First of all, I would like to congratulate Susan Draper on winning our contest posted in the last blog.  Susan will be at the zoo this Saturday to help prepare the exhibit for our new Goeldi’s monkeys, Peach and Andy.  Susan’s husband, Mickey, will be joining us as her chosen guest. We have plenty of work to keep them busy.  It’s important to change out the climbing structures in our exhibits in between previous residents moving out and new residents moving in.  We have lots of grape vine and branches that need to be put into the exhibit so Peach and Andy have plenty of arboreal pathways and can easily get in and out of their night house. Hope Susan and Mickey are ready to get dirty!

The second piece of news is that Peach and Andy were both given clean bills of health by our veterinarians and after a few days of visiting through a mesh barrier they were able to meet face to face. Everything went exactly as we had hoped and it does indeed seem to be love at first sight!  Now we just have to wait for them to clear their required quarantine period and then we can move them to their new home. Are they not the cutest couple?

There seems to be no question that they are going to be a great couple! Photo credit: Jennifer Stevenson

Peach checking out her new guy. Photo credit: Jennifer Stevenson

They have to go through quarantine at our veterinary clinic during which time they are cared for by our awesome clinic keepers. They will undergo a sedation and exam while in quarantine and once they both receive a clean bill of health they will get to meet each other.  Right now they can see each other but not touch one another.  We’ll be moving to an introduction through a mesh barrier soon, then finally letting them in together.  So far they have been calling to one another and seem eager to meet so keep your fingers crossed for love at first sight. 

Andy looking a little shy at the prospect of his new girlfriend. Photo credit: Jennifer Stevenson

But before Andy and Peach can move into their new home, we need your help getting it ready!  If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to get an exhibit ready for new residents, now is your chance to find out.  In the comments section below, tell us why we should pick you to help us get Andy & Peach’s new home ready.

Whoever submits the winning comment will get to come out to the zoo with a friend and help us prepare the exhibit.  Be prepared to get dirty, learn some cool stuff about primates and have fun!

Contest Particulars:

• You and your guest must be 18 years old.
• You must be available at 2:00 on May 12th to come to the zoo.
• If you have an aversion to physical work and getting dirty, this may not be the contest for you.
• The prize can not be given to someone else.  If you win, you must be the participant, along with your chosen guest.
• The primate team will choose their favorite comment as the winner, so be creative!

Straw Colored Fruit Bats

 Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15 are the dates for Bat Fest Houston.   On both days there will be children’s activities, keeper chats and bat related information booths at the zoo from 10:00am – 3:00 pm.   If you come on Saturday you will also have the opportunity to attend a bat seminar in the zoo’s Brown Education Center  from 10:00-12:15 that will include some great speakers.  The talks will include information  about bats from around the world and the bats in our own back yard as well as a new threat to bats, White Nose Syndrome.   You will also be able to visit the zoo’s bat exhibits where you can see Jamaican Fruit Bats, Seba’s Short-tailed Fruit Bats, Pallas Long-tongued Nectar Bats, Straw Colored Fruit Bats and an Indian Flying Fox Bat! 

If visitors 18 and under bring a nature journal or report to the Naturally Wild Swap Shop on the topic of bats they will receive DOUBLE points on these two days!  Don’t know about the Swap Shop?  Click here to learn more.

The best part – all of this is included in your regular zoo admission. 

Bat emergence at Waugh Ave. Bridge

And the fun doesn’t stop there!  From 6:00pm to 9:00pm join us at the Waugh Avenue Bridge (Waugh Avenue at Allen Parkway) for more children’s activities, bat chats and an amazing emergence of 250,000 Mexican Free-tailed Bats from under the bridge.  The Waugh Bridge activities are completely free.  Click here for information on parking at the bridge.

The fun will start at the Zoo at 10:00AM.  On both Saturday and Sunday there will be booths, children’s activities and zookeeper chats about bats.  On Saturday only there will be a bat seminar with some awesome speakers from 10:00-12:15 in the Brown Education Center.   

In addition, to help celebrate, The Naturally Wild Swap Shop will be giving double points for any Nature Journal on bats.  Dont know about the Swap Shop?  Click here for more information. 

The best part – all this is included in your paid zoo admission.

The festivities won’t stop there.  Be sure to join the Houston Bat Team at the Waugh Drive bat colony (corner of Waugh Drive & Allen Parkway) from 6:00-9:00PM.  The Waugh Drive bridge is home to a colony of 250,000 Mexican Free-tailed Bats.  There will be bat chat presentations from members of the Bat Team along with children’s activities and an amazing emergence from the bats at dusk. Click here to check Facebook for parking info.

By a very slim margin, the votes show Goeldi’s monkeys (callimico) and titi’s for our primate species and, by a wide margin, agouti on the ground. 

Goeldi's monkeys beat out emperor tamarins for our callitrichid species in the exhibit!

I am excited about all of these species.  The Houston zoo has only housed Goeldi’s monkeys once before, back when the Natural Encounters building was the old small mammal house. 

Goeldi’s monkeys have been kept with many other species, including titi monkeys, so this should be a good combination.  Titi’s generally prefer to stay higher up in a space and are much more passive.  Because these two species prefer different areas and have varying activity levels, they should be able to coexist without coming into conflict for resources in the exhibit. 

I contacted the SSP’s for Goeldi’s and titis  this week.  Follow this link if you didn’t catch the blog about managing species across zoos and what an SSP is: http://houstonzooblogs.org/zoo/2012/01/first-ever-crowd-curated-exhibit/

Sometimes things happen very quickly with SSPs, and sometimes things can move extremely slowly.  We got very lucky with Goeldi’s monkeys.  The species coordinator was in the process of finalizing the master plan for this year and we can obtain a breeding pair immediately!  The male is slated to come from Philadelphia, and the female from Saint Luis. This is doubly lucky as sometimes you have to agree to hold non-breeding animals until a breeding pair becomes available.  That can sometimes take years!

