#Zoo Miami

[azaleatheanteater]

Say hi to Ziggy! His mother abandoned him on one of the coldest nights of the year on December 9th 2020 and many of the vet staff didn’t think he’d survive. He was sent to the intensive care unit of the zoo’s hospitals and when he was strong enough to be reintroduced, his mother ignored him, so he went back to the vets. 4 years later, he’s grown into a majestic little guy and we all love him

(couldn’t find photos of his 3rd birthday I’m sorry)

[beanbagbuddies4life]

I took Chilly to Zoo Miami and this was right at the entrance lol. It's not a great picture but it was a main walkway so I kept moving but it's cute so i'm sharing it anyway

[midmorningsong]

So this morning a staffmate told me about the recent Miami Zoo Kiwi incident that’s come to light, and I’ve been fucking livid all day.

Just been reading through a bunch of articles (majority NZ news sources) and the Zoo’s official statement, and somehow it’s even worse than what my irate coworker was able to convey to me. Miami Zoo had the absolute fucking privilege of receiving a (North Isl. Brown (?)) kiwi egg to hatch and raise as a species you would never normally see outside our little island at the bottom of the world as part of a some global zoo wildlife initiative.

Brief brief summary: viral videos coming out of this kiwi (Paora) being put on a table and patted by paying customers under bright lights, having selfies taken, made to run around during the day, keeper pursuing him whenever he tried to hide in his box. All around blasé attitude from keeper talking about this bird while he’s being paraded about on display. There’s video footage but I could seriously only stomach watching it once. He’s been there for 4 years and in the wake of this outrage they’re claiming to be building him a ‘proper enclosure’ now. He’s been handled like this at least 4 times a week and his current enclosure has been 3x3m.

They had access to super fucking detailed information on how to take care of this very sensitive and specialized animal, and what the fuck do they do? Disregard ALL of it to sell cutesy, ~rare bird~, self-obsessed animal encounters.

Either you knowingly and intentionally went against SO. MUCH. vital animal husbandry or you are just such a fuckwit you legitimately think it was good animal handling, I don’t know which is worse honestly. If it’s the former, congratulations; American Capitalism continues to be the most nasty, disrespectful piece of shit I see regularly parading about in broad daylight. If it’s the latter, then are your staff for real just exotic pet-obsessed freaks who showed up one day in a uniform and you just went ‘yeah sure you can be a zookeeper good enough’. Shoutout to that ‘keeper’ who had Paora’s head pinned to the fucking table with his fist going ‘hohoh yeah he’s just like a dog he loves being pat on the head’ yeah sure thing idiot I bet your zookeeper degree taught you all animals and birds especially just love being slapped around and treated like dogs.

The thing that’s got me the most though, is how over the top and pitiful they are being in their apology; “we’ve offended a nation...”, “it should have never happened”, “we are so sorry this video has caused stress to people”, ok yeah but fuck what we think why is there exactly ZERO mention of the stress, harm and sheer exploitation you have put this animal through??? Like yes, Paora is a taonga species and that is certainly adding to the severity of this response, but in and of itself the fact that their official statement answers ONLY to humans’ responses and outrage and not the failure to care for this animal is telling as fuck to me.

I really liked reading iwi leader Paora Haitana’s response (who Paora the kiwi is named after), in much nicer words than me expressing deep concern over the harm to Paora, the disrespect it is to him as a taonga species and us as protectors of them, and also heavy, heavy emphasis on words holding no shape under the weight of everything that has happened; they need to follow through and follow through right now with adequate care.

Personally I’d like to see Paora moved to a zoo that actually cares about his needs and conservation education over selling clickbait. I feel the love and intention of bringing him home to Aotearoa, though I don’t know how realistic that is with the risk of introducing diseases from abroad into the NZ populations. I also would expect a thorough investigation of Zoo Miami’s husbandry for all their species and the credentials of their staff.

