Well, this snowballed into quite the novel. Hope everyone sticks with it to the end...
The last couple weeks I've had a alot of personal worry, and with other added weights, I just haven't had the ambition to post. In my last post, I noted that I want to keep Our Lions situation active here, because their future proposed eviction just isn't right.
While I haven't been posting, and my thoughts and emotions are heavy with other life needs, the plight of Our Zoo is not absent from my mind. In addition to the draft posts from the last couple months, this past weekend, in the wee hours after one midnight, I dived into a question about Zoo finances I've had for near fifteen years. The query revealed some numbers that are shocking, and put together with what's currently happening AT and TO Our Zoo, relevant to share. I hope to double check the numbers to the best of my ability, and document them in a post soon.
This post was born out of a friends share on Facebook, that I read about a half hour ago. It's 8:30a, so the first thing I've read today, and it's already spurred a post. After an all-around exhausting day yesterday, sure I could lounge here and continue the peace with a movie and a nap, but after ten straight hours of sleep, I got it in me to share some thoughts.
Animals we no longer have, is a huge topic. Their absence at Our Zoo, and from our lives is felt on every visit by myself, and other regular visitors. It's spoke of by those who are occasional visitors, and by those who grew up coming to Our Zoo, who miss long gone species. Our Zoo is foremost an Animal Care facility. The Animals are the draw to Our Zoo. Most visitors come to Our Zoo to experience Animals they will never see in the wild. Many of us, have been endeared to them as individuals. They have become a regular part of our lives. This Animal Care facility, has drawn us in, given us the opportunity to know, and to Care about these wonderful Beings.
We have lost too many. Some have passed on, living out their lives at Our Zoo. Others have moved on for whatever reason, many instances in my eighteen years of being in the know, have seemingly been avoidable, like what will happen to Our Lions.
Claudia, Cusco, Jillian, Teddy, Tucker, Akobi, Twiggy, and soon Qadeer, Nick, Jasiri and Lulu. These are just a few names, on a longer list. Many may not be familiar to most, but their Species, and the loss of them at Our Zoo will be.
Let's start with Our Beloved Sea Lions Silent Knight and Henry. The story I read this morning that sparked this post, was about two wayward Sea Lions, that were rescued and released back into their wild homes. I've pasted the story at the end of this post. Bless these two strong Souls. I hope they are still out these thriving, and living their best lives. Thankfully they were releasable. There are some who are not, like Our Henry and Silent Knight. Our Zoo thankfully had the accommodations to give them a forever home.
Once they lived out their lives, the Zoo filled the Sea Lion Pool, ending an era. The joyous barking from that end of the Zoo is missed on every visit. As I walk that end, especially by the too long vacant and overgrown site of the pool, once filled with so much wonderful life and beautiful sound, I wish the Zoo would use the speaker system to pipe in some barking. Until then, I let the memories fill my mind.
I have often wrote that I would like to see Our Zoo pay homage to it's past. During Anniversary milestones, some nice historic graphics have gone up in certain spots, but none have remained past those events. In respect to the Sea Lion Pool, along with the sounds of Sea Lion vocals, a visual of the Pool's history and that of it's last inhabitants, Silent Knight and Henry, would not only be a lovely thing, but also add something to a long desolate area at Our Zoo, that will not see renovation any time soon. Even if it does, highlighting history in many areas permanently, would be a much welcomed and interesting addition to the grounds.
The Sea Lion Pool had a long history. One of the original WPA projects, built in the 1930's, it originally had Sea Lion shows. In my young life, I remember buying fish to feed the pinneped inhabitants, at a cart stationed outside the enclosure. Back then, while I didn't keep track of things I consider notable today, I do have a photo that I think is from the early 90's of a Harbor Seal in that pool. Between then and 2011 when Henry and Silent arrived, I don't remember who was occupying the pool, or what lapses in use there might have been. Anyone with insight, please let me know.
I was very upset by the pool being filled. I had heard the water system was problematic, and the Zoo either didn't want to, or didn't have the funds to, fix it. I felt and still feel, losing that enclosure, would lose a potential home to a non-releaseable in need. That said, while feeling compassionate to that plight, I also don't know how realistic it would be to have an empty pool just waiting for a non-releasable resident, especially when the hope is, that there never is one.
Claudia (Condor), and other favorites in Birds, Hercules (Great Hornbill), Walter (Maguari Stork), and Sydney (Black Swan) before her, Jillian and Teddy (Tigers), Tucker (Nile Hippo), and Akobi (Pygmy Hippo), were all transferred out on breeding related recommendations.
Many years ago a male was brought to SF for Claudia. She was moved off exhibit for introductions and breeding. Evidently they were not a match, but rumor has it there was not enough effort on introducing them. So earlier this year we said goodbye to Claudia, who was sent out to meet a new beau. That said, why couldn't the new guy come here to her? That said, Our Zoo will probably never see Andean Condors again, unless funding for a new enclosure is in place. And, in my opinion, unless it's to bring back Claudia once she ages out of breeding program, there are other Species the Zoo should bring back first.
