With his nose pointed up in the air and rapidly sniffing, he ambled over to the tent and gave it a swift, hard swipe with his powerful paw. The tent didn’t collapse, but it did shake and flutter from the punch. He then smelled the ice chest and made it his next target; with a quick pop of the top, he retrieved the fish waiting inside. After consuming his prize, Blackie turned and saw that there was a HUGE crowd of onlookers. He looked up and saw an even larger crowd gazing at him from the road above. At this, he decided not to venture toward the fire pit where our campers had left their marshmallows and more fish, but instead made his way to the back of the exhibit, where he settled behind his waterfall and stared back out at the crowds. He seemed to be finished with his campsite destruction, but the point was made!

And what was the point of this? For our last day of the Bear Awareness Days event this year, we wanted to do a demonstration of how NOT to leave a campsite in bear country. Having acquired Scout and Montana, our grizzly bear cubs (see Hali’s blog, Brown Bear Boys), from the wild due to their camp-raiding escapades, it gave us the idea. We originally wanted to use the cubs for this project, but since we moved Blackie into the exhibit next door shortly before the event, we were forced to change gears. Blackie’s presence made quite an impact on little Scout and Montana, making them very nervous about the 900-pound big, black “monster” next door. It took our staff a lot of time and patience, along with lots of positive reinforcements, to convince Scout and Montana that Blackie would not be joining them! The camping gear would be one more thing for the cubs to have to get used to, and we felt that we had already mixed up their world enough for the time being. So, the decision was made to use Blackie as the “actor” and attempt to tie in the theme of Scout and Montana’s eventual removal from the wild due to finding food at campsites.

With that decision behind us, preparations were made for the event. Our veterinary staff requested that we introduce the camping items to Blackie prior to doing the presentation to make certain he was not going to injure himself. We received a generous donation of camping equipment from our friends at REI and began introducing the items to Blackie in his back bedroom area. He destroyed the first tent by slicing his claws across the front. He ignored the ice chest until we put something in it; he started to chew on the hiking boots but didn’t consume them. This “dress rehearsal” was enough for the vets to okay the presentation.

Next, we needed a couple of human actors to pose as campers. Two teammates stepped up to the plate and we formed a quick skit for the event. I narrated from the front of the exhibit while our human actors were in the exhibit (without Blackie, of course!) pretending to be irresponsible campers. I pointed out that the first mistake made was in placing their “campsite” next to bear tracks and a stream. Campsites should never be made where bears and other wildlife will frequent. I also mentioned that the campfire was less than the required 100 yards away from the tent. Our campers roasted marshmallows and left them on the fire, ate cereal and then threw the box into the tent for storage, dumped out a leftover fish meal near the fire pit, and then left for a “hike.”

I discussed how food should always be placed in bear-safe containers and that any leftover food needs to be burned. We then released Blackie to the exhibit to show what a bear can and will do in a campsite containing food. Since bears have about six months to gain enough fat reserves to carry them through a long hibernation, they will sniff out food from miles away. Once bears, as in the case of Scout and Montana, learn that human camps can contain food, often high in protein and carbs, they may seek out these areas and have unfortunate encounters with people. This can lead to the bear’s removal from the environment or euthanasia. To help protect our precious bears from this fate, we must all follow the camping-in-bear-country rules. Bears naturally want to avoid people. However, there are many factors, such as oil drilling that disrupts bear foraging spots, or global warming that kills off a prominent source of food like white pine seeds that can force bears to seek new food sources. It is very important that bears learn other natural food sources and not look toward campsites or other human-occupied areas; otherwise, the results will be disastrous for the bears.

All in all, the mock campsite event went well with a combination of some visitor entertainment and well as an enriching day for our friend, Blackie. If you weren’t able to make it to this year’s event, stay tuned for next year’s Bear Awareness Days as we hope to repeat the presentation. Hopefully, barring any snags, we will be hiring Scout and Montana for the bear roles. Should be a fun time for all!

Hali Anderson is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Listen to an iZoofari Chat with Hali as she talks about Blackie’s first day in Bear Canyon…

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

When I started at the San Diego Zoo as an educator, one of my jobs was to learn how to work with animal ambassadors living in the Children’s Zoo. I was introduced to Rocky and Hannibal, and so began my love affair with the hyrax. Then came Cliff and then Pebbles (she was so teeny tiny when she was born, hence the name!). As Pebbles matured and filled out, fellow educator Mother Meerkat thought we should change her name to Boulder. Pebs, as I called her, had an attitude that was challenging, yet fun, to work with—quite the personality.

