SDZG Blog Post

San Diego Zoo Global has posted another blog of mine, called "Luke, A Leucistic Waterbuck." Enjoy!

Another Blog Post

Read my latest blog post for San Diego Zoo Global about Parvesh, a greater one-horned rhino calf.

New Blog Post!

Read my latest blog post about Leroy, a Ugandan giraffe, on the San Diego Zoo Global Blog. Enjoy!

Plastic and Our Oceans

No matter where you live in the world, the ocean is your backyard. As conservationists and environmentalists, we should focus not only on protecting polar bear or Panamanian golden frog habitats thousands of miles away, but also on protecting habitats closer to home. Think globally, act locally. Additionally, the oceans connect every country in the world. If someone dumps oil or plastic in the ocean in China, it will probably show up on the California coastline.

Results from 2013 International
Coastal Clean-Up Day.
Courtesy of Ocean Conservancy.

International Coastal Clean-Up Day is September 20, 2014. In 2013, 648,015 volunteers picked up 12.3 million pounds of trash in over 92 countries. 2014 is trying to beat that record. But why is International Coastal Clean-Up Day so important?

Patricia Newman wrote Plastic, Ahoy!, a children's book investigating the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In 2009, the Scripps Environmental Accumulation of Plastic Expedition (SEAPLEX) sailed from San Diego for three weeks to research the plastic collected in the Pacific Ocean. The plastic gathers in the North Pacific Central Gyre, an area of ocean three times bigger than the continental U.S. Four ocean currents meet in this area and are pushed clockwise by wind currents. The center of the gyre is a calm area where trash from all over the Pacific Ocean accumulates.

The Garbage Patch isn't really a floating island of trash. Most of the pieces of plastic are so small, that they are barely visible from the deck of a ship. Barnacles, crabs, fish eggs, and other organisms hitch rides through the ocean on the plastic pieces. If ocean rafters like these are having population booms due to the plethora of plastic homes, what will that do to the Gyre food chain? Will there be enough food to go around?

Furthermore, the connection between plastic and phytoplankton is unclear. Phytoplankton produces two thirds of the Earth's oxygen, removes carbon from the atmosphere, and acts as the basis for oceanic food chains, including humans. Without phytoplankton, fishing industries would collapse. Some studies show a sharp decrease in phytoplankton numbers since the 1940s, but scientists aren't sure if that decrease is linked to plastic.

A dead albatross on Midway Atoll,
an island in the North Pacific Central Gyre.
Its stomach is filled with plastic trash,
leaving no room for nutrients.
Photographed by Chris Jordan.

Additionally, oil (an unsustainable natural resource) is used to make plastic. Chemicals seep out of the plastic trash pieces floating in the ocean. Plastic also absorbs other pollutants in seawater. Marine life then eats the plastic pieces and absorbs the toxic chemicals and pollutants leaching out of the plastic. Plastic fills the stomachs of marine animals, leaving no room for real nutrients. Fish in the middle depths of the North Pacific eat 12,000-24,000 tons of plastic each year. Plastic is in the stomachs of one of out ten fish in the Pacific Ocean.

The build-up of plastic and chemicals in digestive systems affects not only oceanic micro-fauna, but macro-fauna like birds, whales, and humans. Through a process called bioaccumulation, animals higher up in the food chain accumulate more chemicals because they eat many smaller animals exposed to chemicals. Some of the chemicals leaching out of plastics are toxic enough to cause tumors in humans through bioaccumulation.

The SEAPLEX research team discovered plastic in 1,700 miles of open ocean in 2009 (the same distance from New York to Colorado).  Although the voyage answered many questions, there are still so many to be asked about plastic in the world's oceans. Many research teams worldwide are currently studying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, as well as the other four major gyres around the world.

Patricia Newman, author of Plastic, Ahoy!

There are many ways you can help. Patricia Newman suggests:

1. Instead of asking for a to-go box in restaurants, bring your own washable storage container.
2. Bring reusable bags to the grocery store. Instead of using plastic bags for produce, use recycled paper bags.
3. Don't throw plastic utensils out after one use...wash them! Or use compostable utensils.
4. Use a reusable water bottle instead of buying plastic water bottles.
5. Use a reusable coffee mug.
6. Buy products from companies that use recycled plastic or glass.
7. Write to companies to encourage them to use recycled packing.
8. Collect empty bottles and plastic and take it to a recycling center.
9. Create a plastic-free day at work or school.
10. Carry the plastic you use around for a week to raise awareness of how much you use during that time.
11. Educate others about plastic use.

Or participate in International Coastal Clean-Up Day on September 20th! For more information, read Patricia Newman's blog about oceanic plastic.

Mister, You Don't Want to Make My Momma Mad

Alta, an adult greater one-horned rhino, and her 9-week old calf, Parvesh.
Photo courtesy of San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

When my caravan tours drive into a large African field exhibit at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and the guests see a crash of rhinos five feet away, they immediately turn to me with fear in their eyes wondering if the rhinos will charge the truck.

