Documentary Review: Mission Blue

Earlier this year, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums held its Midyear Meeting in Long Beach, California.  The guest of honor and keynote speaker was Dr. Sylvia Earle, the former chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (and the first woman to hold that role) and generally one of the most respected marine biologists in the world.  Marine conservation is a topic I know very little about compared to my aquarium colleagues and I wanted to learn more about Dr. Earle before hearing her speak.  Someone recommended that I should check out the documentary Mission Blue - and I'm glad they did.

Mission Blue follows the career of Dr. Earle as she broke barriers to enter, and in many ways lead, the field of marine biology, from a curious schoolgirl poking around in tidal pools to the leader of expeditions that sent months at sea, trying to further our understanding of marine life.  Earle's accomplishments are very impressive, all the more so because she had to achieve them in the face of the crushing sexism that to this day plays a role in the scientific community.  Newspaper headlines about her groundbreaking research expeditions were mostly various plays of "Beautiful Lady Scientists Gets On Boat With A Hundred Men," or things like that (this was the 60s and 70s, mind you).  Sometimes, the sexism took a harder, more personal edge, such as when Earle's husband and colleague, apparently feeling inadequate that her career was eclipsing his own, just ghosted on her when they were supposed to go on an expedition together, opting to run away instead.  Watching, I was wondering, did Jacques Cousteau ever have to put up with nonsense like this? 

The story may be framed around Earle, but she uses the program as a microphone to talk about her chief concern - the decline of marine habitats.  She focuses on the major problems of overfishing, pollution, and climate change.  Having been active in the field for so long, Dr. Earle has been able to personally witness the degradation of many habitats that had previously been considered pristine, now depleted of life due to overharvesting and warming waters.  Her career really sums up our recent history with the sea.  A few decades ago, we knew very little about it below the surface, but considered it inexhaustible and untouchable.  Now, we've gained a little bit of knowledge - just enough, really, to prove that everything we thought before was wrong, and that the oceans, far from being inviolate, are in serious trouble.

As is often the case with marine documentaries, there is some beautiful scenery and depictions of wildlife - the opening footage of whale sharks is particularly nice - but it lacks the grandeur and majesty of BBC's Blue Planet.  This is a much simpler, more modest production, which has the advantage of making it more candid.  If there was one thing I could have done with less of, it's director Fisher Stevens, who, as is often the case with documentarians, has a tendency to try to make himself the star of the show, inserting himself unnecessarily when the focus should be on the much more interesting Dr. Earle.  

Mission Blue draws its name from Dr. Earle's nonprofit, commuted to oceanic conservation.  It also serves as a call to arms about the importance of saving our planet's largest and least understood ecosystem, one which we are only beginning to realize how much we all rely upon. 

The Floating Wetlands of Baltimore Harbor

If the United States is going to meet the goal of having 30% of our land and water areas serving as wildlife habitat by 2030, it's going to take some thinking outside the box.  One of the most unique ideas in play right now comes out of the National Aquarium in Baltimore, which sits on the edge of one of the least-likely wildlife habitats in America - Baltimore's Inner Harbor.  Not much you can do with that heavily urbanized, polluted habitat, right?  Well, maybe not...

The Aquarium is working to install floating wetlands in the Harbor to help clean the water and provide habitat for native wildlife.  Learn more about these exciting plans, already in progress, here:

The Color of Lobsters

There's tremendous interest among many people in animals of unusual colors or patterns.  White tigers have been a sensation at zoos around the world for decades, almost a century, with white alligators also having star roles.  In the pet trade, you can buy a dizzying variety of color morphs of most of the commonly kept reptiles.  For the most part, I really know of no real equivalent craze among invertebrates.

Except for lobsters, of course.

Everyone knows that lobsters are red, except for the fact that they aren't.  They only take on that characteristic bright red color after being cooked.  Except when they're red already.  You see, an estimated 1 in 10 million lobsters is red.  1 in every 30 million is yellow or orange.  1 in every 50 million has split coloration, one side being one color, the other side another.  And 1 in 100 million are ghostly white.  If there were 8 billion lobsters on earth, as there are people, there would only be 80 white ones in the world.

The most common color mutation among lobsters is blue, occurring at about 50 times the frequency of white lobsters, or 1 in 2 million.

The difference between white lobsters and white tigers is that no one is actively trying to breed white lobsters.  When these color morphs come to light, it's because they've been caught in a lobster trap.  When this happens, the lobster is usually either tossed back into the sea or, as I've frequently seen, placed in an aquarium and put on public display.  I feel like as rare as these lobsters are supposed to be, I hear more and more about their being found.  Perhaps the mutations are more prevalent than we originally suspected.  Perhaps we're just catching more lobsters than we used to.  Just doing a quick google news search, and I found one such article from today:

Fisherman catches ultra-rare blue lobster, odds one in two-million

Whatever the case may be, these animals cam make spectacular exhibits in aquariums, and I've been lucky enough to see a few.   I wonder if most visitors really think that they're as cool as I do.  After all, they were probably expecting the lobsters to be red.

