Bulletin From the Barn: April 14, 2010
Giant Anteater Update From Keeper Marie Magnuson
Well, things have certainly been happening here! We have all been enjoying the great weather, especially Easter Weekend, which was perfect. Easter is always busy at the Zoo and with the perfect weather we had quite a crowd. The anteaters enjoyed it as well, and the Juneberry trees in their yard were in bloom, making for great photo ops.
Our big news (at least from the keepers’ point of view) is that Dante and Maripi have bred! After Cyrano went to Nashville we had been waiting to hear from the PMP to see if we if we could allow the anteaters to breed again. A PMP is a Population Management Plan. It makes recommendations for which animals at places accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums should breed. PMPs make sure that some animals are not so successful at reproducing that their genes are over-represented in the captive population. We got the go-ahead from the anteater PMP, so it was time for Dante and Maripi to get reacquainted.
We started doing introductions inside the barn. This way, if there were any problems we could easily separate the anteaters. Even though they have spent a lot of time together over the years, we could not assume that they would be happy to see each other now. Giant anteaters are not social animals. They do not form strong bonds with each other as, for example, dogs do. That’s why dogs make such great pets. If you went away to college and your dog didn't see you for several months, when you returned your dog would recognize you and welcome you home.
Getting to Know You (Again)
Even though Maripi and Dante live right next door to each other in the barn and can see each other through a mesh we didn’t know how they would react to actually being together. As it happens, Maripi was not all that thrilled to see Dante up close and personal. As a matter of fact she took a swing at him. We think that perhaps she had come to associate the presence of the keepers with getting peanut butter (her favorite). Since we were there when we put them together, she may have viewed Dante as competition for this treat.
We stopped the introductions for a couple of weeks during which time Maripi got NO peanut butter inside the barn. We then tried putting them together again. It worked! Maripi was fine and didn’t mind being with him at all. It took a few days before Dante was convinced that she was her old sweet self again though.
We felt that we could then try putting them together in the yard. The keepers put pieces of fruit all over the yard as well as some new rotten logs. We then put both anteaters outside. When they first saw each other in the yard they were surprised and a little alarmed. They both reared up on their hind legs and waved their claws at each other as anteaters do when they are frightened. They quickly calmed down and wandered around the yard looking for the fruit. When they encountered one another they just made a wide arc in their path so that they didn’t come face to face. They just went about eating fruit and pretending that they didn’t see the other anteater in the yard.
More Than Sniffing
This past Thursday, April 8, it was warm and sunny and we thought it would be a good day to put Dante and Maripi out in the yard together for a while. They had gotten over their nervousness about being together in the yard and were enjoying the sunshine and exploring the yard. They both happened to wander to the front corner of the exhibit and one of the keepers said, “Look, he’s sniffing her!” Then there was a lot more than sniffing going on. Dante and Maripi were breeding!
With many animals there are very noticeable changes in a female's behavior when she is ready to breed. Cats, for example, will roll and vocalize when they are in heat. Giant anteaters do nothing so obvious. As a matter of fact, the keepers have been keeping detailed records of Maripi’s behavior, food consumption, and appearance trying to find some clue that we can look for to determine if an anteater is ready to breed. Since anteaters are as scent-oriented as humans are sight-oriented it may be that her primary signal to males is an aroma that we do not smell. An anteater's sense of smell is 50 times better than ours so there must be many aromas that are obvious to them that we do not notice. In any event, whatever signals she was sending out, Dante was receiving them.
If Maripi is pregnant, as we hope, she would have her baby in about six months. As with her first two pregnancies the Zoo's vets will use ultrasound to monitor the development of the pup. We will also be collecting fecal samples during this pregnancy—if she IS pregnant!—to keep track of what her hormones are doing at each stage of the pregnancy.
There is so much that we don’t know about these animals. One of the reasons zoos are so important is that they give us an opportunity to study and learn about animals. To try and get the information in the wild that Maripi is giving us here would be impossible. Unless we watched a wild anteater 24 hours a day for years how could we be sure when she bred? How could we be sure that the fecal samples we took were in fact hers? We certainly could not give an ultrasound to a wild anteater!
Keep your fingers crossed and we will keep you updated on (we hope!) the next giant anteater.
