Posts Tagged ‘Primates’

May
10

First Ever Crowd Curated Exhibit!

Posted by in Contest,Crowd Curated Exhibit,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

Today we have two big announcements to make! 

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

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May
04

First Ever “Crowd Curated Exhibit”!

Posted by in Crowd Curated Exhibit,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

We are very excited to tell everyone that the first residents of your exhibit have arrived!  A male Goeldi’s monkey named Andy arrived from the Philadelphia Zoo, and a few days later female, Peach, flew in from St Louis. 

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!

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Mar
09

First Ever “Crowd Curated” Exhibit!

Posted by in Crowd Curated Exhibit,Endangered,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

First of all,   THANKS everyone for joining our crowd!  It’s so great to see everyone participating and helping curate our primate exhibit.  I’ve even received one response from a Mr H. Hewitt in our comments box here at the zoo so we’re both “virtual” and “real”!

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!

 

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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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Feb
18

First Ever “Crowd Curated Exhibit”!

Posted by in Crowd Curated Exhibit,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

I have been busy contacting species coordinators to see if any of our top choices for monkey species are available. The news is good! I’ve talked to the coordinators for titi monkeys, emperor tamarins and Goeldi’s monkeys (callimico). There is a high likelihood that we could obtain any of these species. Emperor tamarins and Goeldi’s monkeys can both co-exist with titi monkeys, although probably not with each other so keep that in mind.

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!

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Jan
31

First Ever “Crowd Curated” Exhibit!

Posted by in Animal Info,Crowd Curated Exhibit,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

I wanted to give everyone a quick update on where we are with our exhibit.  I have contacted the New World Primate Taxon Advisary Group (TAG) leader to find out the availability of our most frequently mentioned choices.  I included emperor tamarins, callimico (Goeldi’s monkeys) and titi monkeys. 

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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Jan
13

First Ever “Crowd Curated” Exhibit!

Posted by in Crowd Curated Exhibit,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

Hi All.  Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays!

On our exhibit front, bad news on pudu. Currently there are none available, and it doesn’t look like there will be any time soon. Many species in North American zoos have what is called a Species Survival Plan(SSP). This is a management group that is under the umbrella of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums(AZA). The SSP committee keeps track of genetics of all the animals in accredited zoos in North America and makes breeding recomendations in order to preserve genetic diversity in captive populations.  The pudu population in North America is very small and there are no available animals at the moment.  Dissapointing, especially since the husbandry manual indicates they are very tolerant of both humidity and temperatures below freezing so they would be perfect in Houston’s climate.  Any other ideas?

On the primate side, tamarins still seem to be the popular vote, especially Emperor tamarins. I will start checking to see if Emperor tamarins are available, and if not then what other species may be.

Gotta love those moustaches! Photo credit: Aspex Design

All of you should think about what other species we may want to investigate in lieu of pudu. 

Let me know what you come up with!

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Jan
04

Mangabeys Munching

Posted by in Primates

Mangabeys munching are a fun sight to see at the Houston Zoo. We have Red-capped mangabeys, native to central Africa; they are the most colorful of the mangabey species with a bright red “cap” on the top of their heads. These are very social animals that usually live in a harem, which consists of one male and several females and their offspring. These monkeys eat lots of fruits, nuts and leaves and occasionally bugs, small birds or lizards. When one member of the group finds a fruit or nut tree, they will alert the rest of the group where they are, so the entire group can have a snack too.

At the Houston Zoo, when the mangabeys see the keepers coming with their food, they will do a similar vocalization; we call it the “happy cackle” because they usually are excited about their food. In the wild, they usually cooperate and can sit together eating food peacefully, but in captivity, sometimes they aren’t too keen to share (especially the males – for some reason they think they should get all the good food! – sound familiar?), so keepers have to make sure to spread the food around as much as possible so that all group members get an equal share of the food and to prevent any “arguments”. Also, mothers will often share their food with their offspring, so they can learn what is good to eat and what isn’t.

Often keepers will hide some of the food, so the monkeys have to spend time finding their food, we call that foraging. In the wild, monkeys spend many hours foraging for food, so keepers try to recreate that in captivity. Sometimes the food can be hidden in pine bark, a paper bag, or in a cardboard box to name a few; it will be something different everyday.

 

When the mangabeys aren’t eating they are engaging in lots of social behaviors. When you visit the exhibit, you will most likely see them grooming
each other. Grooming isn’t just for removing dirt (and no, they don’t have fleas –those are just on dogs and cats) it is also very socially bonding. A subordinate animal will gain favors by grooming a more dominate animal. The mangabeys also have a strict social order and when one of the subordinate animals steps ‘over the line’ the dominate animal will have to discipline them; usually by way of chasing and screaming…you may have seen that too since it happens several times a day. Next time you are at the zoo, spend 15-20 minutes watching them; there’s a lot going on with the mangabeys…in addition to munching!

