Thanks again to the Adopt-An-Animal Program, the bonobos at the Wild Animal Park were able to experience a bit of an Easter egg hunt with toys called Kongs and peanut butter. The keepers smeared peanut butter on trees and ropes and hid peanut butter-filled Kongs throughout the bonobo enclosure before the animals were let out. |inline
Kidomo, our month-old okapi calf, went out to the exhibit in the San Diego Zoo’s Ituri Forest for the first time with his dam, Kelle, on March 25. He immediately started exploring the large space, and every once in a while he would get so excited that he would start kicking with his hind legs and then run around like crazy! All the while, Kelle was busy nibbling on fresh browse that the keepers hung throughout the exhibit.
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There has been much discussion on the panda blog lately about scent marking behavior. As a result, I thought I could offer a primer on scent marking to fill in the gaps for everyone.
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I arrived at work and veterinarian Russ Burns was trying to find a medical record for one of our wildlife education animals. ” Good morning, Valerie! We have a dusky pademelon coming to the hospital. Can you help me find the record?” A dusty watermelon”¦what? I’ve worked at the Wild Animal Park’s Harter Veterinary Medical Center (HVMC) for two-and-a-half years, and this was the first time I’d heard that, and I really wasn’t sure where to look ““ the produce section?
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Despite rain, cold, and miserable weather predictions, the San Diego Zoo’s Girls In Science set out on their spring field trip on Saturday, March 18. Neither current participants nor alumni seemed to care that the weatherman predicted misery all around, for they were headed to Los Angeles and the La Brea Tar Pits!
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The Harter Veterinary Medical Center (HVMC) is privileged to be among the most state-of-the-art facilities in the world – if not the most – for treating exotic animals. One area at HVMC that is essential to its daily operation is our clinical laboratory, which was made possible by a generous donation from Audrey Geisel, wife of the late Theodore Geisel (a.k.a. “Dr. Seuss”). The HVMC laboratory processes over 400 samples each month so veterinarians can review and evaluate the results. That’s almost 5,000 in a year!
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The San Diego Zoo’s Girls In Science (GIS) had the glorious good fortune to spend a couple of afternoons this past week with JoAnne Simerson””panda keeper and animal trainer extraordinaire!
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Many of you have already seen us. We’ll take a casual walk throughout the San Diego Zoo’s Monkey Trails and Forest Tales habitat, or Reptile Mesa, or right along the main entrance. I am talking about our morning walks with Katie the miniature horse (shown on the far right with Sugar Plum in the middle and Elmo on the left). As many of you already know, Katie arrived in early February of this year. She has been part of our family here at the Children’s Zoo since then.
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Chukai, our 3½-month-old tapir, has been growing by leaps and bounds. During his latest weigh-in, he tipped the scales at a whopping 194 pounds (88 kilograms)! He still has a lot of growing to do, though, before he catches up with his mom, Rose, who weighs 803 pounds (365 kilograms). Another way that we can tell that Chukai is growing up is that he is starting to lose his stripes and spots and his adult coat is coming in. All of his ” watermelon markings” should be completely gone by the time he is six months old.
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As Su Lin grows, it is useful to compare her development to our previous panda cubs in order to assess her progress. It may be interesting to note when she achieves certain milestones, but it is most informative about pandas when we can place these milestones in the context of panda cub development as a whole.
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