Detroit

Belle Isle Nature Zoo: Premier Pollinators in Action

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The Belle Isle Nature Zoo is a facility operated by the Detroit Zoological Society that sits on a 5-acre site on Belle Isle surrounded by undisturbed forested wetlands. It provides year-round educational, recreational and environmental conservation opportunities for the community. The facility is free to the public, open daily in the summer, and there are a lot of wonderful opportunities to explore nature and wildlife at the Detroit Zoological Society’s campus on Belle Isle.

One of these fascinating features is the observation beehive, which provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the busy daily life of honeybees. Sealed tightly within a double-sided glass case, and with a tunnel providing the bees year-round access to the great outdoors, our hive invites guests to watch the bees do what they do best: work!

The work that the bees do is often more valuable than we realize. Bees are the most prolific pollinators in the natural world, due in part to their fuzzy bodies and faithfulness in buzzing to and from the same species of plant for an extended period. Pollination is the transfer of pollen from the male part of a plant or flower to the female part, which results in reproduction. In plants, one of the ways of producing offspring is by making seeds or fruit, and that surely benefits the rest of us! It has been stated that we can thank the bees for one out of every three bites of food we eat – and a lot of the good stuff, too, like fruits, vegetables, and even almonds. The pollination of bees also improves the production of the cotton plant, so not only do bees feed us, they clothe us, too!

We recently celebrated National Pollinator Week with our volunteer beekeeper, Steve Burt. He has been taking care of bees since 1974 and brings his passion for pollinators to Belle Isle. Steve maintains the health and wellness of our indoor observation beehive as well as our two outdoor beehives. With a little help from our productive honeybees, Steve bottled more than 40 pounds of delicious Belle Isle Nature Zoo honey last year!

The celebration of National Pollinator Week isn’t only for our gratitude for the fruits (and vegetables!) of the honeybees’ labor. It also helps us raise awareness to the some of the very serious challenges that honeybees are facing these days. Mites, viruses, diseases and especially certain pesticides are all contributing stressors to severe colony decline and death, often referred to as colony collapse disorder. A recent survey by the U.S. Department of Agriculture determined that beekeepers across the country lost more than 40 percent of their honeybee colonies between April 2014 and April 2015.

What can we do to help? We can plant nectar and pollen-bearing plants such as milkweed, goldenrod and aster, herbs including mint, chives, and oregano or fruits and vegetables like strawberries, cucumbers, broccoli and squash. We can encourage local governments and other volunteer groups to plant more pollinator-friendly plants in local spaces such as the areas along roadsides or within public parks. And if you have a bee problem, instead of bringing out a can of bug spray, call a beekeeper organization for species identification and useful advice.

And while you’re here at the Belle Isle Nature Zoo, you can watch our premier pollinators in action. Look for the worker bees dancing to communicate to the other bees where to find a new source of food outside. See if you can find the queen bee (identified by her larger size and a small white dot) laying eggs and being well-taken care of by her colony. You might even find some of the brood, also known as the egg, larva and pupa, or spot some stored honey in our beeswax honeycombs – a great sign that our helpful honeybees will be here for time to come!

There’s a lot of buzz about the upcoming Bee Fest event on National Honeybee Day at the Belle Isle Nature Zoo. This free event will feature demonstrations on how to build and maintain a bee-friendly garden, beekeeper talks, art, music, crafts and a bee costume parade! Buzz on over to Bee Fest on Saturday, August 20 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

– Amy Greene is a curator of education for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the Belle Isle Nature Zoo. For more information about this facility, visit www.belleislenaturezoo.org.

Greenprint: The Zoo That Could Conserve

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Thinking globally.
Acting endlessly.
Who would?
Our Detroit Zoo.
Because it knew that it should, so it could.

The Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) recently launched a new marketing campaign that highlights the many things we do beyond the Detroit Zoo’s 125 acres to advance sustainability, wildlife conservation, animal welfare and education, as well as our impact on the community.

