Carefully very carefully. And with lots of training and treats.
As COVID-19 cases surge throughout the region, the San Diego Zoo and the Safari Park are hustling to immunize an array of animals that could give Noah’s Ark a run for its money, from tigers to Vervet monkeys to hyenas and other critters staff think could be vulnerable to the virus. By the end of this week, they’ll have doled out first doses to roughly 250 animals, many of them endangered species.
“We’re in a very similar situation to where us humans were just a few months ago, when vaccines were [first] available,” said Dr. Hendrik Nollens, who leads the veterinary teams for the zoo and Safari Park. “Now it’s this race against time. Who’s going to get there first: vaccine or virus?”
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Ramil, a 9-year-old male snow leopard at the San Diego Zoo, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to an announcement from the organization on Friday.
Zoo staff first tested the animal’s stool for the virus after noticing Thursday that he had a cough and runny nose. When that test came back positive, the wildlife care team sent samples to the California Animal Health and Food Safety Laboratory System so that the state-level lab could confirm the result, which it did.
And while the zoo is still waiting for a U.S. Department of Agriculture lab to triple-check the finding, it expects that sample to come back positive, too, according to a spokesperson.
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There’s a newly hatched set of California condor chicks at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and they have been given names in the Kumeyaay language by members of three local bands.
In naming the three condor chicks that were born in March, the park worked with members from the San Pasqual Reservation, Campo Kumeyaay Nation and Iipay Nation of Santa Ysabel.
The chosen names are Met-ha my wahm (high wind rider), Po-mahn-kwakurr (far-off flyer) and Eyaip-poman (flies through).
California condors are considered to be symbols of power by Indigenous people in the region, and the births of these three chicks is a significant part of local conservation efforts.
Rob Taylor is the author of
The Road Trip Survival Guide (being released May 25, 2021) and the founder of 2TravelDads, the original LGBT Family Travel blog. Focusing on ecotourism and education, 2TravelDads inspires LGBT families (and traditional families also) to go beyond their usual getaways and use travel to learn about and be part of a bigger world.
2TravelDads blazes the way for other two-dad and two-mom families to travel to previously overlooked destinations or places we as gay people would normally avoid. We share the struggles we ve faced and the surprising gems and welcomes we ve had along the way. Traveling as a family is one thing, traveling as an LGBT family is completely something else.
Rob Taylor is the author of
The Road Trip Survival Guide (being released May 25, 2021) and the founder of 2TravelDads, the original LGBT Family Travel blog. Focusing on ecotourism and education, 2TravelDads inspires LGBT families (and traditional families also) to go beyond their usual getaways and use travel to learn about and be part of a bigger world.
2TravelDads blazes the way for other two-dad and two-mom families to travel to previously overlooked destinations or places we as gay people would normally avoid. We share the struggles we ve faced and the surprising gems and welcomes we ve had along the way. Traveling as a family is one thing, traveling as an LGBT family is completely something else.