Whistling Past the Graveyard

Happy Halloween!  Across the country, our zoos and aquariums have been decked out for the season for the past month or so, all the better to take advantage of special events.  A lot of the décor would be pretty familiar to anyone who has decorated for Halloween, which much of it more themed around fall than the spooky season itself.  There are pumpkins (not just those that get carved or smashed up for treats) and haybales and scarecrows and dried corn.  

For spookier decorations, there are those fake skeletal animals which drive many a keeper to fury with their anatomical inaccuracies (spider's don't have bones!).  And then there are the graveyards.

Graveyards are a popular lawn ornament for Halloween at many homes, but those at the zoo tend to be a little different.  The names inscribed on their Styrofoam surfaces aren't Barry M. Deep, I. M. Agoner or other silly puns.  Here, the festivities get a little grim.

Passenger Pigeon.  Sept. 1, 1914

Carolina Parakeet.  Feb 21, 1918

Thylacine/"Tasmanian Tiger." Sept 7, 1936

And many others.  All extinct animals - but no dinosaurs or pterodactyls, or even mammoths and sabre-toothed cats.  The markers all commemorate recently extinct animals - ones driven to the grave by our collective, human hand.  Some species we know exactly when they disappeared.  Others just sort of... faded away, and then someone realized it had been a really long time until anyone had seen one.

Read about the Extinct Species Graveyard at the Bronx Zoo here

These tombstones are often treated as a bit of a joke, a cutesy prop, but if you think about it, they contain an existential terror.  In almost every horror movie, their is a survivor - who else would tell the story if there wasn't?  But extinction, by its definition, leaves no survivors.  You take the death of an individual - be it at the wrong end of a sailor's club, at the claws of an introduced predator, or of old age, isolated from potential mates by habitat loss and therefore dying alone - and then you multiply it on a grand scale, until no one is left.  There are some horror movies that focus on the extinction (or near extinction) of the human species, such as I Am Legend.  It's easy to extrapolate that terror to animals.

Anyway, enjoy the candy. 

From the News: Syracuse zoo elephants get groundbreaking vaccine

 Syracuse zoo elephants get groundbreaking vaccine

Combining two of the biggest US zoo elephant stories of recent years, the miracle twin Asian elephants from Syracuse's Rosamond Gifford Park Zoo are among the first elephants to receive the new vaccine against EEHV, the deadly elephant herpes virus.  Hopefully they do well with their treatment and are an additional step towards establishing a healthy, thriving population of Asian elephants under human care.

The Most Gourdeous Time of Year

Wear Your Waterfowl

Halloween is fast creeping up on us.  Don't have a costume yet?  Don't worry!  According to Ducks Unlimited, by raiding your closet, you may very well have the makings of a perfectly acceptable waterfowl costume.  See what you've got! (Or you could go shopping, but some of these prices seem a little out of budget for the average keeper)

A Slice of Sudan

One of the most enjoyable aspects of being a reptile keeper, I always thought, was being able to create the habitats.  With their smaller size, glass fronts, and the steady, year-round climate control from being inside, as opposed to the outdoor habitats for mammals and birds, it was often possible to exercise a far greater degree on control when building a reptile exhibit than it was for other animals.  And with that greater control came greater opportunities to engage in artistic creativity.  

I was able to refurbish a cornsnake exhibit, for example, which had previously just been a box with mulch.  I tore off wooden planks from old fences and lined the walls of the tank with them, making it look like the interior of a barn.  Other barn implements - a milk pail, a pitchfork, etc - added complexity for the snake in the form of climbing structures and hiding opportunities, while also providing a more interesting experience for the visitor.  It also provided an educational lesson, as we could talk about how cornsnakes benefited farmers by eating rodent pests.

One of the first reptile habitats I ever assembled was one for a Sudan plated lizard (I saw "one of" because the first attempt I had at such an exhibit, for frilled lizards, was deemed so inadequate by my curator that he immediately took it apart and made me redo it, recounted here).  To do this, I spent a lot of time looking back at pictures and memories of my time in East Africa, where I'd seen the lizards in the wild.  What really left an impression on my memory was the earth there - the red, sunbaked earth - so I went and found a few bucket-loads of similar material for the substrate.  I found big, flat rocks to form a Retes stack of slate stones.  These formations are excellent for rock-dwelling lizards, which can take advantage of the multiple crevices formed by the rocks to hide within, while also having lots of exposed ledges of various distances from the heat lamp for basking.  Lots of tufts of tall dried grasses (I tried and failed to establish live plants) provided cover.  A piece of drift wood, a water bowl, and voila  - we had a habitat.

