On a recent visit to El Valle de Anton, we took the opportunity to head out to one of the field sites where a frog known as the Harlequin Frog (Atelopus varius) had once existed in large numbers. The chytrid fungus had reached this area a number of years  and a small population was brought into a captive setting at the El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center for safeguarding against the threat of extinction.

Approximately 2 hours from El Valle de Anton is El Cope National Park and one of the few sites where this species may still exist. El Cope rises over 3,000 feet above sea level with the park first being created in 1986, acting as a watershed between the Pacific and the Panamanian Caribbean. Home to jaguar, mountain lion, tapir, monkeys and numerous birds, it is the amphibians which once made this place unique. Although a glimpse ofthe areas mammals and birds was always special. It was the nenver ending sound of dozens of amphibian species calling in the late afternoon and early evening hours which brought this cloud forest alive.

A Somber Silence. But now that is all but gone. There were 2-3 species of amphibians seen on this visit but it is a vastly different forest today than it was just 5 years ago. The same fate has taken amphibian species across the Central America corridor from Costa Rica down through Panama and heading upwards from Colombia.

Until the time comes when conservation biologists can determine it is safe to return amphibians to their native habitat, the Houston Zoo and partners will coninue to maintain assurance colonies of amphibians in their native countries, and spend time in the field surveying remaining amphibian populations. If you would like to support our amphibian efforts in Panama, you can follow the link to http://www.houstonzoo.org/amphibians/

Panamanian Golden Frog Atelopus zeteki

Marsupial Frog Hemiphractus fasciatus

Craugastor tabasarae with eggs. El Valle Amphibian Conservation Center

Here is another update from Xmas Mpofu, head keeper, at Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe. -

“We have received 2 puppies from low veld and are now settled into our Rehab Facility. The 2 were dug out of their den following a rabies out break in that area. The pack members are now dead and the 2 pups are the only survivors. The 2 puppies currently seem to be fit and strong and will be released back into the wild with some of our other Rehab dogs.”

Wild Painted dogs in the enclosure at PDC's rehab center

This is another example of why it is imperative to have a Painted dog rehabilitation center at PDC.  These pups wouldn’t stand a chance in the wild without the rest of the pack.  The rehabilitation center will give them the opportunity to integrate into a new pack and gain the strength they will need to survive in the wild. 

Map of enclosures and PDC's facilities

Stay tuned for more of the exciting adventures from PDC.

Bush Camp kids

Here is an exciting message from Painted Dog Conservation’s children’s Bush Camp in Zimbabwe. This is an example of the country’s unwavering support for this amazing community-based conservation program.   

“Painted Dog Conservation has been awarded a certificate of recognition for the sterling contribution in conservation education to the Matabeleland North region, the only organisation in the district of Hwange to receive this award. Thank you to everyone who has made this contribution a success.”    Wilton Nsimango, PDC

At the zoo we talk about the struggle to preserve wildlife and wildlife habitat. People need to see what is going on in the world, but you need to see the positives as well.

In Rwanda, a team of field veterinarians are tending to the health of Mountain Gorillas. In Zimbabwe, education bush camps are teaching children to protect Painted Dogs.  In Texas, the Houston Zoo and partners are reintroducing Attwater’s Prairie Chickens and Houston Toad back into native habitat. In Botswana, our partners at Cheetah Conservation Botswana are helping to protect the health of the communities’ domestic animals and working side-by-side to ensure the safety of their livestock. At the zoo, we recycle and reduce our landfill waste stream. 

A colleague once said to me Human nature does not program us to be proactive until it is almost too late. Well that is dissapointing. What really matters is for everyone to do something positive, just one thing. What really matters is that one thing can ultimately lead to a larger chain of events.

Find one minute a day to step back and look around – have you ever just stopped to watch the birds or butterflies in your neighborhood?  A recent poll found Houston #3 on the list of most stressful cities. We work too much, do not get outside enough (it’s hot, it’s humid, it’s buggy – I get it). But if you take a moment and find one minute a day to do that one simple positive thing – that is what really matters.

Dought and I at PDC

While working at Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe I was very fortunate to establish many wonderful friendships.  The local people are warm and inviting and I always feel very at home with them.  Dought Nkomo is the head guide at PDC’s children’s bush camp.  He approached me to introduce himself after he watched me dance and make a fool of my self in my attempt to make the bush camp children laugh.  After a bit of conversation we figured out that we were the same age.  I think this was shocking to him after watching my childish antics with the children, but none the less – or maybe because of this –we became good friends. 

Dought grew up in a rural village surrounding Hwange national park.  On my last visit to Zimbabwe he brought me to see his village and meet his wife, mother, cousins, brother, and young son, Adrian.  I was fascinated to see where he and his family lived.

