this site Stinks on ice exept for da pix wich are good you need more info on it

this site Stinks on ice exept for da pix wich are good you need more info on it

I am a Docent (a volunteer) at the Jackson Zoo in Jackson, MS. We just had a baby male Malayan Tapir born last Saturday, on “Zoo Day,” with about 5,000 visitors present to witness his birth. He was a very special and most welcomed arrival to our Zoo family. Both he and his mother, Symphony, were utterly exhausted. It took him about an hour to stand up, and another hour to make his way down the side of his exhibit (around 50′ or so) from one corner to the next to lie in the grass. I got to hear his first few feeble whistles to his mother. (Tapirs whistle throught their prehensile nose). He was about the size of a small pig at birth, a dark charcoal color with white spots and “racing stripes.”

But sadly, I got news today that our new baby died on Tuesday due to kidney failure. It happens sometimes, more often than we like, to lose those precious babies. It’s not anybody’s fault. Not the mother’s, the Zookeepers’, or the baby’s fault. It’s just Nature’s way of saying that this baby wasn’t meant to survive in this world. We were here to love it for the few short hours that it was here, and show it all the love and joy and affection that we could, and give the mothers’ privacy that we could allow it with that precious little baby.

And then, we try and let the animals grieve and the Zookeepers grieve and the Zoo family and all of the rest of us who knew that baby try and go on with trying to preserve the species that we care for in this world.

I urge everyone to look up the SSP. The Species Survival Program, which governs all of the breeding for animals in Zoos, Wildlife facilities and other programs all over the world. It’s kind of like the “dating service” for endangered species animals, to control the bloodlines of each and every species so that related animal don’t interbreed. One person holds the “studbook” for each species, and it is a VERY GREAT HONOR to hold a studbook, and it’s also a great responsibility, because you ARE responsible for THAT SPECIES. When the SSP says that they need your particular animal to go somewhere (perhaps half-way across the world) for breeding, you don’t have a choice; you send your animal. And vice-versa. There’s a list. And animals are kept on birth-control pills, just like humans. They get implants! Or, are kept separated so that they don’t breed. If you have too many of one animal, or if they’re related, you might send one or more off, or trade animals with another facility. You just never know, and there are waiting lists for different animals, and it also depends on the facilities at your particular location, whether or not you have the proper holding exhibits for what that animal needs, such as available room, facilities, enrichment areas, water and/or pools, etc. It’s a Federal law that Primates (Apes – Chimpanzees, Gorillas, Orangutans, Bonobos and Gibbons; and Monkeys) have to be provided DAILY enrichment, which is a form of food, toy or treat that will stimulate their daily activity and enrich their environment. Other animals are also provided enrichment as well. That’s why you’ll see “Boomer Balls” (big PVC plastic toys), wooden spools, fabric, baby pools, feed bags, frozen treats, pumpkins, watermelons, papier mache’ toys, etc., scattered around the animals’ exhibits when you visit various Zoo’s. It may seem messy, but it’s just the animals playing with THEIR toys. And that’s what they’re supposed to be doing. They’re having fun. And we’re trying hard to do OUR best to keep it that way.

So the next time you see a DOCENT (a Volunteer) at a Zoo, just go up and say, “HI!” We’re there to help y’all!

This page has been linked to by the Tapir Specialist Group, who obviously also appreciate this publicity for our favourite animals

http://www.tapirspecialistgroup.org/

Theo,,,that one you shopped looks like a not quite ripe avacado….

Tooooo cute!

Oh…. *sweet*!

It looks like a young pig! (as far as the eyes go)

OK, I have to tell my tapir story.

A few months ago I was in Belize and visited the Belize City Zoo, where they have several tapirs. About the time we walked up to their enclosure, an odd rodent wandered by (it wasn’t a zoo animal, it just lived “in the wild” at the zoo) – it was brown and looked sort of like a very large squirrel. I wondered aloud what it was, and my friend decided it was a baby tapir. Obviously not true, but funny, and we saw several more, at which point he’d say “Another baby tapir!!” At some point later in the visit I heard another person tell her friend “Look! That’s a baby tapir!” … and yes, it was one of the rodent things. By the end of our visit to the zoo, most of the group thought that these *rodents* were really baby tapirs. It was a riot!

“But the female, who is very submissive, really missed the male, and sometimes he would stick his snout over the fence and she would flop over on the ground – all 900 pounds of her.”

That’s as QUTE as falling over when being tickled!

Aww, thanks E. Collison!

Re weeeird animals: let’s not forget gnus. No gnus is not good gnus!