New at Creatures of the Night

Flashlight beams are the first thing to catch your eye as you walk into the darkness of the zoo for Creatures of the Night.  There are three weekends a year that allow the public to come in at night and check out the animals at their most active times.  All kinds of new attractions have been added this year as the zoo staff gets creative with featuring the night life of North America.

The biggest addition can be seen from above the zoo.  The Kissing Tower is really the best place to head to check this sight out.  1000 feet of glowing orange lights make up a re-creation of a spider.  Over 2000 years ago, a civilization etched images of spiders on the Nazca plains.  No one truly knows why it was done, which just adds to the mystery!  Any day you come to the zoo, you can see the large spider etched into the open field next to the prairie dogs.  Tonight, we are excited to see it all lit up and glowing from afar!

Many of our animals are now working on their painting skills which can be watched in our new education room every evening of Creatures.  Our skunk (Chanel) and hog-nosed snake (Mingo) are our most accomplished painters.  And if you really enjoy watching them tramp through the paint and paper, you can take some of the paintings home with you!  There are now paintings with a picture and biography of our little artists available in the gift shop.

Another addition is the display of fluorescent minerals in the bear den.  In the Great Southwest building we have added an all venomous table.  There we feature the only two venomous lizards in the world: a close-up look at the gila monster and the Mexican beaded lizard.  We also display a scorpion glowing under a blacklight.

The bone table has been updated with a wide variety of animal bones, some which have come from some animals that have passed away at the zoo.  It is their own way of continuing to educate people even once they have gone.

Guests are also able to touch a reptile-most typically a snake and an alligator each night, head over to the wolf talks to warm up next to the fire, learn about and get close to some animals during the animal program: Truth or Tail, and watch the skunks romp around in the leaves in the bear den.  The kids (and adults) can help to light up the creek by decorating a paper bag to create a luminary.  And check out the Scatty Shack for things that go plop in the night!

Creatures of the Night is one of our favorite events each year, come by and check out our last weekend!

ZooAmerica’s Resident Elk

If you’ve been to the zoo recently, you may have noticed that our male elk is the only one on exhibit in our Big Sky Country.  If you’ve looked closely, you may also have noticed that our female elk are in the back section of the exhibit.  As fall approaches, our bull elk, Nubs, sheds the velvet off of his antlers.  This indicates that his antlers have stopped growing and that he is preparing for the breeding season.  Nubs goes through certain hormone changes that make him slightly more aggressive towards the keepers here at ZooAmerica.  Because of his large size (over 600 pounds), antlers, and more aggressive behavior, the two females are separated into another section of the exhibit until the end of the mating season for safety purposes.

Elk are the second largest members of the family Cervidae, which includes our native white-tailed deer, moose, and reindeer or caribou.  Members of the family Cervidae have a four chambered stomach.  All but one species of deer have antlers.  Antlers are grown and shed once a year and consist of bone.  They are usually used in mating competitions by males.  The only species of deer in which females have antlers are the reindeer, which can be seen at Hershey Park during our Christmas Candylane event on select days between November 13 and December 31.

During the winter our elk will be separated for their own safety, but will still be able to see and communicate with one another through their fence.  In the early days of spring, Nubs will loose his antlers.  This usually signals the end of his breeding period, and we can safely reintroduce our two female elk back into the exhibit with him.

I hope this has cleared up any questions you may have had about our elk.  Please feel free to drop us a comment if there is anything else you would like to know.

Brandon

ZooAmerica’s Newest BFF

Our newest species made its grand premiere on Thursday, September 17.  Now on exhibit in the Great Southwest Building is a small, 2 1/2 pound Black-footed Ferret, also known as a BFF.

This is a very important animal to us since black-footed ferrets were believed to be extinct in 1979.  In 1981, a Wyoming sheepdog brought a black-footed ferret back to his owners and they turned it over to the Fish and Wildlife Service since they were unsure of what it was.  They recognized it and began a search for any remaining ferrets.  They located 120 in Meeteetsee, Wyoming.  Due to disease, within a short period of time, only 18 remained in the wild.  In attempts to save the species, they brought all 18 into captivity to begin a breeding program.  Now there are multiple breeding programs all over the country and many ferrets have been released into the wild.  Currently, there are about 1,000 ferrets living in the wild because of captive breeding programs.  Approximately half of all kits born in captivity are released.  The other half is taken into the breeding program to guarantee the program’s continued success and genetic diversity and the future of the species.