In ecology, sustainability is the capacity to endure; it is how biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely. The DZS’s Greenprint initiative was founded on the desire to lessen our ecological footprint. This unique, green roadmap guides our operations and is the plan by which we refine and improve our facilities and daily practices, develop new policies and programs and improve green literacy and action in our community.

Our extensive efforts in sustainability have received national recognition – we were named among the greenest Zoos in America by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums as well as the Best-Managed Nonprofit by Crain’s Detroit Business, focusing on our green initiatives.

The animals that we are dedicated to celebrating and saving serve as the motivation and inspiration for us to create a sustainable environment. As part of our efforts, we are offsetting our electricity use with 100% certified energy from U.S. Wind; constructing an anaerobic digester to compost more than 400 tons of animal waste annually to generate electricity that will power our animal hospital, and no longer selling bottled water in an effort to reduce plastic waste. We have also embarked upon an ambitious zero-waste initiative as part of our commitment to reducing landfill waste, thus reducing our Green House Gas (GHG) emissions.

We can all be part of the solution for habitat and resource conservation by keeping our precious wildlife habitats free of plastic waste. Currently, 1.8 billion plastic bags are used and discarded in America every week and an estimated one million birds, 100,000 turtles, and countless other sea animals die each year from ingesting plastic.

Small changes such as using reusable water containers and reusable bags have such a huge impact. Please join us on our Green Journey!

– Rachel Handbury is the manager of sustainability for the Detroit Zoological Society.

Education: Animal Nightlife

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As the summer sun rises and sets, animals notice. Many of the animals that live at the Detroit Zoo are diurnal, meaning they are most active during the day. Gorillas, chimpanzees, butterflies, squirrels and camels are examples of animals that are most active during the day. As the sun sets, they prefer to settle in and sleep the night away.

Nocturnal animals include owls, bats, beavers, aardvarks and crickets, to name a few. That’s why you can hear crickets singing during summer nights and why most of us don’t see owls and bats hunting in the dark skies. Nocturnal animals have special adaptations such as enhanced hearing, eyesight and/or sense of smell that help them navigate after dark to find their prey.

Some animals are crepuscular, meaning they prefer to be active in the twilight hours of dawn and dusk. Deer, red pandas, fireflies and many moths prefer the cooler hours of the day, venturing out while many larger predators aren’t as active.

The Detroit Zoo follows a diurnal schedule; it’s open when humans are most active during the daytime hours. However, there are opportunities for glimpses into the animal dusk- and nightlife. Wild Summer Nights are held on Wednesday evenings in July and August. The Zoo is open until 8 p.m., featuring crepuscular and nocturnal animals, and live bands in the Main Picnic Grove. Youth in first through sixth grades can sign up to participate in Twilight Trails, the Summer Safari Camp evening adventure, to explore animals at dusk and participate in citizen science studies of fireflies or investigate animal adaptations.

 

You can also explore crepuscular and nocturnal animal life in your own backyard or neighborhood. Watch for fireflies as the sun sets, or rabbits as they search for food in your lawn. Hang a white sheet and shine a light on it, come back an hour later and see what insects have landed on it.

Enjoy the warm summer evenings and all the amazing things they have to offer!

– Claire Lannoye Hall is a curator of education for the Detroit Zoological Society.

Notes from the Field: Monitoring the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake

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The Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) leads the Eastern massasauga rattlesnake Species Survival Plan (SSP), which is a comprehensive management plan through the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA) that works to ensure the sustainability of healthy, genetically diverse and demographically varied captive animal populations. The DZS is also one of several organizations within the AZA that participates in a long-term study of a particular population of Eastern massasauga rattlesnakes in Michigan.

The Eastern massasauga rattlesnake is the mitten state’s only venomous viper, and is listed in Michigan as a species of special concern, which means it is threatened or endangered throughout its range. This SSP is a special one because each year, representatives from participating zoos attend a meeting in conjunction with an “in situ” study, which means that it takes place in the field.

