Zoo Team successfully delivers $16k of life saving medical supplies to Borneo hospital

Our Borneo veterinary team, Seneca Park Zoo Director of Animal Health and Conservation Dr. Jeff Wyatt and Dr. Andrew Winterborn of Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, successfully transported $16,000 of medical supplies and therapeutics to support the Zoo’s anchor Indonesian conservation program, Health in Harmony, promoting healthy people and healthy forest.

Photo provided by Health in Harmony
Photo provided by Health in Harmony

These diverse medical supplies were selected and organized by a Canadian-based, charitable organization called Health Partners International which, through pharmaceutical company donations from companies like Glaxo Smith Kine, Astra-Zeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Bayer, Accel & Allergan, specializes in providing Humanitarian Medical Kits containing targeted therapies to address unmet community health needs in the tropics.

Photo provided by Health Partnership International - Canada
Delivering Health and Hope. Photo provided by Health Partnership International – Canada

 

This week, ASRI Klinik staff celebrated the arrival of the one hundred pounds of hospital supplies. Throughout the unpacking of boxes, pharmacy staff were delighted to find that they needed much more shelving space.

Receiving a delivery of medial supplies
Receiving a delivery of medial supplies
Unpacking medical supplies
Unpacking medical supplies

At the end of our second day in the remote rainforest villages mentoring goat and cattle herd health practices, Jesse,  a volunteer physician from Stanford University, shared with us a success story from that morning of a patient’s condition improving significantly because of the new supply of pharmaceuticals.

Thank you to University of Rochester medical students for raising funds from the Orangutan Orange tulip sales and to Dr. Andrew Winterborn for his generous donation, making delivery of the Humanitarian Medical Kits possible to achieve our goal of “Saving Rainforest with a Stethoscope.”

 

Girl Scout builds owl houses for the Zoo

Girl Scout Ambassador, Leanne Walker, Troop 60779, has always had a passion for animals. Her love for animals led her to the Zoo, where she successfully completed her Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts. David Hamilton, the Zoo’s General Curator, suggested several ideas and Leanne picked a project that was close to her heart: building barn owl houses to help the decreasing population.

2016-03-26 15.02.30Leanne researched and designed a house for the barn owls in hopes of bringing back the population to Western, NY.  So many old barns are being torn down and these birds don’t have the nesting places that they once used to have.

For her award, she had to put in 80 hours, as well as secure donations from area businesses to help with the cost of the materials and run the whole project from start to finish. Leanne, along with friends and family, built 10 owl houses that were installed at the Zoo, Monroe County’s Seneca Park and Wild Wings Inc.

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Leanne learned so much about the barn owls that she wanted to share her knowledge with the docents at the Zoo, so she developed a power point to be used at upcoming docent training sessions to further enrich their knowledge of barn owls.

 

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Thank you to Terry Kozakiewicz from Wild Wings Inc. for helping her to achieve this award as well as Home Depot-Gates, Ace Hardware-Chili and Martusciello’s Bakery for their generous donations.

Leanne will head to college in just a short time, majoring in biology, and hopes to one day become a veterinarian specializing in marine mammals and surgery. Congratulations Leanne, and thank you for supporting the Zoo!

Earth Day & #ROC Clean Up Day

This month, join Seneca Park Zoo for upcoming educational events that focus on conservation and the environment, across the world and in our own backyard.April 23: Earth DayCelebrate the earth by learning to live sustainably and by speaking with organizations that strive to do so every day.

Your Zoo helps conserve wildlife and wild places. Find out how by visiting our docent stations and enjoying our Animal Experiences. Collect a stamp at all five docent stations and receive a free sapling to take home (limited to 1,000), courtesy of Diamond Packaging.LEARN MOREApril 24: #ROC Clean Up DaySeneca Park Zoo invites you to be inspired to become active in caring for your environment.

Join Zoo staff and Maplewood Gorge Guides as they educate you on Genesee River health and conservation. You will be able to experience how individual and group actions can make a difference in your own backyard.LEARN MORE

Getting Creative with Medicine

With cold and flu season coming to an end, it is interesting to think about how animals, like people, need medicine. This includes the animals at the Zoo. The process isn’t as easy and requires that zoo keepers get creative. There are a lot of potential problems to consider when trying to medicate an animal in our care.

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If your dog needs medication, you can usually roll the pill up in a piece of cheese or meat to disguise it and get it to eat the medicine. Most of the animals at the Zoo are quick to learn that trick and will either not accept it at all or will take the treat and spit the pill back out!

If a domestic animal won’t take medicine in food, you or your vet can place the medicine inside the pet dog’s or cat’s mouth if absolutely necessary. This technique is usually not an option for zoo animals. It is the keepers’ job to get the animal to come over and then attempt to administer the drug under the vet’s supervision. Some medications are not flavored nicely like children’s medicine. Some can be oily and difficult to mix with food to hide the taste.

