by White, Betty
I have close friends who want nothing to do with reptiles: Donna Ellerbusch, Patty Sullivan, and Loretta Barrett. However, when they saw how relaxed and beautiful these creatures are, they got terribly brave and actually held them and felt completely different about them!
This chapter isn’t about only snakes and reptiles—there are many animal friends you might just learn to love if you give them a chance.
I was lucky. I didn’t inherit my father’s fear of snakes or of any type of animal—except maybe humans.
Jacob the Boa Constrictor
Each spring, the zoo holds its fund-raiser, the Beastly Ball, which is fantastic. When you arrive, you walk down a path where there are various keepers holding animals—most of whom you can’t touch.
And then there’s Jacob, the boa constrictor. Yes, I am close friends with a boa constrictor. Jacob loves to be held. He slips into your arms, where he relaxes completely.
This is an Aruba rattlesnake. Once again, the picture says it all.
Rowley’s palm viper
Baby Emerald Tree Boa
This is a baby emerald tree boa. The way he’s sitting is a natural position for a snake—he can unwind and have purchase but still shoot forward to grab his prey.
These snakes seem languid in the day, but they’re nocturnal. So at night the reptile house is alive with movement.
Armadillo
Uncurled, you get a whole armadillo. But when he curls up, he’s perfectly spherical and all you get is a hard little armored ball.
Otis
Maggie and Otis
When I first began working with the L.A. Zoo, Maggie and Otis were already established residents. A mated pair of hippopotamuses—hippopotami? —they were devoted to each other.
There are only two species of hippopotamus existing today—the pygmy hippo and the common, or Nile, hippo. The name “hippopotamus” comes from the ancient Greek word for water horse, but the hippo’s closest relative is the whale.
Maggie and Otis weighed in somewhere in the eight-thousand-pound neighborhood. Pygmy hippos are much smaller—about three hundred and fifty pounds. Pygmy hippos birth their young on land, but their large common cousins have their babies underwater. Over the years I went through three birthings with Maggie and was always thrilled to see a new miniature version swimming after its mommy.
Maggie
Arabian Oryx
In profile, this animal looks to be one-horned and may have started the legend of the unicorn.
Tortoise
The giant tortoise can live for more than one hundred years.
Rock Hyrax
These little mammals are called rock hyrax. Believe it or not, they are the closest living relative of the elephant!
Komodo Dragons
These spectacular creatures are the largest living lizards on earth—and are carnivorous. They will attack prey larger than themselves. There are about four to five thousand living in the wild, in Indonesia, where they are vulnerable, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. These guys are impressive to see, and with a name that includes the word “dragon,” they are a great attraction in zoos. Actually, they have been somewhat rare in captivity, because they contract infectious and parasitic diseases easily and supposedly do not reproduce too readily.
Well, this is certainly not the case at the L.A. Zoo, where, for the second year in a row, we have a batch of more than twenty eggs incubating. Last year, twenty-two of twenty-three eggs hatched viable live Komodos!
My question: Why are they so rare when they have so many babies?
Midori the Mountain Tapir
The mountain tapir comes from Colombia and Ecuador, where they’re sometimes kept as pets.
They’re an interesting combination—related to both the horse and the rhinoceros, due to the fact that they have an odd number of toes. They’re very rare in captivity—there are only twelve of them at five zoos around the world. They’re incredibly gentle—if you scratch them under their chins, they’re completely sedated and the keepers can administer medicine or do tests on them if needed. Tapirs have a gestation period of thirteen months. Our Midori has had eight babies! Her firstborn was sent to another zoo in the U.S., and then to a Canadian zoo. Another of her offspring was sent to Colombia. In these ways, we can educate others about animals from around the world—and those who live in the local habitat as well. This helps an endangered species like the tapir, whose predators are jaguars . . . and humans.
CONCLUSION
Thank you for taking this little zoo tour with me. Hope you had a good time. I know I did.
On your next trip to your zoo, please think of us and look a little deeper. If you see something you don’t like, report it, of course, but really enjoy the things you do like, and spread the word.
When I lost Allen, I was so deeply moved that the Koala Pavilion was dedicated to him with a plaque showing his great love of animals. There was another wonderful friend involved in making that possible: Grant Tinker.
PRECIOUS RESOURCES
Tad Motoyama
Tad Motoyama and I first met when he came to work at the L.A. Zoo as official photographer in 1986. Over time he became aware of my passion for animals and began giving me prints of his incredible photos, which, of course, I have treasured.
At long last it dawned on me that these works of art must be shared. Hence this book.
A California native, Tad was born in 1942 in Man-zanar, the Japanese internment facility, during World War II. His interest in photography began in high school.
Tad has a remarkable eye that enables him to capture images of animal behavior at crucial moments that we often miss.
A true artist.
Acknowledgments
In all my years at the zoo, so many people contributed to this project that it would be impossible to name them. However, I must say a special thank-you to my longtime friend and literary agent, Loretta Barrett, to my new good friend and publisher at Putnam, Marysue Rucci, and to Jason Jacobs, head of publicity at the Los Angeles Zoo, for making it all possible. I thank all concerned from the bottom of my heart.
Websites for Further Information and Discovery
Listed below are the websites for the zoos and aquariums with whom we worked in the development of this book. For comprehensive listings of accredited zoos and aquariums, and to find your local zoo, please visit the website for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums at aza.org, or the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums at waza.org
Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens
www.lazoo.org
Sacramento Zoo
www.saczoo.org
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
www.clemetzoo.com
Georgia Aquarium
www.georgiaaquarium.org
Albuquerque BioPark Zoo
www.cabq.gov/biopark/zoo
The Gorilla Foundation
www.koko.org
Columbus Zoo and Aquarium
www.colszoo.org
Zoo Atlanta
www.zooatlanta.org
San Diego Zoo
www.sandiegozoo.org
Brookfield Zoo
www.brookfieldzoo.org
Lincoln Park Zoo
www.lpzoo.org
Central Park Zoo
www.centralparkzoo.com
Philadelphia Zoo
www.philadelphiazoo.org
Denver Zoo
www.denverzoo.org
Woodland Park Zoo
www.zoo.org
Endangered Wolf Center
www.endangeredwolfcenter.org
The Living Desert
www.livingdesert.org
Photo Credits
Photos on pages 45, 61, 74, 77, 99, 110, 131, 164, 177, 180, 192, 250, 252, 260, and 295: Courtesy of Tad Motoyama
Photo on page 87: Courtesy of Betty White Private Collection
Photo on page 88: Courtesy of Neil Johnston
Photo on page 89: Courtesy of Jennifer Bell, Senior Zo
okeeper/ABQ BioPark
Photos on pages 90, 93, 226, and 241: Courtesy of Georgia Aquarium
Photos on pages 90 and 97: Courtesy of Dr. Thomas to Los Angeles Zoo
Photos on pages 161 and 235: Courtesy of Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Photo on page 236: Courtesy of Sacramento Zoo Staff Photo
Photo on page 238: Courtesy of Dr. Ron Cohn/Gorilla Foundation/koko.org
Photo on page 280: Courtesy of Miguel Gutierrez
All other photos: Courtesy of Tad Motoyama/Los Angeles Zoo
Nearly the End
The End ..