Should Wiildlife Stay
W i l d?
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Seven chimps made a break for it at the Kansas City Zoo Thursday.
But it wasn't careless zookeepers who were responsible for the escape. Instead, it was clever chimpanzees, said zoo director Randy Wisthoff.
That, at least, was Wisthoff's explanation for the escape of seven chimpanzees from their enclosure on Thursday afternoon — not careless zookeepers.
The clever chimps caused a “Code Red” response by zoo employees and an hourlong lockdown of zoo visitors.
Branching Out
"Chimps are so smart,” Wisthoff said.
The chimpanzees escaped after one of them, he said, either found or broke off a 5- or 6-foot log or branch, leaned it against a wall, and climbed to the top. That chimpanzee — the “ringleader,” Wisthoff called him — persuaded six friends to join him up there.
At one point, three of the seven chimps went over the wall into an area accessible only to zoo employees. Well before then, however, the zoo set in motion its emergency plans, which includes gathering visitors into locked and secure areas.
At no time were any of the zoo visitors in danger, Wisthoff said.
The breakout happened at about 3:30 p.m., and it took an hour for zookeepers to herd the animals, in groups of two or three, back into their area.
A Timely Coincidence
The chimps were lured with fruit and greens such as carrots, celery and lettuce, their usual food.
“It was almost their dinnertime already,” Wisthoff said.
But one of the chimps was unwilling to return home. So for that last reluctant animal, zookeepers brought out a bag of malted milk balls.
“That was the clincher,” Wisthoff said.
All employees were aware that chimpanzees can be dangerous, Wisthoff said. Of the seven, the largest weighed about 150 pounds, and they are tremendously strong, he said.
On Friday, the 100-acre area normally occupied by 12 chimpanzees was closed. Zoo employees checked to make sure there were more no escape routes.
Employees are usually careful to check the area and remove large branches, Wisthoff said. That made him wonder whether the branch or log used Thursday had been broken off recently.
"An Hour In The Birdcage"
About 1,800 people visited the zoo Thursday. Those who remained stayed put during the lockdown.
“We spent an hour in the birdcage,” said the Rev. Celeste Ward, pastor of Emmanuel Repentance Temple of Kansas City, who was visiting with family members. Zoo employees respectfully explained the emergency, she said, and gave them several free zoo passes.
Over in the penguin exhibit, visitor Mari Cintron easily kept three children entertained for the hour they were locked in there.
“We just visited with the penguins,” she said. “It was very calm.”
But while some visitors spent the hour enjoying animals, Brie Huffman of Raymore, Mo., was stuck with two friends and many others in a food storage area. Although she grew tired of the smell of animal feed, she appreciated the eight free zoo passes given to her.
The free tickets are good until Dec. 31, and Huffman said she will be using all of them.
Animal-rights group complains about Pittsburgh Zoo elephants
PITTSBURGH — The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is looking into the Pittsburgh Zoo's use of dogs to herd its African elephants after receiving a complaint from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
PETA has video that was taken at the Pittsburgh Zoo that very clearly has the elephants showing "threat displays, in which their ears go out and they trumpet as the dogs go out, chase them and apparently nip at their feet,” said Brittany Peet, who works for the animal-rights group in Washington, D.C.
Zoo employees are training dogs to bite, chase and otherwise annoy 15,000-pound elephants, Peet said. Pittsburgh Zoo knows all too well that these animals are dangerous and moody, she said. It is not just cruel to both the dogs and the elephants, it’s dangerous, she said.
Introducing Australian Cattle Dogs
Tanya Espinosa, a spokeswoman for the USDA’s animal plant health inspection service, said a review is underway.
Espinosa said the USDA is looking into what was going on at the zoo and whether it obeyed the animal welfare act, the federal law governing the treatment of animals.
Zoo spokeswoman Tracy Gray said the use of dogs was part of “providing the best care possible for our African elephants."
The zoo introduced two Australian cattle dogs into its elephant program three years ago, Gray said. The dogs and elephants work well together, she added.
“The primary reason the herding dogs are working with our team is for the safety of our staff," she said.
Peet said the use of dogs is anything but safe.
“The next time a 15,000-pound elephant turns on her captors, a small dog isn’t going to stop her,” she said.
She also faulted the zoo’s handlers for their unprotected contact with the elephants.
