November 19, 2009
For the top-to-bottom Oceanarium renovation, Kris Nesbitt, senior exhibit designer, and Kara Kotwas, senior graphic designer, saw the underwater viewing gallery as a blank canvas on which to create a universally accessible permanent exhibit where “all children can find something to do.”
November 14, 2009
Aquarists thought that Leif, a Meller’s chameleon on view in Waters of the World, was just gaining weight. Then a series of X-rays revealed that she was full of developing eggs – so full, in fact, that “she looked like a gumball machine,” says senior aquarist Stacy Wozniak. About a month ago, the 2-foot-long lizard spent a morning laying 60 oval eggs in the moss at the back of her habitat.
October 21, 2009
Look for Pacific sea nettles in the 700-gallon circular display outside the elevators to Wild Reef. The moon jellies that occupied that space, floating in a hypnotic circular flow, have moved to the Icy North section of Polar Play Zone in the Oceanarium. And a good thing.
October 12, 2009
As the sun began to set on Shoop Bay, near Valdez, Alaska, a group of recreational boaters were pretty sure the tiny, screaming sea otter they’d been keeping an eye on all day had been abandoned by her mother, and they contacted wildlife authorities. The 2-pound pup was taken to the Alaska Sea Life Center and treated for dehydration and low blood sugar. Shortly after that, in late March of 2005, Shedd got a call from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, asking if we had room for an abandoned sea otter pup. Enter Kiana.
October 02, 2009
Mari and Kiana, Shedd’s youngest otters, came to us as 2- to 3-month-old pups, courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Kiana was a real rescue – either abandoned or orphaned – but Mari was most likely doing just fine when a well-meaning kayaker intervened.
October 01, 2009
Shedd’s hungry sea otters chomp down 7,000 pounds of shrimp a year. The problem is, serious environmental issues such as habitat destruction and bycatch are associated with shrimp trawling and aquaculture. Bycatch, or unintentional catch, occurs when animals such as sea turtles, large fishes and seabirds become entangled in fishing gear. For every pound of shrimp netted in the wild, up to 10 pounds of unwanted marine life is also caught – and usually drowned or fatally injured.
September 30, 2009
At 80 pounds and 4 feet, Yaku is the big guy in Otter Cove. He’s also the only guy, an arrangement he seems to like.
Yaku was born at the Seattle Aquarium in 2000 and came to Shedd a year later. Like all of Shedd’s sea otters – and marine mammals – he was enrolled in our award-winning training program from Day One.
Sea otter pups rank way up there on the cuteness scale, and the adults display their playful natures as they somersault in the water, inch along on land, or tug at trainers’ boots during sessions. But as they reach maturity, these deceptively large animals with sharp canines and crushing molars become unpredictable. In fact, before Shedd demonstrated otherwise, most aquarium professionals dismissed these frisky, feisty marine mammals as untrainable.
September 28, 2009
Shedd’s success in raising the four Exxon Valdez oil spill pups impressed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service so much that a year after the spill, in 1990, the service called to see if the aquarium could take a month-old pup found stranded on a beach in Homer, Alaska. Wildlife officials speculated that the 6-pound otter had been separated from her mother during a storm.
Because the infant needed constant care, she was allowed to ride in the cockpit of the cargo jet, along with Shedd’s otter specialist and veterinarian, on the flight from Anchorage to Chicago. The otter was named Kachemak after the bay where she was found.
September 27, 2009
Shedd’s Magellanic chicks have joined the eight adult Magellanics and 12 rockhoppers in the penguin habitat. Here’s a recap of their development plus an update on their progress, courtesy of trainer and penguin lead Lana Vanagasem, since we last reported on them June 10.
Our five penguin chicks made the trip from the San Francisco Zoo to Shedd as eggs in a portable incubator, securely strapped into their own business-class seat on a commercial flight. Lana was beside them the whole trip. The day after the eggs arrived, May 15, the first chick pipped its eggshell, beginning the laborious task of hatching. The chicks were fully hatched out between May 16 and 24, after an average of 40 days of incubation. The white spot on the end of each bird’s beak is an “egg tooth,” a sharp bump that helps puncture the egg membranes and shell, then drops off within a few weeks.
September 24, 2009
A newly renovated Oceanarium isn’t all that Shedd’s marine mammal trainers have been excited about lately; several months ago, blood tests and ultrasound exams – routine veterinary procedures performed on all our marine mammals – revealed that two beluga whales are pregnant!
Kelly Schaaf, a senior trainer in the marine mammals department, is one of the staff members caring for the expectant females. “In a lot of ways,” Kelly said, “the routine stays the same. We still do training sessions and let them interact with other whales.” The frequency of routine examinations has increased, however, as staff members try to determine how far along each pregnancy is (belugas gestate between 14 and 16 months!) and continue to monitor the health of the mothers. When physical cues indicate that labor is near for each mom, she will be moved to a separate habitat, and veterinarians will watch and wait. Wait is the key word. Kelly notes, “The actual birthing process can take several hours.”
