What's New: Births Hatchings Acquisitions

By Donna Bear, Curator of Species Management and Jasmine Alvarado, Species Management Officer

Yellow-billed stork (Mycteria ibis)

Yellow-billed storks frequent the wetlands south of the Sahara Desert in Africa and even Madagascar. The yellow-billed stork is in the same genus and family as our own native wood stork and shares many similarities. Both species migrate based on food availability and both species breed during the peak to end of the raining season, relying on wetland drying to concentrate food. Yellow-billed storks and their wood stork cousins hunt food tactically. They swish their feet around in the water with their bills open and partially submerged. When a prey item touches the bill, they snap it closed in as quick as 25 milliseconds to capture prey. The yellowbilled stork has been known to follow crocodiles and hippopotamus to feed on prey items that were disturbed by their movements. In the beginning years of monitoring our wood stork colony on Zoo grounds, we practiced placing satellite tags on our own yellowbilled storks before deploying them on the wild wood storks. Yellow-billed storks and the wild wood storks also nest in colonies around the same time in our Zoo.

Yellow-billed storks are located in the River Valley Aviary. They can also be seen in the aviary located at the end of the Africa Loop on Main Path, shortly past Stingray Bay.

Glass lizards (Ophisaurus ventralis)

Glass lizards are long, slender, legless lizards. They look like snakes, but are different in that they have moveable eyelids, external ear openings, and inflexible jaws. Glass lizards are found throughout the southeastern U.S. from extreme southern Virginia, west to Louisiana, and south to Florida. The lizards have very shiny scales that have osteoderm bones reinforcing them, causing them to be hard and brittle. Their tails break easily, which is what gave them the name glass lizard. Glass lizards can regrow their tail if they get enough food consisting of insects, spiders, small snakes, and grasshoppers. That is another difference from snakes because snakes do not have the ability to regrow a tail. Glass lizards can live over 10 years and scientists are studying lizards’ ability to regrow their tails in hopes of advancing medical techniques.

Eastern glass lizards can be seen in the Wild Florida Reptile House. They can sometimes be hard to spot because they spend some of their time burrowed underground.

Prehensile-tailed porcupine (Coendou prehensilis)

Also known as the Brazilian porcupine, this nocturnal species can be found all over South America. These porcupines like to eat a variety of fruit (both green or ripe), seeds, tree bark, and occasionally leaves. While mostly solitary creatures, they can be social as well. They communicate with scent markings and vocal sounds, such as whistling and low moaning cries. Prehensile-tailed porcupines are skilled climbers and arboreal, preferring to stay high up in the canopies of trees where they can forage for food and stay away from predators. Even from birth, a porcupine is not entirely defenseless. Its eyes are open, it has sharp claws, and can already use its prehensile tail. Contrary to popular belief, porcupines cannot shoot their quills, but they can easily fall off when touched. Each quill has a set of barbs at the end so that any animal or person unfortunate enough to touch one will have a painful time removing it.

Prehensile-tailed porcupines are located in the Education Department.

Black-faced ibis ............................................0.0.1

Eastern black-and-white colobus .............0.1.0

Eastern bongo .............................................0.1.0

Striped newt ........................................... 0.0.33

Yellow-billed stork ......................................0.0.3

Common squirrel monkey .........................1.0.0

Eastern glass lizard ......................................0.0.4

EASTERN INDIGO SNAKE ...........................1.0.0

Prehensile-tailed porcupine ......................1.1.0

Southern white rhinoceros ........................1.0.0

Spotted turtle ...............................................0.0.2

• First digit male. Second digit female • Third digit sex unknown • Two digits only represent male and female • CAPS = Endangered Species • * (Asterisk) = First time at the Zoo