Published by

Friends of the National Zoo

National Zoological Park

Washington, D.C. 20009

Phones:

Executive Director and membership:

232-4500

Educational and Editorial offices:

232-5500

Guided tours: 332-9322

Window Shop: 232-4555

FONZ Board of Directors 1972-1973

Peter C. Andrews, President

Theodore Babbitt, Ist Vice President

Emanuel Boasberg, Treasurer

Susan K. Semple, Secretary

Arthur W. Arundel

Mrs. Huntington Block

Montgomery S. Bradley

John S. Brown

Mary H.L. Clark

Timothy V.A. Dillon

Donna K. Grosvenor

Stephen Hosmer

Joan L. Jewett

Robert Mason

Isabel J}. McDonnell

Shirley J. McNair

Lavelle Merritt

Ruth N. Nelson

John B. Oliver

Mary Poole

Nancy Porter

Gerald G. Wagner

Rosa M. Walker

Richardson White, Jr.

Executive Director

Warren J. Iliff

Editor: Austin Hughes

Design and Production by Tom Jones

Cover photo and photos on pages 3 and 4 by Donna

Grosvenor. All other photos by Tom Jones.

Director, National Zoological Park;

other photographs by Mark Gordon.

THE ZOOGOER is published bi-monthly

and copyrighted © by Friends of the National

Zoo, c/o National Zoological Park, Washington,

D.C. 20009. second-class mailing permit

approved at Washington, D.C. Rate

in the United States $3 a year. Vol. 1, No. 2.

CONTENIS

3 Lesser Panda Cubs

Zoo News

6 Mammals

10. Birds

12 Zoo Map

Zoo News

16 Reptiles and Amphibians

17 Gelada Baboons

ZOOS

THE ZOOGOER is a new bi-monthly publication

of the Friends of the National Zoo and replaces

the quarterly publication, Spots and Stripes. With

THE ZOOGOER, the Friends hopes to provide

for its membership an up-to-date report on new

animals and exhibits at the National Zoological

Park and in-depth articles on the natural history

and behavior of animals at the Zoo. All of the text

and photographs will be keyed to the centerfold

map in hopes of making a trip to the Zoo a more

interesting, educational, and enjoyable adventure.

THE ZOOGOER will also be on sale at the Friends’

Window Shop and kiosk as a current guide to

points of interest at the Zoo.

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This photograph of an earlier National Zoo lesser panda cub shows what the latest cubs look like. Itwas not.

possible for us to photograph the newborn lesser pandas without unduly disturbing them.

Late in the night of June 21 or in the early

morning hours of June 22, while a steady

downpour covered Washington and flood-

waters from Rock Creek spread over parking

lots in the lower Zoo, the National Zoo’s

female lesser panda gave birth to a litter of

two in the hollow trunk of a tree in the

lesser pandas’ outdoor enclosure (number

160n map). For several previous days, the

mother had been gathering twigs and leaves

from around the enclosure, taking straw

bedding from inside the lesser pandas’ log

cabin, and carrying these materials into the

bottom of the hollow tree, where she was

evidently building a nest. So Zoo officials

were not taken totally by surprise when the

young were first observed on the morning of

the 22nd. For the next several months, the

lesser pandas were guaranteed to be one of

the major attractions at the Zoo, and every-

one had to admit they had stolen some of

their giant relatives’ thunder.

At birth the infants’ fluffy fur was a uniform

tannish white. Their eyes were closed, and

they were quite helpless. Interestingly, the

areas beneath the eyes where the ‘‘mask’”’ or

“‘tear-marks” of russet fur are placed in the

adult had no fur on them, and the pattern of

the future mask was traced by streaks of

bare pink skin. The soles of their feet —

which in the adult are entirely covered with

fur, differentiating it from the giant panda

and in fact making it unique among non-

arctic mammals — were also bare and pink.

The tail, which in the adult is nearly as long

as the rest of the body, was short and fat,

accounting for only about a fourth of the

animal’s total length.

Feeling that the mother might prefer a more

spacious nursery than the tree trunk, keepers

placed a large, flat straw-filled nest-box next

to the tree. In subsequent days, the mother

was frequently seen moving the young back

and forth from the tree to this nest-box to

the log cabin, carrying them one by one in

her mouth, and even sometimes placing one

on the grass or carrying one up into the

tree. It was obvious that she was agitated,

doubtless by the proximity of Zoo visitors;

and, as she might do if she felt her young

were in danger in the wild, she was moving

them constantly in search of a den that

seemed secure to ner. Consequently, on

Tuesday the 27th, a wide area around the

Lesser panda in the

branches of the tree in

their enclosure (number

16 on map).

lesser pandas’ compound on the side from

which the tree opening Is visible was roped

off. Soon the mother panda, no longer

afraid for their safety, settled down with her

young inside the hollow tree.

From then on she spent most of her time

with her cubs, emerging at the lesser pandas’

8:15 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. feeding times and a

few other times during the day. When the

~.cubs were born, the nest consisted of a

tightly packed platform of leaves and straw

in the bottom of the trunk opening on which

the infants rested. Since then, the mother

had been gathering more materials and had

built up around this platform, covering the

opening to the den with leafy branches

except for a small hole at the top.

The tree is hollow up to a height of about

seven feet, where there is another jagged

opening, about a foot wide, at right angles

to the hole at the base of the trunk. Since

she had walled up the lower opening, the

female had to climb up the inside of the

trunk and out this other hole when she wanted

to leave the nest. She then would climb far-

ther up the tree, where her mate usually sat

in complete indifference to the changes

taking place beneath him, if she wanted to

sun or relax like him in the branches of the

tree. Or, if she wanted to visit the ground —

as she would do at feeding times or when she

wanted to gather more nesting materials —

she would climb down head first along one

of the branches that are propped up against

the trunk of the tree.

For the first week or so, the cubs had a high-

pitched shriek which they used to call their

mother. Once they gave this call when she

was sitting in the upper branches of the tree,

and she climbed down to them for a few

minutes, then left again. They almost

immediately began calling her again; and

she soon climbed back down, this time to

stay.

A hollow tree is reported to be a favorite

denning place for lesser panda mothers in the

wild as well as in captivity. Interestingly, the

giant panda — which is believed to be more

closely related to the lesser panda than it is

to any other living animal — may share this

habit, since a number of very young giant

pandas have been found in similar hiding

places in the wild. In the giant panda, too,

the young are blind and quite helpless at

birth. The mating that produced the Zoo’s

latest lesser panda offspring was not observed,

and the gestation period of this species has

evidently not yet been determined. As has

been suggested in the case of the giant panda,

there may sometimes be delayed implantation

of the fertilized ovum in the uterus, resulting

in variable intervals between mating and

birth. Lesser panda births in captivity,

however, seem to occur invariably in June or

early July; this seems to indicate an annual

mating season, which Is believed by one

authority to take place in February. Unlike

the giant panda, which usually gives birth to

only one cub at a time and only rarely to

two, the lesser panda usually produces

litters of two, although it may have only

one or as many as four.

