November
November 26, 2003 - Oregon Zoo's Senior Zoomobile Visit Seniors
November 25, 2003 - Oregon Zoo Animals Gobble Thanksgiving Treats
November 21, 2003 - Chendra The Elephant Helps Kick Off 16th Annual Zoolights Holiday Festival
November 17, 2003 - After Nearly 100 Years, Highly Endangered California Condors Return To Oregon Nov. 20
November 14, 2003 - Visitors Go Behind The Scenes To Make Elephant Activities
November 13, 2003 - Oregon Zoo Hosts Annual Turkey Trot Fun Run
November 3, 2003 - Mysteries of Behind the "Zoo" Scenes Revealed During Giraffe Tour
View releases from:
January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December
Oregon Zoo's Senior Zoomobile Visit Seniors
PacifiCare awards a grant to Oregon Zoo to fund ZooMobile program for seniors
PORTLAND, Ore.- Many seniors are unable to visit animals at Oregon Zoo so the zoo is coming to them. The Oregon Zoo and PacifiCare Foundation bring the Senior ZooMobile to 25 residents at Hillside Residence, a nursing and long-term care facility, on Dec. 5 at 10 a.m.
The ZooMobile will bring several small animals and a slide show of recent events to seniors who are unable to visit the zoo. ZooMobile animals include opossums, chickens, rabbits, ducks, and snakes. The ZooMobile begins visiting seniors each fall and plans to visit 54 facilities and more than 1,600 seniors in Oregon for the duration of the annual program.
Francine Stroud, Activities Director at Hillside Residence, was present last year when the ZooMobile visited. She described the experience fondly as, "Fantastic! The zoo even waited to bring out the snake 'till the very end so residents who were uncomfortable could leave if they wanted to. Only one person left and everyone wanted to pet the animals and enjoyed the experience." Stroud also talked about how "the duck was very cute. It was quacking and didn't want to get back in the crate when it was time to go."
PacifiCare Foundation, the non-profit philanthropic arm of PacifiCare Health Systems, Inc. awarded a grant of $4,500 to Oregon Zoo to fund the program. PacifiCare is the first corporate sponsor of the Senior ZooMobile.
" PacifiCare and Oregon Zoo share a mutual commitment to making a positive difference in the lives of seniors," said Tony Vecchio, zoo director. "Many nursing-home residents are unable to leave their facilities. PacifiCare's generous support will allow the ZooMobile to bring a piece of the zoo to them."
According to a study recently published in the Journal of American Geriatric Society, seniors who interact with animals show better-than-average physical health and mental well being compared to seniors who have no interaction with animals.
" The ZooMobile is an innovative and unique program that touches so many people's lives," said David Hansen, vice president and general manager of PacifiCare of Oregon. "PacifiCare has a rich history in Oregon serving the health care needs of seniors. By contributing this grant to the Oregon Zoo, we have a unique opportunity to support a program that enhances the physical and mental health of seniors through contact with animals. The ZooMobile reinforces PacifiCare's belief that caring is good, doing something is better."
PacifiCare, media, and Hillside residents' families are invited to attend the event. Refreshments will be served at 10 a.m. followed by the slide show and animal presentation at 10:30 a.m.
The PacifiCare Foundation, a not-for-profit, philanthropic arm of PacifiCare Health Systems, is sponsoring the holiday party in support of the Oregon Zoo's Senior ZooMobile program. Senior ZooMobile is a unique initiative that brings volunteers and pettable zoo animals to long-term care and assisted living facilities.
Founded in 1887, the award-winning Oregon Zoo is the oldest zoo west of the Mississippi. The zoo is a service of Metro and is committed to conservation of endangered species and their habitats-both locally and around the globe. The zoo is a center for wildlife preservation and field research; its education programs serve schools and senior centers around the region. More than 1.2 million people visit the zoo each year.
Oregon Zoo Animals Gobble Thanksgiving Treats
PORTLAND, Ore.- Animals at Oregon Zoo will celebrate Thanksgiving a day early. Leopards and meerkats will tear apart large turkey-shaped piñatas while polar bears feast on turkey-shaped cream cheese murals on Wednesday, Nov. 26 between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.
Kids who participated in an overnight ZooSnooze decorated the piñatas. They have been invited to witness the meerkats and leopards stomp or play with their turkey-shaped creations.
Zookeepers will paint turkey-shaped cream cheese murals on the windows in the polar bear exhibit. The murals will be placed high and low so the polar bears have to stretch and crawl to taste their treats as visitors watch. The polar bears seek out these treats through sight and smell.
" It's amazing to watch huge polar bears lean against the glass to get at the cream cheese," said JoEllen Marshall, senior marine life keeper.
The turkey-shaped piñatas and cream cheese murals serve as enrichment for the animals. The zoo uses enrichment, a tool used to keep animals mentally stimulated, to encourage natural hunting and foraging behaviors.
According to Tony Vecchio, zoo director, "Animal Enrichment is very important to the health and well-being of the animal; however, it is often done behind the scenes. This opportunity allows visitors to watch animals interact with their Thanksgiving treats."
Other Thanksgiving Day related activities at the Oregon Zoo include Turkey Trot, Nov. 27. The Oregon Road Runners Club (ORRC) organizes this annual Thanksgiving Day event for runners and walkers of all ages. A portion of the proceeds from the Turkey Trot will go to the Oregon Zoo to fund animal care and conservation programs. The zoo's Cascade Grill will offer traditional Thanksgiving foods like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy in addition to their regular menu.
Chendra The Elephant Helps Kick Off 16th Annual Zoolights Holiday Festival
PORTLAND, Ore. - On Saturday, Nov. 29 at 5:10 p.m., Chendra the Oregon Zoo's 10-year-old Asian elephant will flip the ceremonial switch to kick off the 16th annual ZooLights festival. This family tradition, presented by The Boeing Company, will feature more than 500,000 lights, illuminating life-sized animal silhouettes, trees, buildings, walkways, and the zoo train.
" The beautiful animated animals, the decorated train and all the new colorful displays are sure to make this year's ZooLights the best ever," said Tony Vecchio, zoo director. "It's become a great tradition for our visitors. I spoke with several families last December who come back year after year to ride the train and see the lights. Some parents who visited as children are now bringing their children," he added.
As visitors approach the zoo entrance, swinging siamangs and diving dolphins greet them. A large, rotating mobile featuring aquarium animals will dominate the zoo's entry plaza. Deeper inside the zoo, an anaconda is re-created in lights at the Amazon Flooded Forest exhibit and a gingerbread house, complete with candy cane fence, lights up the Crossroads.
Many new silhouettes can be found throughout the zoo. Three life-sized, three-dimensional hippos will graze near a river of lights on the zoo's concert lawn. The meandering river of LED lights is 180 feet long and 16 feet wide. Two life-sized, three-dimensional crocodiles closely watch the hippos as they graze; one crocodile has a motorized mouth that opens when visitors tap a switch. Just below the river of lights are submerged hippos and crocodiles. Nearby, an African fish eagle swoops down and scoops up a fish from the river. At Butterfly Way there is a caterpillar that turns into a chrysalis, before emerging as a beautiful butterfly. Inchworms have also been added to butterfly way. Lastly, three California condor silhouettes have been added to help celebrate the zoo's participation in the California Condor Recovery Team.
The zoo's popular costumed characters and elves will be on hand to greet zoo visitors and pose for pictures. Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer will be joined by Buddy Beaver, Honey Bear, Eliza Elephant, Lulu Lemur, Nate the Eagle, Rock E. Goat, Sandy Sea Otter and Titus Tiger. Visitors can also see some of the zoo's resident animals, including bats, mountain goats, elephants, primates, and a rambunctious herd of pettable pygmy goats.
The sounds of the season will fill the zoo as more than 100 schools, churches, and professional groups perform holiday musical selections. Several local dance troupes will also be featured.
Favorite light displays from previous years will also return, including trumpeting elephants, tobogganing polar bears and swinging monkeys. Lions can be seen chasing a herd of impalas, while a giraffe grazes nearby. An ostrich gets startled and runs away, hiding its head in the sand. Flying macaws fly from tree to tree. A 35-foot-long dragon mysteriously floats above the walkway. At Steller Cove, a sea lion and dancing sea star greet visitors. Close by are white swans that swim in a garden pond and penguins that dive in arctic waters. A baby kangaroo jumps out of its mother's pouch and begins to hop around. And darting red and green amphibians play a lively game of leapfrog.
In addition to the lights, characters and music, the Tualatin Valley Model Railroad Club will show off its enlarged NTRAK train display. And children of all ages are sure to enjoy family entertainment every evening in the zoo's elephant museum, including a conservation-themed puppet show Thursday through Sunday evenings.
The Artist's Market will feature recycled, animal and earth friendly art. And, for last minute shoppers, the zoo's gift shop, Cascade Outfitters is bursting with animal-related gifts. The zoo's Cascade Grill will offer a nightly holiday buffet. This traditional feast will cost $12.50 for adults and $7.50 for kids. Holiday treats will be available at food locations throughout the zoo.
ZooLights runs from Nov. 29 through Dec. 28. Hours are 5 to 8 p.m. on Sunday through Thursdays, and 5 to 8:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The lights and other activities will continue for one hour past the gate closing time. The festival is closed Dec. 24 and 25.
