The El Paso Zoo is a great place to learn more about wildlife native to the Chihuahuan DesertNovember 19, 2014

One of El Paso’s best kept secrets has been in the works and evolving completely on its own for thousands of years. Today, biologists call this unique eco-region the Chihuahuan Desert, an area of North America covering the surface of our planet for nearly 400,000 square miles. During the Pleistocene, not long after the last ice age, the climate changed dramatically in this part of North America. The ensuing aridity made way for a desert landscape. You and your family and friends can discover it and learn more about this important part of our natural heritage when you visit the El Paso Zoo.

At the Zoo you can see many wildlife species native to the Chihuahuan Desert. The Zoo is uniquely divided into three major geographic areas, Asia, Africa and the Americas. To find species from our desert be sure to spend time in the Americas area. Some of these species are extremely rare including the critically endangered black-footed ferret that lives in the El Paso Water Utilities Discovery Education Center near the Zoo entrance and the Mexican wolf. Although both of these species no longer live in the immediate El Paso area, the Mexican wolf is being returned to the wild in the Gila Wilderness area of western New Mexico and Arizona about 3 hours to the west. To the south a similar reintroduction effort is underway to restore the black-footed ferret to the prairie dog towns of the Janos grasslands region of northern Chihuahua, Mexico.

The prairie dogs living at the Zoo across from the Sea Lion Exhibit are black-tailed prairie dogs. The prairie dog is called a keystone species meaning that it plays a very important role in helping the surrounding natural world stay healthy. Prairie dog burrows help to provide ways for water to go underground. All the burrows they dig combined with their droppings and plant materials they bring in with them help to enrich the soil. The diversity of life in the area also benefits as burrows provide habitat for many other species including Burrowing Owls, gopher snakes and black-footed ferrets. Nearly 200 animal species have been observed in or near prairie dog colonies!

Some of our Chihuahuan Desert species at the Zoo are found in the wilder areas in and around our city including the Western Harris Hawk, Western Cattle Egret, Swainson’s Hawk and the Common Barn Owl. Did you know that Harris Hawks will often hunt in groups like a pack of wolves? We have a female Harris Hawk named Sadie and a male named Horizon. A third Harris Hawk shown during animal encounter programs is called Houdini. Watch for them the next time you visit Rio Bosque Wetlands Park in the lower valley.

Our collared peccaries, also called javelinas, live in the area, but are very rare. This pig-like mammal is relatively new to the Franklin Mountains and may be expanding its range from southern New Mexico and parts of West Texas. Javelinas are found throughout much of the tropical and subtropical Americas, ranging from the Southwestern United States to northern Argentina in South America. They feed on fruits, roots, tubers, palm nuts, grasses, invertebrates and small vertebrates.

Another large mammal can be seen on the road to the Guadalupe Mountains after you pass Hueco Tanks State Park and head towards Carlsbad Caverns. Along the way watch for Mexican pronghorn, a very similar subspecies to the endangered peninsular pronghorns we have living in the Americas Lands Exhibit. Pronghorn have survived in North America since the Pleistocene age (10,000 to 1.8 million years ago) when they lived during the time of now extinct ground sloths, short-faced bears, tapirs, camels and mammoths. More than likely they developed the ability to run at high speeds to avoid the American cheetah, Miracinonyx, another extinct species from this period.

In the Reptile House you can see several species of reptiles and amphibians from the Chihuahuan Desert including a diamond-backed rattlesnake, grey-banded kingsnake, Mexican milksnake, barred tiger salamander, and Woodhouse’s toad.

A stones throw away from the Reptile House the America’s Aviary is also a great place to see some of our Chihuahuan Desert birds. As you walk through the aviary watch for the Roadrunner, Northern Mockingbird, Mourning Dove, and Blue-winged Teal.

One of the rarest Chihuahuan Desert species at the Zoo is found in the Carbonera pupfish. This endangered pupfish is found in the wild only in the Samalayuca Dunes of northern Mexico, 35 miles south of El Paso in the state of Chihuahua. Since 2004, hundreds of baby pupfish have hatched in El Paso Zoo aquariums. In the wild pupfish eat microscopic algae called diatoms and small invertebrates like amphipods, gastropods and ostracods. The El Paso Zoo and the Dallas Zoo and Children’s Aquarium are the only facilities that have this species. Look for them in the spring exhibit inside the El Paso Water Utilities Discovery Education Center.

