HOUSTON! We had no winter. This is clearly the fault of some burrow dwelling rodent, but most likely no the fault of the Groundhog but please feel free to debate that issue with friends and colleagues. Since you most likely need a little background to win the winter vs. rodent argument, I thought it would be a good idea to re-broadcast some Groundhogs Day (Feb. 2nd) information. Groundhogs by the way are favoring the Giants by 4 over the Patriots in Super Bowl 46. We know this because they came out of their burrows and noticed Tom Brady’s hair was all disheveled and groundhogs are very observant about these things and what it could mean.

Lets get something straight, “Groundhog” are not the Nostradamus of the rodent world. They can barely remember which drawer they left their pants in, let alone predict the changing of the seasons.

We do not hear much about this in Houston as we only have two seasons: Hot and humid or gonna be hot and humid soon, but folks in the North go nuts over this critter every February. According to folklore, if a groundhog emerging from its burrow on this day fails to see its shadow, it will leave the burrow, signifying that winter will soon end. If on the other hand, the groundhog sees its shadow, the groundhog will supposedly retreat into its burrow, and winter will continue for six more weeks.

Tradition has it that the early German settlers in Pennsylvania thought the groundhog to be a particularly sensitive and intelligent creature. They decided that if the sun shone on Candlemas Day then a wise animal such as the groundhog would see its own shadow and hurry back to its burrow for another six weeks of winter. The origins go back to ancient European weather lore where they relied on a badger or a bear to help them determine the change of the season. Actually Germans used a hedgehog to predict “a second winter”. Who wants to be standing out in a field when a Badger or a Bear wakes up for the season and is hungry?

This is not a Groundhog, Marmot or "Whistle Pig", but it is a whistling pig...

What is a Groundhog anyway? Also known as Woodchucks or Whistle Pigs, they are actually Marmots of which there are 14 species and at up to 13lbs, the largest member of the Squirrel family. Woodchucks are true hibernators, relying solely on body fat for winter survival. This begins at the first frost of the season and ends in early Spring. Is there a reason they wake up in early February other than to celebrate this tradition (envision groundhogs in party hats ringing in the new year…)? Emergence is determined by the outside daily temperature and an internal circannual clock which governs biological seasonality. Soon after leaving hibernation, sexually mature woodchucks begin the reproductive process. In essence, they are out looking to protect their territories from other males as well as find a mate. Humans manage to disrupt some of this by parading around their fields trying to figure out where a shadow is.

A few parting points here. On the news every year we see someone in Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania with a Top Hat from the Groundhog’s Club Inner Circle (yes, this is for real) picking up Punxsutawney Phil to make his prediction. Do not try this at home! I repeat, keep your hands out of hibernating mammal dens. Next – did you know one of the most critically endangered mammals in North America is a Marmot? The Vancouver Island Marmot to be exact – link over to their website for more information and to see one of the cutest rodents on the planet.

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

Sumatran Rhinoceros "Tam". Borneo Rhino Sanctuary, Tabin Wildlife Reserve. Photo by Paul Swen.

So, at best guess, no more than 25 animals are living on Borneo in a completely fragmented habitat and it is believed that none of these have reproduced for nearly four years. A recent editorial in Malaysia’s New Strait Times paper by John Payne, a world renowned conservationist who has lived in Sabah, Borneo since the 1970′s notes that open discussions need to take place with both government and non-government organizations or we will be witness to the disappearance of yet another iconic mammal.

Too many species disappear not only from habitat loss and poaching but from the failure of organizations, with apparently the best interest of the animal in mind, to not be able to cooperate with each other. Hopefully, the Sabah Wildlife Department and partners will be able to make a difference for this species.

Sumatran Rhino, Borneo 2008

A last-ditch effort to save the species, the Borneo Rhino Sanctuary programme, is under way in Sabah, a government programme implemented by the Sabah Wildlife Department with support from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Borneo Rhino Alliance and Yayasan Sime Darby and World Wildlife Fund.

