Friends

of the

National

is a nonprofit organization of individuals, families, and organiza-

tions who are interested in helping to maintain the status of the

National Zoological Park as one of the world’s great zoos, to fos-

ter its use for education, research, and recreation, to

increase and improve its facilities and collections, and to

advance the welfare of its animals.

ZooGoer [ISSN 0163-416X] is published bimonthly by Friends of the

National Zoo to promote its aims and programs, and to provide infor-

mation about FONZ activities to its members, volunteers, and others

interested in the purposes of FONZ. Third class mailing permit no.

served.

The National Zoological Park is located in the 3000 block

of Connecticut Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008,

202-673-4717. Weather permitting, the Zoo is open every

day except Christmas. Hours: From October 16 to April 14,

grounds are open from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; buildings,

9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. From April 15 to October 15,

grounds are open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.; buildings,

8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Director: Michael H. Robinson.

Membership in FONZ entitles you and your family to many ben-

efits: publications, discount privileges, and invitations to special

programs and activities to make your zoogoing more enjoyable

and educational. To join, write FONZ Membership, National Zoo-

logical Park, Washington, D.C. 20008, or call 202-673-4960.

Membership categories are:

Family (includes children 3-16 years) $45

Double $40

Individual $35

Senior Citizen (individual or couple) $25

Contributing $75

Sustaining $150

Patron $250

Sponsor $500

Benefactor $1000

Director's Circle $2500

ZooGoer (for those living outside a

200-mile radius of Washington, D.C.) $25

FONZ Board of Directors: William H. Berman, President;

Carole A. Valentine, First Vice President; Susan B. Perry,

Second Vice President; David Perry, Treasurer;

Francisca B. Holland, Secretary; Jeanne Beekhuis; Patricia A.

Bradley; Miriam V. Carmack; James B. Dougherty; Paul B. Green;

Michele V. Hagans; Betty Ann Kane; Lori Kaplan; Gloria Kreisman;

Harald R. Leuba; Robert A. Peck; Anne Shultz; Ross B. Simons;

Robert J. Smith; Curtis N. Symonds.

Executive Director: Clinton A. Fields.

ZooGoer Staff: Publisher: Clinton A. Fields

Editor: Susan Lumpkin

Associate Editor: Howard Youth

Intern: Debra Solomon

Contributing Editor: Robin Meadows

Consulting Editor this issue: Robert Hoage

Copy Editor: Jean B. McConville

Design: Mosser Design, Inc.

Cover: © Dale Sheckler

Diver meets garibaldi off the California coast.

& Recycled paper, 10% post-consumer content.

4 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

1996 IN REVIEW

1996 was a good year for Friends of the National Zoo. Striving to meet the

challenges of continuing downsizing in the National Zoo’s federal support,

FONZ spearheaded new fundraising efforts and new programs that serve mem-

bers and visitors alike, all in an effort to better support the Zoo.

The fruits of our labor are nowhere more apparent than in the new exhibits

that embody the Zoo Director’s BioPark philosophy. The newest jewel in the

Zoo crown is the fascinating, high-tech Science Gallery, a wing of the Amazonia

exhibit where visitors can explore the frontiers of science with Zoo scientists. In

early December, the Zoo broke ground on the first phase of the Grasslands Ex-

hibit. And in the planning is an innovative exhibit and trail on water and its im- -

portance.

FONZ support has been crucial to the development and completion of ex-

hibits and we are striving to help even more in the future. 1996 saw the intro-

duction of new fundraising efforts, including the ADOPT a Species and Wildlife

Walls programs, and the expansion of others, such as adding ZooFari for Kids

to our spring ZooFari fundraiser while fine-tuning and expanding the fall

Wildlife Art Festival. In total, FONZ fundraising yielded $525,000 for Zoo pro-

grams. What’s more, net income from FONZ’s concessions—about $1,375,000

in 1996—continued to be a mainstay of Zoo research, conservation, education,

and visitor support programs. Here again, we experimented with ways to in-

crease income, opening a holiday Wildlife Art Gallery in addition to two other

mall Zoo Stores, opening a new shop in the Science Gallery, and consolidating

our Parking and Visitor Services, and our Merchandising and Bookstore opera-

tions to provide better service and increase efficiency.

Membership programs also grew in 1996, to meet the needs of a record-high

70,000 members. One new membership category—the ZooGoer category for

z00 lovers who live outside the Washington, D. C., area—more than doubled in

size in its first year. And very often the addition of new members means new

volunteers for the Zoo, volunteers who contribute immeasurably to virtually

every facet of the Zoo and FONZ. In 1996, volunteers were on hand to record

the births of baby rhinos Chitwan and Himal, to help organize events such as

Seal Days and the 5K Running Wild, and even to recruit the new members who

keep FONZ such a vital organization. Volunteers organized and ran ZooFari

for Kids. And volunteers are also critical to an expanding array of education

programs at the Zoo.

Finally, 1996 saw FONZ move into cyberspace, as we launched our World

Wide Web site. Visit at http://www.fonz.org/ and let us know what you think.

I have been thrilled to watch FONZ and the Zoo grow during my 14 years as

a member and volunteer, the last two of which I have served as your president.

And now, even as I pass the presidential reins to the capable hands of new presi-

dent William H. Berman, I look forward to many more years of service. I hope

you too will consider how you can give more to FONZ in the coming year.

Your contribution of expertise, energy, and ideas, and your participation are

welcome, and always much needed and appreciated. The rewards for your con-

tribution are numerous and tangible: more than 5,000 animals of some 500

species thriving in one of the world’s great zoos.

Sincerely,

In Le. Sect. F-

M. Lee Sutherland

Immediate Past President

P.S. A complete FONZ Annual Report for 1996 will be available in May.

Please send a note to: Annual Report, Friends of the National Zoo, National

Zoological Park, Washington, D. C. 20008, to request a copy. The Annual Re-

port will also be posted on the FONZ website.

Se oveeep ei pipecstensse

BER gst eee 809

Jescio GoneniNZe

Born in 1986 in Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park, new mothers Mechi and Kali were barely out of

babyhood when they came to the National Zoo in 1987.

“They’re so ugly, they’re cute,” squeals a visitor, while watching

Chitwan and her half-brother Himal, the National Zoo’s two

newborn greater one-horned Asian rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros uni-

cornis). These quirky comments could only be inspired by such

strangely contoured animals. Sporting oversized ears, hornless

heads, and relatively narrow girths, Chitwan and Himal are

rapidly growing into their rivetted skins. Since Chitwan was born

to her mother, Mechi, on September 18, and Himal to his mother,

Kali, on October 31, each newborn has gained about five pounds

daily. At about six months, they will each start to sprout a horn

composed of a fusion of hard hairs.

Although 16-year-old Sport fathered both calves, a jealous love

triangle never developed among the three new parents. Rhinos are

not romantics. After mating, males regain their single status, and

are free to “see other rhinos,” without strings attached. As a dis-

interested dad-to-be, Sport was moved from the National Zoo to

the Philadelphia Zoo last July to make room for the births and

management of his progeny. Sport will return to the National

Zoo in about two years, after the calves are weaned.

Unlike Sport, Mechi and Kali conscientiously assumed parental

responsibilities from day one. After giving birth, for example,

each new mother swallowed her placenta, thereby consuming nu-

trients and hormones that probably helped trigger her milk pro-

6 ZOOGOER © JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

duction for nursing, suspects National Zoo Assistant Curator of

Mammals John Lehnhardt. Maternal callings probably also ex-

plain what Lehnhardt calls “tiger watches.” When, for example,

loud noises from the urban jungle of Washington, D.C., startle

Mechi, she “slowly ventures from her calf, and looks around with

her head held high, ears out, nostrils flared,” apparently straining

to sense whether predatory tigers made the suspicious sounds.

Maternal concern in the wild is frequently reflected in the single-

file formation assumed by mother and calf; the elder animal usu-

ally walks behind the younger, dutifully ensuring that the calf

stays on track and out of trouble. By contrast, Lehnhardt ob-

serves that, for mysterious reasons, the Zoo calves tend to follow

their respective mothers, at least at this stage.

The two new mothers also seem to influence the personalities

of their calves. For example, Lehnhardt describes Kali as a rela-

tively nervous and agitated individual. Likewise, her four-legged

bundle of joy remains particularly active, “frolicking like a colt”

during daily baths. By comparison, both Mechi and her calf are

more subdued.

