A quick update about Harry, the California condor, for all of you who have been waiting to hear:

The Phoenix Zoo contacted us last week to let us know that he had his esophagostomy tube removed. An esophagostomy tube is a small food tube that enters the esophagus, or ” crop” (the crop is a modification of the esophagus used primarily for storage and softening of food in birds, so that food can be delivered to the stomach). His crop is again functioning normally, which is allowing him to eat on his own and gain weight. Some of the best news we received is that his blood is normalizing and the lead is almost completely purged from his system. The transfusion and treatment is working just as we all had hoped. Veterinarians are very optomistic for a full recovery and of releasing Harry back into the wild. Can you see us all smiling? )
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After two nights of rain and a 70-hour struggle, the first California condor egg of 2006 hatched successfully on the morning of March 12 to clear skies and sunshine. The chick, of course, was not affected by the weather outside since it was inside a hatcher, at a toasty 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36 degrees Celsius). Even though condor parents will usually help their chick by breaking off pieces of shell, this chick, like many before it, broke out of the egg all on its own. The chick is being puppet-raised (photo shows it at two days old) and he or she is healthy, eating well, and seems to enjoy playing with a small condor feather in its isolette.
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Greetings from Australia!
My name is Bill Ellis and I am a new researcher. I am working with Fred Bercovitch, the Division Head of Behavioral Biology at CRES, studying the behavioral ecology of koalas in Australia. I have only been working on the project for two months so far, so there is a lot to do and not a lot of results to talk about – but don’t tell the boss that!
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Many people equate this time of the year with ” spring cleaning.” It’s the time to sweep the cobwebs out of the corners, open windows to air out rooms, and dust all of those hard-to-reach areas. For the biologists of the Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program, spring cleaning is when we prepare for the season’s eggs and chicks, and it involves a lot more then dusting for cobwebs!
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Visitors often ask us panda narrators when Su Lin will wake up or come down out of the tree. Our answer is, ” Not very often!” Because her primary source of nourishment is still Bai Yun’s rich milk, her main jobs right now are to nurse, sleep, grow, and look cute, all of which she does very well.
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Our two 9-month-old Malayan tigers have been growing at what seems to be an unbelievably fast rate! Mata and Rimba recently weighed in at 136 pounds (62 kilograms) and 144 pounds (65.5 kilograms), respectively. Rimba has been bigger than Mata ever since birth and he has also been a bit more independent than his brother, who likes to check in more with their mom, Mek. All three tigers are still doing well together, and we continue to put them out on exhibit as a group from 9 a.m. until noon every day.
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It seems many of you are wondering why there have not been regular photos of Su Lin. As you all know, Su Lin now spends most of her time up in the trees. As one of the Zoo’s photographers, I can tell you that this makes it a difficult task to get good photos of the little bear. And now that the trees are leafing out it will be even tougher because she ends up being blocked by branches and leaves as she walks the treetops. That, unfortunately, does not make for great photographs!
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One of the major foci of our panda research program has been the elucidation of chemical communication in the giant panda. We have intensively studied what motivates a bear to leave scent marks, what the composition of those scent marks is, and what the response of the receiver is when encountering a scent mark. We know that this chemical messaging system is very important to this solitary species, as wild pandas rarely see one another and so do not often communicate face to face.
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On February 22 at 1:30 p.m. an okapi was born to one of our two females in the okapi barn behind the scenes at the San Diego Zoo’s Ituri Forest. The dam, named Kelle, went into labor around 11 that morning and approximately 2½ hours later, a healthy 50 pound (23 kilogram) male okapi was born! Kelle had proved to be a good mother in the past, so after keepers observed the calf nursing, they left the two alone so they could have time to bond.
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We received word from Phoenix Zoo late yesterday afternoon that California condor #9601 is responding well to treatment, and his blood lead level has decreased significantly. (See my previous blog.) The day after the blood transfusion he was already stronger and, as mentioned in the previous blog comments, ” perkier,” which was definitely a good sign!
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