Along with Pebs, there were two baby hyraxes that needed hand raising, just like Pebs had needed. The boys were named Wallace and Gromit. The three of them spent several years together as animal ambassadors, meeting all sorts of people on television shows and at school assemblies, nursing homes, a children’s hospital, and animal presentations on Zoo grounds. They would easily put a smile on your face! You may remember them, as they lived in an exhibit at the exit of the Children’s Zoo.

Pebs had us all trained to give her a cup of water when in the kitchen area. She was pretty good at jumping up on water fountains and getting a drink of water! Wallace and Gromit were nothing like Pebs; they each had their own special personality. Pebs was very unpredictable; the boys were just the sweetest things. I like to think that I was their very own “rock” to climb and jump on. They were all very special to me.

Unfortunately, we do not live forever. For the past seven years I was without a hyrax friend. Then, in 2006, seven females and one male hyrax moved into the Zoo’s Kopje exhibit. Somebody had to get pregnant with that ratio! Sadly, one mom had a problem and her three babies went to the Children’s Zoo nursery to be hand raised at two days old: one female and two males. How did we tell each of them apart? A little bit of orange, green, and yellow nontoxic paint was dabbed on their heads!

Boy, was I in the right place at the right time! The nursery needed some help, and there I was, working a few days in the nursery. What more could I ask for? Three hyraxes and two meerkats were being raised. From earlier experiences, we knew they made great animal ambassadors. I visited them day after day in the nursery. They weren’t that crazy about me, but they sure loved their amazing “moms” in the nursery. Taking it personally, I was disappointed. When I headed off on a three-week vacation, I wondered what would happen to our relationship…

Carol Penner is an educator at the San Diego Zoo. She promises to write another blog about her hyrax experiences!

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Zhou also told me about the panic that struck everyone in the aftermath of the earthquake. All the staff at Bifengxia feared for the lives and safety of their loved ones in Wolong and Dujiangyan. Many broke down in tears under the stress of not knowing. I also learned that the building where Zhou lives in Dujiangyan is okay, but the buildings where most of the Wolong staff lived are uninhabitable. These families have been moved to Bifengxia where they are doing well but living in crowded conditions.

The situation at Wolong itself is still pretty rough, but there have been some improvements. Most importantly, there is food and medicine. In addition to the helicopters and foot soldiers bringing in supplies, they have now opened the road leading out of Wolong up to Baoxing County. This road leads away from Dujiangyan into remote mountains and beautiful villages, many above 12,000 feet (3,600 meters). The road down the mountain to Dujiangyan and the large cities will take months to repair.

Several of the buildings at Hetauping, the panda breeding center, survived the quake, including many but not all of the enclosures. The vet hospital was not significantly damaged and can still be used. Shawan, the village 3 miles (5 kilometers) up the mountain that contains the administrative headquarters for the entire reserve, was harder hit, with most buildings uninhabitable. The Wolong people are crammed into about 30 large tents—safe, but probably not very comfortable. Many others are sleeping in their cars.

There has been some confusion on the Web sites and the blog commentaries about deaths at Wolong. I’ve heard reports that up to 20 people are known to be dead in the area, but can’t confirm the number…but certainly people in the reserve were killed. This tragic loss of life, I’ve been told by several people, does not include any of the staff or caretakers at the panda breeding center, but as many as five may have been employees of the Wolong Nature Reserve. Two Reserve staff members were only 5 miles (8 kilometers) from the epicenter and described seeing the earth open up in front of them, close, then open up again. It must have been terrifying.

I’ve also learned that “4 or 5” pandas did escape from the breeding center after the quake, but (perhaps) all but two have been recaptured and are safe. I haven’t learned the identities of the missing pandas and can’t be sure that Hua Mei or her offspring weren’t among them. I think—and hope—probably not. At least two emergency shipments of supplies for pandas have been delivered. Many of the pandas are living in smaller makeshift enclosures, but I don’t know the details.

There have been several comments and questions about the safety of wild pandas. I think it is safe to say that we have no idea what may have happened to the wild pandas. People can spend weeks and months in prime panda habitat, see their signs every day, and still not see a wild panda. Researchers at Wolong have been trying to capture pandas to place GPS collars on them so they can track and study them, but they have not been able to catch any yet. I am working at another reserve in Shanxi province in collaboration with the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Science. We have captured and collared pandas, but these are the only pandas with radiotracking devices in the wild anywhere. (They were far from the quake and not harmed.) If you see reports about “pandas in reserves” reported safe or otherwise, they must be referring to pandas in breeding centers, not wild pandas.