Back to top
After Nearly 100 Years, Highly Endangered California Condors Return To Oregon Nov. 20
Only 219 condors are left in the world; Oregon Zoo hopes to breed condors for release to the wild
PORTLAND, Ore. - Nearly two hundred years ago Lewis and Clark saw California condors in the Columbia River Gorge. One hundred years later the condors were extinct in Oregon. On Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003 the rare birds will return to Oregon where they will reside in the Oregon Zoo's new off-site Condor Creek Conservation Facility in Clackamas County. The zoo will soon be breeding condors for eventual release back to the wild.
The Oregon Zoo is only the third zoo in the nation to be invited to join the California Condor Recovery Program. Twelve of the rare birds will come from team members at the Los Angeles Zoo, San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park and The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise.
The Oregon Zoo's condor facility is located on Metro-owned open space. The facility is designed to minimize the exposure of young condors to people in order to increase the chances for captive-hatched birds to survive and breed in the wild.
"It's important that condors not bond or associate with humans," said Jan Steele, zoological curator and condor project manager. "If they become unafraid of people, they put themselves in jeopardy when released into the wild."
It is hoped that the Oregon Zoo's condor pairs will eventually produce two eggs per year. The first egg will be incubated artificially, which will induce the condor to lay a second egg. Staff wearing hand puppets that resemble adult condors will raise the first condor chick. Mature condors will raise the second chick. This process is known as double clutching and allows the normally slow reproducing condors to produce two chicks per breeding season.
The last condors were seen in Oregon in 1904, near the town of Drain, in southwest Oregon. Condors held out a little longer in California, but in 1987, there were only 17 left in the wild. In an attempt to save the species, biologists decided to place all the remaining condors into a captive breeding program. When Congress passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the California condor was one of the original animals included on the list. Today there are 219 California condors in captivity and the wild.
Condors have a long history in Oregon. Archeologists have unearthed nine thousand year old condor bones from Native American middens.
"For thousands of years native people described the condor as Thunderbird," according to Tony Vecchio, zoo director.
The condor was a common design motif of the Wasco people, who lived along the Columbia River from The Dalles to Cascade Locks-the condor was considered a helper to the native peoples and a key character in many myths.
"I can't think of any species that connects conservation, Oregon history and culture as strongly as the condor," added Vecchio.
Lewis and Clark first saw condors along the Columbia River on Oct. 28, 1805.
"In their journals, Lewis and Clark described condors flying high above the Columbia River," said Vecchio. "They referred to them as the beautiful buzzard of the Columbia. I would love to someday see condors soaring above the cliffs of the Columbia and other regions throughout Oregon again."
The Oregon Zoo is the newest member of the California Condor Recovery Program. The recovery goal for the condor is to establish a captive population of 150 birds and two separate wild populations of condors, one in California and the other in Arizona. California condor captive breeding programs are operated at San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park, Los Angeles Zoo, The Peregrine Fund's World Center for Birds of Prey and now at the Oregon Zoo's off-site Condor Creek Conservation Facility. US Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Condor Recovery Program coordinate and implement the recovery program and provide oversight of all program partners.
The Oregon Zoo Foundation has raised $1.35 million for the $3 million condor project. An additional $1.65 million is needed to complete the second and third phases of construction, including more holding space, a separate flight aviary, and a veterinary clinic. The plan also includes an educational condor exhibit at the zoo. Once the remaining two phases have been completed, the Condor Creek Conservation Facility will house 16 pairs of condors producing up to 32 young a year.
Condors, like their smaller turkey vulture cousins, are carrion-feeders, which means they only eat animals they find dead. Because of this, their reintroduction into the wild has been much less controversial than other species such as wolves and grizzly bears.
Back to top
Visitors Go Behind The Scenes To Make Elephant Activities
PORTLAND, Ore. - Did you know an elephant's trunk weighs 400 pounds and contains approximately 40,000 muscles? Visitors will learn about Asian elephants and create activities for the elephants during the Oregon Zoo's Behind the Scenes Encounter, Sunday, Nov. 23, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Elephant keepers will help visitors make "enrichment items" for the zoo's four female elephants. The zoo is internationally renowned for its innovative environmental enrichment program, which is designed to keep the animals active and mentally stimulated.
During the encounter, visitors will watch and learn about the value of training and the purpose it serves to keep the elephants engaged. They will also learn how the zoo is playing a leadership role in Asian elephant conservation.
"Our elephants have become symbols for elephant conservation," according to Tony Vecchio, zoo director. "We hope people come away from these encounters with the realization that elephants are a crucial part of the environment. People must connect with animals if they're to care about their future."
This tour is open to participants 12 and older and requires pre-registration. The cost is $34 for members and $40 for non-members; price includes admission. A portion of the proceeds helps fund the zoo's animal conservation programs.
For more information go to the Oregon Zoo's web site located at www.oregonzoo.org or call 503-220-2781. Gift certificates for Behind the Scenes Encounters are also available. If you want to sponsor an animal at the zoo or find out what you can do to help animal conservation, visit the zoo Web site.
Back to top
Oregon Zoo Hosts Annual Turkey Trot Fun Run
PORTLAND, Ore. - The Oregon Zoo invites runners and walkers of all ages to the annual Turkey Trot on Thursday, November 27. The annual Thanksgiving Day event, organized by the Oregon Road Runners Club (ORRC), includes a 4-mile run and fitness walk beginning at 8 a.m. and a 1-kilometer Tot Trot beginning at 9:30 a.m. A portion of the proceeds from the Turkey Trot will go to the Oregon Zoo to fund animal care and conservation programs.
"The Oregon Road Runners Club has encouraged thousands of people to take steps to improve their health by walking and running over the past 33 years," said Margie Mace, Oregon Road Runners Club president. "This traditional walk and run, prior to sitting down to a big Thanksgiving Day meal, has become a real annual tradition and a favorite event among Oregon families and their relatives visiting from out of town over the holiday."
All events are noncompetitive and do not include awards. However, all participants will receive a chocolate turkey from JaCiva's for participating (while supplies last). There will be a clock at the start and finish line for self-timing. Each event will start across from the zoo at the World Forestry Center and finish inside the zoo by the concert amphitheater.
Early registration is available by mail through Nov. 21. Flyers are available at local running stores. Online registration is also available through Nov. 25 via the Oregon Road Runners Club Web site at www.orrc.net. Fees for the 4-mile run and fitness walk are $24 (ORRC members receive a $4 discount off the early registration amount). Long sleeve cotton shirts are $10 extra and must be reserved by Nov. 21. The Tot Trot for children under 11 years of age is $10 and includes a shirt if the child is registered by Nov. 21. The family rate is $50 for two adults and up to three children. Registration fees after Nov. 21 and on race day are $30 for ORRC members and non-members, $65 for families, and $15 for kids.
Parking is limited so participants are encouraged to ride Max. Tri-Met's Washington Park Light Rail Station is just steps from the registration area and the start and finish lines. Drop bags will be provided at registration to check extra clothing. Tri-Met timetables are available at www.tri-met.org.
No pets or roller blades are allowed in any of the events. Strollers and child carrier backpacks are allowed only in the 4-mile fitness walk and must start at the back of the group.
Volunteers wishing to help on this benefit run can call ORRC at 503-646-7867 and leave your name and phone number.
ORRC, a non-profit organization, was founded in Seaside, Oregon in 1970, as an outgrowth of the Trail's End Marathon, the first marathon in the Pacific Northwest. ORRC is a member of the national Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), and is one of the largest RRCA running clubs in the United States with roughly 1,000 members. The Club conducts races and developmental programs for children, adults, runners and walkers, and plans and organizes over 15 running races in the Portland vicinity.
Back to top
Mysteries of Behind the "Zoo" Scenes Revealed During Giraffe Tour.
Visitors can hand-feed giraffes during special tour.
PORTLAND, Ore. - Did you know a giraffe's neck bones are a foot long or that their heart weighs 25 pounds? Oregon Zoo keepers will introduce this big-hearted animal to visitors during the zoo's Behind the Scenes Encounters, Saturday, Nov. 15, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. During the tour visitors will hand-feed the giraffes.
"Behind the Scenes Encounters offer amazing experiences with exotic animals," says Tony Vecchio, zoo director. "Having the chance to hand-feed a giraffe is an incredible moment; something people will never forget."
Visitors will tour the exhibit from the inside and learn how giraffes get their nails done, what it takes to give them their shots, and discover some of the challenges keepers face when caring for them. They will also learn about the zoo's conservation efforts to preserve crucial African habitat.
According to one visitor who had the opportunity to preview the tour, "I fed the giraffe carrots through the fence and it licked me with its big, black tongue-which must have been two feet long! It's amazing to watch them bend their heads way down to get a good look at you before biting into their carrot."
Behind the Scenes Encounters are held three times per month. This tour is open to participants 16 and older and requires pre-registration. The cost is $85 for members and $100 for non-members; price includes admission.
The next tour is the Elephant Enrichment Encounter, Sunday, November 23. The enrichment is designed to keep the elephant's minds and bodies active. For example, an elephant may receive a ball filled with raisins; the raisins fall out of small holes when the elephant rolls the ball. This promotes curiosity and forces the elephant to figure out how to get the treats inside.
For the elephant tour, visitors will create enrichment items and then watch the elephants play with them. This tour is open to participants 12 and older and also requires pre-registration. The cost is $34 for members and $40 for non-members; price includes admission.
For more information go to the Oregon Zoo's web site located at www.oregonzoo.org or call 503-220-2781. Gift certificates for Behind the Scenes Encounters are also available. Condors return to Oregon after a near 100-year absence with the help of a challenge grant.
Back to top
