Archive for June 2010

Jun
30

Mountain Gorilla: Summer Reading

Posted by in Africa,Endangered Species,Field Research,Gorilla

If you are not visiting the Houston Zoo, swimming in a pool or going to the beach – you are most likely locked inside with air conditioning turned on. I understand completely, they tell us the official start of summer is June 21st but it has been ascorching hot for 6 weeks and we are tired of it already.

So add this to your summer reading list – that’s right reading, something us older folks did “back in the day” of 3 television channels which were black and white. The horror! Actually it was horrible as we did not have books like this to read.

GORILLA DOCTORS: SAVING ENDANGERED GREAT APES by Pamela S. Turner. GORILLA DOCTORS: SAVING ENDANGERED GREAT APES written for children age nine to twelve was named an American Library Association Notable Book, a National Science Teachers Association Outstanding Science Trade Book, and is the winner of the Flora Stiglitz Straus Nonfiction Award and the ASPCA Henry Bergh Award. Half of all royalties from the sale of the book go directly to Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. -the same program we have been gorilla blogging about the past few days.

There are a number of reasons to get this book. It has great photographs, a fantastic story about wildlife veterinarians who literally make house-calls in the forest-many who you are meeting through the blogs, and it supports the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project. Can’t get out of the house for fear of melting in the Houston sun? Easy enough then, you are already on the computer so just link here “Gorilla Doctors” and pop over to Amazon for the book.

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Jun
29

Mountain Gorilla: through mud, hills, more mud…

Posted by in Africa,Endangered Species,Gorilla

Three days ago (for those of you with short-term memory loss) I noted that the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) wildlife veterinarians and staff  have some of the most difficult jobs, and most rewarding jobs in the profession. Dr. Jan Ramer, MGVP ‘s Regional Veterinary Manager gives us a brief glimpse into how catching up with a Mountain Gorilla group is not as easy as a stroll in the park:

We got a call from trackers that Agahozo, a 5 year old male gorilla in Pablo group, was coughing and staying behind the group. This is the season when we begin to worry about respiratory disease in the gorillas – the end of the rainy season. It has been rainy and cool recently, and Pablo group is very high on the volcano so it is very cold where they live. We were concerned. Dr. Jean Felix went up to assess Agahozo last Thursday and while he was coughing a bit, and moving a bit slowly, he was not in a life threatening situation. We decided to wait it out, getting reports from the field daily. Unfortunately the next day news was not good – Agahozo had a wound on his neck that smelled bad and was he was far behind the group.

Pablo group has 47 individuals with 3 silverbacks including Cantsbe, one of the oldest and wisest silverbacks in the area. We needed to be very careful. Dr. Magda, Dr. Jean Felix, Dr. Fred and I headed up to the group early the next morning along with Joel from Karisoke and many very experienced trackers. Of course if we decided to do an intervention once we got to the group and re-assessed Agahozo, we would all be garbed in masks and gloves, to protect both ourselves and gorillas from any exchange of disease.

It was a long, difficult climb. We trudged up the slopes of Visoke for over 5 hours, through mud up to our knees and beyond, up and down steep, muddy ravines, over a raging river, finally finding the group above the tree line (above 10,000 feet), eating on either side of a deep ravine. I was exhausted – I had not been in the forest for almost a month, and had not yet re-acclimated to the altitude. Drs. Magda and Jean Felix were in the advance team (I was definitely in the rear guard…) and the reports were good – Agahozo was bright and alert, in the middle of the group, behaving normally and feeding well! No coughing at all. He was cleaning a wound on his neck that looked to be an abscess that had ruptured – no wonder he felt better! After a brief meeting with everyone involved we decided that there was not a good reason for any intervention. We were all relieved, and started the long walk back to the truck. That day I didn’t even see a gorilla.

