Doug’s Volunteer Educator Update 2/29/2020

Posted on By Sabrina Calhoun

In this Weeks Update 2/29/2020

  • Volunteer Educator Program Updates
    • Start signing up for Wild Discover Zones for April
    • New Badges and parking pass update
    • Help with WDZ cart set up
  • Animal Updates
  • Press Releases & Marketing

Volunteer Educator Program Updates

Start signing up for Wild Discover Zones for April

Start signing up for Wild Discover Zone shifts on MVP for April. Some Day Leaders reach out to you directly to create the schedule and that is fine but do put your sign ups in MVP as well as that is all the Education staff (Doug) or the VSO (Mollie and Sabrina) can see. If you don’t put your shifts there, we don’t know if you are active.

Help with WDZ cart set up

If you can help with cart set up, I plan to get that project underway on 3/18. I will have the carts delivered to the Zoo that week and then we can roll them to their locations and move the bins with our props and binders to the carts. If you can help email me and I will send details as the date gets closer and thank!

New badges and parking pass update

Hello, Zoo Volunteers!

We have an exciting announcement! All staff and volunteers are receiving new ID badges and prox cards this year! These new badges will be required to gain access to the Zoo starting April 1, 2020, and prox cards will be issued to all volunteers, in place of gate codes. We know how fickle those gate codes could be so we are hoping the prox cards will resolve those issues. Also, it’s not just volunteers getting a badge upgrade but staff as well! These new badges are in line with the Zoo’s branding strategy and will provide a more consistent badge design across departments.

Animal News & Updates 2/19/2020

ATFs:

  • 0.2 Western Diamondback Rattlesnake to Kentucky Reptile Zoo
  • 2.1 Indo-Chinese Spitting Cobra to Kentucky Reptile Zoo
  • 2.0 Eastern White Pelican from San Diego Zoo Safari Park
  • 0.0.15 Black Crappie from Jones Fish Hatchery (tabled)
  • 0.1 Guam Kingfisher from San Diego Zoo Safari Park
  • 0.1 Guam Rail from San Diego Zoo Safari Park
  • 0.3 Guereza Colobus to Caldwell Zoo
  • 2.0 Western Grey Kangaroo from Gladys Porter Zoo

All ATFs approved unless noted otherwise.

Minutes:

  • Acknowledgments:
    • Christina wants to give a shout out to Dana and Amy for getting injections and blood draws on the painted dogs!
    • Mike wants to give a shout out to Jenny K and Danielle for their work to injection train the cougars!
    • Ron- Jungle Trails did an awesome job putting together the World Bonobo Day blog post!
    • Bob wants to thank Colleen Adams and Erin O’Brien for visiting his and Linda’s classes.
    • Jenny wants to thank Tony James and Kris Ackley for getting penguin pools installed in a crazy fast amount of time.
    • Giraffe shipment, Zoey to Toronto Zoo, has been postponed until Spring 2021.
  • Updates
    • Bob Lessnau – abstract (14416) entitled “DARTING AND CAPTURE TECHNIQUES FOR WILD MANTLED HOWLER MONKEYS (ALOUATTA PALLIATA) AT LA PACIFICA, COSTA RICA” has been accepted for an oral presentation at the 43rd Meeting of the American Society of Primatologists in May 2020.
    • CZBG Animal Care & Conservation Symposium: Reminder that next Monday Feb 24 at 1:00pm kicks off a week of great talks and posters related to animal care, conservation, research and more! Runs Monday Feb 24-Thursday Feb 27 1pm-3pm each day in Frisch’s Theater. Coffee and iced tea will be provided.

Africa:

  • Lions will be locked inside for construction on their habitat.
  • Lion moat was drained last week and items that had been lost in moat were retrieved and moat was refilled.

Elephant:

  • elephants are doing well.

Veldt:

  • Okapi calf is becoming more mobile throughout the day and continues his investigation of the pens.

Bearline:

  • Male polar bear, Little One, seems to be doing well since Anana’s move to Detroit on 1/29/20.
  • Shade cloth has been installed along upper fence line of Wolf exhibit, C.Z. side, as a visual barrier as demolition of the adjacent Green Barn is due to start.
  • All of Wolf Woods area is now closed off to the public due to demolition of the Green Barn. Wolves are still viewable from lower section, across from the Veldt.

Night Hunters:

  • Tiger yard renovations are nearing completion.

