Bigfoot and the Rewilding of Kentucky

In a recent (9/27/2013) TED Radio Hour Podcast entitled Everything is Connected, I heard an interview with author of the book Feral, George Monbiot. He talks about stumbling across the word “Rewilding” which, according to the website of the Rewilding Institute means “the scientific argument for restoring big wilderness based on the regulatory roles of large predators”. This is what we have seen in the Yellowstone ecosystem with the return of timber wolves. Monbiot claims in the interview that profound changes have occurred to the entire ecosystem as a result of the reintroduction of the wolves. The natural reduction of the deer and elk populations resulted in regeneration of plant life, leading to an increase in populations of birds, beavers, and bears and, most remarkable, the “behavior” of the rivers and streams. More plant life meant less erosion causing channels to change course and become more fixed. The reintroduction of wolves, he claims, changed the physical geography of Yellowstone. Who would have thought?

Monbiot is a huge advocate for rewilding. He lost me when he began talking about reintroducing rhinos, hippos, and lions to Europe and the UK – because fossilized bones indicate that they had once lived there – but then he went on to say something that really caught my attention. In talking about his desire for us to step back and let nature decide, he said rewilding is about the future and the hope of bringing back lost species, while much of our modern conservation work is about the past and trying to lock-in past ecosystems as we know them now. Rewilding, he says, gives us hope where we currently have despair. We need to replace the “Silent Spring” with a “Raucous Summer”.

All of this was rattling around my brain when I saw the news headline about the discovery of Bigfoot in Kentucky. A veterinarian, who leads something called the Sasquatch Genome Project, has been conducting an analysis of DNA samples she has collected and concludes that Sasquatch is a human relative that arose about 13,000 years ago. Unfortunately, while the Sasquatch Genome Project claimed in a February report to have submitted 113 samples of hair, blood, saliva and other tissues to laboratories, including New York University, NYU officials say they never accepted samples. A professor at the Department of Anthropology at NYU, told ABCNews.com that the research was "just a joke."

So, is it hope I felt when a small voice deep within my emotional self tried to tell my rational self that, with the Sasquatch Genome Project on the case, Bigfoot might be real?

“It’s a JOKE,” says my rational self. “But let’s release some timber wolves into the area and find out once and for all.”

Now there’s a Rewilding project to give us some hope!

A World without Zoos

Imagining a world without zoos seems pretty farfetched. They have been around for so many generations that they are ingrained into our worldwide society. But Costa Rica, it appears, is ready to pull the plug on all public funding of zoos, effectively shutting them down entirely. According to an article at the Guardian.com, Costa Rica announced last month that it will no longer use public funds to keep animals in cages. This means the Simón Bolívar zoo in San José and the Santa Ana conservation centre will close when existing operating contracts run out.

What if other countries follow suit and ban zoos? What if my city of Albany, Georgia decided to stop funding Chehaw Wild Animal Park and we had to close our local zoo? That would mean that next year, in 2014, thousands of children on school field trips from South Georgia would not see a black rhino, a meerkat, or a lemur and learn what extinction means. Nearly two hundred children between the ages of 5 and 12 would not have hands-on animal experience at summer camp; 80 teenage Junior Zookeepers would need to find another way to spend their summer; and college students from Albany State, Georgia Southwestern, and other colleges & universities would not have internship opportunities at Chehaw Park.

People tend to think of zoos as weekend venues where the family can gawk at exotic creatures.  But modern, accredited zoos are much more than that. They are places of science and of education. Zoo programs meet Common Core Curriculum school standards that would hold up to the most rigorous classroom instruction. College credit is issued for some zoo programs and zoo research projects frequently satisfy requirements for university lab classes. University research projects conducted at Chehaw Park include studies on wild populations of bats, gopher tortoises, and frogs. Chehaw Wild Animal Park has even participated in a multi-zoo, nationwide research study on cheetah reproductive hormone cycles.

