Zoo News Digest 19th June 2016
(ZooNews 926)
(ZooNews 926)
Peter Dickinson
elvinhow@gmail.com
Dear Colleague,
I have always liked
Victoria Coren (see first article today) and liked her father Alan and brother
Giles also. All extremely good writers. Victoria writes of her limited zoo
experience in a very positive but thoughtful way. Her first visit was a good
one. This got me thinking about how important it is for all of us to ensure
that all zoo visits are positive because they can affect the way a visitor
thinks for the rest of their lives. A bad visit doesn't stop with one person.
It will go as far as their tongue or Facebook page will carry it. The Good Zoos
of the world are painted the same colour as the bad. Any genuine or perceived
cruelty affects all of us. These people will not return and if it has got
anything to do with them neither will their friends, their children or
grandchildren. The Good Zoos MUST/NEED to criticise the bad. We need to ensure
that people know there is a difference. In our turn we need to ensure that all
of our visitors are educated in a subtle and pleasant fashion. This rests with
the Keepers and the Docents and Volunteers. When visitors have actual face to
face personal spoken contact with caring and informed staff it makes all the
difference in the world…just two or three minutes of explanation can change a
life.
I was greatly
saddened to learn today of the passing of Leigh Wigg. The zoo world has lost
one of the good guys. My sincere condolences to his family, friends and
colleagues. I had only met him once before but through Facebook kept up with
many of his thoughts. I shared his sense of humour and regret not having had
the opportunity to spend time with him.
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 24,700 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 250,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ countries? That the subscriber list reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
Dear Colleague,
I have always liked
Victoria Coren (see first article today) and liked her father Alan and brother
Giles also. All extremely good writers. Victoria writes of her limited zoo
experience in a very positive but thoughtful way. Her first visit was a good
one. This got me thinking about how important it is for all of us to ensure
that all zoo visits are positive because they can affect the way a visitor
thinks for the rest of their lives. A bad visit doesn't stop with one person.
It will go as far as their tongue or Facebook page will carry it. The Good Zoos
of the world are painted the same colour as the bad. Any genuine or perceived
cruelty affects all of us. These people will not return and if it has got
anything to do with them neither will their friends, their children or
grandchildren. The Good Zoos MUST/NEED to criticise the bad. We need to ensure
that people know there is a difference. In our turn we need to ensure that all
of our visitors are educated in a subtle and pleasant fashion. This rests with
the Keepers and the Docents and Volunteers. When visitors have actual face to
face personal spoken contact with caring and informed staff it makes all the
difference in the world…just two or three minutes of explanation can change a
life.
I was greatly
saddened to learn today of the passing of Leigh Wigg. The zoo world has lost
one of the good guys. My sincere condolences to his family, friends and
colleagues. I had only met him once before but through Facebook kept up with
many of his thoughts. I shared his sense of humour and regret not having had
the opportunity to spend time with him.
Did You Know?
ZooNews Digest has over 24,700 'Like's' on Facebook and has a weekly reach often exceeding over 250,000 people? That ZooNews Digest has subscribers in over 800 Zoos in 153+ countries? That the subscriber list reads like a 'Zoos Who's Who?'
If you are a subscriber to the email version then you probably knew this already. You would also know that ZooNews Digest pre-dates any of the others. It was there before FaceBook. It was there shortly after the internet became popular and was a 'Blog' before the word had been invented. ZooNews Digest reaches zoo people.
Why I’m so conflicted by zoos
The elephant stared
balefully down, its eye as big as my head.
“Well, this is
terrifying!” I said.
“It’s fine,” said
the zookeeper. “Why are you frightened?”
“I thought it would
be smaller,” I said.
“It’s an elephant,”
he replied.
“Are you sure?” I
said. “It’s the size of a stegosaurus.”
“These are the most
docile elephants in the world,” said the keeper. “This is London Zoo. They see
crowds of people every day. They’ve had their photo taken with the Queen. There
is nothing to be worried about.”
“Fine,” I said,
picking up the shovel. That dung wasn’t going to clear itself. We swept the
enclosure as the elephant looked on.
Area cleared, I
edged over to the giant creature. With a trembling hand, I patted its vast,
wrinkled neck. Returning the favour, the elephant prodded me all over with its
trunk. I felt oddly flattered.
The keeper smiled
and nodded encouragement as I nestled close enough to give the elephant a
proper cuddle. “Tota
Stingray, 1st in India, makes a splash at zoo
The killer of
crocodile hunter Steve Irwin has arrived in city zoo. For the first time in the
country, the stingray fish, known to be among the deadliest that kills any
living object it encounters became part of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological
Garden on Saturday. It is one of its kind leopard stingray from Thailand which
can grow up to 20 feet in length.
Vultures for vultures sake
Asian Gyps vultures
have declined by more than 99% and are on the verge of extinction. Indeed, many
vulture populations around the world are declining at an alarming rate and are
now the most threatened family of birds on the planet. In Asia conservation
actions have been underway since the end of the 90s, initially spearheaded by
the RSPB and BirdLife International, and more recently by the SAVE partnership.
