Zookeeper Gabe’s Animal Thread Vol 9.0

@Zookeeper Gabe what type of turtle is this?
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That’s a diamond back terrapin with a fucked up shell, they are protected in a lot of states too.
 
Loiosh said:
I don't know how true this is but I want to believe.

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i've seen many videos now like that, where they track the reintroduction of animal species to areas and how transformative it is and good for the area. There is one on the reintroduction of bison around the world, mostly via Alberta wild life reserves now having such abundance they can segregate and ship entire herds, and how similarly they transform entire ecologies and the topography after they arrive in certain regions. Regions that suffered droughts suddenly are more robust to that, etc.
 
Octopus and squid can be amongst the most cunning and vengeful participants of the predator, prey games.

Here is an octopus caught drowning a eagle in British Columbia, and surely the eagle is not considered a good food source for the effort it would take to ambush and kill it. But Eagles are known to swoop in and grab octopus from the water and to drop them deep on shore where they can eat them at their leisure. So if a big enough Octopus comes across an Eagle who may have just touched down to grab a fish, why not drown him?




 
@Zookeeper Gabe

I've got a question for you and I don't want it to be offensive but I have to ask something about zoos.

My daughter is an avid animal lover but from a very young age she would not visit zoos because the animals look like they are suffering and unhappy. Initially I thought that all the animals in zoos were animals that could not live in the wild but as we looked into it it was indeed the case that many animals in zoos were captured from the wild and then locked in what amounts to nice looking prison cells.

We recently went to California and my daughter who was 11 at the time flatly refused to visit the San Diego zoo and we all didn't go because of it.

I'm wondering if you can correct my perception on this level and change my mind so that I could possibly change her mind? I would not want her to think of zoos as a place where animals are put in prison and are exploited if that is not true.
 
gremins said:
@Zookeeper Gabe

I've got a question for you and I don't want it to be offensive but I have to ask something about zoos.

My daughter is an avid animal lover but from a very young age she would not visit zoos because the animals look like they are suffering and unhappy. Initially I thought that all the animals in zoos were animals that could not live in the wild but as we looked into it it was indeed the case that many animals in zoos were captured from the wild and then locked in what amounts to nice looking prison cells.

We recently went to California and my daughter who was 11 at the time flatly refused to visit the San Diego zoo and we all didn't go because of it.

I'm wondering if you can correct my perception on this level and change my mind so that I could possibly change her mind? I would not want her to think of zoos as a place where animals are put in prison and are exploited if that is not true.
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Well I would say you totally missed out, San Diego zoo is one of the finest facilities in the world. Its incredibly easy to misinterpret lots of animal behaviors as them being sad or unhappy when it often isn’t the case at all.

The overwhelming majority of animals you see in zoos are NOT caught in the wild(I don’t know where you got your info, but sounds like animal rights propaganda), in fact it is a tiny % that are from the wild. Most of the animals you see in zoos have come from other facilities and would not survive in the wild. Many of the animals that have come from the wild are actually animals that have been injured and can not fend for themselves anymore but can live a long happy life in captivity. Pretty much every single bald eagle you see in a zoo is a wild animal that has been injured (shot, hit by car, whatever) and can’t live without the care of us.

Now, no zoo is perfect and i even found things at San Diego I would have liked to improve. But the good zoos are always trying to improve on animal welfare and husbandry. I’ve been a keeper for almost 20years now and have seen so much growth and continue to look forward to it.
As for your daughter, I encourage her to talk to a zookeeper sometime and be willing to listen to them.
 
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Zookeeper Gabe said:
Well I would say you totally missed out, San Diego zoo is one of the finest facilities in the world. Its incredibly easy to misinterpret lots of animal behaviors as them being sad or unhappy when it often isn’t the case at all.

The overwhelming majority of animals you see in zoos are NOT caught in the wild(I don’t know where you got your info, but sounds like animal rights propaganda), in fact it is a tiny % that are from the wild. Most of the animals you see in zoos have come from other facilities and would not survive in the wild. Many of the animals that have come from the wild are actually animals that have been injured and can not fend for themselves anymore but can live a long happy life in captivity. Pretty much every single bald eagle you see in a zoo is a wild animal that has been injured (shot, hit by car, whatever) and can’t live without the care of us.

Now, no zoo is perfect and i even found things at San Diego I would have liked to improve. But the good zoos are always trying to improve on animal welfare and husbandry. I’ve been a keeper for almost 20years now and have seen so much growth and continue to look forward to it.
As for your daughter, I encourage her to talk to a zookeeper sometime and be willing to listen to them.
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im not sure where we got the info... it was just the first few hits that came up on google or duck duck go a few years back.

ive got some follow up questions.

does each zoo list precisely which animals they have that were bred in captivity and which were caught in the wild to put in a zoo and which were brought to a zoo because they were injured, and which were rescued?

i ask this because you said the vast majority of the animals in zoo's would not be able to live in the wild but one reason for that would be because they were bred in captivity and so never learned the skills to make it in the wild. that is not the same thing as saying they were rescued from the wild and are living a happy life protected from predators.

there is a bird sanctuary in our city and we do visit this sanctuary because all of the birds were rescued in the wild due to injuries so it seems totally humane to us.

again man im not trying to offend you but since you are a zookeeper i thought it would be worth asking about these issues.
 
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gremins said:
im not sure where we got the info... it was just the first few hits that came up on google or duck duck go a few years back.

ive got some follow up questions.

does each zoo list precisely which animals they have that were bred in captivity and which were caught in the wild to put in a zoo and which were brought to a zoo because they were injured, and which were rescued?

i ask this because you said the vast majority of the animals in zoo's would not be able to live in the wild but one reason for that would be because they were bred in captivity and so never learned the skills to make it in the wild. that is not the same thing as saying they were rescued from the wild and are living a happy life protected from predators.

there is a bird sanctuary in our city and we do visit this sanctuary because all of the birds were rescued in the wild due to injuries so it seems totally humane to us.

again man im not trying to offend you but since you are a zookeeper i thought it would be worth asking about these issues.
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What animals are you concerned are being taken from the wild? Of course I can’t speak for every zoological facility but the days of capturing wild animals for zoos is pretty much gone. I know in some facilities they have signage by some animals, we have signs by our bald eagles explaining they were injured in the wild.
Also, people get way to caught up in the word sanctuary and always automatically think they are better places than zoos. if you want some good info on modern zoos, www.AZA.org and www.aazk.org have lots of good info.
 
Zookeeper Gabe said:
What animals are you concerned are being taken from the wild? Of course I can’t speak for every zoological facility but the days of capturing wild animals for zoos is pretty much gone. I know in some facilities they have signage by some animals, we have signs by our bald eagles explaining they were injured in the wild.
Also, people get way to caught up in the word sanctuary and always automatically think they are better places than zoos. if you want some good info on modern zoos, www.AZA.org and www.aazk.org have lots of good info.
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It sounds like you are saying that MOST zoo animals are bred in captivity and some are saved from the wild.


That doesn't seem like a life any animal would choose or could truly love living to me... being bred in captivity like that .....
 
Typically as I understand zoo's have almost all pivoted to that model. In decades past, not so much, but now these are typically rescue animals or sometimes animals that are endangered in the wild and they are bred and raised in the zoo for re-introduction to the wild. Such as Eagles which have been re-introduced back into many areas after being raised in bird sanctuaries (zoos).
 
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