Soon after her move, a young male from a meerkat group located next to the Zoo’s Kopje exhibit was introduced to her. I always worry when introducing meerkats, but in this situation Kasane was looking for a friend, not an enemy. She was very interested in this little boy and followed him around her exhibit for a while. Later they were found cuddling in an unused drinker. So cute!

As for Ngami, on June 23 she gave birth to six pups! This is her largest litter of the seven she has had at the San Diego Zoo. The only way we believed it was when our evening keeper actually took a photo of all six pups in a tub filled with hay one early evening. As usual, Ngami brought the kids out on the first day. We have learned to adapt to this group of meerkats and their pup-rearing style. Once again I told Ngami to put the pups back in the den and she did. I began to shave each one in a different spot to identify them; it is tough to keep track of six pups! For the last two weeks or so we have only been seeing four pups and believe the other two passed on. It is a lot of work to care for six pups and the group is doing a great job with the remaining four.

Yesterday was the first day they were really moving around the exhibit well. It is always so cute when they start to try to stand up like their older siblings. They are so wobbly and usually fall down before even getting halfway there. I also noticed them starting to dig. The main daily activity of a meerkat consists of vigorous digging for a large portion of the day. And since these are Ngami’s offspring, I know they will be champion diggers like their mom.

Make sure to stop by Elephant Mesa to see this group of meerkats. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see a crowd of people at the exhibit oohing and aahing.

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

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All of the cubs now weigh over 100 pounds (45 kilograms), with Zawadi, our largest male, weighing in at an astonishing 132 pounds (60 kilograms)! Even though he now weighs more than some of his keepers, I still look at him and can’t help but see that cute “little cub.” Yet it really gives perspective into how muscular these lions are.

Although the cubs are still sporting an identifying shaved patch of fur, it is getting much easier to tell them apart; I suspect we won’t need to shave them for much longer. Guests always ask how we tell the lions apart. This is a good question, but not one I can give an easy answer to. Some of the cubs are easy: Sarabi, for instance, is much darker than all of her siblings. But for others, I liken it to identical twins: if you have ever known a set of identical twins, I am sure you can relate! When you first met, you hoped they would be dressed differently so you could tell them apart, but as you got to know them, it became easier to tell who’s who even if they were in the same outfit.

We are making progress with the cubs’ training, and more often than not the cubs are doing what they are told. We are still working on a timely return to the “house” at the end of the day, and with a few exceptions, they are all falling into the routine. Our first training step is still getting them to know their names. All have adjusted well to their meat diet and are now receiving five pounds (2.3 kilograms) each day! Nursing has been steadily decreasing, which I am sure must be wonderful for their poor mothers. I sure wouldn’t want a 132-pound baby with huge teeth trying to nurse! In the wild, lion cubs would be weaned at six to eight months of age, and the eight-month mark is fast approaching.

Nyack, our hand raised cub, is doing great. (Read Kym’s blog, New Cub Joins Lion Camp Pride.) Even though he is a month younger than his playmates, you would never be able to tell. He is not the smallest and gets along with all seven cubs. He is becoming quite the little lion and making all of his human “moms’ very happy. He made the transition to a protected contact environment (meaning we no longer share the same space with him) like a champ but still is the only cub to actually come up to the fence without being coaxed with food. He likes to be near his “moms,” but more and more he might just rather stay with the group.

Kamau, our only remaining lion from Mina’s first litter, is becoming quite the adult male lion! His mane is filling in nicely and he is now bigger than both females but still has a way to go before reaching his full size. Kamau is still waiting for his new home in Sacramento to be ready, and right now spends most every evening on exhibit.

Many guests are already looking to the future and are asking when our lions will breed again. While we are very fortunate to have had such great breeding success and as much as these cubs are a joy to us, the keepers, and to all of our guests, we will be giving Mina and Oshana a break from motherhood after this litter is grown. Following the Species Survival Plan’s recommendations, and due to our breeding success, we have implanted the females with a contraceptive device to prevent any pregnancies in the short term. This allows us to keep our pride intact and allows Izu to stay with his family until we can make an informed decision on whom and when we will breed any future females.

Kym Nelson is a senior keeper at the Wild Animal Park.

Watch video of the lion cubs…

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Every single animal that was in an exhibit on the mesa had to have a plan: getting the animal out, transporting it, and having a location ready to receive the animal. Since we did not have the space at the Zoo to deal with all of these displaced animals, some were sent to the Wild Animal Park, others to institutions around the United States, and some to our large hillside holding facilities that used to be called the goat turn-around at the Zoo.

Our team still cares for a great number of these animals off exhibit every day. To make space to accommodate some of these species, we connected three large hillside areas where the animals dominated the whole cul-de-sac of goat turn-around. At our highest point, we had over 45 animals made up of 7 different species in one large, open space. Included were scimitar-horned oryx; addaxes; barbary red deer; Bactrian wapiti; Soemmerring’s gazelles; Speke’s gazelles; and Cuvier’s gazelles.

When caring for such a large group of animals, it is important to really understand all of the dynamics of each species. They would disperse across several acres of hillside, each species defining its own territory. We would feed out according to the layout of the enclosure to ensure every animal was able to safely get to food and water. With all these dynamics, there was still a leader-elect of the entire area: the dominant male scimitar-horned oryx, a large, white antelope with long slender horns that start from the head and curve back toward his rear.

Every day, the main catch pen for the whole area was serviced by a keeper, which meant it was cleaned and had fresh food added. There is only one door from the enclosure to get in, so while the keeper would be in the catch pen making noise during cleaning, all of the animals would congregate around the door in anticipation of its opening. However, with 20 to 30 hungry animals standing around, who gets to go first? That is where the dominant oryx would make his case. He would always stand at the door when it was opened, but he would not go in. He would wait for the other five oryx to make their way up and get in safely. If another oryx was across the exhibit, the dominant male would call for it to come over and everyone would wait until the last one made its way into the catch. The dominant male would stand guard and not allow any of the other species in. It just took a simple nod of his horns, in the direction of any other brave attempt, to keep them away. After the last oryx went into the catch, he would follow. It then became a free-for-all for everyone else! It was an amazing sight to watch this organization and underlying hierarchical chain commence. That male looked after his group, and for that they were rewarded every day by getting to have the first pick of the food.

The dynamics have changed a little in the past few months because our oryx and addaxes were sent to Tunisia to be reintroduced into giant protected reserves. The San Diego Zoo acted as in intermediate quarantine holding facility for all of these animals that came from institutions around the world. They were held here until all of the proper medical tests were done and permits were arranged. All of the animals made it safely to Africa, where they now have an incredible amount of space where it will take that male much more time and energy to run the show, compared to hanging out by a door flinching his head. I wish him well!

Adam Ruble is a keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Adam’s previous blog, Caring for Hoofed Animals…

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As I was waiting for the vet tech to arrive, I observed some disturbing behavior. (Just a side note, Ngami is pregnant again and about to give birth any day now. Kasane, unfortunately, seems pregnant as well. I say unfortunately because this does not bode well for Kasane’s pups. The dominant female does not tolerate any pups other than her own in the group and she would most likely kill them.)

So this morning as I was watching them I saw poor little Seronga being chewed on and attacked by Kasane and some of the juveniles. She looked pretty bad and was curled up into a ball. Kasane didn’t look so hot either. She had probably been fighting with Ngami, who usually gets more aggressive as she gets closer to giving birth.

So along with taking the pups to the hospital for their first exams, final vaccinations, and tattoos for identification, we also took Kasane and Seronga to have their wounds checked out. Both of them will be on antibiotics for their bite wounds, which they take very well. The decision was made to take Kasane out of the group for now. Of course, usually this would be a permanent move since you really cannot reintroduce meerkats back once they have left. Kasane has always been the troublemaker and we didn’t want to risk her pups being attacked by Ngami or others in the mob.

Along with the saga of the adult females was catching up the juveniles for their vaccinations. They are all basically full-grown with full-grown teeth! When catching them, I use the “gauntlet” gloves. These are thick leather gloves that reach all the way to my elbows for protection. The meerkats were very squirmy and “bitey,” and I was glad to have those gloves protecting my skin!

It was an eventful day in our meerkat manor. It is always difficult when you have to separate animals, but it is for their own good in this case. Kasane will, I hope, have her pups in peace and be able to raise them. At some point we will probably make another group with her so she will have some company. One thing I can say about working with meerkats—it is never, ever boring!