I'm unsure how long Walter and Sydney had been at the Zoo, but Hercules had been there at least fifteen years, and a mate could have been brought here for him, and they could have bred off exhibit. Like Claudia who is in Nashville, and Hercules who is at Bronx Zoo, are now both off exhibit anyway.
Jillian (born in SF) and Teddy (San Diego resident) , had to leave because allegedly former Director Tanya Peterson didn't want to participate in breeding them as was the agreement when Teddy arrived. Both highly valuable genetically, were sent back to SD. Jillian had a cub named Barong, who was recently sent from SD to Oklahoma. Would have been cool if he could have been sent here, but we saw the end of Tigers at Our Zoo and an empty yard, over five years. Now with the upcoming eviction of Lions in favor of continuing to hold the Cats yards hostage for the fantasy of Pandas, it could be well over a decade before Our Zoo sees Big Cats again.
Tucker was moved to Cincinnati to gain a Family. Admittedly I don't always know much species specific information, focusing more on learning details about the individual Animals history, I had no idea Nile Hippos should be living in social groups (bloats). The announcement of Tucker's move was hard, until I learned where he was going and that he'd be a family with Bibi and Fiona, and his own offspring one day. His move was not only understandable, but welcomed. I felt and feel awful that he was denied a family for the ten years he was here. Maybe there was no other vacancy for him? Maybe his life journey was to always be with the Cincy bloat. Whichever, I've been happy for him, and the life he's now been given. His departure left his former home empty for a year before Akobi arrived.
Building a new Nile Hippo enclosure would probably be the Zoo going public's most wanted fantasy. Well above Pandas. It would also probably be the most costly project to fund. Unfortunately I don't see this happening if at all, in the next fifteen to twenty years. It's too bad, because Tucker did sire an offspring, and that male will one day need a home. It would not only be a personal joy to see him here, but huge with local visitors, as well a draw of folks from Cincy who have been endeared to him since his birth.
Akobi lived here for just under two years. Before his arrival it was rumored that a potential future mate would be joining him. That never happened, and learning he was leaving was a shock. Evidently, there are issues with the set-up, that made breeding not an option. He was transferred to Houston over two years ago, and his enclosure has been empty since. That said, why SF has not received another Pygmy who may need a transitional home, is curious. Better than another empty enclosure.
Cusco, the Guanaco who lived at the Puente was moved for who knows why. Being hand raised, there was sometimes difficulty mixing him with smaller Animals. Maybe they didn't want him cohabiting with the incoming Tapir? Although I find that odd because Tapirs are little tanks, unless now thinking maybe the difficulty would be reversed? Who knows. He was one of my besties and I wish they had tried to place him at the Farm, something I suggested. He may have been able to live along side of the Alpacas. He is now at Pueblo Zoo, and lives at their Farm, with Alpacas.
Chimpanzee Twiggy has left, and soon Qadeer and Nick will be gone. The first time in it's history Our Zoo will be without Chimps. Even though I was told a rebuild at Triple Grotto, whether for Chimps or Orangutans, could not happen while both species still residing in GAP (Great Ape Passage), I still think there was a way it could have been done. We now know former Director Tanya Peterson's plan was to always exit Chimpanzees from Our Zoo, after the passing of our three long-timers, and move the Orangutans into their home. Nevermind rehashing the horror of the accommodations the Orangutans have lived in since arriving, as I've well documented that, the current offense is now transferring older Chimps who came here seven years ago, to what was supposed to be their retirement home.
It seems pretty clear now the reasoning for exiting the Chimps, is not because they and the Orangs can't be housed on site during any construction, but because a future where there will be funds to rebuild that site, simply can not be seen. Choosing to keep Orangutans was always the plan, and they can't stay in ancient Triple Grotto forever.
The Zoo has not once made a statement about what the plan is for the Triple Grotto site after the Orangutans move into the Chimpanzees home.
If you are a regular reader here, you know about the curious reasoning and unjust plight of Our Lions, Jasiri and Lulu. I may have digressed a bit in this post, as mentioning all our lost species has made my mind trail off with thoughts of old friends, but the fact remains the same. Our Zoo as is, and for the foreseeable future, in my opinion, will most likely not be able to re-acquire fan favorites, for a very long-time, because there will most likely never be the kind of money needed to do that.
Contrary to what's been put forth by the Zoo, the reality is, if Our Zoo stays on current track with Pandas, and still receives no additional financial contributions from The City (not loans), Our Zoo could possibly never see these species again. And that's if it thrives enough to keep the doors open.
Chimpanzees and Lions were always planned casualties of former Director Tanya Peterson. It's disturbing that current Leadership is still using her Playbook, and allowing Our Zoo to lose these two Species. Both, that without large-scale funding for new builds, we will most likely never see at Our Zoo again, at least not in the next ten-fifteen years. There will be no funding for a new Lion build, and if there is, it won't be for Jasiri and Lulu, the individuals we are already endeared to. The project of rebuilding on the Triple Grotto site for Chimpanzees, will be an even larger task. Words from Zoo Leadership that the loss of these two species at Our Zoo, is just a "pause", is greatly underscored.