Species Fact Profile: American Lobster (Homarus americanus)

                                                      American Lobster                                                                 Homarus americanus (H. Milne-Edwards, 1837)

Range: Atlantic Coast of North America, from Labrador, Canada to North Carolina, US

Habitat:  Cold, Shallow Seafloor, usually less than 50 meters deep, but sometimes over 450 meters below the surface

Diet: Mollusks, Echinoderms, Crustaceans, Fish

Social Grouping: Solitary

Reproduction: Females mature at about 5 years of age.  After molting, females release pheromones with attract males, who begin to dance around her with claws closed.  The male inserts a packet of sperm into the female using his claws; the female may store this packet for up to 15 months before fertilizing her egg.  Size of clutch depends on size of female, larger female can lay over 75,000.  Eggs are attached to the bottom of the female's tail, carried for 10-11 months until they hatch.  hatching usually takes place in May or June.  Only about 1 in 1,000 survive to adulthood

Lifespan: 100 Years +

      Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern

•       One of the largest (and the heaviest) crustaceans in the world, reaching up to 64 centimeters in length and weighing up to 20 kilograms (more commonly less than 4 kilograms).  Body divided into 21 segments - 6 in the head, 8 for the mid-section, and 7 for the tail.  Eyes are on stalks
•       Five pairs of legs, the foremost pair ending in large claws.  The pair consists of a larger crusher with rounded nodules and a smaller, sharper, cutter.   Lobsters display "handedness," with some having the crusher on the right and the cutter on the left, and others having the opposite
•       Usually bluish-green or brownish, with red spines, but a variety of color morphs have been observed, including electric blue and bright orange, albino, or even "split," with the right side being one color and the left side another
•       Larvae are free-swimming, but after a few molts they sink to the ocean floor and typically stay there.  If confronted by a predator, they may defend themselves with their claws or retreat into burrows.  Primarily nocturnal
•       As lobsters age, the frequency of molting decreases from several times (up to ten times) per year to only once every few years
•       Predators include a wide variety of fishes, as well as seals
•       Very popular as a food item (albeit often a luxury one), with live specimens often seen kept in tanks in stores.  Traditionally cooked by being boiled alive (lobsters are often thought of as red, but only assume this color after boiling), though this practice is now outlawed in many countries.  The fishery has historically been very important in New England, especially Maine, and is regulated for sustainability.  Sometimes raised commercially in order to boost the size and financial value of specimens
•       Species has been introduced to Norway and Iceland; specimens have also been caught off the coast of California

Be the Animal (But Keep it G-Rated)

One of the most popular tropes for zoos on National Zookeeper Week is to show pictures of their keepers mimicking their animals.  The following examples posted on Facebook by the American Association of Zookeepers Chapter from Little Rock Zoo provide some ideas of what I mean:

 

I personally am somewhat lacking in whimsy, which, combined with not being especially photogenic, has typically resulted in me not being invited for shoots such as these.  Which is just as well, honestly.  I've collected a lot of memories over the years of our animals in very, very compromising positions.  Some of which would probably prove impossible for most of our staff to replicate (and I know I couldn't).  As in, normally sexual behavior would be the least of it.  If it weren't for the certain trip to HR afterwards, I'm sure that lots of them would get plenty of traction on social media. Who knows, might even attract an entire new demographic to the zoo.

What?  The extremely immature are a very large but often neglected segment of society.

And a little more wholesome fun from Fossil Rim...

Healthy Keepers = Healthy Animals, Part II

Continuing from yesterday, some insights from Columbian Park Zoo...

Tip 3: View exhibits through a different lens.

Let’s be real for a minute. We know visitors don’t come to the zoo to learn stuff (maybe that’s why studies show only about 33% of zoo visitors actually read most of the signs #notsuchafunfact). You come for lots of reasons, but mostly to see interesting animals, right? So when you get here and there isn’t a lot of animal action happening it’s natural to be a little let down. Some of the most frequent comments zookeepers hear are complaints that the animals can’t be spotted.

Have you ever considered that may be what the animal wants?

Zoo exhibits are designed to give patrons multiple viewing angles, but care is also taken to ensure animals have choices, too - including the choice not to be seen. In fact, choice is one of the most important components of great animal welfare. When viewed through this lens, zoo exhibits take on a whole new look. Next time you visit look for hidden platforms, plantings that provide visual barriers, and open shift doors that give animals free choice on whether to be on display or behind-the-scenes.

For the best chance of viewing animals out and about, avoid visiting during the hottest part of the day, when animals naturally hunker down. And feel free to ask a keeper for tips on how to spot your favorites - we guarantee they’ll know exactly where each of their animals likes to hang out and might even share some insider knowledge on how to spot them (without banging on the glass or imitating their sounds, both of which can stress out the animals AND their caretakers.) Above all, be patient - after all, while you’re waiting for a peek at that elusive critter, you can always check out the signs

Tip 4: Think Before You Post

You don’t even have to visit the zoo to support keeper mental health with this one! It’s really simple. The next time you see a cute reel or TikTok of somebody interacting with a “pet” monkey (or other wild animal), just don’t hit share. Why? Because the black market wildlife trade is a huge problem - responsible for poaching, disease spread, and unimaginable animal suffering. It’s literally driving species to extinction and videos like these fuel that trade by making people want to buy animals they probably aren’t equipped to care for properly.