ZooAmerica has two male ferrets living at the zoo, Godzilla and Joker, but you will not see them both at the same time.  Black-footed ferrets tend to be stressed by other ferrets which can lead to health problems, so we rotate them on exhibit by themselves.  While one is on exhibit, the other one tends to be in the back taking a nap! 

When you come to visit the ferrets, you will notice that their exhibit looks like a prairie dog town.  That is because ferrets rely on prairie dogs for homes and food.  90% of their diet in the wild is prairie dogs.  One of the reasons for the population decline is because of the massive prairie dog poisoning out west.  Farmers tend to feel that prairie dogs are a nuisance to their croplands which is why so many were poisoned.  Without prairie dogs, the black-footed ferret was out of a home and a meal, so many began to die off. 

The efforts of Fish and Wildlife and many zoos and conservation centers have truly rescued the species from extinction.  We are proud to display these new animals to educate the public on the great strides they have made.

Vampire bat born!

     A new baby vampire bat was discovered in the exhibit on Thursday, Sept. 10, hanging onto Mom.  The bat is quite tiny, but completely covered in a thin layer of fur already.  It was probably born yesterday or overnight right on exhibit. 

     Female vampire bats only have one baby each year, so this event is always exciting!  Their gestation time (amount of time they are pregnant) is between 6 and 8 months.  Last September 5 of 2008 was the first baby of our new vampire bat colony. 

     We do have three females on exhibit, so it is still possible that the other two females may have babies yet.  With our new addition, there are now 9 bats on exhibit.

     I tried to take a picture of the baby, but unfortunately the dark cave is not the best place for pictures.  In this picture, the baby is on Mom’s back and you can see its pink skin through the light fur.  If you come to visit and look for the baby, he could be hard to find.  The mom typically carries her baby underneath her and then the other bats in the colony will surround her to protect her baby.  This morning I saw one of the other bats helping the mom to groom her new baby. 

Look closely--the baby bat is hanging onto Mom's back. Not much fur on him!

     Although vampire bats have a diet solely of blood, the baby, also known as a pup, will drink milk from its mother for its first two months.  Then for the next few months the mom will drink blood and regurgitate it for her baby.  Next, the pup is ready to go hunting normally, but it will still stick with mom.  When mom finds prey, she will use her sharp teeth (incisors) to slice a small hole and drink blood and then her pup will also drink from the same opening.  Only at 9 months will the pup begin to go fend for itself. 

     Be sure to stop by and look carefully to see if you can find our newest baby born at the zoo!

Old news to some, but newly recognized at the zoo!

Erik, one of our naturalists, wanted to post a blog about the zoo’s honeybees which often went unnoticed until the recent addition of a graphic to direct attention to the interesting colony:

ZooAmerica has been buzzing with excitement over our newly recognized honeybee colony. In the Eastern Woodlands section of the zoo, between our bobcat and great horned owl exhibit, a honeybee colony has peacefully existed alongside our animals for more than 20 years. We are proud to have these bees at ZooAmerica since it has become rare to find such a well established, wild honeybee colony. This colony could contain as many as 50,000 individuals, if not more! Do not bee alarmed! This thriving mass of bees has never shown signs of aggression towards humans. In fact, honeybees are usually not aggressive towards humans unless they are in danger.

However, honeybees are in danger. Honeybee colonies have declined considerably worldwide in recent years. Scientists are currently researching the exact causes of the decline but it is thought that a disease known as colony collapse disorder (CCD) and various pesticides and parasites are responsible. In the past year alone, honeybee colonies have declined approximately 29 percent and in the past decade, more than 90 percent of all wild honeybee colonies have been wiped out.

Honeybees are essential to our environment by serving as pollinators to many fruits, vegetables and other flowering plants. Some of these include apples, almonds, tomatoes, blueberries, strawberries, sunflowers and even cotton, to name a few. In fact honeybees pollinate about 90 percent our flowering crops and are thought to be responsible for 80 percent of that pollination. Honeybees are mostly popular for creation of honey and beeswax.

So the next time you visit ZooAmerica, don’t forget to look for our busy friends and take the time to appreciate what all the buzz is about!

Bobcat kittens have grown up!

