Zookeeper Appreciation Week: Hanging with the Sloths and the Black & White Ruffed Lemur

We are pleased to introduce Wildwood Wildlife Park's newest zookeeper Marisa Levin. She may be new to the park but it didn't take her long to select her favorite animal for National Zookeeper Week: the sloths. Sloths spend a lot of their time sleeping so it is only natural that Marisa would demonstrate how relaxing and comfortable a sloth's favorite sleeping spot is! 

Sloths are tropical mammals that live in Central and South America. A sloths long arms allow them to spend most of their time hanging upside-down from trees. They use their huge hooked claws to hang onto branches while munching on leaves that other animals can't reach. As you can imagine, a sloth's long claws make walking on the ground difficult, which dictates that they spend their lives in the tree tops of the tropical rain forests. It may surprise you to learn that sloths are excellent swimmers! From time to time they will drop down into the water from their treetop perches. 

It can take up to one month for a sloth to digest one meal. The sloth's diets consist of tough leaves that are difficult to digest. Their leafy diet isn't very nutritious and do not get much energy from it. This may be why sloths are so slow!

Sloths both mate and give birth to their young in trees. Courting starts when a female yells a mating scream letting the males in the area know that she's ready to mate. Males will fight for her by hanging from branches by their feet and pawing at each other. After 5-6 months females will give birth to a single baby. Babies cling to their mother's belly for several weeks after birth, and will remain by their mother's side for up to four years. These drowsy tree-dwellers can sleep up to 20-hours a day and when they are awake they barely move at all!

While four of the sloth species range over large portions of norther South America and are common in protected areas, two species of the three-toed sloths, the maned three-toed sloth and the pygmy three-toed sloth are listed as endangered species on the IUCN Red List.

Wildwood Wildlife Park's zookeeper Brooke Rose is showing off her balancing skills as she recreates the amazing climbing ability of Wildwood's male Black and White Ruffed Lemur, Bobby. Brooke has been here at Wildwood for 6 years! 

Populations of wild ruffed lemurs are critically endangered in Madagascar, which is the only place lemurs are found in. This species is endangered primarily due to the loss of habitat as the forests are cleared for logging and farming. The name “lemur” means “ghost “ in Latin. The first people to hear their loud calls thought they were ghosts in the forest. Lemurs have a wide range of vocalizations.

Black and white ruffed lemurs live in social groups made up of many males and many females, who are in charge. They live primarily in trees are are excellent climbers and jumpers. 

Ruffed lemurs are frugivores, eating mainly fruit, but also eat edible plants and flowers. The black and white ruffed lemur is one of only two types of lemurs to build nests for their young. Females typically have 2 babies, though they can have as many as six. Unlike other lemurs, the babies stay in the nest while the mother looks for food and if the mother needs to move them, she carries them in her mouth. Other lemur species continually carry their young on their backs. 

William E. Gardner Education and Events Center Slated for Opening Spring 2015

Look deep into nature, and then you will

understand everything better. ~Albert Einstein

The Domaszek family and Wildwood Wildlife Park staff are dedicated to the preservation and conservation of all animals. Wildwood Wildlife Park team’s mission: to provide an exciting zoological collection and educational facility to all visitors. Promoting life-long learning by enriching minds, fostering environmental respect, while helping prepare our visitor for our conservation future. We strive to provide experiences that last a lifetime with every visit no matter your age.

Daily programs are held at the Wildwood Wildlife Park amphitheater where visitors learn about various mammals, birds, primates, and reptiles. The park’s staff works hard to provide a variety of educational programs and learning experiences at the zoo. Thanks to the hard work and dedication from the entire Wildwood Wildlife Park staff, the park received the prestigious Zoological Association of America accreditation in June 2008 and was reaccredited in 2013.

The zoo’s new William E. Gardner Educational and Events Center has been a work in progress and will be filled with amazing things to see and do. Proceeding on our philosophy of continuing education, the William E. Gardner Educational and Events Center will enhance our schools, camps, scouts and 4-H field trip experiences.

Visitors will be able to peer into the world of honeybees and witness these amazing creatures performing their specialized duties to produce honey.