So you are saying to yourself, the team climbed for 5 hours at an altitude of 10,000, at times through knee deep mud, and she did not even get to see a gorilla! And, yes, they then had to climb back down the same way they came. Visit the complete MGVP update here and scroll down to May 2010 which includes numerous photos and videos from the months event as well as the highs and lows of everyday life for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Team.

Mountain Gorilla Susa Group photo courtesy S. Kaufman

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Jun
28

Mountain Gorilla Blog

Posted by in Africa,Endangered Species,Field Research,Gorilla,What You Can Do

Two weeks ago, one of the Gorilla Doctors field veterinarians, Dr. Eddy Kabale, posted an update on two Mountain Gorilla orphans, Ndeze and Ndakasi who were transferred from Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to a facility in Senkwekwe at Rumangabo, DRC about 6 months ago. You can watch a short video of Ndeze and Ndakasi’s move to Senkwekwe back in December here.

Dr. Eddy Kabale is the groups Democratic Republic of Congo in-country Field Veterinarian. Eddy’s duties include monitoring Grauer’s gorillas (eastern lowland gorillas) as well as mountain gorillas—and caring for the orphans.

Yesterday I mentioned that the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project (MGVP) was a field project – treating wildlife in their natural habitat. Although never intended, MGVP has also taken the duel role of having to care for and manage confiscated orphan gorillas. Sadly, poaching and illegal trade have resulted in the confiscation of mountain and Grauer’s gorillas in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

MGVP's Orphan Guardianship Program

In their lovely home, Ndeze and Ndakasi are enjoying a fresh, suitable and cleaned environment with very little pollution compared to Goma. They are taking enough fresh forest food and they are still discovering new forest food items. They enjoy playing, climbing, rolling over and are progressively getting use to their new home, and are behaving normally.

Nevertheless, even in this healthy state, they continue with the quarterly preventive medicine program that includes visual and physical examinations and a de-worming program for Ndeze and Ndakasi.

So how do you perform a check-up on a gorilla? On May 11, 2010, Dr. Arthur, the ICCN veterinarian and I visited Ndeze and Ndakasi for their quarterly health check. We found them to be very active, playful, running, rolling over on grass, climbing on us very often and showing a degree of their satisfaction! We took the opportunity to start lesson teaching the little gorillas to be comfortable with stethoscope, syringes and needles. We will progress to getting them to accept injection as part of this activity. 

I used a sterile syringe without a needle for this training session; Ndeze and Ndakasi played with the syringe with no fear. After that I took another sterile syringe with sterile needle on it, and a second syringe filled with honey (they LOVE honey!). I offered them the honey and when they ate it I pricked them in the arm, one after another. Because they had honey as a reward for accepting the injection, no one ran – they gave me a positive reaction! After this lesson I put in the syringe the indicated dose of Ivermectin for their quarterly de-worming and gave it directly in mouth to Ndeze and Ndakasi, they continued even lapping drug on the empty syringe. Success – they took their medicine, they accepted some small pricks in their arms and left Ndeze and Ndakasi with a very good memory!

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Jun
26

One person’s trash, is another person’s turtle!

Posted by in What You Can Do

Straight from the AP Newswire on Friday: Tiny turtle causes taxiing plane to return to gate 

ATLANTA (AP) — A caged, 2-inch turtle traveling with a 10-year-old girl caused a crew to turn around a taxiing plane, take the girl and her sisters off the flight and tell them they couldn’t bring their pet along.

The sisters threw the animal and cage in the trash and returned to their seats crying Tuesday after AirTran Airways employees on the jetway said they couldn’t care for the turtle while their father drove to retrieve it.

There’s more to the article but lets stop right here. Regardless of who is at fault (airline, travelers, cheetos induced sugar coma) the thought that a person or persons would care so little for the welfare of a animal that it just gets thrown in the trash is too bizarre for me to understand. What if the animal had not been rescued from the trash (locked in it’s cage) - how many days would it have been before it died and does anybody these days realize the consequences of their actions?

