Winter Wonderland, Zoo-Style

As a zookeeper in upstate-New York, one of the most common questions I get asked is, "do you get many visitors in the winter?" The Binghamton Zoo is actually closed all winter for two reasons: the hill the zoo is built on is icy and treacherous, and many of the animals are not visible to the public in the winter. After saying this, the response I get (without fail) is, "it must be so nice to have the whole winter off!"

August the arctic fox. He is almost smiling!
(Photo courtesy of the Binghamton Zoo)

What? No. The visitors aren't at the zoo, but the animals still are! Many of the animals can handle the frigid Binghamton winters, like the Amur tigers and leopard, the arctic fox, river otters, and the snowy owls. These animals are outside all winter long and are actually much happier than they are in the summer.

Ronde, the African penguin, enjoys
enrichment in the snow before he
waddles hurriedly back inside

The warm-weather animals get pampered, like the Andean bears, the lemurs, the wallabies, and the African black-footed penguins. Yes, you read that right. Not all penguins like the snow and ice. Animals like these remain indoors most of the winter in heated buildings, so they are not visible to the public. Some of these animals even get additional heat lamps and big beds of hay to keep them extra warm. On warm(er) winter days, we will let the Andean bears or African penguins venture outside for a couple hours, but most of the time, they see the snow and high-tail it back inside.

One of the Amur "kitties" enjoys the snow!
(Photo courtesy of the Binghamton Zoo)

During the winter, my job doesn't change. I still clean up after the animals, prep diets, help with vet rounds, maintain exhibits, and design enrichment. Year-round, I am a baby-sitter, doctor, mediator, psychologist, chef, and janitor for all the animals in the zoo. I just shovel a lot more snow in the winter.

Goodbye, Zhin-Li

Zhin-Li frolics around his exhibit with his mother Mei-Li on a rainy day. 

Zhin is the slightly smaller panda with the lighter tail tip...at one point in the video, 

he comes to check out my shoe then gets scared and runs away!

Zhin-Li, Binghamton Zoo's baby red panda, is leaving the zoo this winter. Zhin-Li is now six months old and fully weaned; he eats a separate diet of leaf-eater biscuits, bamboo, and apples, just like his mom, and he easily motors all around his exhibit. He still prefers to hang out with his mother, Mei-Li, but is spending more and more time exploring on his own. We are still not planning to introduce him to Xiao-Li, his father, because male red pandas rarely interact with their young in the wild.

Red pandas in the wild are typically solitary, and fully weaned around six months of age, but the cubs tend to stay with the mother until the following summer when more cubs are born. However, the Binghamton Zoo does not have enough room to house an adolescent Zhin-Li, adults Mei-Li and Xiao-Li, and more cubs. Sending Zhin-Li to another zoo allows us to reintroduce Mei and Xiao and hopefully breed them again this spring.

Red pandas are part of a green species survival program (SSP) through AZA-accredited zoos. This means that the captive red panda population is sustainable over time and has a total size greater than 50 individuals. Additionally, the population has a growth rate that is able to maintain 90% of its genetic diversity for over 100 years. As a result, it is important that we breed Mei-Li and Xiao-Li at least one more time to increase their representation in the captive red panda gene pool. And when Zhin-Li is old enough (anywhere between 18 months and three years), he will be bred to a female to propagate his own genes in the population.

So for the time being, our stuffed animal-sized baby will move to the Erie Zoo in Pennsylvania to start a new adventure as an adult panda. Good luck, Zhin-Li!