Unfortunately, Our Zoo has lived through eighteen years of the worst mismanagement in its history. Thankfully, Our Zoo has survived. How much longer, is yet to been seen. Sadly, I personally give it three years. Unless several things drastically change, I predict the loss of so many species, and continued lack of funds, will sink it. I hope I'm proven wrong.
There are many things that can be done now. Fixes and doable repopulation. The larger work, will take massive funds. That can't happen with Panda revenue alone, as I fear Zoo Leadership thinks. So, the big question is, How is Our Zoo going to thrive into the future?
I have ideas, but The City isn't going to like them. Stay tuned.
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> Related Content:
*Shared by a friend from the Facebook Page, The Lonely Camp.
In February 2004, motorists on a rural road northeast of Los Banos, California, called in a report that a 300-pound sea lion was flopping along the pavement roughly sixty miles from the ocean. California Highway Patrol officers responded and found the animal sunning itself on the trunk of a patrol cruiser. They nicknamed him Chippy.
When veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center examined him, they found a bullet lodged in the back of his skull. He had been shot, survived, swum up the San Joaquin River from the Pacific, crossed sixty miles of California farm country, climbed onto a police car, and fallen asleep. Ten years later, a sea lion pup did the same thing on the same river and ended up in an almond orchard near Modesto, a hundred miles inland.
Chippy was an adult male California sea lion. How he entered the San Joaquin River system nobody knows. California sea lions range from Vancouver Island to Baja and spend most of their lives in coastal waters, hauling out on rocks, docks, and beaches. They do not normally travel inland. The San Joaquin River connects to the Pacific through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the system is navigable for a strong swimmer willing to follow the current upstream.
Chippy followed it for sixty miles and kept going until there was no more water to follow. At some point before or during the journey, someone had shot him in the head with a firearm. The bullet was still there when the Marine Mammal Center's veterinary team examined him. He was not malnourished. He had been feeding successfully the entire time. The bullet had not incapacitated him. It may have disoriented him enough to send him upriver instead of back to the coast, or he may have been heading inland before the shot.
The CHP officers cornered him on the cruiser. Wildlife biologists from the California Department of Fish and Game arrived to assist. NPR covered the rescue under the headline "CHiPs Save Stranded Sea Lion." The Marine Mammal Center rehabilitated him, decided against removing the bullet, and released him near Point Reyes National Seashore when he was healthy enough to return to the ocean. He swam out and was not seen again.
On March 31, 2014, ranch hands at Mape's Ranch near Modesto, California, looked out into a new planting of baby almond trees and saw something hopping between the rows that did not belong in the San Joaquin Valley. A sea lion pup, less than a year old, was moving through the orchard about a mile from the San Joaquin River. He had swum over a hundred miles up the same river system Chippy had used a decade earlier, climbed out, and walked into a farm.
Billy Lyons, the ranch manager, said the pup had traveled a mile from the river and was found in the middle of one of their new baby almond orchards. Eric Hopson from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was the first official to respond. The Marine Mammal Center dispatched a volunteer who enticed the pup into a cage. He fell asleep inside it. They named him Hoppie after Hopson.
Hoppie weighed thirty-six pounds. A healthy sea lion his age should weigh sixty to seventy. He was malnourished, covered in sores, and far from anything he could eat. The Marine Mammal Center took him to their hospital in Sausalito and fed him for five weeks. He gained weight, recovered, and was released at Chimney Rock at Point Reyes with two other rehabilitated sea lions. Media covered the release. The public attended. Hoppie slid off the beach and into the Pacific, ending a journey that had started with a hundred-mile swim in the wrong direction.
The Marine Mammal Center noted that Hoppie's rescue site was just a short distance from where Chippy had been found ten years earlier. Two sea lions, same river system, same stretch of Central Valley farmland, a decade apart. One was a 300-pound adult with a bullet in his skull who fell asleep on a police car. The other was a thirty-six-pound pup who got lost in an almond orchard. Neither one had any reason to be there. Both survived because someone called it in and a rehabilitation team drove a hundred miles inland to pick up a marine mammal from a landscape built entirely for agriculture.
California sea lions are not rare. Their population along the Pacific coast exceeds 250,000. They are loud, visible, and familiar to anyone who has walked a marina dock in California or Oregon. What they are not is an inland species. The San Joaquin River is a freshwater corridor that connects the Pacific to the heart of the Central Valley, and twice in ten years a sea lion followed it past the farms, the levees, the irrigation canals, and the highway overpasses until the river stopped making sense and the animal ended up standing in a place where the nearest ocean was a four-hour drive.
Chippy climbed onto a police car. Hoppie walked into an orchard. Neither one looked particularly concerned about being a hundred miles from home.
Source: The Marine Mammal Center, Sausalito, California. NPR, February 2004. CNN, April 2014. NBC News, April 2014. CBS Sacramento, May 2014. Associated Press.
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I used to use (search) labels, but too often forget. I started noting "Hot Topic" in title, but fell lax on that. Now I'm just going to add labels, keywords, etc., here at the bottom with hashtags. Does it help in searches, who knows.
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