RHINOS ON THE MOVE

The births of Chitwan and Himal are part of a breeding program

that is designed to maximize the genetic diversity of greater one-

. Ms - . = a \ Bs he, Se ; tae 3 & é

in Chitwan and other national parks.

horned Asian rhinos, an endangered species, in zoos. Both born in

Nepal in 1986, Mechi and Kali were given by the King of Nepal

to the National Zoo in 1987 to expand the gene pool of the U.S.

rhino population. Sport came to the National Zoo from the San

Diego Wild Animal Park in 1985. Each year, about seven of the

45 greater one-horned Asian rhinos that live in North American

zoos are similarly transferred between facilities for planned mat-

ings. Over the last 12 years, conservationists have also translocat-

ed wild populations from Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National Park

to two other locations in India and Nepal, where these animals

formerly ranged. With at least six new births among reintroduced

populations, these projects have born fruit.

RHINO STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Why go to such lengths to help perpetuate rhinos? Eric Diner-

stein, a rhino researcher and the World Wildlife Fund’s conserva-

tion director, appreciates these creatures for, among other traits,

their ability to “open a window on the past.” With ancestors that

roamed the globe 50 million years ago, rhinos are among the

most ancient of existing land mammals. But though a nasal horn

and folded, armor-like skin hardly contribute to a contemporary

look, the greater one-horned Asian rhino is not, by any means,

anachronistic. In this creature, evolution has engineered an ani-

mal that remains well-equipped and ecologically essential to its

8 ZOOGOER ¢ JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

While adults are immune from predation, young rhinos are vulnerable to the tigers that are also protected

wetland, grassland, and forest habitats.

Indeed, for all their ungainliness, these three-toed ungulates are

amazingly athletic. The rhino’s stout, pig-like legs can carry it up

to 35 miles per hour, and enable it to jump over ditches, careen

around corners, traverse mighty rivers, and forge muddy swamps

that might swallow lesser creatures. So agile are rhinos that they

usually run from threats rather than stand and fight. But besides

competing members of their own species, and calf-snatching

tigers, few creatures—except gun-toting humans—ever risk run-

ins with rhinos; most animals apparently recognize that this

beast’s tough hide and monstrous charging power make for a foe

that is better left alone. And while the greater one-horned Asian

rhino—unlike the other four rhino varieties—does not use its

horn as a weapon, it does employ its razor-sharp teeth.

Probably because the wetlands, tall grasslands, and forests fa-

vored by rhinos rarely afford wide panoramas, these creatures

have not evolved sharp eyesight, and cannot discern details be-

yond about 100 feet. But what these myopic animals miss with

their eyes, they detect by other means. The rhino’s sense of smell

may best that of a bloodhound. And their ever-twitching, tufted

ears remain alert to extremely faint sounds.

Nevertheless, the rhino’s shortsightedness may explain why, ac-

cording to Dinerstein, these creatures are “easily startled” by ani-

mals and objects that, from their perspective, seem to emerge

John Seidensticker

Much of the marshy, tall-grass habitat of greater

one-horned Asian rhinos has been lost to agricul-

tural development.

from nowhere and lack defining form. Blind rages can even com-

pel honking rhinos to charge innocuous creatures, such as butter-

flies, with the same ferocity that they turn on tigers.

ECOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS

Lacking sweat glands, greater one-horned Asian rhinoceroses—

more wallowers than warriors—usually pass the heat of the day

soaking in water or mud. Such baths cool these behemoths, wash

away pesky insects, and coat their skin with mud—nature’s own

high-SPF sunscreen.

During the cool of the evening, rhinos commute to jungles and

grasslands, where they usually remain until morning. Grasping

fruit, vegetables, twigs, and grasses with a loose, prehensile upper

lip, each of these herbivores consumes about 40 pounds during a

24-hour period. In so doing, they help shape the bush in many

ways. For example, rhinos constantly trample, snap, and bend the

branches of a palatable evergreen tree species known as the Lit-

sea. Many Litseas are thereby prevented from achieving their full

80-foot height. By contrast, less-tasty tree types are more likely to

reach the canopy. “What rhinos like versus don’t like to eat helps

determine canopy composition, just as do factors such as light,

temperature, and rainfall,” observes Dinerstein. In addition, rhi-

nos can crack open hard, large fruits, such as those of the decidu-

ous Trewia tree, which cannot be pierced by weaker-jawed

10 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

animals. They thereby release seeds that would otherwise rot

without germinating.

As a veritable fertilizer factory, each rhino produces up to

about 60 pounds of dung daily. Defecation usually occurs at

shared latrines that bear the contributions of many. Lehnhardt

compares these communal piles “to a social registry in the village

square.” According to this theory, each deposit is like a calling

card that-—with a signature scent—notifies the community of its

donor’s presence. Individuals advertise their availability for mat-

ing through variations in their scents. Such is the language of love

for the olfactory-oriented rhino.

Dinerstein’s research indicates that communal dung piles bene-

fit other creatures besides just their creators. For example, these

heaps provide habitat for rodents and estivating amphibians, and

may serve as incubators for turtle eggs. In addition, seedlings in-

gested by rhinos are fertilized by the dung in which they are even-

tually deposited. Rhino manure similarly nurtures seedlings that

sprout from seeds dropped in the dung of birds that also frequent

the latrines.

In providing such varied ecological services, rhinos resemble

many other large herbivores that were once pillars of their com-

munities, but have since gone extinct. Scientists believe that the

disappearance of these animals preceded the demise of many oth-

er, smaller species. Likewise, the loss of rhinos could hasten the

decline of some of their dependents.

SOCIAL LIFE

Greater one-horned Asian rhinos are not gregarious animals.

Staking out temporary territories, they usually favor solitude.

Males are particularly intolerant of one another, competing

fiercely for dominance by comparing the size of their teeth. Dur-

ing such macho conflicts, the greater one-horned Asian rhino’s

thick folds, which are peculiar to this species, protect critical body

parts, such as the neck, legs, and genitals, from serious bites.

Rhinos do sometimes congregate. But “we don’t know if con-

gregating individuals are related, or what their interactions

mean,” says Lehnhardt. Also puzzling are the meanings of infra-

sonic messages exchanged by rhinos. According to researchers,

these recently discovered communications “have characteristics of

dialogue” because they “alternate between the participants and

display parallelism and interruption.” Such mysteries are just a

few of the many that still surround rhinos, whose thickly vegetat-

ed habitats have limited research of their habits.

Still, scientists generally agree that the intellectual life of rhi-

nos—-whose nasal cavities are more voluminous than their

brains—are, at best, limited. “Rhinos can’t problem-solve like ele-

phants, nor are they as intelligent as hippopotamuses,” says Lehn-

hardt. For example, a randy male rhino would remain unable to

reach a willing female who dwelled in a neighboring outdoor en-

closure—even if the indoor portions of their enclosures allowed

access. By contrast, elephants would easily solve such spatial puz-

zles.

Rhinos are not, however, completely remote. For example,

when Mechi and Kali were half grown, Associate Director of the

National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center Chris Wem-

mer trained them to board crates for transport from Nepal to the

National Zoo in just two days. “The rhinos loved being scratched

one-horned Asian rhinos.

and hand-fed,” Wemmer affectionately remembers. But wary of

these potentially cantankerous two-ton tanks, National Zoo keep-

ers do not currently enter their enclosures. “It’s too dangerous,”

explains Lehnhardt.

SURVIVAL THREATS

The worth of a species, such as the greater one-horned Asian rhi-

no, cannot be judged just by its intelligence and temperament. In-

deed, by most measures, rhinos rank as treasures. But apparently

valuing the whole less than the sum of its parts, people still kill

rhinos for their body parts, as they have done for thousands of

years. Markets for rhino parts are currently sustained primarily

by Yemen and Oman, where horns are carved into ceremonial

dagger handles, and by China, Taiwan, Thailand, and South Ko-

rea, where ground horns are believed to have medicinal powers,

including fever-reducing effects. Rhino hide, urine, and hooves

are valued for miscellaneous purposes. But contrary to popular

belief, rhino horns, which are still literally worth more than their

weight in gold, are rarely used as aphrodisiacs.

