Portland, November 2nd. The Oregon Zoo Cascade Crest Banquet Center was filled with four-legged friends for the Guide Dogs for the Blind Fall Luncheon. 330 people attended and raised $75,000. Proceeds support programs at GDB’s Oregon campus in Boring including training for dogs and students and veterinary care for working guides and puppies in training. (Photo Credit, Deb Ryan)
The program featured a dog training demonstration, a keynote address by Paralympic Downhill Skiing Bronze Medalist Danelle Umstead with her Guide Dog Bettylynn, as well as the ever-popular puppy delivery where puppy raisers received their new charges.
Guide Dogs for the Blind veterinarian Dr. Patti Van de Coevering and Arnie.
Guests at Guide Dogs for the Blind’s Oregon Fall Luncheon.
CEO of Guide Dogs for the Blind, Paul Lopez and his wife Deirdre enjoying the Oregon Fall Luncheon hosted by Guide Dogs for the Blind.
From Guide Dogs for the Blind:
It all began with a dream—the dream of creating the first guide dog training school on the West Coast. It was a dream shared by Lois Merrihew and Don Donaldson, who volunteered their efforts along with many others. They recognized the need to help wounded servicemen who would return from World War II without their sight. They believed in the potential of dogs to serve as guides for the blind.
Our school was incorporated in May of 1942 and began instruction of students in a rented home in Los Gatos, California, south of San Jose. A German Shepherd named Blondie was one of the first dogs trained. Blondie had been rescued from a Pasadena dog pound. She was later paired with Sgt. Leonard Foulk, the first serviceman to graduate from the new school.
Today…
In 1947, the school moved to our present 11-acre location in San Rafael, California, 20 miles north of San Francisco. In October of 1995, we held the first graduation at our new campus in Boring, Oregon, 25 miles east of Portland. We have graduated more than 10,000 teams since our beginnings in 1942.
Both campuses house students in exceptional dormitory facilities which include dining rooms, exercise rooms, libraries, computer rooms and social areas. Both are located near major metropolitan centers, providing graduated training from quiet rural areas to congested city streets and public transit. The dogs and puppies are cared for in meticulous kennels and state-of-the-art veterinary clinics. Labrador Retrievers, Golden Retrievers, and Labrador Retriever/Golden Retriever crosses are the breeds used. Professional staff and veterinarians nurture, groom, train and prepare the dogs for their futures as guides.
Portland, November 19th. Being the doc on call when an elephant goes into labor is not a job for the faint-hearted. Mitch Finnegan, the zoo’s senior veterinarian, knows: He was present 18 years ago at the birth of Rose-Tu, and four years ago at the birth of Samudra, her first calf at the Oregon Zoo.
“That last birth easily took a year off my life,” Dr. Finnegan said. “I hope this one goes easier.”
Samudra, born Aug. 23, 2008, had a rough start to life. Topping 280 pounds at birth, he was a large baby, which contributed to a long and difficult labor for Rose-Tu. Rose-Tu, who had never experienced a birth before, became confused and agitated after delivering her baby, which can happen with first-time mothers. Keepers quickly intervened to prevent any harm to the baby. They then worked around the clock during the calf’s first week of life to help ensure the critical mother-calf bond became a strong one.
“Rose had never experienced a birth before, so we think she may have been confused by what was happening,” Finnegan said. “She was the last elephant born at the zoo until her own calf arrived. This time, we think things will go much better.”
Still, with Rose-Tu just weeks — perhaps days — away from giving birth again, Dr. Finnegan and the rest of the zoo’s elephant-care team are doing their best to make sure they’re ready for anything.
“We’re expecting the best and preparing for the worst,” Finnegan said. “We’ll have several carts of equipment and hopefully we’ll use none of it.”
Last week, emergency medical supplies were assembled at the elephant barn in preparation for the birth. Medications are on hand in case labor needs to be induced. Oxygen is available in case the newborn calf shows any signs of difficulty breathing.
There can be complications to both mother and calf, according to Finnegan. One major risk to both is dystocia, or a difficult labor. Elephants are prone to a form of dystocia in which their labor stalls, requiring veterinarians to administer medications to stimulate the uterus in order for labor to continue.
But such a move brings another risk.
“Normally, elephants are delivered rear feet first,” Finnegan said. “In very large animals like elephants, it’s sometimes difficult to know whether the calf is positioned normally. Palpation and ultrasound are our best tools, but they provide relatively limited information in elephants compared to smaller animals like horses or dogs. The risk is that if drugs are used to stimulate labor and the baby is malpositioned, intense contractions could tear the uterus. Since we often don’t have all the information we would like, it can be a harrowing experience if labor does not progress normally and medical intervention is necessary.”
Ultrasound, Finnegan says, offers too small a field of view, so he relies on an age-old, hands-on veterinary approach. If labor stops progressing, he will examine Rose-Tu, feeling inside her for the calf’s feet and toes, so he can determine how best to help labor proceed.
But if labor proceeds normally, Finnegan will keep out of Rose-Tu’s sight.
“Ideally we’ll leave her alone and only have people in the barn that she’s really comfortable with,” he said. “As much as possible, we want it to be just another day for her. Animals are very good at sensing our emotions and stress, so we want everyone to be upbeat and mellow.”