And the downside of zoos where animals are held as captives? There are some, to be sure. The humane care of elephants, apes, and whales in captivity is challenging at best and, some would say, downright impossible. But in many cases, the animals held in zoos are no worse off than my dogs at home who gaze longingly out from the “cage” of my living room window. Would they like to roam the neighborhood, chasing squirrels and getting into my neighbor’s garbage? I’m sure they would. Would they be better-off? I think not!

Wild places and wild animals are disappearing at an alarming rate and nobody is sounding the alarm louder than zoos, but the Guardian.com notes that environment minister René Castro wants Costa Rica’s end of state-financed captivity to be a turning point, saying "With this move, we are sending a message that the state wishes to show biodiversity in its natural state, under a modern and holistic integration of space, society and natural resources."

In 1989, my wife and I observed “biodiversity in its natural state” as we sat at a waterhole in central Africa watching a female sitatunga antelope cautiously step out into the open and make her way to the water for a drink. It was not a remarkable scene until someone pointed out two female lions lurking at the forest edge nearby. We watched as they split up and were mesmerized as one lion chased the antelope into the waiting jaws of her companion in a remarkable bit of teamwork. The antelope never had a chance. We didn’t know whether to feel sorry for the sitatunga as she was suffocated by the lion’s strangle hold on her throat or cheer for the lions and their remarkable bit of hunting. You could argue that these lions are better off in the wild because they get to hunt antelope for dinner, but I am not so sure about the sitatunga.  

Millions of people are positively influenced by the collective conservation message of zoos and the animals that live in them. Would these animals better-off in the wild? They might be if humans had not evolved to dominate every corner of the planet – but here we are. And how do you define better-off, anyway?

Baseball and Chimpanzees

A couple of headlines caught my eye in the Saturday morning news feed. One of them, in the sports section, noted that Max Scherzer became the first pitcher to start the baseball season with 12 wins and no losses in 27 years. A little further down the column, under Science, was a Los Angeles Times article on why chimps can't throw a baseball at 90 mph.

I love baseball. I don’t have any connection to the Detroit Tigers, but I was interested to see that pitcher Max Scherzer “is the only one who has produced an unblemished record through 12 decisions in 2013, a first for any hurler since Roger Clemens with the Boston Red Sox in 1986”.

I grew up listening to Hall of Fame pitcher Dizzy Dean call games on CBS and watching Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford pitch in Spring Training where I grew up in St. Petersburg, Florida. There are plenty of hard throwers in baseball these days and many of them have reached the hundred-mile-an-hour club, but according to sports writer Red Smith, “Whitey Ford could throw a lamb chop past a hungry wolf”.

Which brings me back to the animal connection. An article in the June 27 edition of Nature with the daunting title, “Elastic Energy Storage in the Shoulder and the Evolution of High-speed Throwing in Homo”, notes that “Some primates, including chimpanzees, throw objects occasionally, but only humans regularly throw projectiles with high speed and accuracy”. According the authors, Darwin noted that the unique throwing abilities of humans, which were made possible when bipedalism emancipated the arms, enabled foragers to hunt effectively using projectiles. The authors used experimental studies of humans throwing projectiles to show that our throwing capabilities largely result from several derived anatomical features that enable elastic energy storage and release at the shoulder. These features first appear together approximately 2 million years ago in the species Homo erectus. Taking into consideration archaeological evidence suggesting that hunting activity intensified around this time, the authors conclude that selection for throwing as a means to hunt probably had an important role in the evolution of the genus Homo.

Of course, that makes perfect sense when you think about it. If early humans could throw a rock or a spear accurately and with force, they were much more likely to be successful food gatherers – a perfectly reasonable adaptation.

