The Camouflaged Okapi

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Speaker 1: Ruby.

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Speaker 2: Hi, I'm Rich Schwartz.

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Speaker 1: What is the world of Marco Wedds.

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Speaker 3: And this is Amazing Wildlife, the podcast where we explore unique stories the wildlife from around the world and uncover fascinating animal facts. This podcast is in production with iHeartRadio's Ruby Studio and San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, an international nonprofit conservation organization which oversees the San Diego Zoo and Safari Park and Marco. I gotta say we've spent a lot of time at Safari Park the last few episodes.

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Speaker 4: I know, but you know what I got. Admit, man, I was here a little earlier. I'm really enjoying this today.

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Speaker 3: And I have to say we are at the San Diego Zoo today. It's a nice warm summer days. We're actually wrapping up summer most of the world, but totally here in San Diego is still nice and warm. And we hinted last time we were talking about a bird, the castaway, that has this really awesome ability to do this unique deep call that you mimic very well, right, But the thing is when you do it, I can't feel it my chest.

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Speaker 2: So when the cast worry does it, it's such a low frequency.

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Speaker 1: I feel like I failed you, Sair.

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Speaker 2: It would worry me if you could do it.

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Speaker 1: Like you're kind of worry too.

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Speaker 4: But I mean to your point, you were talking about the vocal it's a dense forest habitat that these animals have to vocalize and communicate it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that was kind of our segue than to where we are now. We are down by the hippos and the o'copy.

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Speaker 3: It's a dense forested area of the San Diego Zoo. It is really awesome. And we're here today because coming up in a few days after this episode comes out, it's.

00:01:31
Speaker 2: World of Copy Day.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.

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Speaker 3: What better way to learn more about a copy is than having an o' copy wildlife care specialist with us.

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Speaker 4: I mean, I'm super pumped, and admittedly I don't know a lot about O copy, so I can't wait to learn to that.

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Speaker 3: Then our guest will have a lot of questions from you. Why don't you go ahead and introduce yourself to our audience. Give them your name and your title here at the San Diego Zoo.

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Speaker 5: Hi, my name is Dallas Dumont and I'm a senior wildlife care specialist here at San Diego Zoo.

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Speaker 1: That's great.

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Speaker 3: So we are doing o copy today, we're talking about a copy. We're standing outside the ocopy habitat Dallas. Do you just take care of ocopy only or do you have several species you care for in this area?

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Speaker 5: We actually have several species we care for. We're actually considered part of Sunbear Forest here in San Diego Zoo, and Sunbar Forest is comprised of the tigers, we have leopards, bears, the hippos, and of course the o'coppies.

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Speaker 1: Well, you got a lot of that.

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Speaker 4: I was gonna say, that's really Admittedly, I'm a big fan of this area too.

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Speaker 1: I mean just the trees in particular.

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Speaker 4: I think Horraticles does a great job with the fike is, but also this really unique animal, the ocopy that I'm guessing there's probably someone in the world that probably has no idea what oocopy is. Could you describe this animal for our listeners please?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, it's not surprising. Oh copies are relatively new to Westerners. They really weren't discovered or studying until early nineteen hundreds, so for US Westerners they're very relatively new animals.

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Speaker 6: OH copies are.

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Speaker 5: Actually a relative of the giraffe, so you're in the giraffe day family. They have a long neck, not as long as the giraffe. They are forced to animal, so they're going to be living in deep forests. They have a beautiful dark color. Their skin conve anywhere from dark brown to almost a black purplish color.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: I see that they stand about five feet tall at the shoulders and a little over six feet at the tip of the ear, so they are a little bit taller than us people.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, totally.

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Speaker 5: And they have that prehensile tongue or a long tongue like the giraftes do that they use to browse with. And being a browser, they're gonna eat leaf materials, so they're going to eat things off of trees, and they have probably about fifty or sixty different varieties of trees that they can consume here at the zoo.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that's really cool.

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Speaker 4: I mean, before we go into the eating portion, and you mentioned prehensiuitich I want to talk about too. But there's one physical attribute I look at. These people ask me all the time, are the stripes? They're always asking me, Right.

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Speaker 3: It's funny because if you are just listening to our podcast, and you don't know what this animal looks like. I have heard more often than not when here at the zoo people see an okapa, they're like, oh, it's be related to the zebra.

