SS S

aX

SS

—

Friends

of the

National

is a nonprofit organization of in-

dividuals and families who are in-

terested in supporting Zoo programs

in education, research, and con-

servation.

As members of FONZ, you and

your family receive many benefits—

publications, discount privileges,

and invitations to special programs

and activities to make your zoogoing

more enjoyable and educational.

ZooGoer (ISSN 06313-416X) is

published six times a year by Friends

of the National Zoo, National Zoo-

logical Park, Washington, D.C. 20008.

Third class mailing permit no. 44282.

Subscription as percentage of full

membership dues is $4.00 a year.

Subscription-only membership is

$5.00 a year and is available only to

institutions and to those residing

outside the Washington, D.C., area.

Copyright 1982, Friends of the

National Zoo. All rights reserved.

FONZ Board of Directors

1981-1982

Robert L. Nelson, President; Cecil McLelland,

First Vice President; Capt. Victor Delano,

Second Vice President; William C. Bryant,

Treasurer; Sally S. Tongren, Secretary; Knox

Banner; Janice A. Booker; John A. Cutler;

Janet Dewart; M. Anthony Gould; Alphons

Hackl; Anne Webster Hamilton; Dr. Stephen

T. Hosmer, Dr. A. Jose Jones; Nella C.

Manes; Georgianna S. McGuire; Robert W.

Mason; Dr. Roscoe M. Moore, Jr.; Monica J.

Morgan; Terry R. Peel; Whayne S. Quin;

James F. Rogers; Sylvia L. Samenow; Nancy

M. Schneck; Ross B. Simons.

FONZ Staff

Sabin Robbins, Executive Director; Dennis

Baker, Associate Director; Donna M. Schlegel,

Volunteer and Educational Services; Fran

Bernstein, Membership; Susan Bury Stauffer,

Publications; Lonnie Wornom, Merchandising;

James Mustakas, Food Service; Kevin Polen,

Transportation; Norma Grubbs, Business

Manager; Mary C. Massey, Personnel Manager.

National Zoological Park Staff

Dr. Theodore H. Reed, Director; Dr. Dale

Marcellini (Acting), Assistant Director for

Animal Programs; Gaetano Calise; Assistant

Director for Support Services; Vincent J. Doyle;

Office of Management Services; Dr. Robert J.

Hoage, Special Assistant to the Director; Jaren

Horsley; Executive Assistant, Office of Animal

Programs.

National Zoological Park

Department Heads

Dr. Edwin Gould, Mammalogy; Dr. Eugene

Morton (Acting), Ornithology; Dr. Dale Mar-

celllini, Herpetology; Judy White, Education;

Dr. Mitchell Bush, Animal Health; Dr. Richard

Montali; Pathology; Dr. Devra Kleiman, Zoo-

logical Research, Dr. Christen Wemmer, Con-

servation and Research Center; Donald Mud-

diman, Construction Management; Emanuel

Petrella, Facilities Management; Robert Mul-

cahy, Graphics and Exhibits; Samuel Middle-

ton, Police and Safety.

Volume 11, Number 4

July-August, 1982

Susan Bury Stauffer

Editor

Mary C. Massey

Consulting Editor, Friends of the

National Zoo

Dr. Robert J. Hoage

Consulting Editor,

National Zoological Park

Front Cover

This inquisitive youngster is one of

the National Zoo's family of lemurs.

Jeff Cohn’s article on lemurs begins on

page 10.

(Photo by Jessie Cohen, NZP Office of

Graphics and Exhibits.)

IN THIS ISSUE

ZOOGOER FEATURES

Guy Greenwell: Bird Man Extraordinaire...............4

Eugenia Snyder

EO@RNUES Ac ee ee ee oe OE ee a oe ee 1

Jeffrey P. Cohn

The History of the Long-Necked Lovelies .............15

Billie Hamlet

Animal Photography sc. é05 3. ode Pee oe Se ik Care ee 2

Martha Tabor

ZOOGOER DEPARTMENTS

BOUIN Z ANGW ix 6c. davcda 425 Pees 2 oo Dee eee

Piao NEWS. ooo ck hook cb boc eee ee a ee eee

Guy Greenwell goes to sleep each

night and awakens each morning

with the lives of hundreds, if not

thousands, of individuals de-

pending on him. He doesn’t mind.

In fact, he probably wouldn't be

happy living any other way.

The individuals in Guy's capable

charge are the birds and soon-to-

hatch birds in the collection of the

National Zoo's Conservation and

Researcia (enter (CRC hat Front

Royal, Virginia. They are a variable

and finicky lot requiring twenty-

four-hour attention.

At sixty-four Guy looks and

sounds like the legendary Burl Ives

turned zoologist. The senior orni-

thologist regularly dons a brown

Zoo shirt with blue jeans held at a

comfortable height and angle by

rainbow-striped suspenders. On

sunny days a CRC cap shades his

eyes as he surveys his yards and

aviaries filled with graceful cranes,

Eugenia Snyder

noisy mynahs, and a host of other

species.