The greater one-horned Asian rhino’s former range once

spanned the entire northern part of the Indian subcontinent—ex-

tending from as far west as Pakistan to the north-eastern tip of In-

dia, and possibly even into China. Today, fewer than 2,000 of

Conservation programs in the wild, and breeding programs in zoos, give hope for the survival of greater

Lori Price

these animals remain—even though hunting and trading of them

is illegal throughout the rhino’s range and beyond. The largest

surviving populations live in Nepal’s Royal Chitwan National

Park, which holds about 450 animals, and India’s Kaziranga Na-

tional Park, which holds about 1,100 animals. The rest of the

greater one-horned Asian rhino population is restricted to one

other Nepalese park and six other Indian parks, which dot the

species’s former territory.

Although several periods have been pivotal for rhinos, the most

recent bad spell occurred in the early 1990s. From 1990 to 1993,

poachers in India killed 209 individuals, equivalent to almost 15

percent of that country’s remaining population. In 1992, a poach-

ing surge claimed 24 Chitwan rhinos, equivalent to nearly five

percent of the park’s remaining population.

Many of the poor subsistence farmers living near rhinos have

traditionally participated in, or at least tolerated, poaching. “It’s

very difficult to poach in most Asian countries without villagers

knowing about it,” says Dinerstein. “There aren’t many places

left that are so isolated that poachers carrying guns, or poachers’

tracks, would go unnoticed.”

Rhinos also remain vulnerable to the lawlessness that accompa-

nies civil unrest in developing nations. Some of India’s well-

armed, extremist ethnic groups have even sometimes helped

JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997 © ZOOGOER 11

finance their illegal operations through horn sales. And with

poaching offering profit margins comparable to those of the nar-

cotics and weapons trades, some illegal hunters opportunistically

move between these illicit industries. Moreover, the sheer scale of

illegal trade is daunting. “It is impossible to inspect more than

five percent of international shipments for outlawed imports of

endangered species products,” laments Genette Hemley, the

World Wildlife Fund’s director of international wildlife policy.

Rhinos are also seriously threatened by habitat loss. The hu-

man population surrounding Chitwan, for example, doubles

every 24 years. As rice paddies are expanded and more brush is

harvested for fuelwood and fodder, rhino haunts inevitably

shrink.

REASONS FOR OPTIMISM

Despite such discouraging trends, much hope remains for greater

one-horned Asian rhinos. First, over the last few years, Nepal and

India have redoubled anti-poaching efforts. Dinerstein explains:

“These governments recognize their responsibility to conserve

species that don’t occur elsewhere. Moreover, if Chitwan were

composed of only rice paddies and forests without exotic wildlife,

the park would lose most of the 66,000 tourists who visit annual-

ly. And these nations’ own conservationists pressure them. Now

when rhinos are poached, Parliament summons the Director of

National Parks to explain.”

Other precedent-setting developments include the imposition of

U.S. trade restrictions against Taiwan in 1994 because of its con-

tinued trade in rhino and tiger products. “These were the first

U.S. trade sanctions based upon wildlife issues,” says Hemley.

The U.S. rewarded Taiwan’s resulting enforcement improvements

by dropping the sanctions in 1995. “Look what can be accom-

plished when the political will exists,” affirms Hemley.

An “enterprise program” recently established near Chitwan by

conservation groups and the Nepalese government has also yield-

ed success. Among the program’s components was the transfer of

about 3,600 government acres of overgrazed park-side lands to

locals, who allowed the land to regenerate after assuming owner-

ship. Profiting from fees collected from tourists who enter these

restored areas, climb a new wildlife observation tower, and pur-

chase elephant-back safaris, park-side communities now maintain

a direct financial interest in the well-being of wildlife. Additional-

ly, rewards to informants have increased five-fold since 1991.

Proving that money talks, locals are now reporting poachers.

Such cooperation has helped keep enterprise areas free of poach-

ing throughout the last three years. In addition, rehabilitated

lands have expanded wildlife habitat. So successful are enterprise

programs that Dinerstein regards them as “the future of conserva-

tion in large parts of Asia.”

Even so, zoo populations remain critically important to the sur-

vival of the greater one-horned Asian rhino, which is hardly out

of the woods yet. With most wild members of this species still

confined to two main areas, they remain vulnerable to catastro-

phes, such as poaching spells, epidemics, and floods. But the

births of Chitwan and Himal have gone at least a little way to-

ward guaranteeing the future of the greater one-horned Asian rhi-

no.

Lily Whiteman is a freelance environmental writer who lives in

Washington, D.C.

12 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

pu ation mdliplied surprisingly fast See aggressi e

- poaching and on Ls yn Measures wereinitigied, =

_ ( ay Whiteman |

/ bo more inomonen! on eter one- homed Aston sine eae

efforts to protect their habitat, visit FONZ’ 5 Website at :

hiipufworw.fons.org/,

The rock reefs off southern California are home

to the garibaldi.

Garibaldi, or ocean goldfish, are members of the damselfish family, not marine relatives of aquarium goldfish, which are a kind of carp. —

For most southern Californians, spring is marked by warming air,

blooming golden poppies, the return of swallows to their San

Juan Capistrano breeding grounds, and opening day at Dodger

stadium. For much of southern California’s diving community

however, it is marked by the beginning of mating season of Cali-

fornia’s state marine fish.

The frenzy begins in mid-March, when the observant diver ex-

ploring shallow rocky reefs will notice male garibaldi working-

over what appears to be just another section of boulder encrusted

with the usual assortment of bryozoans, tunicates, brown algae,

and debris. The male works as if he just downed a double espres-

so, performing a series of intense bites on the nearby rocky sur-

face to remove debris, followed by a “fan” in which he rubs his

tail and anal fin against the boulder in a rapid sweeping motion.

When divers return to these same areas about a month later,

they will find boulders covered with round carpets of red filamen-

tous algae, some of them as large as truck tires. They will also no-

tice that the guardians of these carpets have become increasingly

belligerent—divers that approach too closely often find a foot-

long fish clamped onto their lip or cheek. If they wait patiently

enough, they will see the bright orange fish swimming acrobatic

loops accompanied by grunting sounds—a behavior called “dip-

ping.” With a little luck, they may also witness a passing female

swim into the nest of a dipping male—the ritual has begun.

14 ZOOGOER © JANUARY © FEBRUARY 1997

The Ocean Goldfish

The garibaldi, or ocean goldfish (Hypsypops rubicundus), is the

largest member of the damselfish family (Pomacentridae). The

flaming orange-red garibaldi gets its name from the Italian leader

Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose famed army wore flashy red shirts.

Most of the 240 or so members of this family are less than eight

inches long and are found on tropical reefs of the Pacific, Atlantic,

and Indian oceans, and also in many home aquaria. But not only

is the garibaldi, at about 12 inches long, the largest member of

this family—it is one of the few species that has invaded temper-

ate marine waters, ranging from Monterey south to central Baja.

Juvenile garibaldi that have just settled onto the rocky reefs are

bright orange with iridescent blue spots. As they age, they lose the

blue spots while the orange gets brighter. As adults, both males

and females are a brilliant orange and are indistinguishable except

by behavior.

As in other members of this family (and in many other fishes),

it is the male that builds the nest and, if he is lucky enough to at-

tract females, takes care of the eggs until they hatch and enter the

plankton as tiny larval fish. And, as in most bony fishes, garibaldi

eggs are fertilized externally, with the male squirting spermatozoa

on the eggs after they have been released by the female. When

garibaldi eggs are first laid, they are bright yellow and extremely

conspicuous against the maroon algal mat. As they age, they

gradually turn to gray, and then to silver before hatching in about

sribaldi are among the many fish and other aq

around California’s lush coastal kelp fores

Male garibaldi vigilantly defend their algae nests from predators and other garibaldi.

two weeks. While most other damselfish males simply clean off a

rock or piece of coral to use as a nest, male garibaldi spend about

a month culturing their algal carpet each spawning season. More-

over, they culture a new carpet on the same spot on the same rock

every year of their reproductive lives, which may last more than

ten years. Spawning begins in late April and continues for about

four months. The nesting and spawning activity is so conspicuous

that fish-watchers and photographers can be guaranteed to ob-

serve nests and guardian males in less than 20 feet of water, and

are often fortunate enough to witness spawning itself.

As an avid snorkeler growing up in southern California, I spent

hours every spring and summer watching the garibaldi perform

their annual ritual in the clear waters off Santa Catalina Island,

Laguna Beach, and La Jolla. So, when it came time to choose a

project for my doctoral research at Oregon State University,

garibaldi seemed like an obvious choice. I returned to Big Fisher-

man Cove on Santa Catalina’s leeward side and began what has

become a ten-year study on the reproductive behavior of the

world’s largest damselfish.

