Zoos have a very complex system for keeping captive animal populations diverse and viable. All species of animals that are kept in captivity have a Species Survival Plan. The Species Survival Plan is a very specific set of guidelines to dictate how a certain animal population is going to be managed for optimal conservation of that species. For each population, there is a species coordinator, who comes up with a population management plan. Although all of the zoos in the United States are encouraged to follow this plan, participation is voluntary. The job of the species coordinator is to determine which animals should be allowed to breed. The family tree of each species is mapped out so that animal managers can best pair prospective mates together without hurting the genetic diversity of the population in captivity. The decisions of the species coordinator are made based on what is in the best interest of the animal population so that inbreeding (the mating of family members, which often leads to genetic disabilities) will not occur. Helena Fitch-Snyder, who helped us understand the inner workings of cooperative conservation, is the species coordinator for the captive loris populations.

Zoos are justifiably very proud of their animal collections. Some animals draw large crowds and have many fans. These so-called “charismatic megavertebrates” (such as tigers, orangutans, and gorillas) are the rock stars of the zoological world. Let’s say a zoo in a state far, far away had a very prized rhinoceros. People from all over flocked to see this one rhino. However, this rhino is the perfect match for a lovely bachelorette rhino in California. They are not related and would thus create more genetic diversity in the rhino species. The species coordinator for that rhino species decides that the rhino from far away would have to move to California to mate in the new spacious rhino exhibit. Although the far-away zoo might lose an important source of revenue, they would be “taking one for the team” to help preserve the rhino species. Conservation is a cooperative effort and we must all make sacrifices to be successful.

-Sarah, Real World Team

Matchmaking in Monkey Heaven!
It was in the 20th century that zoos realized it was vital to compile records of the species in their care into a master database. Having this information available to all institutions would make it easier to accomplish tasks such as finding the most suitable mate for an eligible gorilla. Over the past 20 years, the International Species Inventory System (ISIS) has successfully held animal records of all North American institutions. To keep this information current, Species Survival Plan coordinators maintain studbooks filled with records of necessary data about the members of the captive populations of the species they are in charge of. Helena Fitch-Snyder is the species coordinator for all loris species in captivity in zoos. Lorises are prosimians, the most primitive group of primates.

As a species coordinator, Ms. Fitch-Snyder has helped write long-term Species Survival Plans, which address various aspects of focal species, such as number of births, pedigree, which animals should be paired for breeding, and transfer of animals between partner institutions. These plans involve numerous zoos that work together to manage the species according to the master plan.

Part detective, part mathemetician, part matchmaker, part diplomat, the job of a species coordinator has lots of elements. The most prominent part is deciding which animals within a species should be paired for breeding. Decisions are not based on what is best for one institution; instead, breeding pairs are determined by the numbers. Species coordinators meet with representatives from zoos that have the animals (in her case, the lorises) to make the necessary decisions of pairing animals for mating, and which animals will move to other zoos, based on the following criteria: minimizing relatedness, keeping bloodlines equally represented, and breeding the rarest bloodlines. To address the issue of relatedness, a complex set of calculations is used to calculate mean kinship values; the values correspond to an individual’s relatedness to others within the captive population. A low mean kinship value means that the animal is a good candidate for breeding because their genes are not highly represented in the population. Pairing two animals with low mean kinship is the ideal. So that was the mathemetician part. The diplomat part of the job comes in when the SSP coordinator has to negotiate with the zoos about which animals are going to move. (See Sarah’s blog, above!)

Ms. Fitch-Snyder has la ongtime love of lorises. When she was a kid, she met someone who kept them as pets and even ended up with some of her own! (The laws for having this exotic species as a pet have long since changed.) Becoming a species coordinator for the lorises wasn’t a straight shot for her. She first went to Sacramento State University where she majored in nutrition. She worked in a variety of jobs not related to animals but found that her passion for observing animals, and specifically primates, was too important to ignore. She worked for four years on projects for Dr. Don Lindburg at the Zoological Society of San Diego and pursued her master’s degree in animal behavior at San Diego State University. Now a member of the Zoo’s Education Department, she maintains her position as the species coordinator and shares her life experience and broad base of knowledge with hopeful interns like us who want to follow our passion, too.

