Global Tiger Day!

Thomas, the Sumatran tiger, cooling off on a hot day.
Photo courtesy of SDZG.

Get ready for Global Tiger Day 2016 on Friday, July 29th in celebration of these incredible, endangered animals! At the Safari Park, Tiger Trail will celebrate our nine Sumatran tigers with enrichment releases, keeper talks, training demonstrations, and conservation displays throughout the day. We would love to have you join us in support of our conservation efforts to save these magnificent animals. To help get you in a tiger frame of mind, here are some fun and fascinating tiger facts.

Older Gentleman Seeks Classy Lady

Langka, the newest Sumatran tiger at the San Diego Zoo
Safari Park. Courtesy of SDZG.

11 year-old male seeks younger female companion who wants to start a family. He likes cardboard boxes, bamboo, bloodsicles, and might enjoy long walks on the beach (although he has never tried that particular activity). Interested?

To continue reading this blog post, please visit the San Diego Zoo Global Blog.

Trio of Tiger Cubs

Nelson, 16 days old.

Great news! Three new Sumatran tiger cubs were born at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park on January 28, 2016, to parents Joanne and Teddy. Since female tigers are nocturnal, they typically give birth in the middle of the night. But luckily for me, Joanne gave birth in the middle of the day! Nelson was born at 11:54am, Cathy followed soon after at 12:57pm, and Debbie was last but not least at 2:56pm. So as not to disturb Joanne, we keepers watched the LIVE birth on an HD monitor in the keeper office. For your viewing pleasure, here is a time-lapsed version of the birth:

 Video courtesy of San Diego Zoo Global

Although the cubs were 2-2.5 pounds at birth, they are growing fast! They made their public debut on April 26th, and they now spend part of every day exploring one of our three Tiger Trail exhibits. 

Video Courtesy of San Diego Zoo Global

Although these three cubs appear very similar, they are surprisingly easy to tell apart once you get to know them. Nelson is the calmest tiger in the streak. He is often the first to eat and the first to try new operant conditioning behaviors. You can recognize him by the check-mark his stripes make over his right eye. Cathy is the fiesty, territorial cub of the group with a three-sided box over her right eye. Debbie is the most independent and is often the first to explore new toys and plants in her environment. Debbie's stripes come to a peak above her right eye and she is the smallest of the litter.

Giving Debbie a treat on exhibit

Joanne is a very patient, devoted mother and she is doing a wonderful job with this litter. She is still nursing the triplets multiple times each day, and she is also sharing a portion of her meat diet with them. The other day, senior keeper Lori Hieber and I briefly separated Joanne from the cubs and sent her by herself out on exhibit in order to offer her a shank bone (her favorite treat). She wanted desperately to bring the shank bone in the bedroom with the cubs, but it is still too big of a treat for those tiny baby teeth. Lori and I thought Joanne would eventually give up and eat the shank bone. But she outsmarted us! We called her back into the tiger house and went out on exhibit to retrieve the bone leftovers before sending out the cubs with Joanne. We looked for 20 minutes before we found the bone! She had dug a hole, buried the bone, and dragged her heaviest toy on top of the pile. Clearly, she wanted to save this giant treat to share with her cubs. What a great mom! Lori and I still couldn't give such a large treat to the cubs, so we cut off pieces of the shank meat and hand-fed Joanne and the cubs together. I guess mom knows best!

This new litter is getting along surprisingly well with eight-month-old cub Suka. Since Joanne rejected Suka when he was four days old, he was hand-raised and is thus unable to be reintroduced to Joanne. But while Joanne enjoys "mommy-time" by herself on exhibit, the three newest cubs "howdy" with Suka through a mesh barrier. They are able to see each other and touch noses, but they are not physically together. This allows all four young cats time to socialize. The tiger house is full of contented chuffing when the cubs howdy!    

As a keeper, I am obviously excited for these births because of the myriad training and tiger-cub-babysitting opportunities they provide. But I am also excited for the cubs from a conservation standpoint. These births are vitally important for the survival of the Sumatran tiger subspecies. There are fewer than 350 Sumatran tigers in the wild. Therefore, the Safari Park is home to about 1% of the global Sumatran tiger population; every birth bolsters the genetic diversity of this incredible subspecies. Scientists estimate that this subspecies could be extinct in Sumatra by 2020, due to poaching and habitat loss, unless measures are taken to protect and preserve it. 

Cathy (left) and Debbie (right)

You can be a hero for Sumatran tigers and help save the Safari Park's wild counterparts from thousands of miles away. Tiger habitat is threatened by palm oil, a product found in cosmetics, shampoo, toothpaste, and processed foods, like chips and candy. Palm oil is often grown unsustainably, using slash-and-burn agriculture, which results in the destruction of tiger, orangutan, and rhino habitat in Southeast Asia. You can actually help these wildlife species just be being more conscientious about the products you are purchasing. Download a free app for your smartphone to learn more about sustainably-grown palm oil products. You can even use these apps to scan the bar-codes of products the next time you are out shopping. Sustainably-grown palm oil can save tigers!

Giant Panda Hearing Test

The giant panda keepers at the San Diego Zoo have accomplished an incredible training feat! Watch the video below to see how they test the giant pandas' hearing. For the full article, visit ZOONOOZ.

Video, photo, and article courtesy of SDZG

The Newest "Stripe" in the Streak

Photo courtesy of Mike Wilson

Sometimes, I don’t know if I’m training Suka or if Suka is training me. Sumatran tiger Suka is our newest “stripe” in the Tiger Trail “streak.” Suka turns six months old on March 14, weighs over 61 pounds, and is one of the smartest cats I have ever worked with...

To continue reading this blog post, please visit the San Diego Zoo Global Blog.

Zookeeper Wrangles 8th Grade Career Ambitions

School Visit to Rolling Hills Middle School

In December, I had the pleasure of visiting Melissa Amacher's 8th grade physical science classes at Rolling Hills Middle School in El Dorado Hills, California.

I absolutely adore my job, and getting the chance to share my experiences with ambitious, talented kids is one of the best parts of my career. At Rolling Hills, I gave three presentations to three different 8th grade science classes and was available during lunch for students' questions. The focus of my presentations was applying science in zookeeping. I discussed species survival plans and breeding to create robust gene pools; we talked about using stem cells and surrogate moms to resuscitate an endangered species of rhino; we even shared a few laughs when I had to explain aphrodisiacs!

I loved the opportunity to answer questions for budding scientists: I met a future veterinarian, a future equine surgeon, and hopefully I encouraged some future zookeepers. I was also able to dispel some myths about zookeeping (no, we don't genetically engineer hybrid carnivores that will escape and reek havoc on Isla Nublar a la Jurassic World). My favorite part was seeing the spark of ambition light up the eyes of many students as I described the coolest parts of my job. Not every zookeeper gets to bottle-feed a baby tiger, but if you do, it makes all of the poop-scooping worthwhile.

According to Melissa Amacher:

Elise is a wonderful speaker who works very well with large class sizes.  Her stories from her career with animals engaged my students throughout each period as they listened in awe. She has a dynamic presentation that can adjust to follow pathways of curious questions from students, while still hitting all of her content - a teacher's dream! I appreciated her prompt email correspondence and professional demeanor.  She is a gift to share in any classroom, showing how the science we learn in school can be applied in fascinating ways in a career as a zookeeper.  I look forward to working with her in the future.

If any other teachers are interested, I am available for more school visits. Please contact me by posting a comment on this blog.