Portland, June 22nd, 2013. The five new Humboldt penguin chicks that hatched at the Oregon Zoo this spring have begun to emerge from their nest boxes and explore their surroundings, keepers say. The young penguins are easy to identify: they are gray all over and lack the black-and-white markings of adult Humboldts — notably the distinctive horseshoe-shaped band in the chest area. In the photo, Keeper Kyla Holligan holds a young Humboldt penguin at the Oregon Zoo. The five chicks that hatched this spring have begun to emerge from their nest boxes and explore the zoo’s penguinarium. (Photo by Michael Durham, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.)
Keepers have named the chicks after well-known conservationists, wildlife experts and scientists:
· Irwin (for Australian wildlife expert and “crocodile hunter” Steve Irwin)
· Attenborough (for English nature historian David Attenborough)
· Jane Goodall (for the renowned chimpanzee expert and conservationist)
· Tesla (for the famous scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla)
· Linus (for Nobel prize winner and Portland native Linus Pauling).
Visitors can see the young birds waddling over the rocky terrain and darting through the clear water of the zoo’s penguinarium. (Penguins start swimming right away, and don’t need lessons the way young river otters do.)
It is the first time in four years visitors are able to see penguin chicks in Portland. The zoo’s breeding program had been on hiatus, in part due to renovations at the zoo’s penguinarium. The penguinarium reopened to the public last November, following a much-needed upgrade of its water-filtration system, one of many sustainability improvements funded by the community-supported 2008 zoo bond measure. The upgrade saves 7 million gallons of water each year.
Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus humboldti), which live along the South American coastline off of Peru and Chile, are classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and in 2010 were granted protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Of the world’s 17 penguin species, Humboldts are the most at risk, threatened by overfishing of their prey species, entanglement in fishing nets, and breeding disruption due to commercial removal of the guano deposits where the penguins lay their eggs. Their population is estimated at 12,000 breeding pairs.
Through its Future for Wildlife program, the Oregon Zoo has long supported Peru-based conservation organization ACOREMA’s work to protect the vulnerable Humboldt penguin. ACOREMA monitors penguin mortality and works closely with San Andrés fishermen to mitigate the practice of hunting penguins for food. The group also trains volunteer rangers, reaching out to 3,000 students, teachers and Pisco-area residents a year to raise awareness about penguin conservation.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. Celebrating 125 years of community support, the zoo relies in part on donations through the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 9 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
General zoo admission is $11.50 (ages 12-64), $10 for seniors (65 and up), $8.50 for children (ages 3-11) and free for those 2 and younger; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $4 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by calling 503-226-1561.
Portand, February 12th, 2013. The newest residents of the Oregon Zoo will be pretty in pink. This month, 21 lesser flamingos arrived from the San Antonio Zoo. After about a month of acclimation and observation to ensure the birds’ health, the flamingos will wade into their home in the newly remodeled Africa Rainforest aviary.
The pink birds will meet the public March 23 at the reopening of the Africa Rainforest aviary, which has been closed for remodeling since November. The flamingos’ new home boasts a pool especially designed for them, a new nesting area, and separate holding areas for the flamingos and for the ducks, pochards and ibises that share the aviary.
Northwesterners may not be used to seeing pink flamingos — except for the lawn variety. The birds have not been part of the Washington Park landscape since the early 1950s, when three flamingos were given to the zoo by the Meier & Frank Co.
It’s fitting that this flock will make its Oregon Zoo debut just in time for spring break, since flamingos often put people in mind of Miami and other getaway destinations. But animal curator Michael Illig hopes the aviary’s flamboyant newcomers help visitors think of the lake regions of eastern Africa, where most of the world’s lesser flamingos are born.
“The flamingo is such a gorgeous, social bird,” Illig said. “When people make a connection with the flamingo, they become curious about where the birds come from and the challenges they face in the wild.”
The smallest species of flamingo, the lesser flamingo (Phoenicopterus minor) stands nearly 3 feet tall and weighs 3 to 6 pounds, with a wingspan up to 41 inches. The Oregon Zoo’s lesser flamingos come to Portland from the San Antonio Zoo, which is phasing out its flock. All of the flamingos are males, but Illig says the zoo plans to add females and begin a reproductive program in the future. The zoo’s flamingo population will be managed under a cooperative program of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, of which the Oregon Zoo is an accredited member.
