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.

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. 

You do know it is just a short flight from Houston? That’s right, Bears, Moose, Wolves, Elk, Bison, Pronghorn, Fox, and a landscape of geothermal wonders and vibrant colors can be reached in only a few hours. It takes you two hours in traffic to drive back and forth to work everyday and you are not willing to fly about 5 hours to see America’s first National Park? Boulderdash! There is also that Old Faithful thing you may have heard about.

We know this because we go twice a year on our Wolves and Bear Expeditions to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and you can travel with us May 22-26, 2012 or September 16-20, 2012.  This is our most popular travel destination and we can only accomodate up to 14 travellers on each date. Link here for travel information and itinerary:http://www.houstonzoo.org/yellowstone/

Have questions? Our travel partners from the Grand Teton Science School’s Wildlife Expedition will be on hand here at the Houston Zoo on both November 11th for our Wine and Wolves event and November 12th at our Call of the Wild Speaker Series event with Dr. Douglas Smith, Yellowstone Wolf Recovery Program http://www.houstonzoo.org/lectureseries/

For those who are lucky enough to go to Yellowstone National Park to see wolves know the thrill of seeing them in their natural environment. I felt honored to watch an Alpha male and a pup dance with a bison on a hillside with a researcher in Yellowstone 10 years ago. We watched as the male with a pup in tow circled around behind the large male bison over and over again. The bison was much too large for the two of them to take, but the researcher suspected the pup was getting a lesson from the adult male. We watched this amazing display for 20 minutes through a spotting scope — it is one of my most cherished wildlife experiences.

 There is something magical about seeing and being in the presence of a wolf, which is probably why the wolf has been such a major character in stories for centuries.  It is amazing to see such a diverse standpoint in story telling over one animal.  Even though some cultures held the wolf in high regard and wrote epics about how brave and loyal a wolf was, unfortunately more often than not the species played the “bad guy”.  As a result of these sinister portrayals conservationists find they need to spend a great deal of time dispelling myths about this social carnivore.

This is the first installment for what will be a blog series, written to celebrate our fantastic upcoming  Call of the Wild Speaker Series  events about wolves , coming up on November 11 and 12, with renowned wolf expert Dr. Douglas Smith. In the series, we will spotlight some of the efforts going on in this country to ensure that this beautiful carnivore will continue share our landscape.

November 11th at 7:00 pm come to our Wolves and Wine event, sip wine, listen to stories from wolf  researcher Dr. Douglas Smith and listen to the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra as they perform Peter and the Wolf.

November 12th at 4:00 pm Come for a presentation by Dr. Douglas Smith on the Wolves of Yellowstone. 

To purchase tickets and for more information about these events click here .

Come back for more in this exciting “Coexisting with Wolves” blog series.

John with local community member

Conflict issues between wildlife, humans, and their livestock do exist in all parts of the world. You might suspect that the fact that this problem is not new, then maybe there would be some solutions. Unfortunately, the solutions are not easily found because the problem is highly dynamic and involves a variety of players. In this particular situation, the players include the wildlife, the farmers, the livestock, the enforcement infrastructure, and the land itself. The land includes a very large national park (Hwange National Park), a national forest (Sikumi National Forest), and a communal area that is inhabited by subsistence farmers.

The national park has a well established wildlife population of herbivores and predators. Many wildlife species experience the scenario of dispersal. As they reproduce, their young grow and eventually strike out on their own. With already established home ranges and some overlap already existing; these dispersal animals must move around and develop their own territory. This process results in many animals leaving the park and residing in the national forest. The success of wildlife species within the national park has been enhanced by pumping of water into ponds for increasing the availability to the animals. This program has eliminated water as the limiting nutrient of the area. One unfortunate result of this effort has been an inflation of the carrying capacity within the park. With a larger and healthier wildlife population within the park, an even larger volume of dispersal animals are now competing to establish new territories and are being pushed from the park at a more rapid rate. The national forest is an ideal habitat and creates what many refer to as a buffer zone between the national park and communal areas. Over time, this buffer zone has evolved into a conflict zone. In the early 1990’s the region suffered a severe drought and an agreement was made to allow members of the community to graze livestock within the boundaries of the national forest. The drought has long since been over, yet the community continues to graze their animals there. The local government and enforcement infrastructure face a variety of challenges and are not successful in returning to the original forest use policy. The members of the community prefer to utilize the national forest for grazing opportunities during the rainy season as a way of keeping the livestock away from their crops. During the dry season, after the crops have been harvested, cattle are grazed closer to home and utilize crop fodder in addition to grasses and browse. As members of the local community are becoming increasingly familiar with the national forest there has been a steady increase in poaching of wildlife through the use of snares. The poaching and use of snares are also difficult to control because local resources and enforcement are spread quite thin. Some wildlife species, particularly elephants, raid crops and destroy private property on a consistent basis. Other more fragile species such as the endangered African Painted Dog are also leaving the park but for other reasons. Larger predators such as the lion and hyena are opportunistic in their behavior and put considerable pressure on the painted dog. Lions often raid the prey of the painted dogs as a source of an easy meal and the hyenas often raid the den sites to kill the offspring and remove competition. As a result, painted dogs leave the protection of the park to hunt for antelope in the marginal lands outside of the park. This effort for survival actually proves quite risky. Over time, greater numbers of painted dogs are being killed by vehicle traffic on public roads and are being found dead in the snares of poachers.

