By Terri Jo Ryan Tribune-Herald staff writer
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sobat is a stud, and he knows it.
The 17-year-old Sumatran tiger was one of the original residents of Cameron Park Zoo, which opened July 18, 1993. At sexual maturity, in 1996, Sobat was sent on a fertility tour of sorts to zoos in Atlanta, Ga.; Akron, Ohio; and Fort Wayne, Ind. He sired two cubs in 2001 before returning to Waco in 2002.
He shares his Waco pad with Kali, who turns 19 in June and has lived at Cameron Park since 2000. Kali "is a little past her prime," according to Johnny Binder, general curator. She never produced cubs, so Sobat was introduced to a younger female, Maharani, 3, last fall.
"He was just like an older man trying to impress a younger woman," said Terri Cox, the zoo's programs and exhibits curator. "He acted out all day long, really trying to show how robust he was."
Binder observed the snoozing feline, smiled and said Sobat, "a good, proud male," had been busy overnight, "and that's why he's so lethargic today."
Cameron Park Zoo, a 52-acre site, is a nursery for some animals, occasionally a hospital, and a retirement community for many more.
In the case of Kali, the elderly tigress, the zoo is more like a hospice, keeping her comfortable until her time comes. Like her domesticated cousins who encounter similar physical decline in their old age, Kali is in the early stages of renal failure.
Because of her ailment, she can't keep weight on and looks gaunt, said her physician, Dr. Terry Hurst of Robinson Drive Animal Hospital. So Kali was put on a lower-protein diet that is less taxing on her kidneys.
"We hear from the public that our cat `is too thin,' " Cox said. "One lady even offered to take up a collection to feed the tiger."
But Kali eats well, and keepers monitor her kidney output. When keepers hear a concern from the public about her condition, they are quick to educate about elderly cat problems.
While captive animals living beyond the normal life spans of their wild relatives is nothing new, what is startling to conservationists is that gap in life expectancy is increasing — largely due to medical advances.
Theme parks, zoos and aquariums all around the country are dealing with aging animal populations, Cox said. Advances in science and the medical arts mean animals that would die young in the wild due to parasites, predators or poaching are instead living to become senior citizens of their captive communities.
Geriatric zoo residents put demands on their support staff (zookeepers) for specialized nutrition, exercise routines, mental stimulation and adjustments in living quarters.
Some zoos use dietary supplements and even employ acupuncture to relieve symptoms of arthritis. Keepers in El Paso a few years back rigged up a hammock closer to the ground for their elderly jaguar, Sheba, to lounge in. Eventually, the 26-year-old cat's kidneys failed, and she had to be euthanized.
Keepers are focused on more than just the physical well-being of their animals, Cox said. They also create habitats and social environments that will keep them engaged and less stressed.
For example, Cameron Park Zoo staff collect urine from the hoof-stock animals to spray in the enclosure to stimulate exercise. The olfactory response then revs up the metabolism and encourages heartier eating by the elderly felines.
Stan, a vintage squirrel monkey who turns 19 this summer, gets extra enrichment activities to keep him spry, such as puzzle feeders with treats hidden inside, or treats scattered throughout his yard to stimulate his natural foraging behavior.
"They love mirrors and toddler crib toys and feather mobiles," Cox said of the squirrel monkeys. The goal is to stimulate the animal mentally and physically.
Keepers are quick to pass word along when they encounter ailments and situations they think someone can benefit from, Binder said.
Knowledge gained from working with older animals can help younger creatures, too.
One young giraffe, Julie, 17, born with a deformed foot, has benefited from the medical advances used on older animals — information and treatments that may enable her to live to old age.
"Ten years ago, we wouldn't have been able to save her," Binder said. She came to Waco at a year old, in 1993, from Garden City, Kan. "A decade ago, she would have been euthanized."
"She is a very patient animal," he added. Julie has become used to having her right front leg wrapped in a kind of therapeutic stocking and having her silicone orthopedic shoe reinstalled every three weeks.
Zookeeper Manda Butler, a mammal specialist, said when Cameron Park Zoo staff started working with her, Julie became the first giraffe in the country trained to pick up her feet for medical exams without requiring sedation first.
"We were very fortunate she was so compliant," Butler said.
The now middle-aged Julie will be kept on birth control for life, because the weight of a pregnancy would cripple her.
Keeping weight down
None of the zoo's residents is overweight, Cox said. Just as obesity is unhealthy for a human, packing on the pounds can be dangerous to the beasts, as well.
In the jungle, of course, "survival of the fittest" is the law. But in captivity — with no predators or poachers and few parasites or injuries, much less no risk of starvation — animals are thriving.