“But how does not sharing this content help zookeepers?” you might ask. That part is simple too. Zookeepers are animal advocates. That passion doesn’t stop when they punch out for the day. When these posts hit a keeper’s feed they often feel a professional obligation to comment in order to educate others about the dangers and difficulties of caring for wild animals…aaaand then they get attacked by strangers on the internet who don’t like a buzzkill. So be kind to keepers - help them maintain a work-life balance by not adding to the problem. You’ll be helping protect vulnerable wildlife, too!

Tip 5: Treat the animals - just not with food

Look, it’s 2022 and we can’t believe we still have to keep saying this, but for the love of goshawk please stop trying to feed the animals. We know people mean well, but this is one area where outcomes matter a lot more than intentions. Even a harmless-looking leaf from a tree in the park can be toxic to multiple species at the zoo. So unless you have advanced training in wildlife nutrition, physiology AND dendrology, please leave this task to the experts. Spare our zookeepers the nightmare of having to watch a beloved animal fall ill or die from “good intentions.”

That being said, we LOVE that you love the animals so much that you want to give them treats. So do we! And you can help the animal care team with that by donating items from our enrichment wish list. Zookeepers can turn a whole host of common household items like pillowcases, basketballs, and old jeans into fun toys for animals. Check out our website for a list of things we can always use. Gift cards to places like Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards are like Christmas Day to keepers, too! Or if you’re the shop online type, check out our Amazon wishlist at the link below: there are so many goodies on there that would make an animal’s day (and a keeper’s too!) Because there’s no better feeling for a zookeeper than watching their animal living its very best life!

Healthy Keepers = Healthy Animals, Part I

Cake and pizza and ice cream are nice (no, seriously... they are very nice), but we can't count on having them everyday.  What really would help zookeepers and aquarists?  Columbian Park Zoo is glad that you asked!  This week, the zoo posted a series of tips to help the general public better help zookeepers do their job and feel appreciated year round.  We'll share these over the next two days... but none of this is to say that a little cake and ice cream now and then wouldn't be appreciated as well.

Healthy Keepers = Healthy Animals (from Columbian Park Zoo's Facebook)

To celebrate National Zookeeper Week, we’re shining a light on zookeeper mental health and well-being because Healthy Keepers = Healthy Animals. Zookeeping is a stressful profession. How can zoo visitors help care for our animal caretakers? Join us all week to find out!

Tip 1: Respect the Barriers

Did you know zookeepers frequently suffer from something called “lock anxiety?” It’s the fear of unintentionally leaving a lock, gate, or door unsecured - which at a zoo could lead to a life-threatening situation for coworkers, animals or even the general public. Keepers carry huge public safety responsibilities on top of the animal care burden. To add to the stress, a keeper’s day also involves intercepting visitors as they reach through fences, stand on railings, step over chains, open staff-only doors and try to sneak into off-public areas (and we know y’all know better!)

Keeping everyone safe is a zookeepers #1 priority. Help them help you by staying on pathways and never, ever crossing safety barriers.

Tip 2: Recognize them as professionals

Zookeeping involves a lot of physical labor, but it’s so much more. It is a legitimate profession that requires years of education and specialized training. Did you know that most zookeepers hold college degrees in science fields (many at the Master’s or Ph.D level)? Or that zookeepers generally complete years of UNPAID internships before landing their first paid zookeeping job? Even then many keepers hold second or even third part-time gigs because, let’s face it, no one ever got rich on a zookeeping paycheck. So why do they do it?

Because it’s the best job in the world!

Zookeeping is a profession in every sense of the word. These are people with not only expertise of wildlife and conservation, but a passion for sharing it. A zookeeping career is an act of love, self-sacrifice, and a declaration of what matters most to them: making a difference in the world for animals.

It’s not “just a job”, its our life’s work.

Honor that by speaking to zookeepers with dignity and kindness. Share feedback - tell them what you love about the zoo! But direct complaints about parking, admission fees, or other operational issues that are beyond a keeper’s control to management (call or stop by the administrative office or send an email through the website to address those concerns). Ask keepers questions - they love to tell you about the animals in their care! But most of all, just see them - really see them - and acknowledge them with a smile when you do. Because they really are the most incredible animal at the zoo!

Whose Week Is It, Anyway?

When National Zookeeper Week rolls around, as it does every year at this time, a zoo or aquarium often has two choices with how to proceed.  Is it a week for the zoo? Or for the keepers?  Some zoos take the opportunity to really put out lots of content to celebrate the work that the zoo does - keeper talks, behind-the-scenes videos, camps, you name it.  At other zoos, it's more a special party week for keepers (as long as regular work gets done) - prizes, treats, special recognition.  

I used to work at a facility that was very strongly geared towards option 2.  The director refused to do anything extra for the week that would make more work for us.  Instead, we had cake and ice cream and pizza until we were all fat and happy and borderline diabetic.  Now, I work at a place that's a little more biased towards option 1.  There are still some treats and fun games (during lunch or after hours), but management really hammers the message that the week is about recognizing keepers in the general, rather than the specific.