Would wild pandas be at risk during an earthquake? Maybe, but I don’t see how they could be decimated. Flying boulders, falling trees and landslides may have put some pandas in jeopardy, but, just as most humans survived if they were not inside large buildings, I think most pandas would survive. Fortunately, pandas are well known for their aversion to steep slopes, instead seeking gentle inclines, ridgetops, and valleys. This would reduce some risk, at least, to the most devastating landslides. But, given the incredibly rugged and remote terrain in panda territory, we will never know just how severe losses in the wild population may have been.

I hope I have answered many of the questions which I’ve seen in the comments and have done my best to ensure their accuracy. But, in situations like this, one can never be 100 percent certain about all the “facts.” I appreciate the outpouring of concern for the pandas and people of Wolong and all the offers of support.

Ron Swaisgood is the co-head of the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Conservation Unit.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

I finally heard from one of my best friends, Zhou Xiaoping, who is now serving as director of the Bifengxia panda facility near Ya’An. His wife is in Wolong and is okay. He also arranged to bring many of the staff’s family members from Dujiangyan to Bifengxia where it is safe. That is the best way he can help. From Wolong, Li Desheng, director of the breeding center, managed to get a short e-mail out to one of my colleagues. He says that “we are fine” but that they need a lot of help. The damage to the infrastructure is severe and supplies are running short. It will take a long time to rebuild and recover from this, both for pandas and people. Everyone has ensured me that they are still taking good care of the pandas, but just need more supplies. They are short on bamboo and bread for the pandas. The surrounding areas do contain lots of bamboo, so I am sure that they will have some bamboo, as long as they can get to it safely. They grow much of their bamboo on farms today, but they used to harvest natural bamboo to feed the pandas. Of course, they don’t want to impact the wild pandas’ food, but most of the wild pandas live farther from the breeding center, at higher elevations.

I’ve also heard from Jen Keating, our research technician who has been living in Wolong since March. She left Chengdu the morning of the earthquake, just before it struck. She hasn’t been able to reach anyone at Wolong, but like all of us she is worried about all of our friends in Wolong.

The San Diego Zoo will be working with the other zoos and the Association of Zoos and Aquarium’s (AZA) Giant Panda Foundation to establish a relief fund to help the people and the pandas, who will continue to have great needs for weeks and months to come. Please stay tuned.

Thanks to everyone for their support and well wishes in these difficult times.

Ron Swaisgood is the co-head of the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Conservation Unit.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Even Clyde, our 300-pound male, was used regularly by Karim as a stepping stone for jumping off into the mulch bedding below! But her most outstanding relationship was with her best bud, Satu, a 145-pound male Sumatran orangutan who made it known he was the primary babysitter of the exhibit. Karim could be observed being carried ever so gently by her best bud. Satu always made sure five-pound Karim always won their daily wrestling match, which took place at their favorite spot by the viewing window.

On May 5, 2008, Karim was taken to the hospital along with mother Eloise. Karim was showing signs of what appeared to be paralysis in her left leg and partially in her left arm as well. After X rays ruled out an injury, she underwent a variety of tests, including an MRI, which revealed lesions in her brain. Karim was diagnosed with encephalitis (a swelling in the brain) most likely due to an infection; as a result, she was put on a variety of antiviral and bacterial treatment until further testing could be done. Her paralysis spread in just a few days even with the treatment. Little Karim-Alam succumbed to her illness in just five days. She passed Saturday morning, May 10, under the care of our awesome hospital staff.

A special thanks to everyone at the Zoo’s hospital who made her life just a little more comfortable the last few days of her life. Thank you! Karim-Alam is surely missed by her exhibit mates and human mates. I’m sure she is running circles around Grandma Josephine where ever they are.

Juan Fernandez is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Juan’s previous blog, Cinta Back with the Siamang Family. It has more photos of Karim. We will miss her!

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

These people are my good friends. I started living and working with them in 1996. I’ve eaten dinner at their houses, played cards with them, traveled with them, joked and worked with them. I played basketball with them every day it didn’t rain. I watched their children grow up. For the first five years or so I was over there living in Wolong for several months each year. It is my second home. Recently, I’ve moved to another reserve where I am studying wild pandas with different friends and colleagues, so I haven’t seen my Wolong friends as often as I’d like to.

I also know many of the pandas as individuals. I saw many of them being born. I watched them grow up, side by side with my human friends’ children. I am also concerned for their welfare, but believe that as long as the people taking care of them are okay, they’ll be okay. I didn’t expect many, if any, pandas to die. Most would be outside, the others in small bedrooms. If the bedrooms collapsed, I think a panda could withstand the falling concrete. Pandas are quite a bit tougher than humans. At 2:47 p.m., the time of the quake, people may be in their offices in 3-story buildings. The epicenter of the quake was nearby, so I imagine that many of these buildings have been demolished. I received an e-mail from Chinese contacts stating that indeed the area was “severely damaged.” I just have to wait to find out what, exactly, that means.

When I hear that, perhaps, none of the staff at the Wolong center were killed, I still worry. Even if none of the staff working at Wolong, more than 20 people living there may have been killed, according to some reports. I worry even more about their families. Many of the staff at Wolong have a second home in Dujiangyan, the city at the base of the mountain that was severely damaged by the quake. Here their spouses find work and their children go to school. Were any of them in the school there that collapsed, killing hundreds? The staff live in a complex of concrete apartment buildings six stories high. I’ve spent many weekends there, usually staying with my friend’s family on the sixth floor. I worry about them and all the other families there. Other reports indicate that an upstream dam is damaged and the army is working frantically to shore it up before it breaks. If it does, it will bring more devastation to Dujiangyan.

I am concerned for the pandas in the aftermath of the earthquake. They may escape damaged enclosures. Food and medicines may run low. Their human caretakers may be injured or dealing with the devastating results of the quake and not have time to give the pandas the best care possible. The best way to help the pandas, I believe, is to help the people taking care of the pandas. If their needs for food, shelter, and family security are met, they will continue to take excellent care of the pandas with the resources they have available to them.

I hope both my panda and people friends at Wolong are okay and that they will pull through this in the face of what must be horrific devastation.

Ron Swaisgood is the co-head of the San Diego Zoo’s Giant Panda Conservation Unit.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

We waited for two days before handling the cubs to give Mek time to bond with them. There is one male and two females. They ranged in weight from 2.8 to 3 pounds (1.3 to 1.4 kilograms). Tigers are born defenseless, with their eyes closed, and are not very mobile. Now, at two weeks of age, their weights are climbing and their eyes are starting to open.

These cubs are very important because Mek and her mate, Paka, are both wild-born tigers and are critical to increasing genetic diversity in zoo populations. Paka, who belongs to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska, was sent to us on a one-year breeding loan. His only job was to look good and breed with Mek. He accomplished both admirably!

This is Mek’s second litter; she gave birth to two male cubs in 2005. Now, as then, she is an excellent mother. Those two, Mata and Rimba, currently reside in a zoo in Florida.

Our new cubs will remain off exhibit for a few months. We will wait until they are big enough to handle the terrain of our exhibit. In the meantime, come and see either Paka or our other female, Danai, who will rotate on exhibit.

Rochelle Willison is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read a profile on Mek in our Kid Territory section.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

“X-rays revealed that processed ground venison from 80 percent of the deer sampled in the research contained metal fragments,” said Rick Watson, vice president of The Peregrine Fund, a raptor conservation organization. Further tests revealed that 92 percent of those metal particles were lead.

“This is one more piece of evidence that points to lead bullets as a source of contamination in our environment,” Watson said. “We have known for years that lead residues from bullets poison birds of prey and other scavengers. Now it appears that this dangerous contaminant exists in food that people eat as well.”

No amount of lead is considered safe in pregnant women and children because even tiny amounts can cause brain development and behavioral problems in children. Amounts formerly considered safe in adults recently have been found to increase rates of death from heart attack and stroke.

The Peregrine Fund’s study sampled 30 white-tailed deer killed under normal hunting conditions in northern Wyoming with standard lead-core, copper-jacketed bullets fired from a high-powered rifle. X-rays of all 30 deer show widespread dispersal of lead fragments in the carcasses consistent with previous research. The fragments ranged in size from smaller than a grain of table salt to as large as a sesame seed.

“Some of it was closer to dust than a measurable fragment,” Watson said. “Without an x-ray, you would never know it was there.”

For the study, each of the 30 carcasses was taken to a different commercial meat processor for standard preparation of ground meat and boneless steaks in 2-pound packages. Even though processors routinely cut out and discard meat around the wound and along the bullet’s path inside the animal, fragments still ended up in packaged meat.

In addition to the ground meat packages, metal fragments also were found in packages of steaks. Of 16 deer carcasses with metal fragments near the spine, four showed fragments in the loin steaks. Some individual packages of both ground meat and steaks showed up to nine lead fragments, while others showed few or none, making it difficult for consumers to predict which packages might contain lead.

“Our results suggest that people may frequently ingest metallic lead when they consume deer killed with lead-based bullets and processed by normal procedures,” Watson said. “Fortunately, using copper bullets is a viable option to avoid the risk of lead exposure.”

