Friday, January 08, 2010
Zoos
Elephant ante natal exercise at German Zoo
There’s a serious purpose to the act, as this band of pregnant elephants are exercising as a part of their ante natal classes.
he mum need to have daily work out as well as being walked by their keepers three to five miles a day stay physically fit. this routine is so popular the two baby name Tarak and Shanti who join and enjoy and have fun. The elephant will get birth between April to November this year at Zoo Hanover Germany!
http://halohalo.ph/?p=37889
Thursday, January 7, 2010, 3:11pm CST
Sedgwick County Zoo recognizes top volunteers
Wichita Business Journal - by Josh Heck
The Sedgwick County Zoo has named its 2009 volunteers of the year.
Tom Beauchesne is the zoo’s 2009 adult volunteer of the year, donating 1,012 hours of his time during the year. Micaela Atkinson is the zoo’s youth volunteer of the year, giving 810 hours in 2009.
Volunteers help the zoo by giving their time, which in turn saves the zoo money.
In all, 1,049 volunteers logged 45,481 hours at the zoo in 2009. The volunteer hours in 2009, the zoo says, were equal to 21 full-time employees.
“It wasn’t easy picking just two award winners for 2009,” Volunteer Director Bridget Landers said in a written statement. “I’m impressed by their dedication and enthusiasm to work together to make the zoo the best it can be.”
Beauchesne has volunteered at the zoo since 1996 in the Australian and South American animal areas, graphics, special events and commissary departments.
Atkinson has volunteered at the zoo since 2007. She volunteers most of her time in the African animal areas, special events and education departments.
http://wichita.bizjournals.com/wichita/stories/2010/01/04/daily31.html
Zoo celebrates birth of 5 white tigers
Fri, 8 Jan 2010
The Chilean National Zoo is celebrating the birth of a rare litter of five white tigers.
Zoo director Mauricio Fabry said Thursday that the zoo will build a special habitat to accommodate the tigers born on Dec. 28.
He said that the new enclosure will include a large expanse of grass and waterfalls and will be without bars.
On Wednesday, zoo officials implanted subcutaneous chips in the cubs to identify them.
The tigers' father is Pampa, who arrived from Argentina in 2007. The mother is Luna, who arrived at the zoo from Mexico in 2004.
The couple produced a litter of three white tigers in December 2007, but the zoo hasn't seen a litter of five in 82 years.
The tigers' white fur is the result of a rare gene mutation.
Fabry says there are only 200 such tigers on the planet.
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/world/88431/zoo-celebrates-birth-5-white-tigers
More Than 600 Babies Born or Hatched in 2009 at Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation and Research Center
Thu, 12/31/2009 - 8:07 AM
By Karin Korpowski-Gallo
Washington, DC - What do 39 black footed ferrets, six Eld’s deer, five red pandas, four chameleon forest dragons, three clouded leopards, two burrowing owls, and one western lowland gorilla add up to at this time of the year?
Not a new holiday song! They represent a successful 2009 baby boom at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation and Research Center.
All in all, the Zoo has bragging rights to more than 600 babies (400+ were cuttlefish) in the past year including Kibibi (photo attached), the adorable female gorilla born in January, followed by three equally lovable clouded leopard cubs – two born in March (photo also attached) and a singleton born this past summer.
Other esteemed births/hatchings for the Zoo in 2009 include endangered species: black and rufous giant elephant shrews (six), elegant crested tinamous chicks (four), wattled cranes (three), Kori bustards (two), and one each of a giant anteater, dama gazelle, maned wolf, przewalski’s horse and Stanley crane.
Photo credit: Mehgan Murphy, National Zoo
To view Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation and Research Center's web page on Zoo and Aquarium Visitor, go to: http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-3223-Smithsonian's_National_Zoo
Your morning adorable: San Diego Zoo’s giant panda cub, Yun Zi, debuts to the public
Los Angeles Times (LATimes.com) | January 7th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Yun Zi, the San Diego Zoo's 5-month-old giant panda cub, was apparently determined to be as cute as physically possible in his debut to the media Wednesday. Photographers were on hand to document the cub in advance of his debut to the public this morning. As of today, he can be seen in a special outdoor exhibit zoo workers have dubbed "the classroom" for a few hours a day.
Keepers have waited longer to place Yun Zi on display than they did with his older siblings, brother Mei ShengHua Mei, Su Lin and Zhen Zhen. Unlike his brother and sisters, Yun Zi (whose name translates to "Son of Cloud") was something of a homebody until recently, often opting to remain in the den he shares with his mother rather than explore outdoors. But in the last few weeks, he's "started picking up speed in the behavioral milestone department. ... His social play has picked up," senior research technician Suzanne Hall wrote on the zoo's blog. "He [now] seems very ready to meet the challenges of being on exhibit." and sisters
http://www.ethiopianreview.com/news/9393
'Cold-stunned' sea turtles recovering at Fla. aquarium
Friday, January 8, 2010
TITUSVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Ninety-three sea turtles found floating in the Mosquito Lagoon along Florida's Atlantic coast were rescued after the cold water shocked their tropically inclined systems.
