Doug’s 3/30 Volunteer Educator Update – Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Volunteers

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden Volunteer Educator Update 3/30/2018

In this Weeks Update:

Volunteer Educator Program Update
- April Schedule is posted on the Resource Site
Exciting news for the Zoo!
Bam Bam is at SeaWorld due to cold stress
Gorilla Update
Animal Update for 2 weeks
Press Releases

Volunteer Educator Program Update

April Schedule is posted on the Resource Site

The April schedule is posted on the Zoo Educator Resource Site, links at the end of this update. There are open shifts on most days so if you didn’t get your shifts in early please sign up on MVP and let your Day Leaders know so we can edit the existing posted schedules to reflect the changes. Thanks…

Enter your hours after you staff a shift….

Don’t let your hours pile up without entering them on MVP…. It is the only way I can track the activity of Volunteer Educators in our program. Same goes with schedules, I can only track your activity through MVP so let get off to a fresh start with plenty of participation this year.

Exciting news for the Zoo!

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is among the winners of the CityBeat’s 2018 Best of Cincinnati© Reader’s Poll results! Cincinnatians voted to determine the area’s best restaurants, bars, arts organizations, retail stores, services, parks, media personalities, sports teams, politicians, causes and urban experiences.

Here are the categories where the Cincinnati Zoo came in on top:
#1 Instagram Account
#1 Kid-Friendly Attraction
#1 Local News Story of 2017 (Fiona)
#1 Cincinnatian (Fiona)
#1 Place to take a Visitor
#1 Friend to the Environment
#2 Do-Gooder

See all of the winners here: https://local.citybeat.com/publication/best-of-cincinnati/2018

Congrats & thank you for all that you do! 😊

Bam Bam is back in captivity for treatment for cold stress: See below…

Bam Bam was found in the Grand Canal in Satellite Beach, Brevard County, as a male orphaned calf with cold stress on January 18, 2015. He was 145 centimeters long and weighed 174 pounds at his rescue. He was brought to SeaWorld to recuperate and then transferred to Cincinnati Zoo for continued care. He is now 244 centimeters long and 730 pounds. He was released in Berkeley Canal in Satellite Beach on March 7, 2018, and will be monitored by Sea To Shore Alliance.

http://manatees.mapntracker.com/wildtracks/map/biography/13709

1. 03/26/2018 12:52 PM

Bam Bam was captured just south of the entrance to Sebastian River and transported to SeaWorld for cold stress treatment.

2. 03/24/2018 10:50 AM

Bam Bam was alone again today. He stayed in a stationary position for much of the visual. His behavior was unknown other than a brief period of milling. Respiration rates were 1-3 minutes and cold stress lesions were observed. We are planning a health assessment on him as soon as possible.

3. 03/17/2018 09:49 AM

Bam Bam was alone today just south of the Pineda Causeway Bridge. He milled and fed on the bottom for the entire visual. Gas bubbles were noted at one point. This is the same area where he was seen feeding last week as well.

4. 03/15/2018 12:04 PM

Bam Bam and 20 other animals were at the Eau Gallie River spillway, where the water temperature was 20.5C. Bam Bam’s face still looked very good–solid grey. Also glad that he has found other animals.

5. 03/13/2018 11:30 AM

Later this afternoon Bam Bam was observed in Indian River north of Pineda Cswy in Honeymoon Lake. He was by himself, so he will be getting more visuals as temperatures drop this week.

Gorilla Update

Hello All,

I know Ashley Ashcraft recently gave the animal department a thorough update on our progress with Elle so I thought I would extend to the rest of the zoo team.

It has been quite an odyssey for little Elle over the past couple of months after losing her mother Anju. Very tricky reintro of her to the group. Realized early on that we could not simply throw back in the group without a sponsor. Little gorillas need someone to be their home base and protector as they navigate complex gorilla social dynamics. Here is a brief rundown of her reintegration:

Slowly “howdied” and introduced to new surrogate mom, “Mara”.
After a lengthy bonding time, female Samantha was added.
Silverback Jomo incorporated next. We knew once we had this core unit stable we could then consider adding some of the “bigger” more challenging personalities.
Just yesterday we add Mlinzi and the “rough-houser” Gladys. This went extremely well yesterday with Elle being a bit of an aggressor towards Gladys. Gladys realized that she could not be as tough with Elle because Elle had her new posse behind her. By the end of the day Gladys and Elle for best buddies again.
Today you can stop down and see them all in the indoor habitat! (May bring them in early each day so don’t wait too late in the afternoon.) If you’re lucky you might even catch Gladys carrying Elle on her back like we have seen already. The remaining step will be adding the “largest” personality of the all in female Asha along with her daughter Mona. We will give the new group a little longer to gel, start Asha and Mona’s howdy and look to add them in the not too distant future.

Not quite done yet but Elle has come a long, long way thanks to the amazing gorilla keepers and their keen insight, focus, patience and dedication.

Thanks,

Ron Evans

Animal Update

Africa:

Lion aggression is slowly starting to decrease which hopefully mean the new birth control is helping. The flip side is the females are now hungrier than ever! Fingers crossed that their hormones are still trying to balance out.
Walter warthog has moved to the Africa hoofstock barn! Introductions to both the yard and the other animals will begin as soon as weather allows and should take about 2 weeks total.

Bearline:

HGC has started demolition of the Mexican Wolf holding area below the CZ Red Barn in order to create a better situation and area for the wolves prior to us obtaining a new female and becoming a breeding institution for this species once again.
Female otter, “Sugar” received all three of her vaccinations voluntarily this year thanks to training by the keepers. They will now change their focus to hone similar training with the male otter, “Wesley”.
North American River Otters breeding for several days beginning 3/5/18

Nighthunters:

Seasonal Rebecca Riggs has been working on getting a voluntary weight on our male binturong, “Jaye”. She succeeded with this on Saturday getting Jaye to step into a half crate on three different occasions and determined his current weight to be 14.70 kg. (up from his previous weight of 13.70 kg. in June of 2017). Since he is a young animal we expected his weight to have increased
Male Aardvark, “Diggy” was moved to the capybara holding stalls of Wildlife Canyon building #3 on 3/17/18.
0.3 Malayan tigers were moved from the Quarantine building to their newly renovated enclosures in Night Hunters on Friday, 3/16/18.
3.0 Indian giant fruit bat were moved from the Quarantine building to the small holding cages in the lower section of Night Hunters on 3/17/18.
Hoping to move female aardvark, “Ali”, and baby, “Winsol” to Night Hunters on Monday morning, 3/19/18. Will cover exhibit window for this first couple of days while we see how Winsol does with navigating the rockwork in the exhibit with the goal to have them on exhibit on Wednesday, 3/21/18.
Working on trying to get the white tiger, “ Popsy”, to enter her crate voluntarily so that she can be transferred from the Quarantine building to Night Hunters.
Pressure washing and disinfecting enclosures and rooms in the Quarantine building as we empty them out of Night Hunter’s animals in preparation for the next quarantine period starting on 3/26/18. We appreciate the opportunity to use this area for our aardvark birth and holding of tigers and other animals in Night Hunters while we do badly need renovations in the lower section of Night Hunters, specifically, the big cat holding cages, thank you.

Wildlife Canyon:

Emu, “Mel” has been moved into the holding area and exhibit space in Wildlife Canyon recently vacated by “Walter” the warthog who transferred over to Africa last week.
Male Aardvark, “Diggy” moved to building #3 on 3/17/18

Bird Encounter

Search is on for new bird trainer to replace Markee’s place moving to the interpretative department.
Discussed with bird house moving our Red-Legged Seriema and two Ring Billed Gulls to big flight currently housing Kea next to bird house. Move would not happen until sometime later this spring.
Workups were done on the raptors by Dr. Nollman. Harris Hawk “Vegas” and Aplomado Falcon “Nina” a little heavy. Everyone else looks good.
Programs done: 2 -morning for overnight adventures

World of the Insect

Blue Death-feigning Beetles – Our breeding efforts have produced larvae but no pupae despite significant efforts by WOTI keeper April Pitman. Need to consider future viability of our efforts before determining whether to acquire more wild-collected beetles.