Handlers And Animals Should Be Protected
Peet said that more than half of the zoos in this country use protected contact to manage elephants. Protected contact is a practice where barriers like fences or bars are used between the handlers and the animals. The handlers also use positive reinforcement methods, where food and praise are used to reward the animals.
She felt that the Pittsburgh Zoo was being careless by introducing dogs. Dogs add to the risks of unprotected contact between elephants and staff, Peet said.
There have been two animal attacks at the Pittsburgh Zoo since 2002. One was by an elephant that is still on exhibit.
In February, the USDA fined the Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium $4,550 after investigating the death of 2-year-old Maddox Derkosh. The child was attacked by the zoo’s African painted dogs after he fell into their exhibit in 2012. The USDA ruled that the exhibit did not have sufficient distance and barriers between the animals and zoo visitors.
Other Zoos Set Examples
PETA is pursuing the matter through the USDA. It also continues to push for action from the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission, a state agency.
People have found fault in the past with how the Pittsburgh Zoo handles its elephants. In 1989, a keeper suffered a broken leg, cuts and bruises when an elephant kicked him as he was about to give it medicine.
Handler Mike Gatti, 46, was killed in 2002 when a mother elephant pushed her head on his chest after he fell to the ground.
Yet Gray said the zoo stands by its handling of elephants.
The Pittsburgh Zoo's elephant care program involves both unprotected and protected contact, she said. “Both methods use vocal commands, praise and food rewards. If an elephant does not want to work with the keeper, the keeper leaves the area. We never punish our elephants for not cooperating.”
Peet said the zoo is clinging to an old-fashioned approach when other methods are safer and work better.
“It’s positive reinforcement and protective barriers — not dogs — that keep employees safe,” she said. She feels the Pittsburgh Zoo should follow the example of the San Diego Zoo, the North Carolina Zoo and the Oakland Zoo, which she says allow their elephants to live free of fear and bullying.
When snakes bite, and they will, Dallas Zoo opens its antivenom fridge
DALLAS — When a Texas man was bitten by a poisonous snake, the Dallas Zoo came to the rescue.
The zoo has one of the country’s biggest collections of venomous snakes. It also has one of the largest supplies of antivenom to treat poisonous snake bites.
Most snakebites happen with native species and people's bad judgment, commented Bradley Lawrence. He is the zoo’s reptile and amphibian supervisor. Native snakes are from the United States, while exotic snakes come from other countries.
Common snakebites involve "native venomous snakes that somebody has decided to mess around with, late at night," he said. People say, "Oh, look, there’s a snake. Let’s pick it up!"
Antivenom Is Not Cheap
Most native snakes’ antivenom is stocked in hospitals. When someone in the Southwest needs an antidote for an exotic snakebite, the zoo is often called for the antivenom.
The zoo will deliver the antivenom through police or a special delivery service. The antivenom is flown by helicopter or plane.
The zoo keeps thousands of vials — about $200,000 worth — in a small refrigerator.
The most recent call for help came in January. A man was bitten by his African bush viper, an exotic species with no antivenom.
In cases like this, the zoo sends antivenom from a different snake that research has shown could work, Lawrence said.
When treating a bite, doctors determine the kind of snake involved. They study the venom’s effects, the best antivenom to use and any risks.
Antivenom can cost about $200 a vial for Asian snakes, but can cost up to $2,500 a vial for Australian snakes.
Doctors usually give a snakebite patient four to six vials of antivenom to start. Up to 30 vials might be needed in extreme bite cases.
Snakebite Alarm Is Dusty
At the Dallas Zoo’s reptile house, each cage is labeled with information about the snake and the appropriate antivenom. About 65 of its 90 species of snakes are venomous, said Ruston Hartdegen. He is the zoo’s curator of herpetology — the study of amphibians and reptiles.
All staff members learn how to work with the venomous snakes. To work with cobras and other especially dangerous snakes they must go through special training, Hartdegen said. On the walls where the snake handlers work are red buttons labeled “snakebite alarm.” They are covered with a thin coat of dust because they are rarely used, except to be tested.
In the zoo’s 127-year history, handlers have been bitten only three times, and none of them involved venom.
Deadly Snakes Are Not Cuddly Pets
The zoo workers are as fascinated with snakes as the zoo's visitors. Lawrence is a fan of the cobras and mambas. Assistant supervisor Matt Vaughan is a pit viper guy.
Pit vipers get their name from the two heat-sensing pits under their eyes.