To learn more about the Chihuahuan Desert check out the website of the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition, one of our conservation partner organizations, at chihuahuandesert.org.
Every year CDEC helps Franklin Mountains State Park organize the annual Chihuahuan Desert Fiesta during the third Saturday of September.

About the Author

Rick LoBello has worked in the field of conservation education since 1973 when he started his career as Zoological Curator at the Kansas City Museum of History and Science. He has spent 25 years working as a park ranger and Executive Director at four national parks including Big Bend, Yellowstone, Guadalupe and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks. Since coming to work at the El Paso Zoo in 2002 he has served as Education Curator and has been very active in conservation programs in the region working with organizations like the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition and the Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition. Over the years his efforts have been honored by Rotary International, the National Park Service and most recently by the Trans Pecos Audubon Society and The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality 2012 Environmental Summit. In 2009 he wrote a guidebook for Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International entitled Guide to Rwanda's Volcanoes National Park: Home to Critically Endangered Mountain Gorillas available on Amazon.com

The healing power of our mountains and what they mean to our veterans

By Rick LoBello

Soon after Organ Mountains Desert Peaks National Monument was created by President Obama's use of the Antiquities Act, a blog post by Garett Reppenhagen, Rocky Mountain West Coordinator of the Vet Voice Foundation reminded me of some comments I heard in Las Cruces.  Earlier this year Secretary of the Interior Salley Jewell came to meet with local folks and stakeholders about the proposed national monument.  Many who spoke out at the public meeting were Veterans, and they reminded all of us of the healing power of mountains for soldiers returning from the battlefield and all the stresses of adjusting back to civilian life. It was very clear to me then and today that often times we do not think about how the mountains we want to protect are perfect locales for fighting pain and mental stresses, not just for everyday folks, but also for our Veterans.  Reppenhagen reminds all of us of this when he wrote “Veterans across America thank New Mexico Senators Udall and Heinrich for introducing legislation to help call attention to this wondrous land, and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell for taking the time to visit the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks region and listening to the input of Las Cruces area veterans

When I was growing up many of my uncles and my grandfather were Veterans of World Wars I, II and the Korean War.  When they returned home nearly all of them spent their weekends roaming the mountains of Western New York State on camping trips and during the hunting and fishing seasons.   As I look back on that time I realize how important these mountains were to my family as they dealt with the everyday stresses of not only adjusting to civilian life, but also to life in general.

Mountains have always been a source of healing in my own life and in to the lives of so many of my friends.  Here in El Paso we must not forget that we have thousands of Veterans who have recently returned from the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq.   They too need the healing power of these mountains, not just in the Organs, but in the Franklin Mountains as well. 

When we talk to our friends and relatives and elected officials we should bring this point up to them and remind them that working to protect our natural heritage is not only important to our ecosystem, but also to the mental well-being of those who have fought for their country and helped to protect our freedoms.  And let us not forget those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, they have families here who need our mountains too.

https://www.facebook.com/franklinorganmountains

  

The Impossible Dream?

The Rio Grande in Northern New Mexico, Photo album by Rick LoBello

I have this view of the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico on my website at iloveparks.com.  Every time I look at it I ask myself this question. Why can't we bring back the Rio Grande to look something like this around El Paso? Are we not smart enough to do it or do we lack the will? I think it is about will. We have to want it. 

I will never forget July 21, 1969 when Americans Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first to step onto the lunar surface. Heck if we can put a man on the moon don't you think we can restore part of the Rio Grande back to its original state? 

I think it is possible, but only if the community, especially the millennials out there who have the most at stake, will get involved in supporting efforts helping to protect their environment.  

I am disheartened by the number of people who are more connected to their cars and their fun activities inside buildings, who have no idea of how important our natural environment is to their quality of life now and in the future.

Join me in reaching out to younger generations. They need to know how to invest in their quality of life and their future. 

On my website I have listed a number of things that people can do to get involved here in El Paso. If you have other items you want me to add let me know.