Guy's pace is unhurried but

markedly purposeful. He works

from dawn until dusk to identify

and meet the varied and never-

ending needs of his charges.

On a given day he may have to

consider why one bird has stopped

eating, why a certain embryo has

failed to develop properly, what

kinds of plants could provide a safe

and effective barrier between terri-

torial birds in adjacent enclosures,

or what kind of nesting site and

materials to provide for members of

an endangered species.

At other times he may oversee the

construction of new bird yards,

study the pre-mating behavior of a

pair of Stanley cranes, monitor the

hatching progress of waterfowl eggs

in an incubator, teach a young emu

to accept pellet food, or give a

visiting dignitary an in-depth tour.

Guy Greenwell:

Bird Man Extraordinaire

text and photographs by

He may also draft plans for a new

piece of equipment, evaluate the

results of his latest research, read

an ornithology or aviculture

journal, meet with his keepers, or

negotiate with Zoo officials for

needed staff and construction

funds.

By the time he heads home to his

secluded cottage for the evening, he

has worn the hats of a biologist and

conservationist, a draftsman and

construction foreman, an animal

keeper and supervisor, a politician,

negotiator, and public relations

specialist. Nevertheless, his day's

work is not done.

Even as he climbs out of his Ford

Bronco at home, Guy mentally re-

views the events of the day and

begins making plans for the next

day. With an audience of Indian

blue peafowl at his feet and purple

martins chattering overhead, he

may work in his garden, contem-

plate the day's problems, and de-

velop new theories and procedures

to test in the weeks and months

ahead. By the time he wipes his

brow and goes inside for dinner,

he is mulling over the final details

of his plans and adjusting his

priorities.

The bird-breeding and -rearing

facilities at Front Royal have

evolved under Guy's careful super-

vision since the Zoo acquired the

property in 1975. They consist of a

hatching and rearing building con-

taining an incubator-brooder room

and customized pens to meet the

changing needs of young birds,

eighteen large juvenile holding

yards outfitted with concrete pools

and shelters, twenty-one spacious

crane breeding yards, and thirty-

two “hardy” bird yards designed for

housing species that can tolerate

the cold winter weather. The

facilities are unique and represent

the culmination of many years

of experience in maintaining and

breeding wild birds in captivity.

Guy began keeping birds as a

young boy on his family's poultry

farm at Joplin, Missouri. “My Dad

soon found out that I had more than

an average interest in birds,’ Guy

said, ‘and if he got a good-looking

hen or bantam or something un-

usual, why, he'd let me have it.” By

the time he was seven, Guy super-

vised his own collection of

chickens, ducks, and pigeons—not

in an odd assortment of makeshift

Guy Greenwell places a 3-week-old Inca term into a waterfowl brooder, where it will learn

to eat and begin to regulate its own body temperature. The brooders are heated by

overhead lamps.

cages but in his own 100- by 120-

foot poultry mesh pen complete

with a large concrete pool. “My Dad

subsidized me by buying the feed,”

Guy said with a smile.

Guy's early interest in birds was

insatiable. From the time he could

read, he devoured everything he

could get his hands on about birds.

His parents supported his efforts by

writing to the National Audubon

Society and the Ornithologists’

Union for lists of bird books and by

providing him with the reading

materials recommended.

His experience with keeping wild

birds began on Guy's eighth

Christmas when his father gave

him a pair of mallard ducks that a

friend had trapped. “From then on I

never had another toy,” Guy ad-

mitted. “I never wanted one. Those

poor mallards were eventually

tamed because I fooled with them

all the time.” Guy’s collection of

wild birds expanded the following

Christmas with the addition of a

pair of gadwall ducks. A year later

he was given a pair of Canada geese.

By the time he was nine Guy

could identify all 300 birds on the

Arm & Hammer bird cards pub-

lished in the 1920s. His knowledge

of birds was so great that his father

took him to the Izaak Walton

League convention in St. Louis to

give a talk on birds. According to an

article in the St. Louis Globe-

Democrat of July 10, 1927, Guy

dazzled the convention delegates by

Incubators and incubator-hatchers (right) and waterfowl brooders (left) fill the incubator

room at the Conservation and Research Center hatching and rearing building.

correctly identifying ninety-nine

out of a hundred species of birds

from pictures and telling “in con-

siderable detail about the habits and

characteristics of each.’ After

speaking on topics ranging from the

parasitic behavior of the cowbird to

the nests of flycatchers and king-

fishers, Guy was made the youngest

member of the League.

Almost overnight Guy developed

a reputation as a competent speaker

on birds and other wildlife. “My

family dragged me all over the

country,” Guy said. ‘By the time I

was ten or twelve, I had talked to

almost every high school assembly

and church group within seventy-

five miles of my home. My Dad got

me some elocution lessons along

about my twelfth year so I could

talk sensibly.”

