Goodbye to Zoo Negara

My time at Zoo Negara has come to a close. Over the last two months, I have really enjoyed my time here. I have had a lot of fun working at a zoo, on a daily basis, and have gained irreplaceable experiences and knowledge. I’ve learned about tropical horticulture, nursery management, propagation techniques, the commercial landscape process, creating habitats and about some of the differences between the horticulture procedures/practices of Malaysia vs. the United States. Overall, it has been a wonderful educational and professional experience. What is an experience without the people? I have enjoyed interacting with the Parks and Grounds Department, and I truly appreciate them taking me in and showing me the ropes. From the nursery staff whom I communicated in sign language and broken Bahasa and English to our director and his support staff, their contributions helped to make my experience a memorable one.

World Class Zoo

New Butterfly Garden

Zoo Negara has a goal to be considered a world class zoo by 2015, and this last year has had some of the most changes to the zoo grounds. The changes include building the new panda exhibit, a new walk-in butterfly enclosure,  new bear enclosures, a new elephant enclosure, a new small mammal area, new primate areas,  and completely updated  landscaping and facades for a fresh new look.  The zoo will really have a completely different layout and look by the time all the construction and maintenance is done.

Re-landscaping and Replacing Roof

I spoke with a very enthusiastic man, who works in the main office and takes part in the creation of new concepts for the zoo grounds, about what they hope to accomplish in this remodeling. Being an ecologist himself, his concept is to split the zoo areas up by ecosystems and really bring in hardscaping and plants that thrive in those areas, to make the animal exhibits closely resemble natural habitats. In the new exhibits that are close to being finished, or in the areas already finished, you can really see the incorporation of the plants into their mini ecosystems. One area that is already done and an exemplary example of this incorporation, is Zoo Negara’s aquarium.  Honestly the aquarium is probably the last place I would have thought about the integration of native plants, mostly because I think underwater plants and the first thing that comes to mind is seaweed follow by things in the animal kingdom that are mistaken for underwater plants. How the aquarium uses plants isn’t limited to plants that grow completely submerged though. They have set up some of the aquarium tanks to be half filled and used aquatic plants to emulate swamp areas and wetlands. It’s kind of like those ant farms that look like a cross section and let you view the different layers.

New Guard Rails

New Landscape Area Outside Entrance

During my internship, the remodeling has been happening throughout the grounds.  The amount of progress made and different projects started has been impressive. I wish I had before and after photos  to show how dramatic some of the landscaping changes have been, but more often than not I’m assisting with something else when a project is started and don’t see it until well into the changes. They have replaced older railings, repainted many of the buildings and structures, redone roofing, taken out entire areas of landscaping for new designs, and started maintenance on the river bed that traverses through the zoo grounds. Much of what I have been involved in, during the remodeling, has revolved around the replanting/care of the flora taken out of landscaping and supervision of the river bed maintenance.  The amount of plants removed due to re-landscaping has been impressive. Ain and I spent an entire day just potting bulbs that had been removed! It’s a good thing we weren’t the only people working or taking care of the removed landscaping, or it would have been at least a week of work! The river bed work has also been pretty interesting. Overgrown vegetation that has been obstructing views of exhibits or affecting the structural integrity of the retaining walls were removed and the construction of new support walls have been underway in areas missing them.

New Pagoda

Frankly, Zoo Negara is going to be impressively different by the time 2015 rolls around. I wish I could be here when it’s all done!

Fixing Dips in Paving

Painting New Covering

Compost

As I mentioned before, the herbivore feces is collected daily and then brought to the back of the nursery to be added to the compost piles. Additionally, the compost includes any fruit or vegetable waste left over from the animal food prep, plant debris, and soil/mulch left over from planting sights. Naturally, the piles build up over time.

Other than using the compost in a potting soil mixture and in the garden beds, the zoo sells the compost to one of the garden supply distributors they work with. These sales not only help get rid of any excess compost that might build up, but also provide a little revenue to help with P&G’s funding.

I have helped twice with the packaging the compost for the distributor to pick up. Each time the distributor asks for another bulk of compost, a sample is sent to a lab for analysis. The compost is first sifted to remove any large un-composted matter and rocks that may end up in the piles. After this, the nursery staff begins packaging the compost. Clear plastic bags are filled and then weighed so that there is at least 2kg in each package. The bags are then heat sealed by hand and stacked for pickup. Each time the distributor has asked for another pick-up, it has been for 100kg.

