Somali Wild Ass Enrichment
Posted at 3:43 pm December 29, 2009 by Lance Miller
It has been a wonderful seven months since my first blog post about studying the Somali wild ass (see Wild Horses!) at the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park. Since then I have collected behavioral and hormone data to help answer some of my original questions. These included figuring out how Somali wild asses spend their time and determining factors that cause certain animals to spend time with some animals but not others. What we have learned is that the Somali wild ass is an amazing social animal. They have associations within the herd that remain consistent, and those associations are reflected in their behavior. Since the last post we have had two newborn Somalis. Play behavior appears to be important in the development of this species, which might serve many functions later in life.
We have also started collaborating with the St. Louis Zoo to combine our efforts to help conserve this rare equid. This will include combining our data sets to provide the best information possible. Additionally, based on the results from the first seven months, I am planning on using this information to set up an additional research study to be started at the beginning of the year. The new study will be examining the effects of scent enrichment (vanilla, orange, and mint extracts) on Somali wild ass behavior. The goal of the enrichment is to increase exploration of the environment, which is a behavior we believe to be associated with animal well-being.
Have a wonderful holiday and a safe and happy new year!
Lance Miller is a research coordinator at the San Diego Zoo’s Institute for Conservation Research.
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December 29th, 2009 at 5:41 pm
Thanks for the great post. The scientist in me wants to come help take data. I look forward to hearing your results on the scent enrichment.
(SDZ and Disney’s Animal Kingdom! Big Disney fan here. I’ve heard a little about research they do. I wish you well in the rest of your career!)
December 30th, 2009 at 10:30 am
They are just so pretty!!! Are the “babies” referred to as a colt or something different since they are an ass? I always wondered that. Since most baby animals have different names for their off spring… Colt, joey, pup, cub, kitten and so on… does a baby ass get something special to them?
Lance responds: Tina, thank you for the question. The “babies” are called a foal, which is similar to a newborn horse. It took me a while to get used to the term foal since I had worked with dolphins most recently, which are referred to as calves.
December 31st, 2009 at 5:38 am
Thank you so much for the answer! One last question and then I may leave you alone…. Are the foals as soft as a colt? Some wild horses have very “hard” fur and then some have soft fur. The parents fur looks a different texture than the foals so I was wondering if you all are allowed to touch them or if this is a totally hands off type thing. I know SDZ tries to have all the animals as natural as possible but for exams and such I know you all have to have contact with the animals and for a new baby there are many things that need to be checked in a horse so, do you get to touch them and are the foals as soft as they appear?
Lance responds: Another great question! As a scientist, my goal is for the animals to ignore me completely, otherwise it could affect the data. For example, if I were to feed or touch one of the animals, it could increase the amount of time they spend around me instead of other animals. This would create a bias in the data, so I try to interact with the animals as little as possible. However, to answer your question, I talked with one of our animal care experts who works regularly with the Somali wild ass and learned that the adults have “hard” or coarse hair, and the foals’ hair is softer than the adults.
January 16th, 2010 at 10:40 am
Cool! So when are the Somali wild ass expected to go on exhibit at the Wild Animal park? I can’t wait to see them!
Lance responds: Hopefully, there are a lot of people excited to see the Somali wild ass. I am not sure on the exact date that they will be available for public viewing, but we have started on the exhibit. I will post more information when it becomes available.
January 21st, 2010 at 2:49 pm
We’ll be coming out in March. Hope they are out then! Keep us posted on these beautiful animals.