Archive for September 2011

Sep
29

It’s “Howlerween” Time Again!

Posted by in Primates,Spotlight on Species,Wortham World of Primates

The Houston Zoo Primate Department is gearing up for the 3rd annual “Howlerween” celebration this October. The purpose is to help to raise awareness about Wildtracks and the illegal pet trade that surrounds Howler Monkeys.

The Yucatán Black Howler Monkey (Alouatta pigra) is one of the many primates listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red list.  This species, which is native to Central America, faces numerous threats that contribute to this status. 

One of the top threats these monkeys face includes the illegal pet trade which is often times a by-product of hunting these animals for the sale of bush meat in local and international markets. Confiscation of Black Howler Monkeys from the pet trade is overwhelming the Belize Forest Department and the Belize Zoo.  As a viable alternative to leaving these illegally procured monkeys with their owners, confiscated pets are being transferred to a non-profit organization called Wildtracks, operated by Paul and Zoe Walker.  You can visit the Wildtracks website and also their Facebook Page.

Wildtracks rehabilitates these former pets and reintroduces them into the wild forests of northern Belize.  Primate keepers Rachel Vass and Helen Boostrom visited Belize in June and spent time working at Wildtracks with some of these rehabilitated monkeys. You can read their awesome blog posts on the Houston Zoo’s Wild Conservation Blog!

 

Throughout the entire month of Howlerween, there will be special Howler Monkey Meet the Keeper Talks everyday at 3:30. “Howlerween” will coincide with Zoo Boo from 9am to 3pm both days inside Wortham World of Primates near the Howler Monkey exhibit.  Then on the weekend of October 22-23 we will be holding a Spotlight on Species event which will include educational activities, Howler Monkey keeper chats at 10:00, 2:00, and 3:30, and a variety of merchandise that will be on sale to help raise money for Wildtracks. 

Visit our website to learn all the details about our special Howlerween Spotlight on Species weekend on October 22-23, located in our Wortham World of Primates. Please come out and visit us for a howling good time!

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Sep
27

FOTO Friday Winner of the Week

Posted by in Contest,Funny,Reptiles

Welcome to the Houston Zoo’s FOTO FRIDAY Caption Challenge results post from Friday, September 23!

Last Friday, we posted a photo on Facebook and asked you to leave your best caption in the comment section. Then readers could “like” each caption comment to vote for their favorites. Their votes, combined with those of our own panel, determined the caption to appear under the picture right here on the Official Houston Zoo Blog this week. We hope you’ll come back for the fun EVERY FRIDAY.

YOUR VOTES HELP DETERMINE THE WINNERS!

Here is the picture that was posted on Facebook last Friday, with the top voted caption by Kathy Burgamy! (Insert happy dance)

Ok so I'm a guy right? So who is trying to trick me with this egg looking thing?

 

FIRST RUNNER UP:

Kristen McGrady: If these green pigs won’t eat the egg then I will!

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SECOND RUNNER UP

Erik Burington Why can’t we go back to the good days where they used to hide our pills in our food?

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Tie for THIRD RUNNER UP

Esmeralda Hernandez: What? Im helping it hatch! Jeez!

Tree Richards: If youre laying an egg…. youre doing it wrong

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MANY Funny Honorable Mentions:

Kathy Russell: I hate it when they misplace my bowling bag

Aurora Gonzalez: It’s “JAWBREAKER VS JAWBREAKER!

John Larkin: Smaug!! How many times do I have to tell ya – stop biting your brother!!!

Alma Garza Mescher: I’m a professional. Do NOT try this at home!

Mica Arismendez ‎Maybe I should forget about this ball, the foot in front of me would be much easier to gnaw on!

( …and the opposite opinion!) Jonathan Plazek: The foot is tempting, but I’ll take the egg

Barbara Blanchard Reed From the Schweddy family recipe  

Alan G Pallister Whoever invented all-day gobstoppers is a genius.

Brad Orr Is it just me or are these pills getting bigger???

