The extinction of this beautiful bird began during World War II, when troops bringing supplies to the island accidentally brought along a non-native snake species to the fragile island environment. The brown tree snakes feasted on the birds and anything else that came their way, and they also reproduced at an alarming rate, causing an imbalance in the natural habitat. The snake problem became so bad that the few remaining (uneaten) Micronesian kingfishers were removed from the wild in the 1960s in hopes of recovering the population in captivity.

The San Diego Zoo is one of the participating zoos around the world that keeps and breeds these birds as part of a Species Survival Plan (SSP). These plans target endangered animals that have a chance of escaping extinction. SSP’s are generally managed by an animal keeper, curator, or other zoo or aquarium professional. Population management, research, education, and reintroduction are all aspects helping endangered species. An SSP is designed to create a sustainable population that is genetically fit and able to survive in the wild.

Returning to the status of things on the island of Guam: the brown tree snake continues to be a problem. Because a little change can affect an environment dramatically (this whole thing started with a few snakes, after all!), further human activities must be carefully considered. We asked Mr. Orndorff about a solution of introducing a snake predator to the island. He responded that it could create the same problem with overpopulation of another non-native species. The snake population would go down, but the new predators would grow out of control.

I was rattled by the news that this snake could possibly be introduced to Hawaii. The Zoological Society of San Diego’s Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program (HEBCP) is working on ways of reintroducing endangered birds back into the wild. Working in conjunction with the federal government and private landowners of Hawaii, the conservation scientists on this project hope to conserve these bird species through habitat preservation and protection from non-native predators. There has been great success with the reintroduced captive-bred birds; with some species, a 400 percent increase in population has been reported. Of course, they started out with as few as four birds, so the species are still in a precarious position. The problems these birds are facing mirror those of the kingfisher. With adequate funding and initiative, and a lot of work, a change can be made for the betterment of endangered species. Unfortunately, sometimes the efforts start too late. One of the Hawaiian songbirds that was part of the HEBCP went extinct, despite the efforts of the dedicated conservation scientists. (Read blogs from HEBCP staff members.)

The Zoo’s involvement in conservation brings hope to the kingfisher’s eventual reintroduction back into Guam. Learning about these efforts left me with a lasting impression of the delicate balance of habitats and an appreciation for the work of animal keepers and conservation scientists alike.

Intern Sarah, Zoo InternQuest, Conservation Team

Mr. Orndorff’s career began with a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Florida. While living in Florida, he worked with a rescue and salvage research station for sharks and fish. Once he completed his degree, he relocated to California and began raising infant animals at Lion Country Safari. He then worked as a medical technician for marine mammals at SeaWorld. SeaWorld sent him to Iceland to collect killer whale data, and to Antarctica to collect data on penguins. After 16 years of working at SeaWorld, he came to work for the San Diego Zoo.

One of the most important tasks Mr. Orndorff and his bird keeper team perform is replicating and preparing a bird’s diet as if they were living in the wild. Some of the ingredients that are found in the bird food trays at the Zoo are cut up mice, fish, crickets, worms, sunflower seeds, and apples. Oddly enough, some birds are fed dog food because they are carnivores and it has similar nutrients to the food that they would eat in the wild.

Another important skill in caring for birds is in knowing how to catch them without injuring them. Birds are caught when they show signs of injury or illness. The most efficient way to catch a bird is by placing food inside a small safety cage and attaching a string to the door. When the bird enters the cage for food, the string is pulled and the bird is caught. Amazingly simple! With the bird captured, the keepers are able to perform checkups and/or necessary treatments. All of the birds receive daily visual checks to assess their overall health and to ensure that they are not overly stressed. The keepers actually do a head count every day as well. This is simple enough in the small exhibits but the Owens Rain Forest Aviary has three levels and contains hundreds of birds representing dozens of species! Tough work even for a professional bird watcher.

Having a job as a bird keeper can be physically demanding, mentally challenging, and is pretty dirty work. The range of duties and responsibilities of being a bird keeper include making sure the exhibit layout works well for the resident birds, knowing how to care for all species of birds (from tiny hummingbirds to large raptors), and even working to prevent extinction in the wild. This job is ideal for a person with a lot of patience, who loves getting their hands, and mind, into a wide variety of endeavors.

-Elizabeth, Zoo internquest, Careers Team

One method of gathering information is by constructing an ethogram. An ethogram is used to help observe and record animals’ behavior. It is a chart with the behaviors of an animal on one side and a description of the behaviors on the other. The descriptions of the behavior have to make clear exactly what the behavior is so that anyone observing the animal would know what to look for, but it cannot use the name of the behavior in the description. This is actually much harder than it sounds, I mean, try describing “jump” without using the word jump! Once this chart is set up, when observing the animal you simply check off the behavior in the chart, and at the end, can quickly see how much time the animal spent doing various behaviors.

Once we had gotten that down, Ms. Tobey and Ms. Pitt figured we should put our knowledge into practice, so we headed to a behind-the-scenes research station where normally only researchers are allowed. There, we were introduced to four juvenile female cheetahs; only a chain link fence separated us! Individual cheetahs can be identified by their tail tips, which are unique to individual cheetahs. We started an ethogram, and began observing and classifying such behaviors as “Purr; a vocalized rumble from the throat.” It was so amazing seeing four friendly cheetahs so close up; they came right up to the fence where we were and purred, like they wanted us to pet them. I know I wanted to reach out and touch them. More than once one of the cheetahs stood up against the fence to try and smell us better. After a while, however, we apparently lost much of our novelty and the cheetahs decided it was about time to begin resting again.
Caring for cheetahs is different from caring for most other big cats like lions or leopards since cheetahs are easily intimidated. In the wild, cheetahs’ prey is often taken by lions or hyenas, which are bigger and stronger. So in managed care, since the keepers are bigger than the cheetahs, they can go into an enclosure with cheetahs, and they are often very tame and social towards them. (Read a blog about the four young cheetahs, Cheetahs in the Trees.)