Recalling that only a small fraction of nests I observed actually

had eggs and that males were usually unsuccessful in their

courtship efforts, I was most interested in how females select

among the multitude of potential suitors. My first efforts to un-

derstand the process of mate choice in garibaldi taught me two

things: Females are picky and the rich get richer.

16 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

Picky Females

One of the conveniences of studying this species proved to be that

females searching for males are very conspicuous, swimming in an

erratic fashion with all fins erect. Thus, I could follow these fe-

males and observe them as they visited prospective mates. How-

ever, one of the inconveniences turned out to be that females

seemed to spend an eternity making up their minds. I usually had

to follow a female for at least an hour before she spawned and I

followed one female for five hours. Females shuttled back and

forth between their home territory and the nests of males, reject-

ing what seemed to me to be perfectly good nests and males,

while I became numb from the cold water and sometimes danger-

ously low on air. After a complete season, it became clear to me

that when females finally did spawn, it was nearly always with a

male who already had eggs in his nest—but not only were females

showing a strong preference for males with eggs, the eggs had to

be yellow, a sign that they were fresh.

The Rich Get Richer

While my observations were suggestive, experiments were needed

to confirm that the eggs themselves indeed make a difference.

Like any good scientist, I sought a hi-tech solution to my prob-

lem. During the next spawning season, I returned to Big Fisher-

man Cove armed with mascara combs and proceeded to remove

eggs from nests that contained fresh yellow eggs. In some cases, I

A female garibaldi flares her fins and tilts her body in a mate-searching posture. Females can be very picky about choosing a mate.

left a patch of eggs in the nest. In an equal number of others, I left

no eggs. While this did little to win the affection of the guardian

males, it did help answer my question—males with some yellow

eggs were much more likely to receive additional eggs than their

counterparts with no eggs. When I repeated the experiment, re-

moving either old or young eggs from nests that contained eggs of

different ages, the nests with young eggs were more likely to re-

ceive additional eggs than the nests with old eggs.

I was reasonably satisfied that the presence of fresh young eggs

did in fact influence a female’s choice of spawning partner. But, as

usual, answering one question begs at least one more. The most

obvious question was “How do females benefit by choosing males

with young eggs?” I soon discovered that males are also sensitive

to the number of eggs they have in their nest and adjust their level

of parental care accordingly. For instance, if a male received a

clutch of eggs, he would eat the entire clutch if he failed to receive

more eggs within several days. In fact, a male would cannibalize

these “lone” clutches at precisely the age at which they were no

longer attractive to females. Moreover, when I manipulated the

number of eggs in male nests, males with the most eggs in their

nest spent less time feeding and more time guarding their nest

than males with fewer eggs. Males with more eggs were also more

ageressive in their defense of the nest. So, the best way for a fe-

male to avoid the risk of having her eggs become a lone clutch,

and thus be eaten by the male, is to deposit her eggs with other

18 ZOOGOER @ JANUARY @ FEBRUARY 1997

eggs. This also increases the chances that her clutch will be part of

a larger brood that will receive more care.

But why does the female care about the age of eggs in a male’s

nest as well as the number? If a female deposits her eggs in a nest

of mostly older eggs, those eggs will soon hatch, leaving her eggs

as a lone clutch. I found that if a female deposited her eggs as the

last clutch in a nest with mostly older eggs, she was much more

likely to have her eggs cannibalized or neglected by the male than

if the eggs were deposited in a nest dominated by younger eggs.

To Care or Not to Care...

It seems then that the benefit to females of laying in nests with

young eggs hinges on how the number and stage of eggs affect

male parental investment. Why should this matter to a male?

Shouldn’t a male invest all he can in his precious offspring? Sim-

ply put: No. To understand this we have to understand what a

male gains and loses by caring for his offspring—the costs and

benefits.

As any parent knows, taking care of offspring is hard work.

When males care for eggs, they increase the amount of energy

they expend: They must fan the eggs to keep them supplied with

oxygen and chase away intruders that want to feed on the tasty

embryos. And because they have to be near the nest so much, they

are unable to feed as much as they otherwise would. So, taking

care of eggs has a high cost—males expend more energy than they

Bright blue spots reveal a juvenile garibaldi; adults are colored solid orange.

take in and thus lose weight and become weakened. This can lead

to all sorts of undesirable consequences that may compromise the

male’s ability to mate in the future. These include decreased

growth, increased susceptibility to disease, and a decreased ability

to fend off stronger males that may want the nest for themselves.

To make up for these costs, males require a large benefit—

namely, a large number of eggs. Because the benefit in eggs

hatched is much higher for a larger brood than a smaller brood,

males are willing to pay a higher cost by expending more effort

on the care of larger broods. Very small broods may not yield

enough benefit to warrant the cost. At the extreme, a male may

decide to avoid caring for such a brood by eating it. Not only

does this enable him to get out of rearing a brood that isn’t worth

the cost, but he actually gains some energy at the female’s ex-

pense. This energy can be invested in future, hopefully larger,

broods that will yield a higher benefit.

Eating one’s own offspring has been termed filial cannibalism

and is very common in fishes and even some salamanders. It is

part of a more general phenomenon called infanticide—the killing

of viable offspring—which occurs in virtually every animal that

provides parental care, including humans and other primates.

Big Men of the Cove

So, for reasons that make sense when we consider the costs and

benefits to males of caring for offspring, once a male receives an

initial clutch of eggs, he becomes a big man of the cove (BMOC).

In fact, I often observed several females in queue waiting to de-

posit their eggs in nests with young eggs. Meanwhile, males with-

out eggs were desperately attempting to lure females into their

nest. But how does a male get on the track to being a BMOC?

How does he get that first clutch that usually sends him into a

spawning frenzy? While females clearly prefer nests with young

eggs, they must sometimes spawn in empty nests when males with

eggs are not available or have no space in their nest. Clearly, from

a male’s point of view, getting that first clutch is the single most

important event of the season.

It was an obvious first step to wonder if the appearance of male

garibaldis’ unusual algal mats influenced which males succeeded

in attracting that first clutch. Garibaldi males may spend a month

culturing the mat that sets them apart from their tropical rela-

tives. Males remove unwanted green and brown algae, and con-

tinually crop the desirable red algae to about an inch in height.

This is just like weeding and mowing a lawn. However, at any

given time, some nests resemble well-manicured golf-course

greens while others resemble the field at RFK Stadium after a

Skins game played in the rain. Could this difference influence fe-

male choice? Might females avoid spawning with males with

sparse algal mats? To address this question, I measured the thick-

ness of algal mats and compared their lushness with the number

of days it took a male to receive his initial clutch. Indeed, the few-

JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997 © ZOOGOER 19

California’s official marine fish, the garibaldi is considered one of the state’s most treasured natural assets by divers and other fish en-

thusiasts.

er bare or sparse patches in the nest, the sooner the male received

eges—viola! But, my bubble was burst when I discovered that the

males with the sparse nests were also sluggish courters.

This quandary called for an even higher-tech solution. With the

assistance of my helpful hardware man, I purchased the finest

wire brush available (more than twice as expensive as the mascara

combs). I then identified the finest nests in the cove and used my

wire brush to shave down half of them, turning them into embar-

rassing shadows of their former selves. I disturbed the other half

by waving the brush over them and similarly annoying the male.

My expectation was that since all the males had been able to con-

struct good nests and were good courters, they would all attract

females to the nest where the females could then assess the thick-

ness of the mat. If females preferred thick mats, they would be

more likely to spawn in them after being attracted by a dipping

male.

To my disappointment, the males didn’t cooperate. While those

males with high-quality nests continued to court vigorously, those

whose nests had been shaved courted little. This presented a seri-

ous problem. Males seemed to be aware of their nest quality:

Those with what appeared to be attractive nests courted much

more than those whose nests were ruined. So, I couldn’t tell if

males with poor nests weren’t getting eggs because their nests

were poor or because they weren’t courting as much.