Read more: Last ditch bid to save the rhinos – Columnist – New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/last-ditch-bid-to-save-the-rhinos-1.8370#ixzz1eLlVMScQ

Elephant in Hwange National Park. Credit P. Riger

Well, there is a first time for everything. I went to the store and purchased the August issue of Vanity Fair. Not for that perfumy smell we all enjoy, Society, Hollywood or event Style news. I am quite stylish as I am. This months magazine though features a quite good, and lengthy article on illegal poaching of african elephants for their tusks for the just as illegal ivory market.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/08/elephants-201108

It is hard enough to find solutions to protecting wildlife and habitat among the ever growing human population and our need for increased use of natural resources but poaching of elephants and rhinos for cosmopolitan uses leaves us with that shake your head helpless kind of feeling. And it would all come to a stop if certain cultures would realize they do not need an ivory necklace to match their evening gown or to take rhino horn to cure their medical ailments when an aspirin or the latest ED medication will do just fine.

The victims are not only the wildlife but the local people who are employed to do the killing. Many local cultures typically coexist with native wildlife. The article notes directly that the Maasai ”rarely killed elephants, because they revered them and regarded them as almost human, as having souls like us“. But the need, and promise of, money has turned native cultures into hunters of wildlife they once revered. When you live below the poverty level and at times on $1,000USD or less and people are paying you to hunt wildlife, the financial security of your family comes first.

Poaching will continue to grow as long as people living among these species live below the poverty level with little food or water for their families. But not if the product is worthless on the consumer market.

Frolicking in Hwange National Park. Credit P. Riger

The Vanity Fair article touches on the complex problem from user demand to politically sidestepping of the issues and some may not agree with the numbers and discussions but that someone has decided to print such a detailed piece on the trade, in such a widely circulated magazine is applaudable.  Zimbabwe, the Congo, Kenya, Sudan, Central African Republic – all mythical places in many people mind still, those of deepest darkest Africa. Well, there are people and wildlife both struggling to survive in these places and even knowing a little of their struggles could help.

Separate photo piece here: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2011/08/agony-and-ivory-slide-show-201108#slide=1

What can you do? Buy the magazine, read the article and then find a elephant conservation project to support either through the Houston Zoo or our friends at Save the Elephants.

I may not stray far from reading National Geographic or Texas Parks and Wildlife Magazine often, but I did manage to shuffle a copy of Vanity Fair through the Krogers check-out line hidden between my Gatorade and cupcakes while mumbling to myself about my favorite color of nail polish and only half the line noticed. And I also learned what Kate and Will were up to on their latest  US visit…

Bees

Most people are familiar with European honeybees, some people are familiar with bumblebees, but very few people are familiar with solitary bees.  It may interest you to know that the United States is home to an estimated 4,000 species of solitary bee (compare this to the ~5,000 mammal species found in the entire world).   Experts say that about 200 bee species can be found in the greater Houston area.  So… European honeybees are but one species (and not even one native to this country, hence the name “European”), there are a handful of bumblebee species, but the vast majority are solitary bees.  Individual solitary bees may nest in the same general area, but they are in it for themselves – they do not form hives, live in a colony or help each other out in any way. 

About 70% of the solitary bees found in the US are ground nesters, digging tunnels in the soil to lay their eggs – the remaining 30% of solitary bees are cavity nesters, laying their eggs in natural holes in wood, reeds, etc.  The cavity nesting species are the bees our wooden houses will hopefully attract. These particular bees do not drill holes in your house and ruin your brand new wooden patio furniture (those are carpenter bees, which are cool in their own right…), they use only existing holes.   There are a few early emerging bees that you may see around in spring, but the active season for most species is mid to late summer.

Q&A:

Do solitary bees sting?

All female* bees have the ability to sting, but solitary bees are not aggressive and are not interested in human interaction – if you leave them alone, they will return the favor.

(* A bee/wasp/hornet/ant stinger is a modified ovipositor [egg-laying tube] used for venom injection.  Most bees you encounter are females, males don’t do much other than mate and die…)

What do solitary bees look like?

Some may approach the size of a honeybee, but most are much smaller – some species are so small you might mistake them for a gnat.  These bees are variable in appearance too. They can be smooth or fuzzy (or both) and range in color from solid black to metallic blue or green.  Some even have stripes or blotches of different colors.  

Doesn’t the Houston Zoo have enough bees already?