Bamboo Exhibit

Water Lily

When I first arrived, Eza asked me to plan the layout for the pond within the bamboo exhibit, as a project for my internship. After speaking with Eza about what they wanted in the design, I made a preliminary sketch of the landscape around the pond. Eza and Muhammad were pleased with the design I had done and because I finished the task soon after it had been officially assigned to me, they decided to have me plan the entire walkway area. After taking walking measurements of the perimeter, which is very oddly shaped, and becoming familiarized with all the available materials and plants in the nursery, I finished the complete design.

The pond area has the most amount of landscaping due to it being closest to the entrance and because that portion of the exhibit is viewable from the walking path adjacent to it. Additionally, the exhibit is limited to a certain area of landscaping because P&G requires the majority of area to be used for bamboo that will provide food for the pandas in the next five years.

Initial Sketch

The plants included in the design includes: bougainvillea, Neomarica longiflore(yellow walking iris), Colocasia esculenta(elephant’s ear), Cordyline fruiticasa(firebrand), Nymphaea cultivars(water lily), Russelia nidus(bird’s nest fern), Nephrolepis exaltata(boston fern), Heliconia ‘fire flash’.

The pathway is constructed of pavers, which are used throughout the zoo. Due to the exhibit previously being a hippo exhibit, there is only one entrance/exit, so to assist with the flow of visitors the pathway was made circular. Additionally, there are benches throughout to compliment Zoo Negara’s renovation concept of “park at the zoo”.

Inside Exhibit Area

Inside Exhibit Area

Boston Fern

 

Water Lily

Yellow Walking Iris

Final Layout Design

Panda Exhibit

I finally went inside the new panda exhibit! The other day when I was working with Ain, supervising some clearing of trees for a new lavatory, she asked me if I had been inside the new building yet, and we headed inside.

The building is the nicest building I have ever been to that was inside a zoo and is one of the nicest buildings I've seen overall. The whole building is shaped like an oval, and internally it is shaped like a U wrapped around 3/4 of an internal oval. The internal oval is the actual exhibit area for the pandas, while the U shaped portion contains the various veterinary rooms and offices, security surveillance rooms, conference rooms, and the tour areas focused on panda education. Most of the main construction has just recently been finished and a layer of dry wall dust still covers all the surfaces of the non-exhibit areas. Most of what the zoo staff is doing now consists of bringing in furniture, hand rails, lighting...the small stuff basically. They are also going through and testing the different systems that have been set up, including the security system, fire alarms, speakers and air conditioning, to name a few.

I wasn't able to take photos of the inside of the building, but the exhibit is impressive. Each panda has a half of the oval and the sides are separated by the raised visitor walkway. Each side has a waterfall going into a pond to reduce the noise from visitors so the pandas do not get startled, climbing platforms, ledges to climb the waterfall, a large grassy area, boulders, trees and , and a white boulder shaped object. I asked Ain about the white boulders in the middle of both sides and it turns out that those are cooling stones for the pandas to lie on, and they are white because they are currently covered in a layer of frost! That is one of the coolest things I've seen.

The entire room is really well put together. The landscaping uses some native species to the natural habitat of the pandas and is quite amazing looking. The pathways are patterned to look like stone and the railings look like bamboo. Working ornamental lanterns are hanging along the path and the floor has recessed lights. This new exhibit is sure to bring notoriety to Zoo Negara.

Forest for the Trees...

Tree starting to grow around tag

Excluding the palm trees and trees that have very small trunks, all of the trees in the zoo have a little metal tag nailed to their trunks with a corresponding number. Zoo Negara has a partnership with The World Wildlife Foundation and with The Forest Research Institute of Malaysia to keep track of all the native species of trees Zoo Negara has on the 110 acres, so these tags provide a way to keep track of them all.

With all of the new construction over the last couple years, many trees have had to be removed, which is still  a small percentage of all the trees on the total acreage of land. So one of the jobs I’ve had to do while being here has been to catalog all the trees’ tag numbers to have an updated list of trees present. Eza handed me one of the old official blueprints of the zoo, before all the construction and separated into 6 sections, and asked me to go around the entire land area of the zoo and write the tag numbers of the trees at their locations on the map. It took me a full two days to complete the task. By the end of the first day, I had only finished zone 6 and half of 5. Due to the quantity of trees,I was writing down a tag number every couple of feet in some areas. The clustering was so extensive in some places that I had to circle an entire area on the map, draw a line to one of the blank spaces, and list the numbers there because it was an impossibility for me to fit them in on the tiny spaces they corresponded to on the map. I thought it would have taken me three days to finish this, but some zones of the zoo have a lot of buildings and not as much of garden space as zone 6.


