Gecko Love Wins One for the Zoo
Columbia, SC (United States):
Riverbanks Zoo has a knack for getting rare wild creatures in the mood for making more wild creatures.
So much so, the zoo recently earned its third Edward H. Bean Award, an Oscar-like honor given by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association for care and propagation of captive species. This time, the zoo was honored for its work with leaf-tailed geckos.
Riverbanks snared Beans for black howler monkeys in 1982 and for toucans in 1998. In the 50 years the award has been given out, the only facilities that have won more Beans than Riverbanks are the Cincinnati Zoo, National Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Vancouver Aquarium and Sea World San Diego.
The key is for zoo workers to approach their jobs with the kind of attention to detail that humans would find in a five-star hotel, said Ed Diebold, director of animal collections at Riverbanks.
“The keepers are completely tuned in to (the animals), giving them everything they need,” Diebold said.
They don’t provide tiny heart-shaped beds or Barry White music, but they do take pains to make sure the animals get the appropriate food, lighting and privacy. Determining the formula for each species requires trial and error and, sometimes, a little luck.
Scientists knew next to nothing about the leaf-tailed gecko in the late 1980s when zoos started displaying them. The mysterious reptiles live in the wild only in the Madagascar rain forest and seldom come out of hiding in the daytime.
When Riverbanks got its first giant leaf-tailed geckos in 1992, many zoos were having little luck with gecko reproduction. Riverbanks herpetologist Sean Foley heard from a private owner that his geckos liked to eat snails in addition to the normal diet of crickets.
Snails have more calcium than crickets, and female geckos need high amounts of calcium to produce eggs. So Riverbanks added snails to the females’ diets and got more eggs, Foley said.
“We’re looking at species in which we’ve traditionally known very little about their life history in the wild,” said Scott Pfaff, director of herpetology at Riverbanks. “Much of what we do now know about their reproduction, diet, longevity and other natural history has been discovered right here.”
Once the eggs hatch, geckos live longer — up to 10 years — when their enclosures are cleaned often. The seven different species of leaf-tailed geckos all need a moist environment, but they like a different range of temperatures. That’s one reason only the giant leaf-tailed geckos are on display at the Aquarium Reptile Complex.
Riverbanks not only shares these findings with other zoos, it also shares the resulting offspring. Foley shipped 15 geckos to another zoo last month.
Riverbanks has a reputation for success with difficult species, Diebold said. In recent years, Riverbanks has shipped 45 toco toucans and 44 Bali mynas to other zoos. The numbers are much smaller, but Riverbanks has contributed many of the new black-footed cats and Matschie’s tree kangaroos added to the national zoo population.
“They’re well-known for toucans and Bali mynas,” said Kim Smith, curator of birds at the Milwaukee County Zoo. “We all have our specialties, what we’re good at.”
At Milwaukee, they’re known for their work with storks.
“A lot of it has to do with climate, facilities and individual curators,” Smith said.
At Riverbanks, the Bird Conservation Center and bird curator Bob Seibels cater to toucans. Bird keepers experimented with a variety of logs before finding the right size and consistency for toucan nesting. Also, the birds are more likely to breed if they excavate their own nests, so the log cavities are filled in each year with moss and twigs.
In the small mammal exhibits, the black-footed cats apparently require privacy to mate, so keepers built barriers they can hide behind.
“There’s a lot of science to it, but there’s a lot of art, observational skills and intuition,” Diebold said.
Zoos throughout the world keep detailed logs of births and deaths of each species. They move animals from one zoo to another to encourage genetic diversity.
True success doesn’t lie in the numbers of new births but in being able to come through with births in a certain species when needed, Diebold said.
For instance, Riverbanks’ tigers were on contraceptives for most of the 1990s because their genes were over-represented in the international zoo community. But when a new male tiger, Globus, was sent to the zoo four years ago, he immediately hit it off with female Koshka. They have produced two litters for a total of five young tigers in the past two years.
