Sunday, September 15, 2024

Maryland Zoo: Herp Highlights!

 When the Maryland Zoo underwent it's "dark days of the fiscal soul" during the early years of the current millennium, it closed it's Reptile House and sent off most of the animals to other AZA zoos and aquariums.  Over the intervening years, the zoo has established and upgraded habitats for various reptile and amphibian species at various locations across the campus from the Maryland Wilderness to the Chimpanzee Forest on the other side of the zoo.  Here are some of the images I captured of these amazing animals today.

STRIPED MUD TURTLE
Kinosternon baurii
Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

SOUTHERN COPPERHEAD
Agkistrodon c. contortrix
Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

WOOD TURTLE
Glyptemys insculpta
Conservation Status: ENDANGERED

SPOTTED TURTLE
Clemmys guttata
Conservation Status: ENDANGERED

GRAY TREE FROG
Dryophytes versicolor
Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

CORN SNAKE
Pantherophis guttatus
Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

EASTERN BOX TURTLE
Terrapene c. carolina
Conservation Status:Conservation Status: VULNERABLE

SULCATA TORTOISE
Centrochelys sulcata
Conservation Status: ENDANGERED

LEOPARD TORTOISE
Stigmochelys pardalis
Conservation Status: LEAST CONCERNED

Maryland Zoo Volunteering Again

 For almost six years now, I have been a volunteer at the Maryland Zoo, and because of issues with my back, I haven't been able to be there since last February.  In June I had corrective surgery, and have been on the mend over the summer months.  Today was my first day back.

I volunteered at a special guest event: Breakfast with the Elephants.  It happens before the zoo is open to the public.  Tables are set up with a buffet in the proximity of the African Elephant habitat.  There's always tons of food: scrambles eggs, O'Brien potatoes, sausage, bacon, yogurt, Danish fruit roles, muffins, fresh fruit, juices (apple, orange and cranberry), tea, coffee.  Today we served 65 guests.  While eating, a keeper does a presentation and then takes questions.  There are artifacts that volunteers share like a huge ball of dung (dried and shellacked), a molar, and there are interactive discovery stations for the children.  Kids are also invited to color a brown paper bag with greetings to the elephant.  Then a keeper fills it with carrots and cheerios.  The top is folded shut and then tossed to the elephant who grabs it up with their trunk and eats the whole thing like a piece of candy.  All participants also receive a plush baby elephant stuffed animal.  

The zoo hosts a series of these events during seasons with clement weather and others focus on our lions, giraffe, otters, rhinos, chimpanzees, penguins, and farm animals.  I'm working a Farm Breakfast next weekend.  

My main job today was to guide guests through our main valley area down the path to the area we call Zoo Central where another volunteer was stationed to help them navigate the next leg.  The Zoo's main valley is no longer home to any animals.  It was abandoned around 2002, because the habitats either were archaic and an anathema to modern best practices, or just entirely too expensive to upgrade/repair.  It is; however, an amazing window into the past.  Enclosures and buildings found there date from 1876 (the year the zoo was founded) right up until the 1980's when the most recent habitat was constructed as a home for Tigers.  In the Around the time the main valley shut down, the Maryland Zoo scaled back it's collection to remove all of the Asian species and refocus it's limited resources on animals from North America and Africa.

So I positioned midway in the shadow of the historic 1925 Elephant House--home to the zoo's very first Elephant, an Asian Elephant female named Mary Ann.  As the guest arrived and traversed the main valley in dribs and drabs, I had plenty of time to appreciate the birds and other animals that also call the zoo home.  Among them was a lovely little doe.   The zoo and surrounding Druid Hill Park is home to a herd of white-tailed deer with a pronounced diminutive stature.  What a lovely way to start out my return.

My view looking up the valley.

When I first saw the deer in the space between the old Sea Lion habitat and the old Polar Bear habitat.

Fully grown, not 3 feet tall at the shoulders.

Saturday, September 14, 2024

Arena Stage: Jaja's African Hair Braiding

 #2 on this year's Theatre 2024-2025 Theatre Season was down on the DC waterfront and one of the most storied regional theaters in the nation: Arena Stage.  Arena was the first to win the coveted Tony Award for Regional Theater Excellence back in 1976.  The production is the first of their season, too.  "Jaja's African Hair Braiding" opened on Broadway last October and played 56 performances.  It was nominated for 5 Tony awards including Best Play.  This production represents the first stop on a three city post-Broadway touring company.  After Washington, DC, the production moves to Berkeley, California, and then, in the new year, Chicago, Illinois.

