Third Friday Update – November Edition

Remember to check in on the 1st and 3rd Friday of each month for Volunteer Updates!

Zoo Updates:

We have a New Map:

We have a new interactive map! The goal for the first phase of our map app is to make it easy for PNC Festival of Lights guests to navigate the Zoo and find their favorite things to do, see, and eat! Down the road, we will add more maps (such as a tour of the botanical garden) and features.

Click Here to View the Map (No downloads or passwords needed!)

It is not meant to be used on a desktop computer.

You can also use your phone to scan the QR code below:

Need some more Assistance:

Click Here to check out the User Guide

USA Soccer:

We are all celebrating USA’s BIG 2-0 Win over Mexico at TQL stadium! Nia, our adorable cheetah, had a ball showing off her soccer skills!

Did you see this:

November 17 is World Prematurity Day, and the NICU at TriHealth’s Good Samaritan Hospital marked the day by giving each little one a hippo plush in honor of Fiona, the famous hippo born prematurely at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden who is now happy, healthy, and thriving. Each hippo comes with a heart for parents to write a message to their baby and put it inside the hippo. Each child also received a Fiona picture book. The hippos were funded by a grant from the Ruth Lyons Children’s Fund, and the books were donated by a NICU graduate family.

Zoo Tales Podcast:

In one of our most unique podcast episodes yet, hear from Dive Safety Officer Jen about her experience in the water with baby Fiona back in the early days when we were teaching Fiona how to find the shallow areas of her outdoor pool. Listen here:

Orangutan Caring Week

Last week was Orangutan Caring Week! Habitat loss is the biggest threat to orangutans in the wild. The worldwide demand for palm oil, used in many foods and household products, has led to fragmenting what little habitat is left for orangutans. One of the most important things you can do to protect orangutans and all wildlife that share their habitat is to choose foods and products made by companies committed to certified sustainable palm oil.

Click here to see our handy guides to help you make smart choices when shopping

Zoo Academy Students Building a Forest

Elephants at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden got to forage, investigate, and eventually trample a special forest that Zoo Academy students built out of bamboo in the elephant yard

Click Here to Read the Article

Plant & Animal Information:

Who needs a smile?

Who do you know that is a messy eater? Lucky for us, Pocket is just that…a VERY messy eater! If you need a smile, take a moment to watch this impossibly adorable video!

Is one adorable little messy eater not enough for you? Check out Rico and his piece of Pumpkin Pie made by the Animal Enrichment Team!

Life with Little Ones

Amali is 15-months-old and she’s quite the handful.

Both male and female bonobo youngsters stay close to Mom for several years while they grow and learn how to be a part of bonobo society. The mother gives birth every five to six years, allowing her time to bond with each offspring.

Interest Goes Both Ways

If there was ever any doubt that the animals here at the Zoo watch us just as much as we watch them, here is your proof 😉

Unique Skill Set

Red pandas are designed for life in the trees with sharp nails and the unique ability to climb down a tree trunk head first.

Malayan Tigers

Batari is a critically endangered Malayan tiger. Other than females with their young, tigers are solitary and come together only to mate. Each tiger defends its own territory from others of the same gender. Territories must be large to provide enough prey for a tiger to eat. A tiger may travel up to 20 miles a night in search of prey. As more and more forests disappear, tigers struggle to maintain a territory with sufficient prey.

Before the Zoo Opens

Tom the cheetah took an early morning walk before the zoo opened and got to visit our African penguins.

Click Here to watch the short Video

Asian Elephants

From trunk to toe, Asia’s largest land mammal displays some amazing adaptations to life as a forest-dwelling herbivore. It is most famous for its trunk, which is indispensable for feeding, drinking, smelling, touching, communicating, and bathing. Over 100,000 muscles of the face, nose, and upper lip combine to form the elephant’s trunk.

Roar

It’s not often you get to hear both John and Imani roaring at the same time. A lion’s gutteral roar can be heard up to five miles away.

Aye-Ayes

Learn about one of the most unique animals on Earth: aye-ayes! These lemurs have a long, thin finger for tapping on decaying trees to locate and fish out grubs, bat-like ears to listen carefully, and rodent-like teeth for gnawing through bark to reach larval insects. Their teeth are so sharp, they can chew straight through a coconut. Altogether, their appearance can look quite spooky. Aye-ayes are classified as endangered on the IUCN Red List primarily due to habitat loss. In some areas of Madagascar, these lemurs are even killed on sight due to superstitions marking them as a symbol of bad luck or evil.

Zoo Birthdays:

November 19th was a very special day for Asher! Happy 4th Birthday to Asher the yellow-backed duiker.

Living in thick forest, these small antelopes rely on scents to communicate. Duikers rub scent glands under their eyes on branches to mark their territory, on mates during courtship, and on young to familiarize them with the scent. Males will rub the glands on each other aggressively in competition.

It’s Adams 12th Birthday today so he is getting extra cuddles. Adams is a parma wallaby, the smallest species of wallaby, reaching heights of between 17-21 inches and weighing between 7-13 pounds. Check out our FB story to see his adorable cake! Check out the video below to see Adams enjoying some extra birthday scratches!

