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A keeper’s job is never done. There is always a chore to complete or a project to work on. Our daily routine is full of jobs like cleaning habitats, preparing diets, observing our animals, providing enrichment…are you tired yet? In between all of this, we try to find time to develop ourselves professionally. There are … Continue reading "Keeper Stories – Tuesday, January 24"

It’s about time again for a giraffe training update! I believe when we last checked in, all but our oldest, Abu, were shifting through our giraffe “tamer” apparatus. We are very proud to announce that all four of our boys are now confidently walking though the chute system. We have been successful in getting them … Continue reading "Keeper Stories – Thursday, January 19"

Did you survive the snow-pocalypse 2.0? It wasn’t as bad as the first go round, but we still had enough ice that the Zoo was closed. But what actually happens when the Zoo closes down for bad weather like a snowstorm? It is not all that different from a normal day for us keepers. The … Continue reading "Keeper Stories – Tuesday, January 17"

Love is in the air! Yep, even in the winter. Male opossums go through physiological changes during the winter months that we call rut. As hormones surge through their bodies, their minds are focused on one thing, and only one thing. They lose interest in food and spend hours simply wandering around, noses in the … Continue reading "Keeper Stories – Thursday, January 12"

How did the zebra get its stripes?  How did the tiger get its stripes? These are age-old questions in natural history. Convincing arguments have variously put forward suggesting camouflage, to visually confuse and thus deter annoying biting insects, and a complex scenario to create cooling air movements directly around the animal. This latter scenario works … Continue reading "Zebras and tigers oh my!"

CSI at the Zoo! What happened to these animal bones, thousands of years ago? A research team at Emory University is taking advantage of the fact that we feed our animals natural diets. In other words, for example, owls naturally consume rodents as prey, so we feed rodents to our milky eagle owls. Komodo dragons … Continue reading "Rodent Bones"

Hot off the presses! How does one correct a scientific error that was made more than 150 years ago? That’s what our team recently did, in collaboration with researchers from The Natural History Museum, in London, U.K. In 1858, renowned herpetologist Albert Günther, who was born in Germany but spent his career at The Natural … Continue reading "Mesoamerican Toads"

The last several months have been very exciting for the Golden Lion Tamarin Association in Brazil. I was in Brazil in August working with the project and have some exciting updates to share! Golden lion tamarins are native to a small area outside of Rio de Janeiro state in the Brazilian Atlantic Coastal forest. Only … Continue reading "Golden Lion Tamarin in Brazil"

Elephants for Africa focuses its research on male African elephants in Botswana, home to the largest remaining populations of African elephant. The work done by Dr. Kate Evans and her team provides us with continued information about male African elephant society, population numbers, and the interactions between elephants and local Botswanan farming communities through continued … Continue reading "Elephants for Africa"

It’s our first Bird Team keeper blog of the year, and we have a really exciting new bird arriving! In late fall, we very sadly lost our elderly male wreathed hornbill Betelgeuse. He was the man, the beast, terror of the skies. Not really, but he was a tough and feisty old guy and a … Continue reading "Keeper Stories – Tuesday, January 10"