The bees you see in and around the trash cans on Zoo grounds are European honeybees – you may also see hornets, flies and various other insects exploiting our wastefulness.  To be blunt, human beings are enormous slobs and eat entirely too much sugar.  When a honeybee finds a huge deposit of cotton candy or a melting sno-cone in the trash you can imagine the bee’s excitement:  “Now that I’ve found this mountain of free sugar, why bother visiting all those flowers for nectar – its so time consuming… I’m going to tell ALL of my sisters so they can come here too!”  Again, honeybees are colonial animals working for a common purpose – solitary bees have their own agenda, it is not in their best interest to “spread the word”.  Solitary bees stick to flowers, but even if they were desperate enough to visit a discarded churro, they simply wouldn’t have anyone to tell about it.

Will solitary bees disturb the guests/ruin my sister’s wedding/form a huge swarm and abscond with my children?

No.

What exactly is going on in those wooden bee houses?

When the female bee finds a suitable hole to nest in, she starts gathering provisions (nectar and pollen).  She forms these goodies into a food ball, places the food ball in the far end of the hole and then lays an egg on it or next to it.  Then she walls off the egg and food ball with mud or leaf-cuttings and starts the process again.  The end result is a number of chambers along the length of the hole – in the last two or three chambers closest to the opening of the nest hole she lays unfertilized eggs.  These will be males.  After the eggs hatch, the larvae will have enough food to last through the summer/fall as they grow.  The larvae will then pupate and rest over the winter  – in the spring or summer (depending on species) mature bees will emerge from their nests.  The first to emerge are males (since they are the closest to the opening of the hole) – they buzz around the nest holes waiting for the females to emerge so that they have first dibs when it comes to mating…  Then the whole process starts again.  Adult solitary bees only live for a few weeks, so the entire life cycle (egg-larva- pupa-adult) lasts about 1 year.

Why should I care about any of this?

Bees pollinate an estimated 30% of our food crops and we depend heavily on European honeybees to do the all the work.  If we lose the honeybees (look up “Colony Collapse Disorder” – CCD – for more info), we darn well better have a back-up plan if we want to continue eating…  Nurturing our native bees is a very wise choice for this reason.  Plus they pollinate scores of other plants, plants that directly or indirectly support virtually every other organism in the ecosystem – birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles, fishes, insects.  Yes, it’s all a big, crazy food web we can’t afford to screw up.  So our job is to inform the public so that they can make wise decisions such as using biological controls instead of pesticides in the garden, planting lots of bee-friendly flowers (native if possible), providing backyard habitats, etc…  The kinder we are to Mother Nature, the greater the rewards.

For more information about pollinator conservation, please visit The Xerces Society website: http://www.xerces.org/pollinator-conservation/  And, come to the Zoo this weekend for Pollinator weekend!  For more information about this event go here.

Remember to love the bumblebee!

Bumblebee fun facts:

Bumblebees are able to fly in very cold weather because they can raise their body temperature by revving up their strong flight muscles.

Bumblebee queens nest underground in old rodent burrows or under grass tussocks – keep a piece of your property’s habitat “wild” to accommodate these fuzzy little wonders.

Bumblebees pollinate certain flowers (tomatoes for example) by vibrating their wings at a certain frequency to shake the pollen loose – some plants depend solely on this bumblebee behavior for pollination.

Bumblebees are the chief pollinators of red clover, alfalfa, field beans, peas, runner beans, tomatoes and in some areas cotton, raspberries, apple, plum blossom, oilseed rape, sunflowers, strawberries, currants and brambles.

There are about 50 kinds of bumblebee in North America, 2 of which have most likely gone extinct in recent years due to habitat loss and pesticide use.

Find out how you can help bumblebees:    http://www.bumblebee.org/helpbees.htm

With only 5 species totaling 25,000 individuals, at best, spread across Africa and parts of Asia, every loss is another setback in the recovery of the Rhino. Some of the largest numbers of remaining rhino occur in South Africa and recent report notes that so far this year (June, 2011) over 100 rhinos have been killed in South Africa alone, nearly 70% of those in Kruger National Park. Over the 12 months of 2010, 330 animals were lost. Since 2008 – 800 individuals. Most rhino horns leaving Africa are destined for Southeast Asian medicinal markets that are believed to be driving the poaching epidemic.

