Recently in Animals Category

Emily Julius

Associate Producer

We began our shoot at the Philadelphia zoo early Saturday morning. They had been preparing for our crew for the last few weeks by acclimating the cats to strangers in the “back of house” area. Big cats don’t like strangers because they associate them with tranquilizing blow darts. They had been using a member of the zoo staff holding a box wrapped in a garbage bag as a stand in for the cameraman and his Varicam. We were skeptical as we squeezed into the tiny space behind the cage. We were going to be very close to these cats. The first cat up was Zenda, a female lion who needed to be weighed. The cat ran into the enclosure and immediately checked us out. She made a few noises letting us know that she wasn’t completely content with us being there. Then she relaxed and turned her focus to being weighed, in exchange for a bit of raw meat. The acclimating had paid off. She settled on the scale -- 306 lbs! The tiger cub was up next. This was part of the training process that will someday allow them to do a voluntary blood draw. It’s a two-person job. One keeper was poised to squirt evaporated milk into cat’s mouth. The other keeper was positioned to capture the tiger’s tail. They have worked their way up to getting the cat comfortable with them handling the tail, an amazing feet in itself. Now they are taking it even further. They take out an electric clipper and shave the tail! This part of the operation reveals a strange surprise. The tiger’s stripes are actually on its skin. The keeper feels for the tail vein and pokes it with a blunt needle. The tiger can walk away at any time but she lays still lapping at squirts of milk. They have been training her for months and this is the last phase. Soon they will be able to do the real thing. It’s a long involved process but by doing it they can avoid the trauma of blow darting the cats in order to do routine health exams.

Naomi Schwarz

National Geographic Television

I crowd into the tiny bit of shade on a curb next to Goma’s airport building, already mostly filled with a tripod bag, a camera case, my bag, the producer’s backpack, some empty water bottles, and Brent, the print photographer for the NG magazine story, and Mick, the producer. Just as I sit down, I look over to where Erin, the cameraman, is setting up the camera and tripod. A man in a uniform is zeroing in. I jump up to join Erin to try to stave off the confrontation before it starts. It’s 12:30 pm, and we’re awaiting the arrival of Paulin Ngobobo, the key witness in the prosecution’s case against those accused of illegal charcoal trading and the massacre of six members of a gorilla family known as the Rugendo Group. He’s been reassigned to Kinshasa, Congo’s capital city, all the way across the country, but he’s flying back today to testify in a closed hearing. We’ve been here for about an hour already, but the plane is going to be an hour late. Or it might have been cancelled. Or else it wasn’t supposed to arrive until two. Ish. What I’m saying is, Paulin, the arriving witness, has texted a contact here to say he’s on a plane and it’s heading towards Goma. He’ll get here. In the meantime, we’re trying to hold our ground at the airport. Our fixer, Ferdinand, the local contact who managed to arrange permission for us to film here at the airport, is busy a few feet away. He and the airport hostess assigned to keep us company are arguing with a couple other guys who claim to be airport staff. Ferdinand is waving around the documents and letters he painstakingly gathered over the last day and a half giving us the right to enter onto the tarmac to film Paulin’s arrival. Erin’s new adversary arrives, and demands to know what we’re doing.

Naomi Schwarz

National Geographic Television

I’m not quite sure how to handle Rwanda. We’re not staying. We’ve flown into Kigali, the capital, but we’re on our way to Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Goma is one of the biggest cities in eastern Congo, and it’s just over the border from Rwanda. We’re going there to film a documentary about wildlife conservation in Virunga National Park, the first national park in Africa, and one of the world’s most diverse and fragile ecosystems. It’s the home of more than half of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas, several of whom were massacred last year in what seemed to be a cold-blooded execution. People are telling us these killings are closely linked with the illegal trade in charcoal being conducted within the park. On the face of it this has nothing to do with Rwanda. And yet I can’t treat this stopover like any other. Not hard to figure out why. The Rwandan genocide is old news at this point, sadly superceded by the crisis in Darfur and the war in Iraq and everything else that has happened in the last 14 years. But this is the first time I’ve been here. These are the first impressions, the first images and faces and people I’ve ever seen up close to give context to the genocide that killed nearly one million Rwandans in the space of about three months.