Thanks for coming along to rant o’ clock, I’ll be back to reblogging regular fandom shit now so please don’t follow me if you’re expecting more of my own content lol. Enjoy some great twitter banter from this mess

[petsincollections]

New born aardvark at Crandon Park Zoo

Zoo Miami

Government Resource and Information Department, Florida International University

FIU Libraries DPanther Repository

[yeltsinsstar]

Call for NZ experts to help care for Paora the kiwi after US zoo sparks ...

Zoo Miami fucked around and found out. They mistreated an endangered bird, a kiwi, a taonga of Aotearoa New Zealand, entrusted into their care, thus enraging an entire nation. Their apology doesn’t sound sincere, they did not take Paora’s welfare seriously, nor do they seem capable of doing so. This zoo needs to be investigated to see what other abuses are occurring there.

[kermit-the-hag]

Zoo Miami can shove their pathetic apologies up their money hungry, capitalist arses. Send the poor baby home.

If they cannot respect taonga, then they shouldn’t have it at all. This is peak coloniser behaviour, thinking they are entitled to something sacred and then mistreating it.

Fuck them and fuck everyone who has done the Kiwi experience.

ANY ANIMAL ACTIVISTS WHO KNEW THIS WAS HAPPENING AND DIDNT CARE - YOU CAN ROT IN THE PITS OF HELL

[onebadlich]

I contacted Zoo Miami via their website expressing my concern, and I just received the following response indicating they've stopped the Kiwi Encounter program. Not a great apology IMHO, but the important thing is they're taking action.

"First and foremost, on behalf of everyone at Zoo Miami, please accept our most profound and sincere apology for the stress initiated by a video on social media depicting the handling and housing of “Paora,” the kiwi bird that is presently under our care. The concerns expressed by have been taken very seriously and as a result, effective immediately, the Kiwi Encounter will no longer be offered.

Though Paora has thrived at Zoo Miami while receiving the best care available, the development of the Kiwi Encounter was, in hindsight, not well conceived with regard to the national symbolism of this iconic animal and what it represents to the people of New Zealand, especially the Maori. Having had the honor of hosting the Honorable New Zealand Ambassador to the United States and several representatives of the Maori people during a special naming ceremony here at Zoo Miami, it is especially painful to all of us to think that anything that has occurred with Paora here at Zoo Miami would be offensive to any of the wonderful people of New Zealand. Again, we are deeply sorry.

Please know that Paora is normally kept out of public view in a quiet area. This area provides him with a special shelter that enables him to remain in relative darkness during the day so that he can, at his discretion, come out and explore his habitat in the quiet of the evening. Plans are presently underway to build a special habitat for him that will continue to provide him with the shelter that he needs while respecting and supporting his natural instincts. It will be developed in such a way that we can teach our guests about the amazing kiwi without any direct contact from the public.

Zoo Miami feels extremely privileged to be the first facility in the state of Florida to successfully hatch a kiwi as part of a partnership with the Smithsonian National Zoo. We are happy to have watched him grow and thrive under our care and are committed to providing him with the best environment possible while respecting and honoring all that he represents.

Thank you for expressing your concern, love and passion for this remarkable bird. We are listening and will do better to provide it with the respect and committed care that it so richly deserves and sincerely regret any actions that may have indicated otherwise."

Hey uh I just found this out and I'm FURIOUS but miami zoo has a kiwi bird. Which is fine if they were doing what we do here and keeping it in a darkened enclosure with clear notices to be quiet and not bang on the glass. But instead this shy, solitary nocturnal bird is being kept in broad daylight and people are being allowed to pet it. NZ twitter is out for blood right now. https://twitter.com/zoomiami/status/1637864741954637824

…fucking yikes.

The kiwi I’ve seen in other AZA zoos have been kept according to the practices you describe: dark exhibit on a flipped light cycle, in a signed quiet area. What it looks like Zoo Miami is doing is… not good.