Because this was a 4 x 4 x 4 habitat in a reptile house, I was able to do it all myself easily.  And what's more, at any time I wanted to, for any reason, I could undo it and redo it by myself - even if it was just a whim.  No need for an all-day team project, or a bunch of heavy machinery to be called in.  I could handle it by myself, which meant that the lizard could get its habitat redone and refreshed much more often than, say, the tigers could.  

Recreating reptile habitats is a fun, aesthetic challenge, all the more interesting because the multiple levels to it.  Can you build a habitat that is naturalistic, while still having the animals visible to the public (considering that the natural behavior of many reptiles is to hide)?  Can you impart meaningful conservation and educational messages with your design?  Can the exhibit you designed easily and safely be cared for by staff?  And, most importantly, can your animals thrive in it, expressing as wide a range of their natural behaviors as possible or desirable for them?

Species Fact Profile: Sudan Plated Lizard (Broadleysaurus major)

                                              Sudan, or Greater, Plated Lizard

                                           Broadleysaurus major (Dumeril, 1851)

Range: Eastern and Central Africa 

Habitat: Semi-Arid Savannah, Woodland

Diet: Invertebrates, Fruits, Vegetables, Small Vertebrates

Social Grouping: Semi-Social.  Males may be territorial

Reproduction: Females lay 4-6 large eggs (each approximately 12 centimeters), buried in loose sand or soil.  Incubation period 3-4 months, hatchlings 10-15 centimeters long.  No parental care

Lifespan: 10-20 Years

      Conservation Status: IUCN Least Concern

• Body length 45-70 centimeters, about half of which is made up by the broad tail.  Males are slightly larger than females.  Stout bodies with short limbs.
• Gray-brown scales over the body (sometimes also called the tawny plated lizard), paler on the underside.  Males tend to have paler throats than females, which become more brightly colored during breeding season.  Juveniles tend to be darker and more spotted than adults
• The most heavily armored of the plated lizards, covered with square-shaped armored plates, which are fused into a "helmet" on the top of the head.  There is a scale-free fold on skin running along either side of the body, which allows the body to expand for breathing
• Diurnal, spending the nights sheltering in burrows or termite mounds.  May share these refuges with other species
• Primary defense mechanism is to wedge themselves in rock crevices, which they can be difficult to extract from.  Will also whip their tails at predators.  Rarely bite.
• Previously in a genus with several other plated lizards, since split off into its own genus.  Two subspecies recognized.

Dr. Frankenstein's Zoo

 "It took them eight years to do it, but it was finally successful.  You can see that it has zebra legs and it has sort of a giraffe top.  The neck looks like it's coming in strong, but not quite the length a baby giraffe would have." - nanchakusdragon

What in the Eldritch horrors hell is this nonsense?  Some Tiktoker, who I sincerely hope is joking, is claiming that the Cincinnati Zoo has genetically engineered a monstrous new creation... which is, of course, a perfectly natural okapi.  

Why do people insist on generating misinformation nonsense?  I'm almost certain that this idiot probably knows that what he's saying is false - if not, the fact that he has hundreds of comments that all go, "Nah, that's an okapi" should clue him in.  But when you put false information out there, it takes on a life of it's own, even if you meant it to be a joke.  Hell, there's plenty of folks who believe in flat earths, or that the world is run by lizard men, or that politicians control the weather to attack their rivals.  Compared to those outlandish crazy ideas, wacky experiments at the zoo seem fairly believable.

It may seem like it's all silly fun, but it's not.  It can harder for zoos and aquariums to generate support for conservation if people don't believe their animals are real, but are rather some Frankensteinesque monsters.   For an endangered species like the okapi, which already has low recognition with the general public, this nonsense only complicates efforts to raise awareness.

The Culinary Keeper

Making salad is a relatively simple process, be it for a dinner party or for a herd of tortoises.  Different species (including humans) have their different preferences, and you have to be aware that some fruits and vegetables are toxic to certain species, either parts of them or in their entirety.  Still, the process is fairly simple - you rinse, you chop, you mix.  Other recipes from the zoo's kitchen can be a bit more involved.