Dorothy Simms ‎Oh I get it, the largest egg on earth for the largest lizard on earth!

Dana Rice ‎ Well, she said ‘go suck an egg’…I hope this makes her happy

 Racheal Emig: Fido’s got nothin on me!

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Come visit Smaug, and our monitor, his pal next door. You will find them both in their habitats at the far end of the Reptile House, on your way to see the new Elephant Habitat. They both have windows that face the outdoors, and Smaug is usually front and center, hangin’ on his rock, waiting to take pictures with you.

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CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL!

Thanks for joining in the fun!

And please come on back for next Friday!

TXU Energy Presents Chill Out at the Houston Zoo:

Houston summers are hot, but the Houston Zoo is cool. Click here for all our chill activities and tips.

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Check out our Facebook page to see the rest of the entries. We hope this brought a smile to your face. And stay tuned for next Friday’s photo! Tell your friends, share this on Facebook, Twitter or your own blogs, and start your office pools to see who can come up with the best lines. (To show the picture and link on your social media, just click the little icons under the title SHARE THIS on the lower left of this post).To find us on Facebook, type in Houston Zoo Inc. in the search field or go to http://www.facebook.com/houstonzoo and become a fan.

 

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Sep
26

Dora & Diego Visit the Houston Zoo!

Posted by in Events,Just for Kids

Well-loved characters Dora and Diego, from the hit Nickelodeon shows Dora the Explorer and Go Diego Go!, are visiting the Houston Zoo on Saturday and Sunday, October 1 and 2! They will make appearances throughout the day and greet adoring fans, young and old alike, to pose for photos. Be sure you bring your camera to capture this exciting experience! This is included in your regular Zoo Admission or membership.

Dora and Diego will be near the 4-D Experience in The African Forest on Saturday and Sunday, October 1 and 2 from 10:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. each day. While they will be out from 10:00 a.m.- 2:00 p.m., they may take a few brief breaks during this time.

 

Dora the Explorer!

 
Also, guests can watch them in action in the exciting and interactive Dora and Diego’s 4-D Adventure: Catch That Robot Butterfly! at the Zoo’s 4-D Experience. The 4-D Experience is $5 for non-members and $4 for members.
 

Dora & Diego's 4-D Adventure!

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Sep
25

The Diminutive Dekay’s Snake

Posted by in Reptiles,Snakes

This is the third in a series on snakes that’s being written for you by The Houston Zoo’s Herpetology Department Supervisor, Judith Bryja. Our Herp Department knows their stuff, and since we get so much interest in snakes, Judith is writing this informative blog series each week just for you!  If you’d like to read the series from the beginning, click here.

Let’s talk about Dekay’s snakes (Storeria dekayi).  Also known as brown snakes, there are many subspecies of this diminutive snake; we have two of them in Texas.  Adult size is only 9-13 inches.  Most are some shade of brown or grey with a wide stripe down the back and small spots on either side of the stripe.  The belly is whitish or yellowish.

They live in a variety of habitats including pine forest, grasslands, and brackish and freshwater marshes.  They prefer wet shaded places that have ground cover and surface leaf litter; this provides shelter and their main prey animals.  Their diet is mostly earthworms and slugs but they will also eat other invertebrates and small fish and frogs.  About 12 babies are born in late summer.  They are 3-4 inches long at birth.  When bothered, this inoffensive little snake will usually lay quite still.  If further disturbed, they will try to get away, and if that doesn’t work, they may flatten the body revealing rows of dark and light scales.  This sudden change in appearance can confuse a predator.  Rarely do they ever try to bite (not that it would do much if they did!).

Written by Judith Bryja
Photos by Charlie Mann

Come back next week for another installment in this Snake Series!

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Sep
24

Houston Zoo Animal Enrichment Wish List Now at Amazon.com!