Other than the trees being removed, an update on the catalog had to be done for trees that were now large enough to receive a new tag number or for trees that had began to grow around their old tags and required a new one. Before this, Ain and I had gone around and removed the tags from the trees and nailed them back in with a new galvanized nail, and we saw at least 20 or so trees that had grown around their tags. Additionally we saw trees that were just missing tags, so all of those had to get new numbers.

The most difficult part of those two days was trying to figure out exactly where the trees should be labeled on the map, so they were as close to where their actual location is with all the new construction. Other than the large amount of trees, this was the reason it took me so long to get all the tag numbers labeled. The zoo layout has changed a bit since this blueprint was drawn up, so some of the roads didn’t exist before, and some roads on the map were no longer present because of new enclosures. Multiple times I was where new construction had been done and spent a good 5-10 minutes trying to figure out where on the map the new construction started in the area I had been labeling. I’d end up rotating the map multiple times to view the street from different angles, followed by walking back and forth comparing landmarks to where they were on the map. It also didn’t help that the chimpanzees were throwing sticks at me when I was near their enclosure. Looking for a tag on a tree, while keeping an eye on the chimpanzees, proved to be taxing.

Part of Zone 5

Topiaries, Hedges and Propagation

Over the last month I've learned about the shaping and training of plants and about the different propagation techniques they use in the nursery.  Most of the time, on the days I've been working with Eza and/or the nursery women, we are doing some sort of propagation or trimming.

Topiaries and shaping/training plants is a fairly common practice in Malaysia and is used in many landscapes and for indoor greenery designs. In the zoo, the main shaping/ training done is into either hedges, formal and informal, or spherical topiary shape. Additionally, they have a couple of topiary structures where the plants have been trained into unique shapes or letters. The plants most commonly used in the zoo are the bougainvillea, box woods, Euodia ridleyi, and ixora varieties.
For large leafed plants, such as the bougainvillea and ixora, hand shears are used to shape them into informal shrubs. Hand shears are used instead of trimming shears or power trimming devices to prevent the browning that occurs when leaves are partially cut. When doing the formal shrubs smaller leafed plants are used like boxwood, and trimming shears or power trimming devices are used due to the small surface area of the leaves so if they are cut then the browning isn’t really evident.

Bougainvillea before

The boxwood and Euodia ridleyi are also used for topiaries. Depending on the degree of detail of the topiary they are either shaped by hand or by using a cage structure in the shape of the desired design. When doing sphereical topiary designs we used Euodia ridleyi and eyeballed the shape using hand shears for the trimming. The boxwood has a sturdier structure and is used for the more complicated designs and for the upright lettering.

The propagation that I've been involved in has been from dividing roots, and from taking cuttings. The propragation by root division was used often for the 51 varieties Zoo Negara has of Heliconias and for bamboo and ginger. The root divisions were mostly done when redoing the landscaping of an area and the old plants were removed and brought back to the nursery for repotting.

Bougainvillea after shaping

When doing the repotting, we would trim back the greenery and split the roots around where new plant growths were growing from the root system, using a machete, before placing into individual pots. For the propagation by cuttings, most of the cuttings are taken when doing the trimming and clean-up of the plants. After which, we took the trimmings to the potting area. Many of the plants I've worked with are runners, so when they’re clustered together they naturally expand into each other's pots during growth. The trimmings from these have root growth along the stems, and we cut below the roots along the stems and place them directly into new soil. For the trimmings that weren’t from runners, and didn’t have root growth on them, they were placed into liquid root stimulator for 15 minutes and then placed into the new soil.

 

 

FRIM

There is one ecological organization that specializes in the research of Malaysian rainforest and native flora. The organization is the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM).When FRIM is mentioned, it is often in reference to different geo-tourism locations and events you can participate in the Kuala Lumpur area. An example of this is FRIM’s canopy walk through a tropical forest park that has views of the skyline.

FRIM also gives donations and support to Zoo Negara and P&G. They give funds for new landscaping and for new enclosures like the panda exhibits. But they also have been providing support for the zoo’s desire to include more educational spots on the native tropical trees that are around the grounds. The reason that the trees are tagged throughout the zoo is so they can keep track of the different species and provide some labeling. Some of the trees around the park already have genus-species tags provided by FRIM.

