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Hi All,
I wanted to update you on a couple of items of interest here at the Zoo.
My first NOLZ was quite an event! Overall, it went extremely well and the staff and volunteers did a wonderful job! We had about 6,211 visitors come through the gates over the two nights. That represents an increase of almost 1,000 visitors over last year! And last year was the record to date! I am proud of all those who made it work!
The second item is a bit of a pre-emptive announcement but one that I am very excited to deliver! On Friday night, we had a titi monkey born!!! This birth means that the TOTAL captive population for North America now stands at 47 animals! This is a significant birth! We will wait a few days before making a public announcement/press release to make sure it is nursing and doing well (also, to get some pics). It is about 4" long, not including the tail. It has been spending a lot of time clinging to the father; thus, we are watching it to see how often it goes back to the mother and nurses. It has been observed nursing today. We won't intervene as long as the baby stays active and strong.
The last item has nothing to do with the Zoo but is an important re-discovery. Recently there has been report from the forests of Costa Rica that some researchers have discovered a pair of golden toads. While this may not seem real exciting, it is actually very good news. Golden toads have not been observed for more than 20 years and were thought to be extinct. The female of the pair was gravid (with eggs). Years ago, while leading a birding trip to Costa Rica, I went to the Monteverde cloud forest. Although we were looking for birds, one could not help but notice the $ 1,000 reward signs at the Visitor's Center for a confirmed sighting of a golden toad. That was in the late eighties and they hadn't been seen in years then either. This kind of news coming out of the tropics when the chytrid fungus in killing off amphibian populations on a weekly basis, is great news!
Good things are happening!
Joel M. Hamilton
Zoo Director
Salisbury Zoological Park
1 comment:
A friend of mine took his kids to the Zoo recently and said things were looking better. It's nice to know that we have people with knowledge and vision. I think the additions of Caldwell and Hamilton are looking good.
I've heard Mr. Caldwell bring up numbers and facts from many years before his hire and that tells me he does his homework. I don't want to see Salisbury fail, I want to see Salisbury shine!
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