Posted by in Animal Info,Enrichment,Events

Do you love to shop?!  The Houston Zoo animals now have a wishlist on Amazon.com!  We all enjoy buying that perfect gift for someone special…..and who’s more special than the animals at the zoo!  I know you’ve often wondered, if I were buying a gift for Jonathan the lion what on earth would he want?  And where would I go to buy it?  What about a baby gift for Aurora the orangutan?  Well today’s your lucky day and you don’t even have to leave the comfort of your air conditioned home, yes shopping in the summer without breaking a sweat!!

All of the animals now have brought their needs and wants to you through Amazon.com, just a click away.  Here’s an example of some of the items you can purchase and enrich the lives of your favorite animal.

The Carnivores are asking for boomer balls, catnip and many other items, you know how cats love to wind themselves up on catnip, then start chasing everything in sight!   Like this Jolly Ball available at Amazon.com, peppermint scented!

Horseman's Pride Jolly Ball

The Primates are asking for a Look Lous feeding mirror….hmmmm is that so Rudy orangutan can make sure there are no crumbs on his face when he finishes his favorite breakfast??  Just a click away!

Looky Lou Feeder 14" X 10" Acrylic w/ 3/4" holes (.125 wall) Mirror on one side: 4 in.

Find your favorite animals and see what they’re wishing for at Amazon.com. Then just sit back, shop, click and send your animal of choice a wonderful gift to enrich their life!  They really do appreciate it and so does the Houston Zoo!

Enrichment Day at the Houston Zoo is today, Saturday, September 24th.  This is a great opportunity to see all of the animals enjoying special enrichment, hear keeper chats and loads of  fun games for kids of all ages!  Enrichment Day celebrates the meaning and joy of enriching our animals and visitors! If you are so inspired by this day, or have a favorite species at the Houston Zoo, you can now go on Amazon.com anytime of the year and make a difference!

 

Sep
23

Animal Enrichment: Well, They Certainly Have Something to Say About That…

Posted by in Birds,Enrichment,Events

People like to watch animals actively engaged in their environment – it’s true. It’s my opinion that natural behaviors are so inviting because they create the feeling of being somewhere special. Particularly when observed in the presence of our beautifully kept and planted grounds, animals presenting natural behaviors gives the feeling of being somewhere “wild.”

For our part, keepers do our best to encourage a variety of natural behaviors. Not only is it beneficial for our guests to see the amazing natural behaviors that cause us to love every minute of our jobs, it’s enormously beneficial to provide for the mental and physical wellness of our animals by providing enrichment opportunities. Did you know that an effective enrichment program can help to stabilize fluctuating weight, help with mild health concerns and even encourage breeding in some species? It really is that important to the overall well-being of our animals.

These are our Grey-winged Trumpeters (Psophia crepitans) utilizing a basic puzzle feeder. Such items are wonderful because they make enriching animals a much more viable possibility. The simple fact is that there are only so many hours in a day, and when keepers are responsible for such a diverse animal collection (more than 800 avian residents in our bird department, alone!) such readily prepared items are nothing less than magical.

Enrichment Day at the Houston Zoo is Saturday, September 24th.  This is a great opportunity to come and join in the fun.  Come out and see all of the animals enjoying special enrichment, hear keeper chats and loads of  fun games for kids of all ages!  Enrichment Day celebrates the meaning and joy of enriching our animals and visitors!

Find your favorite animals and see what they’re wishing for at Amazon.com. Then just sit back, shop, click and send your animal of choice a wonderful gift to enrich their life!  They really do appreciate it and so does the Houston Zoo!

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Sep
22

Animal Enrichment: It’s an Elephant’s Life

Posted by in Elephants,Enrichment,Events

Enriching the herd of Asian elephants here at the Houston Zoo  is a very important part of our day.  Elephants are highly intelligent animals (probably the most intelligent at the zoo) and they need many different types of enrichment. 

Training is one of the most important parts of an Elephant keeper’s day, and is extremely enriching for our elephants as well.  It allows the Elephant keepers to get very close to each animal and inspect their body condition and care for them, but it also helps to form a strong relationship between each keeper and each elephant.  Training new behaviors encourages our elephants to think critically to receive the reward of food and praise — and also helps to keep the elephants active. 