I haven’t managed to connect with the species coordinator for the titis yet, nor have I  had a chance to follow up on leads for agoutis, so I will keep you posted as things progress for those species.

The next step is to obtain what we call a “specimen report” on each animal.  A specimen report is a compilation of all the daily keeper notes as well as medical records on an individual animal.  These reports are reviewed by our animal care and veterinary staff to make sure there aren’t any “red flags” or long term issues that we need to be aware of.  If the report looks good, I then submit an “Animal Transfer Proposal” (ATP) detailing the animal’s individual identifying number, where it’s coming from, the contact person at the zoo where the animal is coming from, shipping costs and an approximate shipping date.  This form needs to be signed by the Vice President of Animal Operations, our veterinary staff, our Registrar (who maintains detailed records for every individual housed here at the zoo!) and our Director.  If everyone agrees, our veterinarians determine when there will be space in our quarantine facility and then contact the veterinarians at the other zoo to requests pre-shipment tests for our animal.  Once all of that clears I can finally book a flight and get our new little monkeys!

Iknowall of you that voted for Goeldi’s are as excited as we are and if you voted for emperor tamarins, I hope you aren’t too dissapointed and that you will be just as charmed with these unique monkeys!

Stay tuned for your chance to help us prepare the exhibit for our new arrivals!

Endearing titi monkeys

Curious Goeldi's monkey

Fascinating Emperor tamarins

For a ground dwelling species, since we unfortunately cannot obtain pudu, our two options are agouti which seem to be fairly readily available or a tortoise species.

Cute agouti at the Hogle Zoo.

Red footed tortoises from South America can have quite unique personalities.

So check out the pictures, think about your final vote for animals in your exhibit and leave your votes in the comments section.  Then it will be time to start acquiring animals!

Once we know exactly what animals we’re getting we can start prepping the exhibit.  If you have been following this blog since the begining, you may remember I mentioned a contest along the way.  Stay tuned in the next week or two for a fun chance to come out to the zoo and help get your exhibit ready!

Now in their twilight years, the chance of more cubs has passed for Patty and Willie but as long time companions they do not like to be separated from each other for too long. Although Patty occasionally needs some alone time, which she orchestrates by going into the moat where Willie typically doesn’t go, they can often be seen snoozing together. Patty makes wonderful fluffy nests which Willie promptly plops down in. Patty then proceeds to make an even bigger and fluffier nest for herself! It seems to be a system that works for them.

Come by the Andean bear exhibit over Valentine’s Day and congratulate Patty and Willie on 25 blissful years!

Ground Hog Day 2012 was Babirusa Day at the Houston Zoo.

On February 2, Remley the babirusa (a species of Asian pig native to Indonesia) made her winter weather prediction at the Houston zoo’s Wortham World of Primates.

Remley made her Babirusa Day weather prediction by choosing between two weather ‘scenes’ created by her keepers. One scene represented 6 more weeks of winter – a ‘snowman’ on a field of white paper accepted with ice cubes containing babirusa treats such as figs and carrots.  The other scene represented the onset of an early spring – a picnic scene complete with a ‘picnic blanket’ and a picnic basket with babirusa treats and slices of watermelon. 

Remley entered the babirusa exhibit and trotted over to the snowman, flirted briefly with ‘winter’ and then dove enthusiastically into ‘summer’ enjoying a watermelon treat.

The decision?  Remley is expecting an early spring, not 6 more weeks of winter!

Why was Remley the babirusa chosen to stand in for the traditional ground hog?
 
Well, the Houston Zoo doesn’t have a ground hog.  Ground hogs don’t like the hot and humid tropical climate that we have along the southeast Texas Gulf coast.  But we believe Remley is a natural for predicting future weather patterns on February 2 because of her intelligence and adaptability.  Our keepers consider all hogs and pigs to be highly intelligent animals and quick learners with a substantial memory. 

About Babirusa
 Babirusas are small hairless pigs native to the small tropical Indonesian island of Sulawesi.  Elusive forest dwellers, little is known about the natural history and natural behavior of the babirusa, mainly due to the nature of its dense jungle habitat.  Masters of camouflage, the babirusa’s coloration, torpedo-shaped body and deer-like movements enable it to melt silently into surrounding cover at the slightest disturbance.  It’s appropriate that the translation of babirusa is “pig-deer.” Babirusas are critically endangered in the wild due to habitat loss and hunting.  In 1989 the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) rated the babirusa as the Asian pig species in greatest need of immediate conservation measures.

Titi monkeys are known for the endearing habit of entwining their tails.

Taxon Advisary Groups work under the umbrella of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and over see an entire taxa of animals, for example I mentioned the New World primate TAG. There are also a Felid TAG, a Lizard TAG and many more. If you read my last blog you may remember what an SSP is.  TAGs oversee SSPs.  Have you picked up on the fact that the zoo world has a LOT of acronyms?  The AZA website even has a list you can refer to because there are so many!  For now I think if we can keep AZA, TAG and SSP straight we should be good.

I will keep you posted on what the TAG says about our choices.  I also asked if there were any species that particularly needed space. It’s always good to play nice so if we need to place an animal in the future the TAGs and SSPs will remember that we were willing to help out.

For all the rodent fans out there, there are agoutis available, although we’re not sure how far down the cement around the bottom of our exhibit reaches.  We’re going to look into that to see if there is enough of a dig barrier to contain a rodent species.

Another option comes from reader MC. MC suggested a South American opossum species.  Any ideas of what species might work?  Post your ideas to the comments!

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