When I was a young zookeeper starting my career at Busch Gardens, I had to undergo an initiation of sorts in the chimp house. Our legendary and fearsome male, Bamboo, had once escaped, attacked a keeper, and bitten the man’s calf muscle off. When Bamboo went into a threat display, it was terrifying. And to make matters worse, he liked to throw his poop as a finale to his act. The poop came flying with force and accuracy as he scooped it off the floor and let fly in one smooth motion. But, now that I think about it, he always used an underhand motion. I never saw him pick it up and throw it overhand from a wind up or the stretch. Now, after more than 40 years, I finally know why.

Something to Crow About

The May-June issue of Audubon Magazine has an article entitled Brains Over Brawn, that looks at the fascinating behavior of crows, ravens, and their kin.  "Evolution," according to the article, "has endowed the species with a big brain that empowers it to readily exploit and adapt to whatever [life] throws its way." The crow, we learn, is "very social, rarely found alone, and can be mischievous.

That intelligent, cooperative, and mischievous behavior was on display at Chehaw Park last week as three crows surrounded a turtle that was attempting to create a nest and lay her eggs. The birds took turns looking into the hole, awaiting the eggs that would be their mid-afternoon snack. The standoff went on for more than an hour before the turtle trudged off to find a new location, leaving the crows to ponder the empty hole.

A Day to Celebrate the Earth

Over forty years ago, an iconic photograph of the earth was taken from 28,000 miles in space by the crew of Apollo 17. The photo, known as “the Blue Marble”, depicts the earth as a blue and white sphere set against the inky blackness of space – and it is a haunting image of our fragile existence. As we approach Earth Day 2013, perhaps this is a good time to reflect on this photograph and consider how we are doing.

When it comes to our planet, it seems that all we hear is doom and gloom. We endlessly debate global climate change and argue about whether it is the result of natural processes or human activities. In the tropics, wild populations of everything from monarch butterflies to African rhinos are declining precipitously while polar bears struggle to survive in an ice-free arctic. In South Georgia, water consumption is the concern as we watch the once beautiful Radium Springs spend much of the year as a dry creek bed.

But not all of the news is bad, if you know where to look. In our own community, for example, we are fortunate to have two institutions that have a positive impact on people’s attitudes about our planet. Chehaw Park and the Flint RiverQuarium have remarkably similar missions. Chehaw is about “inspiring people to connect with nature and encouraging conservation action through positive recreational and educational experiences”. The RiverQuarium‘s mission is to “promote conservation through aquatic exhibits and educational, entertaining experiences”. The community embraces these missions and supports our activities as we reach out to thousands of young people from all over the South Georgia. Both Chehaw and FRQ host summer camps, overnight programs, and the visits of thousands of school children.

Chehaw works closely with the Dougherty County School System, hosting the annual Science Olympiad for all students in the 3rd – 5th grades and supporting Turner Elementary School as a Partner in Excellence. Our junior zookeeper program engages teenagers, teaching them various aspects of zoo animal management and immersing them in wildlife education programming. At the college level, Chehaw recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Albany State University to formalize the many biology and natural resource programs that have been conducted in recent years. We regularly host ASU students for lab classes, field research projects, and internships. Drafting students at Albany Technical College are learning about the natural world by working on plans for a new North American animal section in the zoo, and Georgia Southwestern has initiated a new class, Biology 4760: Zoo Animal Care & Maintenance. This unique program is allowing Biology students to learn about careers in zoo management.

According to NationalGeographic.com, Earth Day is now celebrated by a billion people in 180 nations around the world. Albany can celebrate Earth Day at Chehaw on Saturday, April 27^th as we host a nationwide, Association of Zoos and Aquariums event known as the Party for the Planet™. On that same day, The Flint RiverQuarium (along with Darton State College) will engage the community with a 5K run and music festival. Both Chehaw and FRQ have many bright, dedicated young people who will be out that day actively engaged in supporting our missions. When viewed in this youth-oriented light, the future does not seem all that grim. Perhaps that is where our hope lies, as we heed the Native American proverb: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children”. 