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

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In the meantime, they delight themselves and our guests with their individual play as well as their roughhousing with each other.

While Kalluk has always been known for his more destructive play, Tatqiq remains the princess, very graceful and deliberate in her actions. It’s Chinook (pictured), however, who has decided to come up with a new game of her own. And not with the other bears, but with me! As you may know, a few times a week Chinook has overnight exhibit access. On many of these occasions, she is given her cow femur bone to help pass the time. Since the bears’ regular diet is often used for shifting and training, we try to vary the presentation of some of the other food items we may offer. There are only so many options with a bone, due to its shape and size, which still allow accessibility for the bears. So I’ve tried to be more creative, and Chinook has shown her appreciation.

For a while, it seemed that if I just placed the bone somewhere on land, I would often find it at the bottom of the pool the next morning (sometimes difficult to fish out, but always favored over the times she would hide it in the stash pipe where I can’t get to it at all). It’s fairly typical for all of the bears to turn their bone into a toy when they’re done chewing all the good morsels off of it. Because of this, Kalluk is not supposed to have bones on exhibit because of that aforementioned destructive nature. So, there’s always pressure to retrieve the bone after Chinook has had one on exhibit!

Hoping that Chinook would be less inclined to play hide and seek with it if she had to “work” to get it, I tried hiding it among some of the deadwood one night. It was still fairly obvious, but she did have to traverse the climbing structure to get at it. Of course, it didn’t take her long before she found it and was able to pull it free. I at least went home with a little satisfaction. The next morning, I shifted her off exhibit and was going about my morning routine. My co-worker that day decided to clean and prepare the exhibit. When I went out to ask her a question, I noticed the bone sitting among the same piece of deadwood where I had placed it the night before. I just assumed my colleague had done this. It wasn’t until she commented about not seeing a bone on the exhibit that I realized it wasn’t my partner but rather Chinook who so cleverly replaced it where she had found it. I chalked it up to coincidence and definitely left this day with a smile on my face.

The next time it was Chinook’s turn to go out overnight, we had just received some palm browse. I made a nice bed for her out of burlap sacks and palm leaves in the back of the exhibit where she likes to sleep. Her bone was nestled in the plant material. The next morning, there the bone was, conveniently lying on top of her bed and quite easily retrieved. This didn’t surprise me much, as I figured she just had a quiet evening and lazily dined while she slept. Yet I still took note that it was left for me in the same spot I had placed it for her. But it was the next story that really had me shaking my head.

There is a log in the exhibit that floats in the main pool. It is tethered with a chain so that it can’t drift too far from shore and be used as a battering ram. I ever so carefully crawled out onto the log as far as I could reach and balanced the bone on top. It was just far enough out that Chinook couldn’t reach it by land and had no choice but to knock it off and retrieve it in the water. Again, it didn’t take her long to figure this out. So, can you guess what I found when I returned the next morning? Yep, there was that bone, carefully balancing atop the floating log just as I had left it for Chinook. Fortunately for me, I have tools I can use to retrieve it rather than going for an early morning swim!

The intelligence and creativity of these bears never cease to amaze me. Just when you think you have an understanding of their thought process, you realize you’ve only hit the tip of the iceberg (no pun intended!). I’m not sure if Chinook was trying to challenge me in the same way I was her, or if she was trying to let me know it wasn’t challenging enough and that even she could do that. Either way, I’m sure we were both amused and appreciated what we were trying to offer the other!

Kelly Murphy is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Listen to an iZoofari Chat with Kelly…Listen to iZoofari Chats about bears, featuring keepers and researchers…

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On Monday afternoon, May 21, our afternoon keeper reported that there was a huge group of visitors congregated around the exhibit as she was leaving for the day. She asked what was going on and was told that the otter pup had been swimming briefly. She was so disappointed that she just missed it, but was excited to learn of the news.