But with their longevity come heart problems, arthritis, diabetes, cancer and a host of other ailments that any doctor sees in a geriatric generation.
"In zoos, the biggest hazard animals face is old age. We're dealing with a lot of psychological and physical issues," she said, like hearing and sight loss, degenerative disease and dementia.
The May-December romance of king vultures Victor, 34, and Vivian, 57, has captivated keepers here for years. When Vivian met Victor in 1982, keepers held their collective breath that the two raptors would find rapture together.
Vivian, who arrived at the old Central Texas Zoo in 1966 as a teenager from the wild, had literally bitten the heads off two previous suitors. But the third time was the charm: Vivian reacted well during the "howdy" process — zoo parlance for slowly introducing animals to each other with a mesh safety barrier in between them.
"When we put them together for the first time," Binder said, "she just fell in love with him. You could almost see the cartoon hearts dance between them."
The happy pair have produced 23 chicks over the years, the best breeding record in North America, Binder added. Their offspring have gone to zoos around the globe and even the private menagerie of stage illusionists Siegfried and Roy, according to the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums stud book.
Even as zoos have improved on health care, they've also become much more careful and cooperative in managing animal populations, tracking their residents to make decisions about breeding.
Kali the tigress never bred. When she came to the zoo in 2000 from Fort Worth, keepers did a hormone analysis of her fecal output to see if she could breed.
"Just as in humans, it's a case of use it or lose it," Cox added.
The zoo has higher hopes for some other swinging seniors. Wrinkles, 38, a rhinoceros, was brought in from Jacksonville, Fla., in 1993. Because she shows signs of arthritis, she's now on a chondroflex regimen for her joint ailments.
Jabba, a male in his mid-20s, was brought to Waco in 1999 from West Palm Beach, Fla., to mate with Hatari (also known as "Babe," 36), who arrived in 1996 from Baton Rouge, La.
The presence of the young stud muffin in their midst has Babe cycling like a youngster again, Binder said.
Most animals are on birth control, Cox said. Limited space in most zoos means certain species are only bred where there is an intended home for them.
When their time is up
When animals don't bounce back after illness or injury, zoo staffs must make the difficult and highly emotional decision about ending the suffering of animals they and visitors have grown to love.
Hurst affirmed it is not a clear-cut clinical determination, but one involving quality-of-life discussions among keepers, management and medical staff.
Cox said euthanasia calls, while more common than a natural death at Cameron Park Zoo, are few and far between.
"Basically, our main goal," Binder said, "is to treat the animals in our care with respect and compassion, from the cradle to the grave."
Euthanasia "is never done easily," he added. "When you go through thick and thin with these animals, it is tough for us to lose one."
Keepers make the effort to keep the gravely ill animal patient as comfortable as possible until the vet or vet tech arrives for the procedure: The animal is sedated first by the vet or technician to minimize discomfort, and then the final injection is given.
All animals are necropsied after death to learn from the experience. Sometimes a cadaver from an endangered species is sent to the Smithsonian Institution or a species-specific scientific study, but most corpses are disposed of on-site.
"Very rarely do we release a body to a museum or research lab or educational institution, " Cox said. "When we do, it is a decision of the Animal Care and Use Committee."
When not used for display/educational purposes, bodies are incinerated, and the ashes buried in an undisclosed location. That is to prevent the hide or teeth or other body parts being sold on the black market or being made into trophies of any kind, said Manda Butler, a zookeeper here for 12 years.
Generation Z(oo)
Two deer born on opening day at Cameron Park Zoo are still alive and kicking, Cox said.
Some of the kudu here when the gates first opened have died only in the last year. Buster the kudu was 15 when he died in 2008, she added.
In November 1993, when the hoof-stock barn caught fire, park rangers and the fire department gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to some creatures. Apple, a pregnant kudu, was saved; her surviving offspring have had grandchildren of their own now.
BJ, another of Apple and Buster's children, was born in 1997 and still roams the veldt of Cameron Park Zoo. In the wild, kudu live about 12 to 16 years.
Just as the creatures are spawning multigenerational families, Cox noted, so is their fan base.
"It's really fun for us to see the little ones, when we opened, who were 2 or 3 now being hired as camp counselors for zoo camp or zoo crew," Cox said. "They've watched the animals grow up as they grow up. Soon, they'll be bringing children of their own."
Sumber : http://www.wacotrib.com Via Milist Save The Tigers
JOIN SAVE THE TIGERS
29.5.09
Senior citizen animals thrive at Waco's Cameron Park Zoo
By Terri Jo Ryan Tribune-Herald staff writer
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sobat is a stud, and he knows it.
