leopards leaving us all feeling bitter that evolution never saw fit to give us our own insulating coats.
All of this means that there really isn't a time of year when you can't go to the zoo and see someone out and about - though there are certainly times of year when you'll find more animals either hiding from the heat or tucked away for the winter. Aquariums, for the most part, are equal-opportunity attractions no matter the weather or temperature.
Sometimes, it can be surprising which animals are out and about in which weather. These sloth bears from the National Zoo are of a species hailing from the Indian subcontinent - but they sure seem to be enjoying their romp in the snow.
For the purists out there, no, dinosaurs (excluding modern birds) and humans never co-existed. No, The Flintstones was not a documentary. To be honest, I'm mostly sharing this one because the look on the dinosaur's face in the penultimate panel just cracks me up.
By and large, 2021 had been trending in a decent direction from where we started in January. Still, these last few days were a major kick-to-the-crotch. First, we had the tragic death of Eko, the Malayan tiger from Naples Zoo, following a custodian's ill-advised attempt at petting the pretty kitty. Then, with just hours to go before we escaped 2021, we learned that we lost Betty White.
You may wonder why the death of a TV star, even one as beloved as Betty White, makes a splash on a zoo blog. Well, it turns out that Betty White is one of the biggest celebrity zoo fans in the world and has made a huge contribution to our efforts to protect wildlife. Many, many of the zoo folks I know from institutions around the country have great memories of her visiting their facilities and sharing special moments with their animals. She will be missed by many.
Today, we start our journey into 2022. I'm optimistic that better things lie ahead for us.
