Heritage Park Zoo

About eight weeks ago, on April 22, 2017, five baby Lynx were successfully birthed here at the sanctuary, and have remained in excellent health as they’ve continued to mature. Their parents, Memphis and Foxy, are both seven-years-old, have been with the sanctuary since 2013, and are here on loan from another animal organization. Of the five cubs, three of them are females and two of them are males.

All five will remain at the sanctuary until they are weaned from their parents; then they will be placed in homes with other sanctuaries and zoological organizations. At present time, it is the objective of our organization to permanently retain two of these cubs, though which two specifically is currently unknown.

Visitors will be able to see these baby Lynx on exhibit from time to time until they are placed in their new homes. Luckily, the enclosure the Lynx are currently in is very large in size and it will be easy to accommodate these new additions. At their current age, they do not wander far from their mother and mostly remain inside, but as they’re maturing, they continue to venture out more and more. Hopefully over the coming weeks they’ll be plenty accessible to visitors. We’ll also be providing updates from their “new baby” well check once that’s completed. The procedure will be done by Dr. Skinner of Prescott Animal Hospital.

As Lynx traditionally have challenges breeding successfully in captivity, we hope the community will recognize this rare opportunity take advantage of the chance to see these babies up-close. The Lynx enclosure is located at the top of the park, across from the Kiwanis Korner and our Mexican Gray Wolves.

This week, Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary is participating in #LoboWeek! The event, which runs from Sunday, March 26 through Saturday, April 1, is an annual effort to educate people about the importance of wolves on the landscape of the Southwest, and the efforts to successfully return them to their ancestral home in the wild. This March marks 19 years since eleven Mexican Gray Wolves were released into the wild in Arizona as part of a federal reintroduction program under the Endangered Species Act.

Missing from the landscape for 30+ years, returning the Mexican Gray Wolf to the wild was a significant milestone for the lobo and wildlife conservation efforts. According to records, more than a million wolves were killed in the U.S. between 1850 and 1900. They were deemed extinct in the wild by the 1970's, and only through managed breeding and reintroduction programs do they survive in the wild today. Still, even with slow and steady population increases, the Gray Wolf remains the most endangered wolf subspecies in the world.

All organizations that house these animals are part of the Species Survival Program, which helps to ensure their survival and re-integrate them back into the wild. And while HPZS does not participate in the breeding aspect of the program, we are a holding facility lucky enough to house two such animals, Imado and Catori. We're incredibly thankful to have this pair and to be a part of this important program. It provides us a unique opportunity to share this rare and endangered species with our community.

Be a part of #LoboWeek by sharing this tag on social media and spreading the word on these important efforts. This week also serves as a great time to come by the sanctuary and see these animals in person. It's a rare treat to have such access to them; we hope you'll come celebrate them with us!

A new baby lemur will now call Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary his home! The Arizona Game & Fish Department contacted us recently regarding the permanent housing of a young lemur who was found living on the streets with his owner. He arrived a little over a month ago and so far is happy with his new home and new lemur friends!

Although little is known about this young lemur life prior to now, he is approximately seven months old and appears to be in good health and of normal weight. He spent his first days with us in separate quarantine so he could be overseen by our veterinarian and receive all of his necessary vaccinations and health tests.

HPZS has a family group of four lemurs already within the animal collection. Our hope was to introduce him to our existing lemur family.  This process can be challenging and involves a slow introductory process to allow him as well as the other lemurs to acclimate to each other before being allowed full contact with each other. Lemurs form tight familial bonds and often reject new members. Thankfully, with careful, tireless work from our staff, we were able to successfully integrate him into the population. It’s now been a few weeks and they’ve all been co-habitating nicely.

We never know what sort of animal we’ll be called to help with, but we’ll always provide care to any animal in need. We must always be ready for any new animal to join our collection, and thanks to the work of our Keepers, area organizations, partners and associates, animals like this one receive the care and attention they need. We’re grateful to have this rescued lemur as a new member of our sanctuary, and we hope you’ll soon come by to see him for yourself!

All of the animals at Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary have a unique story to tell, but not all of the animals have suffered ill fate or abandonment prior to calling HPZS home. Several of our collection animals at the park are part of a Species Survival Program (SSP), which Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary supports through our conservation efforts. These endangered animals are part of a large governing group designed to track, follow and distribute animals who are part of the SSP. The efforts through these programs are critical for the future of these endangered animals. We are very proud to be a part of these programs and share these endangered animals with our community. Here are some of the SSP animals we have here at the park:

Clouded Leopards Suree & Malee (female siblings) came to us in December of 2016. This species, originally with habitats in the Himalayan Mountains, has seen drastic population decline due to deforestation and urban development. As HPZS does not partake in any breeding programs on grounds, we will hold them until they are one day able to be transferred to other institutions for pairing and/or breeding.