This year marked our eighth monitoring a particular population of Eastern massasauga rattlesnakes in the southwest part of the state, and it was our best year to date – we found more than 100 snakes! This includes snakes that were found in previous years as well as newly identified individuals. The process involves gathering information on each snake in the field and then taking it to a lab where it is weighed and measured. We also determined if it is a male or a female and if female, whether it is pregnant (massasaugas give birth to live young). If the snake has never been found before, it is marked with a transponder tag – similar to those implanted in your pet dog or cat – so we can scan the animal and take measurements if it is found in the future. After the information has been gathered in the lab, the snake is then returned to the exact location where it was found.

Monitoring a seemingly healthy population over time gives us insight into natural fluctuations of the population size, male-to-female sex ratio, individual growth rates and reproductive success. As years goes by, the data will also begin to tell us life history data such as longevity of the species and how old animals remain reproductively active. All of this information assists the AZA zoos in how they manage the captive population as well as the state departments of natural resources in their management of the wild populations and the lands on which they are found.

– Jeff Jundt is the curator of reptiles for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the Holden Reptile Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo.

Notes from the Field: Wolf-Moose Project on Isle Royale

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Isle Royale is a remote wilderness island in northern Michigan, and at more than 40 miles long, it is the largest island in the largest Great Lake: Lake Superior.

I recently spent some time on Isle Royale working on a conservation research project called the Wolves and Moose of Isle Royale, along with Brian Manfre, a mammal department supervisor for the Detroit Zoological Society. Moose first came to Isle Royale in the early 1900s; wolves joined in the 1940s after crossing an “ice bridge” from Canada. For more than 50 years, the wolf-moose research project has studied the predator-prey dynamics of these species, making it the longest continuous study of any predator-prey system in the world. I was very eager to see the island and participate in the work first-hand.

Unfortunately, the wolf population at Isle Royale has dropped to only two closely related individuals, and the project now focuses on how the moose population is responding to reduced wolf predation. There is a proposal to reintroduce more wolves, but this is a complicated issue, in part because Isle Royale is also a National Park. The National Park Service will decide on this proposal in the fall of 2017.

Brian and I were joined by eight others working on this project. In addition to looking for moose bones to study the moose population, our team would also be investigating the presence of wolves at two previously used wolf dens. We set off together on a four-hour ferry ride from Copper Harbor to Isle Royale, and reported to the Bangsund cabin, an old fishing cabin that was built in 1926 and has served as the base for the project since 1959. We loaded our backpacks with hearty camp fare such as oatmeal, cheese, peanut butter and other supplies for the week, and then took a short boat ride to our departure site. After a 2-mile hike, we set up the first camp.

We camped at several different sites on the shores of Lake Superior and several inland lakes, and soon got into a routine of cooking, cleaning and filtering drinkable water at the camps. We were fortunate to have very pleasant weather. There was frost one of the first nights, but later in the week it warmed up enough for black flies to pester us.

On a usual day, we would hike 2-3 miles on-trail and then walk another 3-5 miles off-trail more slowly looking for moose bones. It was difficult at times, as we were going through dense forest, up and down ridges and through swamps. When a moose bone was spotted the requisite, “Bone!” was shouted out, and everyone would converge on the site to look for more bones. We were happy to find any bones at all, but skulls and teeth were especially prized. When cut in a cross section, the rings of dentin in the teeth can be counted to estimate the age of the moose – similar to counting tree rings – which can provide important information on the moose population. We can also examine vertebrae for signs of arthritis: Many of the moose at Isle Royale have been found to live longer and develop more arthritis than moose in areas with more predators. While it was a thrill to find these moose remains and evidence of wolves chewing on the bones, it was even more exciting to visit the old wolf dens. Unfortunately, there was no evidence of recent wolf use but we did find approximately one-week-old wolf feces along a trail nearby.