Even with these losses, protection measures are helping species such as the white rhino and black rhino slowly increase with both populations up by 10% or more since 2007. The International Rhino Foundation offers a better understanding of individual species numbers:

White rhino: 20,150

Black rhino: 4,840

Greater One-horned rhino: 2,800-2,850

Sumatran Rhino: 200

Javan Rhino: 40-50

But the species will never fully recover without reduction in the illegal poaching trade. Zoos such as ours not only offer visitors an opportunity to view species such as these up close, but we are completely dedicated to the conservation of rhinos and many other species around the world. Through a percentage of admission ticket sales, gifts and support from the public, we are able to support conservation heroes working in the field to help protect these iconic species. For more information on our rhino conservation program link here. To support rhino conservation firsthand, join us for our Bowling for Rhinos event at Palace Bowling Lanes this Friday.

If you would like to contribute directly to rhino conservation contact conservation@houstonzoo.org

The next morning we prepared for a full day in the field; as the roads had subsided and bridges collapsed we took both the car and two off road motorbikes for ease of access. We switched to motorbikes when we could drive no further, and headed for a ridge near the natural salt lick. Along the road we spotted banteng dung (approximately 2-3 days old) so a sample was collected. A good start to the day!

When dung is the sign of a good day, you realize how difficult tropical field work really is...

An open grassy area at the trail junction contained signs of substantial banteng activity; large tracks and lots of dung ranging in age, from approximately 3-5 days to 3-4 weeks, suggesting this area is visited regularly by banteng. A sample was collected, after which we continued on to check another two very muddy stations however my jungle shoes decided otherwise and I ended up with my toes exposed to the ground and forced to walk nimbly along the trails.

These are not Penny's feet but our partner in Orangutan research's disintegrating footwear, and a good example of what Borneo fieldwork does to your shoes. Luckily, we had a few extra camera straps with us to keep them together as we hiked back to the field station.

After checking the camera traps along this trail we stopped for lunch (rice and various tinned delights) back at the car, and the guys had a good laugh at me when the ants dined out on my backside! With full stomachs we headed over to the site that contained the elephants the previous day. Ideally we would have left this site undisturbed for another day but as the checking of camera traps was almost complete and we were leaving the following day we tried our luck again.

Only three of us went in because Sarianus lent me his (rather large) rubber boots, so stayed by the car. We walked the short distance to the artificial salt lick and continued on to the nearest station that contained a single camera trap. We were relieved not to find any fresh elephant tracks along the trail and to find the camera trap still intact and containing images. However it had been twisted around the tree, by elephants, so it was decided to move it to a neighbouring tree. The new tree was not an obvious choice for scratching elephants due to its low branching structure and trunk angle, and we had to work hard to prepare it so that the camera trap sat flush. After a quick walk test the camera trap was set up.

April 23: Banteng pair in forest

We are hoping after two to three years we will able to visualize the age structure for the elephant population in Lower Kinabatangan.

More great elephant stories will come from Sabah, but for now it is the best time to enjoy the giant prawn in Kinabatangan, so good bye for now!!

April: Benoit Goossens (right) and Baharudin Resake (left) setting up the satellite collar on Aqeela’s neck.

However, sometimes we are forced to work extra hard to find the elephant, just like now when most of forest part is covered with water. The elephant like to spend their time deep in the forest where we cannot access them during flooding season. We believe the reason they avoid being near the river is because the water is plenty inside the forest thus they can avoid human presence and disturbance by being in the forest.

Following elephants in the forest waist deep in water

Through our experience and after a long observation, we found out that the group size during the flooding season is also smaller compared to the dry season. Not much feeding signs and foot prints along the fresh tracks and it seems the elephant were continuously moving without stopping for feeding. We assume due the small number of individuals in the group, the elephants have less protection and this drives them to avoid the places that are not safe for them.

May 23rd: Aqeela and Liun, two adult elephant females which were collared on 3 October 2010 and 15 April 2011 respectively, are now together in Lot 3 of the Lower Kinabatangan Wildlife Sanctuary