Archive for the ‘Africa’ Category

Feb
09

The joy of ring-tailed lemurs

Posted by in Africa,Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research,Travel

Everyone seems to be familiar with ring-tailed lemurs these days, and they definitely hold a special place in my heart. Their wide spread popularity is not surprising when you consider how many children’s shows have included them as characters. My personal favorite is ring-tailed lemur, King Julian from the movie Madagascar.  He is definitely the most entertaining animated character of all time!

When I was a keeper, I often spent my free time observing our large group of ring-tailed lemurs. They have a relatively peaceful, but comical society. Often disagreements are settled with the females with babies clinging tightly to their backs at the front lines (that’s how risky the disagreements are). And, their most effective weapon is..…smell. Males arm up their tails with scent from glands on their wrists and fling it in the opponents’ general direction with great vigor. The whole event usually involves some dancing around each other until a smell wins out. It is all very entertaining.

I worked with a researcher that studied ring-tailed lemurs. She studied a group of lemurs living in caves in Madagascar. They actually looked quite different from the typical ring-tailed lemur. DNA work revealed they were in fact the same species but had evolved to have much puffier coats to keep them warm in their unique setting. During her studies with this group she also discovered the local Malagasy people in the area had created their own eco-tourism project using this group of cave dwelling lemurs. They charged to bring tourists to see these mysterious lemurs in the caves.

Dr. Jonah Ratsimbazafy is a Malagasy conservationist working to save lemurs and other species in Madagascar. Come and listen to his amazing stories on February 15th at 7:00 pm at the zoo. Be one of the first to hear all about his recent discovery of a brand-new lemur species! Enjoy beverages and tasty appetizers from Houston’s own Beaver’s restaurant and meet some of the Houston Zoo’s animals from Madagascar up-close.   CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets.

If you are interested in journeying to this amazing land join the Houston zoo on our trip to Madagascar in 2013. CLICK HERE to learn more.

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Feb
08

Following lemurs in the wild

Posted by in Africa,Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research,Travel

One of my zoo keeper friends was one of the fortunate few that got to join the researchers in Madagascar to assist in tracking the Carolina Five.  I treasure the stories she shared with me about following the group through the thick forest.  One of the lemurs, unfortunately, remained in a captive mind set at first and tended to prefer the ground.  It is very dangerous for this species of lemur to spend extended periods of time on the ground in the wild, so she described continuously pushing his fuzzy rump up the tree trunks until he started to recognize the yummy fruit he could find higher in the trees.

Her job was to watch the lemurs’ every move and her description of trying to keep her eye on these agile creatures high in the forest canopy travelling at brake neck speeds while struggling to navigate the forest floor riddled with trip vines was priceless.  When they rested in a tree she was instructed to document what they were doing, the angle of the tree branch, and collect any feces deposits.  This sounds a lot easier then it was. She was often quite a distance behind the lemurs and by the time she staggered huffing and puffing to the point of “rest” the lemurs would leap off on their merry way once again.

She said the front of her shirt would fill with bugs of all shapes, sizes and colors during her mad dashes to keep up with the lemurs and described trying to dump these out in mid run.  She often lost track of the group after a face plant or two and would then have to follow their calls to relocate them. 

Through it all it was, of course, a highlight of her life to document captive lemurs living in the wild.  This project was the first example of reintroduction I remember hearing about and was definitely one of the stories that inspired me to get into this wonderful career.

 

Dr. Jonah Ratsimbazafy worked with this project early in his career.  He actually earned his PhD from Stony Brook University in 2002 for his study of Black and White Ruffed Lemurs.  CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets to hear about Jonah’s work saving lemurs and other species in Madagascar on February 15th at 7:00 pm.    Be one of the first to hear all about his recent discovery of a brand-new lemur species!  Enjoy beverages and tasty appetizers from Houston’s own Beaver’s restaurant and meet some of the Houston Zoo’s animals from Madagascar up-close.
If you are interested in journeying to this amazing land join the Houston zoo on our trip to Madagascar in 2013. For more information CLICK HERE.

If you are interested in the previous  post of this story CLICK HERE or scroll down.

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Feb
07

Introducing and Re-introducing Ruffed Lemurs

Posted by in Africa,Conservation,Endangered Species

Ruffed lemurs are definitely one of my favorite species of lemur!  They are terrible to clean up after, and horribly loud, but delightful characters.  When I was a zoo keeper, I worked closely with the oldest Red-ruffed lemur in captivity at the time.   I had to do some training with him once and the only reward he would consistently work for was his own reflection in a mirror.  The fact that he appeared to adore himself made him even more adorable to me! 

