It’s a year’s pass to a fun place with the family AND –

It’s our family holiday tradition of Zoo Lights AND -

It’s admission to a water park, special member previews, and exciting events AND –

It’s discounts on the Safari Train, Stingray Bay, the carousel, and even discounted or free admission to over 160 other zoos and aquariums worldwide, AND –

It’s the place our sons came to for school dioramas and science fair inspiration, AND –

It’s the Early Childhood Breakfasts that engaged my grandson’s imagination and connected the two of us with mutual amazement at the abilities of animals, BUT –

Our membership to the Phoenix Zoo extends well beyond our single family and so far beyond the valley.

Funny how I skimmed past the Zoo’s vision and mission statements in the 90’s “Arizoo” magazine and the current member magazine “Wild Times” until I started volunteering to write feature articles for the Zoo e-news in 2005. Well, maybe not so funny, because there are so many interesting articles that catch my attention. But as Zoo members, it was our vision and mission, too, though we never realized how hard or in how many places our membership monies were working while we were having fun at the Zoo.

Now I know we’re part of a community dedicated to improving people’s lives through interaction with nature and excelling in conservation, education, exhibition and recreation. We help provide a healthy, safe, stimulating and respect-filled home to over a thousand individual animals. We supply classroom resources to educators http://edventures.phoenixzoo.org/teachers.html , send animal experts and animals all over the state to classrooms, clubs, senior centers and community organizations, teach tens of thousands of children who come to the Zoo for family programs, school field trips, guided tours, workshops, and exciting home-schooling adventures, and even provide homework help at http://edventures.phoenixzoo.org/pHomeworkHelp.html

My membership dollars are at work ensuring healthy and satisfying lives for the individual animals in the Zoo’s collection, but they’re also busy in Arizona and around the world funding and helping research and conservation efforts, too, around the globe. “As zoos struggle to define what they are supposed to be and do, they’re finding an ever-greater role in saving animals in the wild,” says Michael Hutchins, director for conservation and science at the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. “Zoos are becoming protectors rather than collectors of wildlife.”

http://www.phoenixzoo.org/learn/conservation_efforts.aspx

http://www.phoenixzoo.org/learn/conservation_efforts_detail.aspx?ARTICLE_ID=100637

And as Zoo members, that’s what we all are, too! My heart as a mom and grandma, my passion as someone who cares about the world, and my thanks go to the Phoenix Zoo for making us part of something so much greater than we could ever do on our own.

About the author ~ Rose is a Program Assistant for the School and Family Programs at the Phoenix Zoo

Your Phoenix Zoo is front page news today!

The Arizona Republic featured an article highlighting our 47 years of historic conservation efforts with the Arabian Oryx! The article is also available online:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2010/11/15/20101115oryx-phoenix-zoo-jordan.html

Front Page of the 11/15/2010 Arizona Republic image from newseum.org

The Tamer has finally arrived at Shaumari. We spent the morning setting it up and training the staff on how to use it. In order to keep the animals as calm as possible, the staff will need to take the next few months to slowly accustom the animals to the presence of the Tamer until they are no longer nervous about being near or within the chute system. Once they get to that point, the staff will be able to run the animals through the chute, restrain individuals in the tamer for the common veterinary and husbandry procedures, and manage the herd with a minimum of stress and without any of the associated risks of anesthesia.

After the training with the tamer, we drove around the perimeter of the reserve in order to get a better look at the issues with the fencing. Due to the habitat degredation outside of Shaumari, the watershed system (known here as a Wadis) around Shaumari is no longer functioning as it should. The desert landscape is essentially barren of vegetation compared to what it would naturally look like. This lack of vegetation is allowing for large amounts of water run off to travel freely across the ground, as it is no longer being slowed down and absorbed by the vegetation and root systems. These floods bring with them huge amounts of soil and debris that are essentially washed down from further up the wadi basin. When this debris encounters the Shaumari fence line, it builds up against the fence eventually burying the fencing. This has been a huge area of concern for Shaumari since they are relying on the fencing system to keep the animals within the reserve. Unfortunately, it is a problem that will have to be managed for the time being rather than fixed as there is too much destruction of habitat outside of the reserve at this point to correct the problem quickly.

This afternoon, we visited one of the near by desert castles, known as Amra castle. It was built as a hunting lodge / bath back in the 8th century. It was impressive to see the size of the huge stones that were used to build this structure prior to the invention of any modern machinery. The amount of time and effort that was put into its construction was amazing. The ceilings and walls of the interior were painted with various scenes depicting the area flora and fauna that was present around Amra at that time. It depicted a much different habitat than is present now, including forests with herds of different antelope species, multiple bird species, camels, and even monkeys. Although the images have faded and chipped over time, they are still amazingly detailed.

For dinner, we returned to Shaumari for a kabob barbeque put on by the reserve staff. The lamb kabobs were excellent and all of us ate a bit too much! After dinner we went for a short night drive around the park to spotlight and see what animals we could find. There was a lot of jerboa and hares and we saw the onagers again, however the neatest one was the wild hedgehogs! The species present in Jordan are about twice the size of the typical pet hedgehog in the states, but otherwise the appearance is very similar. Amazingly enough, the Beduoins actually use these spiny animals as a food source here!