Throughout his teenage years,

Guy was immersed in bird-related

activities. He produced a weekly

radio program on natural history

topics, served as a nature counselor

at YWCA and Boy Scout camps, and

trapped birds for sale to collectors.

He also corresponded with Dr.

Rudolf Bennitt, an ornithologist at

the University of Missouri, and as-

sisted Bennitt in preparing a check-

list of the birds of Missouri and

obtaining specimens for the uni-

versity's collection.

Greenwell confers with one of the keeper staff, Ginnie Fristoe.

Guy's own bird collection grew to

include multiple species of ducks

and geese, pigeons, doves, guinea

fowl, pheasants, and other game and

non-game birds. By trial and error

he gradually learned how to breed

and rear many of the species in

captivity. Remembering the demise

of a clutch of pheasant eggs his

father gave him, Guy admitted that

the lessons he learned were some-

times costly. “I set the eggs under a

bantam hen and happened to be at

the nest when she hatched them.

Nobody told me that you were

supposed to keep them confined in

a nest box. The chicks left in all

directions as fast as they dried, and I

never saw any of them again,” he

said with a husky laugh.

In the fall of 1935 Guy enrolled as

a freshman in Bennitt's ornithology

class at the University of Missouri.

After three weeks he and a class-

mate, wildlife artist Charles

Schwartz, were teaching the course

and running the field trips.

However, Guy's formal education

ended at the close of his second

year. Because of the worsening

economy, he was obliged to return

to Joplin to help save his father’s

struggling business.

The Greenwell poultry business

failed the summer after Guy's

return. He left Joplin to look for

work, and for the next five years he

traveled throughout the West and

Midwest taking whatever jobs he

could find. He shoveled coal for the

Missouri-Pacific Railroad; ran a

trap line and sold opossum, skunk,

and muskrat pelts in southern

Missouri; mined lead and silver in

Idaho; and worked on dam con-

struction projects in Washington

and California.

Guy's nomadic lifestyle offered

few opportunities for keeping and

studying birds in captivity. The one

exception was a period when he

worked as a hired hand on a ranch

near Fresno, California. One can

only wonder what the ranch owner

thought of the burrowing owls,

roadrunners, coots, black-crowned

night herons, and other birds Guy

collected in the area and brought

“home” to raise.

Job opportunities improved with

the onset of World War II, and in

1941 Guy returned to Joplin to

work for a roofing and sheet metal

company. He enjoyed financial

stability for the first time in several

years, but his love of birds remained

strong, and he longed for a job

where he could work with wildlife.

Guy corresponded regularly with

the staff of the Missouri Conser-

vation Commission about water-

fowl research in the state and was

eventually offered a job as a field

biologist. “Of course, I hadn't had

any formal training,” he said, “but

I'd read everything I could get

hold of all through the years.”

Guy spent four years with the

Commission studying the effects of

hypothetical floodwaters through

river valleys and surveying Mis-

souri bottomlands for duck areas

before he decided to return to Joplin

and his former job. He and his wife

settled into the Greenwell family

home, and Guy resumed his hobby

of keeping birds. Before long blue

geese, snow geese, Canada geese,

and assorted ducks were once again

thriving around the Greenwell

establishment.

Within a few years Guy's hobby

began to show promise as abusiness

venture, so the Greenwells decided

to raise waterfowl on a large scale

for sale to zoos and private col-

lectors. In 1953 Guy and his wife

purchased a forty-five-acre prop-

erty near Joplin that included two

large ponds ideal for waterfowl.

They named their new home

“Robin Roost” and began building

aviaries and pouring concrete for

pools.

Although Guy continued work-

ing as asales engineer and estimator

for the sheet metal company and

could devote only his spare time to

raising birds, ‘Robin Roost”

flourished and evolved into much

more than a waterfowl farm. Guy's

captive flock grew to include more

than 350 birds representing nearly

50 species and subspecies in 18

genera. In addition to ducks, geese,

and swans, he raised several kinds

of cranes, doves, peafowl, jungle-

fowl, and parrots and even a few

toucans and cormorants.

“Robin Roost” provided Guy

with a modest income but more

important, it gave him invaluable

experience in maintaining, breed-

ing, and rearing many kinds of birds

within a limited amount of space.

Because of its natural setting, the

farm served as a wildlife laboratory

where Guy could study bird be-

havior.

As “Robin Roost” grew, so did

Guy's knowledge and reputation.

He was active in waterfowl, wild-

life, and conservation organiza-

tions, exchanged ideas and infor-

mation with bird curators and col-

lectors, and gradually acquired a

The rolling Virginia countryside surrounds the hardy bird yard at Front Royal.

wealth of information about birds.

In addition to attending profes-

sional meetings, he spoke at local

club functions and colleges and

hosted a weekly television program

on natural history.