After a week, we returned to the Bangsund cabin with heavier packs than we left with, as they’d been loaded with moose skulls and other bones. We enjoyed a shower via bucket and ladle and then feasted on lasagna, wild rice casserole and a very welcome salad. We told stories and sang songs – it was a fitting celebration for a meaningful contribution to the project.

If you’re interested in participating in the wolf-moose study, visit this website.

– Paul Buzzard, Ph.D., is the director of conservation for the Detroit Zoological Society.

Animal Welfare: What, How and Why

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I have written a number of blog entries on the animal welfare research projects we are conducting through the Detroit Zoological Society’s Center for Zoo Animal Welfare, and how collaborations enable us to move forward with many of the initiatives we undertake. Let’s now go back to the basics and explore what animal welfare is, how we go about evaluating the welfare of individual animals, and why this is fundamentally important.

The Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Animal Welfare Committee defines animal welfare as an animal’s collective physical, mental and emotional states over a period of time, and is measurable on a continuum from good to poor. Although there are a number of other definitions available, the main factors remain consistent: Welfare is measured at the level of the individual animal, it encompasses all aspects of an animal’s life, and it can change over the course of time. The goal for anyone working with and around animals is to ensure that they each experience good welfare.

Going back many decades, people have long been concerned with the welfare of animals. In the 1960s, the Five Freedoms model was developed, originally as a means to assess the welfare of farm animals. This model states that animals should experience freedom from thirst, hunger and malnutrition, freedom from discomfort, freedom from pain, injury and disease, freedom from fear and distress, and freedom to express normal behavior. Since its initial development, this model has been applied in a variety of settings, including in zoos. However, the Five Freedoms model can be improved upon, as it is focused on minimizing negative states rather than also promoting positive welfare. Additionally, some of what is stated can be counter-productive to an animal’s survival. For example, if an animal never experiences thirst, then it may never drink, and this would not be a good thing. Therefore, the absolute freedom from some of the experiences is not even feasible. Rather, the important factor is ensuring that the resources necessary to perform the associated behaviors are available.

More recently, the Five Domains model was created, which delineates how nutrition, physical health, behavior and the environment (both physical and social) feed into an animal’s emotional state. The outcome is the individual’s welfare status. For example, if an animal is hungry but does not have access to food, this will result in a feeling of hunger, which will be a negative factor in the overall welfare status of that animal. If an animal is able to express natural behaviors, he or she will experience satisfaction, which is a positive emotion and contributes to positive welfare. All physical influences are taken into consideration as well as how they impact the internal, emotional state of the animal, in order to assess overall well-being.

Assessing welfare is a complex process that requires an understanding of the needs of a species and an individual as well as experience with scientific methods. It also typically includes multiple types of measures such as behavioral and physiological indicators. One can begin by evaluating what is made available to an animal, such as the physical space, the type of food presented and the social opportunities provided. This kind of assessment is known as a resource-based assessment, as it focuses on what we provide to the animals. To truly understand how an animal is faring, however, we also need to understand how they respond to their environment, and as such, conduct animal-based assessments. In our case, we usually observe how animals are interacting with their physical environment, with one another if they are a social species, and we utilize various physiological measures such as body condition, overall health and even hormone levels.

In order to ensure animals living in zoos are thriving, we need to understand what matters to them and that requires us to figure out how to “ask” them. Using existing methods and developing new ones to assess welfare is critical if we are to make evidence-based decisions for caring for animals. By letting animals tell us what is working and what needs to be improved, we are making their welfare a priority, and this is the ultimate responsibility we have to each and every animal living in the care of humans.

– Dr. Stephanie Allard is the director of animal welfare for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the Center for Zoo Animal Welfare.

Amphibian Conservation: Crawfish Frogs in Crisis

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What is the best way to repurpose a basement in one of the buildings at the Detroit Zoo? Turn it into an amphibian’s paradise!