Since I have been at the zoo, FRIM has visited a couple of times. The first time was to check the number tags of trees along the pathways to get a working list of species needing labels and to view the bamboo areas and panda exhibits for which they have been giving funds. The second time they visited the new labels were placed on a couple of trees and the size of tags needed for each of the trees was tested along the visitor areas.

Thunderstorms, Trees, and Termites

Base of tree

This last Tuesday we had the first rain since December, at the zoo. The storm started after I left for the afternoon and delivered a substantial amount of much needed water. When I arrived the next morning, the ground was still wet, and the plants looked quite refreshed by the entrance. Unfortunately, with the downpours, high force winds sometimes occur, and, as it turned out, the wind was strong enough during this storm that it knocked down a couple of trees.


When I arrived to the office, the workers loaded chainsaws and gasoline in the back of the lorry. Ain and I jumped in the back, and we headed around the lake. The truck had to stop half way for the workers to cut up a tree that had fallen across the road, and Ain and I walked the rest of the way. As we came around a corner, we saw the fallen tree that we were really heading for, and it was massive! The trunk was probably around a 5ft diameter! It took the workers two days to cut the tree apart and clean it up, but the base is still there, it was too thick for them to cut through.

This tree had a shallow root system, which luckily meant that when it toppled from the base, it didn’t really destroy the new side walk that was right next to it. The tree had fallen across the road, but it also crushed a gazebo, much to Muhammad’s dismay. He exclaimed at least twice, “We painted it yesterday!” I could only imagine how much force occurred to break the concrete columns that supported the gazebo.

Termite in its tunnel

Many of the native trees to Malaysia don’t have deep roots, and this causes them to fall over sometimes when the wind becomes violent during storms. While this played a part in the tree falling over, there was another issue which was probably the reason it collapsed. The center of the trunk had been cored out by termites. It is a little difficult to see in the photo, but it was extensive enough that I was impressed how healthy the tree looked from the outside. Slightly ironic was that all day Monday and Tuesday, Ain and I spent checking the trees around the park for evidence of termites and supervising the spraying of Termacide. All the trees were treated, despite the presence of termites or not, except for those within enclosures due to health concerns for the animals. One of the workers had pointed out to us a couple of times though that a tree sounded hollow when he hit it with a metal pole. Most of those trees were “normal size” with a diameter no larger than a foot, while the branches of the large tree were about that size or larger. Termites are a big issue at the zoo, mostly because they have already been well established and the Termacide is applied to the trees and surrounding ground every month to try to preserve the trees. By doing this and the fact that many tropical trees like mahogany or teak are termite resistant, many of the termite lines on the trees turned out to be vacant of any of the insects.

The images below: Right side of crushed gazebo, After some clean-up, Length across the road, Spraying Termacide, Hollowed trunk, Left side of gazebo

Making Habitats

One of the most interesting things to learn during this internship is how Zoo Negara builds exhibits and enclosures to replicate natural habitats of the different animals.

When building the exhibits and enclosures, or during renovations, the intent is to try to make designs, that utilize the landscaping and hard-scaping, as similar to the wild as possible. This not only means making the living area for the animals fitted for them but also using plants to hide different infrastructure. When applicable the exhibits will have water sources, more open areas for sun, denser plant areas to get out of the heat or hide, structures that replicate overhangs or caves, boulders, and enrichment structures for activities like climbing, swinging and generally playing.

Most of the plants chosen to be used in the landscaping are determined by the type of ecosystem the animal comes from. For the savanna area, different grass species have been used throughout the large area that houses the zebras, giraffes, emus, and antelope. Additionally, the landscape is done so the plant species get taller towards the back wall, so trees and higher grass are dense at the back and provide shade for the animals.

In the bird enclosures, the environment replicate being high in the trees. So shorter tree species are used in the back and sides to create a more dense environment and tree branches and logs have been bound together to go across the enclosure area. Climbers are used across the logs and walls to hide infrastructure and building materials. For the storks and pelicans, which are free roaming and live on the lake in the middle of the zoo, P&G has built some full size concrete trees to add sitting space near the water and planted many native species of aquatic plants along the edges of the water.

The primate exhibits have many built in enrichment structures. There are ledges, ropes, tethered leather balls, hanging empty barrels, rope/straps suspended between trees or structures and hammocks; all placed for swinging, climbing, and jumping. Moreover, in exhibits with trees there are platforms built up high for them to climb to and electrical wire to prevent them from going to high.