You’ll often hear about how the decline in vultures is having a major impact on
health and the environment. In India with millions of vultures wiped out by
diclofenac poisoning, there has been an increase in carcasses lying around and
an increase in scavenging dogs leading to greater instances of rabies. Making a
living as a hide and bone collector is more difficult due to the masses of
vultures no longer stripping the bones clean. And traditional Parsi ‘sky
burials’ in the specially designed burial towers where bodies were consumed by
vultures are no longer possible. Of course, these are all true and sad
consequences of the crash in vulture populations. In modern conservation
parlance, vultures play a vital ecosystem service.
Last month I was
fortunate enough to spend a few weeks visiting a range of projects in Bangla
Togo Slippery Frogs Feared Extinct; Found Living in
Hidden Waterfall in Africa
In February, I began
working on a pangolin conservation project in the Misahohé region of Western
Togo, in West Africa, with Justin Miller of Pangolin Conservation. As a part of
this project, we also set out to locate and document a population of critically
endangered Togo slippery frogs that had been happened upon during a previous
search of the area. These frogs previously ranged across the highlands of
Eastern Ghana and Western Togo and are now listed as Critically Endangered.
After several years with no records of surviving populations, several agencies
labeled them as “possibly extinct” in th
A Proud National Aquariumer
Okay! Well, it's
certainly been an um, eventful week since we last saw each other.
I found myself
getting really gloomy, especially in light of the three Orlando tragedies, the
double murder in Paris, and the murder in London. Holy. Cow.
The horrific loss of
life reported to us in such a short period of time made me feel like, is there
good in the world anymore? Where has it
gone?
Of course, there are
plenty of great people in the world, doing great things. I feel like I needed to take a moment to
breathe a little, and look at the good things happening around me (on top of
the incredible acts of kindness people portrayed in response to the
aforementioned events).
Amidst all of this,
National Aquarium released information about a new project we are in the
beginning planning stages of for our 8 bottlenose dolphins. Some of you reached out to me and asked me
how I felt about it, or my opinion.
Look, there is a LOT
of research left to do, many decisions to be made. So all I can say right now is that I am proud
to work at National Aqua
Should I Be Here or Somewhere Else
Some Zoo stories
amongst the rest…Snakes, Killer Whale, Elephant, Camel and more.
When it comes to evolution, testes may play a key
role, studies find
The gonads play a
larger role than previously thought in evolution, a pair of studies on
dark-eyed juncos has found. The first paper compares the subspecies in their
expression of enzymes that make testosterone within the gonad. The second paper
investigates how the subspecies' gonads differ in the expression of stress
hormone receptor genes, which are known to lower testosterone.
A new study has led researchers to conclude that
Octopuses (NOT Octopi) have Alien DNA. Their genome shows a never-before-seen
level of complexity with a staggering 33,000 protein-coding genes identified,
more than in a human being.
The oceans of our
planet hide countless mysteries that could perhaps help answer numerous
mysteries of life itself. During the last couple of decades, marine biologists
have made small but steady progress towards a deeper understanding of nature
and life.
A group of
researchers decided to do some science and chose the cephalopods in order to
try and break down their DNA code, hoping to understand them better.
The octopus, squid,
and cuttlefish are integrated into the coleoid sub-class of the molluscs. They
have an evolutionary history that goes back over 500 milli
Endangered sandpipers lay eggs in captivity for the
first time
One of the world’s
rarest birds has laid eggs in captivity for the first time, in what wildlife
experts say provides new hope for the species’ tiny wild population.
Only around 200
breeding pairs of critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers remain in the
wild, where they make an annual 10,000 mile round-trip between their Russian
Arctic breeding grounds and wintering grounds in south-east Asia.
Efforts began to
establish a flock at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge,
Gloucestershire, in 2011 as a back-up to the wild population in case
conservationists could not reverse declines of up to 25% a year in time to save
the species.
Now seven eggs have
been laid by two female spoon-billed sandpipers at Slimbridge, with a further
seven potential breeding pairs.
Each bird usually
lays four tiny eggs, taking the mother almost a week to lay a clutch weighing a
total of 32g (1 ounce) - more than her entire bodyweight, experts said.
The eggs have been
taken into an incubator an
Scientists: Trophy Hunts Should Target Older Lions
When Minnesota
dentist Walter Palmer killed Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion last July, proponents of
trophy hunting argued to an infuriated public that the pricey practice helps
lions. A portion of the fees supports poor villages and conservation programs,
their argument goes.
But some reports
have shown that trophy hunts take a toll on Africa’s declining lions, which
already face a host of severe threats, such as habitat loss, lack of prey, and
greater conflict with humans. A 2012 study, for instance, found that excessive
hunts have hurt lions in Tanzania.
Now new research
shows why: inadequate hunting regulations. Only strict quotas and restrictions
on hunting younger lions can ensure healthy populations, researchers reported
on June 9 in the journal Ecological Applications.
“We’re seeing the
negative effects of trophy hunting, even though there’s guidance about how it
should be managed,” says Scott Creel, an ecology professor at Montana State
University and lead author of the study. “The difference with this paper is
we’re trying to evaluate strategies people thought would prevent this from
happening that haven’t.”
Take one of those
strategies: age limits. Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique prohibit hunters from
s
Monkey escapes enclosure at Howletts Wild Animal Park
near Canterbury
A female monkey
escaped from her enclosure at Howletts Wild Animal Park late this morning.
Keepers and
specialist vets were called in to catch the primate, which was spotted sitting
on top of its usual home.