The lesser panda or red panda (A //urus

fulgens) inhabits Yunnan.and Szechuan

provinces in China, northern Burma,

Sikkim, and Nepal. Like the giant panda

(Ailuropoda melanoleuca), with which it

shares the Chinese portion of its range, it

inhabits bamboo forests on mountain

slopes; but it is found at both higher and

lower altitudes than the larger species. Its

diet is also evidently more variable, and it

relies less heavily on bamboo than the giant

panda does. Besides bamboo, grass, roots,

fruit, and acorns are mentioned as favorite

foods. The lesser panda is also sometimes

said to feed on birds’ eggs; and some authors

have stated that it may eat an occasional

small bird or mammal, though it generally

refuses meat in captivity. The Zoo’s lesser

pandas are fed bamboo twice a day, along

with a porridge of milk, pablum, oatmeal,

honey, vitamins, and raw egg. At their

afternoon feeding they are also given chopped

apples and bananas.

The new cubs are the first offspring born to

the Zoo’s female since her arrival here in June

of 1971. The male, named Rishi, was a

widower at that time. He had lived in Wash-

ington since 1966 and had sired four off-

spring by two previous mates, but unfortunate-

ly none of the cubs had lived to maturity.

When a third mate was located for Rishi in

the New Delhi Zoo, Indian officials went to

considerable trouble to choose an appropriate

name for her. ‘‘Rishi’’ evidently means “‘one

who meditates in the wood”’; and Mara, the

name of a female demon who tried to tempt

Buddha as he was meditating in the wilder-

ness, was finally chosen for the female lesser

panda. At the pair’s first meeting, Mara

proved less than alluring to the Zoo’s lone

male, who did not seem anxious to welcome

an intruding female to his territory. But

gradually their scrapping ceased; and, as

evidenced by the recent offspring, they

proved quite compatible.

After a week, the infants’ undersides and

legs — where the fur is black in the adult —

were beginning to darken. Their tails were

not ringed yet but had a noticeably grayish

cast, and there was still no sign of the adult’s

russet tearmarks. Subsequently, coffee-

colored fur began to appear on the tearmark

areas, and by Saturday, July 8, these areas

were fully furred, as were the soles of the

infants’ feet by the same date. On Monday

the 10th, both cubs were found to have

both their eyes open.

Until July 9, the cubs slept in close physical

contact with each other, but after that they

slept about six inches apart. As yet they

did not move about on their own, but their

mother had again taken to transferring them

to the nest box and back to the tree trunk

again with some frequency. At this writing,

it is not known when the cubs will begin to

move out into their enclosure on their own

or when they will begin to eat solid food.

By the time they are two and a half months

old, however, they should be running around

actively. With their tails distinctly ringed and

their black ‘‘trousers” fully developed, they

will then be miniature replicas of their

parents in appearance, and in temperament

still more inquisitive and playful than the

adult lesser pandas.

The twin orangutans born at the Zoo last December 27 are now on exhibit at the Small Mammal House

(number 15 on map).

Twin Orangutans on Exhibit

On July 8, the twin orangutans born at the

National Zoo on December 27, 1971, were

placed on exhibit for the first time ina

glass-fronted cage directly opposite the

front door of the Small Mammal House

(number 15 on map), Named Malati and

Mawar, the Indonesian words for Jasmine

and Rose respectively, the twins were re-

moved from their mother Jennie when she

was unable to provide milk for them.

(Jennie, the twin’s father Archie, and a

previous offspring, the male Atjeh, are

located at the rear of the same building.)

They did well at the Zoo nursery, and both

now weighed over nine pounds. At the age

of six months they were considered to be

sufficiently independent of their human

foster parents to adjust successfully to

cage life.

At the Small Mammal House, the orangs,

both of which are females, are bottle-fed

formula three times a day, at 6:30 a.m., at

noon, and at 4:00 p.m. The latter two

feedings can be witnessed by the public. At

this writing, they are also being fed baby

custard in mid-morning, strained vegetable

and chicken soup in late morning, and

strained cereal, egg, and bacon in the after-

noon. For these feedings, as for the milk

feedings, two keepers enter the cage and

hold each of the infants in order to feed

them.

As of June 27, each of the twins had six

teeth, two upper incisors and four lower

incisors. Soon after that date other teeth

were expected to appear. (The orangutan’s

milk teeth are reported to erupt on a schedule

very similar to that of a human baby’s.)

With their new teeth, Melati and Mawar are

beginning to eat quite a bit of solid food.

Twice a day at the Small Mammal House, cut

up apples, bananas, and oranges and whole

grapes are placed in the cage for the orangs

to snack on; they do so frequently, reaching

for food with their hands or bending down

to pick it up with their lips. The second of

these batches of fruit is put in the cage late

in the afternoon, so that the twins will have

food available if they are hungry at any time

throughout the night.

Melati and Mawar sleep most of the night,

huddled close to each other. In the daytime

in good weather, they are taken outdoors to

play, as they were when they lived at the

nursery. Currently, they are outdoors from

10:30 to 11:30 in the morning and from

2:00 to 3:30 in the afternoon. Each twin is

taken by a keeper to a separate play area;

they are kept separate during their play

periods so that they will not become ex-

cessively dependent on each other. One

twin is taken to a roped-off grassy area to

the left of the front door of the Small

Mammal House, while the other is taken to

the area that has been roped off around the

lesser pandas’ enclosure (number 16 on map).

Outdoor play builds up the young apes’

muscles while giving them fresh air and sun-

light. Moreover, it fills an important psycholo-

gical need by exposing them to new and varied

stimulations. As yet the orangs are some-

times rather passive in play, content to cling

to the keeper’s hands as he rocks them up

and down. But at other times they show real

curiosity and interest in their surroundings,

as when they manipulate objects in their

cages or keepers’ clothing and hair.

The development of young orangutans, like

(number 9a on map).

East African Waterhole Exhibit

The mixed zebra and wildebeest enclosure

(numbers 9a and 9b on map) has become an

East African waterhole exhibit. The animals

were removed to other cages while a water-

hole was constructed and planted around

with lush vegetation. Now they have returned,

and the resulting scene is a recreation in

miniature of the waterholes where great

3. -

Zebra and Wildebeest in the National Zoo’s new East African Waterhold exhibit at the Small Mammal House

that of other great apes, parallels human

development closely for the first year of life.

Like human babies, they are helpless and

dependent, cry when they are uncomfortable

or want food, and learn to discriminate

visually and to coordinate their body move-

ments only gradually. As in humans, the

next several years are a time of exploration,

learning, and increased self-confidence; and

regular zoo visitors can look forward to

seeing Malati and Mawar gradually become

familiar with their cage and investigate the

possibilities of its varied play equipment

during the next several years. The orangutan

of two and even three or four years js still

somewhat reminiscent of a human child of

the same age; but sexual maturity and full

adulthood come much earlier for the

orangutan — at about seven and ten years

respectively.

herds of these hoofed mammals intermingle

in East Africa.

The wildebeest or gnus in the National Zoo’s

collection are white-bearded gnus (Conno-

chaetes taurinus albojubatus), This subspecies

is the common wildebeest of central Kenya

and Tanzania. The Zoo’s species of zebra

(Equus burchelli) inhabits the same region as

well as Central and West Africa. On Tan-

Zania’s vast Serengeti plains, zebra of this

species are involved with white-bearded gnus

in an exciting yearly drama of migration, and

the two species have evolved remarkable

means of co-existing.

In the rainy season, from October to May,

zebra and wildebeest graze together on the

Serengeti. There the two species do not

compete for grazing areas but in fact comple-

ment each other’s feeding habits.