Mexican Gray Wolves Imado and Catori (male and female unrelated, non-breeders) have been with us for a number of years now. As they are too old to assist with any further breeding programs, their last home will be here with HPZS. A great number of Mexican Gray Wolves once roamed freely in the Southwest, but today less than 100 Mexican Gray Wolves survive in the wild. That number has continued to rise over the last decade thanks to the collaborative efforts of many.

Our two Rhinoceros Iguanas, Reina and Riggs, will no longer be used for breeding as they are past the breeding age as two of the oldest living Rhino Iguanas in the United States (both are 24-years-old). HPZS will provide them a forever home so other Rhino Iguanas can be housed at breeding institutions and continue the generational success of this species.

With programs like these, HPZS does its small part to help restore balance to the natural world. Most often due to no fault of their own, these animals are losing the fight of survival. Thankfully, worldwide programs like these help to reintroduce these animals into their natural habitats and restore native populations.

Heritage Park Zoological Sanctuary is very fortunate to be a part of these programs, as we are not officially an AZA organization (Association of Zoos & Aquariums). But even though the SSP is technically only for organizations that are AZA members (we’re the only one in the country that’s not), we’ve been selected to be a part of it for one main reason: we’re amazing at what we do. Period. That sounds quite boisterous, but the truth is, we take amazing care of our animals, have excellent facilities, and have Keepers who know what they’re doing. The program holds strict guidelines for organizations that can be a part of this program, and after many meetings with us, they wanted us to be a part of it.

What’s in Your Backyard?

Heritage Park’s Zoological Sanctuary’s conservation efforts are hands-on and involve many aspects of operation beyond what most guests see as they visit the park. On an annual basis, HPZS handles an average of 400 calls involving wildlife in Northern Arizona. These calls include wildlife injuries, abandonment, animal nuisance questions, relocations and animals in distress.

What you may not realize is that HPZS operates a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week emergency line for all types of wildlife calls. These afterhours’ calls go directly to management officials for the zoo and are handled on a case by case priority basis for emergency assessment. Many of the calls come from community residents that simply need reassurance that the animals are not in immediate danger and do not need human intervention. Other calls involve lifesaving rescue efforts and animal triage.  

Animals requiring immediate treatment are rescued from the wild and brought to the zoo or veterinarian for treatment, or individuals bring the animal(s) to the zoo directly. Animals are triaged here on site and are held for further rehabilitation or released back into the wild.

This time of year is when we see the highest number of calls (April through September) as baby animals are being born and learning from their parents how to hunt, eat, fly and live on their own. Young animals are especially vulnerable to unfavorable human interactions and/or high mortality rates.

If you see an animal in distress, contact Heritage Park Zoo or your local Game & Fish Department before intervening or removing the animal from the wild. Many times the animals are doing what they do naturally (learning to fly, walk, hunt, eat or waiting for parents to return) but to us humans look to be in need of assistance. Animals always do better if they are raised and cared for by their natural parents.  

With your help, we can secure a better tomorrow for these animals today!

What does it take to train an animal?  Patience.  Raquel Gardner of animalprofessionals.com was working with Keeper Carrie to acclimate “Marmaduck” the Muscovy Duck to a sprinkler and try to encourage him to take a bath.  The idea was the sprinkler could be used as a reward for Marmaduck coming out to the Event Center Lawn for encounters with the public.  

Even though ducks like water, Marmaduck was initially leery of the apparatus spitting out the water but he enjoyed the water itself, so he stood as far away from the sprinkler as he could while still getting wet.  Slowly he moved towards the sprinkler.  As an incentive, Keeper Carrie offered him mealworms, one of his favorite treats, as an incentive to come closer to the sprinkler.  

Raquel recorded every tentative step with her video camera. Visitors were now gathering to see what this duck was going to do. With patience growing thin, and Keeper Carrie now soaking wet, Marmaduck decided the sprinkler was okay, and went right into the spray.  When Keeper Carrie moved his water dish towards him, he first started dipping his head in, then his neck, then he stood on the edge of the dish until finally, and not very gracefully, he plopped his whole body into the water.  

If you saw a medium-sized wild cat in North America with a short tail and tufted ears, would you know what it was?  It could be a Canadian Lynx, or it could be a Bobcat.  Both are members of the genus Lynx which includes: Eurasian Lynx, Spanish Lynx, Canadian Lynx, and Bobcats.  Here are a few ways to tell the cousins apart.

Lynx have larger feet and longer legs than the Bobcat.  Lynx also have longer ear tufts and fur on their cheeks.  The Lynx tail has a black tip and bobcat tails are black on top and white on the bottom.  Bobcats also tend to have more spots.

The easiest way to tell the difference is location.  Lynx are found in Canada and only in six states such as: Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Washington.  Bobcats are found from Southern Canada through Mexico.  Lynx prefer forests, but will go anywhere they can find their primary prey: snowshoe hares.  Bobcats are much less picky about both prey and habitat.  They can be found in marshes, deserts, scrub, mountains, and forests.  Bobcats hunt birds, mice and have even been known to take on a deer.

If you'd like a closer look, you can see both Canadian Lynx and Bobcats at the Sanctuary.  

Social Media has been a-buzz over the last few days of people seeing bees and butterflies out and about this early in the year.  I have enjoyed the warmer weather, but was very surprised to see a squirrel today, when it is still January.

I checked the weather we have had for the month and compared it to the average for the month of January.  The average High is never above 60 degrees and we have had 10 days above 60 and two days reaching as high as 68!  So that confirms to me that yes, it has been unseasonably warm.

I did a little research on what this means for our hibernating friends, like the squirrel.  I found that a winter warm snap can be detrimental if animals come out of hibernation before there is enough food available to sustain them.

According to Terry Root, a researcher at Stanford University, coming out of hibernation requires a lot of energy and uses up an animal's fat reserves. They are able to return to torpor, but they don't have the fat reserves to wake up a second time and so their body pulls the energy from their muscles instead. 

Plants and animals use different cues to determine when winter is over and it is time to wake up. Some use temperature, but others use snow pack depth or day length.  This means an animal may wake up, but the plants it eats won't sprout for another month.

I'm sure the squirrel I saw will be fine.  Because the animals at the Sanctuary get fed everyday, I'm sure the squirrel will scrounge something up.  As for the insects, I hope they are able to sleep just a little longer until the flowers bloom that provide most of their diets. 

Meanwhile, I still appreciate being able to wear short sleeves outdoors before February.

It is pretty standard for a Gift Shop employee or volunteer to ask visitors as they are leaving if they enjoyed their visit and what animals they saw.  During this time of year, the answer is usually "We were able to see almost everyone, except the bears."

In the winter, American Black Bears hibernate, which is officially defined as "specialized, seasonal reduction in metabolism concurrent with scarce food and cold weather." (Watts et al. 1981) The reason for this distinction is due to the lingering debate of whether or not what bears do is actually considered to be hibernation because their body temperature does not drop as much as, say, a ground squirrel.

Bears can go up to 100 days without eating, drinking, urinating, defecating or exercising.  Females will wake in January or February to give birth and then the young cub nurses

from the mother until mom wakes up in the spring.

The American Black Bears at the Sanctuary (Shash and Augustus) do not hibernate, so throughout the winter, they continue to eat, drink, exercise, and (much to the keepers' dismay) defecate.  This is because the bears continue to be fed throughout the winter, so there is no need for them to hibernate. 

There are instances of bears in the wild not hibernating as well, if the weather is warm and/or there is plenty of food available through the winter.  There are also cases of bears in the wild not hibernating because they weren't able to find enough food during the fall, so they have to continue to look for food during the winter.

Shash and Augustus still tend to be rather lethargic in the winter. Your best chance of seeing a bear at the Sanctuary during the winter is when Shash gets fed at 1pm everyday, especially on cold days.  I guess bearing the cold really means cuddling up somewhere warm and taking a nap.  Happy winter everyone.

Today is a perfect example of how changeable the weather can be in Prescott this time of year.  This morning there was snow, and now it has warmed and the sun is out. Most of the evidence of this morning's storm has now turned into puddles or mud.

Strangely enough, days with odd weather patterns can be one of the best times to visit the Sanctuary.  Many of the animals don't mind the strange weather, while others actually seem to enjoy it.  We don't get enough snow here for it to become mundane and all animals welcome a bask in the sun when it is chilly.