The Javan langur,
called Malang, managed to get out of her enclosure close to the park's
administrative office and pavilion restaurant.
Orangutan briefly escapes his Busch Gardens enclosure
A juvenile orangutan
escaped from his Busch Gardens enclosure on Thursday night, just before the
park was set to close.
The male primate
wasn't outside his enclosure long and left his exhibit in the Jungala section
of the park through an area visitors couldn't see, according to a statement
from Busch Gardens.
Park officials did
not immediately say how the orangutan got out and if the park has to change
anything about the animal's habitat to prevent future escapes, like it did in
2008.
"The safety of
our guests, employees and animals is our number one priority," said a zoo
spokesperson about Thursday's escape. "Zoo staff managed the situation and
the animal was safely led back to secure housing without incident."
This isn't the first
time a young orangutan has left Jungala for a brief, roughly hour-long
adventure. But this second escape comes at a time many are questioning the
security of zoo enclosures, after gorilla Harambe was killed at a zoo in
Cincinnati because a child got inside his habitat last month.
In 2008, then
10-year-old Luna Bella scaled a 12-foot wall, grabbed the edge of a 5-foot
overhang and flipped her 85-pound body onto the exhibit's roof in full view of
zoo-goers.
In both escapes, the
areas around the exhibits were cleared of park visitors and the orangutans were
led safely back to their home. The details about which orangutan escaped and
how it was lured back to its exhibit Thursday after its 6:30 p.m. escape were
still u
Whatever happened to ... Shasta the Utah liger?
Back in 1948, Salt
Lake City's Hogle Zoo was small and struggling. But a special birth on May 6
that year would change everything.
For the first time
in America, a liger — half lion, half tiger — was born there, and became
national news.
She was called
Shasta and would draw extra thousands of visitors from afar annually during her
still-record 24 years of life. The crowds, their money and the attention she
attracted helped build the zoo from mediocrity to top-tier status.
San Diego Zoo's Eldest Panda Has Heart Disease
Gao Gao, San Diego
Zoo’s eldest panda, has a heart disease that is rapidly worsening, zoo
officials said Friday in a statement.
The panda underwent
a medical checkup on Tuesday, where animal care staffers found that he had
pulmonic stenosis, a narrowing of the pulmonary valve opening.
More at Stake Than Money for Honolulu Zoo
The Honolulu Zoo has
blamed the recent loss of its accreditation on funding issues, but some
advocates question the use of throwing more money at the problem.
"Zoos are anachronisms," said
Catherine Goeggel, a former chief of the Zoological Society. "They're
prisons for animals. The reasons zoos were created — for people to see animals
they wouldn't otherwise see — no longer exist."
Goeggel, who founded the nonprofit Animal
Rights Hawaii, said a Hawaiian biome would be more suitable for a setting with
so many endangered sea birds, insects and plants.
Indeed Hawaii is sometimes referred to as
the extinction capital of the world, as the home to thousands of endangered
species.
Heather Rally, with People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, complained that zoos fail utterly in their mission as
conservators, and as educators.
"In the wild, elephants cover 50
miles in a day," Rally said in an interview. "Animal captivity
changes animals behaviorally and genetically. They cannot just be released into
the wild, which is setting them up for failure. And after decades of k
Viral video misleads viewers about zoo lions
A recent video taken
at Potter Park Zoo has caused outrage around the world. Angry comments have
been streaming in to the zoo from the UK, Germany, and other countries around
the world, demanding the lions be either released or given better care. But the
lead keeper of these lions told us that they are happy and healthy.
"We spend daily
efforts making sure that they're physically fit," says Annabell Marcum,
the carnivore and primate lead keeper. "We also weigh everybody monthly,
and do a body condition score."
The lion's body,
which was criticized as being too thin and malnourished, is actually that of an
extremely healthy lion.
"For the lions
specifically, we want to make sure that we can see their waist, and we want to
make sure that we can see where their ribs are," says Marcum, "but we
don't necessarily want to be able to see every rib easily."
In terms of the
sounds the lion was
http://www.leszoosdanslemonde.com/newsletter.17-06-2016.php
Maynard: Zoo getting past typhoon of criticism
On behalf of
everybody involved with the Cincinnati Zoo I want to thank our local community
for the caring concern you have shown since the tragic death of Harambe.
In this
ever-connected, social media age, it seems that everybody, everywhere learned
of our tragedy on the day it happened. This opened up a typhoon of
international criticism and finger pointing the likes of which I had never
experienced before.
But here in our
community the response has been more level-headed. We have heard from many
thousands of people from all around Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and
Southeast Indiana, expressing their sadness for our loss and heartfelt concern
for the well being of both the zookeepers who knew Harambe best, and the other
gorillas in his troop. In my job I talk to people for a living, but I have
never talked with so many people, most of whom I didn’t know before, as I have
in the last three weeks. The common themes of our discussions are sadness,
concern and their love of both animals and the Cincinnati Zoo. I have met
people who are old enough to remember seeing Susie the gorilla 60 years ago,
peo
Three lions found guilty of murder face life behind
zoo bars
Three man-eating
lions in northwest India have been sentenced to life in captivity after they
were identified as the cats responsible for a string of recent killings.