The wildebeest eat the taller tender grasses;

the zebra, with their long incisors, follow be-

hind and eat the grasses cropped short by the

wildebeest. By May,when the

rainy season ends, the plains are

grazed quite closely, and the wildebeest

gather in vast numbers in order to migrate to

higher brush country in the west. Some of

the zebras join in this migration, which stops

in the brush country for a few weeks and

then moves to an area north of the Serengeti

where there is permanent water and shade and

abundant grass. Meanwhile, the bulk of the

zebra population has arrived at the same

feeding grounds by a different route; when

the two species meet there, scenes like the

one recreated at the National Zoo — though

on a much larger scale — are quite common.

July 15 and 20, colts were born to zebra

mares in the mixed display. In East Africa,

most zebras foal in the rainy season; the fact

that births peak at this time is clearly related

to the abundance of grass to enrich the mare’s

milk and to feed the colts when they begin to

graze on their own. In the Zoo, it is advan-

tageous for colts to be born in warm weather.

This can be arranged to happen every year,

since the female zebra has a period of fertility

ten days after giving birth. If she is mated

then, she will give birth at the same time the

following year, since the Zebra’s gestation

period is twelve months.

A wildebeest was also born at the National

Zoo recently, in another enclosure around

the corner from the waterhole exhibit (number

9e on map). \n the Serengeti, wildebeest

calves are born in January and February, and

there is an annual mating season in April. At

the National Zoo, the wildebeest are mated in

the fall, so that births will occur in spring

and early summer. :

The Zoo’s Pére David’s deer herd (number 3h on map).

Pere David's Deer Herd Grows

Five of the National Zoo’s six adult female

Pére David’s deer (number 3h on map) gave

birth to white-spotted fawns in May and June.

By now a uniform pale reddish brown, three

of the fawns are males, and two are females.

This species has bred well here since 1968,

producing about a dozen offspring; but in the

number of births, this year has surpassed

every previous year. Pére David’s deer no

longer exists in the wild, and it evidently has

not existed in its original habitat for hundreds

of years. Only carefully organized breeding

programs on the part of game parks and zoos

have saved it from extinction, and the National

Zoological Park is proud to be playing a role

in the continuing effort to preserve these

unique animals.

It is believed that the mi-lu or Pére David’s

deer (Elaphurus davidanus) once inhabited

the alluvial plains of northeastern China.

Proponents of this theory point to the mi-lu’s

long, spreading hoofs, which seem to be an

adaptation for life in such swampy terrain.

When these areas were settled by human

beings the deer were forced out; but the

Chinese emperors, in one of the earliest

recorded conservation efforts, saved the

species in the form of a semi-captive herd in

the Imperial Hunting Park in Peking. This

park was private, and for a long time no

Western visitors were admitted. No Westerner

suspected that it contained a rare species

unknown anywhere else until 1865, when

Pére Armand David, the famous French

priest-naturalist who later was to become the

first European to collect a specimen of the

giant panda, caught a glimpse of the deer

over the wall and obtained two skins by

bribing guards.

The first scientific description of Pére David’s

deer was based on these skins, and the species

was placed in a separate genus from any other

living member of the deer family. It isa

large deer, reaching a height of three feet,

nine inches at the shoulder, and its long

concave muzzle immediately sets it apart from

other deer. There is a thick grayish winter

coat, which is replaced by a much thinner and

shorter reddish brown coat in the summer,

The stag’s antlers are unusual in that the

front branch grows straight upward. Still

more surprisingly, the stag grows and drops

two separate sets of antlers each year, and

some stags grow a rudimentary third set.

The species was once again threatened with

extinction in 1900, when the Peking herd was

nearly exterminated by European and Americar

soldiers that had been sent to suppress the

Boxer Rebellion. Most of those that survived

escaped from the park and were killed for

food by the starving populace, Fortunately,

a few specimens had been acquired by Euro-

pean zoos towards the end of the Nineteenth

Century; and in 1898, the eleventh Duke of

Bedford had gathered all of these together at

his estate, Woburn Abbey. There they

thrived and multiplied in a 4000-acre enclosed

park; and all of the approximately 450 Pére

David’s deer in the world today are descended

from the Woburn herd, including those at the

Peking Zoo.

The National Zoo’s current herd was first

established in 1966, when the present herd

stag and two of the present hinds were

acquired from Assinboine Park Zoo in

Winnipeg, Canada. The females were quite

young at that time, having been born the

same year at Winnipeg; the male was born in

1957 at Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo. Offspring

have been born here in 1968, 1970, and

1972. Some of them have been sent to

other zoos involved in the worldwide effort

to preserve this species; usually it is males

that are sent out, since one male is able to

mate with a number of females. Four of the

six adult females in the Zoo’s herd were born

here, and now they are beginning to produce

offspring of their own.

Sooty Mangabey Born

A sooty mangabey baby (Cercocebus

torquatus) was born June 23 at the Monkey

House (number 27 on map); at present, it

clings so closely to its mother’s chest fur

that its sex has not been determined. The

mother has been at the National Zoo since

1954; and, since her mate arrived in 1964,

the two have produced six offspring, a num-

ber of which are thriving at other zoos,

These arboreal monkeys of West Africa

have not been studied extensively, and little

is known of their habits. Physically, they

are remarkable examples of convergent

evolution among the primates. Like some

other distantly related arboreal primates,

most notably the gibbons, the males have

well-developed throat sacs; in the trees,

where visibility is limited, it becomes

important for primates to be able to keep

in touch with members of their own social

group and ward off members of other groups |

by means of the loud calls such throat sacs

help produce. In addition, the mangabeys

have partially developed a specialization that

arboreal New World monkeys have fully

developed, the prehensile tail. No Old

World monkey has a true prehensile tail,

but a mangabey can coil its tail around a

branch to steady it while climbing.

Puma Cubs

Moved to Lion House

The two puma cubs (Felis conco/or) born at

the National Zoo in May are now on exhibit

at the Lion House. Unlike their uniformly

tawny-coated parents (number 22a on map),

the cubs have dark brown spots, and their

tails are ringed. These markings will graduaily

disappear by the time the cubs are six months

old. Another distinctive feature is the cubs’

large, dark-colored ears, which contrast with

the proportionately smaller, more typically

cat-sized ears of the adults.

The puma cubs do not have an outdoor

enclosure and can only be seen when the

building is open. In the summer, the Lion

House is open every day between 1:00 and

2:30 p.m. and between 2:30 and 6:00 on

cooler days. In this species, the female alone

rears the young and will not tolerate the

male’s presence when she has cubs with her.

Zoo officials decided to remove the cubs,

which were weaned and no longer dependent

on their mother for milk, so that the male

could return to the female puma’s enclosure,

from which he was removed when the cubs

were born, and hopefully mate with her again.

were born at the Bird House (number 5 on map);

they are located in cage 9 at the rear of the building.

It is hoped that these two birds will breed. In the two

_ _ photographs above they show types of behavior that

_ LD Ly Bird House officials believe are signs that they have

formed a breeding pair bond.

Preening of each others’ head plumes is one sign

(left).

The bird on the left shows another, the character-

istic bobbing display, in which the mynah throws its

head back, puffs out its chest feathers, and bobs up

and down on the branch (right).