The story is basically a tightly packed comedy featuring a crew of 5 women with West African heritage who are tossed together in a business created by Jaja (who is not present through the majority of the play).  A series of costumers and local neighborhood folk pop in and pop out while the comedy and drama unfolds.  Toward the end, the diva entrepreneur makes a cameo to be feted by her daughter (who runs the place) and colleagues on the day of her wedding.  While all of the women have different relationships with immigration and their status, Jaja is tired of waiting for the process to turn in her favor and so she's jumping the line by marrying a citizen--a white man with a dubious reputation.  All the levity of the day and all the petty bickering collapses when new comes to the shop at closing that Jaja has been detained by ICE.  It is a profound moment of realization; how dreaming in the land of opportunity is a precarious, ephemeral thing for some among us.

None of the original Broadway cast remain with this production.  The new lineup; however, does include a local actor in a key role.  I've watched Awa Sal Secka for years and enjoyed her performances and her vocal talents wherever I've encountered them--but this?  This was big time amazing.  Arguably, her character of Bea is the lynch pin to both the comedy and the drama at the center of the production.  She was simply magnificent.  The entire cast was amazing--no week links in the bunch, and certainly Jordan Rice, who played, Marie, Jaja's precocious and brilliant daughter who graduated Valedictorian from high school, but now without documentation and financial means cannot afford to go to college.  In an odd not to the lesser also included's, a huge shout out to Melanie Brezill, Yao Dogbe, and Colby N. Muhammad, who combined play 10 different characters!  With the support of costume and make-up to wrap their talents, each of these characters felt like they were played by their own unique actor.  

The set was beautiful and opened from within itself to transform from the exterior to the interior of the shop.  The costumes were colorful, vibrant and exciting, just like the actors who were wearing them.  An excellent play with more laughter than tears, but the point it makes about the human condition, the unfairness of our political machinations, and the resilience that allows us to thrive anyways.
Bea (Awa Sal Secka), Marie (Jordan Rice) and Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson)

L-R [BACK]: Colby N. Muhammad, (Aisha Sougou - obscured), Bisserat Tseggai, Jordan Rice, and Mia Ellis
[Front]: Awa Sal Secka, Melanie Brezill, Victoria Charles, and Tiffany Renee Johnson

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Life 101: Bacteria

 

Behold!  A metagenomic representation created in 2016 of the unrooted tree of life using ribosomal protein sequences: BACTERIA

I don't know about you, but this gives my curious mind a metaphorical woodie!

Sunday, September 8, 2024

Keegan Theatre: Noises Off

 And another year of live begins.  This will be my eighth in the DMV, not counting the dryness of the Pandemic.  (Isn't that something, to think of the Pandemic of 2020-2021 a nuisance only 2 years after it's faded into the background noise of everyday pathogens?)  This year, I started at Keegan Theatre in DC with, ironically, the closing performance of "Noises Off".  A farce in the grand tradition of "Arsenic and Old Lace," "Harvey," and "You Can't Take It With You," with a twist or two.  It's not a play, but a play about a play, and the physical comedy is more suited to the Marx Brothers and The Three Stooges than Broadway.

The first Act, sets the stage, introduces the characters and takes place on the evening of the final dress rehearsal.  Act II flips the stage around and shows us the behind the scenes mayhem at some point mid-season.  Here's where the physical comedy goes on steroids!  The final act returned us to the audience's perspective on the day of their final performance, and have they learned nothing over time?  Yup, that would be zip--except how to be funnier with each succeeding Act!  

The cast of 8 is a mixed bag of old and new faces.  Keegan is a sort of repertory company without the company, meaning you see a lot of the same actors tossed about from one production to the next.  One very familiar actor is Susan Marie Rhea.  She's a power stage presence and I've only seen her play characters who have trouble suppressing their anger.  Not knowing a thing about play, I thought, "ugh, not again"; and she was without a doubt the best surprise of the afternoon.  Given a different type of character, she can really nail that, too.  Second, kudos goes to Ryan Sellers, an actor I've seen over several years now.  He has a tremendous physicality that serves him so well with the demands of slapstick.  And he's just such a fun actor to watch a real presence among any ensemble.  Swing, Emily Erickson, took on the role of Brooke Ashton, but the theatre never formally acknowledged that which I found disappointing.  

The set design was the most ambitious I've seen at Keegan, which fed my set design gremlins very nicely.  Credit goes to their resident designer, Matthew J. Keenan.

All in all a fun show!


Housekeeper Dotty Otley (Susan Maria Rhea)

Garry LeJeune (Ryan Sellers), Dotty, Belinda Blair (Valerie Adams Rigsbee) and Selsdon Mowbray (Timothy Hayes Lynch)

Garry LeJeune

Stage manager Poppy Norton -Taylor (Casi Demming) and Set Designer Tim Allgood (Gary DuBreuil)

Frederick Fellowes (Michael Innocenti) and Belinda Blair, off stage husband and wife.