A pride of 17
Asiatic lions has spent several days on trial at the Gir reserve in the state
of Gujarat. Forestry officials rounded them up after three people were killed
near the 545 square mile sanctuary.
State officials
confirmed yesterday that human remains had been found in the droppings of one
male and two females. It is t
SF Zoo helps bring
Mexican gray wolves back from the brink
One of the San
Francisco Zoo’s newest exhibits is specially designed to keep people away.
Forty years ago, the
Mexican gray wolf population all but disappeared from the wild.
One by one they
vanished in the Southwest: killed by ranchers, hunted by trappers, shot by
government officials. By 1976, there were only seven left in the world — two of
them in captivity. After decades of careful conservation and and captive
release, their numbers have surged to 100 in the wild, with another 250 in
captivity. But not without issues.
The San Francisco
Zoo recently welcomed three of these rock stars of the animal world, brothers
aptly named Prince, David Bowie and Jerry Garcia, from a center near
Albuquerque as part of the wolf’s species survival pla
How To Tell If a Lion Is Happy
The Philadelphia Zoo
is pretty small. Over the past couple of years, to help some of its residents
stretch out a bit, the zoo has started installing what they call an
"animal exploration trail system"—a network of corridors and tubes
that critters can use to crawl, swing, and stroll between enclosures. Visitors,
naturally, love it—they can watch monkeys strut and skitter above their heads.
Zookeepers like it, too: it hits all the sweet spots of textbook animal
enrichment, offering their charges room to roam, environmental variety, and
personal choice.
But after all these
rave human reviews, one question remains: What do the animals think?
Marieke Gartner is
the Philadelphia Zoo's in-house animal well-being researcher. A trained
psychologist, she has spent the last 11 years becoming, essentially, a
quantitative animal whisperer. "What the zoo wanted me to do is figure out
how the animals view the trail," she explains. "Do they
Lincoln Park Zoo's Lion House to get makeover, shed
tigers
Lincoln Park Zoo's
historic Lion House will be getting a complete makeover, as will the zoo's
main, east entrance on Cannon Drive, the zoo is set to announce Thursday.
Modernizing the
Kovler Lion House, which will no longer include a tiger habitat, will be the
North Side free zoo's biggest capital project yet, at an estimated $30 million,
and the new $9 million Welcome Center will change the way people come onto the
premises, President and CEO Kevin Bell said in an interview in advance of
Thursday's news.
The projects will
join last year's Regenstein Macaque Forest and new penguin and polar bear
habitats, expected to open this fall or winter, as key results of a $125
million fundraising campaign that is also being announced at a media event
Thursday morning and to the Lincoln Park Zoo Society's annual meeting during an
evening event
Training groups of animals – Bianca Papadopoulos
Vets work to save Melbourne Zoo elephant calf born
with debilitating medical condition
A baby elephant born
yesterday at Melbourne Zoo is now fighting for its life, with a rare medical
condition preventing it from standing up and feeding.
Zoo staff realised
something was wrong soon after their much-loved Asian elephant Num-Oi gave
birth to a female calf, head veterinarian Michael Lynch said.
"It became
apparent to us that the calf couldn't stand, so we had to intervene in that
situation," he said.
Dr Lynch said the
team was working hard to address the congenital condition.
"The condition
is called Congenital Carpal Flexure, which is preventing the calf from
straightening the ankles on
Keeping big cats happy
Jim Coburn started
out doing small jobs when he began volunteering at Washington Park Zoo, but the
zoo workers eventually discovered his skills. He now has built a three-tiered
resting platform for the mountain lion exhibit and is building a resting platform
for the tiger exhibit as well.
He is among several
volunteers who come to the zoo weekly, using their skills and talents to help
the animals there.
During work on the
tiger exhibit Monday, Zoo Director Jamie LeBlanc-Huss said Coburn made the
mountain lion platform his pet project, and worked on it with other volunteers
for three Mondays. It was finished more than two weeks ago, and, since the zoo
loved it, now a similar platform is planned for the Bengal tigers with wood
provided by the Parks and
Baby elephant born with a rare condition that prevents
her from standing up may need surgery to correct her 'bent' legs
The fate of a
newborn elephant who cannot stand because of a rare condition is in the hands
of vets at Melbourne Zoo.
The 103kg calf born
at Melbourne Zoo on Wednesday has a carpel condition on her front legs that
prevents her from straightening her wrists and bearing her own weight.
The baby has been
separated from her mother, Num-Oi, and is being bottle fed while she has casts
on both of her front legs. She has improved after almost 24 hours of intensive
treatment, but still has a long way to go.
DO KILLER WHALES REALLY LIVE TO BE 100+?
You’ve seen this
clickbait title on The Dodo, I’m sure - “Spotting Of A 103-year-old Wild Orca
Was Indeed Bad, Bad News For Seaworld.” Let me tell you. There is no article on
that entirely frustrating website that causes me to facepalm harder than that one,
except may it’s misleading follow-up: “”Whale Fingerprints”: How We Know Granny
The Orca is 103 Years Old.” Sigh.
One of the things I
am a huge stickler for is accuracy in
science reporting and animal media. These two pieces by The Dodo are examples
of the worst kind of perversion of good research; they’re misleading, incorrect,
and sadly also have a huge amount of visibility in the middle of a pretty
heated debate regarding captive orca lifespans. So let’s talk about what the
data about resident killer whale populations actually shows, instead of letting
crap like this proliferate in the public consciousness.