Vaughan grew up near a lake filled with reptiles and amphibians. For a kid who was fascinated with dinosaurs, “I was in heaven,” he said.
Lawrence has a green mamba tattoo swirling up his arm. He got his first snake — a green snake — from his father, who was a science teacher, when he was 10.
The zoo workers want people to visit deadly snakes at the zoo, not keep them at home as pets.
“That’s the part that’s irresponsible, keeping venomous snakes when you know you don’t have the antivenom,” Lawrence said.
———
With warmer weather, more snakes are coming out of brumation, similar to hibernation. If you come across one, leave it alone, but if you are bitten, here’s what to do:
DO:
—Go to your local emergency room.
—If you have cannot get there, or if you are extremely dizzy or have trouble breathing, call 911.
—If bitten on an arm or leg, keep it still so the circulation of the venom might be slowed.
—Take a picture of the snake that bit you or try to remember its markings.
DON’T:
—Don’t try to suck out the venom like they do in movies, because it doesn’t work.
—Never make a cut where the snakebite is and try to draw the venom out.
SOURCE: Dr. Nancy Onisko, Parkland Memorial Hospital.
———
The Antivenom Process
Healthy snakes are typically milked about every two weeks to collect the venom.
Snakes are held between the index finger and thumb. Gentle pressure is applied so fangs are exposed and the snake bites onto a glass funnel. The venom runs down the funnel into a vial.
The venom is injected into an animal — either a horse or a sheep — which will produce the antibodies against the venom.
After several months, blood is extracted from the animal and purified to become antivenom.
SOURCES: Kentucky Reptile Zoo and the World Health Organization.
Sunny Florida zoo is new home for baby chimp neglected by mother
Keeva is a baby chimpanzee. She was born March 12 to a female chimp at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. Keeva had a problem. Her mom, 26-year-old Carole, did not seem to be ready for the responsibilities of motherhood.
Carole wasn’t mean to Keeva. She was not trying to hurt her. Trouble was, she was not doing much of anything with her baby. She wasn’t nursing her or bonding with her.
So, Keeva is now living at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Florida. The staff there takes care of her like the zoo staff did in Baltimore. Workers took turns acting as Keeva’s mom, holding her and feeding her on eight-hour shifts to make her feel loved and protected. Keeva gets plenty of loving attention from her adoptive human parents.
Mother Chimp Seemed Confused
Lee Ann Rottman works at the Lowry Zoo. She says Keeva is starting out small, but she is catching up. Keeva weighed just a little over 3 pounds when she left Baltimore and she has grown to 5 pounds.
The difference between the two zoos is that the Lowry Zoo has a chimp mom who has already raised two adopted chimp babies. Her name is Abby and she is 32 years old. Sadly, no Baltimore chimp could make the same claim. So when Keeva was 3 weeks old, she was flown to Tampa.
One of the workers at the zoo where Keeva was born said that Keeva's mom, Carole, was a bit confused. She and her baby were just not connecting.
Mother and baby chimps usually are able to bond. Zoo workers keep a close eye on female chimps to make sure they will be good mothers before they have babies.
Separation Did Not Do The Trick
Stephen Ross works in zoos. A lot of his work is with chimpanzees. He said that in the last 10 years, there have only been one or two cases of mothers who did not show the proper behavior to take care of their babies.
He also said that Carole was chosen as a chimp who would make a good mom. But when she had the baby, she was not doing the hard work it takes to be a mother.
However, Keeva is still one lucky chimpanzee. If this had happened in the wild, she almost certainly would have died.
After separating Keeva and Carole a first time, her keepers in Baltimore tried a reintroduction. They had hoped that maybe the separation had made Carole feel a little more motherly.
The reintroduction did not go as hoped. So the decision was made to look for a surrogate. A surrogate takes on the responsibility of parenting a child to whom they are not related by blood.
A Special Flight South
While Keeva was in Baltimore, her handlers took every step possible not only to keep her healthy and comfortable, but to make her think she was being raised by one of her fellow chimps. They held her all the time, wore fur vests, groomed her and made chimp noises to her.
On March 29, Keeva and two of her Baltimore handlers boarded a plane for Tampa. She may have been too young to realize it, but the 17-day-old chimp was getting the royal treatment. The pilot flew his own plane from Florida to Baltimore so Keeva could be transported safely and comfortably to her new home.