When I was a kid, reading my first books about zoos, I remember coming across a recipe in one of them that was tailored towards king cobras.  In their wild state, king cobras are snake specialists, and as a steady supply of feeder snakes of appropriate size could be tough for some zoos (especially in the north, where wild snakes are denned up for much of the year, and generally aren't that common) could be difficult to come by, creative measures were called for.  One zoo had developed a recipe for a rather nauseating-sounding sauces, with shed snakeskin as a base ingredient - that they'd cook up in the kitchen, then dip feeder rats into it.  The cobras would smell the snake on the rat and then eat it, solving the problem.

If you look through the records of many older zoos, you might see a lot of mention of a variety of animals, from ducks to elephants, being fed bread.  Bread back then wasn't the white sandwich bread that we see in grocery stores today.  Sometimes it was the same loaves that were baked for human consumption, especially for animals like elephants that needed bulk feeding.  Other animals had specialized breads baked for them, with some zoos having bakeries on grounds to meet the demand.  In some ways, these breads were the predecessors of the commercial chows.

In many ways, the newfangled commercial diets - Mazuri and the like - have reduced the culinary demands placed on zookeepers.  Now, nutritionally complete diets for a variety of species can be obtained simply by opening a bag, then supplementing with some greens, bugs, fruits, meats, or what-have-you.  I did work for a private zoo owner who had an aardvark, however, and the man was too cheap to spring for the Mazuri insectivore diet.  Instead, he determined, somehow, the soaking dry cat food and leafeater biscuits, then putting them in a blender together, was somehow the same thing.  So a big part of my daily kitchen adventure was mixing that mess up.  An even bigger part of it was cleaning the resultant red goo off the ceiling and walls, as our crappy little blender had a bad habit of spitting off its lid at inopportune moments (he also wouldn't spring for a half-decent blender).

I've often thought it would be fun if a lot of old-time zoo folks got together and made a historical cookbook of all of these old recipes.  True, I don't see us making too many of them up in the future anymore.  They are a fascinating piece of zoo history, however, one which I'd hate to lose completely.

Sink Salad

In yesterday's post, I made a brief mention of sink salad, and thought I'd unpack that a little.  In our reptile house, we basically had three dietary groups - the bug eaters, the meat and fish eaters, and the salad eaters.  While the first two groups were broken down further on the basis of size (fruit flies vs crickets, pinkies vs mice vs rats, etc), the salad eaters all got our standard salad.  For purposes of ease, we'd make it up in one large batch, mixed up in, you guessed it, a (clean, empty) sink.

Several greens would be chopped up as the base - we usually went for a mix of lettuce (romaine, red leaf, green leaf - never iceberg) and darker greens, such as collards.  Then, the veggies, mostly of the root variety - carrot, yellow squash, zucchini.  Sometimes there would be added seasonal vegetables as well.  Everything was chopped roughly and mixed up, then doled out into individual serving sizes.

The salad was largely the same, but the eaters (and the sizes of their mouths) were not.  For the big kahunas, like the Galapagos tortoises and the blue iguanas, you barely needed to do anything else - they were big enough to eat it as it was.  For the tiny guys, such as the shield-tailed agamas, you had to take their share and dice it fine, as you'd expect for a lizard with a head the size of your thumbnail.  The smaller the portion, the more important it also was to make sure they got a representative sample of the salad - not just a chunk of carrot.

Some species would get some fruit, like apple or banana, mixed in.  Others wouldn't.  Fruit is very watery and for species that aren't used to it, it can cause diarrhea.  And you couldn't put too much in either - otherwise the animals would scarf the yummy fruit portion down and ignore the part that was, you know, healthy.  Other animals might get some meal worms, or even some diced rodent, sprinkled across the dish.  Then, a dusting of vitamin and mineral powder over the mix, served out in trays or bowls.  When we'd put the bowls in enclosures with multiple animals, we'd often pick the critters up and put them at the edge of the tray.  That way, everyone knew it was feeding time and no one missed out.  Then, we'd wait a second or two to make sure everyone actually was eating.  Not showing interest in food might just mean the animal wasn't hungry - or it might be a sign that something was wrong.

The Wisdom of Small Things

 "There really is a way to hold a broom and dustpan that allows you to collect all of the dirt on a floor.  There is a way to rinse a mop to get rid of the dirt it has already absorbed, so that you don't simply spread it back on the floor with each successive sweep.  There is a method for unpacking live frogs from a cardboard shipping box so that they can't leap out en masse in every direction as soon as you lift the first flap.  There is also a way to open a cage door behind which lurks a dangerously venomous snake or, at beast, a flighty lizard looking for escape.  I needed to learn it all."

