In 1974, Tom Luedtke was hired at the San Diego Zoo as a part-time summer worker in the Building and Grounds Department. Before working at the Zoo, Tom’s previous job paid $2.10 per hour. The Zoo boosted Tom up to $2.30 per hour. By September of 1974, Tom went full time on a winter work crew, and his pay went up to the grand amount of $3.65 per hour. Tom says he was in “hog heaven” (and that was before we had so many pigs at the Zoo!) Tom was hired to a permanent tree trimmer position in 1976. After five years trimming trees, he moved into gardening.
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Hi again from St. Bees Island. It has been a busy year and we have been scouting the nearby islands for koalas as well as following the usual suspects on St. Bees. (Read a previous blog, Keepers Track Koalas in Australia.)

During the last trip to the island, we caught almost all of the koalas that had been fitted with GPS collars. The exception was Quest, a male that had wandered to the other side of the island. When we found him, he was in a very tricky position high up a gum tree, so we left him for the next trip. It is always both exciting and worrying when we get to download the GPS collars. Unlike the normal radio collars, which we follow using a radio receiver until we find the koala and then record the location manually, these new-generation collars record the location of the koala every two hours. The worrying part is that for the last 12 months, we have had some teething problems: some of the collars have not collected as much data as we would like. Fortunately for us, on this trip all the collars worked well, with some collecting even more data that we expected. For one male, we collected a position every two hours for five months, so there is not much that he had been up to that we don’t now know about!
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Almost one year to the date of the first time we put all three polar bears together, we decided to reintroduce them on June 17. With it being the end of breeding season, and exhausting Tatqiq’s patience with her “alone” time, we determined it was time to try all three bears together again. Having the first round last year go so well, we were fairly optimistic that this time wouldn’t be all that different. That, along with the friendly interactions between the girls through the introduction panel, was helpful.
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I just got off the phone with three of my good friends from Wolong. They are at the panda center in Bifengxia near Ya’an now. Their spirits sound better, as they are turning their attention to rebuilding a new future for themselves. I also told them about all the support we have received from the folks on the panda blog and the many donations that have come to the San Diego Zoo for the Wolong Earthquake Relief Fund. They were very appreciative of this support and wanted me to thank you all for them. So, thank you!
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With construction well underway for Elephant Odyssey at the San Diego Zoo, we can only wait with excitement and anticipation for this huge undertaking to open. However, what happened to all of the hoofed animals that created what was formerly known as Horn & Hoof Mesa? I am a keeper in that area, and I work with a group of hard-working, dedicated keepers that make up the Mesa team. Six months before this project began, we were given the task to move about 300 animals to make space for Elephant Odyssey. These animals ranged from small Cape blue duikers to large scimitar-horned oryx (pictured). The amount of time and energy spent on this task was incredible!
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After a few months in our “classroom” area taking a break from all of us, Su Lin (pictured) returned to the giant panda viewing area at the San Diego Zoo on Wednesday morning while her father, Gao Gao, took over the back area. It’s great to see her again, and her return brought many surprises.

These past weeks, as special tour groups visited Su Lin in the late mornings, they were frequently treated to a high-spirited, romping bear. We wondered if this was her way of entertaining herself in this quiet area, but this seems to be a pattern, as she gave our visitors on Wednesday quite a show on exhibit!
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I think many readers of these blogs would be interested in meeting some of the incredible staff here at the San Diego Zoo. We have an amazing Horticulture Department, and the people are what makes that so. So, I’d like to introduce some of our workers, and the first person I want you to meet is Senior Gardener Bruce Fontaine.

Bruce started working at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park before it opened in 1972. Within a couple of years, he transferred to the Zoo. Although many of our original “Hort” staff started out in other departments, Bruce was actually hired by Horticulture and has stayed for 35 years!
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Today was quite a day in the meerkat exhibit on Elephant Mesa at the San Diego Zoo: all sorts of changes, fights, vaccines, and general upheaval. On the schedule for today were the final vaccinations for the pups born in February (see Laura’s previous blog, Vaccinations for Meerkat Pups), and the yearly vaccinations for the juveniles from last year’s litter.
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Last month I had the opportunity to attend the New Living Expo in San Francisco. On behalf of the San Diego Zoo, I accepted an invitation by the director of Orangutan Outreach, Richard Zimmerman, and his wife, Robin, to help raise awareness and funds directly contributing to orangutan conservation. Armed with some show-and-tell items, information pamphlets, and 50 plush orangutan toys, we had no idea what to expect from the thousands of anticipated guests visiting that weekend.
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Mao Mao earlier this year

Many of you have by now read the reports that there was loss of panda life resulting from the earthquake after all. Wolong staff believed that the missing pandas had escaped, but Monday they found the body of Mao Mao under the rubble of a collapsed wall in her enclosure. The Wolong staff held a funeral and are mourning her passing.
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