Houston Zoo Jaguar "Cocoy"

December Issue of National Geographic Magazine
Spotlights 8 “Cats in Crisis”

National Geographic, December 2011

Planet Earth is home to 37 species of cats. All are facing an uncertain future. Even though humans have coexisted with predators for thousands of years, the world’s cats are losing ground to habitat loss, illegal hunting and retaliatory killing when they prey on livestock. Yet conservationists see hope.

In the December issue of National Geographic Magazine, on newsstands November 29 and available now as a digital magazine, author and world-renowned field biologist George B. Schaller proposes bold action to ensure their survival.

Schaller’s essay, Politics Is Killing the Big Cats is accompanied by a 5-panel pullout poster featuring stunning photos of 8 of the world’s big cats, seven of which are cats from the Houston Zoo, captured in stunning detail by National Geographic photographer Vincent J. Musi.

“We are proud and honored that our Houston Zoo big cat ‘ambassadors’ were chosen to accompany George Schaller’s essay and grateful that National Geographic’s Big Cat Initiative is raising awareness about the conservation status of the world’s cat species,” said Houston Zoo Carnivore Curator Beth Schaefer.

Assisted by Houston Zoo carnivore keepers, Vincent J. Musi photographed the Zoo’s male African lion Jonathan and 6 other cats (clouded leopard, jaguar, cougar, leopard, cheetah, and Malayan tiger) during a week-long photo session in February. Each cat was photographed in its off exhibit ‘bedroom’ against a black backdrop. Each photo in the pullout poster is accompanied by a brief profile that includes the cat’s estimated wild population and its conservation status. The National Geographic Society is working to save big cats through its Big Cats Initiative; find out more at www.causeanuproar.org.

Houston Zoo African Lion "Jonathan"

“We are deeply appreciative of the Houston Zoo’s hospitality. It is unusual for one facility to have such a diversity of big cats, and their generousity in facilitating Vince’s photo shoot helped us to illustrate the animals’ beauty and power for our 40 million readers worldwide,” said Kathy Moran, senior photo editor in charge of the National Geographic magazine’s natural history coverage.

The December issue of National Geographic magazine is available on newsstands November 29 and as a digital magazine at the National Geographic App Store, http://nationalgeographic.com/apps. Prints of Musi’s photographs are available at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/bigcats-purchase.

Houston Zoo Clouded Leopard "Rama"

Houston Zoo Cougar "Rocky"

Houston Zoo Leopard "Kadu"

Like last week when I got to take KPRC Channel 2′s Traffic Reporter Jennifer Reyna around the Zoo for a day. That’s right – the Jennifer Reyna who gets you to work on time every morning.

Hangin' out with giraffes

I met her in the employee parking lot and golf-carted her over to film a piece on our newly renovated jaguar exhibit. If you haven’t seen this yet, it’s pretty incredible – new mesh for clearer viewing, new waterfall, and new pool. In fact, it looks so different (and much, much better) that you probably won’t even recognize it next time you’re at the Zoo.

You know, I’ve always thought that it’s gotta be tough for a news reporter to focus during a video shoot outside and with people everywhere – but Jennifer made it look easy. Here’s a shot of her filming an interview at jaguars for the news broadcast.

Jennifer Reyna w/ Carnivore Keeper Angie Pyle

After that we headed over to giraffes for some more fun and a behind-the-scenes tour. Feeding giraffes is my favorite thing to do at the Zoo. There’s just nothing else like being face-to-face with a 15+ foot giraffe that takes your breath away.

I think male giraffe Kiva has found himself a new girlfriend...

When you take a behind-the-scenes tours at giraffes, they will walk right up to you and even take food right out of your hands – it’s so cool. After Jennifer interviewed Hoofstock Keeper Kim Siegl (and after the giraffes were nice and fed), we looked at the new weather cam that KPRC will start airing live shots of during their weather portion of news broadcasts. So watch for Frank Billingsley, Khambrel Marshall, and the rest of the KPRC Weather Crew panning to shots of the Zoo’s Masai giraffes soon.

I don’t know what was more fun – feeding our giraffes or hanging out with Houston’s Favorite Traffic Reporter. Tough choice…

Check out Jennifer’s Bumper 2 Bumper blog here for some off-camera looks at how news stories are created and also for some very important traffic updates for the Zoo during Spring Break.

So that’s how the magic is made. Click on the video below to watch the final news segment that aired on the Channel 2 News: