Posts Tagged ‘zoo’

Mar
21

Come to the Zoo to Meet Remley, the Babirusa, in a Special Event, March 26th and 27th

Posted by in Conservation,Endangered Species,Field Research

As you walk by the babirusa exhibit you may notice a large hay pile that appears to be moving. A nose peeks out, then a forehead. What are you looking at? It is Remley, the female babirusa at the Houston Zoo. Remley loves sleeping in her nest almost as much as she loves building it. You can often see her running around the exhibit gathering hay, leaves, and branches, anything that she can find to make the perfect nest. Once she has all her supplies, she will use her snout to push everything into place before diving in and covering herself completely.
Nest-building is very common in babirusa. Very shy and secretive animals, they live in the forests of Indonesia and often make nests for sleeping. Nests also give the females safe places to give birth, and Remley’s first piglet was born in a huge, complex nest built by mama.  Remley’s own birthday falls on March 24th. Join the Houston Zoo staff as we celebrate during our ‘Spotlight on Species’ focusing on babirusa on March 26 & 27th from 10a.m. to 3p.m.  Besides celebrating Remley’s birthday, keepers will also be raising money to support the conservation of this endangered species.

By Helen Boostorm, Primate keeper

 

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Nov
18

African Forest: Bushmeat

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

What is Bushmeat?

In Africa, forest is often referred to as ‘the bush’, thus wildlife and the meat derived from it is referred to as ‘bushmeat’.

The term bushmeat is now commonly used for illegally harvested and marketed wildlife in Africa, Asia and Latin America. “Bushmeat” applies to all wildlife species, including threatened and endangered species, used for meat including: elephant; gorilla; chimpanzee and other primates; forest antelope (duikers); crocodile; porcupine; bush pig; cane rat; pangolin; monitor lizard; guinea fowl and many others.
Unsustainable commercial take, many times illegally, is one of the primary causes in the decline of wildlife species in Africa. Though habitat loss is often cited as the primary threat to wildlife, commercial hunting for the meat of wild animals has become the most significant immediate threat to the future of wildlife in Africa and around the world; it has already resulted in widespread local extinctions in Asia and West Africa.
This threat to wildlife is a crisis because it is rapidly expanding to countries and species which were previously not at risk, largely due to an increase in commercial logging, with an infrastructure of roads and trucks that links forests and hunters to cities and consumers.
Rural communities have always hunted as a protein source for their diets. Sustainably managed, wildlife populations could survive under these circumstances. Today, wildlife is taken in large quantities not solely for personal consumption but for profit and commercial resale. Wildlife populations simply cannot rebound fast enough to maintain viable populations in these areas and are quickly becoming extirpated from many regions of Africa.
For more information and what you can do to slow the trade – link here to our African Forest microsite

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Jul
27

You’ve Got Mail…E-mail

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

Tired of your snail mail building up? Go Paperless!

Tired of your snail mail building up? Go Paperless!

E-mail means something different to everyone.  Personally, chcecking it is one of my favorite past times.  I love chatting with friends, hearing about sales, and dreaming of taking vacations to those faraway places!  It is a time of relaxation.  That is why the Houston Zoo gives members the option to go paperless.

Going paperless means that all those flyers and updates the Zoo sends in the mail will now be sent to your computer.  There are almost 33,000 Zoo members-Imagine how much paper could be saved if they all went paperless.

In order to go paperless, just visit the website.  Click go paperless, plug in all your information, and DONE! Reduce all that junk mail in your home mailbox.

Many members enjoy having their Wildlife Magazine sent to their home, so they can look at the pictures as well as showing it off to friends.  NO PROBLEM.  Wildlife Magazine will still be sent to your house even if you opt to have everything else sent to your e-mail.   Going paperless does not affect the magazine being sent to your home.

Have a Green Day!

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Jun
16

The Gift that Keeps on Giving

Posted by in Endangered Species,Going Green,What You Can Do

My Mom visited the Zoo with her family in 1958. Make sure your grandchildren still have the same animals to visit on their summer vacations.

My Mom visited the Zoo with her family in 1958. Make sure your grandchildren still have the same animals to visit on their summer vacations.

Imagine this.  You head out with your family to the Houston Zoo. You are walking around enjoying the warm sunny weather, but you start to notice many of the animals at the Zoo are in the Endangered category.  How can the Rhinos be endangered when they have no natural predators?  Poachers.  That just makes you put the ANGER in Endangered.  You love going to the Zoo, and you want to make sure these animals are around when your children take their children to the Houston Zoo.  

 

Now that you realize many of your favorite animals are going extinct, you and your children can be thinking the same thing- GIFT SHOP!  Look around at some of the tags on products in the gift shop, you will find many surprises from what you might expect.  Many of the gift shop products are bought from rural villages in Africa, Panama, and other impoverished communities.  All 100% of the proceeds are donated to the Houston Zoo Conservation Projects.  These projects give men and women the opportunity to have a higher standard of living, as well as benefiting Gorillas, Snow Leopards, and Rhino Conservation.  When you affect one part of an ecosystem by saving a Gorilla, you also improve the lives of many other animals.

 

As said on the Lion King, animals live in a “Circle of Life.”  An animal’s survival depends on everything in the ecosystem, including the environment.  Many products sold in the gift shop are made with the environment in mind.  The gift shop has worked with manufacturers to reduce amounts of cardboard packaging and to use recycled products to make puzzles and postcards.  Also, there are Bamboo shirts and BPA free recyclable water jugs.  Even some of the stuffed animals are made out of Soy products. Then, you can carry your goodies in biodegradable gift bags, an affordable recycled animal print bag, or if you are really insane use NO BAG AT ALL!!!   

 

Feel free to ask any employees about the different ways the gift shop works to benefit the environment and animal conservation.  Just by buying that simple souvenir to remember your trip, you are helping your grandchildren to see the same animals that you know and love!

 

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