Birds

Bali Mynah Breeding

Success Continues

Three Bali mynah or Rothschild’s mynah

eggs were hatched on May 28, 29, and 30 in

the indoor flight room at the Bird House

(number 5 on map). The hatchlings developed

very quickly, and after about three weeks they

had left the nest and could be seen flying

around the room, somewhat smaller than

their parents but like them in plumage. This

species (Leucopsar rothschildi) belongs to

the same family as the common European

starling (Sturnus vulgaris), which has become

something of a pest since its introduction to

North America, and the trained mynahs

seen in pet stores — usually hill mynahs

(Gracula religiosa), of which species there is a

pair in the Zoo’s Great Flight Cage (number

40n map). But the Bali mynah is much

more beautifully colored than either of

these birds. Its feathers are white over the

whole bddy, except for a pale blue streak of

bare skin behind the eye, and there is a fluffy

crest on the head.

By mid-July, the mother of these young had

laid yet another clutch of eggs, which were

expected to hatch by the end of the month.

Since December, 1970, in one of the biggest

continuing news stories in the Bird Division,

this single pair of birds has nested ten times

and reared over twenty-five young mynahs;

and a new clutch of their light blue eggs —

usually three in number, but sometimes four

— appears in the indoor flight room approx-

imately every six weeks. Several of their off-

spring are to be found in the indoor flight

room. Two of them are also inside the Bird

House in cage 9, and about a dozen are to be

found in an outdoor cage on the east well of

the building. Bird House officials are highly

gratified with the success they have had in

breeding these birds, which have always been

confined to a limited habitat on the island of

Bali and have been endangered by excessive

collecting by aviculturists.

The Zoo’s breeding pair build their nests in

the nest boxes that are set inside the face of

the large cement cliffs in the indoor flight

room. There are twenty-four of these nest

boxes, and the Bali mynahs have used three of

them. Others have been used by hoopoes

(Upupa epops). The nest box openings are

visible as small, round holes on the cliff

faces; and when a nest is being built, when

the eggs are being incubated, and when the

young are being fed, the mynahs can often be

seen flying in and out of the nest box en-

trances. When they are building a nest, they

can be seen carrying the materials — mostly

small twigs and pine needles taken from the

floor of the room — that they use to make

their neat, cup-shaped nests. Several large

flight features of their species of birds are

placed around the edges of the nest;

occasionally — perhaps accidentally — these

feathers have been left covering the eggs

when the parents were absent. Other, some-

what less conventional, nesting materials that

have been found in Bali mynahs’ nests at the

Zoo include scraps of clear plastic, Polaroid

camera film paper, and a mouse’s foot.

If zoos are to be able to help save endangered

species until adequately protected reserves are

established for them in the wild, they must be

able to produce offspring from parents born

in captivity. None of the Bali mynahs born at

the National Zoo’s Bird House have yet had

offspring on their own; but there are hopes

that one pair of them will soon produce a

second zoo-born generation. These are the

two birds in cage 9. They have already built

a nest in the nest box provided for them.

Moreover, they can frequently be seen en-

gaging in behavior patterns that have been

observed in the original breeding pair and are

believed to be signs of pair formation. The

two birds perch together frequently; they

preen one another’s feathers, particularly the

crests; and they produce a variety of charac-

teristic excited chattering and whistling

calls. The most interesting of these behavior

patterns is a display that takes place when

the mynah is perched on a branch. The

bird throws its head back so that the bill

is pointing straight upwards, ruffles out its

chest feathers, and bobs up and down on

the branch.

New Honeycreeper Exhibit

One of the newer exhibits at the Bird House

is in cage 24, which houses three red-legged

honeycreepers (Cyanerpes cyaneus) and

two purple honeycreepers (Cyanerpes

caeruleans). Both of these species of beautiful

and active little birds are adapted for feeding

on the nectar of flowers. In the wild, honey-

creepers — which are also known as sugarbirds

— insert their long, downcurved bills into the

openings of flowers in order to feed; the

tongue, which is nearly as long as the bill and

has a forked tip, is used to suck up the nectar.

In a zoo it is impossible, of course, to provide

enough flowers to feed a cageful of honey-

creepers day after day. But the Zoo’s birds

seem to thrive on fruit and fruit juices, which

in fact supplement these birds’ diet in the

wild; sugar water; and mealworms, which take

the place of the occasional insect captured in

or around a flower by a wild honeycreeper.

The honeycreepers are believed to be related

to the tanagers; like them they are New World

birds. Interestingly, several other groups of

birds, not closely related to the honeycreepers,

have involved similar long bills and tiny active

bodies in response to a similar diet. Best

known of these are the hummingbirds. But

there are three other groups of birds that

resemble the honeycreepers even more than

hummingbirds do that have evolved indepen-

dently in different parts of the world, Two

of these, known to ornithologists as the sun-

birds and the honeyeaters, evolved in the Old

World and inhabit Asia and Africa. Still

amt

COMNOAUAWN =

. Connecticut Avenue pedestrian entrance

. Connecticut Avenue vehicular entrance

Deer and antelope areas (a-j)

. Great Flight Cage

Bird House

Pheasant and crane line (a-r)

. Raptor cages (a-d)

. Delicate-hoofed stock building (a-c)

. Hardy-hoofed stock complex (a-i)

. Panda House (a-c)

. Elephant House

. Water birds (a-e)

. Hawks and owls (a-c)

. Goat mountain areas (a-e)

. Small Mammal Building

. Lesser Pandas

. Prarie dogs

. Bears and monkeys (a-m)

. Reptile House

. Tortoise yard

. Monkey House

. Hardy Animals (a-o)

. Lion House.

. Komodo Dragon

. Bears (a-j)

. Water animals (a-e)

27. Sea Lion pool Telephone

28. Wolves, foxes, and wild dogs (a-l)

29. Lesser Cats Bektrooris

30. Waterfowl ponds (a-d)

31. Police Station—Restrooms—F irst Aid

32. Restaurant

33. Picnic Area

34. Window Shop

35. Rock Creek Parkway entrance

36. Friends of the National Zoo Offices

37. FONZ Education, Editorial, and Tour

Guide Offices

Trackless Train Stops

Parking

yerr)

229

is ee

™r

”

eect

ie ad Chet aenats Fuad uel iol 9

Connecticut Avenue pedestrian entrance

Connecticut Avenue vehicular entrance

Deer and antelope areas (a-j)

Great Flight Cage

Bird House

Pheasant and crane line (a-r)

Raptor cages (a-d)

Delicate-hoofed stock building (a-c)

Hardy-hoofed stock complex (a-i)

Panda House (a-c)

. Elephant House

. Water birds (a-e)

Hawks and owls (a-c)

. Goat mountain areas (a-e)

. Small Mammal Building

. Lesser Pandas

. Prarie dogs

. Bears and monkeys (a-m)

. Reptile House

. Tortoise yard

. Monkey House

. Hardy Animals (a-o)

. Lion House

. Komodo Dragon

. Bears (a-j)

. Water animals (a-e)

. sea Lion pool |

. Wolves, foxes, and wild dogs (a-1)

. Lesser Cats

. Waterfowl ponds (a-d)

. Police Station—Restrooms—F irst Aid

. Restaurant

. Picnic Area

. Window Shop

. Rock Creek Parkway entrance

. Friends of the National Zoo Offices —

. FONZ Education, Editorial, and Tour

yrs)

Guide Offices

Telephone

Restrooms

Trackless Train Stops

Parking

agate

Ock Cree,

another group, the Hawaiian honeycreepers,

likewise evolved long, curved bills for feeding

on nectar quite independently of the honey-

creepers on the South and Central American

mainland. |

The red-legged honeycreeper inhabits north-

ern tropical South America on both sides of

the Andes; the purple honeycreeper inhabits

approximately the same region and ranges

somewhat farther to the south. Both are

forest birds and are said to be particularly

common on forest edges. Of the three red-

legged honeycreepers in cage 24, two are

females and can be distinguished by their

pale-green-and-brown mottled plumage. The

male is deep blue over most of his body and

can be distinguished from the two purple

honeycreeper males, which are also deep

blue in color, by the fact that he has red legs

and a brilliant turquoise patch on his fore-

head. The purple honeycreeper males lack

this patch and have black throats and yellow

legs. Still it is not easy at first to tell the

species of the fast-moving birds in cage 24,

and matters are further complicated by the

fact that the male red-legged honeycreeper

outside of breeding season Is said to lose his

blue color and come to resemble the female.