-Melissa, Animal Careers Team

Scientists Haven’t Discovered Everything Yet
According to Ms. Fitch-Snyder, gathering historical records about animals in captivity is an important part in starting a new Species Survival Plan. It is even important to know about the parentage and life history of animals that lived in zoos a hundred years ago. That’s because those animals from long ago could be the grandparents or great-grandparents of animals currently alive in zoos.

And, with the advances in genetics, it sometimes happens that a new species is “discovered” by looking at the genetics of animals and realizing that a group that we once thought were all the same are actually genetically different enough to be categorized as different species. This is what happened with the slow lorises, which originate from China and Vietnam. It turns out that there is more than one species of loris that looks like the slow loris. The Bengal loris is about the same size but has a beautiful set of dark rings around its eyes. Before the use of genetics, it was thought that this was just a color variation of the slow loris species.

Slow lorises have been kept in zoos for over a hundred years. However, pygmy lorises were not really not well known to western scientists until the late 20th century–we’re talking the 1980s! It’s exciting for scientists and the rest of us to learn more about new species. And being able to take good care of animals in zoos allows us to understand how we can protect them in the wild. Having slow lorises and pygmy lorises at the San Diego Zoo allowed animal scientists like Ms. Fitch-Snyder to use comparisons between the animals to build a good base of knowledge about these amazing little prosimians.

When it comes to conservation, it surprises me to find out that even today there are new mammal species discovered every year. Protecting the wild spaces and learning everything we can about animals is the best way for us humans to conserve the unbelievable variety of animals that share our planet.

-Marika, Conservation Team

Keepers have very busy schedules. Each day begins at six in the morning and lasts until two in the afternoon. You get a thirty-minute lunch break and two other fifteen-minute breaks throughout the day. The day begins with a meeting, a sort of briefing for the day’s tasks. Each department is notified about the major events going on in the Park that day, things like medical procedures or animal transfers, and they all collaborate on the best way to accomplish each goal. The keepers are divided into crews with trucks assigned to the field teams that are loaded up with all of their supplies for the day in the field exhibit. Each crew is in charge of a different section of the vast field enclosures or the Nairobi Village area, Heart of Africa, or Animal Care Center.

Every animal in the collection must be documented every day and the enclosures must be monitored for broken things and maintained for the health and well-being of the animals. The herds of animals are large in number and live in the huge enclosures at the Park. And the animals look a lot like one another. To be able to identify individual animals, their ears are notched at a very young age. It’s kind of like an ear piercing but little nicks are taken out at specific points in the ear using a visual code that is easy to learn and decipher from a distance. Also, after working in the fields for awhile, keepers recognize the animals that are usually together, which helps identify the animals.

Being a keeper requires a lot of physical work; there is a lot of shoveling and raking involved. You also must be able to lift heavy objects. Bails of hay are very heavy and loading them into a truck for animals in enclosures can be tough work. In addition to the physical part of the job, the keepers have records and notes they make in the “red books” on the animals as they work in the exhibits. Since the keepers don’t work seven days a week, they communicate with each other about the animals by using these notebooks.

When Ms. Pillsbury first began working at the Wild Animal Park most keeper positions were filled by men. She became an elephant keeper in 1979, prior to this it was unheard of for a woman to take care of elephants; it was considered “man’s work.” Through hard work, she showed she could care for and train every elephant, including the ones who participated in the shows at the Park. Over the years an increasing number of keeper jobs have been filled by women. It may be now that the percentages of men and women are even, or maybe the women have pulled ahead a little.

Keepers must be able to trust each other for help. When working in direct contact with animals you must always remember that no matter how cute or cuddly they appear, they are still wild animals. For this reason, the field keepers stay within close proximity of the truck and when they are performing certain tasks such as putting out food or anything else that would require them to turn their attention away from the animals and focus on the task at hand, they must be able to rely on their partner to watch their back. Though it is hard work and very demanding, being a keeper is a very rewarding job. You develop a relationship with the animals and the payoff each day is that you get to feed them, sometimes by hand. How many people can really say they are paid to feed a giraffe and rhino?