Ruffed lemurs came onto my radar in the mid 90’s after watching a documentary with John Cleese describing a re-introduction of captive ruffed lemurs back to Madagascar. The project was the first lemur reintroduction effort of its kind. Five animals were carefully selected for genetics and personality from Duke Primate Center in North Carolina, a world class lemur facility.  They kept the lemurs in very natural settings to encourage natural behavior.

They were nick-named the Carolina Five and were flown to Madagascar, then carried to a remote park.  All five of the lemurs were collared and released into the reserve with researchers following close behind. 

To be continued….

This month’s Call of the Wild speaker, Dr Jonah Ratsimbazafy has assisted with this and many other conservation efforts in Madagascar.  Purchase your tickets now to hear about Jonah’s work saving lemurs and other species on February 15th at 7:00 pm.    Be one of the first to hear all about his recent discovery of a brand-new lemur species!  Enjoy beverages and tasty appetizers from Houston’s own Beaver’s restaurant.  CLICK HERE to purchase tickets.

If you are interested in journeying to this amazing land, join the Houston zoo on our trip to Madagascar in 2013. CLICK HERE for more information.

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Feb
05

Lemurs Love Rafting

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

I have always been fascinated by Madagascar.  Did you know that it is the world leader in primate diversity?   The story that many schools of thought support is that the earliest form of primate, the lemur, drifted over to Madagascar on a piece of land/rafty thingy.  It creates an interesting image in one’s head (or maybe just my head) – the ring-tailed lemur was definitely Gilligan, the skipper had to be an aya-aya, the millionaire was a sifaka…., but I digress.  Anyway, this primitive primate floated over to an island of paradise, an island with so much diversity there was no need to compete for resources.  Unlike the other early primates that dispersed to other lands and evolved to have larger brains enabling them to compete for food, the lemurs simply specialized. They evolved to accommodate their individual niches.  And as a result we now have over 97 different, fairly dim (relatively speaking of course), fabulous species of lemurs.

It is often hard to believe that species discoveries are still being made in this day and age, but new species keep miraculously revealing themselves in places like Madagascar.  Last month there was yet another exciting addition to the lemur family.  This month’s Call of the Wild speaker, Dr. Jonah Ratsimbazafy, a Malagasy primatologist, was one of the scientists to find it.  Come and be the first to hear about this brand new species on Feb. 15th at 7:00 pm at the Houston Zoo.  CLICK HERE to purchase your tickets.

Do you want to see lemurs in the wild?  Join the Houston zoo on our trip to Madagascar in 2013. CLICK HERE for more information. 

 

 

 

 

 

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Dec
15

Kids for Science, AND TOADS! @ Painted Dog Conservation- Zimbabwe

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,Field Research,Painted Dog,Rachel and Cullen in Africa

 

At the request of Painted Dog Conservation, I traveled to project headquarters in Zimbabwe to assist in the implementation of a new conservation education program called “Kids for Science”. Accompanying me on this visit was Cullen Geiselman PhD (HZI Board Member member and bat biologist), and her friend, Leighton Dancy, a professional photographer who documented PDC activities and programs. During our visit we would pilot the first ever Kids for Science program for eleven, 14 year old students from Nechilibi High School, the students’ full time teacher, their school’s Conservation Club Coordinator, the entire education staff from Painted Dog Conservation, Dr. Gregory, one master’s student, and a game warden from Hwange National Park.

It might seem unlikely that a conservation organization focused on a large charismatic carnivore would be interested in using frogs and toads to teach students about research, biology and conservation. Amphibians lend themselves to classroom study as they are an ecological indicator species in a habitat in which the Painted Dog depends on survival, are relatively abundant, easily handled, and observed by students. Amphibians are a model organism in which to cover taxonomy, biology, adaptations, ecological concepts, environmental threats and how students can help implement conservation action.

Before the students from Nechilibi High School were to arrive at the Painted Dog Conservation Iganyana Bush Camp, Dr. Cullen and I had to scout out potential study sites for the Kids for Science camp and become familiar with the native amphibians and bats we would be teaching the students about throughout the course. I conducted nightly visual and audio searches to document the presence of amphibian species in the area and became familiar with their natural history and behavior through observation and field guides. In addition to visual searches, I employed the use of a “Frog logger”, a wildlife acoustic recording device at a pan adjacent to our lodgin accommodations to record vocalizations for 10 minutes every hour throughout the day and night. I recorded close to 2,000 minutes of amphibian and bird calls over the course of our stay at Painted Dog Conservation and documented 16 species of amphibians.

Here are a few photos of some of the special frogs and toads that call Zimbabwe home.