Here’s the link to their tweet with a video about the encounter (so it’ll embed):

The video shows a kiwi out of its exhibit: on a table in what looks like a back room with bright overhead fluorescent lighting. The kiwi has no room to move around and no place to hide as people pet it and reach around it to take selfies.

What do you pay to bother the kiwi four days a week - a species which in NZ is apparently illegal to touch without permission from the Department of Conservation? $25.

Obviously it just started and I don’t know anything more about it than what’s online, but even so, this is such a bad look for an AZA zoo, holy shit. I know a bunch of new ambassador animal rules just got promulgated… I wonder if this meets them. I’ll have to go do some reading. Also, USDA is now promulgating new bird rules (it didn’t regulate birds until just recently, only mammals) so this will also have to pass their muster soon.

The guy who runs Miami’s PR, and manages the animal media like the birth of their first kiwi chick in 2019, is known for big media stunts. I’m not surprised by this but I don’t think it’s going to go over well. There’s a lot of pressure on zoos to offer new encounters and programs to help make up for inflation and pandemic losses but this not how to do it.

I’d honestly suggest New Zealanders who are upset about this contact Zoo Miami formally (more than just on twitter) using the contact form on their website, and maybe even the AZA to express concerns about this program animal’s welfare - as well as the lack of cultural awareness at one of their accredited facilities.

Edited to add: a statement from Zoo Miami is supposed to be forthcoming tomorrow. I’ll update once we have it.

[hometoursandotherstuff]

Now, here's a REAL art deco bathroom.

[brookezilla]

Not fandom related but the Miami Zoo currently has one of my country’s national birds which they’re MISTREATING.

We’d like it back now luv x

If it was a bald eagle, y’all would be rioting in the streets.

[harrisx28]

Happy World Parrot Day🦜

[rabbitcruiser]

National Banana Lovers Day

Today we celebrate the banana—the most popular fruit in the United  States and around the world. The average person eats about 100 of them a  year, which comes out to about 25 to 33 pounds worth. They are the  cheapest fruit and are also one of the most perishable. They may appear  to grow on trees, but they actually grow on plants that have 10 to 20  feet high trunks. The banana plant is an herb—the largest herb plant,  actually—and bananas are its fruit. The plant grows in the tropics.

Each banana is about 100 calories and is high in fiber and potassium,  which are good for treating high blood pressure, ulcers, calcium loss,  and some cancers. Bananas are also a good source of manganese, vitamin  B6, and vitamin C. There are over 1,000 varieties of bananas, but the  kind most eaten in the United States is the Cavendish. The Gros Michel  was once the most commonly eaten, but in the 1950s it fell victim to a  fungus that causes Panama disease, so farmers had to switch to the  Cavendish.

Bananas are the oldest cultivated fruit and likely were first  domesticated in Southeast Asia. Centuries later, shortly after Europeans  arrived in the Western Hemisphere, they were brought from the Canary  Islands to Hispaniola. They then spread to other islands, before making  it to the mainland. They didn't become widespread in the United States  until the end of the nineteenth century. They were so popular in  American cities in the early twentieth century that banana peels on the  ground became a nuisance and an issue that had to be dealt with. This  led to the gag of slipping on banana peels, which was frequently  featured in early movies.

Bananas were popularized in part by the United Fruit Company, which  was founded in the late nineteenth century, and is now known as  Chiquita. They encouraged people to eat bananas with milk and corn  flakes, and they put out banana recipe books until the end of the 1950s.  The books oftentimes contained adventurous recipes and aimed to get  people to eat bananas at every meal. They cast the banana not only as  something sweet but also as something similar to a vegetable, like a  potato. One example of a recipe from the book is ham banana rolls with  cheese sauce. Nowadays, bananas are still eaten in many different ways.  Besides being enjoyed plain, they may be fried, may be included in  sandwiches, and may be used in pies, puddings, muffins, breads, and  cakes—among other things. On National Banana Lovers Day, the sky's the  limit as to what can be done with them!