World of the Insect:

  • Butterfly Aviary – Internal support structures were painted last week, look very nice. COST of Wisconsin started pressure washing yesterday. Aviary will likely remain closed another 2-3
    weeks.
  • Peruvian Firesticks – Nice group of Firesticks on display now.
  • Beetles and Hissing Cockroaches – Group of Hissing Cockroaches has been introduced into the mixed-species African flower beetle display. Still tweaking the display to encourage the roaches to remain in guest view.
  • Invert Welfare – Winton and Mandy met with David Orban two weeks ago to discuss new ideas for Invert welfare evaluation.
  • Blue Death-feigning Beetle Breeding – April P asked to consult with staff from San Diego Zoo and Bristol Zoo on this topic.
  • White-kneed Tarantulas – Valentine’s Day naming contest, thanks Kelli & PR. Names selected for the 0.0.8 spiderlings were;
    • Agape – the love of humanity
    • Storge – family love
    • Pragma – love which endures
    • Philautia – self-respect
    • Philia – shared experience
    • Ludus – flirting, playful affection
    • Eros – romantic and erotic love
    • Phileo – chosen love
  • Hercules Beetles – Last week the first of the confiscated Hercules Beetles eclosed last week (see attached image). This beetle is a female, and the first Hercules Beetle at the WOTI since 2010. We still have one female and two male larvae/pupae. These larvae were confiscated by USFWS being imported into/moved through the US without PPQ permits.

Manatee Springs:

  • Consumption – Consumption continues to be pretty good though pseudo-sexual play is increasing.
  • Manatee Pool Work – Working through some of the details with Tony J. Hoping to have a timeline soon.
  • Miles and Matthew Release – SWO is targeting the 1st week of March for these boys to go out. Trying to get MS keepers down for their release.

Bird Encounter:

  • Birds handling construction noise very well. Did not seem to be bothered by demo or ongoing work. Even bald eagle was ok with tree removal and crane over by tiger yard.

Primate:

  • Congrats to Ashley Ashcraft and Stephanie Schuler for completing years one and two respectively of the AZA’s Professional Development Course.
  • Congrats to the Gorilla CREW for completing a very lengthy and involved gorilla stool sample collection request in for a CZBG approved research project. The impact of diet and the gut microbiome on risk of cardiometabolic diseases in western lowland gorillas. A lot of organization and effort went into helping with this important study related to gorilla health management.
  • The gorilla staff have recently observed more displaying by Ndume at the indoor habitat viewing glass. Not uncommon for great apes to do but more than we would like to see from him at this point. It was decided to take a step back in our integration approximations and add the temporary railing in front of the glass back. He was doing very well at this stage prior and we want to look at a different set of approximations leading up to its removal the next time. Railing going up this week. Good news is he is eating great and doing well otherwise, keepers have gotten a partial voluntary cardiac work up done on him and one of the females has even been approaching him with some estrous behaviour. He is not quite game for that level of relationship
    yet but still a good group sign.

Animal Excellence:

  • IMLS Grant.
    • Work continues to outline expectations related to 1) animal care and welfare, 2) leaders, and 3) teams, which will serve as a foundation for giving direction to the IMLS grant. A rough draft was reviewed by curators and veterinary staff at 02/19 AMM.
    • The 2nd of two Best Practices learning trips took place the week of 02/10-02/14. David, Rhiannon and Sandy met with representatives of Monterey Bay Aquarium on 02/10, and Bob, Mark, and Dave joined the group to meet with CA Academy of Science and San Francisco Zoo on 02/12 and Oakland Zoo on 02/13. Many learnings about culture, communication, engagement, and relationship-building! David is planning to pull notes together from the CA and CO trips and offer info sessions for staff to learn about the groups’ various learning. Dates for info sessions TBD.
  • Intern Projects. All reports from Fall 2019 have been reviewed, “cleaned-up,” and distributed, including reports for galago and skunk projects. Kelly and Katie K. are have set up 6 of 10 new projects, with camera troubleshooting taking place on the Andean cock-of-the-rock project, bald eagle project, and okapi project.
  • Elephant. AE team continues to conduct behavior observations on 1.3 Asian elephants.
  • Night Hunters. AE team continues to collect long-term behavior observations on animals in 6 habitats in Night Hunters: potto x2, ocelot, sand cat, clouded leopard, and caracal.
  • Feather Condition Monitoring. Blue-and-gold Macaw “Leroy” was added to protocol, as well as observers Sarah Swanson and Kelly Jackson.
  • FOL Projects. A report on Trumpeter Swan and Red-crowned Crane behavior and location during FOL was compiled and distributed. 4 scans took place each night for 17 nights tracking the birds general behavior and locations in the habitat. While the swans generally showed a higher behavioral diversity than the cranes, both species tended to demonstrate more stationary rest behavior as the night went on. No concerning behaviors or trends were noted from the results of the study. Next year, the AE team will aim to start data collection before FOL begins for comparative purposes.
  • QOL Monitoring. QOL indicators for 3 birds and 3 felids were sent back to Aviculture and Night Hunters teams for finalization and testing on 02/06.
  • Feeder Animal Policy. Next meeting on 02/20.

Press Releases & Marketing – 2/17/2020

In the News (last two weeks):

Week ending 2/17

Week ending 2/10

Links to MVP and Zoo Educator Resource Site

MyVolunteerPage.com

Zoo Educator Resources – The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

Doug Feist
Volunteer Education Program Manager
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
513.559.7750
[email protected]