Category — Conservation

Uma, Kya and Willa (Photo: Wendy Rice)

As we prepare to introduce our visitors to John and Imani’s cubs – Uma, Kya and Willa – this spring, we are also celebrating the success of our efforts to support wild lion populations. We work with the Maasai communities in Kenya’s South Rift Valley to promote the coexistence of lions, people and livestock. A partnership with SORALO (South Rift Association of Land Owners), the Rebuilding the Pride program is based out of two communal ranches, or conservancies, called Olkirimatian and Shompole.

The South Rift Valley in Kenya is sandwiched between Maasai Mara and Amboseli National Parks.

In 2014, the lion populations on Olkirimatian and Shompole continued to grow and thrive with 16 cubs born in 2012 and 2013 surviving to adulthood. Two radio-collared lionesses that the program monitors, Nasha and Namunyak, also recently gave birth to new litters of cubs. Just like Imani, Namunyak has a trio of cubs tagging along behind her. Namunyak’s cubs have not yet been given names as it is Maasai tradition to wait until they are at least a year old.

Namunyak’s cubs (Photo: Guy Western)

As the lion population grows, so does the area across which they range, resulting in reports of lion sightings in new areas. In response, the Rebuilding the Pride team has added two new local Maasai resource assessors and a mobile monitoring unit. This allows the program to expand the area it covers and reach even more remote regions. The role of the mobile monitoring unit, equipped with tents, cameras and GPS, is to track lion and livestock movements, identify conflict hotspots, share this information with livestock herders and report cases of lost livestock to the rapid response team, which then addresses the situation.

Rebuilding the Pride’s Mobile Monitoring Unit (Photo: Rebuilding the Pride)

In 2013, the team began developing a lion identification (ID) database, allowing for photographic documentation and identification of individual lions based on whisker spots. Much effort was put into updating and improving the ID system over the past year. To date, the team has created individual photographic IDs for 35 of the 60-70 lions, which is about half the population in the Olkirimatian and Shompole regions. Being able to recognize individual lions greatly enhances the team’s ability to gain new insight into the lion population.

ID photos for Muchezo (Photo: Rebuilding the Pride)

Whisker spot ID information for Muchezo (Source: Rebuilding the Pride)

Rebuilding the Pride isn’t just about increasing the number of lions, however. Improving the livelihoods of the local people is critical to promoting coexistence. In addition to building local capacity as resource assessors, the Olkirimatian Women’s Group continues to manage the Lale’enok Resource Center that serves as Rebuilding the Pride headquarters. They also sell beadwork and solar lanterns and have begun a new enterprise this year – beekeeping. Several apiaries were established and the first harvest took place in November.

Maasai women involved in the beekeeping enterprise (Photo: Rebuilding the Pride)

These are just a few highlights from the past year. WCPO.com recently interviewed me about Rebuilding the Pride so check out the article, if you’d like to learn more.We look forward to continued development and success in 2015, and can’t wait to watch both Imani’s and Namunyak’s cubs grow over the coming year.

Just over 100 years ago, there were as many as 100,000 wild tigers living in Asia. Today, fewer than 3,200 remain. Accredited zoos across North America are working to raise awareness about wild tigers and funding for their survival. The Tiger Conservation Campaign is coordinated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Tiger Species Survival Plan (SSP).

Here at the Cincinnati Zoo, we participate in the Malayan Tiger SSP.  Our Curator of Mammals, Mike Dulaney, acts as the Coordinator for the program. The Malayan tiger is one of six living subspecies of tiger. Recent camera trap surveys throughout the tropical forests of peninsular Malaysia indicate that fewer than 500 Malayan tigers remain. The protected areas in this region can likely support more tigers if poaching of tigers and their prey can be halted.

Malayan tiger (Photo: Kathy Moore)

To this end, the Zoo supports the efforts of Panthera’s Tigers Forever program. The goal of Tigers Forever, initiated in 2006, is to increase tiger numbers by at least 50% at key sites in India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal over 10 years. Employing well-trained park guards, the program guards tigers and their prey against poaching in protected areas.

