Its amazing what can happen in a few weeks. While we were busy with our 10 new residents, something amazing happened outside. Those triple digit temperatures haven’t been much fun but the dry weather did mean that major progress could be made in the exhibit.
Here’s the exhibit in June
rainy weather brings everything to a halt
And here’s a photo I took today
extreme makeover, zoo style
Some of our guests have recently been heard to exclaim “Hey! There’s two of them!” They are referring to our red pandas. Many of you know and are great fans of Toby, the World’s Cutest Animal. We recently acquired another panda, Take (pronounced Tah-Kay). Take came to us from the Red River Zoo in Fargo, North Dakota. He was the only male of a litter of triplets. It’s fairly unusual for red pandas to have three cubs, two being more common. Take is only a year old, although he is already almost a “grown up” in red panda terms. In the wild, red pandas are on their own and looking for their first mate at around 15 months old.
After Take had been here for a few weeks we decided to see what Toby and Take thought of one another. Pretty much they reacted as we anticipated. Toby, at nine years old, likes his nap time and wasn’t quite sure what this youngster was up to. Take, having just been separated from two rambunctious siblings, thought all red pandas wanted to play all day.
Fortunately, they seem to have come to an agreement in which Toby gets at least some of his nap time and Take occasionally gets Toby to engage in some chase sessions. They can be seen napping on the water fall together or searching for enrichment that the keepers have put out for them. If you stop by, you can distinguish Take because he is fluffier and has a lighter “strawberry blond” tail while Toby is darker with a “deep auburn” tail.
While I think we will all still agree that Toby is “The World’s Cutest Animal”, wouldn’t you say Take is a close second?
Exercise for 30 minutes a day makes you grow big and strong.
Currently, it’s recommended that for a healthy lifestyle everyone should get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day. This is not only true for people, but it is also true for our growing flamingos.
Since flamingos have such long legs and grow so very quickly, it is easy for them to outgrow the strength of their legs. They have to be monitored each day to make sure they’re gaining enough weight, but not so much that it could possibly cause too much strain on those spindly gams.
2-day-old chick
34-day-old chick
Above you can see just how dramatic their growth is. As they do, we provide them with that much more space to move around. Though the chicks may start in small plastic brooders, they soon take up residence in outside pens where there’s plenty of space to flourish. But even though they are in a larger area, we still have them get additional exercise in 2 main ways: swimming and walking.
The spacious pens mean room to grow
To help keep up their strength, they are set out to play several times a day in a small swimming pool. This allows them to bathe, eat, and socialize together.
We also have them walk around the off-exhibit area to develop their coordination and make their legs strong. They have learned to follow us and we use this to get them to run and play!
The next step to making sure they get enough exercise is taking them for longer walks – like out to the Flamingo Exhibit to swim in the large pool, and also to be introduced to the adult flamingos.
We can’t wait to have you see it, so stay tuned for the next post!
As mentioned in our last post about the Houston Zoo’s baby Flamingos, here is the recipe for the Flamingo Food. And just below, a fantastic little video of how we make it that’s too entertaining not to watch!
Flamingo Hand Rearing Formula (Diet)
720g Infant rice cereal flakes (soaked in water)
720g Shrimp
720g Smelt/Capelin (whole/thawed) – heads/tails/fins removed
720g Hard-boiled egg yolks
1 cup Vionate
1 cc Thiamin-Vitamin E paste
~12 cups water
1.) Soak Rice cereal in water (according to directions) – set- aside 720 g of soaked rice cereal
2.) Peel shrimp and dice, blend well with ~1-2 cups of water
3.) Take heads, fins, and tails off of the fish, dice, blend well with ~1-2 cups of water
4) Blend egg yolks, vionate, and thiamin with ~1-2 cup of water
5.) Mix all ingredients together and blend well
6.) Strain formula and blend remainder, strain again.
7.) Divide up into smaller batches to freeze. Fresh made formula will keep in the fridge for 24 – 48 hours
Flamingos grow-up quickly… sort of… they will need us to help feed them for at least the next 90 days – so they will still be babies in that sense. However, in just a span of 3 months they will grow from being about 10 inches high to being over 3 feet tall. Growing this quickly means that we have to keep a close eye on the development of the flamingo’s legs. Flong-legged birds, it is very important that the chicks do not outgrow their leg strength.
Flamingos hatch out with very dense white/gray down. This down helps them keep warm and dry. It also makes them very buoyant. When chicks are just 2 – 3 days old, the parents will often taken them for their first swim. Swimming is great exercise for baby flamingos, as it helps their legs develop properly. To mimic this, we start swimming the flamingo chicks when they are just a couple of days old.
The Fuzzy Bunch takes their first swim!
Swimming is just one form of exercise that the flamingo chicks receive. Several times a day they are placed in “play-pens” with all the other chicks. This allows them to start interacting with others and also show off their ability to bathe themselves (a behavior that they start almost from the time they hatch).
Each flamingo chick has its own distinct personality. Some are very sweet, others like to bite. This distinction can be seen when they interact with each other. Watch this:
One of the other ways we definitely notice the chick’s personality is when we’re feeding them. Some of the chicks will sit quietly and eat, others like to run around the table. Some don’t mind if the formula is warm, others want the formula to be exactly 104.6º or they throw food every where. When you’re feeding a formula made of pureed fish and shrimp, having the formula spit back out on you it is not necessarily a pleasant experience.
A wee bite of the hand that feeds.
This little one needs a napkin.
Now here's how you eat politely!
We’ll share this delictable recipe in the next post, for those among you who are conniseurs… and show a delightful demonstration of just how it’s made, so please stop back!
