Posts Tagged ‘orangutan’

May
16

Problem Solving with Apes

Posted by in Behind the Scenes,Chimpanzees,Enrichment,Primates

Chimpanzees and orangutans, two great ape species, can be found at the Houston Zoo. These amazing animals are incredibly intelligent. In the wild, this intelligence is constantly being put to the test as they encounter novel situations on a daily basis. To deal with these novel situations as well as completing everyday tasks, apes have developed keen problem solving skills. They use tools such as branches or rocks to help them obtain difficult food items such as nuts or termites. They build complicated nests out of branches and leaves each night high up in the trees to help keep them safe as they sleep. They use leaves to shelter them from rain or to collect water to drink.

Indah painting on iPad

Great apes that live in zoos such as the orangutans and chimpanzees have a team of dedicated keepers that ensure that their basic necessities such as food, water, and safe shelter are met on a daily basis. However, a zoo keeper’s job also involves ensuring that the animal has the highest quality of life possible. So not only are keepers interested in meeting the animal’s basic needs but also in making sure that the animals are constantly being engaged and stimulated by their environment. This is an especially important challenge when working with great apes due to their intelligence. The devices and activities that keepers use to accomplish this goal are referred to as enrichment as they enrich the lives of the animals.

Apes can quickly figure out many enrichment devices and keepers constantly are faced with the problem of trying to come up with new ideas to capture their interest. The Houston Zoo primate department’s newest solution to this problem is ……. the iPad!

Sally creating a masterpiece with a musical app.

 

Now many of you may wonder, what do the orangutans and chimpanzees do with an iPad? The answer is … they play with apps, of course! The iPad screen is the perfect fit for orangutan and chimpanzee fingers. Its small size makes it very easy to move so keepers can introduce it to the chimpanzees in the training room, to the orangutans at the viewing window or at any of the many rooms found in the animals’ holding area. The quantity and variety of apps available make it easy to keep the device novel and interesting for both the orangutans and the chimpanzees. Stay posted for more updates on this new fun enrichment project with our orangutans and chimpanzees!

 

 

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Mar
08

Pongos Helping Pongos – Art by Animals for Conservation

Posted by in Carnivores,Conservation,Elephants,Endangered,Events,Keepers,Primates

 

Ever wondered what a painting by an elephant would look like? What about a clouded leopard? Now is your chance to find out. 

Started in 2004 as a grass roots effort by Houston Zoo Primate Keepers, Pongos Helping Pongos was an art show featuring paintings by our orangutans here at the zoo. The scientific genus name for orangutan is “Pongo“, and so the name for the event. Pongos Helping Pongos (or PHP for short) has become a biennial tradition carried on by the Primate Team. 

One of the messages we like to give our zoo guests is that every species is part of a web. If you affect one strand of the web, it affects the entire structure. Holding with this belief, PHP has expanded to include several other species that call the South East Asian rain forests home. You will not only find paintings by our talented orangutan artists but elephants, clouded leopard, siamangs and binturongs as well. 

And not to be left out, some very talented and generous Houston area artists have collaborated with our animals on several very unique, one-of-a-kind paintings that are well worth seeing.

This fun and worthwhile event will be held on March 10th at the G-Gallery in the Heights from 6PM – 8PM. It’s free and everyone is invited to view the art, bid on paintings and enter our raffle. We’ll have horse de’ ouvers and beverages generously donated by our sponsors so join us for an evening of animal art and conservation.

http://www.houstonzoo.org/php/

 

 

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Sep
19

Animal Enrichment: Yummy for the Tummy

Posted by in Commissary,Enrichment,Events

The Commissary at the Houston Zoo works like a five star restaurant!  The staff prepare animal diets daily, consisting of fresh produce, fruits, meats and an assortment of many other foods.  But who doesn’t like a special treat now and then….many of the animals certainly do and the Commissary makes sure they get a favorite treat. 

Some of those treats are also part of the animal’s enrichment.  Those include ice pops, from 8 oz cups to 5 gallons!!

Now, I know you’re thinking who would get a 5 gallon ice pop!!!  Those lucky animals would be the bears and the elephant herd.  The bear’s pops are filled with fish or fruit.  The elephants’ pops are fruit filled with apples, pineapple, pears, mangos and grapes. 

Primates get the smaller ice pops.  Their pops contain fruit juices and another item such as currants, sunflower seeds, grapes, etc.  Here’s a picture of Rudi enjoying his ice pop, although it looks like he’s dreaming of a 5 gallon ice pop!

The Carnivores enjoy an assortment of bones once a month.  Watch the video below, they really seem to love stalking and capturing their “prey”.

Holiday food enrichment is also something different for the animals.  Putting something new and different in their habitat helps to enrich their lives by finding something unexpected, something unknown.  One of those items is pumpkins at Halloween.  Most animals receive pumpkins and have a great time playing and foraging through them.  Watch the Meerkat search for yummy treats in their pumpkin.

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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Aug
18

Primate Enrichment: It’s Never a Dull Moment!

Posted by in Enrichment,Events,Primates

In the Primate section at the Houston Zoo, we have a multitude of different animals to enrich (including some non-primates!)  Creating work and play for our collection is a big part of what we do every day.  Our challenge as keepers and managers is to find, make or build various objects to manipulate and investigate that our monkeys, apes and others will enjoy.   You can find some of items we use at Amazon.com.   From boxes to shredded paper and from pine bark mulch to wood shavings, we are always looking for materials that our animals might like to tear up or forage through.  Our goals are for animals to behave the way they do in nature: working to find food, making a nest, or just plain having fun.  So remember the next time you see Bobby the mandrill reading through that magazine, he’s not just looking for the latest trends, he’s looking to see if his keeper put a special treat in between the pages!   Or like Jambi babirusa below working the barrel to get the very last treat out to enjoy!

 

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!

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Aug
10

Houston Zoo and Amazon.com

Posted by in 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 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!

 

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Jul
27

Full Circle: Pongos Helping Pongos Helping Tapirs Supporting Tapirs

Posted by in Conservation,Endangered,Events,Featured,Mammals

 

Tapirs Helping Tapirs

 

Aurora

Aurora won’t sleep in her bed tonight and I can’t sleep at all so here we are in the Wortham World of Primates, the baby orangutan dozing under a blanket on my chest.  My mind is south of here at an event called “Tapirs Supporting Tapirs” that should just be wrapping up in São Paulo, Brazil.  It’s fitting.  Tapirs Supporting Tapirs wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for “Pongos Helping Pongos”. This project was born eight years ago when primate keepers dreamed up the idea of putting paintings created by the orangutans in our care into a gallery and selling them to raise funds to help orangutans who live on the other side of the globe in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra. We probably would never have thought to do it if not for the big sister of the orangutan currently nestled right here, her little hands moving as if she’s dreaming, Luna bela. Aurora isn’t old enough yet to paint or to draw chalk murals on the walls of her room, or to entertain guests by wrapping herself in a sheet and then opening her arms, whipping the sheet away to reveal herself dramatically again and again (I’m a butterfly! I’m a chrysalis! I’m a butterfly! I’m a chrysalis!) as her sister Luna did. But Aurora reminds me very much of her, good natured yet spunky, ticklish on her ridiculous pink and mauve cow-print belly, and lady-like enough to burp like a sailor and look cute doing it.

 

Luna

But I digress. Over the years, the Primate staff held four gallery events, as well as numerous smaller endeavors that involved hundreds if not thousands of participants and supporters. Art created by Luna and her fellow Houston Zoo orangutans was displayed and sold, raising awareness and a considerable amount of money, primarily for the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project based in a village called Sukau in Malaysia. Thinking someone else might be able to use our simple idea, I presented “Pongos Helping Pongos” at the Zoos and Aquariums Committing to Conservation conference, offering from the podium help to anyone who wanted to use art created by zoo animals to support conservation.

And Patrícia Medici took me up on it! Pati, a charismatic Brazilian conservationist, had the idea to organize an event where paintings created by tapirs living in zoos in the U.S. would be displayed and sold in São Paulo to benefit the Lowland Tapir Initiative. The event, later christened “Tapirs Supporting Tapirs” would increase appreciation of the lowland tapir (Tapirus terrestris), an IUCN Red List Vulnerable species, which many Brazilians regard as common, unintelligent, and uninteresting animals.  The event would also raise awareness of the human activities, such as hunting for meat and habitat encroachment for farming and grazing that negatively affect wild lowland tapir populations.