At some zoos, the festivities are extended to appreciation for the entire staff, which makes some keepers bristle at what they see as the dilution of "their" week.   Some get especially offended if the week also includes a celebration of management - even if, as is often the case, management of the animal department consists of people who still get their hands dirty and do animal care on a somewhat regularly basis.  At others, especially small facilities where everyone wears a lot of hats, there's more of a recognition that everyone in one team and should be celebrated accordingly.  

In recent years, as workers everywhere - including zoos - have become more vocal about the need for higher salaries, better conditions, healthier staff dynamics, etc, other keepers have felt that a week of treats as appreciation doesn't go far enough to making the kind of work environment that staff should be striving towards.

I try not to stress about it too much.  All I've really expected out of National Zookeeper Week is some ice cream and pizza.  When you set expectations like that, you'll never be disappointed.

Species Fact Profile: Spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinari)

                                                              Spotted Eagle Ray                                                                                                                     Aetobatus narinari (Euphrasen, 1790)

Range: Tropical and Warm Temperate Ocean Waters, Worldwide

Habitat:  Reef Edges, Warm-Water Seas with Mud/Sand/Gravel Substrate, Estuaries, Mangrove Swamps.  As deep as 80 meters

Diet: Marine Invertebrates (Worms, Mollusks, Cephalopods, Crustaceans), Small Fish

Social Grouping: Schools up to 50

Reproduction: Courtship consists of male chasing, nibbling female.  Polygynous.  Eggs hatch within female's body, then born live.  2-4 pups independent at birth.  Sexually mature when they are about half of the adult size, usually at 4-6 years old

Lifespan: 20 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Endangered

•       Maximum length 330 centimeters, but usually 140 centimeters.  Maximum weigh 230 kilograms.  Snout is long, flat, and rounded, with a thick head; pectoral disc is sharply curved with angular corners.  No caudal fin.  Jaw is a single row of flat, chevron-shaped teeth.  Long whip-like tail with a spine near the base.  No sexual dimorphism in size or coloration
•       Dorsal background color is black or dark blue, covered with numerous small white spots.  The ventral surface is white.
•       Sharks are primary predators, especially silvertip sharks and great hammerheads.  Sharks have been observed swimming behind pregnant females, eating pups as they emerge
•       Observed breaching, leaping out of the water, possibly to avoid predators or to dislodge parasites.  Some females have been observed giving birth while breaching; possible that the impact of landing back in the water helps to expel pups.  Occasional reports of rays jumping out of water and landing in boats
•          Stings from this species have occasionally resulted in deaths to humans
•          Some taxonomists have divided this species into three, with A. narinari being the Atlantic species, Pacific white-spotted eagle ray, A. laticeps representing the eastern Pacific, and the ocellated eagle ray, A. ocellatus being the Indo-Pacific population
• ·        Taken as bycatch in gillnets or trawls.  Little commercial demand for species, though in parts of its range the flesh is highly valued.  Sometimes used for fishmeal or oil.  In South Africa, many rays were historically caught and killed in nets that were strung around coastal areas for shark protection.  Due to the fact that this species spends significant amount of time in estuaries, it may be threatened by pollution and habitat degradation

National Zookeeper Week

It's that time of year again - National Zookeeper Week!  There are two ways to view the week, each special in its own way.  The first is an appreciation of zookeepers themselves - it gives zoos and aquariums an opportunity to acknowledge and appreciate the staff who work so hard to care for the animals.  The second is a recognition of the job itself (the original intent of the act of Congress which officially designated the week) - one which has transformed over the past few decades from being essential a very unique janitor to a conservationist, educator, caretaker, and all-around miracle-worker.

It's only seven days, but plenty of time to do both.  Happy National Zookeeper Week!

Found this on Facebook, not sure of the original source at this time - if you know it, let me know and I'll credit it!

30 x 30 = Hope

"Make no little plans.  They have no power to stir men's blood"

- Daniel Burnham

Over the years, especially since I started writing this blog, I've become deeply enamored with the concept of rewilding.  This is the idea that its not enough that we save the few tattered patches of wilderness that we have left, but that we should aspire to expand protected areas and increase the amount of wild spaces left for wild things.   

Two corollaries that I've tacked on are 1.) zoos and aquariums have an ethical obligation to be active participants, preferably leaders, in any attempts to expand wildlife habitat.  2.) Wildlife conservation isn't something that should just be taking place in the developing world.  It should be happening in North America, Europe, Japan, and other highly developed countries as well.  Furthermore, when it happens in America, it shouldn't simply be out West or in Alaska, but covering areas and habitats all over the country.

30x30 is a worldwide initiative that calls upon governments of the world to protect 30% of the planet's land area and 30% of its ocean area for wildlife conservation by, you may have guessed, 2030.  It's already been endorsed by the European Union as part of its European Green Deal, and is being championed in the US by the Biden Administration by executive order; some US states, such as California, are taking their own initiatives as well.  

I'm pleased to see the the zoo and aquarium community is actively engaged in the process, providing logistical support, educational services, fundraising, and animal care expertise, which has the potential to assist in future reintroductions (see the zoo-park partnerships of the Wildlife Restoration Alliance).  There's a lot of bad news out there concerning the fate of the world's wildlife.  But at the same time, there are also lots of causes for hope.