Burrowing Owls

Hatch Four Eggs

In February, when the Zoo received the

second of its pair of burrowing owls (Speotyto

cunicularia), officials were uncertain whether

or not they had a male and female. Since

there is no way to tell the sexes of these birds

by external appearance, they simply had to

wait and see. The wait was not long, In

early June, five eggs appeared in the owl’s

burrow nest in cage 26 at the Bird House, and

there was no doubt that the birds were a true

pair.

On June 28 one of the eggs hatched; and

though one other egg failed to hatch, on

June 29 the remaining three eggs hatched

successfully. At first the four owlets were

scantily feathered with grayish white down.

In most adult birds, the large outer feathers

known as contour feathers do not grow over

the entire body but only on certain areas

called feather tracts; the gaps in between the

feather tracts are often covered with down

and are protected by the longer contour

feathers. In these young burrowing owls, the

down-covered parts of the body were the

feather tracts, and in between the tracts bare

skin was visible.

The owlets’ first juvenile contour feathers

soon began to grow from the feather tracts,

and by mid-July their bodies were covered

with grayish-brown and brown plumage. By

this time, although they could not yet fly,

they were quite active, leaving the burrow and

running around the cage. In the wild at this

age, young burrowing owls have been reported

to emerge from the burrow and wait near the

entrance with one of their parents. The

adult bird will scan the horizon for some such

likely prey as a large insect, pursue it, and

return to feed the nestlings, which proceed

to mob the parent bird greedily.

Later in the summer, the Zoo’s young burrow-

ing owls are expected to begin a complete

moult of their contour feathers. Beginning

on the sides of the breast, the back, and the

wings, they will gradually lose all of their

juvenile feathers and replace them with

feathers virtually indistinguishable in color

and pattern from those of the adult. Not

only do young burrowing owls at this stage

look like adults, but in the wild they must

learn to live on their own like adults and

search for food for themselves during the

first winter of their lives.

Stanley’s Crane Hatchlings

On April 18, a single egg was seen in a nest

on the ground in the Stanley’s crane yard

outside the Bird House (number 6r on map).

On April 23 a second egg had appeared, and

the female crane had begun to incubate the

two eggs, the male too taking turns at the

nest. In some avian species, the female does

not begin incubating until she has laid all

of the eggs in a clutch, so that all of the

embryos will develop simultaneously and

will be ready to hatch at the same time.

Stanley’s crane is evidently one of these,

although most cranes are said to lay and

hatch their eggs a couple of days apart from

each other; and both of the Zoo’s Stanley’s

crane eggs hatched on May 21.

The hatchlings’ downy feathers were gray on

their bodies and tan on their heads. Only

one one-hundredth of their parents’

weight, they were nonetheless quite preco-

cious and were able to leave the nest and

follow their parents around the enclosure

soon after hatching. Since then they have

increased rapidly in size and are about half

as large as their three-foot-tall parents; but

they will keep their downy plumage all

summer. The parents are still very much on

the defensive; and when a Zoo visitor

Stanley’s crane parent and offspring at the National Zoo (number 6r on map).

approaches their enclosure, one or both of

the parents may run towards the front, watch

the visitor’s movements closely, and some-

times stab with its long, sharp bill through

the chain link fence, evidently attempting

to drive away what to the cranes seems a

potential threat to the safety of their young.

This is the fourth summer in a row that this

pair of cranes have bred. Their first pair of

offspring are currently located in the bongos

enclosure (number 3f on map). The next

year, they produced a single young, which

has been sent to another zoo. Last year

they again produced two young, which are

also located in the Bird House area (number

6p on map), sharing their enclosure with a

)

crowned crane (Balearica pavonina) that

was hatched at the National Zoo.

The blue crane or Stanley’s crane (Anthro-

poides paradisea) is native to South Africa,

where it is fairly common in open country.

It is at present one of the more fortunate

of the world’s fourteen crane species. The

whooping crane (Grus americana) of North

America is only too well known for its heroic

battle against extinction, and several other

members of this family are in nearly as great

danger. In fact, none of these magnificent

birds can be considered safe; hunting and

human encroachment on their breeding

grounds are reducing the numbers of every

crane species each year.

Reptiles and

Amphibians |

Jeweled Lacerta

The lacertids are an interesting family of Old

World lizards, distributed throughout Africa,

Asia, and Europe. They are the common

lizards of the latter continent; in fact our

word lizard is derived from the word /acerta,

by which the Romans knew these lizards.

Now four specimens of one of the most dis-

tinctive species in this group, the eyed lizard

or jewelled lacerta (Lacerta lepida), are on

exhibit at the National Zoo’s Reptile House.

Found on the Mediterranean coast of France,

throughout Spain and Portugal, and in North

Africa, these lizards are named for the bril-

liant green whorl pattern on their dark brown

backs and the row of blue dots on the sides of

their bodies, which have struck fanciful her-

petologists as resembling jewels or eyes.

Some authorities state that this species may

reach the largest size of any of the lacertids.

Certainly it is not uncommon to find jewelled

lacertas as long as eighteen inches, including

the tail, which makes up two-thirds of the

total length. Lengths of two feet have some-

times been reported. The Zoo’s specimens

are all less than a foot long at present; but

this species usually does well in captivity,

and they can be expected to increase in size

over the years.

In the wild, these lizards live mainly on the

ground in open country, but may climb in

the lower branches of such trees as olives

in search of insects, which are their principal

food. They conceal their seven to ten eggs

in the hollow bases of olive trees or in

rotting logs.

Asiatic Horned Frogs

Also new at the Reptile House are a pair of

Asiatic horned frogs (Megophrys nasuta).

The species name nasuta, meaning “‘long-

nosed,’’ refers to the long projection of skin

on the tip of these frogs’ snouts, while the

English name is derived from the even more

unusual ‘“‘horn-like’’ projections over the

eyes. These frogs’ coloration is also quite

distinctive. They are buff-colored on their

backs, pinkish on their legs, and rich choco-

late brown on their undersides, and their

toes are also striped with chocolate brown.

One of two new Asiatic horned frogs (Megophrys nasuta) at the Reptile House (number 19 on map).

These frogs’ eyes, by their large size and

their vertical pupils, indicate their nocturnal

habits in their native Malaya.

This species belongs to the same zoological

family as our Eastern spadefoot toad (Sca-

phiopus holbrooki); unlike the spadefoot,

however, it is not a burrowing species but lives

among leaves on forest floors. The Asiatic horned

frog has a bony plate in the skin of its back,

so that it can protect itself by rapidly dig-

ging into the leaves, leaving only this armored

area exposed.