20 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

Three things still worked in my favor. First, males couldn’t or

wouldn’t abandon their nest if they didn’t like it. Second, they

couldn’t rebuild it quickly. Finally, the nests were large. What if I

turned a large nest into two smaller nests—a thick one and a

sparse one? With renewed enthusiasm and my wire brush, I iden-

tified 12 of the largest and thickest nests and proceeded to modify

them. It worked. All nests eventually received eggs and the eggs

were always deposited on the thicker half of the nest. Thus, it

seems that females do prefer thicker nests and that males know

this. Males with attractive nests court with confidence while those

with unattractive nests waste little effort attracting females for

what would ultimately be an unfruitful meeting.

But why does having a thick algal mat make a difference? After

all, most self-respecting damsels are quite happy to place their

eggs on bare rock. The answer to this question remains unknown

but provides an excuse to return to the bountiful waters of south-

ern California for seasons to come.

Paul C. Sikkel is an assistant professor of biology at the Univer-

sity of the Virgin Islands. Most of his work has focused on male

parental care and female choice of mates in marine reef fishes.

~ Most people associate caring - ao a ois ee ae als, he ea, S

Lae . ee a Bey a - female that provides all of the care—the male helps in about ten percent of all =

: there is generally more

- _ ves. Tn amphibians aid

‘reptiles, care is softer absent, ee whe oe ly prowdcd by he ale Bur in the large wroup oe

: VORCDIaICS, the a fishes, female ay lertent in ouicptc| oe calico tn toe bon y Fishes abot i :

eck a2 percent. _.

Why are fishes diferent B ca

to the mode of fertilizati ae In a

ization is internal. Thu emales

care for offspring, especially si

to abandon females with the offspring ins

families that provide care and also have i inter nal

~ male alone cares for the offspring i in 86 percer

dee, De families, females

ternally fertilizing f fone while es le «

internally fertilizing forms,

But, mode of alco is ae part of tl

work by Craig Sargent at the University | of Ke

- Gross at the University of Toronto has she light . b.

key differences between fishes and t trapod count rts that African jewelfish (Hemichromis bimaculatus) parents, like many

account nicely for the differences i in their patt of parental care. other cich re falas in that sO° both c care jo» their

In species that provide parental care, reprodu tion is closely ass you |

ated with the substratum—the eggs. usually being ¢ el ed to Al |. gs _

rocks, or shells. While both parents reap equal benefits by gi nar and caring for esas pee survivor

ship), they incur different costs. For males, reproductive : success inction. oe of eggs fertilized. For

females, it is a function of the number of eggs produced. _ |

Compared to bird eggs or newborn mammals, fish egs a Tn ideo even be alle

males can usually produce enough sperm to fertilize the eggs of any f oe Thus, a ale fish guarding a terri

tory can pack the eggs of many females (thousands to millions of eggs) inte ) a very mall. area. In fact, having epes

often seems to attract even more females. Thus, caring for offspring will, not decre ase and may even increase the -

number of eggs a male fertilizes. In contrast, caring for eggs can have a large negative effect on ‘the number of

eggs a female produces. This is because fish can continue to grow even after reaching maturity and the number of

eges a female produces (her ‘ ‘fertility”) is directly dependent on how big she is and how much « energy she can de-

vote to egg production. This, in turn, depends on the amount of energy she takes i in relative to the amount she |

has to devote to other tasks. Parenting not only requires expending additional energy, but also reduces the | par :

ent’s opportunity to feed. This leaves little energy available for. growing and making more eggs.

Thus, females are much better off if they can leave the care to males and spend their efforts on making more

eggs. In some cases, many cichlids for example, ‘it takes two parents to fight for a nesting site and defend off-

spring against enemies. This probably accounts for most cases in which females join males i in care of offspring. In

others, certain environmental factors may actually enable a male to fertilize more eggs if he abandons care, ac-

counting for the rare incidence of female-only care in external fertilizers. But most of the time, one mae will do

just fine, and the male fish tends to be better suited for the job. .

—Paul C. Sikkel

JANUARY © FEBRUARY 1997 ® ZOOGOER 21

Office of Naval Research

FRUM GOULD WARRING TU WHALEWATCHING

Scientists who monitor and study whales have re-

ceived a big assist in recent years from an unlikely

source—the U.S. Navy’s multi-billion-dollar under-

water submarine tracking system.

The Navy’s Sound Surveillance System, or SOSUS,

was built in the 1950s at a total cost of $16 billion.

SOSUS uses water’s ability to transmit sounds, espe-

cially low-frequency ones, over long distances. Wa-

ter-borne sounds generated in Perth, Australia, for

example, have been heard halfway around the world

in Bermuda. The once super-secret program uses mi-

crophone arrays on the ocean bottom to detect and

follow Russian and other submarines. The micro-

phones feed data via cables to computer banks on

land. At full capacity, the system delivers this infor-

mation to two dozen land stations around the world.

Most SOSUS arrays are located in the northern

Pacific and Atlantic oceans, says Dennis Conlon,

chief oceanographer in the Navy’s undersea surveil-

lance program. Their precise number, spacing, and

location remain classified. But with the Cold War

over, Navy officials began looking for non-military

BLUE WHALE

DETECTIONS

OW ape OT

ie he NN "

aes

Using SOSUS-generated data, scientists have been

able to plot breeding and wintering ranges for

Atlantic blue whales.

22 ZOOGOER © JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

uses for SOSUS in the late 1980s. By the early 1990s,

Navy and other researchers were monitoring under-

water earthquakes and volcanoes, hearing nuclear

explosions, detecting illegal drift-net fishing, and lis-

tening to whales.

In part, SOSUS confirmed what scientists already

suspected: The world’s oceans are noisy places. Sub-

marines, surface ships, airplanes, raindrops, nuclear

explosions, underwater earthquakes and volcanoes,

the rustlings of shrimp and fish, and whale calls are

but a few of the sounds that can be heard.

Scientists have found SOSUS to be a great way to

keep a constant ear on the world’s whales. “We can

follow whales 24 hours a day, seven days a week,

365 days a year,” says Kurt Fristrup, assistant direc-

tor of Cornell University’s Bioacoustics Research

Program. “We have a window on the ocean that op-

erates full time.” To monitor this information, re-

searchers either go to Navy facilities or have data

tapes sent to them—all information is checked first

by the Navy.

Listening to whales under water is not new. “It is

easy to put hydrophones [underwater microphones]

in the water and pick up whale calls,” Fristrup says.

“Tt is hard to know where the sound is coming from

or what species is making it unless it’s really close.”

Previously, whale researchers could only view or

listen to whales for short periods from boats, usually

in shallow coastal waters. “SOSUS lets us look

across the entire ocean rather than just where whale

watchers are,” the Navy’s Conlon says. “Even expe-

rienced researchers now see more whale calls in one

day than they could have in an entire lifetime.”

So far, scientists have just begun to scratch the

surface when it comes to using SOSUS to learn more

about whales, says Peter Tyack, an associate scientist

at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in

Massachusetts.

To date, researchers have focused on learning

which whales make what sounds. “It is not cut and

John Seidensticker

Once limited to observing whales like these

humpbacks from boats, scientists now use SOSUS to

watch whales when they are out of sight.

dry,” Fristrup says of painstaking efforts to compare

sounds heard on SOSUS with the relatively few

recorded whale calls. For now, researchers can reli-

ably identify only blue, fin, humpback, and possibly

minke whales by their calls.

Blue whale calls, marine biologist Kathleen

Stafford says, are long moans that typically are bro-

ken into two or three segments. A segment lasts

about 20 seconds, followed by 20 seconds of silence

and then another 20-second segment. Fin whale

calls, on the other hand, usually last less than a sec-

ond.

The difference is “one of the many mysteries

about these guys,” says Stafford, a research assistant

at the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Ad-

ministration’s Pacific Marine Environmental Labora-

tory in Newport, Oregon. She speculates that the

solitary blue whales need to call over long distances,

especially when trying to locate a mate. Fin whales,

second only to blues in size, travel in groups, so they

may not need long calls to find one another.

Aside from identifying different species, scientists’

SOSUS coverage has revealed more detail on whales’

seasonal patterns. In the Atlantic, blue whales begin

calling in early fall, Fristrup says, peak in late winter,

and taper off in spring. In the Pacific, however,

Stafford says they begin in July and end in January.

The scientists found blue whales begin calling be-

mitt

fore fin whales, which begin before humpbacks,

which begin before minke. “We now know that sea-

sonal calling occurs over a wide range of species and

habitats,” Fristrup says. |

SOSUS has also allowed scientists to get a better

idea of whale distribution. Stafford has documented

the presence of blue whales 300 miles off the Oregon

and Washington coast along the Juan de Fuca Ridge.

