November 2019 - February 2020 IN THIS ISSUE On the Cover New Enrichment for Snakes . 3 Sandhill Cranes travel up to 7,000 miles Sandhill Cranes by Thousands. 4 & 5 annually: They fly from northern Mexico, New arrivals in the Education Dept . 6 California, Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico Volunteer Update . .7 to summer breeding grounds in the Rocky Brew at the Zoo . .8 & 9 Mountains, Canada, Alaska, and even Siberia. They make the return trip in the fall with their Year in Life of BAAZK Member . 10 fledged young on the wing. This years Welcome Dr. Samantha King . 11 migration totals were more than 650,000 Boo at the Zoo . 12 & 13 Sandhill Cranes. Scouts and the Brandywine Zoo . 14 Executive Director’s Letter . 15 Board of Directors Photo by: Jim Smigie Arlene Reppa, President Diana DeBenedictis, Vice President Kevin Brandt, Treasurer Vickie Innes, Secretary Serena Wilson-Archie Gabe Baldini Sarah Cole Candice Galvis Linda M. Gray Amy Hughes Megan McGlinchey Michael Milligan William S. Montgomery Matthew Ritter, (DNREC) Richard Rothwell Daniel F. Scholl Michael T. Allen, Executive Director Brint Spencer, Zoo Director Support Staff Melanie Flynn, Visitor Services Manager Jennifer Lynch, Marketing & Special Events Manager Kate McMonagle Membership Coordinator Saturday Dec. 14 & Sunday Dec. 15 EDITORS WRITERS 9:00-10:00 AM Mike Allen** Mike Allen** Jennifer Lynch** Emily Culkin** Celebrate the holidays by enjoying a pancake, egg, & sausage Meghan Hoopes** breakfast with Santa! Share your holiday wishes, PHOTO CONTRIBUTIONS Danielle Leverage* bring your camera to take photos with Santa and some animal friends, Janey Kramlik* Jennifer Lynch** and enjoy a few up-close animal encounters Jennifer Lynch** Aliana Raulerso** all before the zoo opens. Plus, watch a few animals get their breakfast! Douglas Norton Jim Smigie Breakfast provided by Janssen’s Market. Jim Smigie Brint Spencer* All participants ages 18 months and up must pay program fee. Jacque Williamson** Katelin Stroman* Katherine Ward DesIGN/PRINTING Pre-registration required. Space is very limited for this event, Professional so please register early. Duplicating, Inc * Delaware State Parks Staff Member Members: $19 | Non-members: $22 ** Delaware Zoological Staff Member The Zoo News is a publication of the Delaware Zoological Society. watch animals get their breakfast www.brandywinezoo.org 2 New Enrichment for Snakes By: Aliana Raulerson, Program Animal Apprentice The Brandywine Zoo’s Education The snake board is both an enrich- Department debuted our new snake ment opportunity for the snakes climbing board during a Saturday Crea- and an educational opportunity ture Feature in September! The board for our visitors. Visitors get the consists of wooden pegs and rock- chance to see how these snakes climbing holds that our snakes can move in the wild, an especially scale to demonstrate climbing abilities exciting experience since many they would exhibit in the wild. This people wonder how snakes are board is one example of enrichment, able to climb with no arms or which are items animals can interact legs! Watching them contort their with to encourage natural behaviors. bodies around the holds and use Several of the snake species in our am- their muscles to push off sections bassador animal collection are semi-ar- of the board provides a more clear boreal or arboreal, meaning they spend demonstration of how snakes at least part of their lives in trees, and move. Guests that have seen our this board provides a new method of snake board in action enjoy watch- enrichment for those species. On the ing the snakes move freely, includ- snake board, our snakes are free to ing our large red-tailed boa who move whichever direction they please can look intimidating at first! It and climb as high as they want, allow- is my hope that this board can ing more opportunities for movement than they usu- help us spread the message that snakes are intrigu- ally have when we present them in hand. The snake ing, misunderstood animals and that they are not to board was my Demonstration of Learning project I be feared. Now that the weather is getting colder completed as the Brandywine Zoo’s Program Animal we will be bringing our ambassador reptiles into the Apprentice, and I am glad our snakes now have more zoo less often, but be on the lookout next spring and opportunities to practice and show off their amazing summer for our snakes showing what they can do on climbing skills. the snake board! 