Each - beyond words strategic communication

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Chicago Zoological Society • Annual Report 2010
Above left: Each year, experts from
the Chicago Zoological Society
travel to Peru’s Punta San Juan
reserve to conduct health
assessments on Humboldt penguins
and other animals.
PUNTA SAN JUAN
Overfishing, habitat disturbance, and weather patterns have led to Humboldt
penguins becoming endangered in the wild and both continue to pose a threat
to their survival. What began in 2007 as a one-year project to assess Humboldt
penguin health has evolved into a comprehensive field program that continues to
grow each year. The Punta San Juan Reserve, located on the Pacific coast of Peru,
protects important nesting sites for Humboldts, cormorants, pelicans, and other
seabirds whose guano was harvested for fertilizer. The area is home to nearly half
of all the Humboldts that live in Peru. CZS veterinarian Dr. Michael Adkesson
oversees multiple research projects there involving several threatened and endangered
species. In partnership with the Center for Environmental Sustainability at
Cayetano Heredia University in Lima, Peru, and the Saint Louis Zoo WildCare
Institute, Adkesson and his team visit Punta San Juan annually to assess the health
of penguins, identifying current threats and developing conservation strategies.
In 2010, the reserve was incorporated into a system of national marine protected
areas overseen by the Peruvian Ministry of the Environment—a change that will
provide even greater wildlife protection. This past year, Adkesson’s team examined
and collected samples from 50 adult penguins and 24 chicks and launched several
new initiatives that will continue to expand our knowledge about these animals.
CZS’s fieldwork and captive breeding program work hand-in-hand: information
from field research informs our care of Humboldts here at Brookfield Zoo, and in
turn, our penguins inspire visitors to care about the endangered wild population.
THE GEORGE B. RABB CONSERVATION MEDAL
Polar Bears International (PBI) and its President and CEO Robert Buchanan were
named the 2010 recipients of the CZS George B. Rabb Conservation Medal for
their role in helping people understand the importance of polar bears and their
habitat and empowering individuals to have a sense of immediacy about how we
take care of our planet. Dedicated to the worldwide conservation of polar bears
and their habitat through research and education, PBI has grown into an organization
with an international scope, supporting projects throughout the circumpolar
North and reaching audiences as far away as Japan and Australia with its conservation
message. Funding provided by PBI helped support research that led to the
listing of polar bears as a threatened species by the U.S. government.
The Chicago Zoological Society’s Rabb Conservation Medal was created in 2005
to honor the lifelong legacy of animal welfare and worldwide conservation leadership
of George Rabb, Ph.D., president emeritus of the Society.
OIL SPILL EFFEC T
Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, key federal agencies identified
the Chicago Zoological Society as a partner in responding to and assessing the
impacts of the oil spill on dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico. Data collected through
the CZS’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program (SDRP), led by Dr. Randall Wells,
provides information on aspects of dolphin biology, including health, behavior,
genetics, environmental contaminants, and adverse interactions with humans,
which can be used for benchmarking dolphin health. SDRP’s research focuses on
the approximately 160 bottlenose dolphins spanning five generations living in
Sarasota Bay and the neighboring dolphin community immediately offshore of
the central west coast of Florida. Because of its unique expertise, the CZS team
also was asked to conduct oil spill related work in Louisiana and the Florida
panhandle. The CZS team is currently engaged in photographic identification
studies to investigate dolphin abundance and ranging patterns, biopsy sampling
to document environmental contaminant concentrations and genetic structure of
populations, health assessments to evaluate health and reproductive impacts, and
post-release follow-up monitoring of dolphin strandings in the oil-impacted area.
SDRP oil spill research is funded in part through the Morris Animal Foundation,
BP, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
MEASURING ANIMAL WELFARE
Establishing tools and methods to provide animal-directed care is the driving force
behind CZS’s Center for the Science of Animal Welfare (CSAW). As a leader in
animal welfare, our goal is for CSAW to provide opportunities to share best practices,
enhancing our ability to monitor, assess, and care for animals in zoos around
the world and in the wild. But how does one actually measure welfare? Developing
a reliable tool has become a priority for the AZA Animal Welfare Committee, and
CZS has led the charge to address this need. To date, we have developed 12 species
welfare score sheets that enable keepers to track assessments of an individual
animal’s physical and psychological health. Thanks to support from the Institute
of Museum and Library Services, we have begun to take monitoring to the next
level. In October, we launched a five-institution study of three species: black
rhino, okapi, and gorilla, integrating score sheets into daily animal management
practices. Information will be shared on a monthly basis so we may effectively
identify emerging welfare issues for these three species, evaluate success in
addressing these issues, and systematically assess the impact of decisions on
animal well-being. Once we have completed a pilot study, we will replicate the
model AZA-wide, beginning with 12 species and expanding from there.
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Chicago Zoological Society • Annual Report 2010