 

Rain frogs, these are burrowing, frowny faced little frogs whose tadpoles develop directly from egg to small frog without metamorphosis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Foam Nesting Grey Treefrogs, these frogs communally deposit their eggs into this rich foam that is whipped up by their back legs. The eggs are protected by this foam until they hatch and the tadpoles fall into the water below. Amazing adaptation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marbeld Shovel Nosed Frog. These pointy nosed little burrowing frogs are great moms. They protect their eggs in underground burrows and when they hatch, tadpoles are carried on moms back from the burrow to a nearby pond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More frogs photos coming over the next few days, I hope you can sleep until I post more!

 

Dec
06

The Houston Zoo is educating Painted Dog Conservation about bats

Posted by in Africa,Bats,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen with bat that lives in the roof of the guest housing at Painted Dog Conservation

Cullen Gieslman is a Houston Zoo conservation board member.  She has been studying bats for quite some time and volunteered to accompany Conservation Programs Manager, Rachel Rommel to Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe to educate staff there about bats.  Painted Dog Conservation’s (PDC) education program for the local communities focuses on the eco-system.  PDC was very eager to have Rachel  and Cullen contribute an amphibian and bat component to this program.   Enjoy Cullen’s bat update from PDC in Zimbabwe.

Cullen weighing bat

This is a brief bat update and photos that Rachel took of me and the bats living in our house. It’s really the only batting we have done besides wandering around with bat detectors. We’ll try to get more photos with the camp kids when we show them the bats next week. The housing for visiting scientists at Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe shelters a large colony of bats that we hear squeaking and moving about day and night. To find out what species we are cohabitating with, we devised a plan to capture a few.

Rachel, Cullen and Greg Mist-netting for bats

We taped a very short mist net (2.6 meters long and about 2.6 meters high) to some poles and, once it got dark, we observed the direction the bats were taking as they flew out of their roost. We quickly positioned the net right in their path and, after intercepting four, swung the net out of their way because we would only need a few to confirm species. I gingerly extracted each from the net and placed it in its own cloth holding bag. I could tell from the shape of the face and ears and presence of a free tail extending beyond the tail membrane more than one-third of its length that we had captured a species of free-tailed bat in the family Molossidae.

Cullen measuring bat

I then consulted Bats of Southern and Central Africa to determine the species based first on forearm measurement and then on description. Our cohabitants turn out to be Mops midas, or Midas free-tailed bat, a large species (forearm = 61 mm, mass = 45 g) associated with hot, low-lying savanna and woodlands in southern Africa. We captured two lactating females, one pregnant female, and one scrotal male suggesting that our house is being used as a maternity roost and that the noise we hear during the night are mothers coming back to feed their young.

Adults of this species eat insects, mainly beetles, which are very abundant in the area. After measuring and weighing our captives, we released them to go about their nightly forays.

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Dec
02

The Houston Zoo is Toad (and Bat) Tracking with Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,Carnivores,community-based conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Houston Zoo Conservation Program Manager Rachel Rommel is in Zimbabwe with our partners at Painted Dog Conservation to bring the Houston Zoo’s Toad Trackers program to their evironmental education programing.

The Houston Zoos good friend, conservation board member and bat biologist, Cullen Geiselmen is also with me on this adventure with another colleague, and professional photographer from Austin, who will be photographing the kids in action during Toad Trackers. Cullen hopes to be able to mist net for bats so the kids will be able to learn about these creatures as well. She should have plenty of bats to choose from as there seems to be hundreds sleeping in the ceiling above our beds, sqeaking and chattering away. A little unnerving at first, but now quite peaceful when you are falling asleep. I wonder what they are saying to each other? Sounds important.

So first, things first, before the kids come, we need to do some reconaissance. The next several nights will be spent becoming aquainted with the local frogs, as I have never been here before! I have set up frog recording devices at local pans (ponds created by the wallowing of large animals). We are getting important data all day and night and will be able to identify many of the species from their calls. When the kids get here, they will go through this information as well and learn the frogs by sight and sound.

We have been out the last two evenings looking for amphibians and have been quite lucky thanks to the rains. Several unique and strikingly gorgeous species have been found. Whenever we go to the pans at night we go as a group and have a guard with us as well because of the likelihood of predators skulking about. Not something I generally have to worry about in Texas. Maybe thats why there doesnt seem to be too many herpetologists in this part of Africa…perhaps they were all eaten by lions?

Stay tuned for Amazing Amphibian photographs.  Here is one of our night guard who actually was a great frog spotter as well, he really got into it! Holding the Bocage’s tree frog that he found.

 

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Dec
01

The Houston Zoo shares Toad Trackers with Painted Dog Conservation

Posted by in Africa,amphibians,community-based conservation,Conservation,Rachel and Cullen in Africa,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

Houston Zoo Conservation Program Manager, Rachel Rommel is in Zimbabwe with our partners at Painted Dog Conservation to bring the Houston Zoo’s Toad Trackers program to their childern’s environmental education programing.  Enjoy Rachel’s update from Zimbabwe.