With a global population of more than 2 million, the lesser flamingo is not considered an endangered species. There is cause for concern, though: Some of the birds’ main breeding sites are facing risks due to industrial pollution and human encroachment.
The primary habitats of the lesser flamingo are shallow, brackish lakes in the Rift Valley of eastern Africa, where three-quarters of the population is born. A smaller population lives in India. The birds have specialized salt glands that allow them to excrete excess salt they ingest, letting them take advantage of habitats other animals cannot.
Lesser flamingos feed on spirulina, a blue-green bacteria, which thrives in alkaline lakes and contains the photosynthetic pigments that give the birds their pink color. At the Oregon Zoo, the flamingos will eat a specialized diet that contains the algae they need. They’ll scoop food out of the lagoon in much the same way they do in the wild, dipping their beaks upside-down into the water and sweeping them back and forth to filter food.
The Africa Rainforest lagoon renovation is part of a larger, donor-funded aviary upgrade project. Cascade Marsh, in the Great Northwest habitat area, is also reopening after renovation that included new netting, a new vestibule and pole caps to preserve the aviary structure.
The aviary upgrades are part of an effort to improve habitats, enhance animal welfare and make the grounds more sustainable, but these renovations were not funded by the zoo bond measure passed by voters in 2008. The aviary improvements were funded entirely by donor contributions through the Oregon Zoo Foundation.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. Celebrating 125 years of community support, the zoo relies in part on donations through the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 10 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
Information provided by the Oregon Zoo’s Hova Najarian
PORTLAND, Ore. February, 8th. In an agreement finalized today, the zoo assumed legal ownership of Rose-Tu’s new calf from Have Trunk Will Travel, the California-based company that had previously held rights to the young elephant.“Lily’s living arrangements were never in question,” said Kim Smith, zoo director. “But this makes it official: Lily will live her life with her family herd, the way elephants should.”
Lily plays in the sand back yard of the Oregon Zoo’s Asian elephant habitat. Photo by Michael Durham, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.
Smith said the zoo also will retain Tusko, the 13,000-pound bull elephant who sired both Lily and Samudra and has been here on a breeding loan since 2005. The zoo arranged to acquire both elephants for $400,000, thus voiding its loan agreement with Have Trunk Will Travel and putting to rest any speculation that Tusko’s future offspring might not belong to the zoo. The purchase was funded entirely by the Oregon Zoo Foundation, the private nonprofit fundraising arm of the zoo, and did not involve public monies.
“We are grateful to the dedicated donors who recognize the zoo as an important community asset and support our work through the Oregon Zoo Foundation,” Smith said. “The ongoing support these gifts provide not only made this ownership transfer possible but helps advance our daily efforts to create a better future for wildlife.”
Lily’s status was secured today with a payment for half the total purchase amount, while the transaction involving Tusko is complete pending a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (a requirement since Tusko was born outside the country).
Smith said she understands the need for reassurance about the fate of Rose-Tu’s calf, as well as the initial public outcry over some misleading reports.
“Given the sensationalized story people were first presented with, that’s exactly how they should have reacted,” Smith said. “If I thought for one minute that this baby was going to be taken from her mother — taken from her home — I would be outraged too. But Lily was never going away, and I think everyone understands that now.”
Controversy first stirred when a Seattle newspaper ran an article suggesting the zoo’s newborn elephant calf could be plucked from her mother and dropped into a traveling circus. As evidence, the paper produced a copy of the 2005 breeding loan for Tusko; the agreement stipulated that Tusko’s second, fourth and sixth offspring would be owned by Have Trunk Will Travel.
The contract, Smith said, was a standard one — and old news to those who’d followed Tusko’s story in The Oregonian. In the zoo world, she noted, ownership is not an indicator of where an animal will live. Even so, the timing of the Seattle article hit a nerve with local residents, who had fallen hard for Rose-Tu’s baby and sought reassurance that she wasn’t going away.
