Posts Tagged ‘chimps’

Nov
05

Mmmm, Termites Taste Like…Mustard?

Posted by in African Forest,Chimpanzees

You may have heard that last week we had a very special guest at the zoo to dedicate our new chimpanzee exhibit. One of Dr. Jane Goodall’s early discoveries at Gombe was the ability of the chimps to use tools. This was shocking and revolutionary at the time, famously prompting anthropologist Dr. Louis Leakey to say, “Now we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.”

Using this information about wild chimpanzees, many zoos have created ways for zoo chimps to display behavior. Our new chimp exhibit here at the zoo has an artificial termite mound where our chimps can use bamboo sticks to fish treats out of PVC tubs inside. Instead of termites, we used some favorite treats such as ketchup, yogurt, cereal, and yes, mustard. We tried this out for the first time last week for Dr. Goodall’s visit, and I think it was a hit.

Want to be the first to see the Houston Zoo chimpanzees fish for “termites”? Members only previews start December 2! Check out the African Forest page for details.

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Nov
03

Chimp Profiles: Lulu and Lucy

Posted by in African Forest,Chimpanzees,Profiles

Lulu, always thinking

Females play an important role in chimp society and the Houston Zoo’s two oldest females are no exception. In addition to being the mothers of 6 of the chimps in our group, Lulu and Lucy are fill an important role as leaders in the group. 

Lulu, who is easy spot with her droopy lip and big ears, is a smart chimp and while friendly to her keepers, she is also always looking for ways to outsmart them. Lulu loves attention, and watch out if she doesn’t get what she wants, as there’s likely to be a tantrum. She also keeps a close eye on her group and they look to her for guidance in new situations. 

watch out, boys, it's Lucy!

Lucy, the oldest female, is Lulu’s sidekick. Lucy has been tougher for the keepers to get to know and like Lulu, has a stubborn streak. Lucy loves to chase off the boys and if they start any trouble with Willie or the girls, she will run them off, screaming in fear! Lucy can be picked out the group by the pink markings on her chin.

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Oct
27

Chimp Update: The Great Outdoors

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

Finally, after years of planning and months of construction, the time has come to open the door. This would be the chimps’ first glimpse at their 18,000 square foot outdoor exhibit. We spent several weeks discussing what the plan would be for letting them out, as this is a bit more complicated than people might think.

As many of you know, we have 10 chimpanzees and while it would fun to just open the door and let them go outside, there are a few concerns we have to consider. First, if all 10 go out at once, they might be a little tough to keep track of and we want to watch closely these first few days. Its possible that one of the animals might get scared or they might break something we thought was chimp-proof so we need might need to get them back in quickly. Its also possible they might refuse to come inside. By leaving part of the group inside, there is more motivation for them to come back in when we ask.

So in the end, we decided that Lucy, Lulu and Willie were the right candidates for the inaugural events. What did they think? Just watch.

This was just day one – more updates on the chimps and how we get them to come back inside are coming soon.

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Aug
12

Chimp Update: The Great Outdoors

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

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

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Jul
26

16 Years With Chimpanzees is Just a Start

Posted by in African Forest,Conservation,Memories

Wednesday, July 14, the day we arrived in Houston with chimpanzees, was also the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Jane Goodall’s research at Gombe. This 50 year anniversary got me thinking about my first encounters with chimpanzees years ago at Sunset Zoo. I was just an intern but I was fascinated with chimpanzees Mac, Suzy, Rachel and Sesa and wanted desperately to be a chimpanzee keeper. Eager to learn more about chimps (and to impress my boss with my knowledge), I spent my lunch breaks reading Through a Window, caught up in the lives of Fifi and David Greybeard.

Fifi and Family - Michael Nichols, National Geographic

Like many other young women interested in primates, I was inspired by the work of Jane Goodall and dreamed of traveling to Africa and to study chimpanzees in the wild. Last weekend Jane Goodall wrote an article for the Wall Street Journal about those early years at Gombe and about how much things have changed. I did make it to east Africa eventually and found it really was the magical place she described. But unlike her, I couldn’t stay, my work was here at the zoo.

Sixteen years after I first opened Jane Goodall’s book I find myself responsible for 10 chimpanzees that now make their home at the Houston Zoo, which supports chimpanzee conservation all over Africa. I hope Dr. Goodall would approve.

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Jul
22

Chimp Update: Making New Friends

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

The chimps are settling in great to their new home. A few days after they arrived we started introducing them to each other. With many animals, including chimps, this can be a long process but so far its been going pretty quick. This is largely due to the fact that they all knew each other before they got here. We’re not done yet but we do have some nice video of the progress so far.

Below is a video of 32 year old Lulu and her 6 year old son Willie, playing with 38 year old Charlie on their first day together.

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Jul
17

Road Trip! Chimps on Their Way to the Houston Zoo

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

Last Sunday we flew to Sacramento, California to assist with the transport of our chimpanzees. We got our rental vehicle, stocked up on road trip essentials and headed to the hotel for a good night’s rest. At 8am we met our team:

  • Dr. Maryanne, Houston Zoo veterinarian
  • Sharon, Houston Zoo VP of Animal Operations
  • Dr. Andrea,  Oakland Zoo veterinarian
  • Dennis and Roger, our drivers
  • Greg and Carol, the owners of the chimps
  • Me, Houston Zoo Curator of Primates and Carnivores

Once the trailer was in position, we began loading the chimps into crates.