“It’s my first visit to Africa and I am honored to be able to visit and work with such a beautiful, happy and warm people…the Zimbabweans. I am visiting our partners here at painted Dog Conservation just outside of Hwange National Park.

The crew here have been joking that we brought rain with us as they have been in a drought and the wet season is starting very late. They got the first good rain not two days before our arrival. This is good news for crops and water collection and also lucky me because that means lots of frogs, and alas, that is why we are here!

When the night falls in the Savannahs of Zimbabwe, and most of the large mammals have hunkered down for the evening, a whole other host of small creatures emerge from their hiding places, shake their groove things, and one group in particular puts on the most amazing live orchestra you have ever heard, natures radio (as one local gentlemen called it) the frogs and toads.

I am here visitng to trial the Houston Zoos conservation education program, called Toad Trackers, with the local kids who have been through the PDC bush camp. The Director of the project, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, is hoping to identify science based and hands on kids programs that will eventually be a part of their Kids for Science program. Students will be visiting us from a local village where they will be spending three days with me learning all about native amphibians and actually going out in the field with us at night. The PDC education staff will be with us at all times, as well as two other guests that have joined me on this trip. The kids and the education staff are very excited about this opportunity. Who knows, perhaps we have some budding biologists amongst these students?”

 

 

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Nov
30

The Houston Zoo Supporting Painted Dog Conservation with Social Media

Posted by in Africa,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Supporting Painted Dog Conservation

The Houston Zoo’s conservation department is always looking for practical ways to assist our wildlife conservation partners.  We strive to provide them with the tools they need to succeed in saving species. 

Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) is a very good community-based conservation project in Zimbabwe that hires over 60 locals to help run their various conservation programs.  Their efforts have had tremendous results, but they often struggled to promote and share the successes effectivley with their supporters.   To that end, last month we sent social media specialist Molly Feltner, communications officer for the Mountain Gorilla Veterinary Project, to PDC to help them with their external communications. During her time she was able to record audio interviews with all the project’s management staff, which will be used to rewrite text for the website and produce a multimedia video. Staff were taught how to edit photos for the web and how to make the best use of social media through Facebook.

Molly documented aspects of the project in order to create a complete hi-res photo archive for PDC staff to use in publicity.  She photographed the children’s education program(the Bush Camp), conservation club classes, the community projects funded by PDC (such as bore holes, community gardens, and projects with the health clinics), the captive painted dogs housed at the rehabilitation center and the wild packs living around the center.  She got footage of the anti-poaching unit activity and the Iganyana art center and artisans that create the snare wire sculptures. She also helped redesign the newsletter that is sent out to the PDC’s supporters on a monthly basis. 

We will continue to assist PDC with this effort, but we are happy to report that many of PDC’s staff are better equipped to share the good news coming from Zimbabwe!

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Nov
28

Cheetah Conservation Botswana

Posted by in Africa,Animal Origins & Fun Facts,Carnivores,community-based conservation,Conservation,Endangered Species,Featured,Field Research

 

Just a quick update from our partners at Cheetah Conservation Botswana (CCB).

 

CCB has been engaged by the government Wildlife department to do training in Northern conflict hot spot areas and set up demonstrations of ideal kraals and livestock guarding dogs in the wildlife rich areas of theOkavango, Makgadikgadi Pans and Chobe. This is an exciting initiative which if successful has the potential to be replicated elsewhere in Botswana.

 

CCB further expanded its farmer training program, with the assistance of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. In August, CCB ran its first 5 day farmer training course at the new Tiisano Education Centre. The course aimed to provide training on best practices in range, livestock and wildlife management and increase local capacity to reduce cheetah and other predator conflicts. Certain farmers in the region will also be selected for direct support to improve their methods and be monitored.

CCB Ambassador Cheetah at Mokolodi Nature Reserve

 

A livestock guarding dog clinic was held in the region in collaboration with Maun Animal Welfare Service, with 41 dogs receiving sterilization and vaccinations. After this a bush camp for Kalahari schools took place at the Education Centre and the children learnt about wildlife, the environment and conservation. The new Centre is becoming a great resource for CCB and is an ideal training site for many audiences. Thanks must go to the CCB Ghanzi team and our neighbors for holding back the recent bush fires for over 3 days and preventing all our hard work go up in flames!

Livestock Guarding Dogs at CCB's Ghanzi location

 

As for cheetah! We have recently collared a female with 3 cubs residing on the game farm next to CCB’s Kalahari base. This will be the first female we have collared in the area which is great news as it will significantly add to our understanding of cheetah movements and ecology in the area. The coalition of males collared earlier in the year are from the same area and their movements continue to be monitored. Please visit their News section by linking here

All photos courtesy Houston Zoo

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