-Justin, Animal Careers Team and Chelsi, Real World Team

The Care and Feeding of Endangered Rhinos
It is exciting to view the animals at the Wild Animal Park from a distance in a tour vehicle circling the enclosures. It is another thing to drive through the enclosures and have the animals rub up against the truck that you are sitting in. As we sat crammed together on haystacks in the back of the keepers’ trucks, we got up close and personal with endangered white rhinos and giraffes. We also got a personal account of the important role of these animal keepers in the conservation plan for endangered species in their care.

Our trip began at the back gates of the Wild Animal Park. Torrey Pillsbury and Michelle Gaffney, our keepers-turned-guides for the day, took us on a journey in which we found out first hand that being an animal keeper involves being able to identify individual animals and get an accurate count of a bunch of animals that look almost exactly alike, every day. It also means that you care for, and care about, endangered species populations.

We all piled into the back of a truck and headed out into the field. As we passed a variety of Thompson’s and Roosevelt’s gazelles (which looked A LOT alike), Ms. Pillsbury pointed out a southern white rhino drinking water in the shade of a tree on a hill. This female, who was born at the Wild Animal Park over 20 years ago, has never given birth. Keepers and animal biologists from CRES have been puzzled by the fact that first generation (F1) female rhinos born in captivity do not reproduce. None of the F1 rhinos have produced offspring. Researchers are not sure if the problem is physiological, behavioral, or otherwise, so they are conducting a study to compare the ovaries of F1 females and wild-born females that have successfully reproduced. For the good of the rhino populations around the world in zoos and the wild, let’s hope the scientists, with the help of keepers caring for the precious critters, can solve the mystery! In the meantime, the field keepers take good care of these animals so that maybe, someday, they can produce healthy youngsters and continue to grow the population to a sustainable number.

-Keesha, Conservation Team

This rhino and her baby are wallowing in a mud hole on the East African plains at the Wild Animal Park.

The interns find it amusing that each species of animal gathers in cliques, reminiscent of high school life.

Hoping that Marbelina would eventually calm down, we visited a few more times during the next week but the response was the same and keepers and curators became concerned. If Marbelina, the least dominant female in the group, continued or escalated this frantic behavior, it might well harm her fragile status within the monkey group. Kinah still needed frequent bottle feedings and would need to make daily trips to our nursery; would Marbelina calmly return her baby to us each time? Additionally, Marbelina had been seen breeding with the male; if she became pregnant again, how could she care for two youngsters so close in age? It would not be in Marbelina’s best interest to try to reintroduce Kinah to her.

We decided to let Kinah fill out a little and try again in a month. During this time we would concentrate on getting some weight on our little charge and examining our options for a social introduction with another animal in our collection. By mid-January, Kinah had improved enormously. Given her tiny size and poor condition when she arrived, we were somewhat concerned that she might display other deficits. Our fears were unfounded. Kinah’s size may have been small, but her accomplishments and abilities were not. She quickly learned to climb, then to hop, leap, and launch herself headlong from perch to perch. We gave her a larger, more challenging enclosure twice the size of the first and she fearlessly mastered the area within days. Kinah’s vocalizations became varied and she would have “something to say” about all the comings and goings in the nursery. She also became fascinated with water; true to her “swampy” natural habitat, Kinah was keen to wash her food and take short dips in her water bowl.

Supplying interesting enrichment items is part of caring for any primate in captivity. Kinah’s enrichment items were always anxiously awaited and enjoyed; she immediately recognized a novel item and had fun thoroughly investigating and manipulating it. Her fondest desire was to explore the nursery, looking in everything with great relish. Occasionally, Kinah found a Zoo visitor either fascinating or frightening, as the mood would strike her. Seldom have we ever seen a primate in the nursery with more personality.

Janet Hawes is a senior keeper in the primate nursery of the Children’s Zoo at the San Diego Zoo.

