I have been meaning to visit the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro California since 2011, when our Zoo’s two female California sea lions arrived here at Seneca Park Zoo.
The staff at the care center saved Marina and Lily’s lives after they were both injured by bullets, and I have wanted to thank them for a long time.
Lily and Marina have adjusted wonderfully to Zoo life with the help of dedicated staff and positive reinforcement training. I wanted the marine mammal care center to know the latest on our sea lions’ successes, since they were part of it from the beginning.
When I saw on the news that there has been hundreds of sea lion pups washing up on shore, starving and ill, and that the center needed donations and volunteers, I knew this was the time to go. So I packed my bags and went to help out. The center was so clean and well-run, I felt hope and not sadness. If animals were to be saved, it was here and I was proud to be part of this team, even for a short time.
Over $1,250 was donated by the American Association of Zoo Keepers (our wonderful zookeeper chapter) and from the sales of the book Puff the Sea lion: A Love Story.
Please donate your time and money if you can. It does make a difference.
-Blog and photos by Mary Ellen Ostrander, Zoo Keeper
There are currently 43 African penguins in the Zoo’s flock: 21 males, 13 females and nine unknown.
Unknown? Yep.
That’s because the best way to determine the sex of some birds, including penguins, is to look at the animals’ DNA, and we like to wait until the birds are older to take a feather sample. So the gender of some of our younger chicks remains a mystery, for now.
Since 1999, the Zoo has had 93 successful hatchlings. Some of these have been sent to 25 accredited zoos and aquariums across North America, including The Toledo Zoo, the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, the Minnesota Zoo, Tampa’s Lowry Park Zoo, Denver Zoo and Georgia Aquarium, in order to save and sustain the species. Imported from South Africa in 1996, the founding penguins of the Zoo’s flock created a strong genetic line that has shaped the wider population in conservation care.
Photo by Kelli O’Brien
The rest make up the 43 penguins in the Zoo’s flock. The most recent addition came when 6 baby chicks–Gizmo, Blue, Obi, Sky, Marvel and Swoop–hatched in January. Every year for the last 16 years, the Zoo has had more successful hilariously-named hatchlings, starting with Little Ricky in 1999. Here’s a breakdown:
African penguins are found in coastal areas and seas off the southern tip of Africa. Once abundant in their natural range, there has been a 60% decline in population in the last 30 years. Numbers have dwindled so quickly that in 2010, African penguins were listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
Photo by Kevin Blakely
Knowledge gained from the success of breeding programs in zoos is being used to help assist breeding programs in situ, where population decline is due in large part to breeding failure. The South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB), a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of sea birds, has, for example, established The Chick Bolstering Project. The initiative is a collaborative effort to introduce hand-reared chicks back into their natural range to combat population decline.
Seneca Park Zoo supports organizations such as SANCCOB as they work tirelessly to save this magnificent bird in its natural range.
Seneca Park Zoo’s conservation fundraising reached an all-time high of $57,846 in 2014, thanks to Zoo guests who were inspired to act on their passion for animals and the environment. That amount was up more than 350% from $16,289 in 2013.
“I’m inspired to know the work we do matters to our guests,” said Pamela Reed Sanchez, Executive Director of the Seneca Park Zoo Society, “and I am encouraged to see them act on behalf of the animals in our care.”
In 2014, the Zoo focused its conservation priorities, delivered stronger messages to its guests and provided additional avenues to give. Zoo visitors took full advantage of the opportunity to choose the conservation initiative to which they most connected. Whether by attending an event, rounding up to the next dollar at the ZooShop or adding a dollar or two to a membership purchase, people gave generously.
The three projects that received the majority of funds were:
Photo courtesy of International Animal Rescue
$18,639 to Health in Harmony: This nonprofit organization is committed to saving Borneo’s last wild orangutans. It promotes environmental stewardship and economic alternatives to illegal logging of orangutan habitat in Gunung Palung National Park. The organization reports a 68% decrease in illegal logging.
$12,256 to International Elephant Foundation (IEF): IEF is a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that supports a wide variety of elephant conservation and related scientific and educational projects worldwide. Funds given from IEF to Northern Rangelands Trust’s anti-poaching security teams have been influential in helping to reduce elephant poaching surrounding the 22 community conservancies North and South of the Ewaso Nyiro River.
“Our work is not complete until we inspire others to become stewards of the world in which we live and to act on behalf of wildlife and wild places,” said Dr. Jeff Wyatt, the Zoo’s Director of Animal Health and Conservation. “We are most effective when we reinforce the fact that everything in this world is connected and that actions made locally affect animals across the globe.”
Deep in the jungles of Borneo in 1971, a 25-year-old anthropologist named Birute Galdikas first began her life-long career studying orangutans in the wild. Birute was one of famed anthropologist, Louis Leakey’s three “angels,” which also included Jane Goodall (studying chimpanzees in Tanzania) and Dian Fossey (studying Mountain gorillas in Rwanda). Birute’s research at Camp Leakycontinues today in promoting scientific study and conservation of orangutans in Tanjung Puting National Park. This southern Bornean, peninsular, 125,000 square-mile, peat swamp park with a 100-foot towering tree canopy juts into the Java Sea. In addition to being home to the largest wild population of orangutans (6,000), the forest supports semi-wild, orangutans rescued by Birute from the pet trade and released more than 30 years ago. Many of these rescued and rehabilitated orangutans and their offspring provide park visitors with surprisingly up close, inspiring encounters and incredible photo opportunities, all in a free-range, forested setting. Our visit to Camp Leaky proved a perfect final day for our annual, integrated conservation trip to Borneo, connecting human, livestock, forest and orangutan health!
Birute Galdikas raising international awareness of orangutan conservation in 1975 National Geographic – photo credit
18-year-old male steps within inches of us on the trail.
Mother and two offspring aged five years apart.
Blog and photos, unless otherwise noted, by: Dr. Jeff Wyatt D.V.M., M.P.H., Director of Animal Health and Conservation for the Seneca Park Zoo Dr. Andrew Winterborn D.V.M., Seneca Park Zoo and University of Rochester veterinary alumnus; University Veterinarian, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
I have been meaning to visit the Marine Mammal Care Center at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro California since 2011, when our Zoo’s two female California sea lions arrived here at Seneca Park Zoo.