Zoo Review: Monterey Bay Aquarium, Part II

Continuing with our tour of the incredible Monterey Bay Aquarium, we venture up to the second floor.  Besides additional views of the sea otters and Kelp Forest described yesterday, we encounter a whole different set of incredible enclosures.

Open Sea is, in many ways, the complete opposite of Kelp Forest.  It is long and wide instead of tall and narrow.  It is dark and gloomy instead of bright and cheerful.  And it is open and sparse instead of cluttered and busy.  Looking at it, I realized how seldom I've actually seen an aquarium display that actually showed the open, featureless ocean instead of coral reefs or kelp forests.  The curved backdrop seems invisible, making the back of the tank seem endlessly distant.  The enormous tank, about one million gallons total, features a variety of large oceanic fish, including scalloped hammerheads, dolphinfish, pelagic stingrays, and, my favorite, yellowfin tuna (I have never actually seen a live tuna before, so this was a really cool experience), as well as sea turtle.  The tank occasionally plays host of ocean sunfish, the giant, bizarre-looking laterally-compressed fish, but none were on display at the time of my visit (though I believe one is now, at the time of this writing - no guarantees about when you visit).

There is another famous past resident that I knew I wouldn't see.  It was this tank that famously once housed Monterey Bay Aquarium's great white sharks.  This is the only aquarium in the world to have successfully kept great whites for any length of time, though it has been years since one was kept here.  Previous specimens were kept for a while and then released back into the wild.  I can imagine how awesome it must have been to walk along the 30-meter window with the ocean's most famous predator cruising along on the other side of the glass, the white underside gleaming against the dark waters.

Other popular residents of the upper level are the seabirds, housed in two exhibits.  African penguins, one of the relatively few non-native animals in the aquarium, have an exhibit with a small bubble that lets visitors pop up alongside the birds.  More local seabirds - tufted puffins and common murres (the later I saw in the bay just the day before) - are nearby.  The penguins are part of Splash Zone, a collection of coastal wildlife.  (The aquarium is also home to the only albatrosses under human care in the country - they are not exhibit animals, but are sometimes brought out for presentations.  I met them and they absolutely blew my mind).  There are a variety of other satellite exhibits of smaller marine species dotted around both the upper and lower floors, with coastal natives ranging from sea cucumbers to California morays. A  few small exotics, such as Banggai cardinalfish, round out the collection.

No visit to Monterey Bay Aquarium would be complete without a spin through their extensive, beautiful jelly gallery.  Monterey has done pioneering work on the propagation of jellies, knowledge which has allowed these surreal ocean dwellers to become some of the most commonly (and sustainably) kept invertebrates in aquariums worldwide.  I saw even more invertebrates in Tentacles, the rotational exhibit that was devoted to the octopi, squid, and cuttlefish of the world.  It's so uncommon to see cephalopods other than the giant Pacific octopus, chambered nautilus, and common cuttlefish in an aquarium, so I really enjoyed the chance to see the diversity of these unique, highly intelligent creatures.  A new favorite for me was my first viewing of the aptly named flamboyant cuttlefish, a tiny creature with startling pink, purple, and red coloration.

Unfortunately, what I did not get to see was the newest exhibit at MBA, which was still under construction at the time.  Even more important than the exhibit halls at the aquarium is the associated research institute, which has done incredible work studying the fauna of the deepest parts of the ocean.  The aquarium has just opened an exhibit gallery dedicated to deep sea marine life, featuring many species that have never previously been seen on the surface.  Such an exhibit, replicated nowhere else, easily helps to cement Monterey Bay Aquarium's reputation as one of America's most incredible and unique public aquariums, and a can't-miss for the zoo enthusiast.

Zoo Review: Monterey Bay Aquarium, Part I

Perhaps rivaled only by the Georgia Aquarium for the title of America's most famous aquarium, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, like many aquariums, was established in part to revitalize the sinking fortunes of a coastal town in distress.  David and Lucile Packard spent $55 million dollars to create one of the world's greatest aquariums.  Monterey, California, once famed for its fish canneries (immortalized by John Steinbeck in Cannery Row), had hit hard times following the collapse of the fisheries that sustained it.  It's ironic, then, that today the town best known for canning fish is today best known for displaying them and educating the public about their conservation.    One of the signature programs of Monterey Bay Aquarium is Seafood Watch, a program which helps visitors make educated decisions about which seafood is the most environmentally sustainable, varying region from region.  It's a rare aquarium that doesn't have a stack of Seafood Watch cards, or an informative kiosk, somewhere on its grounds.

One of the things I loved the most about Monterey Bay Aquarium was how different it felt from so many other aquariums.  Many of them are built along the lines of art galleries, with darkened halls and (increasingly in the COVID era) one-way traffic.  Monterey is light and airy, in contrast, and the moment that you entire its central hall, you are surrounded by options of where to go and what to see.  The building resembles the old canning factories that once lined the waterfront (because that's what it was), with lots of display space immediately inside dedicated to sharing the story of the canneries, their workers, and the ecosystem that supported them... for as long as it could.  How the building manages to look historic and sleek/modern at the same time is something I still try to puzzle out, exactly.  Replicas of marine animals, such as an orca, hang from the ceiling.