It is possible that more eggs will be forthcoming, as there are three females who laid eggs that were removed from the nest. This promotes double-clutching, allowing a pair of birds to double their reproductive output for the year, an important management technique for such a highly endangered species. There are about 275 condors in existence, making them quite rare. The number is much higher today than the population in 1982, when only 23 California condors existed. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that our hens Sespe, Shatash, and Cachuma each lay another egg before the season is through.

The total reproductive output of the condor population is measured by counting up the eggs from each collaborating institution involved with condor restoration. The Los Angeles Zoo, The Peregrine Fund, and the Oregon Zoo all have breeding pairs that will certainly have eggs this year. In addition, we can add in any eggs that may have been laid in wild nests in any of the many release sites throughout California and Arizona or in Baja California, Mexico. Cross your fingers that we may cross the 300-bird barrier in 2007.

In the meantime, we continue to study a crop of last year’s fledglings due to be transferred to Mexico later this year. Our group of “colorful” youngsters – nicknamed Blue, White, Yellow, and Red – continue to grow and develop. Their social dynamics are very interesting. The lone male bird, Blue, is clearly bigger than the other fledges, but this does not necessarily afford him a position of status in the flock. This year, it seems the group has no clearly dominant individual other than Itaxme, the adult female charged with mentoring this motley crew. This stands in contrast to the fledglings studied in 2005, in which a clear social hierarchy was developed with respect to some of the birds.

The condor project has proved to be an exciting foray into the bird world for me. I enjoy learning about the various aspects of the program, from bird behavior to management techniques to scientific inquiry. These birds represent a real and ongoing conservation success story. If you come to the Wild Animal Park, be sure to take the time to trek out to Condor Ridge so you, too, can enjoy these fascinating birds.

Suzanne Hall is the senior research laboratory technician for the Giant Panda Conservation Unit of Applied Animal Ecology/CRES. Read her previous condor blog, ‘Tis the Season.

The Horticulture Department started the transformation months ago with the removal of many old and dangerous trees (see blog, Reforestation). Some of the logs that were not used in terracing the hillside became perches in Zoo exhibits, while others were utilized in wood-working projects. Very little lumber went to waste. With the hillside cleared and irrigation installed, the new browse plants were ready to be planted.

Logistical details, like easy access for harvest, sun exposure, growth habits, and other elements came into play when choosing plant locations. At the top of the slope, in full sun, we planted a large grove of bananas, pictured, with a half dozen different types. A little further down, a band of the Myrtle family’s shrub, eugenia, will fill in alongside a terraced track. In a large open area halfway down the hill, several species of Ficus were installed with plenty of room to grow up and produce aerial roots. Finally, about a hundred Acacia trees were planted, finishing off the hill all the way to the bottom. Since giraffes enjoy eating many times a day, a large supply of acacia trees should keep them happy.

The hardest part of acquiring, moving, and installing the plants is now done. Next, nature will take over and help our new browse hill grow, and someday down the line, browse gardeners will be harvesting food for some lucky animals.

Seth Menser is a gardener at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Seth’s previous blog, Chocolate, Anyone?

CRES established the permanently-manned Ebo Forest Research Station in the heart of the Ebo forest in April 2005, and we now employ six ex-hunters from four local villages as research assistants. Our research station is very remote: a tough 8- to 10-hour trek from Locndeng. All of our food and scientific equipment has to be carried by these hunters to the research station on a fortnightly basis, and through this long-term commitment to the village we have grown to know the hunters and their families intimately.

Locndeng is also several hours’ trek from a large village where shared taxis are available twice a week to take villagers to and from the main city of Douala. However, transport is very expensive, and there are people who have not ventured out of their village for many years. It was a significant step for these young men to have their transport and lodging paid to be able to visit Limbe, and I was desperate to make sure that their visit would be a success and that they both enjoyed the workshop and took home with them some important messages.

