National Zoo Research Articles

Reaching out: conservation activities at the National Aquarium in Baltimore

The contribution of public aquariums to conservation has been largely in the field of education but while this may have a direct impact where the aquarium displays local wildlife, it is less immediate where exhibits are international in character. The National Aquarium in Baltimore has developed a number of conservation activities linking the Aquarium's displays to natural habitats. The neotropical rain‐forest exhibit is associated with Costa Rica, and fund‐raising, ‘adoption’ of the national zoo and cooperation with conservation projects are linked with the exhibit. The Aquarium works with the National Marine Fisheries Service programme for the rescue and rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals. It has also launched a coral reef conservation programme to coincide with the reopening of its Atlantic Coral Reef exhibit.

The zoo that has to close

London Zoo is the only major national zoo run without the benefit of substantial support from public funds. No wonder it is having to close.

Visitor behavior in the National Zoo's reptile house

AbstractVisitor behavior was evaluated in the National Zoo's reptile house. Nearly 600 visitors were tracked; time spent in the house and time spent looking at exhibits were noted. These parameters were investigated by sex, age, and type of visitor grouping. The most looked‐at exhibits were determined. For 573 visitors, the mean time in the reptile house was 14.7 minutes. Only about 8 minutes was spent looking at exhibits, and this time was strikingly similar for age, sex, and group type. Time spent looking at exhibits was negatively correlated with visitor density. Amphibians and lizards were looked at for less time than snakes and turtles. Crocodilians were looked at longer than the other taxonomic groups, while larger animals in all groups were looked at longer than smaller ones. This study and other similar studies imply that the public does not respond to exhibits with the expected interest and enthusiasm. It is hoped that with a better understanding of the public through research, zoo staff can improve visitor interest in the exhibits.

PA Comments: Pro Bono Anthropologico

I arrived in Washington, D.C. in June 1983 to begin a two-year appointment as Director of Programs for the American Anthropological Association. Neither my wife nor I had lived before in an inner city of our own country. We chose an apartment a block from the AAA office, within a mile or two of the Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, the National Zoo, and many of the galleries, museums, and monuments that define the city—places that had influenced our decision to temporarily leave our home in southern California.

Reviving the Spirit of Enterprise: Role of the Federal Labs

About 400 research facilities officially classified as Federal laboratories employ nearly 185 000 of the nation's scientists and engineers and account for roughly $18 billion per year—a third of all Federal R&D funding in fiscal 1985. Most of this support went to a relatively few large centers devoted to energy and weapons research, highenergy physics experiments, medical programs and space science and exploration. Besides the multipurpose national labs such as Sandia, Argonne, Los Alamos and the National Bureau of Standards, which perform a broad range of R&D activities, the full roster includes a diversity of installations, including the Boll Weevil Research Laboratory; the National Radio Astronomy Observatory; the Insect Attractant, Behavior and Basic Biology Center; the FBI Laboratory; and even the National Zoo. Despite the contributions of the Federal labs, how they can enrich the nation's R&D enterprise with “public technology” has been a subject of concern in Washington for decades.

Feeding and food preference in captive and wild Giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla)

The Giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) is one of the most specialized mammalian predators, subsisting exclusively on a diet of ants and termites. This study examines the feeding and food preference of captive and wild Giant anteaters in central Brazil. Eight species of mound‐building termites were offered to anteaters in the Brasilia Zoo. The anteaters showed marked preferences for some species over others. The overall pattern of preference did not correlate with prey size, prey nutritional quality or the soldier‐based defence type of the different prey species.Preferences of wild anteaters in Emas National Park, Goias State, Brazil for an equivalent set of termite species were then determined. The preferences of wild animals did not correlate with the preferences of captive ones. This discrepancy results principally from the fact that the conditions under which anteaters encountered prey in the captive trials were very different from the conditions under which prey were encountered in the wild. A Giant anteater incorporates three major factors in its decision to feed on a particular termite species: nutritional value, availability (or mound defence) and response to attack.The very short feeding periods that typify anteater feeding are caused by the rapidly decreasing prey value of the social insect colony following predator attack. The different types of defence exhibited by the different prey species all serve to cause this rapid decrease and thus limit, but do not prevent, predation.SummaryThe purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the Giant anteater as a predator and termites as prey. Giant anteaters have long been known to eat only ants and termites, but little work has been done on which species are consumed and why those are chosen over others. In two‐way choice trials the present author offered captive Giant anteaters eight species of central Brazilian mound‐building termites. Myrmecophaga preferences were determined by the amount of time spent feeding on each termite species. The preferences of captive animals were then compared with the preferences of wild anteaters in Emas National Park, Brazil. Myrmecophaga showed marked preferences for some species of termites, both in captivity and in the wild. However, the ranking of prey species differed between the two situations. Most dramatically, one genus, Velocitermes, which was least‐preferred in captivity, was most‐preferred in the wild. By analysing the differences between wild and captive animals, it has been shown that three major factors seem to influence Giant anteaters food preferences: (1) the type of soldier‐based defence; (2) the type of mound defence or availability and (3) the nutritional value. Each of these factors can serve as a defence against anteater predation, and the different termite species incorporate these defences in different ways with different emphases.Giant anteaters feed on all prey species in a similar way: by feeding for short periods of time at many different locations. This pattern of feeding is forced on the predator by the nature of its prey defences, and is not a form of prudent predation as has been previously suggested.I would like to thank the following organizations for funding my research: Organization of American States, National Geographic Society, Harvard University, Sigma Xi and Friends of the National Zoo. The Brazilian Institute of Forestry Development granted me permission to work in Emas Park and the Director, Heber Silva de Oliveira and Assistant Director, Antonio Malheiros da Cruz, provided me with help while in the Park. Ms Sonia Pereira provided invaluable service in helping me follow anteaters. The members of the Order of Saint Benedict in Mineiros, and especially Father Eric Deitchman, helped me greatly. The Brasilia Zoo, and particularly Raimundo David Monteiro Lima, kindly gave me access to their animals and greatly aided my work. The Laboratories of Zoology and Ecology at the University of Brasilia provided working space and support; I would particularly like to thank Drs Cleber J. R. Alho, Tony Raw, Helen Coles de Negret and Tom E. F. Lacher. Dr Alan Mill kindly shared his knowledge of Brazilian termites and identified the termites from Emas Park, while Dr E. O. Wilson helped me with the ants.Dr Lee‐Ann Hayek and Jim Craig helped me with statistical analyses; Ms V. Garber and Ms B. L. Stanton typed the manuscript. This manuscript was greatly improved by J. Shaw, K. Sebens, A. W. Crompton, B. Holldobler, N. T. Wheelwright, S. D. Thompson, J. F. Eisenberg and, particularly, P. L. Shaw and J. G. Robinson. I would also like to thank my parents, R. H. Redford and L. C. Redford, and Peter Eisner for helping me to recover and continue.

Duration of strike‐induced chemosensory searching in long‐term captive rattlesnakes at national zoo, audubon zoo, and San Diego Zoo

AbstractRattlesnakes typically strike and release adult rodent prey. Striking is followed by a sustained, high rate of tongue flicking that guides the snake to the envenomated, dead prey. Wild‐caught rattlesnakes exhibited this chemosensory searching for about 2.5 h, and the present study demonstrated that long‐term captive rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox, C durissus, C horridus, C vegrandis, C unicolor) at three zoos did the same. Because these zoo‐raised snakes had always been offered dead rodents and because the snakes had become accustomed to ingesting them without striking, the present snakes had rarely exercised their innate predatory repertoires. The duration of chemosensory searching in these snakes indicates that this important aspect of the predatory repertoire had not been degraded as a consequence of long‐term captive husbandry.