“This controversy was much ado about nothing,” Smith said. “But it’s still been incredibly gratifying to see our community come together like this on behalf of elephants. The passion we’ve seen is precisely what we aim to inspire — it’s what gives me hope for the future, because Asian elephants are facing serious threats to their survival right now.”
Considered highly endangered in their range countries, Asian elephants are threatened by habitat loss, conflict with humans and disease. It is estimated that fewer than 40,000 elephants remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo.
The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its successful breeding program for Asian elephants, which has now spanned 50 years. Lily’s grandmother, Me-Tu, was the second elephant born at the zoo (just months after Packy in 1962), and her great-grandmother, Rosy, was the first elephant to live in Oregon.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. The zoo relies in part on community support through donations to the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 10 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
General zoo admission is $11.50 (ages 12-64), $10 for seniors (65 and up), $8.50 for children (ages 3-11) and free for those 2 and younger; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $4 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by calling 503-226-1561.
Portland, January 11th, 2013. The Oregon Zoo’s Lilah Callen Holden Elephant Museum — home to elephant-related art, historical artifacts and a 7,000-year-old fossilized mastodon skeleton — will close its doors for good this month, as the zoo prepares for construction on Elephant Lands, a dramatic expansion of the Asian elephant habitat. Zoogoers wishing to see the museum one last time may visit Jan. 11-21, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Much of the artwork and many historical artifacts on display at the Elephant Museum will remain at the zoo — some within Forest Hall, the indoor portion of the Elephant Lands habitat — but this month will be the last chance for visitors to experience the museum in its current space.
It will also be the final opportunity to see the museum’s massive mastodon skeleton, on loan from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Later this month, a team of expert vertebrate paleontologists will begin the job of dismantling the fossilized giant, which will be shipped back to its permanent home at the Smithsonian in early February.
The skeleton — an Ice Age relic that stands around 8 feet tall and measures 14 feet from tusk to tail — dates from the late Pleistocene era and is believed to be at least 7,000 years old. It was discovered in 1901 by Levi Wood, who unearthed it from a peat swamp on his farm in southern Michigan. Following an appearance at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, the mastodon found a home in the Smithsonian’s newly opened “Hall of Extinct Monsters” in 1910, remaining there for more than 50 years until a 1963 museum renovation. The last time the skeleton was moved was in 1986 for the opening of the zoo’s Elephant Museum.
Other items of interest at the Elephant Museum include:
· An etching of an elephant skull by well-known English artist Henry Moore.
· “Animal Alphabet,” a 1973 work by Henk Pander (the celebrated Dutch-born painter has been a Portland resident since 1965).
· “Mammoths,” a print by prominent Northwest artist Tom Hardy. Hardy’s bronze sculpture “Wooly Mammoths” is also featured, mounted on an exterior wall just outside the museum’s exit.
· A pencil-and-ink drawing of African elephants by Kamante, friend and major domo to writer Isak Dinesen during her years in Kenya.
· A kinetic wire elephant sculpture by artist Steve Clisby (donated by the Girl Scouts in 1983).
· Memorabilia from the time of Packy’s birth in 1962.
Since opening in December 1986, the Lilah Callen Holden Elephant Museum has been dedicated to the acquisition, preservation, interpretation and exhibition of materials related to elephants and their relationship with humans.
The brainchild of former zoo director Warren Iliff, the museum was named in memory of Lilah Callen Holden, a long-time elephant lover and friend of Iliff’s, who died in 1983. The Holden Family has been the museum’s champion for more than a quarter of a century.
“Exhibit themes naturally change over time, and the bulk of this collection was acquired for illuminating themes deemed important at the time of the grand opening,” said Rebecca Patchett, museum collection coordinator. “Items exhibited in Forest Hall will provide an overview of how elephants have interacted with and inspired humans across the globe and tell the story of the strong bond between the Portland community and the Oregon Zoo’s herd.”