The hunters and their village Chief, Nguille Emmanuel, arrived exactly on time for the start of the workshop. They were given a series of interactive talks and discussion by the staff of CRES and the Limbe Wildlife Centre. Many of the hunters felt that the guided tour of the facility (pictured above), where orphaned animals of the bushmeat trade are housed, was the highlight of the workshop, and I can honestly say that there were moments when I was close to tears, seeing the flicker of compassion in the eyes of young men who had never previously watched chimpanzees playing, gorillas grooming each other, and drill mothers cradling their babies. (Read Bethan’s blog, Soso’s Story.)

As I have found is often the case in a society with little formal education and where reading and writing is far from universal, the day was characterized by heated discussion, considered debate, roaring laughter, and the wonder of learning completely new concepts that I all too often take for granted in my life. The ‘hunting debate’ saw the men split into two camps, one role-playing the hunters, the other the conservationists. The debate was fascinating and the men obviously loved it. I again found myself becoming emotional, hearing a hunter, who only months ago I’d seen butchering more than ten Preuss’ guenons, arguing vociferously that the forest and animals are part of their heritage and that hunting should be restricted to the fast-reproducing rodents and other small mammals.

The second day was a tour of Limbe and surrounding farms to provide ideas, suggestions, and discussion about alternative income-generating activities that the men could be carrying out in Locndeng. A local pig farmer was delighted to be able to show the men how to rear pigs and other domestic animals. While local conditions are key, the hunters came out of the workshop not only discussing hunting issues but also alternative ways to provide a long-term sustainable income for their families.

The end of the workshop was marked by a quiz with prizes. The questions were mostly based around pictures of animals, and the hunters could respond in Banen (their native language) or in French. The winner, Jean-Jacques, a quietly-spoken young man I have known for five years and who regularly carries our tinned sardines and rice supplies to our research station, was beaming as he received his prize of $10 and a San Diego Zoo T-shirt. All participants earned a certificate of attendance and a specially-made waterproof booklet repeating in simple French all the information that they had been given.

It remains to be seen whether our first workshop is a success; the real indicator would be a reduction in hunting of endangered and large mammal species we concentrated on in the workshop. I will go to Locndeng on Monday to spend time with the hunters in their homes, chatting to them informally and trying to see if they have any follow-up questions and if there is any sign of change. I have been here long enough to realize that change takes time and effort, and our efforts to educate and encourage villagers to improve their daily lives is vitally important to conserve the Ebo forest region, one of the most biodiverse and beautiful forests remaining in Cameroon.

Dr. Bethan Morgan is a Conservation Research Fellow for the San Diego Zoo’s CRES.
Here’s more information about Bethan’s project in Cameroon.

Read Bethan’s previous blog, A Visit to Nigeria.

Boarding a fishing boat at Pt. Loma, we set sail on a three-hour tour (a THREEEE HOUR TOOOOOR!) and headed due west about ten miles. Our usual suspects were joined by 14 alumnae and a slew of chaperones from Roosevelt Middle School and the Zoo. Many of us had never been on a boat and didn’t quite know what to expect. A few others were seasoned sailors and knew to stay at the stern and avoid the spray.

Needless to say, the ride out to sea was bumpy and wet. The girls at the bow ended up soaked to the skin but had the time of their lives laughing and riding the waves. The girls at the stern were calmer, drier, and warmer, but still had a good time. A few poor souls ended up with Land Lubber’s Tummy, but even they managed to pull it together when we finally encountered what we were looking for—migrating gray whales! We were looking for “footprints” (smooth spots on the water’s surface that are left when a whale submerges) and spouts.

The whales that we saw were likely juveniles, smaller than the 40 feet in length that the adults can reach. And they didn’t seem to be heading north in any particular rush! In fact, they appeared to sort of dawdle where they were for a while. Gray whales have the longest migration of any mammal—more than 5,000 miles from their summering grounds in Alaska to the warm winter birthing lagoons of Mexico. They head south in the fall and migrate northward up the Pacific coast in the spring. Gray whales don’t travel all together. Instead, they move northward in small groups. Generally, the newly pregnant females head north first, followed by yearlings, non-pregnant females and males. Cow and new calf pairs head north last.