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Speaker 1: I get the same thing. It's like a really tall ze y.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, because which is the stripes look very similar to zebra stripes. Now they're on all the legs and the hind parts, all the way down to right above the hoof.

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Speaker 6: Correct, correct, Yeah, they do.

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Speaker 5: They have those stripes, and they also help them to blend in and they also allow them to find each other because okopy are solitary by nature, so they're not a group animal, not like giraffe at all. They live alone in the forest, so to find each other maybe during breeding season or maybe a calf following its mother, those stripes are going to allow.

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Speaker 6: Them to see each other.

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Speaker 5: And they're also going to shade that animal when they're in the forested areas and make them harder for predators to see.

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Speaker 1: Oh, that's pretty cool.

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Speaker 2: It is pretty cool.

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Speaker 3: And it's kind of funny too, because you look at those stripes, you think, off the top of your head, well, it looks like a zebra related to the zebra.

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Speaker 2: And at a distance.

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Speaker 3: So right now they're at the far end of the habitat for us, and at a distance you're seeing those stripes are very obvious.

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Speaker 2: But if you come to the zoo, and we also have them.

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Speaker 3: At the Fry Park as well, or if you go to your local zoo, if you're not here in San Diego and you see okopy, pay close attention to the their head because, as Dallas mentioned, they are relatives of the giraffe. They have that prehensile or grasping tongue like the giraffe has for browsing or taking leaves off of the trees. But there's other attributes on the head that are very similar to the draffe as well, structure wise.

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Speaker 2: Correct.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, that's correct.

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Speaker 5: So they have the long elongated muzzle like a giraffe does. They also have very long, pretty eyelashes. Everybody comments those actually serve a purpose. Because these guys are digging up in the trees, you're gonna have debris and pieces of tree matter falling into your face. Those long eyelashes are actually protecting their eyes and keeping that debris from falling in their face when they're grabbing and pulling with their tongue.

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Speaker 1: Oh, that's pretty cool. You know.

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Speaker 4: On the drive down here, I was trying to think of, like, what's the difference between giraffe and o'copy and how are they interacting with their habitsat We've learned that rattle sphinks can be seed dispersers, and my brain started going like, if you're a big mammal like an o'copy, and you're cruising around a big forested area, you're grabbing different leaves, is there a potential of maybe these animals being a pollinator or a seed disperseder at all?

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Speaker 1: They helping out the forest that we know of, You know, I.

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Speaker 5: Believe they probably could be doing that. They're gonna disperse a lot more through their feces obviously when they're ingesting, because they will ingest berries and seeds and fruits and other things they can find that are hanging from the trees. So they're also going to disperse that through leaving piles of feces around us. They're walking through the forest, which is going to fertilize. You're gonna have more seeds and you're gonna have more plant growth.

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Speaker 4: Wow, that sounded more like a casseroad to me and mego, But I mean, I love that a lot of similarities, right, thick jungle seed dispersers. Obviously it's a mammal, so it's a live birth, which kind of makes me want to ask you. There is some pretty exciting happening recently here at the San Diego Zoo, right, can you speak about the young baby that got born here a little bit ago?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, just about two weeks ago, we had a female born to our female, Subira, and it was a long wait for this baby because the gestation period on an ocapi, similar to the draft, is about four hundred and forty days, so you're looking at almost fourteen months of pregnancy for these females.

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Speaker 1: Fourteen months.

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Speaker 4: Moms hold on to the steering wheels of fourteen months?

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Speaker 1: Are you kidding? Really?

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Speaker 2: Wow?

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Speaker 4: That's quite the investment and carry up babe in your belly for that long.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, it is.

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Speaker 5: It's a lot of work for these girls, and it's a lot of anticipation and they don't really obviously notice too much when they're first starting out, But towards the end of the pregnancy, you could tell that Subira was getting ready to how she was getting a little bigger, a little more uncomfortable. It took quite a while to get there, and her appetite obviously went through the roof as she got closer to getting well.

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Speaker 1: We were waiting for you to come to the habitsat. I was hearing guests talk about it.

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Speaker 4: So everyone's really really excited about this, really happy news here at the zoo.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, we're really excited this year. This is Subira's fourth baby, so she's an excellent mom. She's about twelve years old and in captivity, Oh, copies can live up into their thirties, so she's still.

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Speaker 6: A young mom.