How to Observe National Banana Lovers Day

You should be eating as many bananas and foods made with bananas as possible today. While doing so, perhaps you could read Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World. You could pick up an old United Fruit/Chiquita recipe book to help you decide what to eat, but we have also put together some recipe ideas for you here as well:

Elvis Presley's fried peanut butter and banana sandwich

Grilled banana s'mores

Fried sweet bananas

Honey-rum grilled bananas

Eat bananas with corn flakes and milk, just as United Fruit once encouraged everyone to do.

Try bananas in milk, with a little bit of sugar and a few drops of vanilla extract.

Banana bread

Banana muffins

Banana cake

Banana split

Banana cream pie

Banana pudding

Banana cocktails

Banana smoothies

Make some matooke, which is the most popular banana dish in the world and from Uganda.

Make Bananas Foster, a New Orleans specialty.

Make the original United Fruit ham banana rolls with cheese sauce!!!

Source

[sitting-on-me-bum]

A female loggerhead turtle clears her nostrils after surfacing for air in her treatment tank after she was brought to Miami Zoo’s new Sea Turtle hospital. The turtle was rescued from the Port St Lucie Power Plant after a shark attack left its left fin with exposed bone

Photograph: Ron Magill/AP

[xtruss]

Illustration by João Fazenda

The Burning of Maui

The governor called the fires Hawaii’s “largest natural disaster” ever. They would more accurately be labelled an “unnatural disaster.”

— By Elizabeth Kolbert | August 20, 2023

The ‘alalā, or Hawaiian crow, is a remarkably clever bird. ‘Alalā fashion tools out of sticks, which they use, a bit like skewers, to get at hard-to-reach food. The birds were once abundant, but by the late nineteen-nineties their population had dropped so low that they were facing extinction. Since 2003, all the world’s remaining ‘alalā have been confined to aviaries. In a last-ditch effort to preserve the species, the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance has been breeding the crows in captivity. The alliance keeps about a third of the birds—some forty ‘alalā—at a facility outside the town of Volcano, on the Big Island, and the rest outside the town of Makawao, on Maui. Earlier this month, the Maui population was very nearly wiped out. On the morning of August 8th, flames came within a few hundred feet of the birds’ home and would probably have engulfed it were it not for an enterprising alliance employee, one of her neighbors, and a garden hose.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “many factors” contributed to the ‘alalā’s decline, including habitat destruction, invasive species, and the effects of agriculture on the landscape. Owing to these developments, Hawaii’s native fauna in general is in crisis; the state has earned an unfortunate title as “the extinction capital of the world.” Of the nearly hundred and fifty bird species that used to be found in Hawaii and nowhere else, two-thirds are gone. Among the islands’ distinctive native snails, the losses have been even more catastrophic.

Last week, as the death toll from the fires in West Maui continued to mount—late on Friday, the number stood at a hundred and eleven—it became clear that the same “factors” that have decimated Hawaii’s wildlife also contributed to the deadliness of the blazes. Roughly a thousand people have been reported as still missing, and some two thousand homes have been destroyed or damaged. The worst-hit locality, the town of Lahaina, which lies in ruins, was built on what was once a wetland. Starting in the mid-nineteenth century, much of the vegetation surrounding the town was cleared to make way for sugar plantations. Then, when these went out of business, in the late twentieth century, the formerly cultivated acres were taken over by introduced grasses. In contrast to Hawaii’s native plants, the imported grasses have evolved to reseed after fires and, in dry times, they become highly flammable.

“The lands around Lahaina were all sugarcane from the eighteen-sixties to the late nineteen-nineties,” Clay Trauernicht, a specialist in fire ecology at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, told the Guardian. “Nothing’s been done since then—hence the problem with invasive grasses and fire risk.”