Catching up with an old friend from Alpine

It has easily been over 30 years since I have had the opportunity to spend anytime catching up with my old friend Roy McBride from Alpine. Roy and I worked on our Masters Degrees at Sul Ross State University when I first moved to Texas in 1974. Back in those days Roy was a living legend of sorts because of his experience and knowledge of predators in the Southwest. As a result when the time came to launch an emergency rescue effort to save the Mexican wolf from extinction, Roy was the man the US Fish and Wildlife Service called to take the lead.

During the time that we were riding around West Texas together talking about wolves, bears and mountain lions we shared a lot and for a short time I lived with him and his wife Jerry while I was still in school. I was saddened to learn when we talked last week that Jere had passed away 14 years ago. She was a wonderful lady and I have very fond memories of her.

I wrote about those days and the Mexican wolf in a chapter I wrote for a book called War Against the Wolf. That was back in 1995 and I hope to someday update my reflections in my own book. The book is a comprehensive history of American sentiment about the wolf and is still available on Amazon.com.

Roy is still out working with predators helping with conservation efforts and keeping his business going in Alpine. I hope we can meet and catch up in person soon.

Below is an excerpt from the chapter I wrote entitled 1995: Aqui No Hay Mas Lobos where I wrote about Roy. Later I posted an old 8mm film on YouTube that I took of one of the last wild wolves from Mexico that Roy captured for the captive breeding program that is now helping to restore the species in the wild.

If anyone knew where to find wolves in Mexico and how to capture them, Roy was the man. It was ironic that after playing a small part in helping to bring the species to the brink of extinction, he was now being asked to help save it. One of the last wild endangered Mexican wolves known to science glared at me from inside a large enclosure on McBride's small ranch. I can still picture it's shaggy gray-and-rust- colored coat and how out of place it looked from behind the wire fence. A three-minute 8mm movie film refreshes my memory of that haunting day. My heart is filled with sadness at the thought that to save the species we had to capture the last known survivors and keep them and their descendants in pens until the time that it will be safe to release them back into the wild.

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Kids love bugs, big time!by Rick LoBello

Make Plans to attend Bug Awareness Weekend at the El Paso Zoo – August 2-3

The harmless vinegaroon is found in the desert areas of El Paso. It gets its name from a vinegar like smelling acid that it will squirt at its enemies.

Do you know of any children that like bugs? The El Paso Zoo does and every year we break out the bugs just for them. It’s a back to school “bug out” and our educators with lots of help from zoo keepers, volunteers and our resident chef, get all buggy just thinking about the fun weekend ahead. Bug lovers you say? Yep, kids love bugs; you can see it in their faces, no doubt about it.

Children at the Zoo enjoying a close up look at a tarantula.

Now if you are an entomologist, you know that of the more than one million different kinds of bugs scientists have described so far, “true bugs” belong to the insect order called Hemiptera. These are the oval shaped insects with flattened bodies and mouths that let them suck blood or juices from plants, animals or humans. They include cicadas, aphids (like the ones you find in vegetable gardens), leafhoppers, kissing bugs and bed bugs.

Here at the Zoo and pretty much across the country, most people refer to the entire world of creepy crawlers as bugs, no matter what order they are classified in. The Zoo’s bug collection is used mainly for education presentations called Zoo Adventure Programs offered to school groups. We also show them at special animal encounter programs for the general public in our discovery centers. The list of species living here includes tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes and insects like whirligig beetles, diving beetles and water bugs. Most of what we have lives right here in El Paso, but they are rarely seen because of their nocturnal lifestyles.

The Zoo plans to feature an exhibit with bugs as part of a new Chihuahuan Desert experience exhibit expected to open in 2018. As you enter the area you will have an opportunity to go inside an abandoned ranch house where an amazing array of insects and small animals have moved in and taken over. Until then our educators will feature our bugs during special events and educational programs. Currently we maintain a collection of over 25 species including a new red clawed scorpion, Brazilian black tarantula and giant African millipede.

Our Bug Awareness Weekend will tie into the three geographic regions featured at the Zoo. In the El Paso Electric Kalahari Research Center we will have some bugs from Africa. In the El Paso Water Utilities Discovery Education Center we will have our largest collection of bugs from the Americas. Across the Franklin Canal we will have some bugs from Asia in the Asia Discovery Center.

Some zoo-goers can’t get enough of our cricket- chocolate-chip cookies.

