#Sacramento Zoo

[bignosebaby]

Aurora is one of the oldest saki monkeys in the world at 34 years old and has lived at the Sacramento Zoo since 1999

[effyeahmeerkats]

Meercat by Desdanova

[petsincollections]

Camels in their pen at the Sacramento Zoo.

Collection: CITY, Sacramento Zoo [1996/032/264]

Center for Sacramento History

[jimomps]

Most people can not the zoo animals in the top two photos. If you can spot them, you are an awesome adventurer in the Sacramento region ! April 10, 2024 . Bicycle ride along old train tracks on Del Rio Bike Trail.

[fairfieldinnsaccalexpo]

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(Or)

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[why-animals-do-the-thing]

California zoo accessibility data dump

I just recently got back from a short (and fully covid-cautious) zoo road trip in Oregon and California, and wanted to share my notes re: accessibility at the facilities I visited. I'll get this all integrated into the spreadsheet, too.

Wildlife Safari - Winston, Oregon

This is a large drive-thru safari park with a free walk-about area attached that contains some small exhibits. Guests stay inside their cars the entire drive-thru, although there's at least one place to stop and sit in a gazebo to rest and use the bathroom (porta-potty only). You can pull over to watch animals for longer, and go through multiple times if you missed anything. It's a long drive-thru and there isn't really a good way to truncate the experience if you've got some kind of emergency. The roads are not flat, but they're well maintained and not bumpy.

The walkabout area is very small and contains bathrooms, food options, and other guest services. The paths are mostly concrete and well tended, although you do have to cross the steam train tracks to get to lion/some of the lemur viewing. I believe the Australia walkabout area was also unpaved. There's lots of parking in a big, flat, paved lot.

Sacramento Zoo - Sacramento, CA

This is a very cute, small inner-city facility - a good option if you don't want to try to walk a huge zoo in one day. There's lots of shade from all the plants and a good amount of benches throughout, including picnic tables with shade canopies. The paths are almost entirely flat and paved, with the exception of a boardwalk ramp up to the giraffe feeding and okapi viewing platforms. The cafe has gluten-free and vegetarian listings (maybe vegan?) on their menu. No straws are provided for animal safety, but if you need one, they can give you a reusable curly-straw from the slushies (kinda long and awkward for a normal cup) as an accommodation. They've got both water fountains and water bottle filling stations. Being build in a larger city park and recreation complex, there isn't a dedicated parking lot just for the zoo: the closest is across the street, shared with another attraction, and is kinda small. I've never had issues finding parking when I've gone, but sometimes it does involve a bunch of walking to get to the zoo entrance - if you have mobility or stamina limitations, probably best to get dropped off at the entrance and wait (there are benches).

San Francisco Zoo - San Francisco, CA

The SF Zoo is huge. There's lots of green / garden / swamp space that doesn't have habitats in it, but it means exhibits can be pretty far away, so plan your route accordingly. (Going out to the grizzly bears is the longest loop). Depending on the time of day, there's not always a ton of shade for guests either. There's a decent amount of benches, and quite a few are in decent proximity to animal viewing. After a somewhat long but not steep hill right at the entrance, the paths are all paved and fairly flat. There's a hill going down into/up from the Australia area / kids playground, but it's the only one I really noticed. There's a long elevated boardwalk through the lemur habitats that connects to the top of the new Madagascar construction - if you can't do stairs, as of Spring 2024, that's the only way to get up there to look down on the mandrills or see the top of the fossa habitat. (It's still under construction, so there might be an elevator in the building in the future). Back by the grizzlies, there's an old indoor rainforest building - while there's buttons to automatically open the door going in, I didn't find any on the first inside door going out. It makes sense they don't want both doors to open at once since it's a bird airlock, but not having independent ones on each door meant the day I used an ECV I got stuck in there until a nice staff member noticed.