When National Zoo officials be-

gan searching for a new curator of

birds in 1972, few candidates pos-

sessed the broad range of experience

and knowledge that Guy had to

offer. He had successfully managed

“Robin Roost” for 17 years, kept at

least 161 species of birds, bred 106

species, and reared 109 species. His

first-hand experience as an avi-

culturist and his life-long devotion

to the study of birds more than

compensated for his lack of formal

education. He was offered the job,

and he accepted it.

Guy served as curator of birds at

the Zoo until the summer of 1975

when he moved to the Conserva-

tion and Research Center to design

and oversee the construction of

facilities for raising rare and en-

dangered birds. After identifying

the kinds of birds that should—and

potentially could—be bred and

raised at Front Royal, he drafted

plans for facilities to meet the

special needs of both the intended

residents and their keepers.

Because of limited construction

funds and chronic understaffing,

only a portion of Guy's “master

plan” for breeding and rearing birds

at Front Royal has become a reality.

Nevertheless, Guy and his staff

Greenwell checks a year-old emu in the juvenile holding yards at the Conservation and

Research Center.

have raised hundreds of birds and

have gathered valuable information

about keeping and breeding exotic

birds. They have gained the co-

operation of other zoos and col-

lectors in their research and,

through careful planning and test-

ing, have perfected many pro-

cedures for improving the results of

captive breeding efforts. In just five

years the Conservation and Re-

search Center has become one of

the leading bird-breeding and

-research centers in the world.

Most of the credit for the success

of the program must be given to

Guy. “A lot goes into what we do on

a day-to-day basis,” said Carolyn

Emerick, keeper leader. “Guy has

applied himself so fully over the

years that when it comes time for

him to make a decision, he draws

from many hours of personal appli-

cation. That's the thing we really

benefit from—he’s done so much

that he’s developed a sort of ‘sixth

sense’ about how to do things.”

Eugenia Snyder is a free-lance writer who

has worked at the Zoo and at Front Royal

as a graduate student and research as-

sistant.

The still of a hot summer afternoon

at the National Zoo is shattered by

an angry-sounding racket at the

Monkey House. First, an adult male

gives a piercing, bark-like call. The

five juveniles and two youngsters

quickly answer. Finally, as if to

make it unanimous, the adult female

joins the cacophony.

Crowds of people rush to the

enclosure, expecting to see fighting

animals, but they drift away once

calm is restored. The curious, how-

ever, soon notice that these mon-

keys don’t look quite like any others

at the Zoo. True, they have forward-

facing eyes, distinct fingers, opposa-

ble thumbs and nails instead of

claws. But their long bushy tails,

narrow skulls, fox-like snouts and

wet nostrils separate them from the

Zoo's other simians. Moreover,

they don’t act like monkeys.

Indeed, these are not monkeys at

all but ruffed lemurs. Lemurs are

10

Lemurs

Jeffrey P. Cohn

prosimians (literally, “pre-monkeys”),

relatives of the simian primates like

monkeys, apes and man.

Once, lemur-like prosimians

abounded in the tropical and sub-

tropical forests of Africa and Asia,

even extending their range into

Europe and North America during

warm periods. But, as the more

adaptable monkeys evolved 35 mil-

lion years ago, lemurs became ex-

tinct everywhere except on Mada-

gascar, a large island in the Indian

Ocean off the east coast of Africa.

Only a few highly specialized

prosimians remain outside Mada-

gascar, such as the golagos and

pottos of Africa and the lorises and

tarsiers of Asia. These mostly soli-

tary, nocturnal fruit- and insect-

eaters occupy ecological niches that

no monkeys fill.

In the absence of monkeys and

apes on Madagascar, however, le-

murs thrive. There, they are like

living fossils, telling us much about

life millions of years ago and hinting

about our own origins.

Most scientists believe that Ma-

dagascar broke off from mainland

Africa 65 million to 100 million

years ago. At that time, dinosaurs

ruled the earth, and most mammals

were small, nocturnal, insect-eating

creatures. Gradually, the channel

between Madagascar and Africa

widened until today it is 260 miles

across at the narrowest point.

Few animals have been able to

cross that sea barrier. No mammals

are believed to have come to Mada-

gascar in the last 50 million years,

except those brought by man.

There are no native hoofed animals

(pygmy hippopotamuses once lived

there but are now extinct},no simian

primates, no lions, leopards or hy-

enas. Like Australia, Madagascar

has its own plants and animals. In

fact, 90 percent of them are found

Lemur births at the National Zoo are an especially welcome event, as lemurs in the wild are increasingly threatened because of habitat

destruction (all photos by Jessie Cohen, NZP Office of Graphics and Exhibits).

nowhere else on earth, although

some do have relatives elsewhere.

Those mammals that did arrive

were mostly species that became

extinct elsewhere as different forms

evolved. Such was the case with

lemurs. The first ones may have

arrived clinging to a tree trunk that

had been washed to sea in a flood or

storm. Finding few competitors for

food or predators to threaten them,

lemurs quickly spread over the

entire island, adapting to habitats

that vary from tropical rain forests

along the eastern coast to hardwood

forests inland and the “spiny” desert

in the south.

Some lemurs, such as the com-

mon ring-tailed and ruffed lemurs,

eat leaves, buds and fruits during

the day. Others, such as the dwarf

and lesser lemurs, lead nocturnal

lives and eat insects. Some lemurs

inhabit tree tops while others occupy

the middle levels.

Lemurs depend more on scent

than do monkeys and apes. Most

have scent glands on their wrists,

chests or anal areas that they use to

mark territory, establish rank and

determine sexual condition.

Most lemurs are what primatolo-

gists call vertical clingers and leapers,

often jumping great distances from

tree to tree. The sifakas, whose

name derives from their “schi

‘FAKH” call, use their powerful

hind legs to spring from a tree

trunk and then twist about in mid-

11

air to land upright on another

trunk.

Lemurs have also evolved in a

variety of striking colors. The

Zoo's ruffed lemurs have black tails,

faces, feet, shoulders and bel-

lies that contrast sharply with

their white legs and backs. The

ring-tailed lemurs have black and

Mihi:

12

white striped tails and faces, prompt-

ing one writer to describe them as

raccoons designed in Paris.

About 20 species of lemurs inhabit

Madagascar today. They range in size

from the lesser mouse lemur, about

as big as a house mouse, to the indris,

about 3% feet in length. One lemur

now extinct reached the size of a

chimpanzee or small orangutan. Its

fossils are found with human arti-

facts, leading some observers to think

that humans caused the species’

demise.

In their diversity, lemurs make

up for what Madagascar lacks in

animal variety. For example, there

are no woodpeckers on Madagascar

- but there is the aye-aye, perhaps

the most unusual and rarest of

lemurs. |

Aye-ayes tap on wood with their

long, bony fingers and listen for the

hollow sound made by tunnels that

beetle larvae burrow under the bark.

When an aye-aye finds a tunnel, it

chews open the bark and sticks its"

elongated middle finger into the

hole, impaling the luckless larva on

a dagger-like nail.

Aye-ayes are feared by the Mala-

gasy, the people who came to Mada-

gascar from Indonesia about 1500

years ago. Aye-ayes are said to bring

bad luck to any village in which

they appear. The only escape, ac-

cording to legend, is to kill them

and move the village. However,

they can bring great strength to a

sorcerer who keeps their fingers,

especially if the fingers have been

twisted or bitten off a living animal.

Because of these legends, aye-

ayes have been hounded to near

extinction. They were thought to

be extinct in the 1930s, but were

rediscovered by scientists in 1956.

In 1966, nine were captured and

released on Nosy Mangabe, a small,

Atlantic

Ocean

forested island preserve on the

northeast coast. For more than 10

years, none were seen or heard (aye-

ayes give a “ha-hay” call for which

they are named). Then, in 1980, a

British television crew reported

seeing them on Nosy Mangabe.

Lemurs have become a key part

of Malagasy folklore. Because many

lemurs sit on their haunches with

arms and legs spread wide to warm

themselves in the morning sun,

Indian

Ocean

MADAGASCAR

they were often thought to be “sun

worshippers.” Few Malagasy ate

lemurs, considering them holy until

western missionaries began dispell-

ing these old taboos.

All lemurs are threatened today

by habitat destruction. At one time,

Madagascar was a lush, tree-covered

paradise. But the people adopted a

slash-and-burn agriculture, clearing

land and farming it for a few years

and then moving on to new land. If

allowed to lie fallow long enough,

forest lands often recover. But there

are now too many people on the

island for this system to work.

More than 80 percent of Madaga-

scar’s original forests have been

destroyed, and more disappear each

year.

About a dozen species of lemurs

are known to have become extinct

since people arrived on Madagascar,

including the orangutan - and ba-

boon-like lemurs. All living lemurs

are listed as endangered species by

wildlife experts.

There are few wildlife preserves

on Madagascar to protect lemurs

and other endangered animals.

There is too little money to hire and

train rangers and too great a need

for land to feed the growing popula-

tion. |

Also, there is not much of a

conservation ethic among the Ma-

lagasy. In fact, one primatologist

reports that many Malagasy do not

know lemurs are unique to

Madagascar.

If lemurs are to survive, they may

have to do it in captivity, although

not all kinds can survive in zoos.

Certain lemurs such as sifakas eat

leaves of trees rarely found outside

Madagascar. The last captive aye-

aye died recently in Madagascar’s

Tananarive Zoo.

Most lemurs, however, are easily

kept and bred in captivity. Some 80

zoos in the United States and Cana-

da exhibit one or more species.

13

“Lemurs are like rare books that

are in danger of being lost,” says

Michael Stuart, program manager

at Duke University’s Primate Re-

search Center in Durham, North

Carolina. The center has the largest

collection of lemurs but is not open

to the public. ‘‘We can’t prevent

their vanishing from the wild. But

we can prevent their being lost to

mankind forever. We have too much

14

to learn from lemurs to allow that

to happen.”

Typical zoo lemurs include the

ring-tailed, black, brown and ruffed

lemurs. The National Zoo’s lemurs

are ruffed. Luke and Leia, named

after the “Star Wars” characters, are

on loan from the San Diego Zoo.

Ruffed lemurs are larger than

most lemurs, and they have a looser

social structure. Their groups often

consist of single families. The

mother carries her babies in her

mouth rather than allowing them

to cling to her chest.

To encourage breeding, the Zoo

gave Leia a protein-rich diet and the

privacy of an L-shaped box in

which to give birth. Three sets of

young have been born since 1980,

and all but one youngster survived

and are thriving.

“Just about whatever we've tried

has worked,” says Bruce Kirtley-

Hodess, monkey keeper. ‘We

anticipated the animals’ needs and

gave them some choices to make

within their enclosure. Perhaps

there's been a little luck thrown

in, too.”

Jeff Cohn is a free-lance science and

technology writer whose work has ap-

peared in Smithsonian and other publi-

cations. He is a self-described “zoo nut.”

The History of

the Long-Necked Lovelies

The first giraffes at the National Zoo

were a pair collected during the

1926 Smithsonian Institution-

Chrysler Expedition to East Africa

by the Zoo's then new director, Dr.

William Mann.

The giraffes were Nubians from

the Sudan, and they were named Hi-

Boy and Dot. The Zoo had no proper

facilities for these giraffes. They

were put in the “temporary” bird

house, a wood and tarpaper building

located where the Reptile House

now stands. The building had a two-

story cage designed for free-flying

birds. It was the only space in the

Zoo high enough for such long-

necked creatures.

The next giraffes to come to the

National Zoo were two pair of

Nubians provided by the game

warden of the Khartoum Govern-

ment, Egyptian Sudan. Dr. Mann

picked them up on the return trip

Billie Hamlet

from the 1937 Smithsonian-

National Geographic Expedition to

the East Indies. The return to the

United States with the collected

animals took six weeks—through a

monsoon in the Indian Ocean, blaz-

ing heat in the Red Sea and gales in

the North Atlantic. During a gale,

the giraffe crates on the deck broke

loose but the crew managed to

secure them despite the howling

wind.

These four giraffes were to be

exhibited in the brand new Pachy-

derm Building (now called the Ele-

phant House). The walls of some of

the cages were painted with ap-

propriate backgrounds by artists

from the Treasury Art Relief Project.

The giraffes were led, like little

lambs, from their shipping crates

directly into their cages. They liked

the painted African landscape so

well they tried to nibble the leaves!

The giraffes were young, one pair

dark-spotted and the other light-

spotted. The dark ones became

known as Kitty and Bob, while the

light ones were named Nicky and

Nageoma, the latter for National

Geographic Magazine. Nicky was

named in honor of nine-year-old

Nicky Arundel who had lobbied for

giraffes at the Zoo.

The editorial in Nicky's personal

publication, Nicky's News, read,

“The children of Washington want

giraffes for the zoo. The new build-

ing is ready but the giraffes are still

in Africa. Dr. Mann is in Sumatra

and can get these giraffes if someone

can send him the money. Every boy

and girl in Washington should tele-

phone the district Comishioners

(sic) and ask about these giraffes.

The Japanese children have giraffes.

So do German and French children.

Are they better than we are?”

15

When told that one of the giraffes

would be named for him, Nicky said

he was pleased “but not surprised.”

He added, “As a matter of fact, I

rather expected something like that.

The News has been working for

giraffes for the Zoo now for nine

months.” In 1973, grown-up Nicky

became president of FONZ.

Twelve live young were born to

the two pair of animals. These

young were sent to animal facilities

throughout the United States. One

went to the Sydney, Australia, zoo.

In 1939 the Zoo purchased a

“bargain” pair of reticulated giraffes

from a New York City dealer. He had

imported seven from Mombasa and

was having a hard time selling them.

The male was named Rufus, but

the female was so poorly thought of

that she never got aname. They had

no young. The unnamed female

died after less than three years, but

Rufus lived for seven years.

Giraffes are expensive, because of

the substantial cost of quarantine

and shipping on top of the purchase

price. However, when the Zoo

giraffe population dropped to zero in

1961, an order was placed for more

from Kenya.

After the long ocean voyage and a

30-day quarantine in New York, two

females were eventually crated and

loaded on a truck for Washington.

All went well until the driver was

stopped at an official weighing sta-

tion near Aberdeen, Maryland. He

was told he would have to hand over

16

$101.45, abond required by the state

road commission because the truck

did not have a state gasoline sticker.

The driver didn't have the money.

He and the giraffes waited for three

hours at the roadside until the

money was wired from the trucking

company home office. This delay

seemed to mean nothing to the

giraffes. They filled in the time

munching on their food. They ar-

rived at the Zoo without further

incident.