Amphibians across the globe are in crisis, with populations declining rapidly due to climate change, habitat destruction and a disease called the chytrid fungus. In an effort to reverse this trend for the crawfish frog (Lithobates areolatus), which is listed as Endangered in the state of Indiana, the Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) partnered with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Department of Natural Resources and staff at Indiana University. In 2013 these entities began a repatriation project, which is an effort to return a species to its natural habitat. This involved the collection of egg masses from grasslands in Indiana, which were then transported to the Detroit Zoo, where staff raised them until they were almost froglets before releasing them back into the wild.

The crawfish frog can lay egg masses with as many as 5,000 eggs. That might make one wonder how these animals could be endangered, right? Well, even if all of those eggs hatched into tadpoles, less than one percent of those tadpoles would ever make it out of the water. Tadpoles are an easy prey for a wide variety of animals including birds, fish, mammals, frogs and even larger tadpoles. And even fewer tadpoles would make it far enough into adulthood to breed. This shows how vulnerable the tadpole stage is in a frog’s life, which is why we focused our efforts on this stage.

We knew what we needed to do, but where is there enough room for thousands of tadpoles at the Detroit Zoo? How about right under the noses of Jasiri and Tamba, two Southern white rhinos! Not directly under them, since 12,000 pounds of rhino would be harmful to a tadpole, but rather in the basement of their indoor habitat. It took a lot of hard work from staff, but the space was eventually turned into a fantastic temporary home for crawfish frog tadpoles. Some of their luxury items include manufactured ponds with an automatic rain system, spotlights and temperature control systems – and of course, plenty of food.

In April, the crawfish frog egg mass is transported from Indiana to the Detroit Zoo in a cooler. We take this egg mass right down to the basement where it is placed in water. In a couple of weeks, tadpoles start to emerge, which are then counted and moved into long pond-like pools. We raise these newly hatched tadpoles for about three months, with the amphibian department staff feeding and cleaning them daily. It takes hours to care for the tadpoles each day, but it is all worth it in the end when they are driven back to Indiana and released. The total number of tadpoles varies from year to year, but since this project started in 2013, the DZS has released a total of 10,411 tadpoles back into the wild.

While wild tadpoles have less than a one percent chance of survivability, we were able raise that to an astounding 99 percent in 2014 and 2015 for these “basement” tadpoles. That’s because they don’t need to worry about predators, disease, lack of food or pollution. This lets them get a good head start on life – but we don’t make it too easy for them. Otherwise, they wouldn’t know what to do once they got back to the wild. So before they fully metamorphose – or turn into frogs – they are taken back to Indiana and released into the ponds. Since some frogs lead a “double life” – aquatic and terrestrial – they are able to finish their aquatic life stage in enclosed repatariums, or screened-in containers, that allow protection before they are released as full frogs in the environment in which they will live. This method works well and provides exposure to the environment they will be living in before they become too accustomed to the luxury of the rhino basement.

The DZS crawfish frog conservation project requires long hours, but it is also the best time of the year as a member of the amphibian department staff. Seeing how the DZS can make a positive impact on this species and the ecosystem is very rewarding.

– Michael Andrus is an amphibian department zookeeper for the Detroit Zoological Society and works in the National Amphibian Conservation Center at the Detroit Zoo.

Veterinary Care: The Evolution of Zoo Vet Resources

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I’ve been a practicing zoo veterinarian for 25 years; the last 20 of which have been spent here at the Detroit Zoo. Things have changed so much over the years, especially as it relates to the resources that are available to zoo and wildlife veterinarians as well as the technology we use to share information.

My first “real” job as a zoo veterinarian was at the Potawatomi Zoo in Indiana. I was the zoo’s first full-time veterinarian, and had to build the veterinary programs from scratch. I was a brand-new vet, full of ideas, and the only one at the zoo. It was a fun challenge and I had a lot to learn.

It was a very different time. When I first started I didn’t have a computer that was my own – I shared a very old model with our animal staff that did not have an internet connection. There was no email available back then; in order to reach out to someone for feedback or advice, you had to talk to them on a phone (that was connected to the wall!) The internet was not yet flush with information about zoo medicine, and most publications had to be rooted out of university libraries or actually found on your bookshelf.