Last year, Keira, our female bobcat gave birth to three bobcat kittens on May 5.  All of them grew up and lived together in our exhibit.  In the wild, after a year, bobcat kittens typically disperse from their mother and go off to create a new family.  Here at ZooAmerica, we have tried to imitate that natural instinct by taking one of the young female bobcats and sending her to a new home at the Lehigh Valley Zoo.  We still currently house the mother and her male and female kittens that are now as big as her!  We will continue to keep all three unless they demonstrate to us that they need to be separated.  They are currently showing good behaviors towards one another and it is likely that will thrive together for their lives here at the zoo.

Here are a few pictures from last year when the kittens were still small:

Waiting anxiously for their evening meal

 

 

Keira, the mother to the three kittens

 

Two kittens quickly grabbed a quail each for dinner

New snapshots

Here are the promised, long overdue pictures of some of our new arrivals:

Mo, our new 4 month old striped skunk poses for the camera

 [Mo is named from the extra white hair on her head that can be easily shaped into a small mohawk!]

She's getting a little closer to check out that camera lens!

We are also working with Mo right now to get her ready for baths and nail clippings in case she one day goes into our education department.  We will hold them and get them used to being flipped over to expose their belly.  We also touch their hands and feet to get used to nail clippings.  Their nails get quite long and they are unable to wear them down in captivity the way they would in the wild.  Even when we clip their nails, they’re still fairly long because they need them to dig for tasty grubs!

Check out those long nails!

Here are some pictures of the baby opossums getting ready to join our education department:

Attracting Native Wildlife to Your Backyard

Brandon, one of our naturalists at the zoo wanted post this–I’m excited to try it out at my home!

Here at ZooAmerica, we display a number of animal species that you may not see on a daily basis.  However in most areas there is a large quantity of native wildlife that may go unseen.  There are a few ways to entice these animals into your backyard.

There are three basic needs of every living organism: food, water, and shelter.  If you do not see many native critters in your backyard, you may be lacking one or more of these necessities.  Many native plants will provide nuts or fruit that a wide variety of animals will feed on.  Serviceberry trees and blueberry bushes are two plants that will bring in a wide variety of birds.  The hemlock trees here at the zoo were successful in attracting white-winged crossbills, a small bird that seeks out the trees seeds.  Acorns from oak trees are relished by squirrels and deer.  Many trees that provide food for animals are also adequate for shelter.

Adding a bird bath is another good way to attract some feathered friends.  An adequately sized pond will not only attract a wide variety of birds, but also turtles, frogs, newts, insects, and other organisms.

Finally, shelter is required if you want your backyard guests to stay for a prolonged period of time.  The following website has instructions for different types of bird nesting boxes that you can build at home:
http://www.shawcreekbirdsupply.com/nest_box_plans.htm
Remember, the best way to attract any type of wildlife is to provide them with the necessities for survival.  Turning your backyard into a more animal-friendly environment can be a very educational and rewarding experience.

Until next time,
Brandon

New furry friends

Upstairs in our quarantine facility we currently have a baby striped skunk and two baby oppossums.  The skunk will be going to live with our spotted skunk on exhibit in the Great Southwest building.  The two oppossums will be heading to our education department to spend their time visiting children all over the area. 

Right now we are working with our skunk and the oppossums to get them used to us so they can be easily handled.  That way, training will go smoother once the animals have already built a relationship with us.  With the skunk, we sit with her, feed her and hold her, getting her used to her hands and feet being touched.  Once she is used to all of this, she will be ready for nail clippings and regular baths since we all know how stinky skunks can be!  Luckily this skunk has been descented, which means her scent glands were removed.  Even without the scent glands, she still emits a strong musky smell.

Look for pictures coming this week of our three new friends!

Bald Eagle on Display!

ZooAmerica has welcomed another new animal this month:  A one-year old female bald eagle.  She is currently residing in our first-ever Bald Eagle exhibit.  As a juvenile, she does not yet have all of her white feathers.  By the time she is about 5 years old, she will have the full white head and tail.  For now, she has some white feathers, but is mostly brown. 

This massive bird can be found next to the Timber Treats patio where she likes to perch high in the trees.  I have already heard her squawking on several occasions as I walk by.  We’re still discovering all of the quirks in her personality!  While she stays here at the zoo, she will be on a diet primarily of large rodents and fresh fish.

She was unfortunately injured in the wild, and can no longer fly well enough to survive.  Therefore, the federal government was able to transfer her from the local rehabilitator to us.  After being examined by our veterinary staff and the local rehabilitator, they determined that the end joint in her wing had been burnt by an electrical shock.  The shock most likely came from an electrical wire.  She was originally found walking on the ground in Juniata County, PA.