Teaching bush camp kids

Dought is a very proud and dedicated PDC employee; he also heads up the maintenance/building team when he is not at the bush camp. The bush camp guides are Hwange National Park employees that have been trained to be teachers. PDC offers teaching courses for guides, who are often out of work due to the decline in tourism, so they can work at the bush camp. Traditional teachers in Zimbabwe have strict relationships with students. PDC’s director, Dr. Greg Rasmussen, wanted to create a learning environment where the kids would feel very open and free.  He felt that park guides had unique knowledge and could be trained to teach children.  Their relationship to the kids is more like that of a camp counselor. Dought says that he loves what he does because he gets to see kids come out of their shell during the camp. 

Kids recognize him where ever he goes. When we went into a village one day, kids seemed to come from everywhere, yelling “bush camp, bush camp!”  He’s a celebrity, and in my opinion, the best kind!  I am very excited announce Dought has agreed to send me updates from the project that I will post on our blog, the first of which is below.

Dought at his village with his family

Well I have completed another 3 months of Bush camps and a lot of them were back to back because of interest that have been shown by schools outside Hwange.We had a school coming from Zambia and another from Victoria Falls and both have promised to come back next year. We had 11 camps compared to 6 every 3 months.

When there is a bush camp my day starts at 4:30am when I take a bath then if I am the one doing the staff run I go and pick up the housekeeping staff. At 6:30 the kids have breakfast, then lessons start at 7:00am.I take the kids through various conservation activities up to 8pm but with a number of breaks in between for 4 days. During the the weeks when there are no bush camps i am in the maintenance department where i am involved with supervision of the construction team. Currently we are building Dr Greg Rassmussen’s house and the other team is digging a big hole where we want to build an underground water storage tank for storin rain water that will come down the gutters on the visitor centre roof. Once complete a pump will be fitted on the tank to supply water to the sprinklers around for use in case of fire. I am also doing maintenance of the Painted dog Conservation facilities, like the childrens bush camp ,the raised walkway and the Visitors centre and also the furniture.

I enjoy being in Africa especially with all the wildlife around the community i live in.here in Hwange we have over 100 animal species and with the conservation education the community is recieving is now making them aware that they can co-exist with wildlife.People used to think that wildlife is “game meat”but now they are begining to know about the role each species play in the naural community. The kids enjoy a lot when i take them out into Hwange national park where they get to see wildlife so close to them and yet in the villages animals run away at the sight of humans.It is usually the first time for most of them to see some of these animals and the excitement they have is amazing .I am happy about the oppotunity i am giving to the kids on behalf of Painted dog conservation.

In the village all is progressing well for me and my family, next week schools close and Adrian is going to the village for the whole month.He is going to be looking after his goats and cattle.

Bush camp kids at water hole

Painted Dog Conservation in Zimbabwe has double the population of the endangered Painted dog in the past ten years by its community- based conservation efforts.  It attributes its continued success to a program they offer to grade six level students from the local villages called the Bush Camp.  This is a 4-day long environmental education experience.  The local communities are so supportive and excited about this program for the kids that they have made it a mandatory requirement for schools in the area.  The program is free to the community, as PDC gets all of their funding from donations outside of the country.  Every year one thousand children come through the Children’s Bush Camp – for less than $15 a day.  They stay a week – and for the first time, they see the dogs and wildlife that live just miles from their villages. It’s like Disneyland to them – it’s the highlight of their lives. 

Bush camp work book

So how did this wonderful program get started?  When Dr. Greg Rasmussen first set out to save the Painted dog, he knew that it would only be possible with the support of the local people.  So, he spent 10 years before he even started PDC on a journey to find what the local rural natives really wanted and needed.  He spent time with the community to listen and inquire; and the answer that rang clear was to make their children happy. Throughout these years he also visited local schools to talk to the kids and teachers about the dogs (usually in a dog costume). He saw the youth were deprived of any wildlife education, not from a lack of interest, but more from a lack of inspiration.  Greg was finding it very difficult to connect the kids to wildlife when they had never seen it before.  The kids from rural villages no longer see wildlife, as the villages are being pushed farther away from the park.  Most of the rural village kids have never even seen an elephant or giraffe never mind a Painted dog. 

Being a big kid himself, this task made Greg very happy!  He built small round huts immersed in the bush and all of the kids sleep in their own beds with mosquito nets.  Many of the kids have never slept on beds much less in their own bed, and they definitely have never had mosquito nets.  The children are overjoyed by the electricity (the rural villages do not have electricity), the lights flick on and off all night for their first night.  The kids are very respectful and well behaved; they are immensely grateful for this experience.

Bush camp kids dress up like Painted dogs for a play

The kids learn about the whole eco-system with a special emphasis on the plight of the Painted dog.  They are put in groups named after the various Painted dog packs that are in the area when they arrive and play games that imitate the Painted dog’s behavior and social dynamic.  The lessons are in both the local dialect, Ndebele, and English and the kids get an opportunity to see and work with computers for the first time.

In the middle of the camp there is a meeting area on stilts, used for the kid’s plays and dances.  Each night they act out, dance and sing what they have learned during the day.  The stilted stage is connected to the elevated walkway over the 80-acre dog enclosure. The kids are led out onto the walkway to get an unobstructed view from above of the Painted dogs in PDC’s rehabilitation center.    