Microscope tables allow insect investigation. Explore the educational tables with hands on examination of skulls, fur and artifacts and fun activity sheets for the kids. Animal displays include: snake, amphibian, lizard, arthropod, insect and finishes.

Our Conservation Corner features information on conservation efforts to help protect sloths, lemurs, leopards, cheetahs, and tigers; conservation causes that Wildwood Wildlife Park actively supports.

Zoo visitors will find opportunities to learn in every corner of the Educational and Events Center. And of course, watching and exploring animals is an educational experience in itself!

The journey of making our mission and the vision of the zoo being a place for guests to spend time with their families, making memories and watching their children learn, laugh and play has been made possible thanks in part to sponsors of the William E. Gardner Education and Events Center (photo below.)

Thank you sponsors of the William E. Gardner Education & Events Center:

Pukall Lumber Company - Van Natta's Plumbing - Hallman Lindsay Quality Paints

Wilderness Sales & Service - Quality Heating Inc - Furniture and Appliance Mart

Continuing Education and Conservation: Wildwood Wildlife Park Lemur Exhibit

The zoo may be closed for the season but that doesn’t mean that we’ve been hibernating waiting for spring. If you’ve driven by the zoo lately you know that nothing could be farther from the truth! We can’t wait for spring to show off the new and exciting changes at Wildwood Wildlife Park.

We’ve got that reputation among our zoo members and visitors that there is always something New at the Zoo. Today we take you on a behind the scenes look at the new lemur house.

Did you know all species of lemurs are native to Madagascar?

Wildwood Wildlife Park is fortunate to house four different species: the Ring-Tailed Lemur, the Brown Lemur, the Red Ruffed Lemur and the Black and White Lemur.

The Red Ruffed and the Black and White are two species of ruffed lemurs named for the “ruff” of long hair that runs from the ears along the cheeks to beneath their chin. Ruffed lemurs are the largest of the lemurs - about the size of a large house cat. 

The name “lemur” comes from the Latin word for “ghost.” Lemurs communicate with each other using a complex system of at least 12 different vocalizations. These vocalizations can be low grunts, gurgling sounds or a cackle like roar. It’s no wonder that the first people to hear the loud calls of a lemur thought they were ghosts in the forest!

Can you guess the favorite food of the lemur? If you guess fruit - you’re right! But they also eat other food including leaves, flowers, buds and fungi. When the lemurs aren’t foraging for their food in the treetops you’ll find them dangling from their arms or legs to get to a hard-to-reach treat if they can’t get it from a standing position.

When a female lemur is ready to give birth she begins making a nest - in the wild the nest can be high up in a tree usually 60 to 80 feet from the ground. Would you be surprised to know that baby ruffed lemurs don’t cling to their mothers: the mom thinks it is time to move her baby, she carries him or her in her mouth.

Lemurs are critically endangered. The main reason is the loss of their rain forest habitat. Madagascar’s forests have been reduced by as much as 85% due to extensive logging for cooking fuel, building materials and what is called slash-and-burn farming.

Wildwood Wildlife Park is dedicated to help save these beautiful, inquisitive and vocal animals. We look forward to your visiting the new lemur exhibit.

Bat Appreciation Days

Bats - one of the center stage players during Halloween - is a much maligned creature of the night. 

Did you know that bats don't attack people - nor do they do not get tangled in people's hair and even true vampire bats are not true vampires.

Bats live on all continents except Antarctica, are essential members of many types of ecosystems - from rain forests to deserts. Bats pollinate and disperse the seeds of hundred of species of plants and are the major pollinators of many types of cacti that open their flowers only at night - when bats are active. They also eat copious quantities of insects and other arthropods. On a typical night, a bat consumes the equivalent of its own body weight.

Bats are very nimble flyers because of the dexterity of their wings, which, unlike insect and bird wings, are structured to fold during flight, very similar to the way we fold our hands. Bat wings are draped with skin that stretches and are powered by special muscles.

The importance of bats as part of our world compounds the tragic dimensions of an almost always fatal epidemic in bats: White-nose Syndrome.