Tapir painting by Brookfield Zoo tapirs

So we contacted the Large Mammal staff at the Houston Zoo as well as our colleagues at several other institutions that provide support for Pati’s research.  So many were willing to help out that we actually had to narrow it down so that Pati wouldn’t be overwhelmed trying to get all the paintings back to Brazil.  We sent art supplies all over the country to Brevard Zoo, Brookfield Zoo, John Ball Zoo, San Diego Zoo, and Woodland Park Zoo and walked them over to our own Houston Zoo tapir keepers.  Some of these zoos had previously painted with their tapirs but some might never have done so if not for this project; that would have been a shame because, from what I can see, they get a kick out of it.   And look what we got back: Pictures of paintings here. Twenty-nine beautiful paintings for the event!

When Pati started planning and set a date, it was amazing to watch it all happen! She picked the São Paulo Zoo as a venue. She got great artists like Ronald Rosa Obra and Desenho Luccas Longo involved.

She got a lot of attention from the media. You can friend it, follow it, and otherwise check it out. It’s all in Portuguese but still fun to watch:

I can’t wait to hear how it turned out! I’d go to the computer right now but, though my mind is in São Paulo, my lap is here at Wortham World Of Primates and, at the moment, it’s occupied by a baby orangutan who’s just trying to get some shut-eye.

Written by Amanda Daly, Houston Zoo Natural Encounters Supervisor

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Apr
24

Borneo is Burning, But You Can Help

Posted by in Conservation,Endangered,Primates

Why do we care?

The clearing of rainforests poses a threat to hundreds of animal species, including the Asian rhinos and elephants, Sumatran tigers and the orangutan. If nothing is done in the near future these species could be extinct in the wild by 2025. 

 What is the reason that we are clearing the forest?

Palm Oil. Palm oil is used in at least one out of every 10 supermarket products, including food, cosmetics, bath and cleaning products.  The kernel of the palm oil plant is also used to make animal feed. The problem occurs when rainforest is cleared away to make room for the palm oil plantations. 

Oil palms can be planted on land that is not forested, but some companies choose to use the rainforest to make a larger profit in two phases.  The can cut the trees down and use that for timber and then the plant the fields to grow the palm oil plants.

How can you help?

1. When purchasing wood, wooden furniture and paper products look for the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) stamp of approval.

 2.  Discuss your concerns with local governments about the lack of labeling of palm oil on packaging on products in the supermarket and household cleaning supplies. 

3. Support companies that are members of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). 

 4. Donate to the Houston Zoo Conservation Fund to help endangered animals all over the world.

5.  The most important thing that you can do is reduce your palm oil consumption and encourage your family and friends to do the same.

For more information visit the Houston Zoo Palm Oil page at www.houstonzoo.org/palm-oil

Written by Primate Keeper Tammy Buhrmester

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Apr
22

Baby Caregivers: A Parallel Evolution

Posted by in Animal Info,Conservation,Primates,Zoo Births

It is 2 AM and I awaken with a start from a fitful sleep. A tiny, perfect infant orangutan is squirming on my chest peeping sounds of imminent discontent. I struggle to my feet with difficulty from the low cot, blankets falling as I flail. Bleary-eyed, I stagger to the refrigerator as baby Aurora begins to squall, and I rush to warm her formula. I pat the baby and readjust her position to soothe her, and she settles into warm contentedness again once she has had her fill of the bottle.

Aurora by Nathalie Jolicoeur

Half a world away, on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, many caregivers are charged with very much the same set of duties. Babies of every age are pouring into rescue and rehabilitation stations in various states of malnutrition and distress after being ripped from their deceased mothers. The inclination to shield oneself from this information is strong, but we need to know. As we all happily buy our Easter candy or hair conditioner, more palm oil is being planted. Palm oil plantations now blanket most of what was once pristine rain forest, and the change has happened so rapidly that wildlife cannot adapt to it. Adult males, lone adolescents and mother orangutans with babies clinging to them are being killed routinely by plantation workers and tree-fellers. This has resulted in a huge population of orphans at rehabilitation centers, at least the ones who are lucky enough to be rescued before they perish or are imprisoned as pets. Read more about the palm oil crisis here.

