The Santa Barbara Zoo will become only the second United States zoo where the public can view the critically endangered California condor on exhibit. Santa Barbara will join the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park which has been exhibiting the California condor since the year 2000.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Africa, master shona stone carver Alex Chitura has returned to the Wild Animal Park for the summer. We are lucky to have this very talented man create beautiful works of art right before our eyes!
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Every great organization has folks who stand out in their passion for what they do. It’s easy to see in the results of their work. Judy Bell is that type of gardener. She has worked in the Heart of the Zoo (an area that includes Monkey Trails, Absolutely Apes, Gorilla Tropics, and the bonobos) at the San Diego Zoo since 1991. Being in that area for so long, Judy has developed a unique relationship with the primates that probably wouldn’t occur to most visitors. That connection is where the flora meets the fauna.
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The last time I wrote, Kasane had been removed from the meerkat group at the San Diego Zoo and Ngami was about ready to give birth (see blog, Meerkats: Never a Dull Moment). As always with this group, there are twists and turns wherever we look. Kasane was put in a holding pen behind the small cats on Elephant Mesa. She was very curious and could be seen from the guest sidewalk. A few times I had someone ask, “Is there supposed to be a meerkat back there?” It was quite funny for people to see nosy little Kasane staring at them from “behind the scenes”!
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On July 7, 2008, giant panda female Guo Guo gave birth to twins. Guo Guo is an earthquake survivor that was moved to Bifengxia from Wolong just shortly after the earthquake in China. The birth of her twins was the first post-earthquake birth this year.
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It seems that Zhen Zhen and Su Lin are eager to show off their acrobatic skills lately. After a morning observing Zhen Zhen, I counted three occurrences of her twirling around a tree branch, ending in a hang-dangle position before nimbly setting herself down to the ground below. This went on repeatedly for about 30 minutes as she acrobatically made her way down from the tree, grabbed a piece of bamboo, whizzed up the tree, and eventually made her way back down again. It seemed like she was stashing some bamboo up in one of her hammocks. Likewise, Su Lin has been on a roll with playful moves.
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It depends. In Africa, elephants can cover over 50 miles (80 kilometers) in a day, if food is scarce, but rarely walk that far. More often they cover a few miles during the day, and sometimes spend most of their time near a water source. The distance that elephant herds travel seems to change during the year. So how about at the Wild Animal Park? How far do our elephants walk in a day?
We’re going to be measuring that. When you come to the Park, you’ll probably see the elephants with a gigantic collar around their necks (as seen above on Musi). The collar doesn’t bother them; in fact, they get used to it quite quickly in the same way that people sometimes forget that they are wearing a ring or watch, or that your dog gets used to wearing a collar.
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One of the best ways to get to know your local community is to start at the library. This is exactly what one staff member and several interns from the San Diego Zoo’s Maui Bird Conservation Center (MBCC) decided to do when planning an informational display. The poster included short notes about our program and the four species of native endangered Hawaiian birds reared at the facility, as well as examples of eggs, nene goose feathers, a feeding puppet used for ‘alala chicks, and Maui parrotbill nests used at the Center. Skillful artwork (provided by a previous intern, Allison Homer) and colorful photos added the finishing touches, providing something for all ages and interests to take in and enjoy.
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It was with great sadness that we learned of the death of Shi Shi, one of the two original giant pandas loaned to us here at the San Diego Zoo. For me, it was especially hard to hear, since his arrival allowed me to become one of the first panda narrators at the Zoo.
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A few short weeks after introductions, Kalluk, Chinook, and Tatqiq continue to get reacquainted with each other with continual greetings, lots of sniffing and investigating, and the occasional game of pool tag to help beat the heat. But one thing is for sure: their individual personalities are still shining through here at Polar Bear Plunge at the San Diego Zoo.
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