One year later, a long-awaited

male, Michael-John, was purchased.

Four years after that, the first young

was born. Michael-John sired 20

calves between 1966 and 1980 when

he died.

The Zoo now has a male and

female living in the Elephant House.

We should again have the pleasure

of viewing a knobby-kneed, new-

born giraffe.

Billie Hamlet is the National Zoo's staff

historian. Her article is based on her

research for an official history of the Zoo.

Zoo visitors of an earlier era enjoy the giraffes at the Zoo's Elephant House (photo courtesy

of NZP Office of Education).

FUNZ NEWS

FONZ makes your holiday

shopping easy

Look out for two important mailings

this fall. Our full-color Holiday Gift

Catalog features many special items

to fill your Christmas shopping

needs.

And nothing will please your

friends and relatives more than a gift

that gives year-round: a member-

ship in FONZ. Your special gift

membership mailing will give you

all the information you need.

Guided tours available

Guided tours of the Zoo with

trained FONZ volunteers are avail-

able weekdays from October

through May (these tours are avail-

able on weekends throughout the

year).

These carefully planned tours

show you the Zoo in an organized

manner, so you make the most of

your time. The volunteer guides will

give you interesting information

about the animals and their lives at

the Zoo.

Tours planned especially for

schoolchildren are also available.

The tours take two hours, from

10 a.m. to noon. You must have at

least six people in your group, and

participants must be at least eight

years old. You should call 673-4955

three weeks in advance to make sure

the tour can be arranged on your

preferred date.

Remember that fall and winter are

great times to visit the Zoo. The

weather can be pleasant, and the

animals tend to be more active.

When your relatives are in town for

holiday visits, arrange for one of our

special FONZ tours.

Safari preview

1983 will be an exciting year for

FONZ safaris. Here is our tentative

schedule:

Trinidad/Tobago March 14-24

Baja Whale Cruise March’

Galapagos April 23-May 12

(see last Zoogoer for details)

Scandinavia/Russia/

Fjord Cruise July 19-August 2

Kenya August”

China/Tibet September-

October"

Nepal/India Fail"

Seattle/Vancouver no date set

*Exact dates to be established.

We will have more information

about these safaris in the near fu-

ture. If you are interested in joining

a safari, call 673-4950 and ask to

have your name added to our mail-

ing list to receive further details

when they become available. Fur-

ther information will also appear in

Zoogoer and the FONZ Wildlife

Adventures brochures.

When you make your plans for

1983, keep our exciting FONZ

safaris in mind!

Not just animals eat at

the Zoo!

Laid end-to-end, the 275,000 hot

dogs sold at FONZ food facilities

this past summer would stretch 26

miles—the length of a marathon

run!

FONZ also grilled 70,000 ham-

burgers, which would tower 1,945

feet or more than three times the

height of the Washington Monu-

ment.

Zoo visitors also consumed

14,000 gallons of soda syrup,

15,000 pounds of pop corn, 50,000

pounds of french fries and 420,000

ice creams.

FONZ food proceeds support vital

research and education programs at

the Zoo.

17

LV0 NEWS

Monkey Island construction

Imagine discovering an island where

a waterfall cascades down a moun-

tain of rock and splashes into a

large pool. Within a forest of pine

trees, you spot a small colony of

Barbary macaques, the dominant

male monkey overseeing the social

group.

Soon, you won't need to imagine.

Eight Barbary macaques are waiting

for their new National Zoo home,

Monkey Island, scheduled to open

next spring or summer.

Monkey Island won't be a true

island but a peninsula with a water-

filled moat, 20 feet wide and three

feet deep, to prevent escape of the

animals.

An 18-foot rock mountain with

trees and a waterfall will rise on one

side of the exhibit. Pine trees and

other plants will grow through-

out the rest of the peninsula. A

special feature above the exhibit

will be a 360-degree viewing area

for Zoo visitors.

At night, the monkeys will be

kept in a holding area beneath

Monkey Island to allow their keep-

ers to feed them and give other day-

to-day care.

18

The Monkey Island exhibit has

been in the Zoo’s plans for 20 years.

Like other renovation projects, it’s

being constructed to conform to

the Zoo's master plan for providing

a natural setting for the animals.

Collection manager Bill Xanten ex-

plains, ‘‘Monkey Island will allow

us to show a large group of social

primates in their natural environ-

ment where Zoo scientists can

study social and reproductive be-

havior while the animals are on

public view.”

Barbary macaques are large mon-

keys, members of the genus Macaca.

They are the only monkey living in

Europe (Gibraltar), and they are also

found in North Africa.

Barbary macaques have played an

unusual role in English history.

According to tradition, when the

last monkey disappears from Gibral-

tar, the English will lose this strate-

gic fortress at the entrance to the

Mediterranean. During World War

II and other times of crisis in-

volving Gibraltar, the English have

brought more monkeys from North

Africa to assure their continued

residence.

