Penguins on Ice

The Zoo's penguin mascots took a whirl around the Downtown Ice Rink. And Julio, the Blue and gold macaw, went along for the ride. The penguins were excellent ice skaters and were celebrating the extended stay of the Zoo's four Magellanic penguins. Here through the holidays! Come out and visit with Harry, Pepper, Putty and Patsy before they march back to the San Fransisco Zoo on January 2nd.

Rummage Sale Success

Thanks to all you shoppers and the greats donations, our winter Rummage Sale was very successful!
Total for the weekend -- $2,067.16
Profits from this sale benifit our Conservation Fund, Thickbill SSP (Species Survival Plan), Managabey SSP, and Green Team.

We look forward to doing it all over again in April! See you then.

Aslan - Proud Papa in Oklahoma

In February '07, our male lion, Aslan, moved to the Oklahoma City Zoo in hopes he would breed with their two females. In turn we recieved two young siblings from the Fort Worth Zoo (now on exhibit).

Aslan is now the father of four cubs. The two female lions gave birth to two cubs each earlier this month. Read the news story and see video at http://newsok.com/article/3171673/1195624821.

Check out the Oklahoma City Zoo website for more detaled information and the view the Cub Cam.

Happy Gobble Gobble Day!

When the holidays arrive, we are reminded of all the things we are thankful for. The Sacramento Zoo would like to thank all of our visitors, donors and the people who support our efforts here in Sacramento as well as our worldwide conservation.

Thank You
and
Happy Thanksgiving!!!

PS. We will be closed Thanksgiving Day

Recycle Rummage Sale

By Jaime Wilson, Green Team Member

It's our favorite time of year -- Rummage Sale!!! Members of our Green Team just spent the last five hours unloading all sorts of preloved treasures that are now looking for a new home. The hardest part is keeping our focus on sorting, organizing and pricing...instead of shopping. We are successful most of the time.

Tomorrow morning at 10am we open our doors to the public. Everything is set up in Kampala, our conference room by the Kampala Cafe. Saturday, November 17 and Sunday, November 18 we will be open from 10am to 4pm, so come on out and get a few great bargins.

Here is a quick list of stuff we have: books, Precious Moments, Treasured Teddies, Beanie Babies, Christmas dishes, plush animals and Disney characters, golf clubs, jewelry, wine glasses, Tupperware dishes, Christmas ornaments and lots more!

All the proceeds go to our conservation efforts here at the Zoo and around the world with places like the Snow Leopard Trust.

Extra Credit: bring your own bags and we will give you some chocolate :)

Re: Comment to Post

by Lauren, Public Relations

I would like to take a moment to respond to a comment we received on our last blog.

"We just visited the zoo today and had a great time.We were just wondering, though, what happened to that injured chimp, he looked pretty torn up!"

This is actually a common question with a complicated answer which we recently addressed in our November/December issue of our member magazine, Maazigo.

We need to remember that chimpanzees are wild animals and their behavior is reflective of that. Chimps are very dynamic, social animals. Because of that, wounds between individuals in a group are common. This is especially true when maturing males are coming up in the ranks and are vying for top position. Our 17-yr old male is trying to attain the top male position over our 44 yr old male. Unfortunately, wounds are a part of this natural chimp progression. Any wounds (no matter how small) are constantly monitored by our veterinarian and keeper staff. Although this behavior is normal, we working with the chimpanzee Species Survival Program to add a young male chimp to the dynamic social group. This may help the males establish a dominant top male position.

Alexander - Our 500,000th Visitor

Congratulations Alex!!

500,000 and Counting

It has been 17 years since we had this many visitors walk through our gates. We know that sometime between today and Monday we will hit that 500,000th visitor and that lucky person could be you! We are so excited, so we are really going to spoil this person with the best zoo visit they've ever had and a years worth of zoo fun. It has been a great year, with our temporary penguin exhibit and who didn't ooh and ah over those amazing tiger cubs; now all of our visitors have made it possible for us to start planning another amazing year for 2008! We look forward to see you soon!

Zoo P.I. Walks a Serval

By Zoo P.I. (Zoo Private Investigator)

Hi there everyone, Zoo PI here with some insider knowledge about the workings of the Zoo! Today I will be discussing how we train Nigel, our African Serval. Nigel is used in the Zoo PI stage show, as well as many other outreach programs here on zoo grounds. Because Nigel is a special education animal he is not out on exhibit, instead he lives in a behind-the-scenes area where our interpretive center staff can give him special care and training. Nigel is no ordinary serval, he was specially bread and raised to be an education animal that can be around people and walk on a leash. It takes constant training and human interaction to keep Nigel used to people because he is still a wild animal.

One way we train and socialize Nigel is by taking him out for walks on our reptile-house lawn. In order to walk him we need two things; treat-meat (which is just stew beef cut into small pieces), and a leash. Once we have all the items required and a second person for backup we can begin the walk! Nigel is trained to sit on a stump and present his neck for the leash when we give him the command to, “station”. Whenever he does something we ask him he is rewarded with meat. Because he is always looking for ways to get a reward Nigel tends to do all of his behaviors as soon as we ask, and sometimes without us even asking at all!

Most walks begin on the stage where his handler will go through all of his regular behaviors; like stepping up onto rocks and stumps on the stage, and reaching into a clear plastic tube to get meat from the bottom. When he has done all of his behaviors it is time for Nigel to lead us around. First thing is usually to check out new objects within sight, such as trash cans, rocks, plants, sometimes the zoo’s golf carts, and the occasional spilled popcorn or corn chips on the lawn (lucky for us Nigel only has a taste for meat!). Once all items have been thoroughly investigated it is usually time for Nigel to mark his territory. There are several places that he tends to go and spray to let any other African Servals in the area know to stay away because this zoo is his! Before it is time to go inside, Nigel likes to eat a little grass and lie down under a bush.

When Nigel is ready to go inside he will walk to the door and sit until it is opened, then he goes straight home and sits on his station again to be un-leashed. Once again he is rewarded for all behaviors and with one final command, “Okay”, the walk is officially over. With a belly full of meat Nigel likes to climb into his heated bed and take a nice long nap until dinner, maybe dreaming of what adventures await him on tomorrows walk.

BOO Photos

Check out our photos from Boo at the Zoo!