Employees were offered a sneak preview of the Zoo’s newest habitat area, Joan B. Kroc’s Monkey Trails and Forest Tales, on May 26. Touted as the largest and most elaborate habitat ever created at the Zoo, the 3.4-acre exhibit will eventually house over 40 species of African and Asian forest creatures, from rotund pygmy hippos to the amazingly slender twig snakes.
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We spend many hours, days, and indeed, months closely monitoring the behavior of the breeding pairs of `alala during their breeding season (April ““ July). We have two goals: first, to determine when to separate the male from his mate — if he becomes too aggressive then we need to give him ” time outs” for bad behavior — and secondly, to determine if the female is incubating well enough to leave her with her eggs. We ” score” the behavior of the female to determine when she is about to lay an egg, first by measuring her ” cup forming” time and secondly by documenting her ” incubation time.” When her cup forming drops to a low percentage and her incubation time starts to climb, we know it’s time to remove the male (he’s done his job by then).
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What a pleasure it was to sit among kids who care! Sure, lots of people (children and adults) talk about helping the environment or wildlife, but these students actually did something about it””they participated in our Cans for Critters program.
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