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Speaker 4: I mean to make sense, thrown in a managed care, got a great health system, your food right here ready to go.

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Speaker 1: You got amazing wildlife.

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Speaker 5: Care happening too, exactly, and Subera was just ready for this calf. We're really excited because this was the first time we've had a calf born on habitat. Normally, when Subira gives birth, it's in the winter, so it's cold, so we can't have a baby out here in the.

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Speaker 1: Right because we're talking about their habitat and the congo right where.

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Speaker 6: It's between seventy and ninety all the time.

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Speaker 5: So here when she would give birth a lot of times, and this was just due to breeding when the males would breede, because you have not a year, but fourteen rights, right, Oh yeah, so a lot of times these calves are going to come in the winter, so she would give birth in the barn where we have heat and everything else set up for her. But this year for breeding with Capoo, who is the father of our calf, the breeding took place earlier. This year, Capoo was on the ball, so she actually gave birth in the summer. So we decided to, you know, hey, let's let her have it in the habitat where normally they.

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Speaker 6: Would have it.

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Speaker 5: So we're super excited that she's doing very well. The calf's tucking, and of course our guests are just over the moon being able to see a calf this young.

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Speaker 1: For us, non mammal people, tucking, what is tucking means?

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Speaker 5: So tucking is what we call with a lot of the hoof stock, where the calves will hide and find a nice safe space, whether it's a tall pile of grass or in a cave or some area where there's bushes they can get under. And obviously that's for safety, right, Mom's not going to stay with the kid. Mom's going to go out and eat and make milk and come back, so that calf's going to be by itself, so it finds a nice, comfortable, safe space for itself to sit and relax. And the great thing about it is with these kids, they don't have any smell, so there's no scent to them, no scent.

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Speaker 6: They're born without scent, so it's so.

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Speaker 5: Hard for a predator to try and find these little guys, right, it keeps them nice and safe.

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Speaker 6: Mom obviously has a sense she's an adult.

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Speaker 5: Animal, so she stays away from the calf when she's not nursing or giving it a bath or caring for it, because that's going to keep that calf safer because moms scent could potentially attract it.

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Speaker 6: A predator near.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so I have two questions too, That's cool, I didn't know that.

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Speaker 3: First of all, I want to go back to the fourteen months, and then I have a question about predators. Okay, So, first of all, fourteen months, if I remember correctly, the longer the gestation usually, then when the baby does come out, it pretty much can rock and roll and get moving if it needs to. Within a short period of time. Is that the same for O copies like dirafts, like they can stand up within a half hour an hour, and yeah.

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Speaker 5: Oh copy kids are going to stand up quick and oh copy babies are going to weigh about fifty pounds when they're born. Subira are adult female And by the way, females are bigger than males, like.

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Speaker 6: The connection that females are bigger than the males.

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Speaker 5: So that calf is about fifty pounds when she was born, and she stood probably within about thirty and it's a birth and then was nursing within about thirty five minutes of birth.

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Speaker 1: Nice.

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Speaker 6: But by talking, what she's doing is she's resting. And when you're resting, you're growing.

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Speaker 3: Right.

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Speaker 5: Oh yeah, all that beautiful milk that mom's given her, that's all going to help her get bigger and bigger and bigger.

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Speaker 6: So if she's just resting, she's just growing.

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Speaker 5: And so in a few weeks she's going to be probably about double her size, which is what we want.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 5: The bigger you are, the safer you're going to be. So by talking and resting, all of that energy that she's getting from mom is going to growing and making herself.

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Speaker 4: Bigger, talk about super milk. I had no idea that females are bigger. My brain's swirling right now. But you Rick, you had a question about a predator.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So we've talked a little about the importance of talking the fact that the baby does not have a scent to it, therefore it's harder for a predator to find it.

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Speaker 2: We talked about the fact that we live in a very dense.

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Speaker 3: Forest, that these stripes on the legs help the baby follow mom when it needs to, but also going to help them blend into the environment as the light comes through that worst and breaks into light and dark patterns. What is their natural predator in the jungles of the congo in that deep forest of Africa.

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Speaker 5: So you're obviously going to have large cat species that are going to be your predators. You're also going to possibly have smaller cats, or you could even have reptiles in that area if you're near a wire source.

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Speaker 1: A crocodile, right, or a leopard maybe.