Twelve of the turtles were taken to the Florida Aquarium.
Most of the "cold-stunned" turtles were endangered green sea turtles, with the exception of one loggerhead.
The extreme cold can make the turtles lethargic and disoriented. The animals are being kept in the machine shop of the aquarium to help bring their body temperatures up.
http://www.baynews9.com/content/36/2010/1/7/567317.html
Point Defiance Zoo attendance up last year
By Mike Archbold; The News Tribune
Published: 01/07/10 6:39 pm | Updated: 01/07/10 11:05 pm
In 2009, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium lost two of its most popular attractions, belugas Qannik and Beethoven. It cut its hours to five days a week from seven from November to February, the first reduction since 2000. The adult admission price increased $2 for non-residents and $1 for residents. There were staff cuts.
Meanwhile, the local economy continued to tank, eating into family incomes and sales tax revenues on which the zoo relies. But no matter.
People apparently love their zoo and visited last year in big numbers. Point Defiance saw the highest total attendance in more than a decade, zoo officials announced this week….
http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/tacoma/story/1020335.html
Friday, January 8, 2010
Panda farewell party
The Friends of the National Zoo announced Thursday that it will host a "Farewell to Tai Shan" party at the zoo from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Jan. 30.
Officials said last month that the beloved 4-year-old giant panda, who was born at the zoo in 2005, was being sent to China according to the terms of an agreement with the Chinese government, which owns all giant pandas in U.S. zoos. Giant pandas are native to China.
Word of Tai Shan's departure sparked dismay among zoo visitors and promises of extensive farewells. Zoo spokeswoman Pamela Baker-Masson said this will be the main public farewell event. Panda experts will be on hand, and panda lovers will be able to write Tai Shan goodbye cards.
Tai Shan was originally supposed to have been turned over to China when he turned 2, but China granted an extension that expired last month.
-- Michael Ruane
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/07/AR2010010703948.html
Even polar bears stayed in, but people take storm in stride
LINCOLN PARK ZOO | 'She likes it better in the warm'
January 8, 2010
BY KIM JANSSEN, STEFANO ESPOSITO, KARA SPAK AND MITCH DUDEK Staff Reporters
Polar bears love the snow, but there are limits.
And Lincoln Park Zoo's Anana isn't stupid -- after a brief inspection of Chicago's first major snowstorm of the winter Thursday at lunchtime, she went indoors and stayed there.
"She's always been a bit of a princess," zoo spokeswoman Sharon Dewar said as the city braced for a deluge of up to 12 inches by this afternoon.
"She likes it better in the warm."
Millions of shivering Chicagoans know how she felt.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1980058,CST-EDT-SNOW08.article
From zoo to pets, precautions needed
Chris Joyner • chris.joyner@jackson.gannett.com • January 8, 2010
One of the most frigid weather systems to cross the state in a generation has more than people running for cover.
Jackson Zoo Director Beth Poff said a number of the zoo's animals were preparing to wait out the subfreezing temperatures in heated enclosures. For those animals equipped to survive the cold, zoo officials have erected windbreaks to shield them from the wind.
"We've been doing a lot over the last couple of days," she said. "The tigers seem to think it is a wonderful thing. Just about any of the cats like it. They've got the coats for it."
But the animals from the African savannah, which so often find Mississippi's climate perfect, are less enthused, she said. The zoo has moved its elephants and giraffes indoors.
"They are a little spoiled anyway. Once it gets below 40, they want to come inside," Poff said. "Africa can get cool at night, but not like this."
The Mississippi Animal Rescue League is advising pet owners to take similar precautions with their dogs and cats.
http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20100108/NEWS/1080356/1001
This pair of African shoebill storks became parents on Christmas Day.
Pair of rare birds raising chick at Tampa zoo
Published: January 7, 2010
TAMPA - A pair of rare birds at Lowry Park Zoo is doing something no other pair has done in North America.
They're raising a chick.
The African shoebill storks became parents on Christmas Day when the chick started to break through its shell. It was a textbook hatching, taking about 24 hours to fully emerge. The parents, who spent nine months learning how to build a nest and who accidentally crushed another egg in October, have been natural caregivers.
"We are amazed at how by-the-book they've been," aviary assistant curator Julie Tomita said. "They know when to do everything and how to do everything."
Lowry Park Zoo is only the second wildlife establishment in the world to have a successful live birth of this large bird. Most of the data about them comes from field studies in Africa. Now researchers are watching this new family from dawn to dusk.
"We'll definitely be publishing and we'll do presentations at our industry conferences," Dr. Larry Killmar, the zoo's director of collections, said. "We're not sitting in the middle of a swamp using long-distance binoculars; we're pretty close and able to document the frequency of feeding, the amount of food and that will again help the other holders of other birds in captivity."...
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jan/07/pair-rare-birds-raising-chick-tampa-zoo/news-breaking/