Named for a cold-loving white fungus that is typically found on the faces and wings of infected bats, White-nose Syndrome causes bats to awaken more often during hibernation and use up the stored fat reserves that they need to get them through the winter. Infected bats often emerge too soon from hibernation and can be seen flying around in midwinter. These bats usually freeze or starve to death and is almost always fatal.

White-nose Syndrome has killed more than 5.7 million bats since it was discovered in a single New York cave in February 2006. Seven bat species in 23 United States and 5 Canadian provinces have now been documented with White-nose Syndrome.

Close to home, White-nose syndrome has been detected in two Minnesota state parks.

The disease is transmitted primarily from bat to bat, inadvertently fungal spores are carried into caves by humans on clothing and caving gear. The syndrome is not known to be a threat to humans, pets, livestock or other wildlife.

While only a few of the bats in the Minnesota state parks have tested positive for the fungus, if Minnesota follows the trends of other states, the disease is likely to be present in Minnesota bats within two to three years.

Mortality rates approaching 100% are reported at some sites. White-nose Syndrome threatens some of the largest hibernation caves of the endangered Indiana myotis, gray myotis, and Virginia big-eared bats. Ultimately, all bats across North America are at imminent risk.

What is being done?

In 2009 and 2010, a team of federal and state agencies prepared a White-nose Syndrome management plan to address the threat to hibernating bats. In Tennessee, a state of 10,000 caves and 16 species of bats including the winter home to 270,000 gray bats, a very special project is underway.

Twins Times Two!! Congratulations to Resident Cotton-Top and Red-Handed Tamarins!

Congratulations are in order for Wildwood Wildlife Park's residents: Cotton-Top Tamarin father Titus and mother Tullia and Red-Handed Tamarin father Cleo and mother Clowee. Both resident couples are now proud parents of twins!

The Cotton-Top Tamarin is a small New World monkey, weighing less than one pound, is found in tropical forests. Newborn Cotton-Tops can equal 20 percent of their mother's weight! Breeding pairs of Cotton-Tops are monogamous and raising babies is a family affair. Both Titus and Tullia take turns carrying their babies on their backs.

Cotton-Top Tamarins vocalize with birdlike whistles, soft chirping sounds and high-pitched trilling. They get their name from the long white hairs on their forehead that flows over their shoulders. They also have loud territorial songs as well as songs when it is excited.

The life span of Cotton-Top Tamarins in captivity has been as high as 25 years, in the wild the life span is about 13-16 years. The wild population is estimated at about 6,000 (source). Fewer than 300 Cotton-Top Tamarins make up the captive population; the population in Columbia are literally losing ground in the wild due to forest destruction to provide land for agricultural purposes and timber for fuel and housing.

Cotton-Top Tamarins are now protected by international law; they are critically endangered and are considered to be one of The World's 25 Most Endangered Primates.

You can see these beautiful little monkeys in their enclosure right next to the river otters at the Wildwood Wildlife Park.

Proud Red-Handed Tamarin father Cleo and mother Clowee are also busy with their newborn twins. Most tamarins have traditional white fur around their mouths except for the Red-Handed Tamarins; their face and body are mostly black. Their hands and feet are orange-red in color, which is why they are also known as the Golden-Handed Tamarin or Midas Tamarin.

Unlike other primates, Red-Handed Tamarin have claws instead of nail on all of their digits with the exception of their big toes. Also, their thumbs lack the saddle joint which allows for opposable thumbs.

The Red-Handed Tamarin is an exceptional climber and spends most of its time among the vines and branches of the trees. They are quick and agile and are superb jumpers known to jump distances of over 60 feet from a tree to the ground with no sign of injury.

Like all new babies at Wildwood Wildlife Park, the Cotton-Top and Red-Handed Tamarin twins are very important additions to a highly endangered species.

Wildwood Wildlife Park along with other zoos are working together to save species like Cotton-Top Tamarins and Red-Handed Tamarins by optimizing genetic diversity and ensuring a healthy captive population which in turn we can hope to save the endangered species from extinction in the wild.