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Thankfully, zoo keepers have mastered many techniques to give animals medicine. Once in a while, there are medications that can be hidden in food or mixed with juice, depending on the animal. For primates, sometimes we can hide a pill in a grape, among other grapes. However, we have to change the order of grapes in which they are given because they will be quick to know that the second grape will have the medicine every time, and spit out that second grape or not take it at all. Some animals have a favorite food that is saved for only giving medicine. This way they are eager to take that special food with the medication.

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Sometimes an animal will require an injection. A lot of the animals are trained, or working on being trained to receive an injection voluntarily. This reduces stress on the animal as well as makes it a much more positive experience for everyone involved. If it is absolutely necessary, our vet can use a blow dart to administer a medication to an animal.

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Medications can vary for how often the animals need to take them. It can be a couple times a day or every few days for a short period of time. It can also be one that has to be taken every day as routine maintenance for a long period of time such as vitamins inserted into fish fed to sea lions.

Regardless of the frequency the medicine needs to be administered, it is crucial the animals receive it. We try to make it as stress free and as positive of an experience as we can. Sometimes it’s a gummy vitamin that tastes amazing and is taken without hesitation, but other times it is a bitter or unpalatable tasting medicine that requires some imagination.

Keepers are always using standard proven methods, but they are also creating new ways to administer medicine that are easy on the keepers and the animals.

 

–Amanda Davis, Zoo Keeper

Saving lives and rainforest with Tulips

Medical students at the University of Rochester recently raised $500 for the Zoo’s partner conservation organization Health In Harmony during a sale of “Orangutan Orange” tulips in the lobby of the School of Medicine & Dentistry.

Medical Student TULIP FundraiserAnnouncement

Dr. Dan Saada
Dr. Dan Saada

Each bouquet was accompanied by a Health in Harmony bookmarkThe funds will pay for acquisition and transport of a Hospital Supply Kit to join Dr. Dan Saada, University of Rochester Emergency Medicine physician, currently volunteering at ASRI Klinik.

The Hospital supply kit contains $7,000 of medications supplied through Health Partners International in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The medical student fundraiser is one component of a Rochester “One Medicine – One Health Initiative” supporting Health in Harmony.

Seneca Park Zoo leads the initiative through a $2,000 scholarship awarded to one Emergency Medicine physician annually to fund travel costs to Sukadana in addition to Zoo visitor donations to Health in Harmony ($27,830 in 2014-2015).

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Tulips for sale.

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The Zoo’s Director of Animal Health and Conservation Jeff Wyatt DVM, MPH of the University of Rochester (and Health in Harmony Board Member) and Andrew Winterborn DVM, the Queens University Attending Veterinarian, will join Dr. Saada in Sukadana on April 11 for our third goat & cattle herd health mentoring visit since 2013.

It may be hard to imagine, but healthy goats and cattle are saving orangutans.  Seneca Park Zoo and the University of Rochester Medical School are honored to contribute to Health in Harmony’s life and forest-saving successes!

Timber & Willow settling in

Timber and Willow are brother and sister born on April 18, 2014 at the New York State Zoo in Watertown, New York. They arrived at our Zoo on February 26, 2016 from the Buffalo Zoo where they had resided since September 3, 2015. Timber was neutered before coming here to prevent inbreeding between the siblings.

Although they are both black, we can tell the difference between the two of them by their size and their markings. Timber is about a hundred pounds and has a large white dot on his chest.

Timber. Photo by Wayne Smith
Timber. Photo by Wayne Smith

Willow is approximately seventy pounds and has a white stripe all the way across her chest. Another way to tell them apart is by watching their behaviors. Timber is the more outgoing and bold one of the two. Willow is curious but very cautious. Timber is usually following Willow around the yard.

Willow. Photo by Wayne Smith.
Willow. Photo by Wayne Smith.

When they aren’t exploring in the yard their favorite place to hang out is along the back fence line. From there they can watch what is going on in the woods behind their exhibit. They also like to nap underneath the big log in the middle of the yard. When all is quiet you may find them laying down near the tree in the front of the yard. If it gets too loud for them they have places where they can go for some privacy. They always have the choice of when and where to go.

There is a secondary switch yard on either side of the main exhibit. This is where their houses, beds, water and dry dog food are available to them at all times. This is also where they get their main meals. Two to three times a day, they are offered a balanced diet of carnivore meat for canines. We have tried other meat items, but they really seem to prefer their basic diet which makes caring for them easy.

We provide enrichment to them several times a day as well. This gives them the opportunity to play and forage for treats. Their favorite things are rodents and bits of fish.

–Heidi Beifus, Zoo Keeper

Spring ZooClass

April and May ZooClass schedules are here!

Classes are tailored to the learning abilities of your 2, 3, 4 or 5 year old, and feature an animal presentation, story, craft and snack.

Rainy spring days are the perfect time to head to the Zoo for an educational experience!

 

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