You definitely will not want to miss the amazing bug dishes that our resident Chef, Miguel Guillen will be cooking up. Last year we had long lines of bug eaters from across the city coming by to eat up everything the Chef created including Grasshopper Stir Fry, Sweet Cricket Popcorn and Roasted Leaf Cutter Ants. Don’t say “ugh bugs”, all around the world people eat bugs as part of their daily diet. The term entomophagy is used to describe how people eat bugs. Did you know that people have eaten bugs including their eggs and larvae since prehistoric times? Eating bugs is rare in the developed world, but it seems to be growing in popularity here at the Zoo. Who knows, perhaps someday a major TV network will host a bug cooking reality show and we can host it right here in El Paso!

This year I am scheduled to tell some of my favorite desert bug stories in the Cisneros Paraje Discovery Center. Do you know about the amazing relationship between desert termites and spadefoot toads? Years ago a friend of mine who was making a documentary on the Chihuahuan Desert discovered an insect using a tool! At the time I thought only higher primates like humans had that kind of intelligence. During my presentation I will show an amazing video clip of his discovery.

For more information on the event visit our website at www.elpasozoo.org.

Bugs to look for at the Zoo during Bug Awareness Weekend:

Asian forest scorpion
Bahia scarlet bird-eating spider
Bark Scorpion Centruroides
Black velvet spider
Black Widow Spider
Brown tarantula
Centipede (Vietnamese)
Chilean Rose Tarantula
Cobalt Blue Tarantula
Common Emperor Scorpion
Desert Hairy Scorpion
Flat rock scorpion
Giant Sand Scorpion
Indian ornamental tarantula
Madagascan Hissing Cockroach
Pink-toed Tarantula
Sonoran Centipede
Sunburst Diving Beetle
Tailless Whip Scorpion
Tanzanian blue legged centipede
Texas Tan Tarantula
Vinegaroon
Whirligig beetles
Green diving beetle
Water scorpion
Ferocious water bug
Giant water bug

The Chihuahuan Desert

      Biologists have identified five major desert ecoregions in North America.   Here in El Paso we live in the               Chihuahuan Desert.

I first came to know the Chihuahuan Desert while working as a park ranger naturalist in Big Bend National Park back in 1975.    Here is a picture of me during my ranger days standing in Green Gulch, one of my favorite places in the world.  For those not familiar with the park, Green Gulch is the valley that the road to the Chisos Basin climbs on the way to Panther Pass and the trail head to the highest elevations of the Chisos Mountains.

Back in those days I spent most of my time helping park visitors understand how to enjoy the park and understand the park's complex ecosystem.   Nearly 40 years later I find myself continuing that effort as Education Curator at the El Paso Zoo and on the local boards of the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition and the Sierra Club.  This year marks the 10th anniversary of the organization my 40th year living in the Chihuahuan Desert.

My passion for this ecoregion is sustained by my long time studies and passion for communicating to others about the biological riches of the desert ecosystem.  

To learn more about this fascinating place I encourage you to discover for yourself some of the interesting areas protected by our federal, state and local government.   On the Chihuahuan Desert Education Coalition website there is a page called Desert Links.   Check it out and begin your personal journey into the wild.  Connect with others by joining a local conservation group.  You can find many of them on this page and with a little searching you can connect with others on facebook too.




 

Zoo will celebrate 12^th Annual Elephant Festival on June 7-8

By Rick LoBello, Education Curator

Make reservations now for Breakfast with the Elephants – deadline is May 23

For over 50 years the El Paso Zoo has been home to Asian elephants.  Mona was the first followed by Savannah and Juno.   Today, Savannah is one of the oldest living elephants in North America at age 62.  She came here from the Baton Rouge Zoo in Louisiana to be a companion for Mona in 1997.  When Mona died in 2001, Savannah was alone and needed a companion. Soon the Zoo arranged for another elephant named Juno to come to El Paso from the Ringling Brothers Circus in Florida to be Savannah’s companion.  Both elephants can be seen daily in their main Asia exhibit and during daily elephant training programs at noon.  El Pasoans love coming to the Zoo to see their elephants.  Today we can confidently say that over the years millions of school children have experienced seeing their first elephants right here at the El Paso Zoo.