The 17-year-old Sumatran tiger was one of the original residents of Cameron Park Zoo, which opened July 18, 1993. At sexual maturity, in 1996, Sobat was sent on a fertility tour of sorts to zoos in Atlanta, Ga.; Akron, Ohio; and Fort Wayne, Ind. He sired two cubs in 2001 before returning to Waco in 2002.
He shares his Waco pad with Kali, who turns 19 in June and has lived at Cameron Park since 2000. Kali "is a little past her prime," according to Johnny Binder, general curator. She never produced cubs, so Sobat was introduced to a younger female, Maharani, 3, last fall.
"He was just like an older man trying to impress a younger woman," said Terri Cox, the zoo's programs and exhibits curator. "He acted out all day long, really trying to show how robust he was."
Binder observed the snoozing feline, smiled and said Sobat, "a good, proud male," had been busy overnight, "and that's why he's so lethargic today."
Cameron Park Zoo, a 52-acre site, is a nursery for some animals, occasionally a hospital, and a retirement community for many more.
In the case of Kali, the elderly tigress, the zoo is more like a hospice, keeping her comfortable until her time comes. Like her domesticated cousins who encounter similar physical decline in their old age, Kali is in the early stages of renal failure.
Because of her ailment, she can't keep weight on and looks gaunt, said her physician, Dr. Terry Hurst of Robinson Drive Animal Hospital. So Kali was put on a lower-protein diet that is less taxing on her kidneys.
"We hear from the public that our cat `is too thin,' " Cox said. "One lady even offered to take up a collection to feed the tiger."
But Kali eats well, and keepers monitor her kidney output. When keepers hear a concern from the public about her condition, they are quick to educate about elderly cat problems.
While captive animals living beyond the normal life spans of their wild relatives is nothing new, what is startling to conservationists is that gap in life expectancy is increasing — largely due to medical advances.
Theme parks, zoos and aquariums all around the country are dealing with aging animal populations, Cox said. Advances in science and the medical arts mean animals that would die young in the wild due to parasites, predators or poaching are instead living to become senior citizens of their captive communities.
Geriatric zoo residents put demands on their support staff (zookeepers) for specialized nutrition, exercise routines, mental stimulation and adjustments in living quarters.
Some zoos use dietary supplements and even employ acupuncture to relieve symptoms of arthritis. Keepers in El Paso a few years back rigged up a hammock closer to the ground for their elderly jaguar, Sheba, to lounge in. Eventually, the 26-year-old cat's kidneys failed, and she had to be euthanized.
Keepers are focused on more than just the physical well-being of their animals, Cox said. They also create habitats and social environments that will keep them engaged and less stressed.
For example, Cameron Park Zoo staff collect urine from the hoof-stock animals to spray in the enclosure to stimulate exercise. The olfactory response then revs up the metabolism and encourages heartier eating by the elderly felines.
Stan, a vintage squirrel monkey who turns 19 this summer, gets extra enrichment activities to keep him spry, such as puzzle feeders with treats hidden inside, or treats scattered throughout his yard to stimulate his natural foraging behavior.
"They love mirrors and toddler crib toys and feather mobiles," Cox said of the squirrel monkeys. The goal is to stimulate the animal mentally and physically.
Keepers are quick to pass word along when they encounter ailments and situations they think someone can benefit from, Binder said.
Knowledge gained from working with older animals can help younger creatures, too.
One young giraffe, Julie, 17, born with a deformed foot, has benefited from the medical advances used on older animals — information and treatments that may enable her to live to old age.
"Ten years ago, we wouldn't have been able to save her," Binder said. She came to Waco at a year old, in 1993, from Garden City, Kan. "A decade ago, she would have been euthanized."
"She is a very patient animal," he added. Julie has become used to having her right front leg wrapped in a kind of therapeutic stocking and having her silicone orthopedic shoe reinstalled every three weeks.
Zookeeper Manda Butler, a mammal specialist, said when Cameron Park Zoo staff started working with her, Julie became the first giraffe in the country trained to pick up her feet for medical exams without requiring sedation first.
"We were very fortunate she was so compliant," Butler said.
The now middle-aged Julie will be kept on birth control for life, because the weight of a pregnancy would cripple her.
Keeping weight down
None of the zoo's residents is overweight, Cox said. Just as obesity is unhealthy for a human, packing on the pounds can be dangerous to the beasts, as well.
In the jungle, of course, "survival of the fittest" is the law. But in captivity — with no predators or poachers and few parasites or injuries, much less no risk of starvation — animals are thriving.