Investigations of the breeding biology of the West-african slender-snouted crocodile Crocodylus cataphractus Cuvier, 1824

AbstractSpecial research on the breeding biology of Crocodylus cataphractus has been done in the Tai National Park, one of the last primary rain forest of West Africa. The seasons for nest construction, incubation period and hatching time were determined. Kind, size and dispersion of nests are described. Information on egg size, clutch size, nest temperature and humidity during incubation is given. Some additional data has been obtained from a breeding-stock of Crocodylus cataphractus in the Abidjan National Zoo.

Anthropology For Teachers: A Museum-University Partnership

In a classroom in Wootton High School, dance students move to the sounds of the Siamang gibbon they have videotaped at the National Zoo. At the Museum of Natural History, teacher Dick Abell brings five students to the Anthropology Resource Center for a slide lecture by Glynn Isaac, an archeologist working with Richard Leakey in East Africa. At the Gallaudet Model Secondary School for the Deaf, Bob Loftus describes his summer fieldwork studying Indian petroglyphs. Meanwhile, students in Fairfax County, Virginia, plan a dance-a-thon to help primatologist Geza Teleki establish a game reserve in Sierre Leone for endangered chimpanzees. These and numerous other unusual and exciting experiences for teachers and students have grown from the four-year-old Smithsonian Institution/George Washington University Anthropology for Teachers Program.

Orang-utans in Captivity

The author examines the age structure of captive orang-utans in zoos and institutions. He shows that, unless breeding success can be achieved with captive-born animals – which so far no zoo in the world has done – zoo numbers will continue to decline, with little hope of replacement from the wild now that the International Convention on Trade in Endangered Species is in operation. John Perry is Assistant Director for Conservation at the National Zoo in Washington, and a Vice-Chairman of the IUCN's Survival Service Commission.

A volunteer interpretive programme at the National Zoo, Washington

A volunteer interpretive programme at the National Zoo, Washington

Carotenoid transport in the plasma of the scarlet ibis ( Eudocimus ruber)

1. 1. A study was made of the lipoprotein composition of blood plasma from the scarlet ibis ( Eudocimus ruber), white ibis and a pink hybrid. Donor animals were obtained either from the delta of the Amazon River or from the National Zoo, Washington, D.C. 2. 2. It was found that the carotenoid composition of the plasma of the captive scarlet ibis differed from that of the wild bird. 3. 3. The carotenoid pigments which are characteristic for scarlet ibis were principally associated with the high-density lipoprotein fractions. Pigment half-life was of the order of 80–100 hr and consistent with the metabolism of high-density lipoproteins (HDL). 4. 4. Further fractionation of the HDL by disc electrophoresis indicated the presence of a component which appears to be a carotenoid carrier protein. Substantial amounts of this protein were present in the scarlet ibis whereas only traces could be detected in the white ibis.

Research at the National Zoo

Research at the National Zoo

The Smithsonian Institution

THE report of the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution for the year ended June 30, 1937, refers to the improvement of the National Zoological Park by the completion of three new exhibition buildings, a machine shop, a garage and new heating and electric installations. An expedition to Sumatra to obtain specimens of the interesting animals of that region for the National Zoo was still in the field, but reports indicated that it was highly successful. In the Division of Radiation and Organisms, notable advances have been made in the studies of photosynthesis, phototropism and the action of ultra-violet rays on plant growth. The Astrophysical Observatory has continued its measurements of the solar constant of radiation, and a new method has been devised in place of the 'short method' reduction of observations, used since 1923, in which a flaw was discovered. The Smithsonian radio programme, a weekly half-hour presentation of the Institution's researches and activities, continued with undiminished popularity, and accessions to the Library for the year number 11,469, mostly in exchange for the publications of the Institution. Appendixes include the report of the United States National Museum, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the Freer Gallery of Art and of the several divisions of the Institution.

Hollister's Account of the National Zoo The National Zoological Park: A Popular Account of Its Collections Ned Hollister

Hollister's Account of the National Zoo The National Zoological Park: A Popular Account of Its Collections Ned Hollister