“People would not have gone out there looking for

blue whales because we didn’t know they were

there,” she says. “Now we do.”

Although SOSUS can tell researchers where a

whale is geographically, it cannot provide the depth

at which it is swimming. Nor can SOSUS alone al-

ways be used to track individual whales. Whale calls

usually start, continue for a while, and then stop,

sometimes for hours or days. When the calls are

heard again, it is hard to know whether they are

from the same whale, says William Watkins, a senior

researcher at Woods Hole. Sometimes, Watkins

adds, what scientists think is one whale may be calls

from several animals traveling together.

Despite such uncertainty, scientists do report hav-

ing luck using SOSUS to find individual whales. For

example, when Stafford fed the SOSUS-derived loca-

tion of a blue whale in the Pacific to researchers

aboard an airplane, they spotted the animal. Cor-

nell’s Fristrup reports using SOSUS data to track a

blue whale that swam 2,000 miles, from Bermuda

southwest to waters off of South Florida and back.

And while on a ship, Tyack used data from a SOSUS

tracking station at Dam Neck, Virginia, to locate

minke whales in the Caribbean near Puerto Rico.

Although tracking individual whales may give sci-

entists a better idea of different species’ populations,

learning where whales spend their time may be more

important. “That would give us a feel for how

whales use their habitat, what they are doing, and

how long they stay,” Watkins says.

“Using underwater sounds made by whales is a

relatively new area of science,” he adds. “It repre-

sents a new way of studying these animals. It gives

us a window into their largely unknown world.”

—Jeffrey P. Cohn

JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997 ®ZOOGOER 23

Two of only

about 35 Speke’s

gazelles living in

North American

ZOOS.

AT THe 200

THE SNORTING GAZELLE

John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) was a

British explorer most famous—and infa-

mous—for his lifelong quest to find the

source of the Nile. In 1858, Speke de-

clared East Africa’s Lake Victoria the

hero—only to find that his colleague and

fellow explorer Sir Richard Burton chal-

lenged his claim. On the day Speke and

Burton were to debate the issue in public,

however, Speke died while hunting, ap-

parently killed by his own gun.

In spite of the cloud surrounding

Speke’s claim, his discovery was quickly

confirmed after his death. But finding the

source of the Nile wasn’t the only legacy

Speke left. He also left his mark on the

names of several East African animals he

was first to describe to the West, including

Speke’s weaver, a small bird, and Speke’s

gundi, a rodent.

24 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

Jessie Cohen/NZP_ =f

One of Speke’s most graceful “finds”

was Speke’s gazelle, four of which recent-

ly arrived at the National Zoo, where they

now live at the Cheetah Conservation Sta-

tion. Small and delicate, Speke’s gazelles

are brown, dog-sized antelope with white

patches around the bases of their tails and

on the backs of their thighs. They are

found in the wild on the dry open plains

of Somalia and Ethiopia. Adapted to a

desert climate, they feed in the morning

and evening, when leaves hold the most

moisture, and lie around during the

hottest times of the day, conserving pre-

cious water.

Speke’s gazelles have an odd but dis-

tinctive trait: When they get scared or ner-

vous, they inflate the skin on the tops of

their muzzles, amplifying the already loud

snorts they use to alert one another of

danger.

In Africa, poaching and hunting, as well

as agricultural development and over-

grazing by domestic animals, threaten

Speke’s gazelles. The political situation in

Ethiopia and Somalia in the 1980s pre-

vented accurate population counts and led

Westerners to believe that Speke’s gazelles

were virtually extinct, although in reality

they were only threatened in the wild,

with perhaps as many as 1,000 remaining.

Under the impression that extinction

loomed, zoos in the West developed plans

to increase their Speke’s gazelle numbers,

ultimately to produce animals that could

breed with the few wild Speke’s gazelles

left in East Africa.

At that time, the St. Louis Zoological

Park had the only breeding population of

Speke’s gazelles in North America, one

male and two females imported in 1969,

and a female bought in 1972 from the

Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. By 1983,

nT TA

other zoos, including the Gladys Porter

Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, and the San

Diego Wild Animal Park, had several

Speke’s gazelles, all offspring of the four

animals in St. Louis.

Keepers atithe Sty, Vous Zoo insthe

1980s saw a familiar pattern among the

Speke’s gazelle population: low birth

weights and steadily decreasing levels of

fertility and viability that are typical of in-

bred populations. Inbreeding depression

used to be a common problem in zoos, es-

pecially in small populations of rare or en-

dangered animals.

To avoid inbreeding depression and to

develop a healthy zoo population, the

American Zoo Association (AZA) institut-

ed a series of Species Survival Plans (SSPs)

to monitor and manage threatened species

in zoos. Zoos across the country work to-

gether to increase the size and diversity of

the founding populations and interbreed

the animals in order to maintain high lev-

els of genetic diversity.

The small number of Speke’s gazelles in

North America and the lack of available

wild animals made the gazelle’s case par-

ticularly difficult. With such a small

founding population, zoos found them-

selves unable to avoid inbreeding.

Some studies had shown, however, that

small founder populations could adapt

quickly to inbreeding. So the St. Louis

Zoo undertook an intensive program to

adapt their Speke’s gazelles to inbreeding.

They bred the animals quickly, increasing

numbers as rapidly as possible in an at-

tempt to eliminate—through death—the

deleterious genes from the population.

The program, a risky attempt at genetic

management, was a success. In a few

years the zoo population of Speke’s

gazelles nearly doubled, while all signs of

t LUO

inbreeding depression disappeared in two

to three generations.

By 1991, the Speke’s gazelle population

in zoos reached an all-time high of 40, but

shortly thereafter the population began to

suffer again, dipping to 24 individuals by

1994. The St. Louis Zoo imported two fe-

males from Qatar to diversify the gene

pool, a strategy that seems to have

worked. As of December 1996, five insti-

tutions in North America house a total of

35 Speke’s gazelles.

With the acquisition of the Speke’s

gazelles, the Zoo joins its 39th Species

Survival Program. The four Speke’s

gazelles now at the National Zoo are

graceful—albeit snorting—examples of

the Zoo’s strong commitment to the con-

servation of threatened species.

—Debra Solomon

Jessie Cohen/NZP

The wrinkled skin

on the muzzle of a

Speke’s gazelle

(Gazella spekei)

inflates when the

animal is

frightened.

JANUARY ¢ FEBRUARY 1997 ®*ZOOGOER 25

Jessie Cohen/NZP

nocesc@news

FONZ Website

For those who surf the Net, don’t miss FONZ’s new website

at http://www.fonz.org/, where you will find updated infor-

mation on FONZ events and programs, a library of animal

facts, general Zoo visitor information, a children’s page with

interactive games and coloring pages, selections from previous

ZooGoers, and much more. The How to Zoo educator’s

guide and annual report are also there, along with listings of

FONZ travel opportunities.

Zoo Babies

Rhinos were by no

means the only animals

recently born at the

Zoo. The year-round

warmth of the Small

Mammal House has

proved an amenable cli-

mate for breeding: Re-

cently arrived babies

include “four small

Madagascar hedgehog tenrecs (Echinops telfairi) in Septem-

ber, one Geoffroy’s marmoset (Callithrix geoffroyi) in Sep-

tember, and two pygmy marmosets (Callithrix pygmaea) in

November. Meanwhile, at Gibbon Ridge, a baby white-

cheeked gibbon (Hylobates concolor) was born in September.

One of the Zoo’s western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla go-

rilla), Mandara, is pregnant and due to give birth in April.

The Zoo’s female Masai giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis tip-

pelskirchi) Griff is also due in March or April.

A new Madagascar hedgehog

tenrec at the Zoo.

Science Gallery Opens

Imagine a live exhibit where you could peek at scientists do-

ing their research, and you’re well on your way to envisioning

what the Zoo’s newest exhibit—The Amazonia Science

Gallery—is like. This new permanent facility is not just an ex-

hibit but a working research institute with laboratories where

scientists study genetics, nutrition, biodiversity, and animal

behavior and vocalizations. The GeoSphere, a globe with a

six-foot diameter, will be a centerpiece of the Science Gallery,

providing satellite-photo images of Earth that show cities and

altered habitats, as well as weather patterns. In the Behavior

and Bioacoustics Laboratory, visitors can analyze their voices

and compare them to the vocalizations of other animals. The

Science Gallery is open 10 to 4 to visitors wishing to preview

this new exhibit. The Amazonia Science Gallery is still a work

in progress, so you can expect information and displays to be

added in coming months.