Gelada baboons are striking looking monkeys,

and in several ways their appearance is unique.

The hairless patches of vivid pink skin on the

chests and throats of both sexes immediately

set them apart from all other monkeys. This

skin, which in the female is edged with blister-

like growths and becomes bright red at the

fertile phase of the menstrual cycle, has

earned this species the popular name ‘‘bleeding-

heart baboon.” In males, which are twice the

size of females and may weigh a good 45

pounds, the straight black and brown hair

forms along mantle on the shoulders and

back, and the lighter-colored hair around the

face forms characteristic wispy whiskers.

Still other distinctive features are the long

tufted tail and the marked contrast between

the pale pink skin around the eyes and the

black skin of the face. The area around the

eyes Is particularly noticeable when the

monkey raises its eyebrows, as it does when

alerted by some new stimulus in its

surroundings.

Gelada baboons belong to the genus

Theropithecus, in which there is only one

species, heropithecus gelada, They are not

true baboons, which are classified in the

genus Papio; and the gelada baboon’s jutting

chin and flat face clearly differentiate it from

the baboons with their long, ‘‘doglike”

The Zoo’s male gelada bares his formidable teeth,

warning the photographer to keep his distance

(number 221 on map).

snouts. In fact a better popular name for

this species would be simply ‘‘gelada’’;

according to the German explorer and

naturalist Ruppell, who in 1835 first made

this species known to science, the Amharic

inhabitants of its native regions called it

‘“Tschelada.”’ ‘‘Baboon’’ was doubtless

added to the name because, like the true

baboons, geladas are large terrestrial monkeys

of the African continent. Now some scientists

believe they are more closely related to the

guenons, while others have suggested that

they are relatives of the macaques or the

mangabeys. But whatever their exact posi-

tion in the primate family tree, geladas have

aroused considerable interest in recent years

because of their unusual habitat and the

kind of social life they have evolved in

response to It.

Gelada baboons live only in mountainous

parts of Ethiopia, where elevated tableland

that reaches a height of 15,000 feet above

sea level is cut by deep gorges. The geladas

inhabit the precipitous edges of these

gorges between 6,000 and 15,000 feet and

the rim of the tableland above. In this rugged

country, geladas search for roots, bulbs,

grasses, and other vegetable matter, occasion-

ally supplementing this diet with small quan-

tities of insects. Their unusually long and

sharp fingernails are helpful in digging for

roots in the hard mountain soil.

Their fingernails also come in handy in

climbing over steep rocks, One captive

gelada was able to climb over 15 feet up a

tile wall with the cracks between the tiles

carefully filled in and its fingers providing the

only foothold. The gelada is a slow and

cautious climber, Unlike arboreal monkeys,

it does not aid its climbing with jumping

ability, and it is said that a fall of only ten

feet may prove fatal.

In the gelada’s native habitat, there is a dry

season from September to June, broken only

by a short period of occasional light showers

in April; then even the gelada’s meager fare is

scarce. Around February, the temperatures

may become quite cold at night, and frost

may appear on the ground before dawn, while ©

hailstorms may accompany the April rains.

At these times and in the summer rainy

season, the gelada’s long fur shows its value

as a protection against cold and wet.

The gelada’s social life is an adaptation to

the conditions under which it lives and

shows seasonal variations that correspond

with the seasonal variations in rainfall and

the availability of food in its habitat. In

the rainy season, lush mountain meadows

develop, and food is plentiful. Then the

geladas congregate in herds numbering up to

400. In the dry season, when food is scarce,

the herds separate into much smaller groups,

each of which forages for itself. In parts of

the gelada’s range that are near human

settlements, large herds also form around

cultivated fields to plunder the crops that

are beginning to grow there; and at harvest

time in February, when the soil is baked hard

and natural food is hard to find, the monkeys

gather in considerable numbers around the

villages, searching threshing floors for

leftovers.

While feeding under more natural conditions,

the herd travels up and down the sides of the

gorges cr along the rim of the gorge on the

flat land above. When browsing on the flat

ground, the herd never ventures more than a

mile from the gorge, and its organization

indicates a constant awareness of the presence

of the shelter the gorge cliffs provide. The

most vulnerable members of the herd are

located nearest the cliffs; there groups of

infants and small juveniles feed and romp

together, interspersed with mothers with

babies and other adult females. Further from

the cliffs, there are females and mothers with

young, with an occasional adult male among

them. Still further out the proportion of

males increases until at the forward edge

there are only full-grown and large, nearly

full-grown males. At night, the herd returns

to the cliffs to sleep.

The daytime movement is slow, and the whole

herd is hardly ever moving at once. For

intervals of one or two hours, the herd may

remain in one place. Usually they are feeding;

but the young may also play, and, in the early

morning and late afternoon, the adults may

groom one another’s fur. Eventually a few

monkeys, usually in the male section of the

herd, will get the others moving by standing

up on all fours and striding forward for about

300 yards. Then, as the other members of

_ the herd one by one catch on, stand up, and

move an equal distance, the males that

originally started the movement will have

sat down again and resumed feeding. Some-

times a male may move a much shorter dis-

tance, sit down for a shorter interval, and

move on a short distance again. Other animals

may follow him and stop to feed when he

stops to feed, while other monkeys through-

out the herd are also moving in a similar

sporadic fashion. The effect of this is a very

leisurely forward movement of the whole

herd. Other geladas will not pass a monkey

that has stopped, but there are no real leaders,

First one male and then another may take

it upon himself to get the herd moving. Only

occasionally, usually late in the day when the

geladas are in a hurry to return to the cliffs

for the night, does the herd move without

pausing; their progress at such times is said

to resemble a forced march.

Until midday the herd moves away from the

cliff ledges where it has passed the previous

night. The distances traveled seem to vary

with the locality and the time of day. Geladas

that gather around villages at harvest time

travel little, but under the natural conditions

of the mountain grasslands, there is reported

to be a fairly regular daily pattern of move-

ment. One herd traveling along the tableland

would progress three miles from its sleeping

cliffs before midday and one and a half miles

in a reverse direction when returning to the

cliffs in the latter part of the day. Thus,

they did not return to the previous night’s

sleeping place, but slept a considerable dis-

tance along the gorge; but after a few days

they began to progress back towards their

original starting place. Often herds seem to

travel about three days in one direction and

then return for three days. Sometimes on

these travels, smaller groups will detatch

themselves from the herd and be left behind.

The Zoo’s two adult female gelada baboons and the young female born here in 1970.

The arrangement of monkeys in the herd is

deceptive, since it does not reflect the true

structure of gelada baboon society. Close

observation has shown that the herd is not

in fact an integral social unit, and that it lacks

any centralization or permanent over-all

structure. Rather the herd is a temporary

congregation of smaller groups, and it is

these smaller groups that are the real gelada

societies. The basic gelada social unit is

composed of a full-grown adult male, one or

more adult females, and their young. Such

One-male groups are the basic breeding units

in this species. In addition, there are’similarly

sized ‘‘bachelor” groups composed entirely of

males, including both young males that are

nearly fully grown and some fully grown

males, most of which are probably elderly.

As they approach full growth, male offspring

are expelled from the groups in which they

were born and join bachelor groups. This

apparently takes place at the age of five or

six years.