So I made a lot of phone calls, talked to people at meetings, eventually sent a lot of emails, and connected with people on “listserves”. Some of my most valuable connections were within a group called the Midwest Regional Zoo Vets. This group started gathering soon after I started working in Indiana, and I very happily joined their ranks. It was a small group at first; five to seven people meeting to talk about anesthesia challenges and vaccine programs and sharing a spaghetti dinner made together in the hospital kitchen. I was the newest, youngest veterinarian in the group and found it invaluable to have this group as a resource.

Things have changed over the years. Electronic resources and connections make it much easier to keep the latest research at our fingertips and obtain feedback from other experts in our field. Despite all these resources, it’s still incredibly valuable to gather together and talk about the challenges we face. I’m happy to report that the Midwest Regional Zoo Vet group is still going strong after more than 23 years, and for most of these I’ve been the organizer and chairperson. We meet twice each year, rotating our locations between a dozen zoos in Ohio and the surrounding states. We have been able to maintain the intimacy of those first, small, cozy meetings, even though our last meeting was 30 members strong.

We talk about all kinds of things, from parasites to grief management, nutrition to radiology. We also often share clinical cases and invite outside experts to join in on the discussion. We talk about the cases that stump us, share our amazing success stories, and discuss our failures. There is no question that can’t be asked, no problem too trivial. I always learn so much more than I expect at our meetings – it’s fantastic! Zoo veterinarians are some of the most generous, dedicated people I know, and bringing my colleagues together to help provide the best possible medical care to animals is extremely rewarding. I’m proud to be part of a profession that feels like family!

– Dr. Ann Duncan is the Director of Animal Health for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the Ruth Roby Glancy Animal Health Complex.

Amphibian Conservation: Wyoming Toads Prepare for Breeding

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A pair of small gold eyes peers out from under a mass of sphagnum moss. In a day or two, this warty creature will complete its climb out from the depths of the sandy soil where he has spent the last 30 days sleeping and “chilling” at a cool 38 degrees. Along with seven other individuals of this species, he will awaken due to an increase in temperature and light. By the time the temperature reaches 74 degrees, he will have completely removed himself from the soil and be sitting atop it, hopefully alongside his companion, a slightly larger female. In the week that follows, events these two small cold-blooded creatures will go through could lead to producing thousands of their species in a matter of hours due to their “explosive” nature.

The Wyoming toad (Anaxyrus baxteri) is one of North America’s most endangered species and one of the amphibians we work with as part of a Species Survival Plan (SSP) at the Detroit Zoo’s National Amphibian Conservation Center.  This toad’s wild populations began declining in the 1970s, and by the 1980s was listed as an Endangered Species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Possible causes for the population decline are use of aerial pesticides to eliminate mosquitoes, habitat manipulation, and disease in the form of the amphibian chytrid fungus. Realizing a decline was occurring, the last remaining toads were collected and by 1994, all remaining wild-born Wyoming toads were believed to be entirely in captivity. The IUCN now describes the Wyoming toad as extinct in the wild, meaning any toad currently found in the wild has come from captive breeding, in which the Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) has been actively involved.

The Wyoming toad SSP is managed by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). The DZS has been a member of this conservation program since 1995 and since 2001 has sent a total of 6,505 tadpoles and toadlets to the wild. All Wyoming toads are the responsibility of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), so members of the AZA work closely with them to follow all USFWS permit guidelines for keeping them in captivity. The goal of any captive breeding program is to produce healthy offspring for release into the wild with the goal of rebuilding them into a self-sustaining population. Each toad in captivity is identified and tracked, which helps to pair toads that will produce the most genetically diverse and healthy offspring. Breeding pairs of toads are chosen almost a year in advance so toads have plenty of time to move from one zoo to another to create the breeding pairs.