The Peregrine Fund began studying the dangers of lead-based ammunition after endangered California Condors became sick or died from lead poisoning. The organization leads the condor recovery program in Arizona. Condors are bred and hatched at The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise and released to the wild near the Grand Canyon.

Peregrine Fund research showed that the large scavengers were poisoned after feeding on carcasses and gut piles from hunter-killed game. In 2007, 80 percent of hunters voluntarily used non-lead ammunition in condor country or removed deer gut piles after learning about the effects of lead on condors. Condor deaths dropped from four in 2006 to none in 2007.

“We believe that copper bullets will become the ammunition of choice for hunters to benefit themselves, their families, and wildlife,” Watson said.

###

Established in 1970, The Peregrine Fund works worldwide to conserve biological diversity by restoring endangered birds of prey and identifying their key environmental threats, ecology, and relationships with humans. The organization restores rare species through captive breeding and releases, conserves habitat, improves capacity for local conservation, and conducts scientific research and environmental education.

www.peregrinefund.org
CONTACT
Susan Whaley, public relations coordinator
(208) 362-8274 direct
(208) 860-2641 cell
(208) 362-3716 main

Download related photos at http://www.peregrinefund.org/lead_photos.asp

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

The vet staff came down in the afternoon to give them their shots and their Trovan numbers. These are similar to the microchips people use to identify their dogs if they get lost. This time everyone came into the back well because they were hungry. I put my gloves on and one by one caught the pups. They are pretty fast but I quickly grab the tail and they are ready for their shots. They are squirmy little critters and holding them can be difficult. I hold their head with one hand and the back half with the other and press them against my stomach. The vet asked if I ever got bit that way. “Not yet,” I replied.

Each one was checked over by the vet, sexed, given a vaccine and a Trovan shot. We check their number with the Trovan reader and assign them an identification card that has all of their information written on it for the time they live at the San Diego Zoo. When each one is finished, I put them in a large crate filled with hay.

We have three boys and one girl. All of them are doing very well. We could not even figure out which pup had the leg issue in the beginning. One of them seemed to have a small difference upon palpitation, but it was barely noticeable.

Their next set of vaccines will be in about two weeks and we get to do it all over again. They are still coming into the back well, so next time should be as easy as the first.

Next time you stop by the Zoo’s Elephant Mesa, make sure to take a look in the exhibit. You will probably see the pups fighting it out on a regular basis. They are just trying to figure out their dominance. The funny thing is, the adults back down sometimes! All in a meerkat’s day.

Laura Weiner is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less

Once all the materials are in place, it is time to socialize males and females a little at a time and watch the birds’ behaviors, good and bad. This part of the process feels a little bit like chaperoning a school dance—except that we want the amorous couple to go all the way! This year at MBCC we have three pairs of breeding puaiohi, three pairs of Maui parrotbills, and three pairs of ‘alala.

The Hawaiian crow, or ‘alala, is critically endangered, and breeding season for this species is especially important. Much thought and planning goes in to every step of the process. Socializations start with 20-minute sessions to watch for the crows’ initial reactions to each other. This new and sudden interaction can lead to positive results, such as wooing and copulation. It could also very easily go the other way with contact aggression and fighting. As the crows grow more comfortable with each other and within each other’s aviaries, the sessions are lengthened and will eventually last the entire day. It only takes one good socialization to produce results, but allowing for that perfect moment to occur is risky business.

So far this year we have three puaiohi hatchlings that the staff are hand raising, and they are doing great! One is now three weeks old and is learning to eat on his own. The second was hatched one week ago and is slowly and painfully growing in feathers. The last is only a few days old. The chicks hatch featherless and blind and are completely dependent on their substitute parents, the staff. Over the next 40 days they grow bigger and stronger, learn how to eat by themselves, fledge the nest, and eventually learn to fly. Whether these chicks are later released on Kauai or become captive breeders, they, like all the new arrivals, are valuable to the survival of the species. And that makes our work here so important!

We also have four more eggs in the incubators that are set to hatch within the next few days. Every day the eggs are weighed to monitor the amount of fluid that is being lost. The eggs are kept in highly sensitive incubators that can be adjusted to the most exact degrees of heat and humidity, depending on the specific conditions the egg needs to properly develop. The eggs are also candled periodically to watch for specific stages in development. What we look for during candling are signs of healthy egg development; blood vessels, embryo growth and movement, and expansion of the air cell.

Busy birds mean busy days for the staff at MBCC! We will keep you posted on our progress throughout breeding season. In the meantime, send lusty thoughts our way!

Karen McKeogh is an intern at the San Diego Zoo’s Maui Bird Conservation Center.

Read more blogs about the Hawaii Endangered Bird Program…

Read the rest of this entry »
« Show Less