Woodland Park Zoo Field Trip

I went on the trip to woodland park zoo on 2/25/18 9-2pm. The weather started with a cloudy light sprinkle and some wind, around noon the sun began to peak through the clouds, after we had left is was hailing. I chose this field trip because I want to work with different “ecosystems” and seeing various animals of different ecosystems able to coexist on under 100 acres is really interesting.

Sleeping Brown Bear

Although Brown (Grizzly) Bears have been in the Northern Cascades for over 20,000 years, there are fewer than 10 currently documented and fewer than a thousand in the entire United States. You can generally identify between adult male and female brown bears by their size. Females are only 150-400 pounds, whereas males can be over 1000 pounds. When Mothers give birth, they will typically have twins that are less than a pound each. As previously stated their diet mostly consists of plants, such as berries, roots, but also insects and small mammals. When seeing the Brown Bears, I thought it was interesting that both bears were were sleeping near the water, and there were ducks in the water for the duration I was at their exhibit, I would think with bears being so massive that there would be shyness of other small animals. They seem to have an understanding that they don’t need to scavenge for food, I’m wondering if this means that in the wild they would be unlikely to go after ducks as well, they eat less than 20% of their diet as meat, so it makes me wonder what causes them to go for animals as a food source and why we are trained from a young age to think that bears in the Pacific NorthWest are living on mainly salmon diets. Speaking of their diets, because bears mainly eat plants, they have developed characteristics to help in collecting food. They have claws and strong shoulders mainly used for digging up roots and berries rather than for defense. With this knowledge, three characteristics I would expect to see in a brown bear are: a sagittal crest, large nasal turbinates, and their teeth will have large canines and molars to help with omnivorous eating habits. Brown Bears and Black Bears are often mistaken for each other because of their names, they can each be found to have black, brown, and lighter fur. There are over a thousand Black Bears for each Brown Bear we have today. One thing to help tell them apart is that Black bears are generally smaller and faster, their claws are smaller to help with climbing trees. A question I had from this is how we can get more bears in Washington without disrupting too much of the ecosystem.

Claws from top to bottom: Adult Male Brown Bear, Female Brown Bear, Black Bear

Skulls with paw sizes left to right: Canine, Black Bear, Brown Bear 

Asian Small-Clawed River Otters

American River Otter

I really enjoyed seeing the river otters, but when I got to their exhibit they were all sleeping,
one was outside while another was in a small den that we could look through a window to see into,
but it was hard to see anything because there was grass in the front of the window. River otters are
primarily found in “Taiga”, the boreal area between PNW temporal forests and the northern tundra.
Some adaptations the river otter has are sensitive whiskers for muddy waters and water repellent fur
to stay warm in cold waters. They also adapt to their surroundings by using what is in the area.
They can be found in rivers, freshwater, estuaries, marsh land, and on coastal shorelines. Their homes
can be burrows made by other semi-aquatic animals such as muskrat, beavers, and woodchucks;
they can also be in nature made spaces, like under tree roots or rocks. River otters are from the weasel
family and are not born swimmers, their mother have to teach them how to swim. Some characteristics
I would expect to see on a skull would be a sagittal crest for opening clams and other hardshell food,
they would also show canines and small incisors for eating as well. I would also expect to see larger
nasal turbines and orbitals to assist in hunting. In comparison, Asian Small Clawed river otters are
much smaller than the american river otters and live in larger groups. They also make their own homes,
usually in muddy areas. They both live off of similar diets in freshwater. I saw signs talking about how
pollution has affected the amount of otters in our state, but I am wondering what main pollutants are
causing them to stop living in certain areas.