The next day, with my camera ready, I cleaned the exhibit in my usual routine and spread the otter food out all over the exhibit to encourage mom to get some exercise foraging for her meal. I opened the door to the den area to release her on exhibit and patiently waited. Mama Sweet Otter came running out in her usual mealtime excitement, but this time baby was right on her heals. The pair first came over to the wall where I was standing to check if I was going to do a food toss. The whole time baby was climbing all over her mom like an insecure child wanting to be picked up. Sweet Otter paid no mind and turned toward the water to check out her water jug with fish waiting inside. Baby otter ran after her and, just like a wobbly toddler unsure of her footing and unable to stop her forward momentum; she plowed into the shallow water full speed. She swam around in a circle rather awkwardly and when her head popped up she started squeaking until mom came over to comfort her. Together they swam a little bit and then Sweet Otter went off to find more food.

Little pup wasn’t sure what to do and continued to vocalize during her mom’s hunt. I watched as Sweet Otter gathered several fish and then collected her pup and the two of them went back into the den for the rest of the day. It was such a privilege to view this early swim lesson and I can’t wait to see the pup’s comfort level continue to improve in the future. The next couple of days I didn’t see the pup come out to swim, so for now the sightings will be sporadic. It will only be a matter of time before she is out and about on a regular basis exploring and learning about her world.

This first documented swimming event is just one of many little steps in our pup’s maturation. As you may recall from my last blog, on April 24 the pup had just opened its eyes. Around this time we had been filling the pool to a shallow level, only about 5 to 8 inches at the deepest point. This was mostly for Sweet Otter to be able to clean her coat and have a little exercise, but always with the intention that the pup would start swimming lessons soon. The first week of May would mark the timeline that other zoos have documented first swims to occur.

On April 25, we started seeing the pup make attempts to leave the nest box located inside the den area. Sweet Otter wasn’t ready for this and kept pushing her baby right back into the box over the next week or so. During this time, Sweet Otter was finally starting to venture out of the den area while we were present, and we began to shut her out of the den area, separating her from the pup for very brief moments. This was in preparation for the upcoming pup exam and first vaccinations in which we would have to keep mom in the exhibit in order to handle the pup. Sweet Otter’s appetite had been increasing and she was more and more accepting of this as we rewarded her with yummy goodies on exhibit. Our efforts paid off, and when the vets came down for the exam on May 3, Sweet Otter willingly left the den area. The exam went smoothly and it was determined that the pup was a female. A weight was attempted, but due to a scale malfunction, it could not be obtained. That was okay though, because now we had worked up to being able to keep Sweet Otter out at any time in order to handle the pup. Just two days later, I weighed her and she was 5.71 pounds (a gain of almost 3 pounds from two weeks ago!).

One week after the pup’s exam, we finally started seeing her coming out of the nest box and attempting to follow Sweet Otter out of the den area. Her wobbly and unsteady little legs caused her to flop and fall a lot, but she seemed determined to start exploring. Every day she was gaining more control over her body and finally, on May 17, we witnessed her on exhibit with Sweet Otter, although not anywhere near the water. And then, two days later, the swimming had begun! As soon as we see more regular swimming and are confident that the pup can handle it, we will offer increasingly deeper pool depths.

Now, the biggest challenge comes with figuring out an appropriate name for this little girl. Since Cape clawless otters come from South Africa, I’ll be looking for an African name with an interesting meaning. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! And in the meantime, keep watching the otter exhibit in Bear Canyon for glimpses of this little cutie!

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

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In the past, the late keeper would bring all of the monkeys into their bedrooms at night. These bedrooms provide warmth, shelter, toys to play with, and a full-course meal of greens, specially formulated biscuits, roots, vegetables, and fruit. Now that the trees are fruiting and the weather is so pleasant, however, Mr. Toad and his family are spending all day foraging and aren’t very interested in spending their evenings inside. I fully believe in listening to the animals when they’re trying to tell us something. This time, they’re telling me it’s the season for camping under the stars with a cool breeze and fresh berries at hand. Instead of trying to compete with that, I’ve started giving Mr. Toad’s group access to the building but not locking them inside in the evenings. They are now free to come and go as they please.

The only problem comes when I need to access the exhibit in the morning. I needed to find a way for Mr. Toad and his group to understand when they have to come inside—and all at the same time. So I went out and purchased a cow bell. I’ve been using this bell to signal to the troop that it’s time for breakfast—inside! Although Mr. Toad is perfectly happy to come in, Bunzi and Karen are a bit harder to convince. This is where our littlest, bravest swamp monkey, Kinah, comes in to help me out.