Written by Dena Strange, Houston Zoo Primate Supervisor

 

 

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Dec
23

First Ever Zoo “Crowd Curated” Exhibit!

Posted by in Crowd Curated Exhibit,Mammals,Primates,Wortham World of Primates

So many good thoughts this week!  Several of you  brought up good points that must be considered when curating an exhibit.

I think you’re right Trowaman when you say capybaras might be better off in a large area like our South America yard but pudu might do well in a space the size of our exhibit.   As Laci Bertrand pointed out, pudu live in dense forest habitats so we’d need more plantings to provide hiding places for them to feel safe, but that’s easy enough to accomplish.
MP, you bring up a very good point.  Sometimes even if we want a species to exhibit in our zoo, they just aren’t available.  Trowaman‘s comment about never having seen a uacari in a zoo is probably a good clue that they aren’t easy to obtain.

 Pudu Baby. Pretty cute! Photo credit: Belfast ZooBaby pudu.  Pretty Cute! Photo Credit: Belfast Zoo

Spider monkeys are a popular option so I looked up space requirements for spider monkeys. As a zoo that exhibits animals for the public, we are subject to standards that are regulated by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) branch of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)  There are many standards to which we must adhere and we can be inspected without warning at any time. We work diligently to remain USDA compliant at all times. Space requirements are part of these standards. Technically our exhibit is big enough for several spider monkeys, but unfortunately our holding area is not.

So from the comments, it looks like pudu might be a good choice for the ground so I’ll start talking to other zoos to see if any are available. We still need more consensus on a primate species though.  Again going by comments and the space we have available, emperor tamarins, golden headed lion tamarins, Goeldi’s monkeys and titi monkeys could all work.  Over the Christmas weekend, think about which of these species we should look into and hopefully by New Year’s weekend we’ll at least know what we’d like to explore as far as primate species.

Enjoy whichever holiday you celebrate with your family & loved ones!

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Dec
22

12 Days of Grub: Day 10 – Ten Chimps a Chasing

Posted by in African Forest,Chimpanzees,Feeding Our Animals,Gift of Grub

On the Tenth Day of Grub, your zoo gift will help to feed…Ten Chimps a Chasing, Nine Fruit Bats Flying, Eight Giraffes a Galloping, Seven Snakes a Slithering, Six Mole-rats Mining, Five Golden Frogs, Four Calling Birds, Three Wild Dogs, Two Grizzly Bears, and Darwin the Cassowary! CLICK HERE to read them all!

For most wild animals, the acquisition and consumption of food is not just a casual activity, but in fact a full-time job.  A wild chimpanzee in Africa must always be on the search for ripe fruit, edible greens, tasty termites or ants, hard-shelled nuts  and yes, even small animals to hunt and eat.

Although we can’t re-create a wild chimpanzee diet, here at the Houston Zoo, we provide our chimps with a healthy variety of food including many types of lettuce, fruits, vegetables, nuts, different types of local plants and a specialized “biscuit” made for primates in zoos.  We also give them many types of treats which make up only a small portion of their diet, but are their favorites, including popcorn, peanut butter, honey and fruit juice.

Lucy enjoys some sweet potato and sunshine

Our chimps did not grow up hunting or eating termites, ants or meat, so this is not included in their Houston Zoo diet, but they are given the daily opportunity to show off their amazing ability to use tools by “fishing” for sweet or savory treats in our termite mound replica.

The chimps enjoy using sticks to “fish” for delicious treats

In order to keep their day interesting and to keep them active, the chimps’ meals are provided at different times throughout the day.  One of their favorite types of food is “browse”, or edible plants collected for them throughout the zoo by our own amazing Horticulture team.  Everyday the chimps get some combination of mulberry, banana leaves, willow, fig leaves or other edible plants.

Mac enjoys fig leaves

Chimps aren’t great at sharing their food with one another with a few notable exceptions (moms and their babies, males “wooing” receptive females, etc.)   They have a fairly stable social hierarchy and the higher-ranking chimps have first access to the yummy stuff.  For that reason, it is important that we make sure the food is scattered throughout the chimps’ entire habitat so that each member has the opportunity to collect food, and there is always enough for everyone.

Feeding the zoo’s animals is one of the best parts of being a zookeeper.  We enjoy giving them their food almost as much as they enjoy eating it!

Give the Gift of Grub this holiday season to help provide tasty meals for our chimpanzees and all of the animals at the Houston Zoo!  Our chimps send their ape-preciation for your support.

Thank you also to TXU Energy for generously matching the first $25,000 in donations this year!

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