Most visitors will immediately be drawn to one of the two most popular exhibits in the aquarium, both multi-layer habitats first visible from the lobby.  One of these is the sea otter exhibit.  The otters have a two-story habitat with an open top, allowing sunlight in.  The tank is deep enough to allow the otters to swim down several meters, with rocky shorelines on the second level for them to haul out on; the second-story viewing puts visitors right at the surface of the water, allowing them to watch the giant water weasels as they dip above and below the surface.  Besides exhibited non-releasable sea otters, Monterey Bay houses a rehab facility for orphaned or injured animals (complete with surrogate parents), where animals can either be rehabilitated for release or stabilized before being sent on to a permanent home elsewhere.

Immediately besides the ground-level, underwater viewing is a door that leads outside to a beautiful overview of the Bay.  Immediately off of this walkway is a demonstration area built around a tidal pool, which fills and drains with the natural ocean movements.  The sea otters inside might be the only mammals on display in the aquarium, but from here it is sometimes possible to observe wild sea otters, as well as seals, sea lions, dolphins, and whales.  An outdoor tidal pool exhibit can also be viewed before turning back inside.

The second of the two most popular exhibits is Monterey Bay's signature habitat - the Kelp Forest.  Three stories tall, this exhibit - one of the aquarium's original habitats - was the first to feature live kelp, the strands of which tower over the heads of visitors.  From a variety of vantage points on different sides and different levels, visitors can spot sheephead, garibaldi, and leopard sharks, as well as shoals of anchovies, weaving in and out of the drifting strands.  Except for Ocean Voyager at Georgia Aquarium, this is probably the most spectacular aquarium exhibit I've ever seen, and while Ocean Voyager owes its appeal to both its size and the species seldom seen anywhere else -whale shark, giant manta - Kelp Forest is incredible while featuring mostly common aquarium species in a tank of fairly reasonable proportions.

Several smaller tanks nearby feature a wide variety of Monterey Bay's other wildlife, including a giant Pacific octopus is what is probably the best habitat I've ever seen for the species.  I might be biased because the animal happened to be active when I was walking by, in the way that octopuses seldom are, and it was an enormous and very beautiful individual.  Another popular feature of the aquarium is the nearby walk-through shorebird aviary, home to a variety of birds seldom seen in aquariums, such as phalathropes and godwits.  I could have happily spent an hour just watching the birds.  The backdrop of the aviary is a window overlooking the shore outside, providing a beautiful backdrop.

The tour of Monterey Bay Aquarium will continue tomorrow.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

It's His Phone Now.

A visitor at an Australian wildlife park picked the wrong exhibit to drop their phone into... not that there is an ideal enclosure to drop it into.  A staff member was able to eventually coax the Tasmanian devil until dropping it, but I can't say that I think that phone will be the same again.  Wonder what their phone plan has to say about situations like this?

The BS Bigfoot

The following Facebook post was published last week by TV "animal expert" Coyote Peterson.  I'm not sure what I find the most ridiculous about this.  The fact that this is pretty obviously a model gorilla skull (not even a real one! Check out BoneClones).  The fact that he's bragging about violating international law by smuggling the specimen (which, to be fair, would only be a crime if this is real... which it isn't).  The needlessly ridiculous "the government is going to censor me" but, which can only further erode trust in public institutions.  Or the fact that there are so many stupid people on his Facebook page who seem to believe that this is real...

... even after he later (like, 10 minutes into a separate video) finally admits that this is just a "hypothetical scenario," and that this didn't actually happen.  Knowing full well that plenty of people won't see that part, just the part where he claims to have discovered a sasquatch skull.

We, as a species, may well be doomed.  Needless to say, don't look for a Bigfoot exhibit at your local zoo anytime soon. 

Mirror, Mirror, in the Woods...

Yeah, that's pretty much how I feel when I catch sight of myself in the mirror these days, too... and I don't even get the luxury of being able to sleep for a third of the year underground.

Black Jaguar, White Lies

Years ago, I walked out into the public area of my zoo and saw a visitor staring fixedly at one of our big cats.  As soon as she saw me, she swooped over and made a "suggestion" (I put the quotes up because there was the implication that, if I didn't agree to do what I said, I was the scum of the earth).  She wanted my zoo to donate the cat to a charity that she supported in Mexico, a "sanctuary" (again, note the use of quotation marks) called "Black Jaguar, White Tiger."  Not unreasonably, I declined.  I mean, I would have said no anyway, even if it had been my choice, but I had already started to hear some rumors about that place, and I didn't like what I heard.  We argued for a while, me growing increasingly exasperated, when I finally lost it.

"Lady," I said, "I'd rather see that cat dead than in the hands of that guy."  And with that, I walked off.  I braced myself for an angry voicemail on our zoo's phone for the next few weeks, but it never came.

Today, it looks like those suspicions were founded.  Mexican authorities shut down the facility earlier this week, removing an assortment of big cats in deplorable conditions, some partially eaten by flies... or each other.  The cats are being rehomed to zoos across Mexico, where hopefully they'll get better care.

