Beaded Lizard and wolf pup Born at zoo

[NicoleRussell]

By TOM BUCKHAM
News Staff Reporter
2/21/2006

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Dennis C. Enser/Buffalo News
Donna Fernandes, executive director of the Buffalo Zoo, introduces Flint,
the zoo's newest resident, who is a maned wolf pup native to South America.

Birthing season is off to a fast start at the Buffalo Zoo, with the arrival
of its first maned wolf pup and baby Mexican beaded lizard.

Flint, a fuzzy ball of gray fur who will be a reddish color in adulthood,
was born Dec. 26 - the result of a three-year effort to breed his parents,
Olive and Scottie, as part of the global species survival plan for maned
wolves.

Like many animals, the maned wolf is highly endangered on its home turf -
the vast, grassy pampas east of the Andes Mountains in Brazil, Argentina,
Paraguay and Bolivia - primarily because cattle ranching is taking over the
habitat. No more than a few hundred remain in the wild.

So zoos have been given the task of growing and diversifying the captive
population. There are currently 77 adult animals in 22 U.S. zoos and another
139 in other zoos around the world. Domestic zoos are being asked by the
American Zoo and Aquarium Association to try for 125 adults within three
years.

Because Olive has not shown a healthy maternal interest, her pup is being
hand-reared by keepers. Except for familiarizing visits with his parents,
Flint is confined to a pen in the hyena holding area, where he is fed mashed
puppy chow.

The adult maned wolf, which looks nothing like its big North American
cousin, is red with a bushy tail, large pointed ears and black facial mask
and moves on long legs that evolved to help it see over the tall grasses of
the pampas, where it feeds on small mammals and vegetables. Hence the
nickname "fox on stilts."

The baby Mexican beaded lizard, hatched Feb. 5, represents another advance
for species survival and for the Reptile House, which over the past year has
achieved first-time hatchings of five Anderson's newts and a black tree
monitor.

The hatching is part of a population management plan that will help maintain
a stable population of beaded lizards in zoos and aquariums.
e-mail: tbuckham@buffnews.com