Along with mental stimulation, physical enrichment, such as toys, scents, spices, leafy browse and musical instruments are all vital to keeping our elephants active, enriched, and engaged.  When you visit the Houston Zoo, it is easy to spot the items that are placed daily in the yard.  These commonly include small and large tires, bells, bowling balls, large rubber balls, large hanging chimes and large logs.  Of course, all of these toys are elephant proof and safe for our two calves, Baylor andTupelo, to play with as well. 

What you may not be able to see are the various spices and areas scented with extracts or perfume, which encourage the elephants to walk around the yard to find and taste new and different items. Leafy browse, such as Mulberry and Bamboo, is also vital for elephants. Found in their natural diet, leaves and bark are nutritionally important and they also provide a fun toy. 

Our elephants are commonly seen using large sticks to scratch their backs and behind their ears.  New or novel substrates like sand and dirt are also used as enrichment. Baylor and Tupelo especially seem to enjoy a nice pile of fresh sand or a mud wallow. The pool in the new yard will be an excellent addition to the facility and will be enriching to the herd for years to come.  

Hopefully, the elephants will be moving in to the new exhibit in September. It is really just up to the keepers to challenge ourselves to find ways to keep the elephants enriched and think of new ideas.

Written by Andrea Pohlman, Elephant Keeper

Enrichment Day at the Houston Zoo is Saturday, September 24th.  This is a great opportunity to come and join in the fun.  Come out and see all of the animals enjoying special enrichment, hear keeper chats and loads of  fun games for kids of all ages!  Enrichment Day celebrates the meaning and joy of enriching our animals and visitors!

Find your favorite animals and see what they’re wishing for at Amazon.com. Then just sit back, shop, click and send your animal of choice a wonderful gift to enrich their life!  They really do appreciate it and so does the Houston Zoo!

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Sep
21

Jane’s Journey: A Must See Film About Jane Goodall

Posted by in Chimpanzees,Endangered

In Jane’s Journey, a truly inspiring and uplifting movie, we travel with Jane Goodall across the globe, from her childhood home in England to the Gombe National Park in Tanzania where she began her ground-breaking research on the chimpanzee (and where she still returns every year to enjoy the company of the chimpanzees that made her famous).

Featuring a wide range of interviews and spectacular footage from her own private collection (including her years in Gombe), Jane’s Journey is an inspiring portrait of the private person behind the courageous, ground-breaking, world-famous icon. This bio-film is a four-year look over-the-shoulder adventure. We will follow Jane as she travels across three continents —viewing chimpanzees and hippos in Africa, watching explosive calving glaciers in Greenland, and listening to stories from challenged youth on the Pine Ridge Native American reservation.

A unique live studio event broadcast exclusively to 500 theatres in 100 cities will unveil never-before-seen 45-year-old 8mm film shot in her first years in the African jungle, recently discovered in Jane’s home attic in Britain. Jane and music legend Dave Matthews will talk about their experiences in the field. Academy Award winner Charlize Theron will join Jane in-studio along with Bart Simpson’s voice Nancy Cartwright to tell African tales, and Jane will have a stunning conversation about our earth with astronauts aboard the international space station.
 
A special highlight will be the national debut Jane’s Journey that includes appearances by Academy-award winning actress Angelina Jolie and actor Pierce Brosnan.  The event will be hosted by Discovery Channel star, Donald Schultz.

CLICK HERE to find a theater near you.  And please, TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW!

As you you will see from the movie’s trailer below, her words and gracious, gentle nature will move you – hopefully to act, every day, in whatever way you can, to make a difference in the world – whether it be with a random stranger, your friend, family or neighbor, or within the natural world.

This is a movie that is not to be missed.