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Speaker 5: Yeah, So you're going to have these different species. But again, for these guys, they're so elusive. I mean, if you look at the O copy and you see those big satellite ears and those ears work independently. They can turn different directions, so they're going to be using that sound reference to make sure they're keeping themselves safe.

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Speaker 6: So that's another way.

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Speaker 5: Oh, copies keep themselves safe, and that makes them harder to study, right because they hear.

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Speaker 6: You, oh yeah, I'm out long before you will find that.

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Speaker 3: I was about to say too, with the fact that it took humans as long as it did to go, this is a real animal that exists in the wild. And again I think kids that they might go well early nineteen hundreds, that was forever ago, but in the scheme of humans understanding the world around them and documenting taxonomy animals, that was pretty late in the game when it comes to that process.

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Speaker 2: So clearly, being in a dense forest, eye.

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Speaker 3: Sight's important for finding food and things close proximity, but that hearing is going to be most important for making sure you stay clear of somebody like a leopard. But leopards have good hearing too, So it does make me wonder.

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Speaker 1: Like, how do they communicate?

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Speaker 3: I K don't know the answer, but tell us Dallas about how mom and baby communicate and if that's something that comes into play for avoiding the predator.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they do.

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Speaker 6: Oh copies do make different sounds.

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Speaker 5: They will make a tough sound, they'll make a bleat sound, So they have different sounds that they can make that we will hear oh copies. Because they are solitary, so they spend most of their time alone, males by themselves, females by themselves, their vocalizations are not often heard, and it's also believed that they have subsonic noises that.

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Speaker 6: They can make.

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Speaker 5: So I can't hear them, you can't hear them, and perhaps predators can't hear them as well. But again, like a lot of post stock, they may not actually communicate through vocalization like we do, but through scent.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 5: So they actually have scent glands in between their toes. They have the split toes, so the two toes and they have a scent gland in between there, and so when they walk, they're leading scent. So that's another way for these guys to communicate. Now, whether or not a predator can pick up on that scent, I'm not aware of. But other ocopies can pick up on those scents as well, So that's another way for them to communicate quietly.

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Speaker 3: And we know from other animals and other studies done that as the hormones and chemicals within a mammal's body changes, the scent changes. So that's probably one of the really key factors for the female to let the male know she's cycling through and ready for a possible mate if they're a good match, is through those scent changing on the hooks. And then I remember reading when it comes to the subsonic sound that that was a huge surprise for scientists when they were doing some recordings and they picked up these sounds that they believe are low enough that the leopards can't even hear either, which is just insane to me. It's so crazy that they've been able to evolve this level of communication that mom and baby can chat without the leopard even being able to tag about it at all.

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Speaker 4: I love that we learned from the previous episode of the Castories that they're doing the same same thing. But it makes me excited thinking all these different animals different continents have the same sort of behavioral attributes. Survival techniques are living in a dense, forced area, so that's really they do.

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Speaker 5: They find their niches in these areas, and the copies another great adaptation they have is they're also on the move.

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Speaker 6: During the day it's going they're going to be moving.

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Speaker 5: They're going to be constantly foraging and constantly moving throughout their territories.

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Speaker 6: So if you're not standing still, that's another.

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Speaker 5: Way that you are not going to be a potential meal because you're constantly on the move. Females have been known to be active almost all all day long and maybe resting at night, and males are moving even more than females because they're on the problem. So these guys are constantly moving, which again that's another way for them to avoid predators because they're not holding still with their scentse and so it's a little harder to track them if you're constantly moving.

00:16:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh wow, that's interesting.

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Speaker 3: I am curious because we do know just from when we talk about what's happening with the getting Oh wait, hold on, we're talking.

00:16:30
Speaker 1: Just I'm excited, so I'm whispering. That's how excited a coppy baby. But is what I'm seeing, because that's adorable. I see when you.

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Speaker 4: Mentioned the caver, I wasn't really clear on what you were referencing. But so everyone's aware they're on the habitat here we're in the VIP space byll the way, so there is a tour you can get a really special copy experience.

00:16:51
Speaker 1: But if you're looking at the habitat to the right.

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Speaker 4: You can see what looks like a sort of like mini cave structure, and we're just seeing the little youngster starting to puck out a little bit.

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Speaker 1: Which is it dorble place to talk.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it's like it's almost like they plan that.

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Speaker 1: This is for us to thank you very much.

