I am preparing myself for another adventure in India: two months of fieldwork along one of India’s greatest biodiverse rivers, the Chambal. Each of my trips to India over the past four years has been incredibly different from one another, so I have no way to guess what this trip will have in store for me.
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As I have mentioned before, my job involves travel and that means it is time to pack my trunk yet again.

I am headed out to Milwaukee to accompany our life-size statues on their journey back to San Diego. You may remember from my previous post, Putting the “Odyssey” in Elephant Odyssey, that there will be life-size statues of some of the animals from the Pleistocene residing at Elephant Odyssey. Well, they are not being made on site, and thus they need to be trucked across the nation!
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Imagine walking through Southern California 12,000 years ago. Believe it or not, the surrounding plants and landscape wouldn’t be much different than the natural surroundings you see today. However, the diversity of animals would rival that of modern-day African savannas. It might be difficult to visualize a family of Columbian mammoths traversing across the local terrain or a teratorn (relative of the modern-day condor) gliding along the air currents of the foothills with its 12-foot wingspan.
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In mid March, I spent nine days on Big Ambergris Cay in the Turks and Caicos Islands conducting research on the Turks and Caicos rainbow boa Epicrates chrysogaster. Of course, I wasn’t alone! I was with a team of three volunteer assistants and Graham Reynolds, a collaborator and population geneticist from the University of Tennessee. Our project, now in its second year, is focused on understanding the natural history, genetics, and population density of boas in order to formulate a comprehensive plan for their conservation and management.
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Whew! It’s been a whirlwind of activity for the bear staff at the San Diego Zoo! Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to take stock and admire our handiwork.

I suppose the list of activities must start with the breeding of our polar bears. JoAnne has already written several detailed blogs about that activity, and perhaps we will be hearing the pitter-patter of little bear feet up at The Plunge. Kudos to those of you taking JoAnne up on her challenge to write about your carbon footprint reductions; there is no better way to help the polar bear! (Read JoAnne’s blog, The Polar Bear World.)
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As difficult as that may be to believe, it’s true! Opening day for the San Diego Zoo’s Elephant Odyssey is scheduled for May 23, just two short months away! The construction crews have been working some long days and are doing a wonderful job. Taking into consideration that ground breaking was officially October of 2007, they sure have come a long way.
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We have just finished another celebration of our bears here at the San Diego Zoo with Bear Bonanza. Thank you to everyone who participated and donated to our bears! One of our promotions was meeting with some of you and talking about our wonderful polar bears. I met blog reader Susan, and I told her that I would write more blogs if you would all write how you are reducing your carbon footprint! This morning I read how three of you are doing this—great job!!!!!! Susan, I am holding up my end of the deal!
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During the second week of March, I participated in a helicopter survey of golden eagles and their nests along the rugged, remote, and spectacular ridges and canyons of the Sierra de Juárez Mountains in Baja California, Mexico. The survey was conducted under the auspices of Sempra Energy, which is obligated by the state government to provide a percentage of their power production through clean and renewable sources.
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Okay, I know I have said it before, but I have to say it again—I love this job! Not only do I get to tell everyone about the coolest new exhibit coming to the San Diego Zoo, but I also get to tell everyone about our newest baby! Of course, to do that I need to know as much as possible about the little guy and that means going to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park!

That’s right, our male baby African elephant was born on March 13 at 3:15 in the morning. He is doing very well, and yes, he’s terribly cute. You can see him with mom Umngani and older sister Khosi.
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Jennifer Keating, a research scientist for San Diego Zoo Conservation Research, is in China conducting research on giant pandas. She is kind enough to include updates on the two pandas born at the Zoo now living in China, Hua Mei and Mei Sheng. Read her previous blog, Hua Mei: Quite the Charmer.

Ya’an has a reputation for being the rainiest city in China. Even though I have only been here a short time, I am willing to say that this reputation is very true! The Bifengxia panda base is just up the mountainside from Ya’an and tends to get more rain than Ya’an. To everyone’s surprise, the sun came out a few days ago, and it happened to coincide with Mei Sheng getting moved to his new exhibit.
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