Allgood, LeJeune, Fellowes, and Mowbray in the midst of some Act II physical comedy

Blair and Otley in a moment of revelation of an infidelity sort.

Allgood with the Director Llyod Dallas (Jared H. Graham)


Monday, September 2, 2024

Life Quote #5: Albert Einstein


 

Salisbury Zoo: Salisbury, Maryland - Coda: The Statuary

 Like nearly every zoo I've ever been to, the Salisbury Zoo also hosts a range of animal sculptures.  Here are four that caught my attention.  A little coda to the living ones.

FAWN AND TURTLE

"White-tail Fawn," 1992
David Turner

TWO WOLVES

"Timber Wolves," 1995
David Turner
run of 50, $3,000.00


BEAR WITH TRIPLETS

"Black Bear & Cubs," circa 2006
by David Turner


ANDEAN BEAR MEMORIAL


"Gritto," 2016
by David Turner

Plaque Reads:
"Papa Bear Gritto"
1991 - 2015
In Loving memory Of the Delight
You Brought To Our Community
--------Given By--------
Dr. Alfred & Ruth Beattle & Family

Salisbury Zoo: Salisbury, Maryland - Part 5 of 5

 We'll end our visit by making our way back toward the east gate and the parking lot where my car waits.  On the way will visit the Alpaca herd hanging out along the Wicomico River.  Walk to the end of it's look peer looking for the Great White Pelicans who used to reside there--not today.  Then one little sidetrack to see the American Bison and little colony of Black-tailed Prairie Dogs.  I've already said enough, so let's just go to the pictures, eh?



ALPACA
Llamas pacos


Alpaca are just so damned goofy!


The big Bison has a big habitat.

AMERICAN BISON
Bison bison

The Prairie Dogs have a carved-out habitat from the Bison's space.

BLACK-TAILED PRAIRIE DOG
Cynomys ludovicianus

Salisbury Zoo: Salisbury, Maryland - part 4 of 5

 The next section follows along the southern edge and then turns to encompass the western quarter of the Zoo.  The key species here is the Critically Endangered Red Wolf.  The Salisbury Zoo introduced Red Wolves to the public in late 2008, and then that spring the pair produced a litter of 5 pups!  These are critically endangered animals once completely extinct in the wild.  Now, they only roam free in a nature reserve in an area of swampy eastern North Carolina.  Since then the zoo has been home to a succession of pairs, but lightning has yet to strike twice.  Currently, male Red Wolf, Bowie resides with female, Skyrae.  Bowie was born under the auspices of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Red Wolf Recovery Program located in North Carolina in 2021.  He came as a companion animal for the zoo's elderly female, Shiloh.  When Shiloh passed in 2023, a younger female, Skyrae, was paired with him as part of the AZA SSP.  Skyrae was born at the Wolf Conservation Center in New York state in 2019.  The two are young and represent the best chance for a successful litter at the zoo in years.

Also in this section are two fully enclosed habitats.  One for a pair of American Bald Eagles and the other is home to a familial pair of Canadian Lynx.  The mother/daughter pair; Chayne and Helga respectively came in 2021 from The Pittsburgh Zoo in Pennsylvania.  The Eagles were out, the Lynx's were not.  In between the two are a pair of very large spaces suitable for hoofstock, but home to Greater Rhea and Capybara.  There is a lot of unrealized potential here for larger animals like Pronghorn Animals or Baird's Tapir.  At one point the zoo was home a Jaguar--more than enough room for a state-of-the-art large cat complex for two or three species: Jaguar, Canadian Lynx and Puma, maybe?  
There are two options for trying to get a view of the Red Wolves.  This is looking at the east end of the habitat.

Next to this is a building with gives you unobstructed views and shelter from the rain.

In the central area of the habitat is a set of round concrete enclosures with openings at the cardinal points that pass all the way through both.  This is where I got my first glimpse.  Yes, you are looking at the foreleg of a Red Wolf on the other side of the tunnel opening.  Hey, seeing these things is not for the impatient.

Encouraged, I went into the enclosure and waited patiently.

RESULT!

This is a creature that doesn't give a rat's ass whether or not you see him.

And yet, waiting him out is so worth the effort.  This beautiful little guy is one of only 300 on this entire planet.  And we are 100% to blame for their slaughter.  If it weren't for AZA zoos and affiliated conservation centers, they would be gone.

RED WOLF
Canis rufus

The other end of the building looks out on large, mostly empty habitats.

The realm of the unrealized potential.

A pair of American Bald Eagles watching a pair of adolescent Greater Rhea.
AMERICAN BALD EAGLE
Halialeetus leucocephalus

GREATER RHEA
Rhea americana



I don't know what a Capybara complains about when they complain about their digs, but this could possibly include lack of elbow room!  Can you see her?

CAPYBARA
Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris