Introductions, Behavioral Observations and Wild Art

Name: Haley Wasserman
Class Year: Junior
Hometown: Medina, OH
Internship: Enrichment and Research
Location: Toledo Zoo, OH

A lot has happened since my first post about my internship at the Toledo Zoo! I have been working as an enrichment and research intern in the zoo's animal behavior department this summer. There have been some major changes to my daily routine since the first half of summer.

For starters, we have been introducing a new female gorilla to our troop of Western lowland gorillas. The zoo's troop now consists of four females and one silverback. The amount of information I have learned about gorilla behavior within the past few weeks from being involved in these introductions is amazing. Sufi is the newest gorilla and she is 16 years old. She arrived at the zoo in May, but went through a quarantine period to make sure she would not be bringing in any health issues that could be transmitted to the other gorillas. Once Sufi's month long quarantine had passed, she was shifted into the indoor holding for the gorillas and set up in an area across from the troop so that all of them could see each other and get used to each other. After a week, all three of the females were individually placed with Sufi one at a time so that they could become acquainted. The keepers explained to me that this way when Sufi meets Kwisha the silverback, if things get too rough with the introduction, then the females will make Kwisha back off and protect Sufi.

Silverback Kwisha investigating some sand pile enrichment.

I have been able to witness some gorilla behavior in person through observations for these introductions that have taught me so much. I have seen interesting displays such as chest beating by our females, charging, and when the gorillas are feeling tense I can see how their gait changes to become stiff and flexed.

Female gorilla Nia Lewa likes to cover herself in browse!

I have also been doing research on exhibit usage and behavior in our juvenile Galapagos tortoises. There are three juveniles who are growing rapidly and will soon be in need of larger exhibits. I began doing focal sampling to create an activity budget for each individual to see what they spent their days doing and in which areas of the exhibit they spent their time. This will help Zoo staff determine the tortoises’ needs in their new exhibit.

Two of the juvenile Galapagos tortoises.

Why go all the way around a conspecific to get where you're going if you can just crawl over top of them?

As an intern in the behavior department, I have also been asked to aid in some behavioral observations in some departments around the zoo. I have been doing observations on our female African elephants during introductions. The first step, which I have been observing, is to allow 6-year-old Lucas to go back and forth between two exhibits with different female elephants. We observe to make sure his mother, Renee, is comfortable with him spending time with the other female. I take shifts with the other interns to keep an eye on her for the elephant keepers. I have also been collecting data on the behavior of the zoo's two brown bears and Kodiak bear. They are all juveniles and live together and have begun to show signs of what could eventually lead to stereotypic behavior. Stereotypic behaviors are those that occur in an invariant pattern and do not appear to have a true function. We have begun to monitor the bears’ behavior in an effort to determine behavioral triggers and see what we can do to modify this.

I have also been spending time preparing some special enrichment for an event we had the first weekend of August called Wild About Art. This event brought in artists from all over the country to set up tents and sell their work. The animal behavior department ran a booth, so I worked with the other interns to create some “artsy” enrichment to have on display. This list included a box zebra, a paper mache "artist's palette", polar bear "sushi", gelatin bird treats, grapevine wreaths filled with nesting material, and even a giant, plastic pool pickle! I had a great time helping out with the event and meeting some of the very talented artists who had come up for the event.

A box zebra I made out of cardboard tubes, boxes, and a mache paste made of flour and water.. The paint on top is non toxic and a keeper can fill the box animal with meat to give to one of the carnivores to "hunt"!

A grapevine wreath which I weaved nesting materials in to for bird enrichment. Pictured is twine, shredded paper and some reindeer fur!

We typically give these PVC feeders to monkeys, but this one is filled with candy for children to use and see if they can get food out as well as a monkey can!

A "pool pickle", which has been chewed up quite a bit by the tigers.

As my final week of my internship comes to a close, I can't help but think of all of the amazing one-of-a-kind experiences I have had at the Toledo Zoo this summer. I have met so many fabulous people and learned so much information, and can even make enrichment items from start to finish now. My favorite thing about my position was how much I was able to work with a variety of areas of the zoo instead of one specific region. This helped me learn more about zoo keeping for animals that I had no idea I would grow to love working with so much, and being able to speak to so many zoo keepers. Each has taught me more about the world of zoology and has given me amazing advice for the future. Beth has been an amazing supervisor and has given me an opportunity to branch out and utilize everything I could this summer at the zoo. Her encouragement and optimism has helped me immensely this summer and has made it one of the best summers of my life. I will never forget my summer as a behavior intern at the Toledo Zoo.