After taking in the Elephant Museum’s historic and prehistoric sights, weekend visitors can also get a glimpse into the near future. Zoo volunteers will be at the museum Jan. 11-13 and Jan. 19-21, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., to help explain the transformations to come with the Elephant Lands, which will quadruple the space and enhance daily experiences for the zoo’s elephants — including Lily, the newest addition to the herd. Visitors to the museum during these hours may pick up a complimentary pair of pink elephant ears (while supplies last) commemorating the Nov. 30 birth of Lily, and perhaps get a look at the 6-week-old romping in one of the outside sand yards of the nearby elephant habitat.
The zoo’s elephant care team reports Lily’s integration into the herd is progressing so well that there will no longer be set hours with Lily and Rose-Tu in the indoor viewing room. Lily and her mother may be outside with the rest of the herd or in the viewing room on any given day. Either way, indoor viewing will be open until 3 p.m.
The zoo is a service of Metro and is dedicated to its mission of inspiring the community to create a better future for wildlife. Committed to conservation, the zoo is currently working to save endangered California condors, Oregon silverspot and Taylor’s checkerspot butterflies, western pond turtles and Oregon spotted frogs. Other projects include studies on Asian elephants, polar bears, orangutans and giant pandas. The zoo relies in part on community support through donations to the Oregon Zoo Foundation to undertake these and many other animal welfare, education and sustainability programs.
The zoo opens at 10 a.m. daily and is located five minutes from downtown Portland, just off Highway 26. The zoo is also accessible by MAX light rail line. Visitors who travel to the zoo via MAX receive $1.50 off zoo admission. Call TriMet Customer Service, 503-238-RIDE (7433), or visit www.trimet.org for fare and route information.
General zoo admission is $10.50 (ages 12-64), $9 for seniors (65 and up), $7.50 for children (ages 3-11) and free for those 2 and younger; 25 cents of the admission price helps fund regional conservation projects through the zoo’s Future for Wildlife program. A parking fee of $4 per car is also required. Additional information is available at www.oregonzoo.org or by calling 503-226-1561.
Portland, January 3rd. Throughout the year, the biggest developing story at the zoo was the baby growing inside Rose-Tu. As the 18-year-old Asian elephant neared the end of her 22-month pregnancy, the zoo’s animal-care staff helped ensure a safe and healthy delivery by monitoring her weight, leading her through daily exercises, and creating a calming birth environment. On Nov. 30 at 2:17 a.m., Rose delivered a healthy, 300-pound female calf. Here’s a video of Lily now:
It’s been a big year for Oregon Zoo elephants, from the 50th birthday of Packy in April to the birth of the newest member of the herd, Lily, in November. As the zoo celebrates a half-century of working with elephants, it looks forward to breaking ground on a visionary expansion of the Asian elephant habitat next spring.
In a public vote on baby names selected by elephant keepers, more than 60 percent of the 50,000-plus voters chose the name Lily for the new calf — following the floral theme of her mom’s name (Rose-Tu, or Rose for short). But Lily is no wallflower — the youngster is proving a boisterous addition to the zoo’s Asian elephant herd, and is quickly bonding with her mother and the other elephants. Visitors can usually see her from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.
“I love seeing the way visitors respond to Lily’s energy and spirit,” said Bob Lee, the zoo’s elephant curator. “When people connect with Lily and see the bond between Rose-Tu and her calf, it brings home what we’re doing every day to make a good life for elephants.”
The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its successful Asian elephant breeding program, which has now spanned 50 years. Rose-Tu’s mother, Me-Tu, was the second elephant born at the zoo (just months after Packy in 1962), and her grandmother, Rosy, was the first elephant ever to live in Oregon.
Packy turns 50
On April 14, the zoo celebrated the 50th birthday of Packy, the iconic pachyderm who kicked off a half-century of successful elephant breeding at the Oregon Zoo. Packy put Portland on the map in 1962, making international news as the first elephant born in the Western Hemisphere in 44 years. He’s held a special spot in his fans’ hearts ever since. Packy’s birth also helped scientists better understand elephants — his mother’s pregnancy established the length of elephant gestation, for example — and opened the door to a new era in elephant welfare.
Packy is now the oldest and tallest male Asian elephant in North America. The zoo celebrated Oregon’s biggest celebrity with a birthday bash featuring music, games and an enormous cake. Packy was also knighted by the Royal Rosarians and honored by the Rose Festival as grand marshal for the year’s Grand Floral Parade.