And with that, I am going into a mild state of apathy and going home. I could use a cheetos sugar induced coma right about now…

No turtles were harmed in the taking of this photograph

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Jun
25

Mountain Gorilla’s and the people who care for them

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Endangered Species,Featured,Field Research,Gorilla

We are going to spend the next few days getting to know some of the wildlife veterinarians and staff who have some of the most difficult jobs, and most rewarding jobs in the profession. The Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project dedicate every minute of the day to their amazing patients,  the critically endangered Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda, Ugandan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is not a captive setting, these wildlife veterinarians routinely trek hours into the fields and mountains to check on the health of individual groups of mountain gorillas.

There are approximately 720 Mountain Gorillas left on earth; they live only in two small parks, one in Uganda and one that includes a corner of Uganda, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In order to ensure a healthy future for this special animal, we monitor the gorillas on a regular basis; provide life-saving medical care, conduct health studies, and do all we can to build local capacity in veterinary medicine and ecosystem health.  

Much of the information you will find here can be seen on the MGVP website at http://www.gorilladoctors.org/. 

MGVP’s veterinary staff—collectively, the Gorilla Doctors—are a unique, diverse, and interesting group of people. They differ in terms of  nationality, training, and experience, as well as in the territory they cover. The in-country field vets are stationed in their home countries, either Rwanda, Uganda, or the DRC, while the regional vets and project director move about. MGVP’s regional headquarters are located in Ruhengeri (Musanze), Rwanda for two main reasons: most of the world’s habituated mountain gorillas live in Rwanda, and Ruhengeri itself is about halfway between the border with Uganda to the northeast and Congo to the west.

Please check in with us over the next few days as we highlight the Gorilla Doctors blog and introduce you to one of the world’s most amazing wildlife programs.

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Jun
22

Speaker Series: Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Endangered Species,Featured,What You Can Do

Houston Zoo Call of the Wild Speaker Series resumes October 2010 with an exciting lineup of guest speakers.

March 23rd 2011
The Houston Zoo welcomes Dr. Gregory Rasmussen, Director, Painted Dog Conservation, Zimbabwe
 
Go to http://www.houstonzoo.org/lectureseries/ for tickets for this event.
 
African wild dogs (aka; painted dogs) are one of the rarest carnivores in Africa.  They face intense persecution by humans, often shot, snared, poisoned, or hit by cars.  Wildlife conservation biologist, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, is a world authority on predator conflict issues and has studied the African painted dogs for more than twenty years.  He has spent much of that time living among the communities in Zimbabwe endeavoring to understand their needs as well as the conflicts with the dogs.
In 1992, he founded and became Director of African Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) in Hwange National Park.  His research has lead him to base PDC on the following five components: Research; Direct conservation of the dogs; Conservation education; Capacity building for the future; Community development.  PDC employs over 60 local people and its ecology-based education program sees over 1000 rual village childern go through each year.  As a result of the awareness PDC has generated, the population of Africa painted dogs in Zimbabwe has doubled since the project began.  Your participation in this event will make a lasting contribution to the future of African painted dogs and the lives of the local people.

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Jun
21

Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History on PBS

Posted by in Africa,Endangered Species,What You Can Do

Set your DVR’s (or if you are technologically challenged like me – your VHS recorder). June 22nd 1:00am on KUHT Channel 8 for a replay of the 2006 film Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History by Alison Argo.

From the PBS website: “The history of chimps in our society is a history unlike any other. We have sent them into space, dressed them in costumes and demanded that they entertain us. Some have been adopted into human families until they “outgrew” their cuteness, many have been used to test our drugs or to help develop our vaccines, others have been infected with our most frightening diseases. While we are mesmerized by their likeness to our species and we have continually found uses for chimps, we never considered what they wanted or needed.

