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For guests visiting the Indoor Rainforest exhibit in the Carruth Natural Encounters building, a little monkey awaits with a big surprise!

Normally, visitors are quick to comment on the flashy appearance of the bright orange Golden Lion Tamarins seen in the Indoor and Outdoor Rainforest exhibits. Right now, however, all eyes are on the Cotton Top Tamarins.  These monkeys are known for their shock of white head hair and their brown and white coloring.  That all changed for our two monkeys in preparation for our celebration of Proyecto Titi, one of the conservation organizations that is featured in the recently released book Wildlife Heroes.

Natural Encounters zookeeper Rachel Godambe worked with the pair to dye their hair bright blue in support of the wild Cotton Top Tamarins of Colombia, who are studied by Proyecto Titi scientists and are fitted with radio trackers and dyed in color patterns to make identifying individual monkeys at great distances a slightly easier process.  This weekend, keeper chats at the Indoor Rainforest will highlight the conservation work done by Proyecto Titi to save these tiny endangered monkeys.  Guests will be able to spot our brightly colored monkeys and learn more about what native Colombians are doing to celebrate Cotton Tops and protect them and their rainforest habitat.

On Sunday, author Jeff Flocken will be at the Houston Zoo to sign copies of his book Wildlife Heroes, available for purchase at the zoo, and to share his wonderful stories about Cotton Top Tamarins and Proyecto Titi.  Please stop by on either Saturday or Sunday to see our information display and learn more!

Check out Rachel’s answers to some monkey related questions below:

Fun Facts about our Cotton Top Tamarins:

• Cotton Top Tamarins vocalize to each other with a variety of high pitched squeaks that sound a lot like bird calls.

• Cotton Top Tamarins tails are long but they are not prehensile. They use their tails for balance as they run and leap through branches.

• Cotton Top Tamarins are social animals and live in groups of 2 to 12 individuals in the wild.

How long have you been a CTT trainer?

I have been training Mikey and Minnie the Cotton Top Tamarins at Natural Encounters for 8 months now.

Is this the strangest behavior you’ve trained the monkeys?

If you told me I will end up dying monkeys’ hair I wouldn’t believe it in a million years!

What makes working with Cotton Top Tamarins so rewarding?

These guys have interesting personalities which makes training them so fun and rewarding.

You had great success in dying the CTT hair bright blue.  What was the process?  What was your biggest challenge?  How long from start to finish did this take? 

It took a month to accomplish this goal of dying their hair blue for the conservation event. I had in mind applying the dye with a syringe. They are used to the presence of the syringe for oral medication and associate it with treats, so they were quite comfortable with this process. I used the syringe with water and had them touch a target, which is one of their long established training behaviors. The syringe was presented above their heads and a reward was given. I did this for a few days and once they were accustomed to it I dripped some water on them from the syringe and rewarded them with a big jackpot (lots of verbal goods, wax worms, currents, and yogurt tossed at them) and they did not mind at all. We did these sessions a couple of times a week up to a few days before the event. It was now time to introduce the dye (nontoxic food coloring) and this is where I was faced with a challenge, the dye would not apply properly to the hair. It was suggested that we use a small paint brush. These guys have never seen a paintbrush in their lives and to have it rubbed on their heads could be very scary for them. After practice sessions of presenting the paintbrush with the dye on it and moving it around them with lots of treats it became a positive item to them. Eventually, they let me apply the dye with a paintbrush on their crazy white hair. Now you can see them rock their blue hair in the Natural Encounters Rainforest for conservation!

The biggest challenge was Mikey would only let me do a few strands at a time because he would run to the window and stare at his reflection. We had to wait for him to stop looking at himself, then he would come back and let us do some more. It was a time consuming process, but I think he just wanted to make sure it looked good. = )

Indah painting on iPad

Great apes that live in zoos such as the orangutans and chimpanzees have a team of dedicated keepers that ensure that their basic necessities such as food, water, and safe shelter are met on a daily basis. However, a zoo keeper’s job also involves ensuring that the animal has the highest quality of life possible. So not only are keepers interested in meeting the animal’s basic needs but also in making sure that the animals are constantly being engaged and stimulated by their environment. This is an especially important challenge when working with great apes due to their intelligence. The devices and activities that keepers use to accomplish this goal are referred to as enrichment as they enrich the lives of the animals.

Apes can quickly figure out many enrichment devices and keepers constantly are faced with the problem of trying to come up with new ideas to capture their interest. The Houston Zoo primate department’s newest solution to this problem is ……. the iPad!