The pilot volunteers with Animal Rescue Flights, a group that normally transports rescued dogs and cats to new homes.
Curiosity Is A Good Sign
So far, Keeva seems to be adapting fine to the move. She has not yet been put in with the other chimps, but she has had some contact with Abby and the other females. Mother and adoptive daughter seem to get along, and the other chimps have been keeping an eye on things, clearly curious about this youngster.
Rottman, the worker at Keeva's new zoo, said that Keeva is watching the chimps a little more, and they spend a lot of their time watching her as well.
Recently, Keeva made her first sound directed at her adoptive family. This is a good sign, especially since the other chimps answered her.
Rottman says Keeva should be ready to fully join her new chimp family, and go on public display, in a couple of months.
Twin panda births surprise National Zoo, though one cub later dies
Laurie Thompson was sitting at her desk in the National Zoo's giant panda house Saturday night, when she heard a noise from a video screen. It showed Mei Xiang, who had delivered a cub about four hours earlier.
Thompson, a biologist, looked at the screen, and there, wiggling and squawking on the floor, was a second cub.
Thompson jumped out of her seat, ran into a co-worker at the door and yelled, "We have two!"
On Sunday, the zoo was trying to care for the two cubs the size of large mice, and their mother.
Twin Bundles Of Giant Panda Joy
It was only the third time that giant panda twins have been born in the United States. In one of the other cases, the twins did not survive.
The news flashed around the world.
The first cub was born at 5:35 p.m., while the second cub arrived at 10:07 p.m.
The second cub was placed in an incubator to keep it warm, then examined, fed and returned to its mother. Then the older cub was taken out.
Both cubs squealed loudly, a sign of good health. "A screaming baby panda makes us all happy," said Dr. Don Neiffer, the zoo's chief veterinarian.
One of the cubs died a few days later.
Multiple Births Can Overwhelm Mothers
Zoo officials said that pandas with twins often are unable to care for both babies, and one generally dies. Swapping the cubs, so the mother cares for one at a time, increases the chances that both will survive.
Thompson, a biologist, said that she and a few other staff members had been staying overnight in the panda house on Saturday to keep an eye on Mei and the first cub. There was no hint that a second cub was coming, she said.
"I was sitting next to the computer with the panda cam on it," she said. "I started hearing this noise," the same noise Mei was making when she had the first cub.
"As soon as I looked at the camera, out popped the cub," she said. "I knew she still had one (cub) under her arm, so I knew she had had a second one."
Second Cub's Birth Surprised Zoo Staff
Thompson ran out of the room and shouted the news. She and a zoo keeper put on protective suits, booties and gloves in case they had to go near the panda enclosure or touch the cubs.
"We watched her for a few minutes just to see how she was going to do, because if she picked up both of the cubs, we were going to just let her kind of do that for a little bit," Thompson said. "But she was never able to pick them both up. She was trying, but she just couldn't figure out how to do it."
The keeper, Marty Dearie, reached into the den and retrieved one of the cubs, which was lying on the floor.
They wrapped the cub in a towel and carried it to the incubator in the keeper's office, away from Mei's den. "We don't want Mei Xiang to hear the cub," Thompson said. "We don't want to stress her."
The cub was squealing. "They squeal until you get them nice and comfortable," she said. They placed it in the warm incubator, covered it with towels, and Thompson placed her hand on it.
"They like to be snug, just like newborn babies," she said.
And The Calls Started Around The World
Dr. Copper Aitken-Palmer is the chief veterinarian at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute. When she arrived, she began calling people at a panda breeding center in China.
The Chinese have many more pandas in zoos and much more experience with cubs. Also, Aitken-Palmer wanted to share the good news.
Pandas often have twins and sometimes triplets. One set of twins was born at the National Zoo to Ling-Ling decades ago, but both cubs died.
Boys Or Girls Or One Of Each?
Mei's second cub was the stronger one, weighing about 138 grams, zoo director Dennis Kelly said. The first cub weighed about 86 grams, he said. Veterinarians were unable to determine the sex of the cubs during their exams.
The cubs' eyes are not open and their ears are small "nubs," Thompson said. They have fine white fur and distinct claws.
Mei has delivered two surviving cubs since 2005, and a second two, which did not live. Tai Shan, a male, was born on July 9, 2005, and Bao Bao, a female, celebrated her second birthday at the zoo on Sunday.
Tai Shan lives in China, which owns all giant pandas in American zoos.