Peter Riger and John Huston at a Painted dog road sign in Zimbabwe

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…

The Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park, known as “America’s Little Serengeti”,  is one of the only places in the U.S. that you can still see Bison, Pronghorn, Big Horn Sheep, Moose, Grizzly Bears, Black Bears, Wolves and Elk all interacting with each other. Not to mention all of the birds, super fuzzy cute rodents and bubbling geysers. You will go to sleep at night dreaming of wolves stalking and will wake up ready to embrace a hot cup of cocoa and get going again, searching for wildlife and wild places throughout this massive landscape. A highlight from our Spring trip was an afternoon hike to an abandoned wolf den where we were able to inspect the bones of old wolf kills and also identify spring wildflowers, a favored snack for sleepy and lumbering grizzly bears.

Take a look at some photos from our Spring 2011 Yellowstone Trip and contact conservation@houstonzoo.org to learn more or save your spot:

This post is written by Houston Zoo primate keeper, Helen Boostrom, who is in Belize right now.  She is being supported by the staff conservation fund to do field work with Howler Monkeys in Belize.  Please go here to learn more about the staff conservation fund.  We will post these updates of Helen’s work as we get them, so stay tuned!

Meet Agatha, Bonnie, and Clyde. Three endangered black howler monkeys that have been rehabilitated and released back into the wild after having been confiscated from the pet trade. Black howler monkeys can be found in parts of Belize and Mexico but are becoming more rare. A major problem is the illegal pet trade which takes baby howlers from their mother often resulting in her injury or death. These howlers are then kept alone in small cages with little opportunity to climb and socialize with other howlers as well as being given diets lacking in the leaves that they would normally consume in the forest.

Primate keepers from the Houston Zoo are currently in Belize helping observe these howler monkey at the fireburn reserve where they have been released. The howlers behavior, food sources, and movement are being tracked to monitor their progress adapting to life in the forest. This information can then be used to modify current rehabilitation protocols to increase the success of the program. Keepers are working with Wildtracks which manages the howler rehabilitation and release program in cooperation with the belizean government.

Please stay tuned for more from Primate keeper, Helen Boostrom.

African Elephant, Zimbabwe 2011

It is that simple. Our job here is not only to provide a fun, safe and relaxing environment for your visit, but too also inspire you to want to care about what you have just seen. And if that care turns to action, then we are doing our job.

Bison on the Snake River, Yellowstone 2010

But what if you are interested in stepping outside our doors with us? Then the zoo can take you there as part of our special tour program with specialized guides and zoo staff to make your trip even more memorable. You visit the zoo to see wildlife. In 2011 and 2012 you can also visit them in the wild. Yellowstone, Alaska, Borneo, Rwanda, and Botswana are all zoo tours you can sign up for now. Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba and the wildlife of Zimbabwe are 2012 tours which are under development.

You can learn more about these very special trips at http://www.houstonzoo.org/safari/ and you may contact us at conservation@houstonzoo.org for more information.

Puffin, Glacier Bay, Alaska 2011

Booming chickens on prairies and adventures to find bear hair in the Big Thicket. Leech infested forests? Monsoons? Leg swallowing mud and Sea Gull poo? Wild Orangutans that use bridges and toads with implants.  Confused? Don’t be. Join us and interact with local and global conservation on our new Houston Zoo Conservation Facebook page. Keep up with the conservation department and our partners in the field, and don’t forget to comment along the way!

Link here and follow along: http://www.facebook.com/#!/houstonzooconservation