Another Zooper Saturday!

The Buffalo Zoo will hold a Zooper Saturday event this Saturday, December 1 featuring the snow leopards and reindeer. Come visit some animals at the Zoo who are happy to welcome winter to Buffalo! Our two snow leopards, Annapurna and Dwaine will enjoy animal enrichments while visitors enjoy keeper talks and training sessions from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. The reindeer have a few weeks until Santa needs them, so come visit them from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. for enrichments and docent talks in front of the reindeer exhibit. A complete schedule of activities follows.

•  11 a.m. snow leopard enrichment
•  12 p.m. snow leopard training demonstration
•  1 p.m. snow leopard enrichment
•  1:15 p.m. reindeer docent talk
•  1:45 p.m. reindeer enrichment
•  2:15 p.m. reindeer docent talk

Zooper Saturday events are free with regular Zoo admission, and are sponsored by Wells
Fargo Advisors, LLC.

For more information about the Zooper Saturday event, call (716) 995-6133 or visit
www.buffalozoo.org

Sea Lion "Kiss"-mas Cards at the Buffalo Zoo

The Zoo will offer a unique holiday gift option this season: kisses from Pocus, one of our California Sea Lions! The kiss encounter sessions will occur at 12:00 p.m. each day. Only 20 kisses can take place each day, so reservations are strongly encouraged. Kiss encounters are $20. Participants will receive a 4 x 6 photo and a memory that will last a lifetime. The encounters are limited to individual shots (no groups) and ages 6 and older. Participants who don't want a kiss but would still love to get up-close-and-personal with a sea lion may be photographed as a sea lion "trainer" instead. Please call the Zoo at (716) 837-3900 to make reservations for your sea lion kiss.

Thank You Troop 58!

We at the Buffalo Zoo would like to extend a special "THANK YOU" to Joe Scamacca and the members and families of Eagle Scout Troop #58 for constructing new benches for the lions and tigers. Before the decks were built this summer, the big cats would lounge below the windows, making it difficult for Zoo visitors to catch a glimpse of them. Now, visitors can get up-close-and-personal with the cats,  who seem to really enjoy their new benches. Joe and his troop worked hard on this and past projects for the Zoo. The staff, animals, and patrons of the Buffalo Zoo appreciate all that they have done for us.

Joe Scamacca of Eagle Scout Troop #58 trying out the new bench.

The Lions at the Buffalo Zoo love their new benches!

Some members of Troop 58 and their families.

Thank you to Mary Scamacca for providing these photographs.

Polar Bites 2013 Tickets are now on Sale!

My Trip to the Polar Bear Capitol of the World – Part 2

by Caitlyn Bruce, Keeper at the Buffalo Zoo

(Read Part 1 Here)

Even though I work with polar bears every day at the Buffalo Zoo, there was a huge difference for me between that and seeing wild bears in their natural environment.  The thing that had the greatest impact on me though, was seeing the Aurora Borealis the first night we were in Churchill.  We were in the middle of a class discussion around 8:30pm when we were interrupted with “the northern lights are outside!” 

We were lucky enough to be staying at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, a LEED gold certified building constructed to house researchers conducting studies in the Churchill area.  One of the many benefits of staying there was the second story outdoor observation deck.  Being in the heart of polar bear country, you certainly don’t want to go outside on the ground at night, but having a second story deck made viewing the Aurora outside possible. I will never forget standing outside in the freezing cold, gazing straight up and watching the sky swirl and shimmer, changing colors from green to red and back again. It is truly something you have to see first hand to appreciate. 

Leadership Camp was a once in a life time experience that taught me so much.  The knowledge and skills I gained will definitely help me in my new role as a “community change agent” as we ALL work towards a future that includes the existence of polar bears.  After all, I want to live in a world where it will be possible for my future children and grandchildren to have the same experience I had, seeing the magnificent wild polar bear roaming the arctic tundra.  

Tickets Now Available For Breakfast With Santa and the Animals at the Buffalo Zoo

The Buffalo Zoo invites you and your family to celebrate the holidays with Santa and the Zoo animals!

The Zoo will host its annual Breakfast with Santa events on December 8, 9, 15, and 16. There will be two seatings each day at 9:00 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. Prepaid, nonrefundable tickets are required due to limited seating. Ticket prices for non-members are $14 for adults and $12 for children. Members will receive a $3 discount. Children under the age of 24 months will be admitted for free.

Tickets include a buffet breakfast provided by CJ’s Catering, family-friendly activities,and a visit with Santa!

For more information, or to reserve tickets, please call (716) 995-6133 or visit www.buffalozoo.org.