Manatee Springs

Manatee Physicals – Manatees are scheduled to be weighed on Thursday, March 22nd and undergo physical examinations on Tuesday, March 27th. Manatee staff has been working to acclimate the manatees to being dry-docked, being physically interacted with and being strap-lifted around the medpool. Big thanks to Rickey Kinley, Tony Lewis and the WOTI keepers who have been super helpful in support of this effort while Manatee Springs has frequently been short staffed over the last couple of weeks.

Wings of the World

Andean Condors – Have been using their new pool.
Stellar’s Sea Eagles – Transferred back to their display last Tuesday.
Eurasian Eagle Owls – Transferred back to WOTW outdoor holding from the exterior display at Night Hunters on Monday. Eurasian Eagle Owls – Nest inspected late last week, two eggs present one of which was damaged. Broken egg found on ground Sunday, presumable the previously damaged egg.
New Bald Eagle Display – Work at site began last week.
Bird of Paradise – Chick doing very well, hatch window for the 2nd egg begins March 22nd.
African Pygmy Falcon – 3 eggs in nest.

Cat Ambassador Program

Special program for Mars Corp execs with BTS tour
1 regular BTS tour
1 Nocturnal Adventures Program
Cheetah to Zoogeist event- all went well!

Interpretive

Behr, Skunk, had an exam on Monday; his back legs have been stiff. He is an older animal, so this is not unexpected.
Thor, Spiny-tailed lizard, finished his nebulizer treatment yesterday. Dr. Nollman examined him and felt we were okay to discontinue.
Keepers have been working on making casts from eggs being laid by various birds recently.
We are very excited to have Markee joining our team! Skunks, Spud & Delilah, bred this past week. If breeding was successful then we should expect kits in early to mid-May.
Cincinnati Parks naturalists came to the Zoo for an animal husbandry/animal ambassador program class. They requested the class based on the Zoo’s high standards, expertise, and great reputation.

Reptile

Very good training sessions with the gator and croc at manatee. Thanks to Ryan for that!

Primate

Tuesday(Today) we re-introduced the male Ring-tailed Lemur, Ivan, with the two adult females Izze and Willow and their three kids. Initially Ivan was tail flicking and Izze ran him off some, but otherwise stayed at separate ends of the holding. As the day progresses we will see if we will be leaving them together for overnight.
Jomo, Samantha, Mara and Elle are spending 24/7 with each other while being howdied with MLinzi and Gladys. This group is bonding up nicely with each other. Elle has been seen playing with all members of her group and is very relaxed. This group is regularly going on the indoor exhibit and are doing well. The next step would be adding in MLinzi and Gladys, but we will allow the group to bond up even more before doing so.
Orangutan introductions continue slowly but steady. Moved forward a step and opened the full mesh howdy door so they have the poly howdy door with a small mesh window between them. Henry charged the door as we expected when Alex went over to it, but Alex acted more confidently than in the past and stayed at the door, keeping just a little distance to look at Henry.
Bolingo the bonobo turned 3 this past Friday 3/16, keepers did a nice job making some birthday themed enrichment items, nice video and story on the zoo’s Instagram.
Lemurs continue to do well together. Ivan is still not totally comfortable around the kids but the adult females spend time grooming him. They are staying together 24/7.
The Colobus baby has been confirmed a female

Children’s Zoo

Goats are back at CZ and the yard was open to guests over the weekend. There will continue to be intermittent closures of the yard for bearcat exhibit construction and ongoing electrical work. New signage for the area is out for production and will be installed as soon as it arrives.
Barnyard show “dress rehearsals” have been going awesome! The new runner ducks will definitely be show stoppers!
Barnyard bonanza show has been scheduled for Marvin Lewis Community Night!

Press Releases

In the News… Potential Global Reach this week (tv & web): 18,154,382