26 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

Grasslands Update

The first phase of the Grasslands Exhibit is underway. Zoo

visitors will notice that the Zoo’s bison (Bison bison) now re-

side in an enclosure facing Parking Lot A, near the Connecti-

cut Avenue entrance road. Meanwhile, the Bactrian camels

(Camelus bactrianus) have moved into the bison’s old haunt

just above the Small Mammal House. This shuffling leaves

the former Bactrian camel yard free for construction. This

area will be planted with a variety of grasses and wildflowers,

and once the plants are well established, prairie dogs and bi-

son will roam on this small re-created patch of the Plains.

Octopus Keeps Growing and Growing...

Late last January, the Invertebrate Exhibit’s giant octopus

(Octopus dofleini) weighed a measley 14 ounces. Today the

mighty mollusc weighs a respectable 15 pounds. But it’s not

finished growing yet. In its several years of life, a giant octo-

pus grows to weigh more than 50 pounds; many reach more

than 100 pounds.

A Wet & Wild

ZooFari

This year’s ZooFari

will be all wet—the

theme is the biodiver-

sity and future of the

world’s freshwater

and marine ecosys-

tems—and wild—full

of the dozens and

dozens of restaurants

and lively music and

activities for which

ZooFari is well

known. Your next is-

sue of ZooGoer will focus on watery ecosystems and their an-

imal residents.

On Friday evening, May 9, the second annual ZooFari for

Kids—Guppy Gala—will take place, followed the next Thurs-

day evening by Wet & Wild ZooFari, on the evening of May

15. Members purchasing tickets by February 1 pay $85—$10

off the $95 ticket price; nonmembers pay $105 before Febru-

ary 1, saving $10 off the $115 ticket price. Call 202.673.4613

to reserve your tickets.

Bad News. ..

A mysterious die-off of more than 1,500 moose in southwest-

ern Sweden might be linked to efforts to control the effects of

acid rain, according to a recent report. The moose, which

died of a variety of ailments, lived in one of the most acidified

parts of Sweden. The report by a Swedish chemist indicates

the culprit may be Sweden’s habit of spreading lime in an at-

tempt to neutralize areas affected by acid rain. Both “liming”

and acid rain alter soil pH: lime increases alkalinity, acid rain

raises acidity. These changes in turn affect the amounts of cer-

tain metals absorbed by plants. According to the report, alka-

line soils in limed areas draw more molybdenum than copper

into the plants moose eat, producing a copper deficiency in

moose that may cause weight loss, weakened immune sys-

tems, osteoporosis, and other problems that can contribute to

untimely deaths. No other animals have shown signs of simi-

lar problems, and scientists are investigating other possible

causes of the moose die-off, including viruses and the effects

of moose overpopulation.

—From BBC Wildlife, October 1996

.. 600d News

In 1995 and 1996, a flurry of habitat protection measures

were enacted in Europe, a region with precious few remaining

wild areas. In Spain, a new 99,000-acre national park (a bit

less than half the size of Virginia’s Shenandoah National

Park) protects, among other animals, a colony of rare black

vultures and imperial eagles. In Italy, five new national parks

totalling 1.4 million acres—an area slightly smaller than the

size of Florida’s Everglades National Park—were established,

while in France two new marine parks have been set up to

protect fisheries and coastal ecosystems spanning some

110,000 acres. Turkey set aside one of its best remaining wet-

land areas—17,000 acres that harbor a variety of declining

species, including rare white-headed ducks, pelicans, and cor-

morants. And in Belarus, a new law should soon establish

eight new protected areas, tripling the number of reserves in

that country.

—From Oryx, October 1996

What's in a Name

An animal’s name often tells very little about the creature it-

self, but instead reflects the beliefs and events surrounding the

animal’s description by scientists. European explorers mispro-

nounced and misspelled the Native American Tupi word sua-

surana and recorded it as cuguacuarana, which gave the

cougar (Puma concolor) one of its present names. Penguins

received their name second-hand, when explorers encountered

the flightless birds and believed them to be of the same species

as the now-extinct great auk of the north Atlantic, which

originally held the name “penguin,” possibly from the Welsh

pen gwyn (“white head”), referring to the winter plumage of

this bird. A 12th-century misconception that the leopard

(Panthera pardus) was the offspring of a lioness and panther

(now known to be a black color variant of the leopard) result-

ed in the cat’s name; leo is from the Greek word leon for lion,

and pard is Greek for panther. As recently as the early part of

this century a taxidermist wrongly assumed that the drooping

moustache of the emperor tamarin (Saguinus imperator)

pointed upward like that of the German Emperor Wilhelm,

and the resulting misrepresentation is reflected in the animal’s

name.

Ready to Put Your Mattress to Rest? Recycle it!

Before you condemn your old, unwanted mattress to a landfill

burial, consider recycling it. Some area facilities accept dry,

untorn, unsoiled mattresses, which are cleaned, packaged,

and sold in thrift stores or donated to the needy. Some places

also take damaged mattresses, which are refurbished and

resold, their worn springs and wood further recycled as scrap.

Contact your local solid-waste facility and ask if it recycles

mattresses. Some, such as the Montgomery County Transfer

Station at Frederick and Shady Grove roads in Rockville

(phone 301.217.2770), have special drop-off sites for mat-

tresses, which are picked up by the Salvation Army. In the

Metro area, you can call the Salvation Army for a pickup, or

get details on where to drop off your mattress by calling

301.277.7878 in the District and suburban Maryland, and

703.642.9270 in Northern Virginia.

—Howard Youth and Debra Solomon

Zoo staff work in a variety of ways to

fight the uphill battle to save biodiversi-

ty. Recently, a number of Zoo experts

have gone to press with their ideas,

writing, co-writing, and editing natural

history books. Below you will find a list

and summaries of six new titles, most of

which are currently available at the Zoo

Bookstore.

New Worlds, New Animals: From

Menagerie to Zoological Park in the

19th Century. 1996. Edited by R.]J.

Hoage and William A. Deiss. The Johns

Hopkins University Press. 198 pp. soft-

bound, $15.95.

The purpose of zoos has repeatedly

changed over the years. Likewise, the

zoos themselves have undergone major

transformations. In this look at the his-

tory of zoos worldwide—with particu-

lar emphasis on the growth of zoos in

the 19th century—R.J. Hoage, chief of

the office of public affairs at the Na-

tional Zoo and Smithsonian Associate

Archivist William A. Deiss have com-

piled essays on zoos from India to Ger-

many, Australia to Washington, D.C.

The authors trace zoos from early ego-

driven collections of curiosities to the

research-, education-, and conservation-

oriented institutions of today. Black-

and-white archive photos and drawings

illustrate the text, and two appendices

explore the value of archival zoo pho-

tographs and the architecture of the Na-

tional Zoo.

28 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY ® FEBRUARY 1997

Bring Back the

Birds: What You

Can Do to Save

Threatened

Species. 1995.

Russell Green-

berg and Jamie

Reaser.. Stack-

pole Books.

312 pp. soft-

bound, $19.95.

What you cat do to sav

chreatenied SPeetes

amit Renser

Russell Greenberg and }

In this treatise on the many problems

facing North America’s Neotropical mi-

grants, authors Russell Greenberg, di-

rector of the Zoo’s Migratory Bird

Center, and Jamie Reaser, a wildlife bi-

ologist at Stanford, take a similarly mul-

ti-faceted approach. Their book

introduces the dangers birds brave when

migrating from North American nesting

grounds to points south, then suggests

ways readers can make a difference,

from becoming active voices for conser-

vation to making their backyards migra-

tory bird stopovers. The last portion of

the book is devoted to profiles of 157

North American bird species, summa-

rizing their diets, winter and breeding

ranges, habits, and habitats. Also in-

cluded are directories of national and

international conservation organizations

that work with migratory bird issues,

and short reflections from such budding

bird conservationists as Jimmy and Ros-

alynn Carter.

Tigers. 1996. John Seidensticker.

Voyageur Press. 72 pp. softbound,

$14.95.