Although not as well known as Jabari and Kivuli, the giraffe couple at the Detroit Zoo, Wyoming toads Butler and Beverly are a very important couple of toads. They are part of a “bio-secure” population and will never be seen by the public, which ensures they will not accidentally release diseases, known or unknown, into the wild via their offspring. They are held with four other pairs of Wyoming toads in a special room away from all other amphibians, so they will remain free of diseases that could otherwise be found in species not native to the western region of North America.

At the AZA’s recommendation, Butler arrived at the Detroit Zoo last October to be paired with Beverly, who arrived in 2012. Both are now 3 years old, which is about middle aged for a Wyoming toad. In early April, they were placed together into a thermostat-controlled “hibernaculum”, which is used to cool the toads, simulating the hibernation period a wild Wyoming toad would go through during the winter. The toads are kept cooled for about a month to help prepare them for breeding; eggs or sperms may develop and mature as a result of this cooling. The toads are given plenty of sandy soil to bury down into and sleep in just as they would have in the wild, and the Zoo’s animal care staff checks in on them weekly to make sure they are doing well.

At the end of May, the temperature in the hibernaculum will be increased to 70 degrees Fahrenheit and the toads will begin to awaken. Once they have climbed out from the soil, we will place them back into regular husbandry for a few days where they will continue to warm up and eat. Recordings of male toads calling are played during this time to condition toads further for breeding. Within a few days of emerging from hibernation, Butler and Beverly will be placed into a breeding chamber with 2-3 inches of water. The pair will hopefully go into “amplexus” within a few hours, which happens when the male positions himself on top of the female using his front legs and squeezes her, encouraging her to lay eggs. He fertilizes the eggs as she lays them, usually in the dark, overnight. Butler and Beverly should lay thousands of eggs, which is typical of toad species. Described as “explosive breeders”, the more eggs they can lay the better the chance offspring have of surviving the elements, diseases and predators. Since this is a captive breeding, we can help the thousands of eggs that Butler and Beverly produce survive into strong, healthy tadpoles.

Approximately two to three weeks after eggs have hatched into thousands of hungry tadpoles, arrangements are made with the USFWS to ship the tadpoles to Wyoming, where they will be released into protected wetlands. These tadpoles will add to those previously produced in captivity sent yearly by the zoos that participate in this program and the USFWS.

The wetlands are monitored during the spring and summer as part of yearly field surveys done to track the health and population of the toads. This year we hope that Butler, Beverly and the three other pairs of Wyoming toads at the Detroit Zoo are able to contribute thousands of healthy tadpoles to the wild population.

– Rebecca Johnson is the associate curator of amphibians for the Detroit Zoological Society.

Humane Education: Helping Animals in Need

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As animal lovers, when we come across an animal in need of help, we want to take action. But when we find an injured or orphaned critter, often times we’re not sure what to do.

Here at the Detroit Zoological Society, we receive emails and calls throughout the year from people who want to aid local wildlife. Although we wish we could provide sanctuary for all animals in need, we are unable to do so in nearly all cases. But we think it’s wonderful that so many people want to assist these sentient beings, so we’ve compiled a list of helpful resources.

The following links contain contact information for reputable organizations and rehabilitators that are able to provide support. Download the app and jot down the phone numbers found in the links. You can keep a copy on hand so that the information is available should a need arise.

  • Animal Help Now App – Find contact information for nearby emergency wildlife assistance across the U.S., including wildlife rehabilitators, rescues and veterinarians.
  • All Species Kinship Wildlife Hotline – (877) 596-7776

Remember if you come upon an animal that you think needs help, don’t address the situation without first reaching out to a professional for his or her advice. If ever you’re in doubt, call an expert.

– Lisa Forzley is a curator of education for the Detroit Zoological Society and oversees the Berman Academy for Humane Education. Learn more about the Academy, which was created to help people help animals and offers a broad range of engaging programs, at http://detroitzoo.org/education/humane-education.