How to Train a Sloth

Training a sloth takes patience.

For nearly two hours, Rick Hester, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo animal keeper, stood on a ladder waiting for Chalupa, a 13-year-old Hoffmann’s two-toed sloth, to wake up from a nap and continue a training session with him. He could have gently woke her up, but it was important to him to make the training session her choice.

Hester is using positive reinforcement to train Chalupa to travel on ropes that lead out of her enclosure and around ropes secured overhead in Monkey Pavilion.

“Positive reinforcement training is about giving animals the choice to do what they want and giving them all the power,” Hester said. “If I would have woken her up, it may have been negative for her, and that is the last thing you want when training an animal. If it’s negative, they won’t want to have a session with you.”

Hester said he knows in future training sessions he might end up waiting for Chalupa for three hours, four hours or even longer. Sloths are at rest for 20 to 22 hours a day and, since their metabolism is 40% slower than other mammals their size, sometimes sleep is more important than the food rewards that Hester gives Chalupa during their training sessions. Her favorite foods are green beans, grapes and hardboiled eggs.

“When I first started training her, she would be rewarded for just opening her eyes and looking at me when I said her name,” Hester said. “Then we built upon that. I would put my finger in front of her and when she moved toward it, she would be rewarded. After two weeks she was targeting and doing laps on the rope around her exhibit.”

After a few weeks of practicing in the enclosure, they opened up the door on the exhibit and had Chalupa travel on the ropes around the Monkey Pavilion. Eventually, the Zoo hopes to create an outdoor sloth area, and Chalupa’s training sessions with Hester with have her traveling from her indoor exhibit across the ceiling and to the outdoors!

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Fiesta Corn Bread

Are you looking for a party-perfect appetizer for your weekend get-together?  The chefs at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s Grizzly Grill have you covered with this delicious fiesta corn bread recipe. 

Fiesta Corn Bread

-  1 ¼ cup of masa harina

-  2 TBLS of baking powder

-  ¾ cup of frozen corn

-  ½ cup of pickled jalapenos

-  ½ cup of roasted red pepper

-  shredded cheese (optional)

1) Place corn, jalapenos & red pepper in a food processer and pulse until blended. Set aside.

2) In a large bowl, mix milk, butter and eggs.

3) Mix in Masa Harina, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt

4) Add corn mixture from step 1.

5) Pour into pan. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

6) Sprinkle with shredded cheese (optional) and allow to cool. 

Our trained chefs can make your next company gathering a palate-pleasing experience you’ll never forget.  To book your next corporate event at the Zoo, visit http://cmzoo.org/guestInformation/meetingsRentals/.

Traveling to Indonesia: Part Two

We are now well rested and caught up from being gone for over two weeks, but we wanted to share a few highlights from the rest of our November Indonesia trip.

Dina planting a tree at OIC.

Our first stop during this portion of the trip was near Besitang.  We visited an area that once was clear cut for palm oil trees and has since been reclaimed for reforestation. The reforestation site has changed greatly since we last saw it two years ago; it has been mostly left alone to grow, and the trees are getting tall!  Due to the success of this site, reforestation efforts have now grown and moved to nearby areas. The project is run by an organization called OIC (Orangutan Information Centre).  OIC staff has reported seeing elephants and orangutans using the reforested area, which is a true sign of success for this project.

Tracey planting a tree at OIC. 

We were lucky that the timing of our visit to the reforestation site allowed us to see drone technology being used to help monitor deforestation. Researchers are programming drones (Styrofoam airplanes that are about four feet long) with GPS, grid routes, and cameras built in to map and monitor forest areas. They are also using the drones to count orangutan nests (to gather population data) and check for forest encroachment, deforestation and fires. We were able to watch drones take off and talk with the researchers involved with the drone project, which was very educational.  Learn more about conservation drones at http://conservationdrones.org/our-story/.

Drone plane about to take off. 

Our next destination was Bukit Lawang. There we saw five wild Sumatran orangutans – two mothers, two older offspring and one baby. The most exciting sighting was spotting a mother, – who we’ve been able to observe on two previous trips to Sumatra. Her daughter, Catherine, was also with her. This area –Bukit Lawang –is very important because it is the most successful ecotourism area involving the Gunung Leuser National Park.  Unfortunately there has been encroachment in many other areas of the park, but there has been almost no encroachment of the original park boundaries near Bukit Lawang.  This is most likely because the local people have economic incentive to keep the forest and ecosystem intact.

Jantho

The highlight of our trip to Indonesia, and our next stop, was a visit to an orangutan reintroduction site in Jantho, north Aceh which was established by SOCP (Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme).  Many of the orangutans that are released at Jantho had lost their homes due to deforestation and non-sustainable palm oil production.  After spending time in a quarantine and rehabilitation center the healthy orangutans are released at sites like Jantho.  The project’s base camp was in a very remote area, so it was about a 1.5 hour 4-wheel drive adventure just getting there.  On a forest hike at the release site, we saw two juvenile orangutans very high up in a tree and were glad to see that they had no interest in coming down to see us.  This was living proof that they are thriving and are not reliant on humans.  We also saw a variety of other wildlife around camp such as wild pigs, long-tailed macaques, a family of four white-handed gibbons, fruit bats and hornbills flying overhead, and Sumatran tiger tracks! 

Sumatran tiger foot print in Jantho.

Upon returning to Medan, Indonesia, we were able to tour the location where a really exciting conservation project will be created in the next several years: Orangutan Haven.  Not only will it provide a more natural home for non-releasable orangutans, but it will also be a wonderful place for Indonesians to make a connection with these critically endangered great apes and hopefully inspire them to take action to save them.  To learn more, go to  http://www.earth4orangutans.com/e4o/index.htm.

On the last day of our trip we met with a sustainability specialist from a palm oil company that is very involved with the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). We talked about the reforestation and sustainability practices of the large company he works for, and the logistics of being on an RSPO task force.  We hope to get more involved in the RSPO by joining a working group or task force.

Harvesting fruit bunches.

During our journey we accomplished several of our goals – voting at the RSPO General Assembly which included a very important resolution on requiring palm oil growers to map their plantations boundaries. This resolution, which was passed, is very important because it keeps RSPO grower members accountable for activities that happen on their land and ensures they are not expanding beyond their property boundaries. (i.e. National forest).  We were able to discuss important sustainability topics with other Zoos and environmental conservation organizations as well as representatives from the palm oil industry from various points along the supply chain. We visited reforestation sites, saw wild orangutans and furthered our knowledge of certified and non-certified palm oil plantations. Upon returning to Colorado, we are continuing our mission to inform Zoo guests about the importance of supporting RSPO plantations, companies and manufacturers by purchasing their products. To download the sustainable palm oil Smartphone application, or to learn more about the palm oil crisis, visit www.cmzoo.org/palmoil.