3 Sandhill Cranes by the Thousands By Katherine Ward and Jim Smigie Nearly four feet tall, with a wingspan of about six feet, packed, but safe, on sandbars all night, and feed in nearby Sandhill Cranes travel up to 7,000 miles annually: They fields all day. fly from northern Mexico, California, Arizona, Texas, We arrived on March 27, a balmy 74-degree day. On the and New Mexico to summer breeding grounds in the way to a Nebraska Parks Department potluck feast of Rocky Mountains, Canada, Alaska, and even Siberia. tasty downhome cookin’, we caught our first glimpse They make the return trip in the of the cranes. On their dark, fall with their fledged young on stilt-like legs, they were feeding the wing. among the furrows in a field Late last March, we flew a thou- and “dancing” to attract a mate. sand miles to the small town of Their necks and bodies – long Kearney, on the North Platte and lean – were covered with River in central Nebraska, to gray feathers, punctuated with witness the migration of what, some that were black along wing in 2019, was more than 650,000 tips and tails and white around Sandhill Cranes. With power- the eyes. Foreheads of the adults ful downstrokes of their large were crimson capped, but with wings, or by gliding on thermals, skin, not feathers. the cranes had flown nearly that At five the next morning, by far – at about thirty miles an hour then in the frosty 30s, we en- – to reach their annual stopover tered a Crane Trust blind on the along the North Platte to rest, edge of the Platte River. While feed and gain weight, and to find shivering in the covered blind in a lifelong mate. There, the river is the dark, we heard an unbroken wide and shallow with farmland cacophony of crane cries, even largely free of trees and shrubs above a booming thunderstorm. At daybreak, we could on either side, making the waterway a haven for the birds. see an estimated 60,000 cranes standing on sandbars, With a 360-degree view from the middle of the river that some beginning to fly off against the rising sun to forage. enables them to see any predators, the cranes stand tightly That afternoon it snowed. 4 The rest of the week we drove along solitary country around much longer lanes and dirt roads to photograph cranes feeding in than that. The most fields almost ready for spring planting. Cranes eat what- ancient crane fossil, ever is available when there is no more waste corn: seeds, estimated to be ten berries, and tubers as well as things they can catch, such million years old, was as worms and insects, and even snakes, frogs, and mice. found in northeast Nebraska; the oldest On March 31, fossil known to be that from an Audubon of a Sandhill Crane Rowe Sanctuary dates back 2.5 million blind, we beheld years, making these a blazing sunset primeval birds possibly with thousands the oldest avian species of cranes calling, on Earth. calling, calling, and stretching in long The Brandywine Zoo lines across the is fortunate to have a slowly darkening Sandhill Crane. Come sky when returning visit Sandy and learn to the sandbars. We more about these left the blind that fascinating birds that night, dazzled by the age-old ritual of 100,000 cranes that have a “vocabulary” flew back to the river and, with wings stretched wide, legs with at least ten dis- dangling, floated down and down until their feet touched tinct calls and body the dark Nebraska river that has nurtured them and kept language that varies them safe for thousands of years. from “standing tall” to dancing to stick tossing – used for countless eons to Every year, from mid-February to mid-April, about communicate with their fellow travelers. eighty percent of the migrating cranes stop along the same 70-mile stretch of the Katherine Ward, executive director of Delaware Press Associa- North Platte near the vast Sandhills tion, is a national award-winning author and editor. of Nebraska, just as they have since the last ice age, ten to Jim Smigie, Brandywine Zoo volunteer and photographer. twelve thousand years ago. But these birds have been 5 New Arrivals in the Education Department By: Emily Culkin, Program Animal Coordinator Over the past year, we have added several individuals to our Program H ermit Crab: Animal Collection within our Educa- Our most recent acquisition is tion Department. These are the neither a reptile nor a mammal, he’s animals that travel off site to schools an invertebrate! As a representative and libraries with our Traveling Zoo, of our Hermit Crab colony, Lenny, and interact with visitors at the zoo the land hermit crab, has definitely during our Wildlife Shows and Crea- added important messaging to our ture Features. We have had a variety curriculum. As Delaware is a seaside of new arrivals this year and they state, many of the popular tourist have greatly increased the diversity of beach towns sell these charismatic our collection. critters. However, hermit crabs require a lot more care and resources Boas: than people expect and are unsus- We had two new snakes join our col- tainably harvested from the wild.