Oct. 09, 2005
Joey Holleman, The State, SC
Columbia, SC (United States):Riverbanks Zoo has a knack for getting rare wild creatures in the mood for making more wild creatures.
So much so, the zoo recently earned its third Edward H. Bean Award, an Oscar-like honor given by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association for care and propagation of captive species. This time, the zoo was honored for its work with leaf-tailed geckos.
Riverbanks snared Beans for black howler monkeys in 1982 and for toucans in 1998. In the 50 years the award has been given out, the only facilities that have won more Beans than Riverbanks are the Cincinnati Zoo, National Zoo, Bronx Zoo, Vancouver Aquarium and Sea World San Diego.
The key is for zoo workers to approach their jobs with the kind of attention to detail that humans would find in a five-star hotel, said Ed Diebold, director of animal collections at Riverbanks.
“The keepers are completely tuned in to (the animals), giving them everything they need,” Diebold said.
They don’t provide tiny heart-shaped beds or Barry White music, but they do take pains to make sure the animals get the appropriate food, lighting and privacy. Determining the formula for each species requires trial and error and, sometimes, a little luck.
Scientists knew next to nothing about the leaf-tailed gecko in the late 1980s when zoos started displaying them. The mysterious reptiles live in the wild only in the Madagascar rain forest and seldom come out of hiding in the daytime.
When Riverbanks got its first giant leaf-tailed geckos in 1992, many zoos were having little luck with gecko reproduction. Riverbanks herpetologist Sean Foley heard from a private owner that his geckos liked to eat snails in addition to the normal diet of crickets.
Snails have more calcium than crickets, and female geckos need high amounts of calcium to produce eggs. So Riverbanks added snails to the females’ diets and got more eggs, Foley said.
“We’re looking at species in which we’ve traditionally known very little about their life history in the wild,” said Scott Pfaff, director of herpetology at Riverbanks. “Much of what we do now know about their reproduction, diet, longevity and other natural history has been discovered right here.”
Once the eggs hatch, geckos live longer — up to 10 years — when their enclosures are cleaned often. The seven different species of leaf-tailed geckos all need a moist environment, but they like a different range of temperatures. That’s one reason only the giant leaf-tailed geckos are on display at the Aquarium Reptile Complex.
Riverbanks not only shares these findings with other zoos, it also shares the resulting offspring. Foley shipped 15 geckos to another zoo last month.
Riverbanks has a reputation for success with difficult species, Diebold said. In recent years, Riverbanks has shipped 45 toco toucans and 44 Bali mynas to other zoos. The numbers are much smaller, but Riverbanks has contributed many of the new black-footed cats and Matschie’s tree kangaroos added to the national zoo population.
“They’re well-known for toucans and Bali mynas,” said Kim Smith, curator of birds at the Milwaukee County Zoo. “We all have our specialties, what we’re good at.”
At Milwaukee, they’re known for their work with storks.
“A lot of it has to do with climate, facilities and individual curators,” Smith said.
At Riverbanks, the Bird Conservation Center and bird curator Bob Seibels cater to toucans. Bird keepers experimented with a variety of logs before finding the right size and consistency for toucan nesting. Also, the birds are more likely to breed if they excavate their own nests, so the log cavities are filled in each year with moss and twigs.
In the small mammal exhibits, the black-footed cats apparently require privacy to mate, so keepers built barriers they can hide behind.
“There’s a lot of science to it, but there’s a lot of art, observational skills and intuition,” Diebold said.
Zoos throughout the world keep detailed logs of births and deaths of each species. They move animals from one zoo to another to encourage genetic diversity.
True success doesn’t lie in the numbers of new births but in being able to come through with births in a certain species when needed, Diebold said.
For instance, Riverbanks’ tigers were on contraceptives for most of the 1990s because their genes were over-represented in the international zoo community. But when a new male tiger, Globus, was sent to the zoo four years ago, he immediately hit it off with female Koshka. They have produced two litters for a total of five young tigers in the past two years.
Oct. 09, 2005
Joey Holleman, The State, SC