This post appeared as a Guest Editorial in the April 19th, 2013 Albany Herald.  On Saturday, April 20th, someone calling him/herself Rightasrain posted the following comment:

Come on and admit that you are one of the "greenie goonies" and you believe in man-made global warming. Exactly what are your "missions"? The Native American proverb is all wrong, man does not "borrow the earth from our children"; oh, it's good spin for you earth day worshippers (which by the way, worshipping earth (Earth Day, Mother Earth, etc) all have roots in pagan worship. So, all you faker earth day pagans go for it. Man will never destroy the earth, there are more polar bears now than 25 years ago, throughout its history earth has always had cycles of warming and cooling. But, go ahead...drink your greenaid.

All I can say is - WOW!

Elephants on the Verge

Elephants are in the news lately, both in North America – where some zoos are building new, multimillion dollar facilities while other zoos are getting out of the elephant business altogether – and in Africa, where they are on the road to extinction.

In the past decade, a dozen zoos have halted their elephant programs, citing cold weather conditions or limited space. In Canada, the Toronto Zoo is sending its three adult elephants to California after the Toronto City Council overruled zoo staff and sided with animal activists. Other zoos are expanding their elephant facilities. The Pittsburgh Zoo built a 700-acre refuge; the Oregon Zoo announced plans to build a sprawling off-site reserve; and the 225-acre National Elephant Center in Florida is expected to receive its first residents in a few months. This facility, underwritten by member zoos of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, will “provide short-term and long-term care for North American elephants in support of the accredited zoo population and for the welfare of elephants in need”. 

The elephants at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., also have a new home. The old Elephant House has been renovated to include more space for the giant animals to play, rest and even take showers. The renamed Elephant Community Center, which opened last month, is the final piece of the redesigned Elephant Trails exhibition. It is designed to hold as many as 10 elephants, zoo officials said. The new space has several hands-on activities for humans, including a machine that compares elephant sounds and human voices. You can also make a pledge to save the elephants, a conservation message zoo officials everywhere hope visitors will take away from their exhibitions.

The headline out of St. Louis is “St. Louis Zoo continues to breed elephants despite protests”. The impending arrival of an Asian elephant calf at the St. Louis Zoo is cause for both celebration and concern. Celebration, keepers say, because a new elephant helps build a safety net for a species threatened by extinction. And concern because of a deadly herpes virus that has killed about 25 percent of the Asian elephants born in North American zoos in the past three decades. Animal rights activists say the St. Louis Zoo is irresponsible to breed elephants knowing the virus is present in the herd. In Defense of Animals, a California-based organization, is calling for the zoo to halt its breeding program. Steve Feldman of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which accredits North American zoos, says the answer is to find a cure, not to stop breeding. “You develop the science and the research and you prepare yourself to treat any illnesses,” Feldman said. “That’s how science advances.”

But to what end? The truth, according to some, is that captive breeding programs cannot save elephants in the wild. That would demand dramatic change from the people who slaughter elephants for tusks and meat. A world without wild elephants, everyone agrees, is a very real possibility. According to a new study published in the journal PLOS and reported at FrenchTribune.com, African forest elephants are about to reach extinction, primarily due to increased poaching for their ivory tusks. Their population has declined about 62% in just the last decade. Wildlife Conservation Society conservationists say effective measures must be taken all over the world where elephants occur. Ivory smuggling routes and the final destination in the Far East have to be in the main agenda to protect the species from extinction.

So all this begs the question, are zoos on the right track? Those that can afford it, are building mega-spaces. Those that lack sufficient resources, or that are located in inhospitable climates, are either pooling resources or getting out of the business altogether. The business of keeping elephants is changing rapidly, but is it going to be enough? Whatever we do may be less than ideal for these challenging creatures, but we must do something. Perhaps it is enough to keep setting higher and higher standards, heeding the advice of author and animal advocate Temple Grandin who says “what we really need to do to protect animals is set high standards. People can live up to high standards, but they can’t live up to perfection”.