- You Belong in a Zoo, Peter Brazaitis

As a volunteer working at my local zoo as a kid - and later as a fledgling zookeeper out of college - I knew that I had a lot to learn.  At my first keeper job, I took home books from our zoo library (because that's how old school we were back then) to read up about the animals.  I pestered senior staff to show me their secret techniques.  I kept voluminous notebooks with my scribbles.  

What I didn't realize was how much of my learning was going to come down to basic life hacks - both those that had applications for home life, and those that just made the job easier.

As an example, one of my main jobs used to be to change out all of the water bowls in our reptile house.  That was no small task, as we had over fifty exhibits.  Each bowl I had to grab, empty into the floor drains, scrub out, refill at the sink, and then carry back.  The problem was that the reptile house back corridor was thin and treacherous, with hoses and bricks and other debris everywhere, and I was constantly spilling water.  Each bowl was half empty by the time I had it back in its enclosure.  Eventually, I learned to clean the bowls, then put them back in the exhibit empty and dry.  Then, I'd fill them up with a pitcher of water I'd filled at the sink.  I could fill each bowl all the way up, and not spill water all over the floor of the back corridor, which was generally slippery enough already.  

It was the little life hacks like that, more than any arcane knowledge of animals, which really made me start to feel like a professional zookeeper.  Like how to most effectively chop vegetables up for the big sink salad we made every day to feed all of our plant-eating lizards and tortoises, or that a squeegee works better when you drag water towards you than push it away.  Learning these techniques enabled me to do my job faster and better, freeing up more time for the more enjoyable jobs.  Some of these skills also have at-home application.  To this day, chopping vegetables for dinner is my job, and I don't mind it.  It takes me no time at all.

Zoo Review: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Part II

Continuing the tour of the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, we look at the outdoor exhibits

Most of (not all, but most of) the zoo's exhibits are focused around the Pacific Rim region.  While that excludes a few major zoological hotspots (*cough* Africa *cough*), it does feature some pretty variable landscapes with diverse wildlife.  

Consider, for example, Sanctuary Asia, which features the wildlife of Southeast Asia and Indonesia.  The exhibit is built in the rotating-exhibit school of thought, whereby animals may be found in one exhibit one day, a different one the next.  The theory behind this practice is that it provides a more variable experience for both the animals and the visitor.  As is often the case, however, certain habitats seem better suited to certain species, and I suspect that there are exhibits which are more or less designated to some species.  I can't imagine the primates, for example, making the best use of a large, grassy yard with a water moat, while the meshed in habitats might seem tight for some of the larger residents.  Occupants of the area are Malayan tapir, lowland anoa, siamang, white-cheeked gibbon, crested porcupine, and small-clawed otter.  A large, spacious yard with a big water feature was home to Sumatran tiger at the time of my visit, and I suspect that's almost always the case.

Two other habitats are generally tacked on as part of Sanctuary Asia.  At the time of my visit, the zoo's lone remaining Asian elephant was found nearby, though the animal has since passed, ending Point Defiance's involvement with the species.  What will happen with the exhibit has not yet been announced, though I strongly suspect Indian rhino.  Also nearby is one of the best of Point Defiance's land exhibits, the towering Cats of the Canopy, built after the rest of the section and home to clouded leopards.  Point Defiance is one of the premier breeders of these gorgeous Asian cats.  The leopards can be difficult to see in the well-planted exhibit that provides plenty of climbing opportunities, but for the naturally elusive animals, that's really what makes it such a superb enclosure - and when you do spot one, it really feels like an accomplishment.

The other main geographic area of the Pacific Rim represented here is the Arctic coast and tundra.  For many visitors, the undisputed stars of the zoo will be the polar bears.  The exhibit here might seem a little small compared to some of the truly great polar bear exhibits out there, but its worthwhile seeing as one of the first American zoo exhibits that actually incorporated greenery into the bear habitat.  Besides the obligatory pool (with underwater viewing, of course), there is grass, dirt, and rock for the bears to explore.  Nearby is the polar bear's natural sidekick, the Arctic fox, as well as a vast, grassy meadow for muskox.  Point Defiance is the only place I've seen these arctic ungulates, which are notoriously intolerant of heat and have disappeared from their other past holders (in one case, just months before I visited the zoo, to my chagrin).  I'm not sure how much longer the zoo will have this species, but I was certainly glad to see them here - including a young calf.