Caregivers in Borneo have many more challenges than the ones we face here in the zoo. Here we have staff support, the assurance that formula will not run out, and two possible maternal figures – Kelly or Cheyenne orangutan – to try to introduce the baby to later. There, a constant worry is ever-present: they have hundreds of babies to care for. Will they have enough caregivers to raise all those babies? Will they run out of formula, or cereal, or fruit for the older ones? And, sadly, there are no adult females to act as surrogate mothers for any of them. These babies are all peer-raised: trundled to their forest playground together in wheelbarrows, stuck together into small cages at night where they clutch one another as they would their mother (after they are old enough to be removed from their human overnight caregivers.) They never really grow up with any mothering figure to learn from; all of their important life lessons have to come from humans. The 3-D IMAX film “Born to be Wild” playing at the Museum of Natural Science highlights the struggle faced by caregivers in Borneo.

As I admire our new baby: her miniature ears, her soft orange hair, the perfection of her fingers and toes, my mind wanders. The sadness I feel that our Kelly is not taking care of her mirrors my sorrow for all those mothers in Borneo who have lost their lives for no good reason. And, I grieve for all those wild-born babies, who have lost their only link to what is real in their forest home: their mother.

Kelly and baby Solaris

On May 8th, we will celebrate Mother’s Day at the zoo with a table of information in front of the orangutan exhibit that will give everyone some ideas of how to help. Come to the zoo and look for the “Missing Orangutan Mothers” table that Sunday. Remember we can all help. We can choose what we buy: the “power of the purse” is important; consumers themselves make decisions every day simply with their purchases. You help by coming to the zoo because funds from the front gate go directly to our conservation department, where money translates into action on the ground around the world, including Borneo, where we support the Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project (KOCP).

And, when you see a baby with its mother, any baby, be thankful.

 Aurora by Tammy Buhrmester

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Apr
05

“Ape”ril Announcement: Baby Orangutan!

Posted by in African Forest,Zoo Births

On March 2 Houston Zoo Primate staff were thrilled to discover that orangutan Kelly had given birth overnight. The female infant is the third orangutan born at the zoo and is the sister of 7 year old Solaris and daughter of Doc. Unfortunately Kelly abandoned her within the first 24 hours and the primate staff was forced to intervene. We spent the following days attempting to give the baby back to Kelly with no success.

welcome to the world, kiddo!

Our goal for every primate at the zoo is have their parents raise them whenever possible, but we do intervene if we feel the infant’s health is at risk and that was the case with Kelly and her infant. Fortunately both of them are healthy and we hope to introduce the infant back to Kelly or to Cheyenne, our proven surrogate mom, once she is old enough. In the meantime, we have a big job to do.

Infant orangutans cling to their mothers all the time their first few months of life. In order to simulate this for the infant, caregivers carry her 24 hours a day. She spends her days in the orangutan building at Wortham World of Primates, where she can see all of the orangs and they can all see her. She also requires a bottle of human formula every 2-3 hours day and night so this is literally a full time job. It can be tempting to treat a baby orangutan like a baby human, but our goal is to get her back with orangs, so its critical to make sure she grows up knowing how to be an orangutan.

While we are disappointed that Kelly is not taking care of the infant, we are very lucky to have a team of keepers, supervisors and volunteers that have a great deal of experience caring for baby orangutans. Some of you may recall the first orangutan born here in 1997, Luna, who also had to be raised by keepers. However, she was later introduced to Cheyenne, and since then Cheyenne has adopted two additional orangutans from another zoo, Elok and Indah (Luna and Elok now reside at other zoos). The infant needs to gain a bit of independence before she’s ready to join Cheyenne or go back to Kelly, however, so our team is focused on making sure she is happy, healthy and growing.