Directed by Lorenz Knauer and starring Pierce Brosnan, Angelina Jolie, Jane Goodall, Kofi Annan, Hugo Eric Louis van Lawick.  Keep an eye out for Jane’s Journey.

Sep
21

Animal Enrichment: A Komodo and his Egg

Posted by in Enrichment,Events,Reptiles

Animal keepers at the Houston Zoo are constantly thinking of new ways to enrich the lives of the animals in their care.  Reptiles and birds often lay infertile eggs whether they have mated or not.  The Zoo’s two female ostriches frequently lay infertile eggs, we don’t have any male ostriches…….so, in the spirit of “reduce, reuse, recycle”, we find an interesting use for these eggs.  No, we don’t make giant omelettes!!  Sometimes we give one to our awesome Komodo dragon “Smaug”.  Dragons are meat eaters but they like eggs also.  As you can see below the egg is too big for him to swallow whole and this presents a challenge. 

The egg rolls away from him and he has to pin it against something and bite it to crack it.  Of course all the yolk runs out and he tries to suck it up and usually eats some or all of the shell.  Smaug doesn’t wind up getting to eat much of it but it gets him excited and keeps him busy for a while! Take a look.


We strive to continually come up with things to keep our animals busy and to elicit natural behaviors.  This is just one of the many fun aspects of taking care of the animals we love.

Written by Judith Bryja.

Enrichment Day at the Houston Zoo is Saturday, September 24th.  This is a great opportunity to come and join in the fun.  Come out and see all of the animals enjoying special enrichment, hear keeper chats and loads of  fun games for kids of all ages!  Enrichment Day celebrates the meaning and joy of enriching our animals and visitors!

Find your favorite animals and see what they’re wishing for at Amazon.com. Then just sit back, shop, click and send your animal of choice a wonderful gift to enrich their life!  They really do appreciate it and so does the Houston Zoo!

 

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Sep
20

Hitchhiking Frog Lands at Houston Zoo

Posted by in Reptiles

 At the Port of Houston, it is the job of U.S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists to intercept pests arriving in shipping containers from different parts of the world. But it isn’t often that an intercepted specimen ends up at a local zoo. On September 16, CBP agriculture specialists working at the Port of Houston’s Bayport Terminal opened up a shipping container that had arrived on a ship from the Middle East and, much to their surprise discovered a tree frog sitting on a pallet of imported stone.

The frog was captured and delivered to U.S. Fish and Wildlife specialists who contacted the Houston Zoo looking for assistance to identify the little hitchhiker. Houston Zoo Herpetology Curator Stan Mays and Senior Keeper Chris Bednarski identified the stowaway as a Middle Eastern Tree Frog, specifically a Savigny’s Tree Frog. Mays was happy to make the Houston Zoo the frog’s new home.

“Our research indicates that only one other zoo has this animal – the Dierenpark Emmen Zoo in the Netherlands,” said Mays. The frog had a long trip in the dark from the Middle East. “From what we were told by the U. S. Customs and Border Protection agriculture specialists, the container in which it was found was sealed shut in Syria and had not been opened until it arrived in Houston,” said Mays.

The frog will spend at least 30 days in quarantine before the Zoo can begin to make plans for the public to see it.

About the Savigny’s Tree Frog

The Savigny’s Tree Frog is common in Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, the island of Cyprus, the Republic of Georgia and Turkey. They are native to deserts and semi-deserts and are found near water bodies such as oasis, gardens, bush lands and the edges of mountain forests. The Savigny’s Tree Frog is probably one of the most heat-tolerant species of all the tree frogs, living in very hot and dry regions.

When it isn’t their breeding season, these tree frogs are fairly inactive by day. In fact, they may sit motionless for hours, becoming active only in darkness. In the evening twilight, the frogs become active and start to forage and come to water bodies to rehydrate. They hibernate on land from October until the beginning of November to March – April. When they hibernate, they burrow in the soil and other hiding places. As tadpoles, they feed on plant and animal matter in the ponds where they hatched. As adults, they feed on all sorts of insects.

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