Much of the arctic exhibit focuses on aquatic species, and Point Defiance does well here.  There's a nice walk-through aviary of horned and tufted puffins, along with common murres, I think the only outdoor exhibit I've seen of these birds.  Like the polar bears, their habitat is striking for being green and hilly, rather than just rock and water.  There is also a trio of marine mammal habitats.  Sea otters are very common in the zoos and aquariums of the west coast, so I wasn't surprised to see them here.  A former beluga habitat how features harbor seals and California sea lions.  I was most excited to see the walruses, a truly impressive species which few places have these days.  The underwater viewing area was closed (I'm told due to tusk scratches on the windows), but there was above water viewing too and I was treated to some excellent views of the huge sea beasts.

Other exhibits include a small but attractive colony of Magellanic penguins from South America (like the puffin exhibit, notable for its greenery) and a few odds-and-ends exhibits clustered around a children's zoo, complete with play areas and contact zones (the children's zoo also generally sees the departure from the geographic theming of the zoo).  One substantial- but important - deviation from the Pacific coast is the red wolf exhibit.  Though they are found on the exact opposite corner of the country - the southeast, as opposed to the Pacific Northwest - red wolves are a critical part of Point Defiance's history.  It was to this zoo that the last surviving wolves were brought for the breeding program that ultimately saved the species.  The zoo continues to be an important breeder of these rare canines.

Point Defiance is certainly one of the more unique zoos that I've seen.  The natural beauty was fantastic, the strong aquatic component (both in and out of the aquariums) was impressive, and the collection was unique.  The zoo lacks many of the most "typical" zoo animals - including almost any African species - but does showcase a lot of unique species seen very rarely elsewhere (and the lack of more usual zoo animals isn't necessarily a weakness - this zoo is just an hour or so away from the excellent - of more conventional - Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle).  Furthermore, many of the exhibits are very unique - and I mean that in a good way, which isn't always the case.  

Some of the enclosures could stand to be improved, and I think that the Pacific theming could be strengthened by adding a few other species.  The bird and reptile collections are pretty weak and could be strengthened while adding to this theme - Galapagos tortoises, for example, would fit well.  The children's zoo struck me as kind of a weak area, so perhaps that could be rethemed along those lines.  Still, it was a very unique campus with fascinating animals in overall good exhibits.  It's a zoo that's been on my must-see list for some time, and I'm very glad to  have finally made it there. 

Zoo Review: Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, Part I

I've been to few zoos which have been placed in a more gorgeous setting than the Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, located in Tacoma, Washington.  The facility is located in its namesake park, a 760-acre spit of land jutting out into Puget Sound; from its beaches a variety of birdlife and marine mammals can be spotted, while its trails meander through old growth forests and formal gardens.  The zoo takes excellent advantage of its surroundings, both in terms of scenery - the sea can be seen from just inside the main gate - to theming.  The living collection is heavily themed, mostly focused on the wildlife of the Pacific Rim.

Many zoos also list themselves as aquariums, but usually the aquarium is more of an afterthought to the zoo proper.  In the case of Point Defiance, the reverse might be true, with the zoo almost overshadowed by the aquatic component.  The zoo itself was founded in 1905, the aquarium in 1935 elsewhere - it was relocated onto zoo grounds and the facilities were combined in 1963.  After struggling along for many years, the zoo was reinvigorated by much-needed financial support in the form of taxes and bonds in the 1990s, and is now home to not one but two aquarium buildings (I can think of no other zoo with two full aquarium buildings), along with more traditional zoo exhibits.

As with the terrestrial animal collection, the aquatic collection is focused on the Pacific Ocean.  My favorite of the two is the Pacific Seas Aquarium, home to some of the more iconic of aquarium species.  Among them are Japanese spider crabs, giant Pacific octopus, and a variety of jellies (including moon jellies maintained in a globe aquarium).  One tank houses a large school of Pacific herring, which dazzle visitors with their movements.  Other tanks offer glimpses into sub-habitats of the Pacific.  One depicts the underside of a bridge, prowled by wolf eels and rockfish, another features a rocky seascape covered with sea cucumbers and anemones, while another is a kelp forest with California moray and sheephead.  There is, of course, an excellent exhibit of Puget Sound marine life as well, as well as the ever-popular touch tank, populated by urchins, sea stars, and other invertebrates.