Because all this work goes on behind the scenes, you won’t see the infant when you visit the zoo but we will be posting regular updates here on the blog. We’ve also got some additional information on our website, along with a Q&A of frequently asked questions. And you may have noticed she doesn’t have a name. We’re looking for help to pick one, so please help us out with our naming contest!

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Sep
04

Meet the Staff: Tammy Buhrmester

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

Tammy in front of our Orangutan exhibit

Tammy in front of our Orangutan exhibit

Tammy Buhrmester
Hometown: Watseka, Illinois
Section: Zookeeper/Primates
Quote: “All social change comes from the passion of individuals.”

How long have you worked at the Houston Zoo? 

I have worked at the Houston Zoo since September 2002.  I will be celebrating my 8th anniversary this year.
Special Interests/ Hobbies: Cooking, baking, traveling, and reading.

Favorite Animal:  I can’t say that I have a favorite animal.  I am interested in all types of species.  If I had to pick the animal I enjoy to work with the most within my department, it would be the orangutans and babirusa.    

What is your education, training, and previous institution(s) you attended before coming to the Houston Zoo? 

I attended Southern Illinois University and received a B.S. in Zoology.  While attending college, I worked as a veterinary technician and volunteered at a wildlife sanctuary.  I also spent a semester working at the Vivarium research lab and I participated in a 12-week internship at Brookfield Zoo’s Tropic World primate habitat.

What made you want to become a zookeeper?

I was very fortunate to have parents that appreciated nature and animals.  I connected with animals at the age of 8, participating in 4-H Club activities and showing rabbits, goats, horses, and hogs.  I had the wonderful opportunity to visit many zoos in my childhood.

How would you describe your job duties? 

I would describe my job duties as physical but rewarding.  I spend my time in the morning cleaning exhibits and the night house where the primates stay when they are not on exhibit.  I spend the afternoon training them for husbandry procedures, painting for enrichment, writing information about their day for their records, feeding all the animals that I am responsible for, making fun snacks for them (popsicles), participating in meetings, walking around and talking to zoo guests about the primates in our collection and preparing their night houses for them to come into at the end of the day.

What is a typical day like working in the primates? 

 There is no typical day in primates.  I have the opportunity to work with different species of Primates everyday.  Each animal have different needs, diets, and personalities. 

What sort of advice would you give to anyone wanting to enter the zoo field?

I would advise anyone interested in the zoo field to get involved as soon as they can.  You can start by coming to zoo camp and seeing what the zoo is all about.  Volunteering is one of the best ways to get experience.  I would recommend any volunteer to be prepared to sweat, get dirty, and handle things that you normally would not be exposed to.  When entering the zoo field, be prepared to start in a department that may not be your first choice – getting your foot in the door is the best way to get to your dream job.

Something you want people to know about yourself or your position at the zoo: I served as co-coordinator for the Houston Zoo’s Pongos Helping Pongos orangutan conservation project.  The auction of paintings created by the Zoo’s orangutans, other primates and elephants has raised more than $150,000 for orangutan and elephant conservation in Indonesia. 

Interesting Facts: I have taken care of three generations of orangutans in two zoos.  I am one of the few people that have seen and taken a picture of a wild Cape Pangolin in Kenya.  They are not normally observed in the wild because they sleep during the day and move at night.

What is your favorite animal story? 

One of my favorite animal stories would entail the wonderful addition of our first baby Babirusa.  When Remley came to us she was less than a year old.  She was adorable and won the hearts of everyone on their first glance of her.  She joined our older male Babirusa at that time.  They became pals and she looked up to him for knowledge and how to act like a pig.  Unfortunately, he passed soon after she came and we had to wait over one year for a new companion for her.  Jambi came to us in December 2007 and it was love at first sight for these two cute pigs and five months later we had a bouncing baby girl named Hadiah.  Hadiah was born in May 2008 and she came into this world weighing less than a pound.  Just like her mother she was admired by all from the first glance of her tiny little body.  I had the honor of watching her grow, discover the world, play with her mom, taking her first swim while mom watched very cautiously and becoming a fine young lady.  I was lucky to accompany her to San Antonio this past April and I hear every so often that she is doing great.  We will hopefully get news one day that she will be a mother.

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