Posts Tagged ‘okapi’

Dec
30

Gift of Grub Series: Browse on Zoo Grounds

Posted by in Feeding Our Animals,Horticulture

Please consider giving a year-end, tax-deductible gift of grub to help feed our animals in the coming year by clicking www.houstonzoo.org/gift-of-grub or our CONTRIBUTE tab on Facebook!

A snack for Toby, the red panda

This month-long series has mentioned so many kinds of foods that are bought or ordered by the commissary, then further prepared and dispensed by keepers. In almost each post you may have noticed the use of the mysterious term “browse” that many of our animals get as well.

A babirusa with fresh browse

Browse simply means the leaves and tender shoots that our animals might come across to nibble on in daily life in the wild.  We duplicate this by providing browse for them in their habitats.  The thing that may be a surprise to our guests is that we grow quite a bit of this browse on grounds.

Our Coquerel Sifaka dives in

We have a large, full-time horticulture team, led by Joe Williams. Like the old phrase, they are at hard at work outside, whether it’s in pouring rain, cold temps, or high humindity. Monday through Friday they spent between four and six hours doing cutting browse, which accrues anywhere from 100 to 200 pounds of it a day!  

Horticulture Manager Joe Williams and some of his team collect browse grown on grounds almost every day

Most of the plants and trees used for browse grow naturally, so they don’t take a lot of time or energy to plant.  We do add ginger, banana and a variety of bamboos, but those are planted in the Zoo’s overall landscape and when they are normally trimmed, that’s used as browse. 

A little nosh for our South American Tapir

At some point, horitculture may plant a browse garden or pockets of browse in a couple locations on Zoo property.  Proper pruning techniques are used to ensure that the health of the plants or he aestheics of the Zoo grounds are not affected.

Written by Rochelle Joseph, and Joe Williams, Horticulture Manager 

Our handsome okapi say gimme some browse!

It takes $600,000 a year to feed our over 6,000 animals at the Houston Zoo. That’s a big bill!

Please consider gifting your furry, feathered and fanged friends this holiday with a tax-deductible donation  during our Gift of Grub campaign at: http://www.houstonzoo.org/gift-of-grub/ or click the Contribute button on Facebook!

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Sep
22

Okapi Enrichment at the Houston Zoo

Posted by in Enrichment,Events,Hoofed Stock

Zookeepers have learned not to turn their backs from Kwame, the Okapi, for very long.  That’s a sure way to get a fourteen-inch coarse tongue licking the back of your neck!

Kwame is one of three okapi who reside at the Houston Zoo.  His exhibit offers him many things to do throughout the day.  Some days he finds leaves to pluck or a flavored salt block to taste.  Often, he is content to lick the hair of the duikers who share his exhibit.  Due to a healthy zoo-diet consisting primarily of hay and grain, he does not need to search for the right tree leaves to eat.  Finding food in the forest requires work and keepers try to incorporate that into Kwame’s life at the zoo. 

Manipulating their tongue is a very natural behavior for any okapi.  Like the giraffe, their closest living relative, the okapi will reach their necks out and wrap their long tongue around the higher leaves that other animals cannot reach.  This strategy gives them a distinct advantage and the assurance that food is just a neck stretch away. 

Kwame the Okapi uses his tongue to get treats from a puzzle feeder tube

In order to encourage this natural tongue behavior, the hoofed stock keepers can put out enrichment devices such as this PVC puzzle feeder tube.  A variety of favorite produce items, such as carrots and yams, are placed inside and Kwame must use his lengthy tongue to pull  these treats out from the holes.  Another way this foraging behavior is supported is through the use of “browse.”  Keepers cut off branches from trees and place them high throughout the exhibit so that Kwame can eat the many leaves.  There are lots of options, but Kwame appears to favor hackberry and mulberry leaves the most.

Foraging and puzzle feeders are just a few examples of the variety of enrichment opportunities provided to the hoofed stock residents at the Houston Zoo.  The zoo will be highlighting the many ways enrichment is offered to the animals on our annual Enrichment Day, October 2, 2010!  We hope to see you there!

Written by Tim Junker

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Aug
14

Meet the Staff: Brooke Vincent

Posted by in Featured,Keepers,Meet the Staff,Vet Clinic

Brooke and Sifaka Infant "Sebastian"

Hometown:  College Station, TX

Department/Title:  Clinic Keeper

How long have you worked at the Houston Zoo?:  5 years

How long have you been in the your field?:  7 years

Favorite animal:  Okapi. When I was an intern at White Oak Conservation Center, we had a couple of young okapi that were being weaned. Tulia was the youngest of the three and very sweet and small. It was always my favorite part of the day to go see the calves. After I had been at Houston a few years, we received Tulia into Quarantine. I was amazed at how large she had gotten! She has grown into quite the young lady. Now I get to see a whole new side to her and it will be exciting when she has her own babies!

Quote:  “Winning hearts and minds for animals” – Jack Brown SFCC Director

Special interests/hobbies:  Reading, Knitting badly, hiking and camping, kayaking, and I am also AAZK Vice President of the Greater Houston Chapter

What made you want to work at a zoo?:  I was trying to find my niche so I had a lot of different jobs, several of which involved working with animals. During one of my quests to find my niche, I was working as a Disney College Program student at Disney’s Animal Kingdom as a custodian when I happened to see a keeper feeding produce to the gorillas. I had never considered zoo keeping as a career because I’d always assumed that your family had to teach you the skills, like a trapeze artist. It just so happened that this particular keeper’s parents were zookeepers! Awhile later, I asked a different keeper how she got into the field, and they told me about the Teaching Zoo.

Education/training:  Associates of Science in Zoo Animal Technology from Santa Fe Teaching Zoo – Gainesville, FL

Previous related jobs:  Pet sitting, vet clinics, animal shelters

Advice to anyone wanting to enter the your field:  Work or volunteer anywhere with animals. Be prepared to get down and dirty! If you need to be clean or can’t handle dirt, you won’t be happy in this field no matter how much you love animals.

What is unique about being a clinic keeper:  The clinic is a little known area by zoo guests because we are behind the scenes. We are the ones who take care of the sick, new arrivals, geriatric, and injured. We are able to give special attention to specific animals that really need it at critical times in their life. We have the ability to rearrange an entire enclosure for just one animal’s needs, whereas that is difficult to do for a whole enclosure full of different animals that may need it another way!

Why you like this department:  I like working in the clinic because it is trying to find the order in chaos. Every day is different. We work with so many different animals that I get to use all the knowledge I learned from school every day. I love the challenge and thinking outside the box!

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Apr
26

Photo of the Day: April 26

Posted by in Mammals,Photo of the Day

Okapi

Okapi-0001

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