00:17:06
Speaker 6: Those are the ideal places for the calves.

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Speaker 5: And we just strategically put a little grass in front of that cave just to give her more of that tuck to look good, and she'll come out and nurse and she'll go right back to her tuck Spox.

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Speaker 1: Coming out, she stepping out of the cave, she's what how high? Like three feet?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, she's probably maybe three feet tall the shoulders, but they basically look like a miniature adult.

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Speaker 2: I was about to say, they come out ready to rock and roll in thirty minutes.

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Speaker 5: And she sees her mom over at the hay feet or you see Superas over there eating, so she's a mom.

00:17:42
Speaker 6: I think it's time to nurse and it's interesting too.

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Speaker 4: They have those same stripe patterns you're referencing earlier. Right, especially on the rear end there you can see very prominent.

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Speaker 1: He'll blend in.

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Speaker 5: And if you watch her when she goes to nurse, you know she's not going to mom's front. She's looking at those stripes in the back because those stripes in the back are covered in the milk machine, which is the udder where she wants me.

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Ask you kind of like zebras, Are they unique.

00:18:05
Speaker 5: The stripe pattern Yes, the stripe patterns are just like that of Zebras, where everybody has a little bit different.

00:18:11
Speaker 1: Cool.

00:18:12
Speaker 4: Okay, she's got a little squiggy to land the baby on the left rear leg there.

00:18:15
Speaker 1: That's adorable. Oh wow. All right.

00:18:17
Speaker 3: So if you are listening to the podcast and you're hearing us gush about this adorable baby, I encourage you to go to the San Diego Zoo social media, whether it's Facebook or Instagram or wherever. They have done some great posts about this. Now, this guy was born about two weeks ago, Dallas said, while we're recording this, but this episode comes out in about two weeks, so you'll have to go back about four weeks in the social media to find it because they're always posting such great content there. But the San Diego Zoo social media team has already covered some great baby photos of this kid. It is adorable and it's amazing to me. It literally looks like an adult just miniaturized. So it goes to show that the survival side of things, it's so important that they can get up a walk and blend into their environment just like mom does, so they can make it in the wilds like they do.

00:18:58
Speaker 4: So well, it's so amazing and what a great area too. It's well whatever eight conservation centers. You know, we have savannahs Australia of course the Southwest, but the African forces so many unique types of wildlife from bonobo's to gorillas to a copy too. So what a cool experience of that their guess gets to view this as well. As we're talking and saying, all these guests are there taking shots and videos of this. So you think, right now, the baby is asking for some milk, possibly your little She.

00:19:23
Speaker 5: Is definitely going to be looking for a nursing opportunity. I can see as I watched Sabira Suberra is taking this opportunity to give the kid a bath.

00:19:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a long time. You weren't kidding about.

00:19:33
Speaker 5: That fascinating which some people might find or might find gross. Again when we're talking predators, right, Okay, baby's gonna things go in, things come out. Yeah, okay, Well we don't want that attracting a predator either. So Subira, being the great mom that she is, she's going to stimulate that calf to defecate, and then Subira is going to consume all of that mater. Interesting, I mean, and that's going to number one.

00:20:03
Speaker 2: It's actually number two, a number two.

00:20:06
Speaker 1: I was ready for that.

00:20:07
Speaker 5: At number two is not going to be around for a predator to pick up a scent for it or be attracted to.

00:20:12
Speaker 4: It's not that gross to be honestly. I mean, there's other mammal species, you know, like a wall and be as a baby, they need.

00:20:16
Speaker 1: To eat their parents.

00:20:19
Speaker 2: Helps with the digest digestive system.

00:20:21
Speaker 1: Thank you very much. That's really this is just a.

00:20:23
Speaker 5: Great way for the okapi to help maintain that safety for their calves because now there's nothing for predators.

00:20:29
Speaker 2: That's what it's like.

00:20:30
Speaker 4: Super hyper stealth is so much about blending in no scent as a baby, right, the stripe pattern eating the ecal matter of your baby to hide away in those forests.

00:20:39
Speaker 3: So, Dallas, do we know what their numbers are like in the wild right now or how they're doing or is it kind of hard to tell because it's so hard to like even know that they're there.

00:20:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it.

00:20:48
Speaker 5: They're hard to know that they're even there. Many locals who live in the areas, a lot of them have never even seen one. Oh wow, they know they exist.