“The Oregon Zoo is world-renowned for its Asian elephant program,” said Kim Smith, zoo director, “and Packy’s birth was the cornerstone on which this program was built. He has been inspiring people to care about elephants for half a century.”
Zoo lays groundwork for visionary new Elephant Lands habitat
The Oregon Zoo is poised to begin construction in 2013 on Elephant Lands, an expansion of the elephant habitat that will quadruple the elephants’ space and dramatically enhance their experiences and daily routines. The herd will have access to a variety of habitats and terrain, from rolling meadow to hilly forest. Designed for elephant comfort, health and enjoyment, Elephant Lands will include scratching surfaces, elephant controlled showers, pools for bathing and mud wallows to cool and protect skin.
Elephant Lands puts into practice the zoo’s philosophy that all animals should have choices over how they spend their days and nights and access to the outdoors. Forest Hall, a multistory covered enclosure with natural flooring, will provide elephants with shelter from summer heat and winter cold, with wide-open doors to the meadows and forests, pools and wallows.
In addition, zoo visitors can expect completely new options for viewing these mighty and majestic animals.
In December, Metro Council directed Metro’s COO to exercise the option the agency holds on the former site of Roslyn Lake in rural Clackamas County and purchase the 260-acre parcel from Portland General Electric for development as a future remote elephant center. This allows the zoo to purchase the property at an agreed-upon price that is set to expire at the end of this year. The zoo anticipates that development may be several years in the future. With the purchase, the zoo can move forward on specific site development plans. In the mean time, zoo officials are exploring long-term strategies for funding the center’s operations.
Samudra gets life lessons from dad
In June, the zoo honored Tusko as its Father of the Year. The sire of both Lily and her 4-year-old brother Samudra, Tusko has been giving Sam life lessons in what it means to be a bull. Keepers believe that seeing male behavior modeled from an early age will have a positive effect on Samudra’s ability to socialize with the herd as he matures.
In the past year, Tusko has been teaching Samudra how male elephants, called bulls, interact with female elephants. The 40-year-old bull has also taught the youngster to respect him as the dominant male of the family grouping by, among other things, waiting to eat until after Tusko has eaten and not facing the impressive bull directly.
Keepers hope that by learning to be a docile male elephant in his youth, Samudra will mature more slowly and therefore remain with his mother and aunties for a longer time before separating from the herd, as males do in the wild.
Research aims to safeguard elephant welfare
This year, the zoo continued its leading role in research to understand Asian elephants and safeguard their welfare, both in human care and in the wild. The zoo is collaborating with the National Zoo on research to protect elephant health by identifying the causes of EEHV, the deadliest viral disease affecting Asian elephants both in zoos and in the wild. The Oregon Zoo is also supporting research into treatments such as the promising antiviral drug glancovir.
The zoo’s Asian elephant Chendra is also helping researchers protect her endangered subspecies of elephants on the island of Borneo. They’re examining the DNA of Chendra and other Borneo elephants in Malaysia to understand the pachyderm’s genome and protect the genetic diversity of Borneo pygmy elephants, which number only about 2,000 in the wild and are highly threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation.
Zoo works to protect elephants in the wild
As the Oregon Zoo worked to ensure the welfare of the elephants in its care, it also worked to protect elephants in the wild. Asian elephants are considered highly endangered in their range countries, threatened by habitat loss and conflict with humans. It is estimated that fewer than 40,000 elephants remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo. Through the International Elephant Foundation and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the zoo supported a broad range of elephant conservation efforts to help wild elephants.
This year, the zoo continued to support work to address human-elephant coexistence issues, including the introduction of palmyra palm tree barriers in Sri Lanka as a sustainable, ecofriendly long-term tool for deterring crop-raiding elephants. Kids in Sri Lankan schools are also learning about safety around elephants and ways to coexist in harmony.
Oregon Zoo-supported projects also empower local communities to monitor and protect their neighboring elephants. In Myanmar, Chin villagers are trained to survey elephants and patrol for poachers. And in Sumatra, once-neglected captive elephants are participating in direct field based wildlife conservation.
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Zoo works to protect elephants in the wild