When I am at PDC, being at the bush camp with those amazing children is definitely the highlight!  When I get the pleasure of going into the park with the kids for their first game drive they always break out into joyous song on the way home.  This experience brings tears to my eyes.  They are beautiful singers and their gratitude and joy is expressed in their singing.  

Kids with me in front of Bush camp huts

When Greg is asked what of PDC’s achievements to date he is most proud of, he answers “Our children’s bush camp. Ideally I would like to see them set up adjacent to many of the world’s national parks. It happens in most areas – the local communities never get to see their wildlife often because the areas are made inaccessible as they are designated for tourist or hunting purposes. Consequently it is no surprise that communities see no value in wildlife and consequently make no effort to conserve it.”

The success of this program is tangible; there have been children that have assisted in the arrest of poachers after being at the bush camp.  The local communities love it so much that they are now asking for an adult camp.

Our Houston toad head-start program has seen over 30,000 tadpoles and toads released to their natal ponds this year alone. One of the most critically endangered birds in the United States, the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken, is hatched and reared for release to augment their ever dwindling wild population. Our Education staff conducts field and science based programs for local school children to foster appreciation for this endemic grouse. Outreach programs also focus on the restoration of the black bear to the dense Pineywoods of East Texas, our vanishing coastal prairies, endangered sea turtles and local amphibian declines. In a state that is 97 percent private, we continue to expand collaboration with landowners – both working with them directly and assisting with workshops to teach them to manage their property for endangered wildlife. Other local research and field activities include turtle road mortality and mitigation, sea turtle nest patrols, and assistance with ongoing graduate projects with local universities.

The Houston Zoo’s conservation mission is to make the Houston Zoo a leader in conservation as it relates to the survival of threatened wildlife, the wise use of natural resources, and the appreciation of our natural world by our zoo visitors. We take wildlife conservation in Texas seriously and we would like for all Texans to appreciate the State’s unique habitats and heritage.

Want to hear more about what makes Texas so special? Then join us on November 17th for a very special speaker event featuring Carter Smith, Executive Director, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 6:30pm-8:00pm in our Brown Education Center. Link here for tickets.

Photo by Javier Garcia

They might be after you lucky charms!  A primate that purrs like a cat and looks like a leprechaun has been confirmed as a new species in the Colombian section of the Amazon rain forest. Callicebus caquetensis was found in the Caquetá region, in the southern part of Colombia. This species of Titi monkey was spotted in 1976, but due to the political unrest in the area, biologists were unable to get in to verify this discovery. Thanks to the relationship that was formed with a student who is native to the area, they were able to safely execute an expedition to confirm this new species in 2008 — yet another great example of the benefits of working with the local people!  

This discovery was just announced on August 12th 2010 in Primate Conservation.

It’s easy to forget that new species are still being discovered on this planet of ours all the time. Check out the top ten species discovered in 2010 here.

Due to its low cost, Palm Oil has replaced many of the saturated fats and other vegetable oils that at one time were part of many of the processed foods we purchase in the store. Oil Palms produce more oil per hectare of land than any other oil producing crop – clearly it is the cheaper alternative for companies. But many of these companies look away at the removal of both wildlife and forest to produce palm oil products. Although large companies such as Unilever and Nestle’s have suggested they are moving to a sustainable palm oil product, there are still dozens of large companies who are not, and in turn, fuel the trade in palm oil from poorly managed plantations who will kill wildlife and burn forests to clear land for production.

Orangutans are found only on the islands of Sumatra (Indonesia) and Borneo (made up of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei). 85% of the worlds plam oil comes out of Indonesia and Malaysia. The third largest forest nation with 120 million hectares, Indonesia is subsequently the world’s third largest carbon polluter and loses more than 1 million hectares per year due to illegal logging, illicit land clearing and forest fires. About 90 percent of the approximately 40,000 wild orangutans live in Indonesia, between Sumatra and Borneo islands, while the remaining 10 percent can be found in Sabah and Sarawak, Malaysia. Both species of orangutans have been place on the red list of The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) with The Sumatran species listed as critically endangered. 

Palm oil plantation and habitat loss

Orangutans are potentially disappearing at the rate of up to 2,000 individuals per year due to loss of habitat and hunting pressures. Loss of habitat is specifically due to increasing plam oil plantations as well as pulp and paper concessions.

I was in Walgreens last week and picked up two bags of a similiar product. One had plam oil in the ingredient, the other did not and was the same price or less. The decision was easy, and only added a few seconds to my trip. Is it worth it? Take a look at your food and even health care packaging (Dove, shampoos, etc.) at home. What percentage of the product you now buy contains palm oil?

Palm oil production has been documented as a cause of substantial and often irreversible damage to the natural environment. It’s impacts include deforestation, habitat loss for critically endangered species, and a significant increase in greenhouse gas emissions. Make a statement with your shopping habits, it is the only way left in keeping orangutans off the extinction list.

Voices of the Forest: Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Project