The program also keeps tabs on tigers and their prey using field cameras. Developed by Panthera, the PantheraCam uses real-time surveillance technology to monitor remote areas. The system not only catches wildlife on camera; it also captures poachers. In fact, three poachers were recently arrested in India after being photographed by a PantheraCam. Check out this video from Panthera that strings together camera trap photos of wild tigers in India.

Dr. Alan Rabinowitz, CEO of Panthera, installs a camera trap. (Photo: Steve Winter)

Eight years into the program, the longest running Tigers Forever site in Malaysia is now showing a stable tiger population, where security efforts are being scaled up to continue to protect this critical population. Yet there is much more work to be done.

When you come visit our Malayan tigers, Taj and Who-dey, know that you are also helping to support the conservation of tigers in the wild!

Malayan tiger (Photo: Kathy Newton)

Today we celebrate Samantha the gorilla’s 45th birthday!

Sam and Samantha

There are about four reptiles living at the Zoo today that have estimated ages older than Samantha, but she is the oldest animal with a confirmed birth date and the oldest non-reptile. Daughter of the legendary founder gorillas King Tut and Penelope, Samantha was born here on January 31, 1970. She and another gorilla, Sam, were born about a week apart and they were the first two gorilla babies born and raised at the Cincinnati Zoo. They were hand raised with the assistance of Good Samaritan Hospital, hence the names Sam and Samantha.They were huge celebrities featured in dozens of articles, photos, postcards and fanfare.

Samantha has been here to experience all of the changes in philosophy that have transformed the Zoo from an old school menagerie to a modern day zoo. Born in the old Ape House in 1970 where the gorillas lived inside year round, Samantha moved to the first naturalistic outdoor gorilla habitat anywhere, Gorilla World, in 1978.

Gorilla World (Photo: Dave Jenike)

She has experienced innovations in animal nutrition from a high fruit-based diet to today’s high variety bulky green fiber-rich nutritionally balanced diet. She has also experienced the start of comprehensive animal enrichment efforts at the Zoo that provide for animal welfare as much as their physical needs. Over 10 years ago, she was here when we began formal operant conditioning programs at the Zoo as well.

Samantha has also experienced the change over from primarily pulling baby gorillas for hand-rearing to encouraging mother-rearing through improved husbandry and social behavior management. She is the best mother gorilla in the history of the Zoo and has given birth to six gorillas. Samantha’s first daughter, Madge, was born in the early 1980s. She was named after the late great iconic long time Zoo Volunteer Madge Van Buskirk.

Samantha with one of her six babies

Probably the most intelligent gorilla at the Zoo, Samantha is one of the most socially savvy gorillas, too. She has long been the strong matriarchal leader no matter which individuals are in her group. Samantha has lived with over 36 individual gorillas including: Sam, Gigi, Ramses, Kamari, Amani, Rosie, Penelope, Hatari, Tara, Mahari, Bibi, Madge, Muke, Mlinzi, Babec, Ndume, Kweli, Harry, Jackie, Tufani, Colossus, Kima Kubwa, Chaka, Samson, Chewie, Mara, Kijito, Kicho, Cecil, Shanta, Jomo, Bakari, Asha, Anju, Gladys and Mondika. In recent years, she has toned her leadership role back some, but is still respected among the other gorillas.

Samantha has served as an inspirational ambassador for both ex situ and in situ gorilla conservation programs and she is revered among the primate staff and her followers. I even named my daughter after her. (By the way, if you ever should name your daughter after a gorilla, apparently you should not tell her fourth grade class that fact during a visit to the Zoo. I thought it was cool, but being called “gorilla girl” by mean little boys can be a hard thing to live with, I hear.)

At 45 years old, Samantha still seems to be going strong. She is engaged in all of our programs, including operant conditioning, and is one of the best students. In recent years, she has been trained for awake cardiac ultrasound exams and the ticker is looking good. Samantha has seen it all and hopefully she sticks around for a long while to see a whole lot more.

Samantha and her son, Samson