When the larger herds break up in the dry

season, each of these basic groups remains a

unit. A one-male group or bachelor group

may forage entirely by itself at such times or,

more frequently, may join in a small herd

with one or two others. But even in the

larger herds, each of the constituent groups

reveals itself as a unit. There geladas interact

mainly with members of their own groups;

and, although males and young may move away

from other members of the group while

feeding or resting, they periodically rejoin

them and probably always do so before going

to sleep. When the whole herd moves

quickly, each group tends to reassemble.

Moreover, sexual contact seems to take place

only between members of the same group;

and the grooming of one another’s fur — one

of the most important and time-consuming

of primate social activities — likewise does not

seem to cross group lines,

The gelada’s form of social organization con-

trasts markedly with some of the most publi-

cized primate societies. In some of the true

baboons (the savannah baboon, Papio ursinus,

for example), in the rheseus macaques (Macaca

mulatta) and in the Japanese macaques

(Macaca fuscata) — all of which have been

studied fairly extensively — there exist large

troops including numerous adult males and

females. In these species, the troop, which

usually numbers from about 20 to about

175 individuals, is an organized, highly co-

hesive unit. It is led, protected, and ruled

by a group of adult males. These males travel

at the center of the troop in the company of

females with infants, while less dominant

adult males, larger juvenile and sub-adult

males travel on the periphery of the troop. To

a greater or lesser extent patterns of dominance

and subordination permeate these societies.

There is a marked hierarchy among the

males on the periphery of the group; the

members of the ruling male clique are less

noticeably ranked among themselves, and

there is a similar ranking among females.

More dominant individuals have priority

in disputes over such things as food and

favored sleeping places, and dominant males

have first choice of females in the breeding

season. In one Japanese macaque troop a

clear-cut hierarchy was observed according

to which every single member of the troop

was ranked, from the first to the fortieth.

In many species, on the other hand, the

largest groups that are ever found together

consist of one adult male, several adult

females, and their young; and males ap-

proaching adulthood are driven away from

the troop by the father. Indeed it is from

this basic social form that more complex

Old World monkey and ape societies are

believed to have evolved. In some species

it has developed to the point where the

young adult males are allowed to remain with

the troop and ranked on the basis of age. In

only a few species it has been replaced by the

highly-specialized multi-male troop that occurs

in some baboon and macaque species. In the

gelada it has remained the basic social unit,

but the nature of the gelada’s habitat has

made it necessary for such groups to come

together at certain times of the year in order

to take advantage of a food supply that is

abundant in a few places but not widely

distributed. Typically, the one-male primate

group, like more complex primate groups, has

its own territory and avoids mixing or contact

with other groups of the same species; but

this tendency to remain separate is something

that the need for survival has forced the

gelada group to overcome.

When the multi-male troops of baboons and

macaques were first described, they gave rise

to a great deal of anthropological speculation.

Here, it was proposed was a close parallel of

our earliest near-human ancestors. A strong

dominance hierarchy, it was theorized,

inevitably arises to prevent conflicts when a

large number of primates are gathered together.

Such theories in turn were used to support a

very ancient human self-image, which portrays

man as innately rapacious and aggressive,

doomed to continual conflict with his fellows

unless restrained by a strong authority. The

evidence from gelada baboons and several

other species has tended to restore balance to

An architect’s drawing of the National Zoo’s planned gelada baboon exhibit.

ROCK CREEK

the picture and has taught us that primates

display considerable variability in social

structure. Today zoologists examining the

roots of primate society prefer to emphasize

how each form of social organization has

evolved in response to environmental pres-

sures and avoid positing such undemonstrable

quantities as innate aggressive instincts.

Within the gelada one-male group a dominance

ranking can be observed. The male is the

unquestioned ruler, and his females have a

descending order of dominance among

themselves. In the National Zoo’s gelada

group (number 22/ on map), which in

essence has the same composition as the

breeding unit in the wild, the larger of the

two adult females is noticeably dominant.

Observers determine the dominance order on

the basis of conflicts or ‘agonistic encounters,”

One individual is said to be more dominant

than another individual if it wins more

conflicts than the other. The word ‘‘win”’

may be misleading here, since it must be

understood in a somewhat specialized way.

Actual fighting is rare, and almost all

conflicts consist of only a brief display of

aggressive or defensive signals on the part

of the participants, and the loser’s abandon-

ment of the piece of food or favored resting

place over which the conflict arose. If the

conflict involved a ‘‘police action,” the loser

is forced to cease agression against a third

animal.

The last-mentioned type of conflict is the

One in which the male most often figures; an

important part of his role as patriarch con-

sists of settling quarrels between other group

members. Once in the Zoo’s group the

juvenile female was playing on the high bar,

and suddenly jumped down on the ground

very close to where her mother (the larger of

the two females) was sitting. Startled, the

adult female stood up on all fours, screamed,

and bared her teeth at the juvenile, who

scurried away up the bars of the cage. No

sooner had she done so than the adult male

charged the female, struck at her with his

hand, and bared his teeth. She got out of his

way, her teeth bared, then sat down and

whimpered for a minute or two; soon she was

calm and seemed to have forgotten her original

aggressive intentions towards the juvenile.

The baring of the teeth is the most striking of

the communicatory signals that accompany

agonistic encounters in the gelada. No one

who sees a male gelada’s threatening expres-

sion is likely to forget it; the jaws are opened

wide, and the upper lip is raised high or

turned inside out, exposing the upper gums

and teeth, including the immense pair of

canines. When the lip is curled over, its move-

ment is visible at a distance as a distinct pink

flash, and the expression is held for more

than a second. In captive geladas this

expression is often directed towards unfamil-

iar humans that approach the cage too

closely; in this case, the intuitive explanation

that the male is ‘“‘showing his teeth”’ is

essentially correct.

In all these cases we might tend to explain the

baring of the teeth as a warning on the part of

a threatened or subordinate animal that it is

capable of defending itself. But the same

expression has other uses for which a simple

intuitive explanation will not work. It may

be used, for instance, by a more dominant

animal to reassure a subordinate, often when

the subordinate monkey seems about to flee

at the approach of the more dominant one.

In fact it may be used as a response by a more

dominant individual to this same expression on

the part of a subordinate. Thus, when both of

the Zoo’s two adult females were baring their

teeth and screaming at the male, he calmed

them by backing away from them and

briefly curling up his lip to bare his own

teeth. Two geladas may bare their teeth as

a ‘‘greeting’’ when approaching each other,

and this facial expression is frequently

followed by such amicable social activities as

huddling close together or mutual grooming.

In fact many believe that the human smile

has evolved from the same sort of defensive

and conciliatory baring of the teeth.

Even when an adult male gelada bares his

teeth towards an aggressor of a different

species, the expression is not likely to be

directly followed by an attack. There is

another facial expression that does precede

and signal attack, whether on a member of a

different species or another gelada. In this

expression, the corners of the mouth are

brought forward so that the mouth opening

forms a wide circle, and the lips are tensed

and pressed against the teeth. Often the

teeth are not visible, but in the male the tips

of the canines may appear just beyond the

upper lips. This display is accompanied by

the erection of the hair on the back and

shoulders. In the male, with his long mantle,

this makes the animal appear larger and

considerably enhances the formidable

impression on the aggressor. In a situation

of high tension when it has equally strong

impulses to flee and to attack, a gelada may

alternate this expression with the bared-teeth

display.