Ramón Bonfil, Ph.D. Facing a great white shark in its natural environment is one of the most humbling and life-marking experiences one can ever have, as long as this is done under controlled and safe conditions. I know this from first-hand experience. In the last 5 years I have had the stunning honor of handling 17 live great white sharks with my own hands, all in the name of science. The most surprising fact people come to realize after seeing their first great white in the wild is that their typical behavior has nothing to do with the stereotype of ferocity and aggressiveness that has been force-fed to us through ‘killer shark’ movies and pseudo-documentaries. Great white sharks are surprisingly calm and cautious in their movements around cages with divers or with a boat floating at the surface. Only through skillful manipulation of bait can we provoke their aggressive behavior. After all, they are top predators and nobody likes to be teased when hungry. Why would anyone want to wrestle with live great whites for a living? The answer is surprisingly simple: because these vilified fish are under threat of extinction and we know very little about their biology and ecology. Despite their iconoclastic fame in pop culture, great white sharks are still largely a mystery to science. The research we and other scientists around the world are conducting on the movements and migrations of great white sharks by using cutting-edge satellite tags and other electronic instruments is allowing us to map, better than ever, the ways in which they utilize the ocean and how they move in this vast environment. Until very recently everyone thought that great whites were chiefly a coastal species that only seldom would venture into the high seas. But thanks to satellite tagging studies like the one we just started in Guadalupe Island, Mexico, we know now that great white sharks have a diversity of spatial behaviors that include fidelity to very specific coastal areas for months at a time in addition to regular coastal migrations covering thousands of miles. More surprisingly, we discovered that great white sharks migrate across entire oceans and back. On February 2003, one of the sharks we tagged in South Africa crossed the entire Indian Ocean to the coast of Western Australia, and then crossed right back to South Africa, covering more than 20,000 kilometers (12,000 miles) in less than 9 months!

Stephen Secor - Associate Professor, University of Alabama Exploding python – Awakening gator A 13-foot Burmese python, bloated and dead, was found in the Everglades National Park on September 26, 2005. There was a large gash in its side and from it protruded a 6-foot alligator. Helicopter Pilot Mike Barron and Wildlife Biologist Skip Snow discovered the creature within a creature. Photographs of the discovery flooded my email. I’ve been studying the digestive physiology of snakes for 15 years now, but I’d never seen a case like this one. It looked like the python had eaten the alligator, but then why was the python dead and half of the alligator exposed? CSI: Everglades Mike, Skip, and I returned to the crime scene with National Geographic’s Explorer to find out what happened. At 200 feet and at 50 mph, I was getting a bird’s-eye view of the new residency of the Burmese python within the Everglades, a landscape of tall grass, small tree islands, and the occasional “gator hole.” We taped off the scene and brought out the photos Mike took the day of the initial discovery. With the laminated photos laid out on knee-deep water, Skip and I pieced together the possible series of events leading to the death of both animals. Myths busted There had been two theories – but both seemed unlikely. Gas (caused by the decomposing alligator) built up inside the python’s stomach causing the snake to combust. Or the python consumed the alligator while it was asleep, the alligator awoke inside the python’s stomach, and the alligator was clawing its way out of the python’s stomach when both expired. Having worked on hundreds of Burmese pythons of all different sizes, I could not imagine that enough gas would have been produced by the decomposing alligator to cause a rupture in the very thick skin of the python. I have seen pythons after consuming very large meals expand to four times their diameter without any damage to their skin. From the photograph of the dead python, it appeared that the python may have only doubled in width due to the alligator meal. Also, like humans, pythons can pass excess gas from their stomachs. As for the awaking alligator scenario, this would require that the alligator was not dead, but only unconscious when swallowed by the python. Pythons kill their prey by constriction and only eat once they have sensed that the prey is dead. On the chance that the alligator was not dead and regained consciousness inside the python’s stomach, it would have quickly succumbed to the lack of oxygen. In addition, with its hind limbs pinned tightly against its tail within the snake there would have been no room for the alligator to maneuver its feet and claw through the python. There are two types of animals in the world: snakes and snake food Can a Burmese python even constrict, swallow, and digest an alligator? While there are no published accounts of Burmese pythons in the wild eating crocodilians, we know that two other of the world’s giant snakes are able to so. There are accounts and photographs of anacondas in South America feeding upon caimans and a record of an African rock python constricting a Nile crocodile. Considering the list of formidable prey items that pythons are known to consume including leopards, wild pigs, impala, gazelles, porcupines, and pangolins, it is not unreasonable to suspect that they can also digest an alligator. With the photographic evidence from the Everglades that the Burmese python can kill and swallow an alligator, members of my research laboratory and I set to see how well a python could swallow an alligator and how long it would take the snake to digest the alligator. From our colony of Burmese python we enticed an 800 gram snake to swallow a 200 gram alligator, already dead. To our surprise, the python easily swallowed the alligator, taking only about 15 minutes to do so. Each day after the python had swallowed the alligator we transported the snake to a local veterinary clinic and X-rayed the snake’s midsection. The X-rays revealed clearly the daily disintegration of the alligator’s skeleton, first the skull, then the shoulder regions and forelimbs, followed by the pelvic region, hindlimbs, and tail, all completed within nine days. So, not only can a Burmese pythons swallow an alligator, it can also digest it. There goes the neighborhood: What are pythons doing in the Everglades? Why are there now Burmese pythons in the Everglades anyway and how will they impact the native animals? The first part of this question can be answered in two words, size and climate. Burmese pythons are one of the largest snakes in the world, able to exceed 20 feet in length. They were also the first python to become very popular in the pet trade due to their docile nature, ease of maintenance and breeding, and the development by snake hobbyists of several different color variants. Bred and sold by the thousands each year as hatchling for almost two decades, the young pythons with their voracious appetites simply grew too big for many homes. Manageable at first in a 20 gallon aquarium on a diet of mice, a 4-year old Burmese python (12 feet in length), requires a very large cage and has graduated to a diet of rabbits. Unfortunately as these snakes grew too big, they were taken out to the countryside and released to fend for themselves. As a result, medium and large pythons have been discovered wandering the suburbs, woodlands, and countryside across the United States. With much of North American having a colder or a drier climate compared to the subtropical native home of the Burmese python, many of the released snakes were unable to survive through the year.

Willie Theisen - Pittsburgh Zoo Elephant Manager The villagers of the Jalapaiguri district dread the night. That’s when the lumbering giants emerge from the forest to gorge on their crops of rice and corn. In West Bengal, villagers are waging war with marauding elephants that destroy their homes without warning causing the roof or walls to crash in on sleeping families. Villagers awake to the terrifying spectacle of rampaging elephants wrecking their home. They flee in panic grabbing family members who stubble into the chaotic darkness. But in many cases, as the dust settles, families discover that not everyone made it out alive. Tragically, events like these are becoming commonplace in areas of the world where elephants and people live in close proximity. Wild elephants are by nature very peaceful animals and under normal circumstances prefer an existence away from people. They are genuinely good-natured and spend most of their day eating and caring for their young. But in some regions human development and population growth have encroached on elephant territory—depriving them of food sources and creating a situation ripe for conflict. I’ve been caring for zoo elephants for 27 years and could barely believe the stories of these raging elephants--in my experience these creatures were gentle, intelligent giants. I traveled with the National Geographic Explorer crew to India to document the impact of the human/elephant conflict and try and provide some insights into why elephants were attacking people. We joined one of India’s elephant squads that are charged with solving these conflicts while protecting both species—human and elephant. Their job is particularly critical during harvest season when elephants stealthily sneak onto crop fields and feast on the high protein snacks throughout the night. The men must track and maneuver the elephants back into the forests in the dark. The patrols are on call from sunset to well past midnight. But when elephants are reported in a field many of the villagers respond immediately, chasing the elephants away themselves rather than waiting for the experts. By the time the squad arrives, the village is usually electrified, tense, and chaotic. Calming down the villagers, in my opinion, was actually the most difficult part of the squads’ job. They are frightened and ready to defend their turf and the youngsters are all pumped up and eager to chase the elephants. Tarun Mahalanabish, the leader of the Binnaguri squad, has spent many years with the wildlife department and has an intimate knowledge of elephant behavior. He knows the best strategies to move elephants and the importance of keeping them together in a herd to reduce stress and confusion – and he passes on this knowledge to his team, ensuring they all approach these tense situations in the same way. It is important and impressive to note that this particular squad has had no fatal incidents, with elephants or humans, within their zone they patrol—a tribute to the leader’s experience. As I drove with the squad, the first time we spotted an elephant in the headlights of the jeep everyone’s adrenalin levels soared and we pursued the animal to keep it moving. We nicknamed the squad’s jeep driver “Mario Andretti” because he could chase the elephants with incredible skill and speed. While in hot pursuit, the team figures out whether the elephant is a loner or in a herd. Depending on the location, as I soon found out, the team may have to jump out of the jeep and pursue the elephants on foot to move them back to the forests—incredibly dangerous! The squad tries to teach the elephants that the forest is a safe zone where they will not be pursued. I ran with the squad trying to determine how close to follow the elephants, how to keep the team together, and how to best keep the elephants moving. The situation was crazy and I was convinced these guys were out of their minds. They have basically no technology or weapons—just spotlights, firecrackers and shotguns filled with birdshot! The spotlight is actually a car battery wired to a bulb—and that car battery is especially heavy when running through fields. The firecrackers frighten the animals with noise. The shotguns the squad members carry are filled with birdshot, so firing is about as effective as shooting about 30 BB guns. If the elephants decide to stop running and confront the squad, they are totally defenseless—they will get killed. But as the squad leader explained to me chasing them on foot to the edge of the field was the only way to ensure they returned to the forest. Not all squads were this good. Others we worked with had no idea about elephant psychology and just chased the animals chaotically.

Brad Moon Snakes inspire both fear and fascination in us, and rightly so. Venomous snakes and even some non-venomous snakes—such as the giant constrictors—can be lethal to humans and animals much larger than the snakes themselves. How strong are giant constrictors and how do they take down such large animals? I joined a team from National Geographic Explorer to find out. It’s constriction, not suffocation… Constriction is a method snakes use to subdue their prey, by coiling their muscular bodies around their otherwise unwieldy victims and squeezing, the constriction prevents even their largest prey from biting or kicking their way free from the snake’s grasp. Constriction was a critical evolutionary innovation that enabled snakes to expand their diets, which now range from ants to antelopes. It also enabled snakes to diversify in body form—without constriction, snakes may not have evolved into the species we have today. Traditionally it was believed that constrictor snakes killed their prey by suffocation, by squeezing their victims so tightly they could no longer breathe. But suffocation can take up to several minutes, which can give a prey animal plenty of time to fight back, and we now know that prey animals are often killed much faster than that. A second explanation for how constriction kills so quickly is that it squeezes the blood vessels closed and causes the circulation to stop. If constriction is strong enough to squeeze the blood vessels closed in the body of a prey animal, then the animal’s circulation stops immediately, which causes the tissues to run out of oxygen and die in seconds rather than minutes. More recent observations on wild anacondas and their prey in the Venezuelan llanos, revealed that they can break the necks of prey animals as large as caimans, capybaras, and deer. These observations suggested that giant constrictors can be extremely strong, but their actual strengths had never been determined. How strong is strong? Before this project, only the strength of small constrictors had been studied. Several years ago, I measured the pressures exerted during constriction by snakes that were approximately 3 ft long and 1.5 inches thick. Constriction pressure is a good measure of a snake’s strength and it is one of the key components that restricts prey movement and kills it. To measure the pressures, I used small balloons attached to a prey animal and connected by tubing to a pressure transducer that gave a digital readout of the constriction pressure exerted by the snake’s coil. I discovered that even small constrictors can squeeze with pressures up to 4 PSI (pounds per square inch). This is strong enough to squeeze blood vessels closed in mice and kill them by circulatory arrest. This result was very important because it showed that the traditional explanation of constriction causing suffocation was probably wrong. The difference is crucial, because circulatory arrest kills prey animals much faster than suffocation, making it a safer and more surefire method for the snakes. But large prey animals such as capybaras and deer are much stronger than mice and rats, and so, much more dangerous to the constrictors. How do constrictors subdue such large prey animals? To find out, we traveled to the llanos region of Venezuela in search of a large anaconda (Eunectes murinus). At Rancho Doña Barbara , we measured constriction by an anaconda that was about 18 feet long and 6 inches thick. This star performer was an amazing animal that took four people to handle safely when we weighed and measured it. he snake constricted one of its favorite prey animals—a local kind of duck—with incredible strength and stamina. The strengths we measured indicated that anacondas can easily squeeze hard enough to take down much larger prey animals with little chance of their escape or retaliation. In fact, if a big anaconda managed to ambush a person, the results could quickly be lethal! It probably wouldn’t matter how big the person is or whether a partner was present to attempt a rescue, because a big constrictor becomes a ball of muscle that feels like solid rock and is just too strong to peel apart. And our anaconda wasn’t especially large—the largest individuals reach lengths of nearly 30 ft and diameters over 12 inches. These gigantic constrictors remain to be measured, but we now know that they must be incredibly strong!