The largest habitat in either of the two aquariums is the Baja Bay Tank, a 280,000 gallon enclosure.  Every aquarium it seems, is required to have the obligatory shark-and-sea turtle tank, and this is Point Defiance's answer to that demand.  Scalloped hammerheads, spotted eagle rays, and green sea turtles are the main attraction here, while a variety of smaller but very beautiful fish - angelfish, snapper, tangs - provide color and motion.  This exhibit can be viewed from different levels throughout the building, providing an excellent experience.

The second aquarium is the recently-renovated Tropical Reef Aquarium.  The highlight of this aquarium is a second of the zoo's main shark tanks, only slightly smaller than the Baja Bay (but not offering as good of viewing, in my opinion).  Several sharks - zebra shark, blacktip reef shark, spotted wobbegong among them - and rays can be found here, as well as humphead wrasse, unicorn tang, and other beautiful and strange-looking species.  Other, smaller but (in my mind) more aesthetically pleasing tanks depict tropical lagoons and reefs, a perfect counterpart to the coldwater-focused Pacific Seas Aquarium.

Neither of this aquariums, it is noted, feature marine mammals or penguins, the stars of many standalone aquariums - which is not to say that they can't be found at Point Defiance.  Those species are spread out among the outdoor zoo exhibits, which we'll review tomorrow.

Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium

Things That Never Happened...

Facebook is a goldmine for ridiculous stories that never happened.  Some of which, of course, are zoo-focused.   Yeah, good luck trying that.  

Book Review: America's Snake - The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake

The rattlesnake is the herpetological icon of the Old West, the villain of cowboy yarns and the buzzing soundtrack of western movies.  Not all rattlesnakes, however, are creatures of the plains and deserts.  It would surprise many people to know that rattlesnakes can also be found in the surprisingly less-expected states of the north and east, such as Massachusetts and New York.  This part of the country is the realm of the timber rattlesnake - though for how much longer remains to be seen.

America's Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake, by nature writer Ted Levin, tells the story of this once-iconic, now largely forgotten snake.   This is the rattlesnake species that the English settlers of North America first met, and it certainly made an impression on them.  Decades after arrival, their descendants were putting the snake on a flag with the words "Don't Tread On Me," using it as a symbol of defiance against the British crown, while Benjamin Franklin waxed poetically about the snake's virtues.  That patriotic fervor, of course, doesn't change the fact that the rattlesnake is a venomous snake, a group of animals people typically show little appreciation for.  The snake has been subject to intense persecution, and its numbers are dropping across much of its range.

The book explores the cultural and natural history of the snake (similar to Jack Davis's The Bald Eagle), focusing on efforts to better understand and conserve the species in the face of many threats - habitat loss, overcollection, and persecution.  Like Davis's eagle book, this can get a little chaotic and jumbled at times, and there are parts where it reads more like a bunch of anecdotes and facts that are trying, and not quite succeeding, to weave themselves into a fluid narrative (and at times a little repetitive).  The book is more focused on the snake's haunts in the northeast and Midatlantic, where it maintains a toehold (or as much of a toehold as an animal can have when it lacks feet) and opposed to the southern parts of its range, so it's also not completely comprehensive in its view of the snake.

That said, it's hard to write a bad book with such a fascinating cast of characters - human and animal - and Levin's book does the snake justice.   The author's enthusiasm for the subject is obvious, and there is a tremendous amount of fascinating info on this snake, which many people might not have been aware of previous.  For over 200 years the bald eagle has been our nation's bird, and the bison was relatively recently honored as our national mammal.  Perhaps there's room on the pedestal for a national reptile?  I can think of no species which would have a better claim.

America's Snake: The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake at Amazon.com

The Ride Out Team

This past week, all throughout the south, there have been keepers, maintenance teams, vets, and volunteers hunkered down in their zoos and aquariums.  They are spending their time doing two things.  1.) Their jobs.  2.) Waiting.  These are the ride out teams, the staff who are staying at their facility, day and night, so that they can be ready to respond in the face of the ongoing storms.

Some facilities - those which have had to go through this a lot - may have set things up nicely for their staff - actual beds, for instance.  For those who are doing this on the wing, their accommodations might be an air mattress in the zoo hospital, or maybe a sleeping bag on the conference room table.  Food and distraction aren't that big of a challenge as long as the power is still on.  Many will have MREs and dry, nonperishables ready for if the electricity goes out.  While they are waiting, they may huddle around a laptop and watch a movie when not working.  Once the waiting is over - well, then they have plenty to distract them.