Holiday Gift Guide: Buffalo Zoo

My Trip to the Polar Bear Capitol of the World – Part 1

by Caitlyn Bruce (Keeper at the Buffalo Zoo)

From October 6^th to October 13^th of this year, I had the amazing opportunity to travel to the western Hudson Bay area to Churchill, Manitoba with the Polar Bears International  Leadership Camp. Seeing polar bears in the wild was especially intriguing for me as a polar bear keeper at the Buffalo Zoo, but nothing could have prepared me for the experience I was going to have in the sub-arctic. There were 24 participants from a variety of backgrounds including other zoo keepers from across North America, high school teachers, communicators and education department staff from other zoos, and even an agent from the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife.

The main function of Leadership Camp was to educate us about global climate change and, more importantly, what we can personally do and how we can educate others on how to reduce their energy consumption.  From when we woke up at 7am until we went to bed at 10pm, we were participating in classes, group discussions, Skype sessions with world renowned climate change scientists, and a variety of other activities. We learned how to be more proficient in communicating how climate change is affecting polar bear populations, and will ultimately lead to their extinction if nothing changes. What we learned and the skills we developed were an important part of camp, but the real excitement was in what we saw while we were there. Everything from the tundra landscape, to the structure of the town of Churchill, to the tundra flora and fauna was fascinating. We spend two days out on tundra in a Tundra Buggy©, which is like a very large, all-terrain school bus with giant wheels. This allowed us a safe vantage point for viewing, while still keeping us incredibly close and engaged with our surroundings.  While we were there, we saw a variety of arctic wildlife including tundra swan, an arctic fox, beluga whales, ptarmigan, and arctic hares, but obviously the most thrilling were the polar bears. We saw a total of five bears (although we believe one was the same bear, seen two different days). 

Polar bear sighting in Churchill, Manitoba

Great Pumpkins

Some of us aren't quite finished with our Halloween treats yet

Polar Bites 2013 Tickets are now on sale!

For years now, the annual Polar Bites event puts some much needed fun in February. Taking place upstairs at the newly renovated Buffalo Niagara Convention Center on February 21, 2013, this annual benefit for the Zoo showcases some of the best restaurants, breweries, wineries and other specialty services in the Western New York Region. 1500 friends of the Zoo come together to help the Zoo and sample some of the best the area has to offer.

If you want to help both your appetite and the Buffalo Zoo, Polar Bites is the event for you! Come enjoy our basket auction, a silent auction and a visit from some of our animal ambassadors. The event runs from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tickets are $35  pre-sale CLICK HERE and $45 at the door. A limited amount of VIP tickets are available at a cost of $60 CLICK HERE. To get your tickets by phone call (716) 995-6133.You must be 21 years or older to attend.

New Arrivals at the Buffalo Zoo.

The Buffalo Zoo is pleased to welcome new animals to their collection. 

Among the new arrivals are a rhinoceros, a giraffe, and seven leaf frogs.

A male giraffe named Moke arrived in Buffalo in September from the Dickerson Park Zoo in
Springfield, MO. The year-old Rothschild giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis rothschild) was
brought to Buffalo to breed with the Zoo’s two female reticulated giraffes.

George, a male Asian one-horned rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) is another new Buffalo
resident. Owned by the National Zoo in Washington D.C, he came to Buffalo via the Bronx
Zoo as part of a cooperative breeding program. The three-thousand-pound rhino will not
reach sexual maturity for at least another two years, when he will be introduced to the
Zoo’s female rhino, Tashi. He is expected to reach between five and six-thousand pounds.
The Zoo recently completed updates to the existing rhino barn and yard to accommodate
the rhino bull.

Zookeepers are also excited to add seven Solomon Islands leaf frogs (Ceratobatrachus
guentheri) to the Zoo’s collection. What makes these frogs special is that they hatch as
froglets, skipping the tadpole stage entirely. The leaf frogs will be on exhibit in the Zoo’s
reptile house after their quarantine period. The frogs came to Buffalo from the Dallas Zoo.

Visit the Buffalo Zoo and meet the new residents! The Zoo recommends calling before you
visit to find out when the animals will be on exhibit. For information about the Zoo’s hours
of operation, please call (716) 837-3900, or visit buffalozoo.org.

Zooper Saturday, Tomorrow!

The Buffalo Zoo will hold a Zooper Saturday event featuring gorillas and reptiles on Saturday, November 3.

Learn all there is to know about reptiles from our keeper talks, snake feedings, and enrichment activities in our reptile house from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. Then, head over to meet our western lowland gorillas, and learn what makes each one of them unique! Activities will take place from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. including keeper talks and animal enrichment. Zooper Saturday events are free with regular Zoo admission. A full schedule
of activities follows:

11 a.m. Puerto Rican crested toad keeper talk
11:30 a.m. poison dart frog feeding and keeper talk
12 p.m. hellbender keeper talk
12:30 p.m. uromastyx keeper talk
1 p.m. indigo snake feeding and keeper talk
1 p.m. gorilla feeding
2 p.m. gorilla keeper talk and enrichment
3 p.m. gorilla feeding



Zooper Saturday programs are sponsored by Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC.