Field assistant Jean Melba with goliath frog

While conducting surveys for forest elephants in the Ebo Forest (see Bethan’s blog, Surveying Forest Elephants…and Snakes?), it is impossible to ignore the huge variety of other interesting things we encounter. Due to its mountainous topology, Ebo has many small streams and rivulets. When our surveys take us close to these rivers, we are forced to move very carefully. Most are extremely rocky due to all the enormous boulders that have fallen from the steep mountains on either side. These rocks provide an ideal living environment for goliath frogs Conraua goliath, the largest species of frog in the world, which can weigh more than 6.5 pounds (3 kilograms). Usually they are very shy creatures, particularly in the daylight hours, but we have been lucky enough to see them on several occasions. Goliath frogs are officially classified as endangered, have a very limited natural distribution (only in southern Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea) and are protected by law in Cameroon. Despite this, however, they are still hunted extensively for the bushmeat trade. The San Diego Zoo has conducted fieldwork on this spectacular species in the past in a different region of Cameroon.
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BOISE, IdahoIn the Vermilion Cliffs Monument in northern Arizona at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 15 the public may observe the release from a viewing area where spotting scopes will be set up and experts will be available to answer questions.
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There have been many milestones in the history of the California Condor Recovery Program, but this year marks the 20th anniversary of the most important one. On April 29, 1988, a little condor hatched at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park.
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What’s Hoppenin’
It has been quite a while since we last updated everyone about how the frogs are doing. To review, in August 2006, we received 82 mountain yellow-legged frog Rana muscosa tadpoles. These animals were salvaged from a streambed that was drying up in Southern California’s San Jacinto Mountains. Fires, drought, disease, nonnative species, and water pollution have all but wiped out the frogs in Southern California. They remain in only three mountain ranges, surviving in only eight populations. It is estimated that fewer than 250 of these beautiful frogs are left in Southern California.
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Bear Canyon at the San Diego Zoo has a couple of new faces once again. Now on display at the bottom of the canyon before entering Sun Bear Forest are nine-year-old Zephyr and Turbo, two spotted hyena brothers. Each weighing in at around 125 pounds (57 kilograms) and sporting beautiful dark spots along their yellow coats, the two can be difficult to tell apart. However, if you look closely, Turbo has a larger ear notch on his right ear that extends inward toward his head. He also has larger, more prominent spots along the top of his back than Zephyr.
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…what time it is in San Diego? I’ve had a run of days at the Alternate/Classroom viewing area at the Giant Panda Research Station and have to admit that I find it strange. Visitors are coming in from all over the world on winter breaks and, of course, are not only anxious to meet Bai Yun and ZZ, but to see their faces and some movement. But, alas, a pattern is emerging: I’ve begun to time it and, as in the past, morning viewing of Mom and cub is mostly of sleeping pandas. ZZ is up and running before the Zoo opens and climbs up her tree, higher at first and then lower about 90 minutes later, to awaken after our posted close of viewing at 11:30 a.m. Sometimes facing forward, sometimes facing backward, she is most active when she shifts position every so often. True to form, however, Bai Yun has gone up to her perch within five minutes of opening time. What gives?
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Do you remember that nursery song, “Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy?” Well, we made a slight change to it recently at the hospital at the San Diego Zoo. Instead of “does eat oats” we’ve changed it to “nosey goats!” Why? Because we had been living this revised version of the song for the last 30 days.
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All was back to normal in the meerkat exhibit at the San Diego Zoo after my last blog (see The Case of the Missing Meerkat). And normal for this group of meerkats is that Ngami, our dominant female, is once again pregnant. If you have stopped by the Elephant Mesa in the past few weeks you would have noticed her belly. It is huge! Meerkats have about a 2½-month long gestation and give birth to 2 to 5 pups. Our group has not had much success raising their pups so I am always concerned when I start to see Ngami’s belly swell and her weight increase.
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There are two lovely ladies worthy of mention that reside at the top of Bear Canyon at the San Diego Zoo. Coats that glisten in the sun, huge round eyes, impressive paws, and graceful strides belong to 15-year-old Transvaal lioness sisters Mweezi and Tango.You can easily tell them apart because Tango is missing part of her tail from an injury incurred as a cub. Mweezi has a distinguished pirate look as she is missing her left eye, a result of chronic corneal ulceration.
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One of the main objectives in California Condor Recovery Plan is to “de-list,” or take the species off of the endangered species list. In the case of the condor we are settling for “downlisting” it to threatened status, for starters. Our current estimate is around year 2020 to achieve this. The criteria we set is to have three disjunct populations of at least 150 birds each for a total of 450. At that point, the species could be downlisted from Endangered to Threatened. This would be a welcome and significant milestone in the efforts to save California condors from extinction.
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