Many zoos in the south are prepared to handle big storms in the same way that zoos in the north are prepared for blizzards.  Having a contingency plan is a requirement for zoos and aquariums, implemented recently by USDA.  Those plans might involve facility design, equipment, possibly evacuation, and, perhaps most importantly, staffing.  Someone needs to be there to take care of animals.  And with flooded roads, poor visibility, and other dangerous driving conditions, the safest course of action is often for the staff to go in and stay in until the danger has passed.

I have several friends who are riding out the storm with their animals this week.  So far, all have been posting updates indicating that they - and their animals - are safe.  A few other friends - mostly non-animal care staff, such as educators - have evacuated to get out of the storm's path.  I'm glad that, knock on wood, all of them are safe and sound.

                                             At Tampa's Zoo, Some Workers Stayed Behind

Silence of the Giraffes

Few stories in the zoological community have been fraught with more drama over the last year than the saga of the Natural Bridge Zoo and its animals.  Late last year, dozens of animals were confiscated from the zoo amid accusations of cruelty and poor welfare, with many of those animals distributed to zoos around the region.  The four most high profile animals at the center of the storm have been the zoo's giraffes - one male, three females - which were recently slated for removal from the facility.  The transfer has been complicated by the fact the two of the three females are pregnant (having become pregnant since after the decision was made to remove them, which I consider extremely irresponsible).  A recent court decision halted the transfer of the three females. 

The male giraffe, however, has been seized by Virginia's Animal Law Unit, and loaded onto a trailer.  He has since been shipped to a facility in Georgia, with the assistance of staff from the Oakland Zoo.  This loading has since been at the center of a fierce controversy.  Gretchen Mogensen, the new owner of Natural Bridge Zoo (and part of the Mogensen family which founded and has run the zoo since its creation) has released a video of the loading and made claims that the ALU and Oakland Zoo staff behaved in an inhumane manner that caused undue stress and injury to the giraffe.  Folks who have weighed in have commented the the Natural Bridge staff was not helping matters and that the giraffe appeared to be in poor shape before it was loaded, the result of the care (or lack thereof) provided by Natural Bridge.  

A veritable army of trolls has been unleased against the Oakland Zoo - and some of the messages I've seen directed against staff have been distinctly threatening.

Of course, who has not weighed in on this has been the Oakland Zoo, despite repeated demands on their facebook page.  That's not because of guilty conscience.  There is still a criminal case playing out here swirling around the zoo and the fates of its animals are still up in the air.  In criminal cases, the defense has the right to remain silent - but the prosecution has an obligation to do so.  I've been involved with confiscations before, and the facilities involved in holding or moving animals are not allowed to make statements to the public.  To do so could prejudice the case.

It must be very hard for the associated vets, keepers, and other staff to bite their tongues while the friends and associates of Natural Bridge insult and threaten them.  I've seen Natural Bridge Zoo's facilities, and I've seen the state of some of the animals from there.  I applaud efforts to remove animals from the care of that family.  I believe the truth will eventually be appreciated by all.

Species Fact Profile: Sulawesi Forest Turtle (Leucocephalon yuwoni)

                                                                    Sulawesi Forest Turtle

                                           Leucocephalon yuwoni (McCord, Inverson, & Boeadi, 1995)

Range: Minhasa Peninsula in Northern Sulawesi (Indonesia)  

Habitat: Mountain Freshwater Wetlands and Rivers

Diet: Invertebrates, Vegetation, Fruit

Social Grouping: Solitary

Reproduction: Females usually lay 1 egg per clutch (6.5 x 4.5 centimeters, well-calcified), sometimes a second.  They may lay multiple clutches per year.  Observations in captivity suggest sexual maturity reached at 7-10 years old.  Hatchlings 5 centimeters long