A/C, some hay to lie in, and plenty of bananas

All of us were on the road by early afternoon and had a long trip ahead of us. In order to minimize the amount of time the chimps were on the truck we drove straight through, for a total of 42 hours, arriving at the zoo about 11am Wednesday morning. We stopped every few hours at truck stops to check the chimps and feed them. Overall, they seemed to enjoy the trip and I suppose we did too, except for being a bit sleep-deprived.

so good to be home!

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Jul
08

Meet the Staff: Judy McAuliffe

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees,Featured,Keepers,Meet the Staff,Primates

It is easy to see that this office belongs to a primate keeper! Judy is surrounded by orangutan paintings in her office.

Hometown: Tacoma, WA
Section: Primates- Chimpanzee Supervisor
Quote: “Never believe anything you read.”
Special Interests/ Hobbies:
Horseback riding and reading.
Interesting Facts:
I’ve know nearly 200 chimps during my career and lived in 6 different states in 4 different time zones.
  

What made you want to become a zookeeper?
I spent summers with my aunt, uncle and cousins, and they took us to the Sealife park in Galveston when I was 13 years old.  I used to want to be a dolphin trainer, but then I saw my first chimp and it was all over. 

  

What is your education, training, and previous institution(s) you attended before coming to the Houston Zoo?
I started volunteering at the Santa Barbara Zoo in 1988. I attended Moorpark College for Exotic Animal Training and Management, graduating in 1991.  I have worked at the Primate Foundation of Arizona and the Riverside Zoo in Nebraska caring for chimpanzees.  I also worked at Disney with primates and elephants, and in Bastrop, Texas at MD Anderson caring for their chimpanzees.  I have been here at the Houston Zoo since this April.   

What sort of advice would you give to anyone wanting to enter the zoo field?
Be prepared to do anything.  Volunteer and be patient. Don’t expect to get your dream job right away. You might have to work with animals that aren’t on the top of your list before you can work with animals that are your first choice.    

What is your favorite animal story?
My favorite chimp I ever worked with was named Pani.  Pani was 36 years old and had never had a baby of her own, although she had been an “auntie” a few times and really liked babies and young chimps.  Riverside Zoo (where I was working at the time) took in an orphaned infant chimp from Sedgewick County Zoo named Imara.  We introduced Imara to Pani and Pani was unbelievably patient and kind and soon won over Imara (he had been scared of her at first) and she became his mother for the next 6 years.   

To see the latest update on the Chimp building construction, visit the Official Houston Zoo Blog.   

To learn more about Chimpanzees visit http://www.houstonzoo.org/chimpanzee/   

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Jul
07

Chimp Building Update: Furniture

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

So last week we headed over to IKEA to pick out furniture for the chimps – OK, not really. All of the furniture in the chimp building is custom-built and is quite heavy-duty, as you see in this photo.

7 bedroom, 1 bath, large living room, and 1/2 acre backyard - must see!

This is the largest room in the building (about 1000 square feet and over 20 feet tall) and its filled with benches for chimps to sit and sleep on. There are also steel nests (in the upper right) that they can fill with hay and nap in. The posts and walls have steel rings anchored to the to attach ropes and hammocks too. Eventually this room will be filled with 30 inches of pine bark mulch, creating a natural, soft floor indoors.

Before you are too harsh about our decorating skills, let me explain that the first rule of animal exhibit design is function first. Concrete is easy to clean and paint has a tendency to chip under the strain of everyday cleaning and chimps with time on their hands. All of the caging is galvanized steel, which won’t rust after repeated washings (and other chimp bodily fluids I won’t mention here). Once we hang some toys and hammocks the room will be much more colorful, which is actually important to chimps since they see the same color spectrum we do.

Chimps arrive one week from today!

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Jul
01

Chimp Building Update: Doors and Windows

Posted by in African Forest,Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees

Last fall, I made a trip to Arizona to pick out doors and cage mesh for our chimp building. This is perhaps the most important part of an animal building because the right choices will make a building safe for staff and comfortable for animals. Chimpanzees are large, potentially dangerous animals, so all of their doors must be operated remotely by keepers from outside the animal area.  Fortunately the contractor providing the doors and mesh had working mock-ups of all the doors at their shop so I could see everything in person and test it out.

Because the building is so large and complex it contains a total of 33 animal doors. Depending on the location, the door may open horizontally or vertically. Some handles are removable so they don’t get in the keepers’ way and others operate by turning a wheel or pulling a handle. Each door gets inspected and tested by the staff after installation. All of the caging is carefully inspected for rough edges.

cage mesh in the process of being installed

The mesh is fabricated in Arizona galvanized to prevent rusting, and then the panels shipped here for assembly and installation. This involves a lot of drilling and welding – every bolt inside the animal are must be welded so that the strong, dexterous chimps can’t undo them.

Safe for chimps? Check.

Safe for keepers? Check.

Functional? Check.

Soon it will be time to add the comforts of home.

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