Sally creating a masterpiece with a musical app.

Now many of you may wonder, what do the orangutans and chimpanzees do with an iPad? The answer is … they play with apps, of course! The iPad screen is the perfect fit for orangutan and chimpanzee fingers. Its small size makes it very easy to move so keepers can introduce it to the chimpanzees in the training room, to the orangutans at the viewing window or at any of the many rooms found in the animals’ holding area. The quantity and variety of apps available make it easy to keep the device novel and interesting for both the orangutans and the chimpanzees. Stay posted for more updates on this new fun enrichment project with our orangutans and chimpanzees!

First of all, I would like to congratulate Susan Draper on winning our contest posted in the last blog.  Susan will be at the zoo this Saturday to help prepare the exhibit for our new Goeldi’s monkeys, Peach and Andy.  Susan’s husband, Mickey, will be joining us as her chosen guest. We have plenty of work to keep them busy.  It’s important to change out the climbing structures in our exhibits in between previous residents moving out and new residents moving in.  We have lots of grape vine and branches that need to be put into the exhibit so Peach and Andy have plenty of arboreal pathways and can easily get in and out of their night house. Hope Susan and Mickey are ready to get dirty!

The second piece of news is that Peach and Andy were both given clean bills of health by our veterinarians and after a few days of visiting through a mesh barrier they were able to meet face to face. Everything went exactly as we had hoped and it does indeed seem to be love at first sight!  Now we just have to wait for them to clear their required quarantine period and then we can move them to their new home. Are they not the cutest couple?

There seems to be no question that they are going to be a great couple! Photo credit: Jennifer Stevenson

This post written by Kim Siegl 

Bowling for Rhinos (BFR) is a family friendly event that is organized by your local zookeepers . The event associated with the Houston Zoo is designed every year by the Greater Houston Chapter of American Association of Zoo Keepers (AAZK). Bowling for Rhinos was initially started by zookeepers in 1990. Houston has been Bowling for Rhinos since 1991. There are currently over 60 AAZK chapters nation-wide that host a BFR event. This year, our chapter hopes to reach a huge milestone of $100,000 raised by Houston over the last 21 years. Come on out to help us reach our goal!

All of the proceeds raised from BFR support several conservation organizations including: Lewa Wildlife Conservation, International Rhino Foundation, and Action for Cheetahs. These organizations facilitate sanctuaries that are home to White and Black rhinos of Africa, as well as the Javan, Greater One-horned, and Sumatran rhinos of Asia. These projects help to save many other animals too. The funds raised by BFR events help to fence in the parks, purchase planes and off road vehicles to curtail poaching, move rhinos into the sanctuaries, purchase motion sensing cameras for censuring, and pay salaries for anti-poaching security guards. For more information on the history of BFR, please click here  or watch the 2012 BFR video

There are less than 30,000 rhinos left in the world. The greatest threat they face is from poachers, who kill the rhinos for their horns. Rhino horn is believed to have almost-magical curative powers; the belief is that eating it can cure everything from the common cold to cancer. Unfortunately, that belief is wrong. There is actually no stronger benefit from eating rhino horn than if you were to eat your own fingernails. Hundreds of rhinos are killed by poachers every year, some even inside the sanctuaries, which is why money to support anti-poaching is so necessary to the rhinos survival.

By attending BFR, you do not just get the good-feeling from supporting a worthy conservation effort, but also a fun-filled night of bowling with family and friends, as well as zoo staff. The event also includes food (first come, first served), and a raffle all night long. Every year we host a silent auction comprised of a variety of one-of-the-kind items, including paintings created by zoo animals specifically for BFR. No two events are the exact same.

Friday, June 22, 2012
6:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Please visit our 2012 BFR website to purchase event tickets online now.

As we honor Mother’s Day and our newest orangutan family, awareness of what wild orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra are facing is ever-present. Baby Aurora has found a loving mother here, and yet babies in the forests are routinely losing theirs, as mother orangutans all over these islands are in the midst of the biggest crisis the species has ever faced.  As consumers all over the world buy food, cosmetics and lotions containing palm oil, the forests in Indonesia and Malaysia are being cut, burned and drained to create more palm oil plantations.  Orangutans are being killed by fire, gunshots and machetes to quench the world’s infinite appetite for palm oil, and that includes mothers with tiny, clinging infants. Crying babies are pried off their deceased mothers; the luckier ones are sometimes rescued and sent to rehabilitation facilities, where they are cared for by humans in the company of hundreds of other orphaned youngsters. The unluckier ones are kept as pets, where they die of malnutrition or remain chained to a backyard post, where they languish in misery for years.