Porcupine at feeding time

Upon visiting the porcupine exhibit, it was pacing in the back near where the food comes out, then
when the food was brought out he came down to eat near the front. They are from the rodentia family.
An adaption and something cool I learned about them is that quills are barbed, and they are shed rather
than shoot like they are most often perceived to be, they also produce their own antibiotic it creates to
protect itself from the quills incase they get poked. They spend time in trees during the day to sleep.
I couldn’t find anything on “Why... the porcupine exhibit [was] so stinky”, nor did I notice anything
“stinky”, all I could smell was fresh pines, maybe this was because of having so much rain to wash
away the smell being referred to. I think the smell may have been referring to the porcupine’s release
of pheromones or another scent to mark its territory. Based on information given, it appears porcupines
are seen throughout most of the PNW, as well as many places north. They spend most of their time in
trees throughout the day and come down at night to scavenge for plants, inner bark, and other plant
matter. While at the exhibit, I did notice they were feeding on mainly vegetables. Knowing all of this,
I would expect to see large orbitals on a skull, small teeth that are sharper in front and smoother molars
for chewing, and  little to no sagittal crest. My question is if porcupines are generally by themselves, in
small groups, or if they can be found in large groups.

Great Gray Owl

It was hard for me to spot the Great Gray Owl at first, it was perched high and blending with trees,
on my second time past their exhibit, I found that there actually two in their enclosure, both hidden well
with in the trees. Both great gray owls were perched at the highest trees. They didn’t move very much,
but if I looked away for a second they would move their heads by the time I would look back. They are
found in northern america and into Alaska. Great Gray Owls are known for their keen hearing, it is said
they can hunt by hearing alone, this would make me think they have large auditory bullae. They also
have special feathers that make them more silent predators. This also makes me believe when looking
at their skulls we will see large eye sockets and orbitals because they are known for having very good
eyesight, and often hunt small animals like mice. I would expect a Snowy Owl to have smaller eye
sockets because they only hunt during the day. The Great Gray Owl can be found to be around two feet
tall. Something interesting I learned was about the shape of the great gray owls face, it is in a “disk shape”,
which helps as a sound collector. The owl’s plumage can help in making it appear larger while still being
light weight. How many of these owls can be found near us?

Perched Snowy Owl

The Snowy Owl was perched on a small tree, but wasn’t moving other than to look at people. They are
one of the largest, most powerful owls. They will fly south, sometimes into Washington, when food north
in the tundra becomes scarce. One visually noticeable difference between the owls were that the Great
Grey owls had darker colors, grays and browns so they blended with the trees, they also had more of
a striped pattern with their feathers. Whereas the Snowy Owl was mainly white with some darker
speckling. The colors of their feathers show an adaptation each owl made based on their environments.
They rely on their sight for hunting. If you were to find a completely white snowy owl, they would most
likely be an adult male. They have adapted to colder areas by becoming larger for warmth, their feathers
also are lighter to blend in with the snowy surroundings. I’m curious about what their skulls auditory
bullae looks like in comparison with the Great Gray Owl.

Sloth Bear skull

I want to compare the Sloth Bear of Tropical Asia with the Brown Bear. First thing noticeably
different is the size and color of the bears. The Sloth Bear is mainly black with patches of white/tan fur
around the face and under belly, whereas the Brown Bears had consistent dark brown fur. The sloth
bear also seemed to have longer, shaggier hair. Their diets are similar, but Sloth Bears will eat more
insects, which is why they’re missing their front incisors (derived trait). They each have the ancestral
traits that “make them a bear”, they walk on all fours, have similar face shapes, live mainly off of plant
matter, have large paws with claws, having about two cubs per litter, and do not have a set cycle for
when they are awake or not depending on their habitat.

I think this was a really great trip. I got to see a lot of animals that had similarities
as well as animals that seemed far different from each other. Seeing up close how different
subspecies can branch off from each other based on location was really neat,
it made me start to wonder what the background of other animals considered native to
Washington are and which ones have been more recent to our area. The most interesting thing
I learned on the trip was what they feed different animals, most of them ate a lot of plants,
bears get given things like peanut butter and raisins. They also celebrated the 50th birthday
for one of the orangutans with a cake and gave fleece blankets as presents. It makes me wonder
if the animals are being treated slightly more like humans because humans are the ones taking
care of them, or if many of the things they are receiving are things they would find in the wild or
what similar things would be that they like that is being given at the zoo.

Food the zoo feeds its Brown Bears