But their side of the story is starting to emerge. And it can be heard at the sanctuaries where many retired chimps now reside. It can be read in their medical records, seen in their mutilated bodies, or sensed through their psychological afflictions. We’ve had a conflicted relationships with chimps in our society but there are some people who want to simplify it. Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History will introduce you to the rescuers at sanctuaries like Fauna Foundation, Save the Chimps, Center for Great Apes. And they are determined to see that the traumatized residents they have saved from a life of confinement and suffering can finally be allowed to feel like chimps.”

You can find section by section information of this episode on the PBS website at http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/chimpanzees-an-unnatural-history/introduction/2493/

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Jun
21

Saving Bornean Elephants

Posted by in Borneo,Elephant,Endangered Species,Featured,Field Research

We are excited to announce that a wild  female Bornean elephant was fitted with a satellite collar on May 26, 2010 within the Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary as part of a collaborative project between the Sabah Wildlife Department, the NGO HUTAN and the Danau Girang Field Center.

The Houston Zoo funded this effort  along with several other wildlife organizations including the Columbus Zoo, Mohamed bin Zayed Conservation Fund, Elephant Family and USFWS Asian Elephant Fund. The aim of this project is to collect crucial information on the movement of the elephants to contribute to the long-term conservation management of the species in Borneo.

The 35 year old matriach was named Sunda and the satellite data from the collared individuals will provide important information on the available suitable habitat in the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary

This elephant below was collared previously during the initiation of the program in 2008-2009.

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Jun
20

Speaker Series: Carter Smith

Posted by in What You Can Do

Houston Zoo Call of the Wild Speaker Series resumes October 2010 with an exciting lineup of guest speakers.

November 17th, 2010

The Houston Zoo welcomes Carter Smith, Executive Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

A native of Austin, Smith developed his passion for wildlife and the out of doors at a young age while roaming his family’s farm and ranch land interests in Gonzales, Williamson, and Edwards Counties.  He has a wildlife management degree from Texas Tech and a master’s degree in conservation biology from Yale University.  He began his professional career in 1992 as a management intern at TPWD, assisting in the Private Lands and Public Hunting programs.   As a biologist, he has worked on a variety of research projects ranging from studying moose in the boreal forests of Saskatchewan to pronghorn antelope in far west Texas.

He serves on a number of conservation-related boards of directors and advisory councils and was recently named an outstanding alumnus by Texas Tech and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.  Prior to his selection as TPWD Executive Director, Carter Smith was with The Nature Conservancy of Texas, serving as state director, where he led a team that protected nearly 250,000 acres.

Go to http://www.houstonzoo.org/lectureseries/ for ticket information

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Jun
18

Reduce your carbon Forkprint

Posted by in Featured,Going Green,What You Can Do

You heard me! When was the last time you used a plastic utensil? I would guess you are using one right now. Then what? You will toss it away after only one use won’t you? Don’t make me come over there!

Here is an idea many of us are using these days: To-Go-Ware. Most of us already use some type of reusable bag to carry groceries, our lunches or maybe even the random rooster who needs a lift down to City Hall. What more would it take for you to take a pair of lightweight reusable utensils with you to work or out to dinner with you? Nothing at all, just do not pack them with the hitchhiking rooster.

To-Go-Ware is made of bamboo, are easily washed, BPA free (BPA a.k.a Bisphenol-A) is bad, safe and non-leaching (I love the leeches but prefer when my products do not leach), and is Phthalate free (I am not sure but if I can’t pronounce it, I prefer not to have it).

And the product is not only environmentally friendly, but people friendly too. To-Go-Ware supports a program known as CONSERVE in New Delhi, India and another called WEAVE (Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment) along the Thailand-Burma border. Link to the website for more information on these programs.

Making a change for the environment is as easy as carrying these super lightweight products along to your next meal. Get out there and make a difference people or our friendly picnic bear will be visiting you personally.

Picnicking bear and product photo credit To-Go-Ware. No bears were harmed in the making of this blog. Environmentall un-friendly picnickers on the other hand were recycled for future use…

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