captivity
dr. dolittle | August 9, 2013
Kai, a dolphin involved in the study, was able to recognize the whistle of a fellow dolphin that Kai had not seen in years. Image by: Jason Bruck
Another reason to marvel at dolphins. As a follow up to the previous blog on dolphins calling each other by name, new research from Dr. Jason Bruck at the Institute for Mind and Biology (University of Chicago) shows that dolphins have the longest memory known in animals. In addition to Kai, shown above, a dolphin named Bailey recognized the whistle of Allie, even though they had not seen each other in more than 20 years! I am fairly certain I…
laelaps | May 19, 2010
An Inca tern (Larosterna inca) about to crush a clump of dirt, photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | July 2, 2009
A pair of clouded leopard cubs born in Smithsonian National Zoo facilities just a few months ago, via NPR.
laelaps | March 30, 2009
Rokan, a male Sumatran tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) really wants to go inside. Photographed at the National Zoo.
laelaps | March 11, 2009It has been a week since ABC's Nightline ran footage obtained by the Humane Society of primates being abused at the New Iberia Research Center in Louisiana. Even though the ethics of animal research has been big news on the blogs in the past week, with a poorly-argued article in last week's Huffington Post (Janet, DrugMonkey, Orac) and the recent attack on a UCLA scientist who uses primates in his studies (Janet, Evil Monkey, Nick), I am puzzled as to why there has been virtually no discussion of the footage taken at the New Iberia labs. For those of who you missed it, here is the Nightline…
laelaps | December 12, 2008
Petal, the female African elephant, photographed in September 2007.
In September, 2007, my wife and I made one of our semi-annual trips to the Philadelphia Zoo, mostly to see the little Amur tiger cubs. While there I photographed this elephant, Petal, fiddling with a chain in the shade of her all-too-small enclosure that she shared with several other elephants.
At one time, there had been plans for a $20 million project to create a new elephant habitat at the zoo (almost anything would have been an improvement over the dirt yard). In 2005, however, the zoo decided to build a new aviary and…
laelaps | August 25, 2008This is a truly sad story. Last week a baby humpback whale, informally dubbed "Colette," was found alone in the waters off Sydney, Australia. The baby was in desperate need of fat-rich mother's milk, nuzzling boats in its attempts to find sustenance, but no surrogate mother came to the rescue. Force-feeding the young whale was not attempted and efforts to lead it out to sea (where there would at least the chance of a mother whale passing by) failed, and Colette was euthanized on Friday.
Many people were outraged, but it seems that euthanization was the only viable option. Colette was…
laelaps | August 4, 2008
Grace, a female lion (Panthera leo), watches the geese and kudu in the adjacent enclosure. Her mate George dozes nearby. (Photographed on July 23, 2008 at the Bronx Zoo.)
laelaps | July 5, 2008
One of the two snow leopard sisters (Panthera uncia) I first saw two years ago, all grown up. Photographed at the Bronx zoo on July 5th, 2008.
I'm still learning how to use all the functions on my new camera but I have to say that I think I took some of the best photographs I have ever taken on my trip to the Bronx zoo today. Although the fossas were asleep in corners of their enclosure (depriving me of any good photo opportunities) most of the other creatures I visited at the zoo were active and awake. The photographs I took will appear one-by-one each day but you'll definitely see some…
laelaps | June 20, 2008
AO-4, from the Marine Mammal Science announcement. (arrow added)
On October 28, 2006, fisherman that were capturing individuals of a group of 118 bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) near Taiji, Japan for exploitation in aquaria noticed something peculiar about one of the captured individuals. While the vast majority of dolphins have only two front flippers one particular female had a set of small pelvic flippers. Many whales (particularly baleen whales) have the vestiges of hips and leg bones inside their bodies but a whale with external pelvic fins is an even rarer find. A new paper…
laelaps | June 15, 2008As regular readers of this blog know, many (if not most) of my "Photos of the Day" come from my regular trips to local zoos, primarily the Bronx and Philadelphia parks. I haven't been back to any of them since I got my new camera, but this summer I've got a few trips planned to replace some of my lost photographs.
Zeff the Amur tiger, photographed in February 2007 at the Bronx Zoo.
Sometime after June 20th I'll be headed back to the WCS-run Bronx zoo, the park finally opening a new exhibit all about Madagascar. There will be lemurs and cave-dwelling crocs, but the creatures I most want…
laelaps | March 26, 2008
Puzzles, a 27 year old female giraffe that was a favorite at the Philadelphia zoo (see above), was euthanized last week. Puzzles was most easily identified by the mysterious growth on her neck, something that zoo officials said did not contribute to her declining health although no one ever seemed quite certain why the growth formed.
Unfortunately the zoo may euthanize another 28 year old giraffe named Twigga in the near future as well. The other giraffe being kept, Stella, is only 7, and the zoo staff is asking around to obtain another giraffe so Stella will not be left all alone.
The story…
laelaps | November 8, 2007
Wolves are among my favorite carnivores, but they're often shy even in zoo settings, making them difficult to photograph. During my visit to the National Zoo this past spring, however, this Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi) came down to get a drink from the pool at the edge of the enclosure, allowing me to snap a few photos. Not everyone likes wolves as much as I do, though, and the Mexican Wolf is currently critically endangered with only about 200 individuals left in the wild. As with other wolves, this subspecies (ranging from Mexico across the southwestern U.S. and as far north as…
laelaps | November 7, 2007
Today's photo, like yesterday's, was taken at the Philadelphia Zoo, and I was fortunate enough to be able to catch the Hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) as they were entering the water. I'm sure everyone has heard of their aggressiveness via television documentaries and other sources, but few have heard of the fact that hippos sometimes consume flesh. While hippos occasionally nibble on or play with carcasses in African waterways, in severe drought conditions they sometimes kill prey (as in one account of an impala running into the water to avoid Wild Dogs, only to be killed and consumed by…
laelaps | November 5, 2007
The American Black Bear (Ursus americanus) is so common in northern New Jersey that many people don't need to go to a zoo in order to see one. Although there have been occasional sightings of the animals in New Brunswick, I've only once seen a Black Bear in the wild, a large individual that quickly ran off through the forest as soon as I saw it. Still, the Black Bear population in New Jersey exponentially increased in a very short period of time, many state conservation and wildlife agencies coming under fire for supporting or not supporting a bear hunt (at least one official left their…
laelaps | November 4, 2007
Today's photo comes from the National Zoo in Washington D.C., the only place where I have seen the Gavial (Gavialis gangeticus) in captivity. This crocodylian is one of the most endangered in the world, and the National Zoo has a male and female pair (and I can only assume that the zoo staff hopes the two will breed). The above photograph is the female, males of the species having a bulbous growth or "ghara" on the tip of their snout. Outside of being a signal as to which sex an adult belongs, the ghara is also used in vocalizations the male makes and blowing bubbles during mating displays,…
laelaps | November 2, 2007
Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) have always been favorite animals at zoos and aquariums, but the current problem of anthropogenic global climate change has popularized them further by making them extinction's poster species. While many documentaries show the loss of ice as one of the primary factors that is threatening the bears, the overall rise in temperatures is having a more subtle (but widespread) impact on the unevenly distributed populations of bears. Polar bears have adapted to cold climate so effectively that they do not do well when temperatures exceeding 50 degrees Fahrenheit, and…
laelaps | October 29, 2007
There are some animals that seem to exist in a bit of taxonomic confusion (at least in the literature; I don't think zebras lose sleep over their species names), the Plains Zebra being one of these. The animals pictured above are from the Philadelphia Zoo and listed as being members of the species Equus burchellii, but recent work appears to show that this most common of Zebra species should really be called Equus quagga. Burchell's Zebra, then, is relegated to the status of a subspecies with the name Equus quagga burchellii, itself taking precedence over the subspecies Equus quagga…