Police haul off over 200 lions, tigers, jaguars and other animals in 'deplorable' conditions after sanctuary raid in Mexico

BJWT was founded by businessman Eduardo Serio, who collected big cats, claiming he was rescuing them from zoos or the pet trade.  Again, it's not a rescue if you're buying them, it's a sale.  He made his facility open to celebrities such as Khloe Kardashian and Paris Hilton, letting them pet his cats (always a warning sign -what happens to those cubs when they are no longer so cute and cuddly?). Complaints had circulated for years about the small enclosures, poor husbandry, and shady practices at BJWT.  Serio was quick to threaten anyone who cast doubts about his facility, and I saw many threats of legal action flung out against his critics.

I've grown increasingly frustrated with sketchy sanctuaries like BJWT over the years.  They spew vitriol about zoos, while claiming that they are rescues and they are the only ones who truly care about the animals.  Many are run by charismatic figures who develop cult-like followings (Doc Antle, I'm looking at you).  They think that they can justify all kinds of mediocre facilities, poor living conditions, and questionable practices because "they are sanctuaries, not zoos," they don't have enough money, the animals were in bad shape when they arrived, blah, blah, blah.

Serio always struck me as a charlatan, but I do acknowledge that many of these pseudo-sanctuaries are run by people who meant well, maybe didn't realize how hard caring for animals would be, and wound up in over their head.  Good attentions aside (and we all know what is paved with good intentions), the animals don't care.  If you're starved to death or neglected by someone who means well, it's just about as unpleasant as if it happens at the hands of someone who doesn't mean well.

The point of a sanctuary is to be a place of rescue for animals in need... not to be a place that animals need to be rescued from.  

Species Fact Profile: Two-Toed Amphiuma

                                                           Two-Toed Amphiuma                                                                                                                 Amphiuma means (Garden in Smith, 1821)

Range: Southeastern United States, from southeastern Virginia to Texas

Habitat:  Freshwater Wetlands, Lakes, Wet Prairies.  Prefer shallow, heavily vegetated bodies of water

Diet: Small Fish, Tadpoles, Crustaceans, Insects, Frogs, Salamanders, Small Reptiles

Social Grouping: Solitary

Reproduction: Breed in early-to-mid summer, takes place in the water.  Females lay strings of up to 200 eggs in a cavity near the water, coil around the eggs for the 5 month incubation period to prevent desiccation.   Eggs may hatch either into a larval stage with exterior gills or into direct adults, without exterior gills

Lifespan: 15-25 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern

•       Largest of the amphiumas, and longest (but not largest) salamander in North America.  Body length 35-116 centimeters, weigh up to 1050 grams.  At first glance appear to be legless, but actually have four vestigial legs, each ending in two toes (the number of toes is used to distinguish this species from the closely related one-toed and three-toed amphiumas).  Head is pointed with small eyes and a single gill slit on each side
•       Body is black, dark gray, or dark brown in color, lighter color on the ventral surface.  Skin is extremely slippery
•       Primarily nocturnal and aquatic, digging burrows in muddy stream bottoms or hiding in submerged rocks and logs.  If the surrounding land is wet enough, they may crawl out of the water.  Survive droughts by burying into the mud or into the burrows of other species, such as crayfish.  
•       Specimens in colder parts of their range may hibernate, while those in more tropical parts, like the Everglades, will be active year round
•       Prey is detected by smell.  May hunt actively, or lie in ambush under debris and strike when prey passes by
•       Generally shy and inoffensive, but capable of inflicting a painful bite if disturbed, especially if defending the nest
•       Predators include snakes (especially mud and rainbow snakes), raptorial birds, cranes, otters, and alligators.  Species may practice cannibalism
•       One of the only salamanders capable of vocalizations, giving a whistle when disturbed or making clicking sounds of variable frequencies to communicate with other amphiumas
•       Locally they are often known as Congo snakes, Congo eels, conger eels, or blind snakes

Beneath the Wings of the Flying Goose

"If you travel much in the wilder sections of our country, sooner or later you are likely to meet the sign of the flying goose - the emblem of the national wildlife refuges.  You may meet it by the side of a road crossing miles of flat prairie in the Middle West, or in the hot deserts of the Southwest.  You may meet it by some mountain lake, or as you push your boat through the winding salty creeks of a coastal marsh.

Whenever you meet this sign, respect it.  It means that the land behind the sign has been dedicated by the American people to preserving, for themselves and their children, as much of our native wildlife as can be retained along with our modern civilization.  Wild creatures, like men, must have a place to live."

- Rachel Carson

There's a joke (but is it a joke if it's not told in jest?) that I've heard a lot this past month, saying that maybe America doesn't deserve a birthday party this year.  Granted, if I had a child that acted that way that we, as a nation, have collectively behaved lately, I probably wouldn't be splurging on cake or presents for them either.  Still, I try to remind myself that political and cultural changes happen, and we cope with them the best that we can, but America isn't just a people.  It's a land - and it's a land that is also worth celebrating.

Despite some recent knuckle-dragging, America has in many ways been a country that's often been on the cutting edge, and that includes our conservation practices.   The United States is home to the world's first national park, Yellowstone, which (despite current flooding) still is an icon of conservation.  Besides being the first national park set aside for the enjoyment of a people, rather than a king or emperor or ruling family, it was also the site of one of the first deliberate attempts to reestablish a large carnivore back into the wild after it had been killed off, which is why it is once again possible to hear wolves howling in the lower 48.  Perhaps even more important as a story of America's national commitment to wildlife and wild places is the National Wildlife Refuge system.