Barbary macaques adapt well to

Washington's weather, and over

the years, the Zoo has been very

successful breeding the species.

“Our present group constitutes a

basic monkey social system,” notes

Xanten. “They squabble a little, but

they have established a social hier-

archy and are interesting to ob-

serve. Monkey Island will give the

colony a lot of room to grow.”

Xanten has two concerns about

Monkey Island: training the mon-

keys to come inside on command

and protecting the plants from the

monkeys. He hopes that if the

dominant male can be trained to

come inside, the others will follow.

Keeping the monkeys from eating

the plants may be more difficult.

“We'll have lots and lots of plants to

establish a good root system. We

hope there will be too many plants

for the monkeys to cause significant

damage. As the monkey population

increases, the plants should become

well enough established to with-

stand them,” says Xanten.

Zoogoers can watch the progress

across from the Mane Gift Shop.

Eventually, other kinds of animals

may join the macaques on Monkey

Island. But for the first year, it’s

going to be a paradise just for

monkeys.

—Sandra Smith

Construction workers build a mountain for the National Zoo's Monkey Island, to be

opened next spring or summer (photos by Jessie Cohen, NZP Office of Graphics and

Exhibits).

Small Mammal House

progress report

A termite mound is one of the

several unique accommodations

being added during the renovation

of the Zoo's Small Mammal House.

Dwarf mongooses occupy aban-

doned termite mounds in their

native Africa, so the Zoo's mon-

gooses will have their own concrete

mound full of tunnels for their

comings and goings.

The major interior construction

work on the Small Mammal House

has been finished, and the animal

enclosures are being completed by

Zoo keepers and staff. The target

date for reopening is early 1983.

The exhibits are built around a

central core which houses the

keeper's work area. Skylights in the

building have been retained. Plenty

of natural light and one-way traffic

through the exhibit area will im-

prove viewing of animals.

Also, in response to an appeal in a

recent Zoogoer, FONZ members

have donated hundreds of plants for

the exhibits. (If more are needed in

the future, there will be another

announcement in Zoogoer.}

Fifty to sixty species of animals,

from tiny shrews to dog-sized

binturongs, will be displayed in the

new facility. And there will be

exhibits representing entire habi-

tats, such as the Australia-Asia

exhibit for tree kangaroos, echidnas

and giant fruit bats.

19

He's grown accustomed

to his bill!

The Zoo's male Abyssinian ground

hornbill, residing in an outdoor yard

on the south side of the Bird House,

has a new bill molded from an extra-

hard plastic material used in human

dentistry. The hornbill lost most of

its upper bill apparently to disease.

The bird pulled off the first plastic

bill it received, so Zoo veterinarians

rearranged the stainless steel hold-

ing pins and attached a replacement.

This second bill is secure, and the

bird has gotten accustomed to eating

with it. 7

The bill is painted to match the

bird’s natural bill. The only telltale

sign is a slight bulge where extra

plastic covers the point of attach-

ment.

When you come to the Zoo, visit

the hornbill couple—the male has

the blue neck pouch.

New “jungle jim”

for apes

The gorillas were cautious at first,

but the orangutans loved it. All in

all, it looks like a great success. It’s

the new furniture in the outdoor

yard at the Great Ape House.

The “jungle jim” in the orangutan

yard is made of locust from the Zoo's

Conservation and Research Center

in Front Royal. Features include a

swing, a rack of tires and even a

20

spring chair. Collection manager

Lisa Stevens reports that the young

orangutans particularly like the

swing. The female Pensi isn’t doing

much climbing, but her inactivity is

probably due to her pregnancy.

The gorillas have a structure with

three platforms for shade and sitting

space. Three large logs and three

boulders have also been placed in

their yard. The logs are silver maple

and sycamore, which have non-

toxic bark the gorillas can peel off

and munch harmlessly.

Stevens says the female gorillas

were the first to climb their struc-

ture. M'wasi climbed to the top on

the second day. The gorillas seem

more interested in collecting edible

items in the yard, such as bark,

leaves and grass. |

Stevens hopes the furniture will

give the animals a feeling of shelter

and security and encourage them to

use their yards more often.

all photos by Jessie Cohen,

NZP Office of Graphics and Exhibits)

21

Animal Photography

Martha Tabor, a local photographer

who has exhibited at galleries here

and in New York, suggests a ‘less is

more’ way to photograph animals:

“These photographs of aspects of

elephants and gorillas are part of a

series I've been working on of parts of

animals. Elephants are like huge

abstract landscapes of moving forms

while gorillas, in their likeness to us,

are often powerfully evocative in their

similarities to our own bodies.

“The parts of animals—skin textures,

shapes of ears or hands and feet—are

often, for me as a photographer, more

interesting than the whole animal. I

look more closely and slowly at the

amazingness of what's before me.”

Photographer Martha Tabor captured this poignant

encounter at the Great Ape House. The keeper

is Melanie Bond.

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