For a long time,
researchers did a
Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium are Nation’s First
Facilities to Achieve Humane Certification from American Humane Association
American Humane
Association is pleased to announce that two local institutions –Brookfield Zoo
and Shedd Aquarium – are among the first zoos and aquariums internationally,
and the first two in the United States, to achieve humane certification for the
treatment of their animals through the world’s first program dedicated solely
to helping ensure the welfare and humane treatment of the remarkable,
endangered and disappearing animals living in the world’s zoos and aquariums.
With only 2.3
percent of the world’s zoos and aquariums holding an accreditation status, and
none certified solely on the evaluation of animal welfare standards, there is a
need for the public to know which ones are excelling and which are not. These
two world-renowned institutions are among the first four to pass American
Humane Association’s rigorous, third-party Humane Conservation™ animal welfare
audit and earn the “Humane Certified™” seal.
“We applaud these
organizations for their excellent work and stewardship of the magnificent
animals in their care,” said Dr. Kwane Stewart, chief veterinary officer for
the American Humane Association Humane Conservation program. “These world-class
facilities both stepped forward voluntarily to undergo our comprehensive,
science-based auditing and have served as leaders in the field, demonstrati
Why I’m so conflicted by zoos
The elephant stared
balefully down, its eye as big as my head.
“Well, this is
terrifying!” I said.
“It’s fine,” said
the zookeeper. “Why are you frightened?”
“I thought it would
be smaller,” I said.
“It’s an elephant,”
he replied.
“Are you sure?” I
said. “It’s the size of a stegosaurus.”
“These are the most
docile elephants in the world,” said the keeper. “This is London Zoo. They see
crowds of people every day. They’ve had their photo taken with the Queen. There
is nothing to be worried about.”
“Fine,” I said,
picking up the shovel. That dung wasn’t going to clear itself. We swept the
enclosure as the elephant looked on.
Area cleared, I
edged over to the giant creature. With a trembling hand, I patted its vast,
wrinkled neck. Returning the favour, the elephant prodded me all over with its
trunk. I felt oddly flattered.
The keeper smiled
and nodded encouragement as I nestled close enough to give the elephant a
proper cuddle. “Tota
Stingray, 1st in India, makes a splash at zoo
The killer of
crocodile hunter Steve Irwin has arrived in city zoo. For the first time in the
country, the stingray fish, known to be among the deadliest that kills any
living object it encounters became part of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological
Garden on Saturday. It is one of its kind leopard stingray from Thailand which
can grow up to 20 feet in length.
Vultures for vultures sake
Asian Gyps vultures
have declined by more than 99% and are on the verge of extinction. Indeed, many
vulture populations around the world are declining at an alarming rate and are
now the most threatened family of birds on the planet. In Asia conservation
actions have been underway since the end of the 90s, initially spearheaded by
the RSPB and BirdLife International, and more recently by the SAVE partnership.
You’ll often hear about how the decline in vultures is having a major impact on
health and the environment. In India with millions of vultures wiped out by
diclofenac poisoning, there has been an increase in carcasses lying around and
an increase in scavenging dogs leading to greater instances of rabies. Making a
living as a hide and bone collector is more difficult due to the masses of
vultures no longer stripping the bones clean. And traditional Parsi ‘sky
burials’ in the specially designed burial towers where bodies were consumed by
vultures are no longer possible. Of course, these are all true and sad
consequences of the crash in vulture populations. In modern conservation
parlance, vultures play a vital ecosystem service.
Last month I was
fortunate enough to spend a few weeks visiting a range of projects in Bangla
Togo Slippery Frogs Feared Extinct; Found Living in
Hidden Waterfall in Africa
In February, I began
working on a pangolin conservation project in the Misahohé region of Western
Togo, in West Africa, with Justin Miller of Pangolin Conservation. As a part of
this project, we also set out to locate and document a population of critically
endangered Togo slippery frogs that had been happened upon during a previous
search of the area. These frogs previously ranged across the highlands of
Eastern Ghana and Western Togo and are now listed as Critically Endangered.
After several years with no records of surviving populations, several agencies
labeled them as “possibly extinct” in th
A Proud National Aquariumer
Okay! Well, it's
certainly been an um, eventful week since we last saw each other.
I found myself
getting really gloomy, especially in light of the three Orlando tragedies, the
double murder in Paris, and the murder in London. Holy. Cow.
The horrific loss of
life reported to us in such a short period of time made me feel like, is there
good in the world anymore? Where has it
gone?
Of course, there are
plenty of great people in the world, doing great things. I feel like I needed to take a moment to
breathe a little, and look at the good things happening around me (on top of
the incredible acts of kindness people portrayed in response to the
aforementioned events).
Amidst all of this,
National Aquarium released information about a new project we are in the
beginning planning stages of for our 8 bottlenose dolphins. Some of you reached out to me and asked me
how I felt about it, or my opinion.
Look, there is a LOT
of research left to do, many decisions to be made. So all I can say right now is that I am proud
to work at National Aqua
Should I Be Here or Somewhere Else
Some Zoo stories
amongst the rest…Snakes, Killer Whale, Elephant, Camel and more.