“Today, there remain only a few small

tracts where we can hope to maintain

the vestige of an Asian wildlife heritage,

where the tiger can remain part of wild

Asia in the face 3

Onn emer :

more peo- TIGERS ~

prem sanicl ;

their need

for Jandy

writes Zoo

Curator of

Mammals

John Seiden-

sticker in his

new book on

tigers. Jungle Book antagonist, baseball

and petroleum mascot...the tiger’s might

is well respected in our culture. But as

Seidensticker points out, tigers have had

an even more profound effect on reli-

gions and cultures in their native Asia,

where they are disappearing. Tigers pro-

vides a solid introduction to the world

of the tiger—its family life, predatory

role, conservation, and what we have

learned about this elusive striped preda-

tor. Vivid color photographs accompa-

ny the text.

Wild Mammals in Captivity: Principles

and Techniques. 1996. Edited by Devra

G. Kleiman, Mary E. Allen, Katerina V.

Thompson, and Susan Lumpkin. (Holly

Harris, Managing Editor.) The Universi-

ty of Chicago Press. 639 pp. hard-

bound, $70.

This new work is the quintessential

“how to zoo” book—a bible for zoo

Operators. Conservation issues, animal

welfare concerns, nutritional require-

ments, reproduction, behavior, research,

and exhibitry: All of these important

topics are given detailed treatment. A

dream team of zoo biologists—more

than 30 of them current or former Na-

tional Zoo staff and students—con-

tributed chapters to this book, sharing

their decades of observation, study, and

field and zoo experience. Appendices

round out the book with information

on the evolution of mammals, wildlife

regulations relating to zoos, an annotat-

ed bibliography, inter-zoo breeding

loans, and record-keeping. The prepara-

tion of this book, which occupied its

National Zoo editors for nearly ten

years, was supported in part by FONZ.

pie

Zoo Animals: An

Illustrated Guide

to More Than

250 Animals

from Around

the World.

1995. Michael

== H. Robinson

®: and David

7 J Challinor.

Macmillan

U.S.A. 256 pp. softbound, $18.

TAR Ct

Zoo Director Michael H. Robinson and

David Challinor, senior scientist emeri-

tus at the Smithsonian Institution, put

their zoological expertise and travel ex-

perience together in a colorful guide to

zoos and the variety of creatures that

live in them. The book is broken down

into a section on the new role zoos play

in conservation and education, followed

by seven sections on habitats—from

rainforest to tundra—that examine bio-

diversity by biome and present color

photos of some animals typical of these

habitats. In the back of the book, an il-

lustrated glossary of biological terms

and maps of 18 top North American

Z008 provide incentives for the armchair

zoogoer to strike out on the animal

trail.

The Ecology of Migrant Birds: A

Neotropical Perspective. 1995. John H.

Rappole. Smithsonian Institution Press.

269 pp. hardbound, $35.

This work on migrant birds—their biol-

ogy and conservation—presents an ex-

panded and updated treatment of a

topic the author and his colleagues have

been shedding light on for more than 15

years. Initially, author John H. Rappole,

now a research biologist at the Zoo’s

Conservation and Research Center, and

his colleagues Eugene Morton, Thomas

Lovejoy, and Jim Ruos published the in-

formation they could gather on

Neotropical migrants in Nearctic Avian

Migrants in the Neotropics, a U.S. Fish

& Wildlife Service publication printed

in 1983. Since then, many new details

have emerged from expanded field stud-

ies in both the New World tropics and

North America. The Ecology of Mi-

grant Birds fills in many of the gaps.

Though more technical than Bring Back

the Birds (described earlier), this book is

a great read for anyone curious about

how birds migrate, and what their fu-

ture might be.

—Howard Youth

1996 INDEX

abalone, white, near extinction, 25(5):30

animal play, evolution, importance, 25(1):14-23; at Zoo,

25(1):19

bear, Mexican black, return to Texas, 25(3):30

birds in winter, songbirds and woodpeckers, 25(1):29

book reviews: Swamp Screamer, by Charles Fergus, 25(3):27-28;

Tigers & Men, by Richard Ives, 25(3):27-28; review of

eight natural history-themed mysteries, 25(4):28-29;

summary of books on invertebrates, 25(2):28-29

butterflies and moths, camouflage and deceptive markings,

25(2):6-10

cats, endangered, breeding with assisted reproduction techniques,

2.5(4):23-26

civet, common palm, eats coffee fruit, expelled pits used in special

coffee, 25(4):15

coffee, growing techniques, farms as wildlife habitat, 25(4):5-14

Cohn, Jeffrey P., “A Peek at Peccaries,” 25(3):19-23

Cohn, Jeffrey P., “Cucumbers of the Sea,” 25(1):13

Cohn, Jeffrey P., “Grappling over the Galapagos,” 25(1):6-13

Cohn, Jeffrey P., “Ultra-Modern Matchmaking,” 25(4):23-26

crane, whooping, reintroduction to Florida, 25(5):30

DNA fingerprinting used to study animal mating systems,

25(3):10

deer, Eld’s, conservation, Zoo breeding, 25(3):24-26

falcon, aplomado, in Texas, 25(1):28

falcon, peregrine, breeding and reintroduction, 25(1):24-28

Fields, Clinton A., “1995 in Review,” 25(1):4

Fields, Clinton A., “Sipping Your Morning Brew,” 25(4):4

Fields, Clinton A., Visitor Center, new name for former

Education Building, 25(3):4

Fields, Clinton A., “Wildlife Art Festival,” 25(5):4

Fields, Clinton A., ZooFari and ZooFari for Kids, 25(2):4

frogs, toads, lizards of D.C. area, 25(3):30

Galapagos Islands (Ecuador), conservation, 2.5(1):6-12

giraffes, adaptations, behavior, 25(4):16-22

Hawes, Alex, A Capital Playground,” 25(1):19

Hawes, Alex, “Digging the Zoo,” 25(3): 23

Hawes, Alex, “Jungle Gyms: The Evolution of Animal Play,”

25(1):14-23

Henson, Pamela M., “Art for Science’s Sake,” 25(5):21-26

hydrothermal vents and their unique wildlife, 25(3):11-18

30 ZOOGOER ® JANUARY @ FEBRUARY 1997

invertebrates, diversity, biology, influence on cultures,

25(2):11-27

invertebrates, books, further reading on, 25(2):28-29

loon, common, territory and pair bonding, 25(3):5-10

Lumpkin, Susan, “Coffee Luwak,” 25(4):15

Madagascar national park, Masoala, country’s largest, to be

declared, 25(1):29

marmoset, Satere, discovery in Brazil, 25(4):30

McCracken, Kasey, “Saving the Skittish Eld’s Deer,” 25(3):24-26

McCracken, Kasey, “Southern Africa’s Social Diggers,”

25(5):27-28 :

Meadows, Robin, “A Neck up on the Competition,” 25(4):16-22

Meadows, Robin, “Aliens in Our Cells,” 25(3):17

Meadows, Robin, “Life without Light: Discoveries from the

Abyss,” 25(3):11-18

meerkats, slender-tailed, at the Zoo, 25(5):27-28

Peccaries, behavior and biology, 25(3):19-23; at Zoo, 25(3):23

Piper, Walter, “Fingering Infidelity,” 25(3):10

Piper, Walter, “Testing the Legends of Loons,” 2.5(3):5-10

recycling, drive-through, 25(5):30

Robinson, Michael H., “Lepidopterans: Allure and Illusion,”

25(2):6-10

Salvesen, David, “Flying Back from the Brink,” 25(1):24-28

Salvesen, David, “The Grind over Sun Coffee,” 25(4):5-13

Salvesen, David, “Return of the Southern Falcon,” 25(1):28

scientific and common names, origins of: antelope and gazelle,

25(1):29; kite, 25(5):30; praying mantis, 25(3):30

scientific illustration, 25(5):21-26

sea cucumbers, 25(1):13; in Galapagos, 25(1):6-12

Solomon, Debra, “A Celebration of Wildlife in Art,” 25(5):7

Solomon, Debra, “What’s a Consumer to Brew?” 25(4):14

Surinam, forests and timber sales, 25(1):29

symbiosis between animals and bacteria, 25(3):17

tigers, decline in India, 25(3):30

Whiteman, Lily, “Lights, Camera, Wildlife!” 25(5):15-19

Whiteman, Lily, “Risky Business,” 25(5):20

wildlife art, gallery of festival artists, 25(5):7-14

wildlife filmmaking, 25(5):15-20

Youth, Howard, “Invertebrates: The Marvelous Majority,”

25\2):11-27