00:20:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, And a lot of.

00:20:56
Speaker 6: People see them just on camera traps.

00:20:58
Speaker 5: They do a lot of the cameras, so they're taking pictures of them and from looking at scat and guessing their numbers in the Iteri forested area are probably around thirteen thousand to fifteen thousand.

00:21:10
Speaker 6: But that's the only place in the world where these animals are found.

00:21:13
Speaker 5: Nowhere else in Africa are okapy found but in this one particular area in the Congo that he.

00:21:19
Speaker 4: Speaks to the success that we're doing here at San Diego Zoo to help out with the population. Can I ask you, is there an SSP, a species survival plan that we're involved in here in the United States?

00:21:28
Speaker 5: There is we recently just came out with a care manual for O copies that is being shared with different facilities, so we've been given access to that, which is fantastic. But most of the knowledge that we have of okapies has only been learned from studying O copies in zoo environments, so we've been able to garner a lot of information from that, and we do have a species survival plan for the okapies, just like many of the other animals we have here at the zoo. And the father of this beautiful little girl, Capo, actually came from Cans so he's a Kansas Man. So these guys will travel around the country and in some cases around the globe for breeding and again we'll see different things. You could get them some from Germany or you know, from the East coast.

00:22:14
Speaker 4: Also a reminder to work together and collaborate, right, it makes you think of Sabolski's horse another shower. It's because of zoos and aquariums that we still have these animals alive today, so that's really really wicked.

00:22:23
Speaker 5: And Sabira has raised three boys that are now out fathering other babies around the country as well.

00:22:29
Speaker 6: So Sabira is a grandmother.

00:22:30
Speaker 3: And so with the different copies you've worked with in your time Dallas as a wildlife care specialist, do they all have their own personalities? We've heard from the giraft team at the Fireparks that they definitely all have their own personalities.

00:22:43
Speaker 5: I think for every animal I've ever worked with, everyone has a different personality. Subira for me, she was really the first okopy I had experience with, and I've always felt like she's the supermodel and I am the groveling you know, yes, I.

00:23:02
Speaker 6: Am so in love with you. You're a fantast and she's all, yes, I know, thank you.

00:23:08
Speaker 1: I mean I can see why because she is one.

00:23:10
Speaker 4: Absolutely, I'm assuming you have a wonderful relationship with these animals.

00:23:15
Speaker 1: Can ask you The skin feels so velvety, is it?

00:23:18
Speaker 5: So it's velvety, but it's actually has an oil to it, so it's got a sene on it and it's kind of greasy. It feels kind of greasy, which you again, rainforest animal in the forest, moisture, humidity, it's going to protect their skin. And it's also great too because if you're moving through thickets and protecting bushes, yeah, you're you're sleek, and you want to be sleek because you don't want to get all scraped up as you're moving through the forest area.

00:23:45
Speaker 2: That's cool.

00:23:45
Speaker 5: So she's got built in water protection as well as being sleek so that she's not going to scratch yourself up moving through thickets or what if she gets scared and she runs right thicket, you know, gets cut up. Yeah, so those things are perfect little about patients that they have that do help protect them.

00:24:01
Speaker 4: Wow, must be so impressive if you ever get the opportunity to see when gallop through a force, I'm sure that is just breathtaking.

00:24:07
Speaker 2: As mom and baby are coming right by.

00:24:08
Speaker 1: Though.

00:24:09
Speaker 3: Can I ask you, Dallas, do you have like a favorite attribute or a favorite thing about the O copy Like, is there some fun fact that you're like, Oh, this is just the coolest thing, or just you in general, it's not a fun fact.

00:24:19
Speaker 2: There's something about them that you love.

00:24:21
Speaker 5: I think for me, the coolest thing about the O copies is just their ears. Oh yeah, there are these satellites that just pick up every sound in the mornings when there's no folks in the zoo. I can hear Sube kind of getting a little restless and It'll take me a few seconds, but I'll realize there's a truck up at the front of the zoo.

00:24:43
Speaker 6: She's here.

00:24:44
Speaker 5: Before I out, she'll hear a noise, and maybe about three seconds later, I'll actually hear the noise. So to me, it's just fascinating and their ears are just so huge, and plus that's one of the things that Suberra will actually enjoy is getting the back of those ears rubbed.