When it comes to evolution, testes may play a key
role, studies find
The gonads play a
larger role than previously thought in evolution, a pair of studies on
dark-eyed juncos has found. The first paper compares the subspecies in their
expression of enzymes that make testosterone within the gonad. The second paper
investigates how the subspecies' gonads differ in the expression of stress
hormone receptor genes, which are known to lower testosterone.
A new study has led researchers to conclude that
Octopuses (NOT Octopi) have Alien DNA. Their genome shows a never-before-seen
level of complexity with a staggering 33,000 protein-coding genes identified,
more than in a human being.
The oceans of our
planet hide countless mysteries that could perhaps help answer numerous
mysteries of life itself. During the last couple of decades, marine biologists
have made small but steady progress towards a deeper understanding of nature
and life.
A group of
researchers decided to do some science and chose the cephalopods in order to
try and break down their DNA code, hoping to understand them better.
The octopus, squid,
and cuttlefish are integrated into the coleoid sub-class of the molluscs. They
have an evolutionary history that goes back over 500 milli
Endangered sandpipers lay eggs in captivity for the
first time
One of the world’s
rarest birds has laid eggs in captivity for the first time, in what wildlife
experts say provides new hope for the species’ tiny wild population.
Only around 200
breeding pairs of critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers remain in the
wild, where they make an annual 10,000 mile round-trip between their Russian
Arctic breeding grounds and wintering grounds in south-east Asia.
Efforts began to
establish a flock at the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust in Slimbridge,
Gloucestershire, in 2011 as a back-up to the wild population in case
conservationists could not reverse declines of up to 25% a year in time to save
the species.
Now seven eggs have
been laid by two female spoon-billed sandpipers at Slimbridge, with a further
seven potential breeding pairs.
Each bird usually
lays four tiny eggs, taking the mother almost a week to lay a clutch weighing a
total of 32g (1 ounce) - more than her entire bodyweight, experts said.
The eggs have been
taken into an incubator an
Scientists: Trophy Hunts Should Target Older Lions
When Minnesota
dentist Walter Palmer killed Zimbabwe’s Cecil the lion last July, proponents of
trophy hunting argued to an infuriated public that the pricey practice helps
lions. A portion of the fees supports poor villages and conservation programs,
their argument goes.
But some reports
have shown that trophy hunts take a toll on Africa’s declining lions, which
already face a host of severe threats, such as habitat loss, lack of prey, and
greater conflict with humans. A 2012 study, for instance, found that excessive
hunts have hurt lions in Tanzania.
Now new research
shows why: inadequate hunting regulations. Only strict quotas and restrictions
on hunting younger lions can ensure healthy populations, researchers reported
on June 9 in the journal Ecological Applications.
“We’re seeing the
negative effects of trophy hunting, even though there’s guidance about how it
should be managed,” says Scott Creel, an ecology professor at Montana State
University and lead author of the study. “The difference with this paper is
we’re trying to evaluate strategies people thought would prevent this from
happening that haven’t.”
Take one of those
strategies: age limits. Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique prohibit hunters from
s
Monkey escapes enclosure at Howletts Wild Animal Park
near Canterbury
A female monkey
escaped from her enclosure at Howletts Wild Animal Park late this morning.
Keepers and
specialist vets were called in to catch the primate, which was spotted sitting
on top of its usual home.
The Javan langur,
called Malang, managed to get out of her enclosure close to the park's
administrative office and pavilion restaurant.
Orangutan briefly escapes his Busch Gardens enclosure
A juvenile orangutan
escaped from his Busch Gardens enclosure on Thursday night, just before the
park was set to close.
The male primate
wasn't outside his enclosure long and left his exhibit in the Jungala section
of the park through an area visitors couldn't see, according to a statement
from Busch Gardens.
Park officials did
not immediately say how the orangutan got out and if the park has to change
anything about the animal's habitat to prevent future escapes, like it did in
2008.
"The safety of
our guests, employees and animals is our number one priority," said a zoo
spokesperson about Thursday's escape. "Zoo staff managed the situation and
the animal was safely led back to secure housing without incident."
This isn't the first
time a young orangutan has left Jungala for a brief, roughly hour-long
adventure. But this second escape comes at a time many are questioning the
security of zoo enclosures, after gorilla Harambe was killed at a zoo in
Cincinnati because a child got inside his habitat last month.
In 2008, then
10-year-old Luna Bella scaled a 12-foot wall, grabbed the edge of a 5-foot
overhang and flipped her 85-pound body onto the exhibit's roof in full view of
zoo-goers.
In both escapes, the
areas around the exhibits were cleared of park visitors and the orangutans were
led safely back to their home. The details about which orangutan escaped and
how it was lured back to its exhibit Thursday after its 6:30 p.m. escape were
still u
Whatever happened to ... Shasta the Utah liger?
Back in 1948, Salt
Lake City's Hogle Zoo was small and struggling. But a special birth on May 6
that year would change everything.
For the first time
in America, a liger — half lion, half tiger — was born there, and became
national news.
She was called
Shasta and would draw extra thousands of visitors from afar annually during her
still-record 24 years of life. The crowds, their money and the attention she
attracted helped build the zoo from mediocrity to top-tier status.
San Diego Zoo's Eldest Panda Has Heart Disease
Gao Gao, San Diego
Zoo’s eldest panda, has a heart disease that is rapidly worsening, zoo
officials said Friday in a statement.