Nope. Rhinos are actually extremely gentle animals that have a bad reputation for no reason. The southern white rhinos and greater one-horned rhinos actually brush up against the caravan trucks on tours; they are inquisitive and are not bothered by the trucks or the guests. The keepers even work on foot in the exhibits around the rhinos. By the end of every tour, my guests are converts--they love rhinos as much as I do.

But that's not to say that rhinos are pushovers. Rhinos moms are probably the toughest mothers in the world (besides my mom). If her calf is threatened by a predator, a mother rhino will charge the predator at 30 miles per hour! If you are a lion and a 5,000 pound rhino is coming at you like a tank, that would be a good time to turn tail and run in the other direction. Adult rhinos don't have any natural predators because they are so large and intimidating. No lion will try to take down a healthy, fully grown rhino if there is a tasty snack-size gazelle five feet away. But baby rhinos have to worry about prides of lions and cackles of hyenas. One mother rhino doesn't stand much of a chance defending her calf from an entire pride of lions, so female rhinos band together into social herds, called crashes. Six or seven female rhinos defending two or three calves stand a much better chance. Female rhinos actually won't breed unless they are with other females for protection.

Zoos didn't discover this fact until 1971, when 20 southern white rhinos were brought to the Safari Park to start a breeding program. There wasn't an adult male in the crash, so the Park borrowed the adult male from the San Diego Zoo. The male had never had babies before: maybe he was infertile, too old, or just not interested in the female he was with. But he and the female were brought to the Park and he did a great job. And the female gave birth to eight calves, because she had other females watching her back to help protect those calves.

Female rhinos defend their calves because they put so much parental investment into raising a calf. Rhinos are pregnant for 16 months (yes, you read that correctly) and they nurse for up to two years. So mom has a lot of incentive to ensure that her baby survives into adulthood.

Southern white rhinos Kacy and 10-month old Kayode.
Photo courtesy of San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

Kayode, the 93rd southern white rhino calf born at the Safari Park, was born on exhibit on February 25, 2013. Now he is over a year and a half old, and still nursing from his mom, Kacy. When he was born, he had to stand on tip-toes to nurse, and now he is so big (over 2,000 pounds!) that he has to lie down to nurse. Kacy is still incredibly protective of him, and I got to witness that first-hand on August 18th. Maoto, Kayode's dad, sniffed Kacy and started to make a move to mate with her. Kacy turned on a dime and growled at him. Kayode jumped between them, clearly thinking, "I'll save you, Momma!" Maoto picked Kayode up on his horn and threw Kayode. Maoto then proceeded to chase Kayode around the exhibit, while Kayode squealed and called for help. Kacy swerved between Maoto and Kayode, growling and roaring at Maoto. Kacy and Maoto sparred with their horns, shoved each other, and growled, but neither would back down. Then the rest of the crash, the five other female rhinos, came charging down the hill to defend Kacy. They formed a perfectly straight line at Kacy's back; now it was seven against one. The girls allowed Kacy to fight her own battle against Maoto for almost 20 minutes, but finally stepped in and advanced like a line of knights in shining armor. Maoto ran away squealing, streaked across the exhibit at 30 miles per hour, and flopped in a mud wallow as far from the girls as possible. Kacy: 1, Maoto: 0. Kayode is nearing puberty now so Maoto is starting to see him as a competing male, instead of a baby. Kacy let Maoto know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this behavior is unacceptable, no matter how mature Kayode seems. Girl power.

Unfortunately, no rhino mother can protect her baby against the ultimate threat. Even if a baby rhino survives to adulthood in the wild, it is not safe. All six species of rhinos are threatened by poachers. Poachers kill rhinos because rhino horn is worth more per ounce than gold. Some cultures believe that rhino horn has medicinal properties: that it can lower a fever or act as an aphrodisiac. Rhino horn is actually made of keratin (the same stuff as your hair and fingernails). So you could bite your nails and get the same benefits that you would get from ingesting rhino horn. Plus there are much more sustainable alternatives, like aspirin and Viagra, that are cheap, over-the-counter, and don't result in the death of thousands of rhinos each year. In 2012, in South Africa alone, two rhinos were killed per day. The poachers are mainly organized crime syndicates and terrorist groups, who use the proceeds to fund their illicit activities. It's tough to tell terrorists what to do, so the solution is to NEVER buy rhino horn products.

Rhinos are disappearing at an alarming rate. Just by appreciating them as much as I do, you can help save them. Who wouldn't want to save an animal that can simultaneously be incredibly impressive and so stinkin' cute?

Permanent Safari Park Position

I found out today that I am being kept on permanently as a caravan tour guide at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. This means that my seasonal job won't end in September, but will continue part-time through the off-season, which is exactly what I had hoped for. I am now a permanent employee of SDZG!

New Blog Post!

My second post appeared in the San Diego Zoo Global blog. Enjoy!