As in other primates, vocalizations play an

important role in gelada communication,

and the gelada’s repertoire includes some of

the most unusual sounds produced by any

monkey. Bedises the typical monkey

screams and ‘‘panting barks,” geladas are

capable of producing some truly unearthly

moaning and sobbing calls. One moaning

sound seems to function as a contact call;

when a moment of danger or tension has

passed, members of the Zoo’s group make

this sound in chorus, evidently to reaffirm

their group identity and reassure one another

that no one is missing.

Body movements too have communicatory

significance. One of the most commonly

observed body movements in the gelada

baboon, as in many other Old World monkeys

and apes, is what is known as ‘‘presenting’’ or

‘‘oresentation.” This is the typical posture of

a female soliciting sexual intercourse,.but it

has come to play a role in many social

contexts in which the sexual element is

subordinate or entirely absent. In the gelada

baboon, a female often may present towards

another female or towards a male in a clearly

non-sexual context. Often a female uses

presentation to appease aggression or

anticipated aggression on the part of another

female. The same gesture sometimes occurs

before grooming. A female may present in

order to ask another female to groom her or

in order to indicate her intention to groom the

other female.

When a female presents towards a male in a

non-sexual context, it likewise often has the

purpose of appeasing aggressive impulses that

the male has expressed. Sometimes also a

female may do so to solicit the male’s protec-

tion when she has been threatened by another

female. Sometimes the male may signal to a

femal — by smacking his lips or chattering

his teeth — to come over to him; and when she

does so, she may present towards him. Finally,

a female may present towards the male of her

own accord without any apparent motivation

except perhaps as an affirmation of her

submissiveness towards him.

The male may react towards non-sexual

presentation by the female by sniffing at or

touching the female’s anogenital region or by

seizing the fur on her hips with both hands.

He may mount her without sexual intent;

mounting in fact occurs in a variety of non-

sexual contexts. A female may even mount

another female in a way that mimics male

_sexual mounting. Just as presenting, the

female sexual gesture, in its non-sexual uses

signifies submissiveness or at least the lack of

aggressive intent, the male sexual behavior

pattern in general seems to function as an

assertion of dominance.

In Old World monkeys and apes with multi-

male social groups, males regularly mount

one another and present to one another as

social signals. Such behavior does not seem

to occur among gelada males; and this is in

keeping with what we know of their social

life in the wild, since presenting and mounting

among males are ways in which male dominance

hierarchies express themselves, In captivity

males of some species will present submissively

to human beings; the Zoo’s male pig-tailed

macaque (Macaca nemestrina) frequently does

so. Males of this species have a peculiar

greeting gesture in which the lips are protruded

and the chin is jerked upward; this gesture is

not difficult for human beings to imitate.

When a visitor approaches the pig-tailed

macaques’ cage (number 22c on map), par-

ticularly if there are no other visitors in the

area, the male will sometimes give this

greeting. If the visitor responds in kind, the

male may turn and present submissively,

usually holding one hand on his hip as he

does so and looking back over his shoulder.

In the pig-tailed macaque and some other

Old World monkeys — such as the Celebes ape

(Cynopithecus niger), a pair of which are

located at the Monkey House (number 21

on map) — the male’s hindquarters are very

brightly colored — a phenomenon which

puzzled zoologists for some time. Recognition

of the social function presentation plays in

many species, however, has helped provide

some tentative solutions.

In many species, the female’s anogenital

region shows cyclic color changes. In several

species, including both the pig-tailed macaque

and the gelada baboon, the skin in this area

becomes rich with blood and bright red at

the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle. In

the Barbara ape (Macaca sy/lvana) by con-

trast, the fertile phase is marked by a notice-

able swelling but not by color change (num-

bers 22b, 22d, 22g, and 22h on map). \t is at

this time, when females are in estrus, that

most sexual activity occurs, and here the

original meaning of presentation becomes

clear, Not only is presentation an invitation

to intercourse, but it is a way of showing the

male the female’s sexual skin change and

indicating to him her fertile condition.

Now the bright hindquarters of the male

pig-tailed macaque and of males of other

species bear a marked resemblance in

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coloration to those of females in estrus.

Yet the colors are not produced ina

homologous way; the red pattern on the

male pig-tailed macaque’s hindquarters in

not produced by skin at all but by red-

pigmented hairs. Thus it has been theorized

that the coloration of the male’s hind-

quarters represents a kind of mimicry of

that of a female in estrus. Since presentation

towards the male by a female in estrus has

strong connotations of submissiveness on

her part and rapidly and effectively curtails

any aggressive tendencies the male might

have towards her, it is argued that a similar

signal in the male has evolved to elicit a

similar abandonment of aggression on the

part of other males.

The gelada male, it will be noticed, is quite

without any such coloring of the hind-

quarters, but some scientists have believed

that a still more remarkable instance of

mimicry is to be found in this species. It has

been suggested that the bare skin on the

chests of both sexes duplicates the sexual

skin of the female’s hindquarters. The bare

skin in both areas is quite similar in shape,

and the chest skin of the female shows

cyclic changes that correspond closely with

the cyclic changes of the anogenital skin.

Both become bright red at the fertile phase;

and as menstruation approaches, the bright

color in both areas is replaced by a pale

pink. Both areas in the female are ringed

with blisters which become enlarged as

menstruation approaches. “

Until further studies are made of the

gelada’s social life in the wild, the function

of the bare chest skin in either males or

females cannot be determined for certain.

In the female it seems to be a secondary

means of signalling the fact that she is in

estrus. But it is entirely possible that in

both sexes the chest skin functions as a

social signal quite apart from its sexual

functions in the female. Like the brightly

colored hindquarters of the males of other

species, it may function to calm potential

aggressors by mimicking female sexual

presentation. That a signal pattern could

develop in a different part of the body from

the pattern it is imitating and yet elicit

something of the same response may seem

surprising; but it is easy to imagine how such

a pattern could have actually been deceptive

when it first appeared and how it would have

had considerable survival value for its posses-

sors if it saved them from aggression by

others of their species.

The National Zoo's adult male gelada baboon

(number 221 on map).

There are reports of (presumably captive)

male geladas “threatening” each other by

displaying their chests, and the bare skin is

even said to grow redder on such occasions.

If these reports are accurate, it is easy to see

how the male’s chest signals may function to

inhibit each other’s aggression. Indeed, if one

wonders how each adult gelada male, the

ruler of his own small group, is able to coexist

peacefully with a great number of other

strange males in the herd, it may be that the

constant presence of a familiar appeasing

signal on the chest of every male serves to

inhibit any aggressive impulses on the part of

the others. In the case of the female, the

chest skin may play a similar function. In

fact, it may have evolved so that the anogenital

region would not be involved in appeasing

signals towards members of other groups,

particularly other males, thus minimizing

the danger of intergroup sexual contact and

consequent male quarrels,

The National Zoo has plans for exhibiting this

fascinating species on a much grander scale

in the future. When the Zoo’s Master Plan is

implemented, a gelada baboon exhibit will be

constructed on natural cliffs above Rock

Creek in an area of the Park not currently

occupied by animal exhibits. The situation

on much of the Ethiopian tableland will be

reversed, since the geladas will climb down

from the cliffs onto a flat enclosed area

below; but when the area is occupied by an

expanded gelada troop, visitors should be

able to see a great deal of natural behavior in

an attractive and realistic approximation of

these monkeys’ native habitat.