The behavioral studies carried out at the Wild Animal Park are connected to conservation in the wild. Studying species’ behavior in managed care helps researchers to infer what the animal’s behavior is like in the wild and what the animal needs in order to thrive. Ms. Pitt explained that the antelope she studies are native to Sudan, but studies cannot be performed in their native habitat because the war-torn environment in Sudan is too dangerous; so she studies these antelope at the Park. The information obtained from observing the behavior here can be applied to the wild antelope in Sudan. As more understanding of these animals is gained, more steps can be taken to protect them in their native habitat.

Our last stop of the day was visiting the Geoffrey’s marmosets, small primates with what looked like black manes on their heads. We observed them and created an ethogram. The marmosets were very social and were also very interested in us and watched vigilantly when we moved around. Geoffrey’s marmosets are native to the forests of Brazil, a pretty colorful place. However, the males see in color while the females do not. This is thought to be for foraging strategies and differences in nutritional needs. We saw one of the animals catch a bug and eat it. I think that one was a female. In the meantime, the other individual animals were scanning their enclosure for something to eat. In addition to insects, these primates eat fruit, which is obviously more colorful than most bugs. We didn’t collect enough data to conclude anything about the eating habits of male and female marmosets. Looks like there is more work that can be done by future behavioral biologists, like maybe one of the Zoo InternQuest interns!

-A.J., Zoo InternQuest, Conservation Team

The Wild Animal Park is on 1,800 acres, 900 of which are dedicated to preservation. These 900 acres are for animals to live in, where they will not be disturbed by people staring at them all day. Behavioral biologists prefer to study animals in non-invasive, natural settings. When there are people around, wild animals often do not behave in natural ways.

Caroline Pitt, a behavioral biologist at CRES, observes antelope each and every day. She studies the behavior of the animals, how many offspring they have, and their hormonal changes. Because she does not want to interfere with the animals, she collects her information through observation and with feces and urine samples. This way she can study the animals without being invasive and interfering with their natural behavior. She also studies communication between animals, whether by acoustic communication or through hormones.

Jennifer Tobey is also a behavioral biologist; she does koala studies. (Read Jennifer’s blog, Male Koalas Smell like Goats?!) She told us about different ways to study animals, including focal sampling and scan sampling. Focal sampling is when you pick just one animal and study it for a set period of time and you write down what the animal does during the period. Scan sampling is used for herds of animals, where it is more difficult to focus on only one animal. This technique involves observing the entire herd and recording what they do as a whole.

Going behind the scenes at the Wild Animal Park was amazing. Off exhibit, scientists study the animals without the complications and disturbances of visitors. We observed four young cheetahs and many Geoffrey’s marmosets. (Read a blog about the four young cheetahs, Cheetahs in the Trees.) We tried our hand at being behavioral biologists. We watched the animals for ten minutes and described each of their behaviors. Ms. Pitt and Ms. Tobey told us to describe everything with great detail. It was extremely hard to describe an action such as sleeping without using the word sleeping! When studying the Geoffrey’s marmosets, it seemed that they were as interested in us as we were in them. The moment that we arrived, they were up against the exhibit watching our every move. Sometimes they would even mimic what we were doing.

Behavioral biology requires patience, keen observation skills, and the ability to clearly articulate the actions and activities of the animals being studied.

-Hayley, Real World Team, Zoo InternQuest

We began near the Zoo entrance, and Mr. Orndorff threw many staggering statistics at us. The San Diego Zoo has an incredibly broad range of birds; its collection is actually the largest in all of North America. There are 2,254 individual birds here, representing 390 species. This first number is constantly fluctuating because migratory birds, otherwise known as freeloaders, are frequent visitors to the Zoo. Mallard ducks often take respite in open exhibits and stay throughout the winter season. Unfortunately for the bird keepers at the Zoo, this species of waterfowl is extremely good at reproducing. Occasionally, keepers have to put out extra food to ensure that resident birds get fed along with their visiting relatives.

Mr. Orndorff took us to the exhibit of an extinct bird. The Micronesian kingfisher is actually extinct in the wild on the island of Guam. The population of birds and the island’s food chain was completely altered following the introduction of a foreign species, the brown tree snake. On this island, there are no natural predators to keep the population of snakes in check. This has led to the near extinction of several bird species, and now brown tree snakes outnumber their prey. This relationship is not sustainable, for either of the animals involved. Currently, conservation programs are in place for Micronesian kingfishers and have thus far been fairly successful. However, the problem will persist as long as non-native snakes live on the island, and efforts to release kingfishers back into the wild will be futile. Snake eradication is ongoing on the island of Guam but is not solving the problem fast enough. Despite this, scientists do not favor the introduction of yet another foreign species to reduce the number of snakes; any additional disruptions to the ecosystem may have other unintended consequences. It is presumed that any further human interference will lead to an even more complicated situation.

Scientists, and people in general, are becoming more aware of their role in the global community, and they are beginning to realize that human beings are one simple part, a puzzle piece, in the grand picture of life. By realizing this, people are enabling themselves to make changes and they are beginning to work together. Humans have learned a few things from the damage they have created, and they are ready to use this knowledge to benefit the world.

-Megan, Zoo InternQuest, The Real World Team