Since Kinah was hand raised, she is very attracted to humans and loves to visit with us. With Kinah’s help, I’ve been patiently working with Karen, Bunzi, and Makonnen to come inside each morning. Usually, I ring the cow bell and hear the girls call excitedly in response. They know that in addition to the usual breakfast fare, I also give out their favorite snack of peanuts if they shift inside. Kinah loves to come running inside to grab a quick snack, but the girls are less trusting and it takes a few tries to convince them to leave their “room with a view.”

My hopes are high, however. This new routine will benefit both the monkeys, by giving them more options, and the keepers, by still providing a place to get a good look at the animals, weigh them, and train them for medical procedures. And through all of this, I have Kinah to thank. She’s as remarkable today as she was when fighting so hard for her life at birth. So at your next visit to Ituri Forest, between the laughs and coos at our littlest kids, give a thanks to Kinah for making my life a little easier.

Nerissa Foland is a senior keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Nerissa’s previous blog about Kinah…

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It’s interesting how our personalities may change as we “mature.” Rock hyraxes are social animals, yet Green Bean, now two months old, was much more leery of people than Squash and Yam had been. As it turned out, Yam and Squash had an alliance together (two’s company, three’s a crowd?) So, Green Bean had been left out. The nursery keepers believe that maybe that is why he became more social with them. Nothing against my Pebbles, but Green Bean is more like Wallace and Gromit: very sweet. .

Time now to figure out a place to live. The Children’s Zoo has two rodents from South America that are ground dwellers: an agouti named Cutie, and Mara, a Patagonian cavy. Being a “rock” hyrax, maybe Green Bean could move in. Rocks, logs, tunnels, and ladders and branches to scurry up and down were added to the exhibit, along with a platform to be the King of the rocks.

What do we want to name him? Green Bean became Dassie. In South Africa, hyraxes are called rock rabbits or dassies, a Dutch word that means stone badger. But to me, he will always be Green Bean.

It’s fun to watch the interaction between the three of them. That little hyrax won’t be pushed around! Dassie is learning what to do to become a rock hyrax ambassador: wearing a collar, walking on a leash, and being comfortable inside of a crate. Dassie has no greater role model than Cutie, an outstanding agouti ambassador I’m looking forward to our next phase of training. Will he pick me out from a crowd?

Carol Penner is an educator at the San Diego Zoo.

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To help Deiriai’s arm heal, a pin was placed inside her humerus. She also received several stitches under her jaw bone. To keep the arm from moving around, the vets made Deiriai a little vet wrap vest; this kept her arm immobile, giving it a better chance to heal. Her left arm was wrapped against her body as well, to prevent further arm movement. Then little D was placed in a small pen so she wouldn’t run around too much. Every week the vets removed the vest, X-rayed her arm, performed a little physical therapy, then re-wrapped her.

From day one, Deiriai has been as active as a little monkey can be using only one arm. She doesn’t miss a meal for anything and makes sure to eat her cooked yam first. Because she is such a good eater, medicating has not been a problem; a few little pieces of fruit with medicine and she’s good to go!

Deiriai has now graduated to a larger pen. The pin has been removed, the vest is gone, and the arm is looking good. As part of her physical therapy, the hospital keepers are trying to get her to use her left arm more. How, you may ask? It turns out little D likes raisins…a lot! So we hold out the raisins a little distance from her so she has to reach out for them. When she tries to get them with the right hand, we just move so that she has to hold on with her right and reach with her left. It’s been working so far.

And while Deiriai has been at the hospital, we’ve been sure to provide her with a lot of enrichment: tree branches with leaves and browse so she can either eat or hide in the leaves, a radio playing music, stuffed animals for furry companionship, and a pool for dipping. We even place some treats in the pool so she can forage for them. And of course, everyone likes to spend quality time with her.

Deiriai still has some time to spend with us at the hospital, but once she is released, she’ll be going with her mom and a few friends to a new exhibit. That’s when the real physical therapy will begin.

Meanwhile, we’ll be sure to provide little D with all the help she needs to heal.

Yvette Kemp is a senior hospital keeper at the San Diego Zoo.

Read Yvette’s previous blog, Manchurian Brown Bear is Back!…

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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…

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