We watched for a while and got a few really good photos. Researchers who track whales photograph their flukes, or tails, because the markings on each whale’s flukes are unique. Gray whales also tend to wear lots of barnacles, and the patterns made by these little critters are great for identification, as well. The girls were absolutely thrilled and applauded both the whales and the boat’s crew as we turned around to head back to shore.

An amazing time was had by all. It was so nice to connect with our alums and see how they are all doing. They’re so grown up! And we’re graduating 11 8th graders who will join that elite group next year.

Until next fall…
Miss Cindy

Cindy Spiva-Evans is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

Girls In Science is a program for Roosevelt Middle School girls which creates science-based experiences with professional women at the San Diego Zoo. The program is funded through the generosity of the Wells Fargo Foundation.

Read about previous Girls In Science activities.

By the end of the fourth day we observed some improvement: Kinah woke up and nursed hungrily, grabbing the nipple and pulling it towards herself. She started to sit up and look around a bit between feedings. Her wounds began to heal and itch a bit, and she would scratch and wiggle to get more comfortable. Kinah showed a strong fondness for grooming and would stretch out dramatically to facilitate the process.

Two weeks later the pneumonia was a thing of the past. Kinah graduated from her incubator to a wire enclosure that had perches for climbing, plastic chains, fresh leafy browse, and loads of toys for her to play with. It didn’t take long for Kinah to begin practice on her balancing and climbing skills along with a thorough investigation of anything novel put before her, including the plate of fresh fruits, soft vegetables, and biscuits we offered her twice daily.

Along with Kinah’s new digs, she began to grow beautiful, soft fur in the bare patches where Marbelina had overgroomed her. The torn earflap would always be deviated, but the lovely fur circling her head now covered the area.

Things were looking up, so our next concern was to get going on the reintroduction and socialization of Kinah.

Janet Hawes is a senior keeper in the primate nursery of the Children’s Zoo at the San Diego Zoo.

Carefully processed samples, like the rhinoceroses feces, are then further prepared. Vortexing and adding reactive chemicals to them are only a few of the steps required to obtain results. Research technicians like Ms. Pisacane and Ms. Sproul critically analyze the results through the use of computers, where they translate the data into graphs. At a minimum, this complicated process of acquiring hormone data takes two full days.

The Endocrinology Lab at the CRES facility is primarily enlisted to establish the time period when an animal can successfully conceive. Technicians analyze the progesterone levels of potentially pregnant and currently pregnant females to assess their condition.

Majoring in biology seems to be the way to become a research technician at CRES. Ms. Sproul and Ms. Pisacane had two very different paths for their education, but both enjoy applying to their lab work the skills they gained studying in various fields of biology, from marine biology to microbiology.

-Melissa, Animal Careers Team

Endocrinologists Uncover the Secret Story in Animal Hormones

Producing baby animals in captivity is harder than it may seem. And being an endocrinology technician can sometimes feel pretty far removed from saving species. Healthy baby animals are the product of their efforts, but after spending an afternoon in this lab, I think the many steps it takes to get there aren’t always that fun. In order to use hormones to detect potential problems or to diagnose pregnancy, you often have to obtain usable samples of urine, feces, and saliva.

Although you may not be able to directly save a species being an endocrinology technician, you are able to determine whether or not females are pregnant. It’s not as easy as training a panda to urinate on a pregnancy test stick! The creative solutions that the Endocrinology Lab has come up with eventually affect the rise and fall of the population of a species! Females that are already pregnant don’t want to be around males, and knowing about her state can help keepers know if the potentially dangerous male should be separated from a female. On the other hand, when testing for hormones that indicate ovulation, animal care people can put a receptive female with a willing male.

Using endocrinology, the growth and health of animals can be monitored, enabling veterinarians to treat ailments before they may get worse. As in human health, endocrinology in animals can give clues into the state of the animal’s well-being. And in the case of endangered animals, by diagnosing and treating one endangered rhino, they also impact generations to come, by keeping that animal in the gene pool and through the development of early detection and novel treatment that can be used to help other animals in the future.

-Marika, Conservation Team