Opportunities:

Volunteer Opportunities:

The Adult Volunteers have been approached about some new volunteer opportunities. Visitor Experience has asked for some Zoo Greeters to help guests navigate entry into the Festival of Lights and there has also been an ask to assist with Children’s Birthday Parties. If you would like to hear more information about these opportunities, please fill out the form below:

Perfect North Slopes:

Perfect North is offering a discount code for all Zoo employees & volunteers!

Account Services

Dear Perfect North Affiliate Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden,

Congratulations! Perfect North Affiliate Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is now signed up for fun! Just log into your own Perfect North site to buy tickets. This online benefit program allows you to “print and go” so you have your ticket in hand when you get to Perfect North with no waiting in line to purchase tickets.

To access your exclusive tickets, click the link below, then log into the site with the username and password provided.

Click Here for the Special Ticket Link

Username: CINTIZOO

Password: ZOO2122

Friendly Faces:

Conservation Impact Team:

I am so Proud to be a part of this amazing team! If you see any of us around the Zoo, please stop and say Hello!

Why is there a Harry Potter graphic for the Zoo Access for All Manager? We are still hunting for the best candidate for this position, until then…we will stick with the graphic 😉

Get to know us a little better:

Below you will find some fun facts about each of us. Can you match the fun fact to the faces above? (The answers are at the bottom of the update)

As a kid, I was committed to becoming a flying zebra when I grew up. (Because why not be awesome? I never understood why adults laughed lol)
I have a healthy obsession with birds and fungi!
I’ve lived in two different coastal towns in Ireland (Galway and Cobh 😉) My very first job was working the ticketing turnstiles here at the Zoo.
In preschool I told my classmates that Harry, Ron, & Hermione were my siblings. My teachers were concerned. In a beauty pageant (the only one I was ever in) when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I responded, “A wizard at Hogwarts”. I lost.
I have never (and pretty much refuse to) eaten Skyline or seen the movie Dirty Dancing. I’m distantly related to the 10^th President of the US, John Tyler.
Plays several music instruments. Broke the speed limit on roller blades.
Before ultimately studying biology, I started my collegiate career as a cheerleader at the University of Cincinnati studying Civil Engineering. For several years I had a side hustle painting children’s murals.

Conservation Corner:

Lion Landscapes

Last week I was lucky enough to attend a lecture with the leaders of one of our Global Conservation Partners, Dr. Alayne Cotterill and Dr. Amy Dickman. Dr. Alayne Cotterill is the of the original Lion Landscapes organization and Dr. Amy Dickman is the Founder of the Ruaha Carnivore Project. Lion Landscapes and the Ruaha Carnivore Project have joined forces in an effort to build more collaborative conservation, scaling up efforts to stop the loss of wildlife, reduce the cost of living with large carnivores and unlock the value of wildlife to local people. They have merged to form a new, combined organization including all existing programs, under the name Lion Landscapes. The organization, which will work in key landscapes across Tanzania, Kenya and Zambia, will be jointly led by Dr Alayne Cotterill and Dr Amy Dickman, who have championed collaborative conservation for years and are two of the six co-founders of the Pride Lion Conservation Alliance. Click on the Image below to hear the Lion Landscapes Co-founders and CEOs talk through the reasons behind the merger and where the organization will go from here.

Would you like to learn more about the efforts of Lion Landscapes? Click Here to visit the organization’s website

Upcoming Zoo Events:

November19th-January 9th – PNC Festival of Lights

Click Here for more information on FOL

December 31st – Happy Zoo Year

Don’t forget to Log your Hours in MVP. Do you need a quick refresher course on logging your hours? Click Here

Answers to the Friendly Faces Quiz:

Lily Maynard – As a kid, I was committed to becoming a flying zebra when I grew up. (Because why not be awesome? I never understood why adults laughed lol)
Mollie O’Neil – I have a healthy obsession with birds and fungi!
Bridget Reilly – I’ve lived in two different coastal towns in Ireland (Galway and Cobh 😉) My very first job was working the ticketing turnstiles here at the Zoo.
Amanda Pace – In preschool I told my classmates that Harry, Ron, & Hermione were my siblings. My teachers were concerned. In a beauty pageant (the only one I was ever in) when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I responded, “A wizard at Hogwarts”. I lost.
Jerran Orwig – I have never (and pretty much refuse to) eaten Skyline or seen the movie Dirty Dancing. I’m distantly related to the 10^th President of the US, John Tyler.
Sabrina Calhoun – Plays several music instruments. Broke the speed limit on roller blades.
Brittany Garera-Stapleton – Before ultimately studying biology, I started my collegiate career as a cheerleader at the University of Cincinnati studying Civil Engineering. For several years I had a side hustle painting children’s murals.

How did you do? Did you guess correctly?

Contact Information:

Brittany Garera-Stapleton
Volunteer Relations Coordinator
(513)559-7768
[email protected]

**My in-office hours have been varying week to week to accommodate staff meetings. The best way to reach me day-to-day is through e-mail.