00:25:04
Speaker 4: What a cool privilege you have with that, I gotta ask you, because she's right here, she's everyone listening.

00:25:08
Speaker 1: She's literally eating, like right in front of us right now, the baby. But actually look inside the mouth rig. I'm seeing like it doesn't look like the standard dent.

00:25:16
Speaker 6: There are no teeth.

00:25:17
Speaker 5: They only have a gum on the top, oh yeah, and on the bottom, so where the canines and the incisors would be, it's more of a gummy effect on the top and then on the bottom they're just small incisors very minute.

00:25:30
Speaker 6: But in the back is where they have those large moles.

00:25:32
Speaker 1: Right all right, because it's a browser.

00:25:34
Speaker 4: Right to your point, she's picking different kinds of leafy material. Is there a preferred plant source that you know in Africa? That these animals are forged or is it kind of I've read a gorillas as an example, that gorilla's in the forest like it's like a big salad.

00:25:46
Speaker 2: Bar for whatever the gorillas.

00:25:47
Speaker 1: Yeah right, yeah, I would imagine the same thing.

00:25:50
Speaker 5: To my knowledge, there's probably over one hundred different tree species that these guys can consume. Wow.

00:25:55
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:25:56
Speaker 5: Here in San Diego, Sube's favorite things are and elm and grew ya. So these are some of the ones that she really enjoys to eat. But a lot of their daily food comes from acasha, which we have several different species of acasha.

00:26:13
Speaker 6: That we can grow for these guys.

00:26:14
Speaker 5: And of course depends on the time of the year, right, what's growing best at that time of the year, so the palatability. And she of course is a big produce lover. Everybody loves the produce, so she's a big carried eater.

00:26:27
Speaker 6: She likes yams.

00:26:29
Speaker 1: That's so cool. I almost wish you would cruntchle out us so we can get it on the microphone. Wreck a right.

00:26:34
Speaker 4: Oh wow, I just love it because all of us, three of us, we've worked here for so long and yet we still get excited to me see moments like this. It's why animals is so amazing Tommy, Right, they connect with us in such a cool way.

00:26:44
Speaker 3: Well, and speaking of that, Marco and all of us working for clearly Dallas, you know so much about the species. You've done a lot of work here at the San Diego Zoo and working with these animals. For anybody in our audience that would like to maybe think about you know, I just heard ill I was talking about a copy. I want to do that someday too.

00:27:00
Speaker 1: What was your path?

00:27:00
Speaker 3: How did you get here and be able to basically spend every day with this incredibly unique African forest animal.

00:27:06
Speaker 5: My path actually started in the Midwest. So I grew up on a farm. Oh so, I was a farm kid, and I wanted to, of course continue that tradition of working with agriculture and farm animals. So I went to college to get a degree in animal science. Oh cool, and I did a internship at Brookfield Zoo.

00:27:26
Speaker 1: Nice, and I left the farm.

00:27:30
Speaker 5: Because I fell in love with wildlife and I felt like there was so much more I could do with conservation and wildlife, and it just kind of became my passion.

00:27:40
Speaker 2: Sure makes sense to me about this.

00:27:43
Speaker 5: To learn about these incredible animals and of course bring them to our guests and to the people that listen to you guys, you know, just to let them know how amazing nature really is and how much we need to protect it and understand it.

00:27:58
Speaker 2: Definitely appreciate that, Dallas in Dallas. Before we wrap this up, is there anything we.

00:28:02
Speaker 3: Haven't touched on yet about the old copy that you would want to make sure our audience.

00:28:05
Speaker 2: Gets to hear.

00:28:07
Speaker 5: I think the most important thing is just that every animal, including the O copies, they have a niche in the world and just like we do, and I think the O copies fill.

00:28:17
Speaker 6: That niche and so many people find them for the first time.

00:28:21
Speaker 5: So for me, when people come to the zoo, they've actually discovered a new species. And I love that about the O copies because they love to be seen. Sube loves to eat.

00:28:31
Speaker 6: And show off herself and gorgeous.

00:28:34
Speaker 5: It's kind of an all moment I see for a lot of people who have never even heard of an o'copy and to come here and see Sube.

00:28:41
Speaker 6: She's just such a great representative of.

00:28:43
Speaker 5: What amazing animals, plants, and creatures we have and we share with the world.