Also contributing to the devastation was climate change. Since the nineteen-fifties, average temperatures in Hawaii have risen by about two degrees, and there has been a sharp uptick in warming in just the past decade. This has made the state more fire-prone and, at the same time, it has fostered the spread of the sorts of plants that provide wildfires with fuel. Hotter summers help invasive shrubs and grasses “outgrow our native tree species,” the state’s official Climate Change Portal notes.

As Hawaii has warmed, it has also dried out. According, again, to the Climate Change Portal, “rainfall and streamflow have declined significantly over the past 30 years.” In the weeks leading up to the fires in West Maui, parts of the region were classified as suffering from “severe drought.” Meanwhile, climate change is shifting storm tracks in the Pacific farther north. Hurricane Dora, which made history as the longest-lasting Category 4 hurricane on record in the Pacific, passed to the south of Maui and helped produce the gusts that spread the Lahaina fire at a speed that’s been estimated to be a mile per minute.

After visiting the wreckage of Lahaina, Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, called the Maui fires the “largest natural disaster Hawaii has ever experienced.” In fact, the fires would more accurately be labelled an “unnatural disaster.” As David Beilman, a professor of geography and environment at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, recently pointed out, for most of Hawaii’s history fire simply wasn’t part of the islands’ ecology. “This Maui situation is an Anthropocene phenomenon,” he told USA Today.

A great many more unnatural disasters lie ahead. Last month was, by a large margin, the hottest July on record, and 2023 seems likely to become the warmest year on record. Two days after Lahaina burst into flames, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a revised forecast for the current Atlantic hurricane season, which runs through the end of November. The agency had been predicting a “near-normal” season, with between five and nine hurricanes. But, because of record sea-surface temperatures this summer—last month a buoy in Manatee Bay, south of Miami, registered 101.1 degrees, a reading that, as the Washington Post put it, is “more typical of a hot tub than ocean water”—noaa is now projecting that the season will be “above normal,” with up to eleven hurricanes. Rising sea levels and the loss of coastal wetlands mean that any hurricanes that make landfall will be that much more destructive.

A few days after noaa revised its forecast, officials ordered the evacuation of Yellowknife, the capital of Canada’s Northwest Territories. A wildfire burning about ten miles away would, they feared, grow to consume the city. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation called the evacuation order “extraordinary.” This summer has been Canada’s worst wildfire season on record, and, at times, the smoke has spread all the way to Europe. There are currently something like a thousand active fires in the country.

Two days after the Yellowknife evacuation was ordered, another Pacific hurricane—Hilary—intensified into a Category 4 storm. Hilary was being drawn north by a “heat dome” of high pressure over the central Plains, which was expected to bring record temperatures to parts of the Midwest. The storm’s unusual track put some twenty-six million people in four states—California, Utah, Nevada, and Arizona—under flash-flood watches.

How well humanity will fare on the new planet it is busy creating is an open question. Homo sapiens is a remarkably clever species. So, too, was the ‘alalā. ���

— Published in the Print Edition of the August 28, 2023, New Yorker Issue, with the Headline “Fire Alarm.”

[yeltsinsstar]

DOC to raise concerns with Miami Zoo over treatment of kiwi

How this American zoo is treating this poor kiwi is disgusting. The bird is clearly stressed, probably because kiwi are nocturnal and they have it in a brightly lit room that is basically a fucking petting zoo.

[psyworks]

Day 3: Shopping day in Miami 🌊🐙🐠🦑🌴🛥️🌞🦞🐚

Day 3: Shopping day in Miami 🌊🐙🐠🦑🌴🛥️🌞🦞🐚A day of Shopping in the @balharbourshops , brunch / lunch in @lezoobalharbour , visit Miami’s Famous @miamidesigndistrict and end of the day at @brickellcitycentre 🙂#psyworks #balharbour #miami #miamidesigndistrict #brickell #brickellmiami #shopping #shoppingaddict #southbeach #florida #balharbourshops View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jorge…

[mikicreature]

rah