All three times I've ever been to SF most of the little food kiosks haven't been open, and the vending machines for drinks have been hit and miss - so bring your own, or stock up at the cafe if you need to have supplies with you - but there are water fountains and water bottle filling stations around the zoo. There are interpretive audio boxes through the zoo in English and Spanish, used with a key you get at the entrance(?), but I heard a lot of complaints in passing about some of them not working. There's lots of parking at the zoo in a flat paved lot, and there's a specific dropoff area on one side for rideshares/mobility needs.

Oakland Zoo - Oakland, CA

To be clear up front - Oakland was the hardest facility to visit on this whole trip, with regards to mobility. We went twice, and I used an ECV (electric scooter) one and walked the other. Neither option was easy and both were exhausting. Oakland is a super hilly facility - you basically have to drive up a major hill to get to the zoo. The bottom half of the lower zoo can only be reached by going down pretty steep paths. The hills are also not graded to be "flat", so if you're in a wheelchair or ECV, you're going to have to lean to compensate for the tilt and balance the chair... while controlling it going down a steep hill. It's exhausting and kinda scary. (I don't even let other people carry my camera because $$, but I had to ask for help so I could focus on driving the ECV on those hills). There's also a lot of areas of the pathways that are not in the best repair, or patterned with pressed-in images, and multiple places actually have brass bugs embedded in the pavement so that they stick out above the surface. Lots of tripping hazards and/or things to rattle your teeth out rolling over. A couple places in the upper zoo (the California wilds area) the paths switch from paved to sand and back again, for drainage, maybe? On the upside, there's a lot of benches everywhere, including directly across from prime viewing areas.

Getting up to the upper zoo requires using a gondola - there's no walking option. You can actually take wheelchairs and ECVs on these, but you have to be ready to advocate for yourself. Normally, they don't stop the carriages completely, and expect people to walk on while they're still moving slowly. You can ask them to slow them down for you (I did, because knee issues plus torque is bad), or stop it completely if you need the time/help. When I took an ECV on, they had me disembark and get in one carriage, and they loaded it into the subsequent ones. This is fine because I can walk and stand on concrete for a while without it, but I'm not sure how that practice would work for people who need their mobility aids the whole time. They were very nice about managing the stopping and the loading and didn't make it feel like an imposition, too. If they stop the carriages completely at any point, there will be a loud buzzer/alarm when the ride starts back up. If you're close, it's pretty loud and startling. As they leave the track at the bottom the gondolas tip and dip a little, which can be scary if you're not expecting it - I think it's just the transition of the car from the loading bay onto the track itself. The rest of the ride is very smooth. The track is pretty high up and gives a great view of the bay and the surrounding cities, but face uphill if you don't do well with heights. Once at the upper zoo, the path from bald eagles through jaguar is mostly a boardwalk, but it's not too bumpy.

Oakland's parking is hard if you're not there early in the day, IMO. The overflow parking gets pretty far from the entrance, and starts to go up the hill towards the upper zoo. If the lot looks busy, drop anyone with mobility/stamina issues off at the entrance before parking. Unlike many other zoos I've visited, Oakland's ECVS have added sunshades, which is really nice (and which I should have used).

Monterey Zoo - Salinas, CA

This is a fairly small facility with most habitats on one level, but some big cats and bears are up a pretty big hill. The walkways are paved and flat, and there's an ADA-graded boardwalk ramp that takes you to the top of the hill. The pipes used for the handrails on both the stairs and the ramp get very hot in the sun, however. There's a boardwalk up to the rhino overlook. They indicate that their bathrooms are accessible, but the ones in the main building didn't have bars for transferring - I didn't check the ones up on the hill. At one point in the day speakers along the path started playing really loud pop music (drowned out the birds) and it was very overwhelming. There's lots of handicapped parking spots across from the front entrance, but if you don't have a tag, the rest of the spots are up a bit of a hill and a small walk from the entrance. They do have a note, though, that they can help if you need accessible parking and don't see any, so you could probably call/have someone to go in and ask for an accommodation.

