Just like humans, animals can get sick, too. They can contract diseases, break bones, and get scrapes and bruises, and just like humans, animals also need medical attention. But where do exotic animals, like giraffes and gazelle, go for treatment?

The Paul Harter Veterinary Medical Center at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park is the answer. This animal hospital was built specifically for big birds and hoofed animals. Before the actual building was made, a team of vets went around the world looking at all different kinds of animal hospitals to see how they could make the Wild Animal Park’s hospital ideal.
(more…)

It’s been over two months now since Kalila, our precious Cape clawless otter pup suddenly passed away (see previous blog, In Memory of Our Otter Pup). Many tests were run to try to determine the cause of her death, and none were very conclusive. She did have a systemic infection despite having been on antibiotics, and she was also still very anemic. The cause of both issues is unknown, and perhaps we will never really know. It is sad, but true, that sometimes animals just don’t thrive even with our best efforts to keep them safe and healthy. In the case of lil’ Kalila, she may have been born compromised and that contributed to her passing. I can say with great assurance, though, that the short five months of Kalila’s life were nurtured ones as her mom, Sweet Otter, proved to be a protective, attentive, and playful mother!
(more…)

Construction has come to an end over at one of the Wild Animal Park’s off-exhibit research station, and the dust has settled to reveal our brand-new iguana barn! It is a wonderful building with iguana rooms complete with heated floors so these desert-dwelling reptiles can feel right at home. A few more electric connections are needed but we should have our iguanas move in by the end of the year! So how are the cheetahs I call the “Q-boys” doing now that the commotion has settled down? (See Ria’s previous blog, Cheetah News on the Two ‘Q’s.)
(more…)

Kamau has set off to start a new life, and hopefully a new family, at the Sacramento Zoo! He was born at the Wild Animal Park on July 19, 2006 to Mina and Izu. He has a brother, Zenda, who is now at the Brookfield Zoo in Illinois and two half sisters, Abena and Bakari, who are at the John Ball Zoo in Michigan. Being the final lion from the 2006 litters to leave the Park, he has had the time to develop into quite an impressive boy right before our eyes; at 2 years old he already weighed in at 386 pounds (175 kilograms)!
(more…)

This photo, taken September 2007, shows a much smaller Vus’musi with mother Ndula and Curtis.

Most babies in the Animal Kingdom learn behavior by observing and then mimicking their parents’ behaviors. Well, the African elephant calves at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park have taken it a step further by associating an area and a signal from the keepers to perform a behavior that we consider one of the hardest behaviors we’ve trained our adult elephants to do. That behavior is the “down,” where we have the animal completely lie down onto its side, cued by a combined visual hand signal and verbal command.
(more…)

Hello!
My name is Adam and I am a keeper with the hoofed animal team at the San Diego Zoo. Working at the Zoo has always been a dream of mine, and to realize it every day is a wonderful feeling. One thing I discovered about being a keeper: if you find another keeper anywhere in the world, you can swap jobs with them! The minute I learned of this possibility, I started right away finding a keeper in Australia.
(more…)

Cusco, Department of Cusco, Peru
I’m on my way back to Quince Mil, after being gone for three weeks (see previous blog, Andean Bears: New Behaviors to Study). During that time I traveled to China with the head of the San Diego Zoo’s Applied Animal Ecology Division, Dr. Ron Swaisgood, and Dr. James Sheppard, a postdoctoral investigator for the San Diego Zoo. James and I have different skills that complement Ron’s, and we met with Chinese collaborators to discuss the research questions, and research plans, of the giant panda in situ program. Several of the questions being addressed in that program are similar to questions we plan to address in the Andean bear research program, but in many ways we know more about giant pandas than we do about Andean bears. However, the giant panda faces more serious threats than we think confront the Andean bear.
(more…)

Alicia Valencia is the San Diego Zoo’s 2008 Arctic Ambassador to the Polar Bears International Leadership Camp. She spent a week on the tundra in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, watching polar bears and teaming up with other dynamic teens to become leaders for polar bear conservation. Read her previous blog, Beautiful Northern Lights, and More Polar Bears Visit the Lodge.

(This blog is for Tuesday and Wednesday because I was on kitchen crew on Tuesday and traveling on Wednesday.)

Before this trip, I could have never fully understood how life-changing the Polar Bears International experience would be. But now, as I sit on a plane that takes me from my tundra Eden and PBI family, I cannot imagine what my life would be like without this opportunity. I have been fortunate to gain lifelong friendships with people who have a mutual dedication to a cause. I can say now, without a doubt, that through the last week I have grown as a person.
(more…)

Let’s face it, we can’t all afford to go on a safari in Africa, or see the jungles of India and witness the wildlife. But luckily for us, the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park has a Photo Caravan tour where you, your friends, and family can participate in a safari for a reasonable price.
(more…)

Kalluk and Tatqiq arrive in San Diego in 2001.

This week at the San Diego Zoo, one of our polar bears hit a milestone that caused us celebration and some reflection. In March of 2001, a male and female polar bear cub arrived as orphans from Alaska. We chose their names from Inupiaq, the langauge of the Inupiat. The little female had the most beautiful round, white face; we chose the Inupiaq word for “moon,” Tatqiq. The male was also little and we hoped he would have great size as he grew, so thinking of a huge polar bear we chose the Inupiat word for “thunder,” Kalluk.
(more…)