Lifespan: Unknown

      Conservation Status: IUCN Critically Endangered, CITES Appendix II 

• Body length 24-28 centimeters, with males typically larger than females.  Shell is flat and wide with three keels.  Plastron is unhinged, carapace is serrated at rear.  Head is large; male has a strongly hooked beak
• Male has a white or yellowish head (with some scattered brown or black spots), whereas female has a brown head.  Limbs are brown with some light markings.  Shell is brown to burnt orange in color.  Plastron has radiating pattern
• Latin name honors Indonesian herpetologist and animal collector Frank Bambang Yuwono, who obtained the first specimens from the wild.  Genus name from the Latin for “white headed” (previously in the genera Geoemyda and Heosemys before being place in its own genus)
•  Estimated fewer than 100 in the wild. Primary cause of decline is illegal collection for both the pet trade and for human consumption (2,000-3,000 individuals were taken in 1998).  Species is especially vulnerable due to its very low reproductive rate, while habitat preference for clear, shallow streams makes them easy to find and catch.  Legal trade was closed in 2002 and now rarely seen in the trade due to its extreme scarcity, but some illegal collection still occurs.  Habitat destruction also is a threat
• First reported in US in 1998 when two individuals were imported from the wild by a private breeder.  Captive breeding started in earnest in 2013, with much of the reproduction driven by the Denver Zoo.  Wild-born specimens still outnumber zoo-borns, though captive breeding is improving and increasing.

Hope Over Herpes

 First mRNA EEHV Vaccine Approved; Administered to Zoo Elephant

Happy International Zookeeper Day!

Not to be confused with National Zookeeper Week, which is a strictly American celebration.  A happy 10-4 to all of the dedicated keepers and aquarists out there, without the support and passion of which, our zoos and aquariums would never get by!  Art by Peppermint Narwhal

The Stand In

Every year at its annual conference, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums honors the best new exhibits of the year that opened at its member institutions.  This year, a heavy favorite was Galapagos, the exhibit at the Houston Zoo that was themed around Ecuador's enchanted islands - with the notable handicap of having almost no native Galapagos species present.  Apart from the tortoises, the penguins, sea lions, and iguanas were all represented with stand-in species.

Not all species - not even most of them, really - are kept in zoos, and not many of the ones that aren't can be readily brought into zoos (nor should they necessarily be brought in).  Sometimes, the there is a cool theme idea for a zoo that relies on some animals, maybe a geographic theme, that aren't available.  To what extent is it ok to substitute an animal that you can get for one you can't?  Is it a reasonable accommodation, a reflection of reality?  Or is it "cheating," muddling an educational message?

One of the most common swaps seen in terms of animals can be seen with leopards.  Many US zoos have leopards in their African-themed areas, though in reality they are often of the Amur subspecies, found in northeastern Asia, rather than ones from Africa.  Amur leopards are much shaggier, with thicker coats to survive in cold climates.  Still, Amur leopards are much more endangered than African, and so that is the subspecies that zoos have chosen to focus on in North America.  No zookeeper I know actually is bothered by this, though some hardcore zoo fans and enthusiasts seem to consider it an outrage; the book America's Top 100 Zoos & Aquariums mentions it repeatedly as a criticism of several zoos.  Similarly, I would consider it appropriate if a zoo in, say, the northern US decided to use endangered Mexican gray wolves as a stand-in for their native subspecies for an exhibit.

Of course, that's just substituting one subspecies for another.  When does it become a stretch too far?  It would seem ridiculous to put tigers in an African area as a "close enough" substitute for lions... but tigers and lions are more closely related to each other than the iguanas of the Galapagos are to those of the Caribbean, which Houston used as a substitute (though the appearance might seem similar to the lay person).  It would seem likewise weird to treat African and Asian elephants as interchangeable, though many visitors wouldn't notice the difference.  What if a Florida zoo wanted to do an exhibit of native wildlife, but felt that instead of the super-common American alligator, it would be better to devote that exhibit space to endangered Chinese alligators.  That would just feel weird to me, even though I'd respect the desire to support a conservation breeding program for a species that needs help over an extremely common species that doesn't need zoo-based conservation.

So I'm not sure what the answer is for how much of a switch up is too much or not.  On one hand, it's a realistic reflection of that fact that not every animal is - or should be - available for exhibition.  On the other, I feel like it flies in the face of the belief that each species is unique and irreplaceable.  I guess the question is, does it distract from the message that the exhibit is trying to convey? In Houston's case, the overwhelmingly-positive feedback from the public seems to suggest, "no," it doesn't.

Hurricane Helene

October is best known for being the month that ends in Halloween, but I can't imagine many things scarier than having to face the full-on hurricane at my facility; just having dealt with the periphery of storms, and the resultant flooding and wind damage, has always been terrifying enough.  Several facilities have suffered severe damage from Helene, but one of the hardest hit has been Clearwater Marine Aquarium.  Aquariums, with their dependency on life-support systems, are by their nature much more susceptible to damage and loss during these weather events than traditional zoos.  We're thinking of the hard-working staff as they struggle to repair their facility and keep their animals safe during this difficult time.