Sequoia Park Zoo - Eureka, CA

This is another nice small facility, very doable for a half-day trip. The paths are paved and flat, and there's benches available. There's a lot of shade, although it can depend on the time of day, and places to fill a water-bottle. The sky-walk through the redwoods is accessible, but might be a little difficult depending on mobility limitations - its' a very sturdy boardwalk through the canopy of the tall trees. (I had more thoughts on this from my last visit, I'll dig out those notes). If you can do even part of it, it's worth it, and there's places to turn around. Because it's in a residential area of the town there's not a huge dedicated parking lot, but lots of street parking and a decent lot directly across the street. I've never had difficulty finding parking, and you can drop people off at the entrance easily.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Wolf's Mona Monkey (Cercopithecus wolfi)

Habitat & Distribution

Resides only in tropical rainforests and dense swamps

Found in central Africa, mainly between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda

Physical Description

Weight: An average of 4.5 kilograms (10 lb) for males and 2.5 kilograms (5.5 lb) for females

Height: 44.5 to 51.1 cm (17.5 to 20.1 in)

Adults have a dark grey fur, with a large red patch in the center of the back; the sides are lined with long, gold fur and the underbelly is white

They have a long, prehensile tail which is generally used for climbing

Behaviour

Wolf's mona monkeys live in social groups consisting of several females and one dominant male; within the group there are no strict heirarchies

They may sometimes for temporary mixed groups with other monkey species

The diet consists primarily of fruit, supplemented by young leaves, seeds and insects

Primary predators are birds of prey, and to a lesser extent leopards and larger primates

Key Advantages

The Wolf's mona monkey is an agile climber and traverses easily through dense canopy

Although frugivorous, they have long canines which can inflict a serious bite

Photo by the Sacramento Zoo

[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Week - January 09, 2023

1. Top British universities offer Afghan women free courses until Taliban lift learning ban

Afghanistan's ruling Taliban announced last month that women would no longer be able to study at universities and higher education establishments. Institutions were told to implement the ban as soon as possible.

Now, a number of British universities have teamed up through FutureLearn to offer the women in Afghanistan free access to digital learning platforms. Girls and women with internet access will be able to study more than 1,200 courses from top institutions at no cost to themselves.

2. Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs extends protections to LGBTQ+ state employees and contractors

Arizona’s newly elected Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed an executive order extending employment protections to state employees and contractors who are LGBTQ+.

As the Human Rights Campaign reports, the executive order, signed on Hobbs’s first day in office Tuesday, directs the state’s Department of Administration to update hiring, promotion, and compensation policies for all state agencies to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity and include provisions in all new state contracts to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

3. EU Carbon Emissions Drop To 30-Year Lows

It was supposed to be a dirty autumn and winter, with European nations scrambling to replace Russian gas with high-polluting coal. But according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the cold seasons so far have been the cleanest in more than 30 years.

4. Critically endangered rhinoceros gives birth to calf at Kansas City Zoo on New Year's Eve

The Kansas City Zoo got a special start to the new year: A critically endangered subspecies of rhinoceros gave birth to a calf on Dec. 31, officials announced. The calf is walking, nursing and even playing with its mother, Zuri, animal specialists said.

5. Cancer Vaccine to Simultaneously Kill and Prevent Brain Cancer Developed

Scientists are harnessing a new way to turn cancer cells into potent, anti-cancer agents. A new stem cell therapy approach eliminates established brain tumors and provides long-term immunity, training the immune system to prevent cancer from returning.

link to the paper …

6. The US has approved use of the world's first vaccine for honey bees.

It was engineered to prevent fatalities from American foulbrood disease, a bacterial condition known to weaken colonies by attacking bee larvae. As pollinators, bees play a critical role in many aspects of the ecosystem.

The vaccine could serve as a "breakthrough in protecting honey bees", Dalan Animal Health CEO Annette Kleiser said in a statement. It works by introducing an inactive version of the bacteria into the royal jelly fed to the queen, whose larvae then gain immunity.

7. Cat missing for nearly 6 years reunited with owner thanks to microchip

West Sacramento woman got the surprise of a lifetime Saturday when she was reunited with her missing cat after nearly 6 years thanks to microchip. 

- - -

That's it for this week. If you liked this post you can support this newsletter with a small kofi donation:

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[theliterarywolf]

I'm watching a new video from this reptile-enthusiast/zoo-owning couple I follow and they're talking about how, during their recent trip to a reptile show in Sacramento, their rental car got broken into and a bunch of their merch was stolen.

And it's kind of breaking my heart because they're in so much shock (they live in the Heartland) that when they called the police, they were pretty much told 'Yeah, that shit happens so much that we're not going to bother showing up unless someone died'.

It's like 'Yeah, that's California for ya; it's kind of a shitshow right now' but also 'No, these two are so wholesome and sweet, they don't deserve this..!'

[kitschycritter-diary]

04/25/2022 - Sacramento Zoo with Jamie & Emily 🦩

[theworldismyoysterandiamthepearl]

Critically Endangered Orangutan Gives Birth at Sacramento Zoo.

"Indah, the zoo's 19-year-old Sumatran orangutan, gave birth to a healthy male infant. Both mother and infant are doing well."

from https://people.com/pets/sumatran-orangutan-gives-birth-sacramento-zoo-baby-photos/

[bignosebaby]

Newborn baby orangutan at the Sacramento Zoo

[beardedmrbean]

A swimmer said he feared for his life after he was attacked by otters in a scenic Northern California lake, leaving him with around 40 puncture wounds.

Matt Leffers said he was bitten at least 12 times while swimming at Serene Lakes in Placer County, about 90 miles northeast of Sacramento, on Sept. 3.

Leffers told NBC News affiliate KCRA 3 in an interview on Thursday, two months after the attack, that he had been swimming in the lake, where his family has a cabin, for 30 years. But he had never experienced anything like this.

He felt something bite his calf and then suffered another bite within seconds.

"And then I started swimming fast, but there was the otter, popped up right in front of me, and then I was bit again," he said.

"These things were so aggressive that, literally, I felt like they wanted to kill me," he continued. "It is by far the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had in my life. Nothing even comes close."

Leffers' wife had to rescue him on a paddleboat before taking him to the hospital. Pictures from the hospital shared with KRCA show Leffers' leg badly cut and covered in blood. Months later, the scars remain.

KCRA 3 spoke to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which confirmed that an otter attack took place at Serene Lakes in July — prompting Leffers to call for greater action.

"I think the fact that I’m the second person attacked here this summer, it’s a big red flag," he said.

Peter Tira, a spokesperson for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told KCRA 3 that otters had also attacked dogs in the Redding area. He stressed that while otter attacks on people are very rare, they are a predator species that is very good at swimming and has very sharp teeth.

"They won’t normally attack people or larger animals. However, they will defend their territory if they feel threatened, whether that’s a real threat or perceived threat," Tira said.

One theory is that the otters are attracted to the lake and emboldened by its high fish population.

A letter to the Serene Lakes community dated Sept. 21, which was obtained by KCRA 3 from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that biologists who visited the lake "agreed that the abundance of fish in the lake is a likely cause for otter presence and behavior."

Leffers said the department's response was "wimpy."

"They need to mitigate the situation before somebody gets killed," he said.

The letter said state wildlife officials were working to confirm the number of otters at Serene Lakes and would develop a strategy once they have more information.

Otter attacks are not unheard of in America. In September, a rabid otter bit a man and a dog in Florida before it was captured.

Three women were injured in August when an otter attacked them as they floated on a Montana river.

In July, California wildlife officials reported that a 5-year-old sea otter was "aggressively approaching people and biting surfboards" near Santa Cruz. The wildlife department said it planned to capture the creature and place it in a zoo or aquarium.

NBC News has contacted the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for comment.