The panda underwent
a medical checkup on Tuesday, where animal care staffers found that he had
pulmonic stenosis, a narrowing of the pulmonary valve opening.
More at Stake Than Money for Honolulu Zoo
The Honolulu Zoo has
blamed the recent loss of its accreditation on funding issues, but some
advocates question the use of throwing more money at the problem.
"Zoos are anachronisms," said
Catherine Goeggel, a former chief of the Zoological Society. "They're
prisons for animals. The reasons zoos were created — for people to see animals
they wouldn't otherwise see — no longer exist."
Goeggel, who founded the nonprofit Animal
Rights Hawaii, said a Hawaiian biome would be more suitable for a setting with
so many endangered sea birds, insects and plants.
Indeed Hawaii is sometimes referred to as
the extinction capital of the world, as the home to thousands of endangered
species.
Heather Rally, with People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, complained that zoos fail utterly in their mission as
conservators, and as educators.
"In the wild, elephants cover 50
miles in a day," Rally said in an interview. "Animal captivity
changes animals behaviorally and genetically. They cannot just be released into
the wild, which is setting them up for failure. And after decades of k
Viral video misleads viewers about zoo lions
A recent video taken
at Potter Park Zoo has caused outrage around the world. Angry comments have
been streaming in to the zoo from the UK, Germany, and other countries around
the world, demanding the lions be either released or given better care. But the
lead keeper of these lions told us that they are happy and healthy.
"We spend daily
efforts making sure that they're physically fit," says Annabell Marcum,
the carnivore and primate lead keeper. "We also weigh everybody monthly,
and do a body condition score."
The lion's body,
which was criticized as being too thin and malnourished, is actually that of an
extremely healthy lion.
"For the lions
specifically, we want to make sure that we can see their waist, and we want to
make sure that we can see where their ribs are," says Marcum, "but we
don't necessarily want to be able to see every rib easily."
In terms of the
sounds the lion was
http://www.leszoosdanslemonde.com/newsletter.17-06-2016.php
Maynard: Zoo getting past typhoon of criticism
On behalf of
everybody involved with the Cincinnati Zoo I want to thank our local community
for the caring concern you have shown since the tragic death of Harambe.
In this
ever-connected, social media age, it seems that everybody, everywhere learned
of our tragedy on the day it happened. This opened up a typhoon of
international criticism and finger pointing the likes of which I had never
experienced before.
But here in our
community the response has been more level-headed. We have heard from many
thousands of people from all around Southwest Ohio, Northern Kentucky, and
Southeast Indiana, expressing their sadness for our loss and heartfelt concern
for the well being of both the zookeepers who knew Harambe best, and the other
gorillas in his troop. In my job I talk to people for a living, but I have
never talked with so many people, most of whom I didn’t know before, as I have
in the last three weeks. The common themes of our discussions are sadness,
concern and their love of both animals and the Cincinnati Zoo. I have met
people who are old enough to remember seeing Susie the gorilla 60 years ago,
peo
Three lions found guilty of murder face life behind
zoo bars
Three man-eating
lions in northwest India have been sentenced to life in captivity after they
were identified as the cats responsible for a string of recent killings.
A pride of 17
Asiatic lions has spent several days on trial at the Gir reserve in the state
of Gujarat. Forestry officials rounded them up after three people were killed
near the 545 square mile sanctuary.
State officials
confirmed yesterday that human remains had been found in the droppings of one
male and two females. It is t
SF Zoo helps bring
Mexican gray wolves back from the brink
One of the San
Francisco Zoo’s newest exhibits is specially designed to keep people away.
Forty years ago, the
Mexican gray wolf population all but disappeared from the wild.
One by one they
vanished in the Southwest: killed by ranchers, hunted by trappers, shot by
government officials. By 1976, there were only seven left in the world — two of
them in captivity. After decades of careful conservation and and captive
release, their numbers have surged to 100 in the wild, with another 250 in
captivity. But not without issues.
The San Francisco
Zoo recently welcomed three of these rock stars of the animal world, brothers
aptly named Prince, David Bowie and Jerry Garcia, from a center near
Albuquerque as part of the wolf’s species survival pla
How To Tell If a Lion Is Happy
The Philadelphia Zoo
is pretty small. Over the past couple of years, to help some of its residents
stretch out a bit, the zoo has started installing what they call an
"animal exploration trail system"—a network of corridors and tubes
that critters can use to crawl, swing, and stroll between enclosures. Visitors,
naturally, love it—they can watch monkeys strut and skitter above their heads.
Zookeepers like it, too: it hits all the sweet spots of textbook animal
enrichment, offering their charges room to roam, environmental variety, and
personal choice.
But after all these
rave human reviews, one question remains: What do the animals think?
Marieke Gartner is
the Philadelphia Zoo's in-house animal well-being researcher. A trained
psychologist, she has spent the last 11 years becoming, essentially, a
quantitative animal whisperer. "What the zoo wanted me to do is figure out
how the animals view the trail," she explains. "Do they
Lincoln Park Zoo's Lion House to get makeover, shed
tigers
Lincoln Park Zoo's
historic Lion House will be getting a complete makeover, as will the zoo's
main, east entrance on Cannon Drive, the zoo is set to announce Thursday.
