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The Bird Department has two new arrivals! I don’t know about you, but when I hear that phrase my mind immediately goes to babies, and I picture the classic stork carrying a new bundle of joy. Where did that classic image come from? We’ll get to that, but for now back to the new arrivals. … Continue reading "The stork: origin of a legend  "

If you read our #KeeperStories and blogs regularly, you likely know that we do a lot of training around the Zoo. The animals are trained using positive reinforcement, which means we give them something they like, usually a preferred food, when they do the behavior we’ve asked them to do. It’s completely voluntary, so it’s … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, February 12"

Many of the animals at Zoo Atlanta can be observed easily. You can even visit them during our open hours. But what happens when the animal care teams leave for the day? Do all the animals go to bed? Well, that depends on the animal. Many of the animals that can be seen during the … Continue reading "What do nocturnal animals do at night?"

Zoos have come a long way from their beginnings as menageries in the 19th century. Rather than showcasing exotic animals purely for profit and entertainment as early zoos did, modern accredited zoos are active participants in scientific research and wildlife conservation. Research and conservation go hand-in-hand: in order to protect wild animals and their habitats, … Continue reading "Research in the modern Zoo"

When you think of storks, you most likely picture a European white stork. These large birds are most closely related to herons, bitterns, ibises, spoonbills, the shoebill, and the hammerhead.

Hello everyone! It’s Allie from the Carnivore Team, here to teach you some interesting facts about giant river otters! At Zoo Atlanta, we have two giant river otters: Tocantins, our female, is 13 years old, while Bakairi, our male, is 10 years old. They are called giant otters because they are the longest of all … Continue reading "Catching up with the “river wolves”"

I always love my days in pandas, but nothing makes the days start out so perfectly as when Yang Yang is in an attention-grabbing, playful mood. Early this morning I was at the red panda habitat, and while there, the other team members gave Yang Yang access to his behind-the-scenes outdoor patio. As I was … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, February 5"

If you’ve looked closely in Scaly Slimy Spectacular recently, you may have noticed that our rough knobtail geckos (Nephrurus amyae) have new roommates. These tiny little omnivorous lizards are Eastern Pilbara spiny-tailed skinks (Egernia epsisolus). Native to the Pilbara region of Western Australia, these skinks are part of the genus Egernia, which has been dated … Continue reading "Meet the Eastern Pilbara spiny-tailed skinks!"

One of the most frequent questions we get about our parrots at the World of Wild Theater is, “Can they talk?” We prefer to use the term “mimic” rather than talk, because we don’t know that they understand what words they are saying. We *do* know they have learned that if one of their care … Continue reading "A talking parrot?"

We talk a lot about the giant pandas “culming” bamboo, but what does that actually mean? Well, technically, nothing! “Culming” is a word we have made up for this behavior; you won’t find it in reference to giant pandas in any dictionary. However, in giant panda parlance, “culming” or “to culm” means to split apart … Continue reading "Panda Updates – Friday, January 22"