3:00 snapshot #954, 955, 956

I love this monkey, Ushindi, a ten year old mandrill.

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100,000 new animals at the zoo

I can't tell you what zoo, but one zoo that I frequent recently received a shipment of 10 x 10,000 honeybees, which are being carefully dumped into their 10 hives in the photo above. It's unclear to me exactly why this was done, since the honeybees are not on exhibit. But it was kind of those involved to contact me, since they know I like insects.

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Zookeeper Scholarship time

Zookeepers are passionate and committed conservationists. I've been putting together a package of information about the conservation work that some of the zookeepers I work with are doing, and it's pretty inspiring. Two guys work with local turtle populations: spotted turtles at Stony Brook Reservation and Blanding's turtles in Concord Mass. One guy went to Seal Island off the coast of Maine to help with puffin conservation. Another zookeeper actively works with Massachusetts beach communities to create conditions that allow people to use the beaches without disturbing shorebird breeding. One keeper is about to go to Kenya, to study how well buffer zones between livestock and endangered Grevy's zebras are working. A couple others just got back from Mexico, where they were helping out with a spaying and neutering project, to reduce the population of dogs--the dogs eat sea turtle hatchlings, you see.

They are doing all of these things because they feel so strongly about wildlife conservation. They are keenly aware that wild animal populations are suffering mostly due to human created problems, and that humans have a responsibility to undo the damage. What's really interesting to me about all these projects is that the people involved in them HAVE NO MONEY.


They are getting grants and permits and scholarships and cobbling together savings because they love the planet and the creatures who inhabit it. I am so proud of them all, and so grateful for their efforts. I also have no money, but I am involved in several groups that can help raise some. I will be riding with three other zookeepers in the Jonathan Gilmour Fund bike ride. We will be wearing shirts that say "zookeeper" on them, so that people will know that zookeepers are real, and hopefully they will ask what we do, and I can say all of what I said above. I will also take photographs of the beautiful landscape of the border of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and post them here.

If you would like to help out, please visit my page: http://www.zoonewengland.org/urbpan
If you would like to help out but would rather not use a credit card, please mail your donation to the address behind the scissors:( Read more... )

If you would prefer to donate via paypal, here you go:

Thanks so much for your support! Now back to pictures of dogs and bugs and mushrooms and stuff.