00:28:48
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. Well, said Anika. What a cool experience. This is the first time you see the baby sea, so this is definitely a special one for me. Right, this is really.

00:29:00
Speaker 6: Entire time.

00:29:01
Speaker 4: I've just been staring at these animals. And I know I'm a bird gay, but guys, I mean, look at this. I'm staying at the baby right now. You got to get your butts at the zoo. Nevermind, there got a milk, Mustag got a milk, must Rick said earlier. There's a copy at the Safari Park. There's also at the zoo. But if you want to see this youngster growing up with her mama, please come down here.

00:29:20
Speaker 1: Technically, this area what it's called.

00:29:22
Speaker 6: For guests, they called the Chery Forest.

00:29:24
Speaker 1: Area Chery Forest Area.

00:29:25
Speaker 6: They're just south of the tigers, right behind the hippos.

00:29:28
Speaker 1: Don't go past.

00:29:29
Speaker 4: It's easy it is to because they're kind of tucked in the back being next to the hippos are in the forest area.

00:29:33
Speaker 3: And I will say this, if you come by this area and you don't see them, make sure you plan to come by a second time because just in the thirty some minutes we've been here, we didn't see anybody at first, and then we saw a mom wandering around in the background, and then baby came out to drink, and now they're right here.

00:29:49
Speaker 2: So yeah, hey, take your time at habitats and if there's a species you really want.

00:29:52
Speaker 3: To see, come back multiple times to that area because you might see something you didn't see before.

00:29:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dallas, thank you so much for spending time with us today.

00:30:00
Speaker 6: Thank you for showing off our beautiful old copies.

00:30:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're great, and these animals are amazing, of course. I just really appreciate your time.

00:30:08
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.

00:30:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you, friend, and good luck with the baby. Thank you can see it grow up. Ooh that was really exciting, right Rick, Oh my gosh.

00:30:18
Speaker 2: That baby. I can't even right now, my flufy.

00:30:21
Speaker 4: On the face, the stripes, and it's like a mini mama too, which is incredible.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: The beauty of.

00:30:27
Speaker 1: Wildlife and the uniqueness of it.

00:30:29
Speaker 4: Every animal is different, but like to Dallas's point, every animal has a niche or role to play in our beautiful blue planet.

00:30:35
Speaker 3: Right. Well, absolutely absolutely, And I love to the sounds that they make. Then how there's no smell to the baby, how all the different things they have to help survive in the wild.

00:30:44
Speaker 2: But when she was talking about.

00:30:45
Speaker 3: How sometimes the mom will react to a sound and then all of a sudden, she'll hear it a little bit later. You know what.

00:30:50
Speaker 2: It reminded me of like having a dog at home and you're like, you're relaxing.

00:30:55
Speaker 1: And they forgot because they hear.

00:30:56
Speaker 2: Something, and you're like, what, because I hearing is so much better.

00:31:00
Speaker 3: But again, if you aren't able to come to the zoo's fire park, and you can't visit a zoo that hasward copy, look up what they look like.

00:31:06
Speaker 2: Go to the San Diego Zoo social media to check these guys out. Their ears are huge and it's adorable. They look so cute. Moms right now still in front of us eating and it just it's so nah. I mean, I can stay here all day, eat all day, but I can say I know.

00:31:20
Speaker 1: I'm getting hunger myself. No, but back to just the forested animals.

00:31:23
Speaker 4: Like earlier, we did a castory episode now with these guys in the congo. But I believe our next episode we're still gonna be in the theme of the deep forest.

00:31:32
Speaker 3: Right in this interview, you did mention that the gorillas that live in a similar forests at African areas.

00:31:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, have the salad bar. They're always eating right. Just so happens, We're gonna go back up to the.

00:31:43
Speaker 1: Safari Park next back to the Park of the I know.

00:31:46
Speaker 2: And we're gonna find out more about what's going on with our gorillas.

00:31:48
Speaker 1: No, I can't wait, Marco what and I am Rich Schwartz.

00:31:55
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening.

00:32:00
Speaker 3: For more information about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park, go to SDZWA dot org. Amazing Wildlife is a production of iHeartRadio. Our supervising producers are Nikkia Swinton and Dylan Fagan, and our sound designers are Sierra Spreen and Matt Russell.

00:32:17
Speaker 2: For more shows from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio

00:32:20
Speaker 3: App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.