The Hidden World of African Rift Valley

Abyssinian Ground Hornbill - Jekyll

Our female Abyssinian ground hornbill, Jekyll, used to be very shy and nervous when she first came to Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in 2007. She was nothing like Petrie, who we introduced you to last week! She soon became more confident and comfortable around her keepers, and now is a star in our Wings of Africa Bird Show!

Zookeepers are training Jekyll a “retrieve” behavior to add to the foraging behaviors she already knows and performs for the bird show, like flipping a rock to find food or sifting through leaf litter where she finds a fake snake and then shakes it to “kill” it.

Watch the video clip below of a recent training session with Jekyll.
 As the training progresses, keepers will switch out the orange dog toy you see Jekyll carrying in the video for a fake rubber snake. She will be trained to take the snake back to a second keeper (who is located “offstage”) and place it into the black tub for a treat as part of the bird show. This will allow keepers to call her out of the bird yard after her role in the show is finished.

Come learn how handy ground hornbills’ bills are for foraging and see how Jekyll does with her new behavior in African Rift Valley at our Wings of Africa Bird Show at 1:00pm daily starting Memorial Day.

Coming up in the next blog in the series, we’ll meet a docile, small African creature with LOTS of legs!

We Love Our Volunteers!

Do you ever wonder how we clean, feed and care for hundreds of animals everyday? It is not magic, it is our volunteers!

April is the time of year when we reflect upon the amazing impact our volunteers have had on the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo! Our Docents are over a hundred strong and help shape our education programs. We have fifty adult volunteers who lend a hand anywhere they are needed. This can range from animal care and cleaning, horticulture, education and administrative work. We have large groups of students, military personnel and adults who come in for a day and take on large projects and assist with special event operations. Summer is around the corner and you will soon be seeing teens on zoo grounds helping animal keepers and educating the public. It takes many helping hands to make the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo run smoothly!

We are currently looking for groups to come and volunteer at this year's Run to the Shrine on May 19th. This is one of the zoo’s largest fundraising events of the year. Receive a Run to the Shrine t-shirt when you volunteer.

Do you want to be a part of the volunteer family? More information: http://cmzoo.org/getInvolved/volunteer/

Tiger Enrichment

At CMZ it is our number one job to ensure our animals constantly receive the best care possible and they have happy, healthy lives! 

A big part of this quality care is providing them with an environment that is dynamic and provides daily opportunities and choices for the animals to use their senses and adaptations.  One of the ways we provide those opportunities is through enrichment.

Enrichment is anything that we (animal care staff) can provide that enhances our animals’ environments at the zoo with the goal of drawing out species appropriate behavior.  Just like all the other animals at CMZ, the tigers get enrichment at least once a day.  They are offered a very wide variety of different enrichment items from perfume to boxes to special food items.  They receive something different every day and we try not to repeat enrichment items more than once a month to keep it exciting and novel. 

In the wild, a tiger would spend many hours each day seeking out, hunting and eventually eating their prey.  Because of this, a lot of the tiger’s favorite enrichment items involving food.  We offer food enrichment in a variety of ways: hiding it throughout the enclosure, putting it inside something they have to tear apart or even freezing it into ice treats.  All of these activities encourage the cats to use their adaptations like sense of smell or physical strength to “catch their prey”.  Some of their other favorite types of enrichment are large plastic toys, large boxes they can tear apart and scents, like perfume and spices, sprayed throughout their enclosure.  Providing them with a large variety of enrichment items on a daily basis is a very important part of keeping our tigers active and engaged here at the zoo!!

Zoo LOVE is in the Air!

 

96 Yards of Waste

For many years the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been searching for composting opportunities in an effort to resolve the question…What do they do with all the poop?  As you can imagine we have literally tons of organic material, or in other words poop, which can be composted.  In the summer of 2011 Bestway Disposal announced it had started a composting sector for commercial businesses and after considering all aspects of what a disposal transition would mean for the Zoo we decided to join the movement. 

What is composting?  It is nature’s way of processing and recycling decomposed organic material and returning the nutrients from organic material back into the ground.  Composting creates a rick, dark soil fit for growing just about anything.  Compost helps reduce pest problems which ultimately reduces your use of pesticides; diverts material from landfills; it improves moisture retention in the soil; prevents the need to purchase soil conditioners; increases the nutrient levels in the plants you are growing and consuming; allows for children to learn about the cycle of life…the benefits are endless. 

So far Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has started composting in African Rift Valley (ARV) and Elephants.  By composting in ARV and Elephants we have eliminated all but one of our regular consumable waste bins along the ARV Road.  In those two areas we have gone from 96 yards of waste per week to 2 yards of waste; that’s approximately 680 tons of material being diverted from the landfill on an annual basis.  Future moves include expanding our composting efforts to other areas of the Zoo to include Hippos, Primate World, Commissary and Food Services. 

You may ask yourself, how can you make a difference?  Well, composting is easy.  All you need is a relatively flat location, a pile of organic waste to include nitrogen and carbon, water and a way to rotate or turn the pile.  For additional details on how to compost please visit websites on composting practices, speak with representatives at your local nursery, call your disposal service or chat with a landscaping company. 

The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo continues to strive for sustainability through conservation, recycling, composting and education.  Please visit our website to learn more about our conservation efforts.  


Written by: Mindy Carney

If you won't eat it, we won't feed it!

Name: Jamie Breitigan

Hometown: Anaheim, CA – This is where I spent most of my childhood and young adulthood.

Favorite Zoo Animal: I’m in awe of all the animals here at the zoo. The ones who make me laugh the most though are the grizzlies.

Worked at CMZ since: July, 2006

Job Description: Commissary Manager – I take care of ordering, preparing, delivering, and rotating all animal food and fulfilling all animal department supply orders here at the zoo. Plus all other duties as assigned.

What’s your favorite part of Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CMZ)? I like the family feeling of the zoo and knowing we are a part of something bigger than us.

Why is your job important? I believe all of the jobs here are equally important. Mine is just one piece of the puzzle.  Of course I never want to run of food or they may decide to feed me to the animals.

Do you have any advice for people who are visiting the CMZ for the first time? Try to explore all parts of the zoo: the animals, the landscaping, the view, and all of the shows.

Do you have any Funny/Good Stories? I get here pretty early (5:30am) in the morning and sometimes it’s very dark, especially outside of the Commissary. One morning as I was getting out of the Commissary truck, I saw a wild mountain lion run in front of the truck’s headlights. I jumped right back in the truck and waited until she/he was gone and went on with my work. Very cool, right? Well, fast forward a year or so. Before I walk out of the Commissary to get to the truck I pull out my flashlight so I can see if there’s anything like a mountain lion outside of the building. I turned the corner and flashed up by the truck and all of a sudden I saw two shiny eyes looking back at me. I won’t tell you what I actually said… But you can bet I was high tailing it back inside. Well, I don’t like to be behind in my work schedule so I decided “I’m going to scare whatever this is away!” I went and cautiously flashed my lights up at it again ready to go blow for blow with whatever animal it was and low and behold it was a very innocent deer. Are you serious, a deer? Well I felt pretty foolish, but still alive and on time. 

Click here for Commissary video preview!