For months, the zoo’s elephant-care staff has been working with Rose-Tu to ensure she is calm, comfortable and confident on the big day. All that training and preparation — along with Rose-Tu’s own experience as a mother, the presence of other elephants and the staff who has cared for her for years — give Rose-Tu the best possible chances for the outcome everyone is hoping for: a healthy, strong calf.
The Oregon Zoo is recognized worldwide for its successful breeding program for Asian elephants, 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.
Asian elephants are considered highly endangered in their range countries, threatened by habitat loss and conflict with humans. According to estimates, fewer than 40,000 may remain in fragmented populations from India to Borneo.
The Oregon Zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, whose species survival plan for Asian elephants is striving to establish a self-sustaining population in North America.
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 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 $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, November 16th. The Oregon Zoo’s two year remodel on the Penguinarium is over and the playful Penguins are happy to be home!
For much of the past two years, the penguins shared a divided portion of the zoo’s polar bear habitat while improvements were made to their own quarters. This week the sleek seabirds returned home, waddling over the familiar rocky terrain and darting through the clear water of the zoo’s Penguinarium. The popular exhibit will reopen to the public on Saturday, Nov. 17.
Senior bird keeper Gwen Harris tends to a Humboldt penguin at the Oregon Zoo. The birds have returned to their home in the zoo’s Penguinarium, which reopens this weekend. Photo by Kevin Brown, courtesy of the Oregon Zoo.
The birds had been moved to their temporary habitat in late 2010, allowing work to begin on a much-needed upgrade of the Penguinarium’s 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.
Built in 1959 and remodeled in 1982, the Penguinarium had an outdated water-filtration system that dumped millions of gallons of water into the city’s sewer system each year. A constant flow of fresh water was required to keep the pool clean and free of scum that builds up from the oils in penguin feathers. And each week, the 25,000-gallon pool was completely drained for cleaning.
“The filtration upgrade was completed in December 2011 and worked perfectly,” said curator Michael Illig, who oversees all the zoo’s birds. “It was cleaning and circulating beautiful clear water.”
When staff turned on the exhibit’s 20-year-old heating and air conditioning system in anticipation of the penguins’ return, however, they found it wasn’t functioning properly.
“Since the penguins were already comfortable in their temporary digs, it was a good opportunity to repair the system with no impact to the birds or zoo visitors,” Illig said. “We wanted to make sure their home was 100 percent ready when they moved back.”
Also moving back home this month were 15 Inca terns, South American seabirds that share an exhibit space with penguins at the zoo. (The two species coexist in the wild as well.) The terns had been waiting out the renovations in an enclosure that had housed orangutans prior to the 2010 opening of Red Ape Reserve.
“It’s great to have the birds back together in their own space,” said Gwen Harris, the zoo’s senior keeper of birds. “Their welfare has always been our primary concern. Now the water’s clean and clear, and we’ve made a far more environmentally friendly habitat.”
Humboldt penguins (Spheniscus humboldti), which live along the South American coastline off of Peru and Chile, were granted protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act in 2010. 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.
The Oregon Zoo participates in a Species Survival Plan to cooperatively manage Humboldt populations.
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 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.
Through Jan. 31, 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, July 21st. The Zoolala benefit party raised nearly $150,000 to support the important animal welfare, conservation, education and sustainability programs at the core of the Oregon Zoo’s mission. OZF Board Member Campbell Kidd, Mike Clark, OZF Board Member Tracey Clark, and OZF Director Jani Iverson enjoyed the event.
Seattle-based painting performance artist Jimmy Gersen painted two original pieces during the event that were auctioned off to benefit the Oregon Zoo.
More than 700 zoo aficionados turned out for the charity benefit. A sold-out VIP reception featured a champagne ride on the zoo’s iconic train to the Great Northwest and patio of the new state-of-the-art Veterinary Medical Center. Signature drinks and sample plates from generous eateries tempted palates as Seattle-based performance painting artist Jimmy Gersen created works of art to be auctioned off later in the evening.
Summer soiree blends fun, fundraising for Oregon Zoo supporters.
The party got into full swing on the zoo’s concert lawn area. Guests tried their luck at the Monte Carlo tables and collected their winnings in the marketplace. For those who liked groovin’, the Tara Williamson Quartet and Beatles-through-the-ages band Apple Jam provided plenty of fodder for happy feet .
Of course, the animals weren’t left out of the fun. The zoo’s famous elephants, orangutans and sun bears were among the wildlife who stayed up late to enjoy a few enriching activities of their own!
We owe a great deal of thanks to everyone who came out to support the zoo, to those who donate to help create a better future for wildlife, to the zoo’s invaluable corps of volunteers, to all the vendors who served guests and to the event sponsors: Spirit Mountain Casino, Ray and Karolette Peterson, NW Natural, The Standard, Nike, Lease Crutcher Lewis, PLACE, KPFF Consulting Engineers, Jane Buchan and Jim Driscoll, Portland Monthly, KEX, Chateau St. Michelle, Deschutes Brewery, New Deal Distillery and DRY Soda.
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