The first time I ever saw an elephant was when I was 4 years old visiting the Buffalo Zoo in New York with my Kindergarten class.  My mother was a chaperon and I will never forget that day.  Like so many others who are working in the field of conservation I credit my experience visiting the zoo as a child in having a profound effect in helping me to decide how I would live the rest of my life.   Today I am working with the El Paso Zoo team and conservation advocates across the country in trying to help save elephants from the impacts of humanity.   The challenge is mindboggling when one thinks about how fast elephant habitat is disappearing in Southeast Asia and all the elephants that are being killed from the growing ivory crisis in Africa.   The world is not a very safe place for these amazing creatures and both the Asian and African species are in danger of going extinct during the lifetimes of the children visiting the Zoo today.

When I was hired as the Zoo’s first Education Curator in 2002, I immediately started working on a plan to make elephant conservation a high priority as part of the Zoo’s conservation education program.   On October 6, 2002, Zoo staff and volunteers presented the Zoo’s first elephant festival celebrating humankind’s 5000 plus year relationship with elephants.  In addition to learning more about Savannah and Juno the event featured conservation education opportunities focused on helping people to get involved.  On June 7-8 the Zoo will host the 12^th Annual Elephant Festival.  Learn more about the event on the Zoo’s website at www.elpasozoo.orgwww.elpasozoo.org and be sure to sign up for “Breakfast with the Elephants.”

Juno and Savannah are conservation ambassadors for elephants around the world.  Elephants are a keystone species playing a critical role in the health of their associated ecosystems. Their role within the Southeast Asia ecosystem and in Africa consists of path making; tree felling, soil aeration and seed dispersal, as well as creating and maintaining water holes. They play a crucial role in maintaining links in the food chain and are the architects of the rainforest, opening up dense woodlands for generations of plants on the forest floor. Such vegetation provides a food supply and hospitable environment for thousands of other wildlife species. These in turn represent a potential food supply for large carnivores such as clouded leopards and Sumatran tigers in Indonesia and Malaysia and leopards, cheetahs and lions in Africa.   Elephants also deposit waste that results in the transfer of nutrients and increased productivity in the ecosystem.

Over the past twelve years, the Zoo’s conservation education program has focused on the last remaining herd of about 200 Sumatran elephants living in Tesso Nilo National Park. Every day Zoo visitors learn about our conservation efforts during the Zoo’s daily noon-time elephant training program. To help protect this ecologically strategic herd and their rainforest habitat, we encourage visitors to join the El Paso Zoological Society and to avoid palm oil.  Palm oil production is killing elephants and other endangered animals around the world as their tropical rainforest habitat is destroyed by expanding palm oil plantations, the largest cause of deforestation in Indonesia and other equatorial countries.

With the help of the El Paso Zoological Society the El Paso Zoo has become the major Zoo sponsor of the World Wildlife Fund’s Flying Squad and overall protection of Tesso Nilo National Park.  The Flying Squad is a small group of domesticated elephants that human handlers called mahouts lead into farming areas near the park where wild elephants come into conflict with people. For over ten years their efforts have helped to decrease the number of conflicts which is essential to the protection of the elephants. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the program has helped to reduce crop damage in some villages by 99%.

Earlier this year the El Paso Zoo signed on with other zoos and conservation organizations to help with a major new conservation effort to help save African elephants.   “96 Elephants” seeks to unite a broad based coalition of partners to coordinate and leverage their collective influence, constituencies, and resources to save African elephants from extinction. Together we aim to secure U.S. legislation that will create a moratorium on ivory sales, raise funds to bolster elephant protection, and educate the public about the link between ivory consumption and elephant killing.   At this year’s Elephant Festival we will encourage our guests to support this new effort by joining the herd at  http://www.96elephants.org.   We will also have a conservation action station in the Kalahari Research Station where children will be able to color a picture of an elephant that will be sent to President Obama as a show of support for the 96 Elephants Campaign.

When I went to Africa in 1989, the same year the international trade in ivory trade was banned, I was fortunate to see my first herd of wild elephants at Masai Mara National Park in Kenya.  Never did I imagine 25 years later that I would see the day when an average of 96 African elephants each day would be killed for their ivory.  Unfortunately this terrible situation is happening as I write this blog.  In 2012 alone 35,000 elephants were killed by poachers in Africa.   Currently there is inadequate protection of elephants, insufficient efforts to halt ivory trafficking, and skyrocketing demand for ivory.  I hope that you will do your part to help elephants and will visit the Zoo during our Elephant Festival on June 7 and 8.