The first NWR was designated by President Theodore Roosevelt, who wanted to protect the wading birds of Florida's Pelican Island from plume hunters in 1903.  The system was a patchwork of cobbled together pockets of habitat until Teddy's cousin Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in the 1930s.  With a team of conservation heavyweights J. N. "Ding" Darling, Thomas Beck, and Aldo Leopold at the helm, FDR saw the establishment of an interconnected National Wildlife Refuge system, under the auspices of the newly-reorganized Fish and Wildlife Service.  Remarkably, this system grew up in the midst of the Great Depression, when the focus of much of the country was on saving millions of Americans from poverty, not on the fate of ducks and elk.  FDR saw the health of the environment and the economy and intertwined and inseparable, however.  Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps carried out much of the labor in establishing and protecting the new reserves.

Today, there are close to 600 refuges across the country, some the size of a large backyard, some spanning millions of acres (the largest is the perpetually-threatened Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, which is constantly facing encroachment from those seeking to drill for oil on its 19 million acres.  The smallest is Mille Lacs Lake in Minnesota, only half an acre).

These refuges - and the wildlife that lives there - are an essential part of our country and its heritage.  They are not, however, inviolate citadels, beyond the reach of humanity and immune from whatever damage we can inflict.  Preserving them is an ongoing battle (especially for Arctic NWR).  I encourage everyone to pay a visit to an NWR, either their locale one or ones that may encounter while traveling.  Doing so is a great way to demonstrate support for some of the places that truly make this country remarkable and worth protecting. 

From the News: Giraffe at Omaha zoo saves life of baby giraffe at Lincoln Children's Zoo

 Giraffe at Omaha zoo saves life of baby giraffe at Lincoln Children's Zoo

Seeing and Believing

The drive down the California coast through Big Sur is breathtakingly beautiful, cruising alongside sheer cliff faces with the Pacific spreading out by your side.  It's also terrifying, with all the hairpin turns and oncoming traffic, as well as a bit stressful, with the lack of gas stations, but, yeah, mostly it was the whole going off the edge of a cliff possibility that kept my attention focused.  Between the precipices below and my rapidly draining fuel gage in front of me, I was having a hard time doing what I wanted to do - look up.  I'd come to Big Sur with one goal in mind, and it wasn't scenery (though I did appreciate that).  I wanted to check off a major item on my bucket list/life list, and see a California condor in the wild.

(For the entire saga of why seeing a condor in the wild - why there even are condors in the wild anymore - check out this excellent book).

I'd written to anyone I knew who might have any insights on where to look and followed their leads, but without much luck.  I was on the cusp of giving up, when, at one overlook, I noticed some distant flecks on the far off horizon, above the mountains.  They were barely perceptible, but I figured that for them to be visible at all from such a distance, they'd have to be pretty big.

Pulling out my binoculars, I zoomed in.  Even through the lenses, I could barely make them out.  All I could tell for sure was that they were big, black birds, with white patches on the underside of their wings.  Whereas the lighter area of a turkey vulture is on the outside edge, these patches were extending from the armpits, for lack of better word.  There was only one bird like that here.  These were my California condors.  Periodically, they would dip behind the hills and out of sight.  After a few minutes, they dipped back there and did not emerge again.

I was torn between two emotions.  Excitement, that I'd seen them.  Disappointment, that I really hadn't.

Most encounters with wild animals are kind of like that - quick, fleeting, and with at least a little doubt thrown in (there have been several encounters I've had with rarely seen wild animals - puma in New Mexico, bobcat in Maryland, aardvark in Tanzania - that have been so blink-and-you-miss-it that I've found myself wondering if that really happened or if I had some sort of hallucination).  

Wild animals generally do not want to be your friend.  They often know you are there before you know they are there, and either flee before you see them, or as soon as they realize that you see them.  Hundreds of years of persecution does that to a species, and for much of our recent shared history, it's been survival of the wary.

From "The Condor Cave" on Facebook

Not that these condors, a tremendous distance away, probably paid me any mind.  But they were free in their element, utterly unapproachable.  What I saw of them was on their terms, not mine.  Working in a zoo gives me a lot of close access to wild animals, many of which have become habituated, sometimes even solicitous of contact with humans.  Not surprisingly, I've rarely had such encounters with wild wild animals.

Rarely, but not never.

In high school, my biology teacher took a group of students hiking in the Chihuahua Desert.  I was just starting to get into birding under his (pun unintended) wing, and was so excited about all of the new species I either saw or hoped to see on that trip.  One morning, we were climbing a mountain when we were suddenly surrounded by a loud, boisterous group of inquisitive blue birds.  They swooped around us, perching at eye level, looking at us inquisitively, then hopping down by our feet, flying away a short distance if we moved too-quickly.  We stood in their midst for several minutes before they seemingly got bored and flew off.  Still, it was a really cool experience.

As they flew off, my teacher smiled and said, "You've all seen a lot birds on this trip.  You've experienced a Mexican jay, now."

Experiences like that are rare - but I like to think that the rarity just makes them more special when they do occur.