But with their longevity come heart problems, arthritis, diabetes, cancer and a host of other ailments that any doctor sees in a geriatric generation.
"In zoos, the biggest hazard animals face is old age. We're dealing with a lot of psychological and physical issues," she said, like hearing and sight loss, degenerative disease and dementia.
The May-December romance of king vultures Victor, 34, and Vivian, 57, has captivated keepers here for years. When Vivian met Victor in 1982, keepers held their collective breath that the two raptors would find rapture together.
Vivian, who arrived at the old Central Texas Zoo in 1966 as a teenager from the wild, had literally bitten the heads off two previous suitors. But the third time was the charm: Vivian reacted well during the "howdy" process — zoo parlance for slowly introducing animals to each other with a mesh safety barrier in between them.
"When we put them together for the first time," Binder said, "she just fell in love with him. You could almost see the cartoon hearts dance between them."
The happy pair have produced 23 chicks over the years, the best breeding record in North America, Binder added. Their offspring have gone to zoos around the globe and even the private menagerie of stage illusionists Siegfried and Roy, according to the American Association of Zoos and Aquariums stud book.
Even as zoos have improved on health care, they've also become much more careful and cooperative in managing animal populations, tracking their residents to make decisions about breeding.
Kali the tigress never bred. When she came to the zoo in 2000 from Fort Worth, keepers did a hormone analysis of her fecal output to see if she could breed.
"Just as in humans, it's a case of use it or lose it," Cox added.
The zoo has higher hopes for some other swinging seniors. Wrinkles, 38, a rhinoceros, was brought in from Jacksonville, Fla., in 1993. Because she shows signs of arthritis, she's now on a chondroflex regimen for her joint ailments.
Jabba, a male in his mid-20s, was brought to Waco in 1999 from West Palm Beach, Fla., to mate with Hatari (also known as "Babe," 36), who arrived in 1996 from Baton Rouge, La.
The presence of the young stud muffin in their midst has Babe cycling like a youngster again, Binder said.
Most animals are on birth control, Cox said. Limited space in most zoos means certain species are only bred where there is an intended home for them.
When their time is up
When animals don't bounce back after illness or injury, zoo staffs must make the difficult and highly emotional decision about ending the suffering of animals they and visitors have grown to love.
Hurst affirmed it is not a clear-cut clinical determination, but one involving quality-of-life discussions among keepers, management and medical staff.
Cox said euthanasia calls, while more common than a natural death at Cameron Park Zoo, are few and far between.
"Basically, our main goal," Binder said, "is to treat the animals in our care with respect and compassion, from the cradle to the grave."
Euthanasia "is never done easily," he added. "When you go through thick and thin with these animals, it is tough for us to lose one."
Keepers make the effort to keep the gravely ill animal patient as comfortable as possible until the vet or vet tech arrives for the procedure: The animal is sedated first by the vet or technician to minimize discomfort, and then the final injection is given.
All animals are necropsied after death to learn from the experience. Sometimes a cadaver from an endangered species is sent to the Smithsonian Institution or a species-specific scientific study, but most corpses are disposed of on-site.
"Very rarely do we release a body to a museum or research lab or educational institution, " Cox said. "When we do, it is a decision of the Animal Care and Use Committee."
When not used for display/educational purposes, bodies are incinerated, and the ashes buried in an undisclosed location. That is to prevent the hide or teeth or other body parts being sold on the black market or being made into trophies of any kind, said Manda Butler, a zookeeper here for 12 years.
Generation Z(oo)
Two deer born on opening day at Cameron Park Zoo are still alive and kicking, Cox said.
Some of the kudu here when the gates first opened have died only in the last year. Buster the kudu was 15 when he died in 2008, she added.
In November 1993, when the hoof-stock barn caught fire, park rangers and the fire department gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to some creatures. Apple, a pregnant kudu, was saved; her surviving offspring have had grandchildren of their own now.
BJ, another of Apple and Buster's children, was born in 1997 and still roams the veldt of Cameron Park Zoo. In the wild, kudu live about 12 to 16 years.
Just as the creatures are spawning multigenerational families, Cox noted, so is their fan base.
"It's really fun for us to see the little ones, when we opened, who were 2 or 3 now being hired as camp counselors for zoo camp or zoo crew," Cox said. "They've watched the animals grow up as they grow up. Soon, they'll be bringing children of their own."
Sumber : http://www.wacotrib.com Via Milist Save The Tigers
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" Getting a long with TIGER "© Erni Suyanti Musabine
A sumatran tiger in the South Bengkulu (June - July 2010)
A sumatran tiger in the South Bengkulu (June - July 2010)
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