Modernizing the
Kovler Lion House, which will no longer include a tiger habitat, will be the
North Side free zoo's biggest capital project yet, at an estimated $30 million,
and the new $9 million Welcome Center will change the way people come onto the
premises, President and CEO Kevin Bell said in an interview in advance of
Thursday's news.
The projects will
join last year's Regenstein Macaque Forest and new penguin and polar bear
habitats, expected to open this fall or winter, as key results of a $125
million fundraising campaign that is also being announced at a media event
Thursday morning and to the Lincoln Park Zoo Society's annual meeting during an
evening event
Training groups of animals – Bianca Papadopoulos
Vets work to save Melbourne Zoo elephant calf born
with debilitating medical condition
A baby elephant born
yesterday at Melbourne Zoo is now fighting for its life, with a rare medical
condition preventing it from standing up and feeding.
Zoo staff realised
something was wrong soon after their much-loved Asian elephant Num-Oi gave
birth to a female calf, head veterinarian Michael Lynch said.
"It became
apparent to us that the calf couldn't stand, so we had to intervene in that
situation," he said.
Dr Lynch said the
team was working hard to address the congenital condition.
"The condition
is called Congenital Carpal Flexure, which is preventing the calf from
straightening the ankles on
Keeping big cats happy
Jim Coburn started
out doing small jobs when he began volunteering at Washington Park Zoo, but the
zoo workers eventually discovered his skills. He now has built a three-tiered
resting platform for the mountain lion exhibit and is building a resting platform
for the tiger exhibit as well.
He is among several
volunteers who come to the zoo weekly, using their skills and talents to help
the animals there.
During work on the
tiger exhibit Monday, Zoo Director Jamie LeBlanc-Huss said Coburn made the
mountain lion platform his pet project, and worked on it with other volunteers
for three Mondays. It was finished more than two weeks ago, and, since the zoo
loved it, now a similar platform is planned for the Bengal tigers with wood
provided by the Parks and
Baby elephant born with a rare condition that prevents
her from standing up may need surgery to correct her 'bent' legs
The fate of a
newborn elephant who cannot stand because of a rare condition is in the hands
of vets at Melbourne Zoo.
The 103kg calf born
at Melbourne Zoo on Wednesday has a carpel condition on her front legs that
prevents her from straightening her wrists and bearing her own weight.
The baby has been
separated from her mother, Num-Oi, and is being bottle fed while she has casts
on both of her front legs. She has improved after almost 24 hours of intensive
treatment, but still has a long way to go.
DO KILLER WHALES REALLY LIVE TO BE 100+?
You’ve seen this
clickbait title on The Dodo, I’m sure - “Spotting Of A 103-year-old Wild Orca
Was Indeed Bad, Bad News For Seaworld.” Let me tell you. There is no article on
that entirely frustrating website that causes me to facepalm harder than that one,
except may it’s misleading follow-up: “”Whale Fingerprints”: How We Know Granny
The Orca is 103 Years Old.” Sigh.
One of the things I
am a huge stickler for is accuracy in
science reporting and animal media. These two pieces by The Dodo are examples
of the worst kind of perversion of good research; they’re misleading, incorrect,
and sadly also have a huge amount of visibility in the middle of a pretty
heated debate regarding captive orca lifespans. So let’s talk about what the
data about resident killer whale populations actually shows, instead of letting
crap like this proliferate in the public consciousness.
For a long time,
researchers did a
Brookfield Zoo and Shedd Aquarium are Nation’s First
Facilities to Achieve Humane Certification from American Humane Association
American Humane
Association is pleased to announce that two local institutions –Brookfield Zoo
and Shedd Aquarium – are among the first zoos and aquariums internationally,
and the first two in the United States, to achieve humane certification for the
treatment of their animals through the world’s first program dedicated solely
to helping ensure the welfare and humane treatment of the remarkable,
endangered and disappearing animals living in the world’s zoos and aquariums.
With only 2.3
percent of the world’s zoos and aquariums holding an accreditation status, and
none certified solely on the evaluation of animal welfare standards, there is a
need for the public to know which ones are excelling and which are not. These
two world-renowned institutions are among the first four to pass American
Humane Association’s rigorous, third-party Humane Conservation™ animal welfare
audit and earn the “Humane Certified™” seal.
“We applaud these
organizations for their excellent work and stewardship of the magnificent
animals in their care,” said Dr. Kwane Stewart, chief veterinary officer for
the American Humane Association Humane Conservation program. “These world-class
facilities both stepped forward voluntarily to undergo our comprehensive,
science-based auditing and have served as leaders in the field, demonstrati
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New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
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New Meetings and Conferences updated Here
If you have anything to add then please email me at elvinhow@gmail.com
I will include it when I get a minute. You know it makes sense.
Recent Zoo Vacancies
Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World
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About me
After more than 47 years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand. In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and writes about these in his blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/
or on Hubpages http://hubpages.com/profile/Peter+Dickinson
Peter earns his living as an international independent zoo consultant, critic and writer. Currently working as Curator of Penguins in Ski Dubai. United Arab Emirates. He describes himself as an itinerant zoo keeper, one time zoo inspector, a dreamer, a traveler, a people watcher, a lover, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer, a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in the butt to others.
"These are the best days of my life"
Peter Dickinson
Independent International Zoo Consultant        |
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