New at the Zoo
Open house on Sunday will offer a look behind the scenes
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Inside his cage, a wide-eyed Leroy mugged shamelessly for the visitors, trying to climb as close as possible. Next door, “Baby girl” was a little more uncertain about the disturbance, keeping her distance as she moved from high to low in her cage.
The two lemurs are among the newest arrivals at the David Traylor Zoo, so new that they’re still under 30-day quarantine. Leroy, a 7-year-old ringtail lemur, was confiscated from an illegal private owner by U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials. “Baby girl,” as Zoo Director Steve Trebilcock calls her, is a 1-year-old rough lemur who eventually will be bred with a 20-year-old mate: the zoological equivalent of a May-December couple.
“We’re hoping their relationship works out happily,” Trebilcock said with a grin.
Visitors can see the lemurs and a lot more during the zoo’s annual open house Sunday. The zoo will be open from 3 to 6 p.m. that day at no charge, with guests getting a behind-the-scenes look at many animals that normally wouldn’t be on display to the general public.
One exhibit that is finally going on display after 14 years of waiting is a pair of king vultures. The 19-year-old birds were originally acquired for an exhibit that was never built and ended up only being shown during the open houses -- until now. This summer, some of the other birds will go into the holding area instead, where there’s a little more space to soar out of the public eye.
“They can get some flying muscles going,” Trebilcock said. He looked up at the vultures admiringly, studying the mixed orange-and-black pattern on their heads.
“You won’t see a head like that on any other bird,” he said.
One other thing a new visitor to the zoo will see is a lot of new signs. A dozen small exhibit signs have been posted around the zoo, with 18 more to come. Each is brightly colored, easily readable and often armed with an unusual fact about the animal.
Over by the mountain lion cage, meanwhile, can be seen the first of the zoo’s conservation signs, a joint project with Emporia State University that Trebilcock said he hopes to keep up. ESU design students were encouraged to propose layouts for the sign as though for a private client, with the winner chosen by Trebilcock and sent to a production company. This particular sign, designed by ESU student Heather Smith, describes an endangered sub-species of mountain lion, the Florida panther.
“They did professional-style proposals,” Trebilcock said of the students. “It was quite a thing.”
Because of the student assistance, the zoo got a sign that would have normally cost $1,200 to $1,500 for only $600.
Trebilcock said he is excited by the project. The mountain lion was less so.
“He wasn’t too impressed with me digging a hole for that sign this morning,” Trebilcock said. “He’s not used to having me that close. He was getting a little snarly.”
One other new addition, the veterinary building, is still in the works. Workers will begin to lay a water line for it this week. Purely as a guess, Trebilcock said, it could be done by the end of August.
“It takes a lot of time to get all the extras in place and go through all the other requirements for the bidding procedures,” he said.
Besides a look behind the scenes at the zoo, the open house will also include balloons, refreshments for sale and children’s games. The Emporia Fire Department will be there, showing kids what it feels like to shoot a fire hose at a target. And the Little Train in Soden’s Grove will run for free during the event.
The zoo will be closed Sunday until 3 p.m., to give the workers time to prepare for the open house.