The Houston Zoo is fortunate to have an orangutan like Cheyenne, whose great role in life is to adopt and love babies not genetically her own.  But, we must be mindful of those missing orangutan mothers  in the wild, who like her, are just trying to make sure that their babies stay safe and healthy. They are fighting a war that they cannot win unless the world listens to their plight. Are we willing to sacrifice the lives of one of our closest living relatives for  …  palm oil?

This Mother’s Day, ponder that question, and know that all of us have a part in being responsible consumers. We can help, with “the power of the purse.” Everything we buy is like a vote, and we can vote for orangutan mothers and their babies to survive by choosing our products carefully.

Catori, the Houston Zoo's Eastern Screech Owl. Photo by Ali Striggow.

Reptiles

Saturday:

• 10:00 a.m. – Python keep talk (reptile house)
•  10:30 a.m. – Komodo Dragon keeper talk (reptile house)

Sunday:

• 10:00 a.m. – Cuban Crocodile keeper talk (reptile house)
• 10:30 a.m. – American Alligator keeper talk (reptile house)

Carnivores:

Saturday:

• 11:30 a.m. – Tiger keeper talk (at tiger window)

Sunday:

•   11:30 a.m. – Lion keeper talk (at lion window)

Birds:

Saturday:

• 11:30 a.m. – Meet Zuri the pygmy falcon
• 11:40 a.m. – Vulture keeper talk (vulture exhibit)
• 1:00 p.m. – Meet Ariel the owl
• 2:30 p.m. – Owl keeper talk (tropical bird house)
• 4:00 p.m. – Meet Zuri the pygmy falcon

Children’s Zoo

Saturday & Sunday:

• 11:00 a.m. – Meet a bird of prey
•    1:15 p.m. – Meet a bird of prey

Aquarium

Saturday & Sunday:

• 10:30 a.m. – Piranha keeper talk

Wortham World of Primates

Saturday & Sunday:

• 12:00 p.m. – Primate keeper talk
• 12:30 p.m. – Primate keeper talk ( at chimpanzee exhibit)
•   3:30 p.m. – Primate keeper talk

Peach checking out her new guy. Photo credit: Jennifer Stevenson

They have to go through quarantine at our veterinary clinic during which time they are cared for by our awesome clinic keepers. They will undergo a sedation and exam while in quarantine and once they both receive a clean bill of health they will get to meet each other.  Right now they can see each other but not touch one another.  We’ll be moving to an introduction through a mesh barrier soon, then finally letting them in together.  So far they have been calling to one another and seem eager to meet so keep your fingers crossed for love at first sight. 

Andy looking a little shy at the prospect of his new girlfriend. Photo credit: Jennifer Stevenson

But before Andy and Peach can move into their new home, we need your help getting it ready!  If you’ve ever wondered what it takes to get an exhibit ready for new residents, now is your chance to find out.  In the comments section below, tell us why we should pick you to help us get Andy & Peach’s new home ready.

Whoever submits the winning comment will get to come out to the zoo with a friend and help us prepare the exhibit.  Be prepared to get dirty, learn some cool stuff about primates and have fun!

Contest Particulars:

• You and your guest must be 18 years old.
• You must be available at 2:00 on May 12th to come to the zoo.
• If you have an aversion to physical work and getting dirty, this may not be the contest for you.
• The prize can not be given to someone else.  If you win, you must be the participant, along with your chosen guest.
• The primate team will choose their favorite comment as the winner, so be creative!

What you may not know is that behind the scenes, we have many employees and volunteers who work extremely hard to help the Zoo improve day by day. Recently, I got to sit down with Kirsten Ufer, the Creative Director for the Houston Zoo, and learn all about her incredible work at the Zoo.

Kirsten, what the heck does a Creative Director do?

Basically, what I do as Creative Director is to oversee the graphic design and photography departments. We help communicate messages visually – whether it is through designing a logo, a brochure, a sign, etc…  Much like a trained chef has the ability to make food look more appetizing by the way it is presented, we put all the pieces together to make a message more compelling through our design.

What’s the most fun part of your job?

The animals! It’s amazing to be right here with the animals and get to design things that pertain to them, as well as conservation efforts. This is definitely a unique setting for anyone!

It sounds like you’ve had some interesting projects. Do you have a favorite?

There are so many projects that have been amazing to be a part of, it’s hard to choose just one – so I have narrowed it down to three.