Much thought goes into these planning, and it is done as collaboration between P&G and the zoological/veterinary departments. 

Cool/Funny things that have happened so far…(Part 1)

Obviously being an intern at a zoo and working there means that I get to see stuff and experience things the average patron does not. This is due to me being behind the scenes or because I’m around when the zoo isn’t open to visitors.  So the random things that have made me laugh have been occurring almost from day one. Here are a few of them.

1) Chimpanzees
The chimps at the zoo are rather feisty individuals. I mentioned in the earlier post about one tossing a stick at us during my first day, and the two males have not given up the pursuit. While doing a variety of tasks over three different days near their enclosure, I have watched them unsuccessfully attempt to throw sticks over the barrier wall at me. It begins with them pacing back in forth in the area closest to me, which is a good 10-15ft from the observation barrier. Once they realize I will not be daunted by this, one will run around in search of a small branch or stick. They will then return back to the same area, stick in hand, and begin alternating between bobbing up and down, and swaying their bodies back and forth. I’m still working, so now they will begin to rip the small side growths off the stick, followed by hitting the stick on the ground while bobbing. At this point the chimp will chuck the stick at me, unsuccessfully making it over the barrier. On the last occurrence of this, the chimp got especially frustrated. He had no more sticks and pounded on his chest with one hand followed by angrily running over to this enrichment barrel hanging from a tree and throwing it as hard as he could before storming away to the back of the enclosure. I felt bad for the little guy, and not acting a little scared by his antics.

2) Hornbill out of its enclosure…?
During the first week I was walking with Eza towards the nursery and I noticed a hornbill sitting on the outside of its enclosure. I pointed it out to Eza and she radioed in asking about it. The response from the Zoology Department was that it is a stray one hanging around the enclosure because it’s mating season. Hornbills apparently mate for life, so there is only one male and female hornbill in each enclosure. I would assume that this specific pair has probably already have become mates for life, but that does not stop the wild male hornbill. I have seen him every day outside this enclosure attempting courtship rituals with the female, to no avail.

3) What’s with the ruckus?
So the zoo recently got a new family of lemurs which were added to the primate area. Randomly throughout the day the lemurs will begin screaming. This then starts the Siamang next to them hollering, followed by the gibbons in the two exhibits next to him to start whooping. The macaque exhibit is 90 degrees to these, and as soon as it starts all 20+ of them run over to the corner of the fence and watch the other primates yelling. They sat there wide eyed and intent like kids watching cartoons in the morning!

4) Peek-a-boo!
One of the days I was at work, before they gave me a set of keys to the office, I came back from the nursery to find the door locked. I sat on a bench for a while and then decided to walk down the road behind the veterinary building. While walking, I hear this tiny monkey yipping at me through the wire window to the room he is being held in quarantine because it is new to the zoo. I started to walk closer so I could take a picture of him, and the closer I get, the louder he screams. Now I’m standing on the curb about 6ft from the window and he freaks out, jumps down and runs to the door across the room. He is hanging their yipping, while watching me over his shoulder. I haven’t gotten a photo of him, so I side step out of the view of the window and hear him stop yipping. I wait about ten seconds and then step back in front of the window. He isn't on the door anymore, and I don’t see him anywhere else in the room, and the next second he jumps back on the window. Seeing me standing there he screams again. We did this a couple more rounds.

5) Whistling 
Ain and I were going around and checking the tags on the trees one day to check which trees were missing them and what trees no longer exist due to construction, and replacing the nails when the tree stated growing around the little metal number tags. This was a pretty mundane task, so I was whistling while we worked. At this point we were near the tiger exhibits, and I commented on how it was funny that in addition to the water barrier, all the big cats have, the white tigers also have electrical fencing on the glass barrier on the visitor side of the water.  The white female tiger at this time is lying down sleeping. As we noted the trees near her enclosure, I began whistling the theme song to the old TV Land show Mr. Ed. As soon as I did this, the female tiger sat up and looked at us. We both laughed at the fact that she was paying attention to me whistling and continued what we were doing, including me whistling. About a minute later, we look over and the tiger is now standing at the edge of the water nearest us, staring at me. Next thing we know, she jumps into the water and starts swimming over to me! The trainers often use whistles to indicate feeding time, so I think she thought I was going to feed her. I stopped whistling and the tiger just sat there in the water halfway to the barrier.