[proton-wobbler]

Himalayan Monal (Lophophorus impejanus)

"Himalayan Monals were asked to choose a colour and they said 'yes'. They live in the Himalayas 2 to 4 km above sea level. They have the most beautiful pale blue patch and they're polygamous. Also the males look absolutely majestic in flight." "amazing iridescent colors on male"

Aptly named, this pheasant remains in the Himalayan mountains throughout almost all of its region. It inhabits the oak-conifer forests there and is considered an altitudinal migrant, breeding at ranges between 2,400-4,500 meters (7,900-14,800ft), then descending to 2,000m (6,600ft) during winter. While common in some parts of their range, hunting for food and for the crests of the males is a pressure put on their population.

According to the Sacramento Zoo, the giant bird Kevin in Up is slightly based on the Himalayan Monal.

Sources:

Image source: eBird ( Saurabh Sawant)

[mourningmoth]

oshays birthday is today :33

went to sacramento zoo, and tomorrow for my birthday its dnd day :)

[prospercz]

Den 51

Je 8:45 večer, sedím v autobuse a vyrážíme směr Oregon. Konečně. Města už bylo dost. Vzal jsem si od Mily prášek na cestování, tak snad to proběhne bez problémů. Je to náš dnešní hostel. Vyspime se v buse a ráno se probudíme v Portlandu. Určitě to nebude horší investice než ten včerejší. Ten totiž stál za prd.

Město Sacramento, což je mimochodem hlavní město Kalifornie (ano, taky mě to šokovalo), jsme projeli kvůli ressuply křížem krážem. Zastavili jsme se v REI, něco jako lepší Decathlon. Tam nás zastavila nějaká slečna, že prý nás podle vzhledu tipuje na hikery. Tak přeci jen to asi nejde úplně zamaskovat. Byla ale dost milá a až sem přijedeme příště, asi se jí ozvu a ona nás ubytuje. Šlapala to samé loni.

Další zastávku jsme udělali ve Walmart Supercenter. Je to šílené zoo, ale když má člověk čas, najde fakt všechno, co potřebuje, a ještě za dobrou cenu. Čas je naštěstí to, čeho mi máme dneska habaděj. Vyzvedla nás Mily, která se ve městě už nakupováním unudila, tak nás dovezla na poštu a pomohla nám zabalit a poslat balíčky.

Je to fakt divné místo, tohle město. A nejen tohle město, celá Kalifornie. Ale tady to zatím bylo vidět nejvíc. Je tu spoustu bezdomovců, mají svoje stanová městečka. Nejen pod mosty, ale i na ulicích vedle chodn��ku. Přes den to evidentně sbalí, ale večer už ty stany stojí i uprostřed města. Hlavního města!

Sto metrů odsud v parku se koná letní koncert zdarma a bohatí Amíci se baví a pijí alkohol. Tady je naprostý opak. Zubožené trosky, které mají jediné štěstí, že tady skoro nikdy neprší a v noci není zima. Každý druhý drží v ruce fet nebo alkohol. Z tohohle už se nikdy nedostanou. Tzv. americký sen.

Celý den nás provází tyhle obrázky, je to na zamyšlenou. Rozebíráme to se Stir it upem. Jsme rádi, že Evropa funguje tak, jak funguje. Ani jeden z nás by tu nechtěl žít. Nechtěl jsem ani předtím, ale tohle to ještě víc utvrzuje.

Prohlédneme si Kapitol, který je hlídaný, aby tu nevzniklo stanové městečko. Projdeme si Old town s historickými vláčky a pak radši zapadneme do thajské restaurace. Stojí za to, jídlo je fakt perfektní. Co mě ale zaujalo, úplně jsem si na trailu odvykl pít chlorovanou vodu. Je to teď pro mě posledních pár dní pořádná facka, vůbec mi nechutná. Zaplatíme a pěšky se dopravíme na autobusové nádraží.

Btw. Američani na pěší moc nemyslí, kdo nemá auto, jako by nebyl. Všechno je hrozně daleko a strašně monumentální. I blbá slepá ulička má kolikrát tři pruhy. Ale že by udělali k supermarketu třeba autobusový spoj, to je nenapadne. Každý má přece auto.