#Secrets of the zoo series

When the Columbus Zoo found Grover and some of her bird brethren she was living in a box with only enough room to lay eggs. Hyacinth macaws are both the biggest and most valuable parrot species, making them a frequent target for illegal breeding techniques. Grover, a hyacinth macaw, was one of those birds. Secrets of the Zoo’s very first episode featured a plot in which zookeepers went down to Alabama to liberate 16 macaws from a bird mill. Another way creatures come through the door, and a crucial one to its conservationist mission, is through rescue. Raising animals straight from the egg is just one of the ways that the Columbus Zoo welcomes its guests. But listening to Miller and fellow animal programs specialist Tommy Dodge, it’s impossible not to think of how much good old-fashioned love goes into it as well.īut once hatched, Chovie did grow into the happy waddling bird before us today. Years worth of hardfought knowledge and training goes into keeping an animal happy, healthy, and safe. Zookeeping is a scientific endeavor to be sure. Sure enough, the pretty little bird has eyes only for her usual human friends and not their strange guest. Chovie is an “opinionated” penguin, according to Miller, who says penguins are like cats. “He’s pretty durable,” Miller says as Renaldo loses his balance on a wooden bench and flops onto the floor.Ĭhovie on the other hand is aloof and cautious of these latest visitors. Seemingly spring-loaded and completely unafraid of anything, he tears around the room, wings spread and cheerfully gobbling a mass of red mush from Miller’s fist In quick succession, we meet Renaldo the black vulture, and Chovie the South African penguin. Instead, Animal Programs has heard we like birds and it is birds that Animal Programs is all too happy to provide. According to Animal Programs specialist Jarod Miller, the boy is big for a baby cheetah and after some stalling, the girl is starting to gain weight as well.īut the cheetahs are understandably too precious and important to spend any time with us. The three-week-olds are unaware they’ve made history though. This was the third time scientists ever attempted cheetah embryo transfer and, thanks to the combined effort of the Columbus Zoo and cheetah foster mother Isabelle, it’s the first time they’ve succeeded. The death rate for cheetahs has exceeded the birth rate worldwide for 13 of the past 16 years. The young boy and girl are the world’s first cheetah cubs born via in vitro fertilization.Īpproximately 80% of adult female cheetahs in North America have never reproduced. The two baby cheetahs don’t even have names yet but they’ve already made history. In the cozy structure, two of the zoo’s latest additions are enjoying a bottled breakfast in a heavily-windowed room.

#Secrets of the zoo series

The first stop on our day at the zoo is to Animal Programs, a nondescript brown building at the top of a hill where much of the behind the scenes action from the series takes place. Five days earlier, however, the massive property was sparsely populated with animal lovers and onlookers powering through some miserable Midwestern early spring weather. Like just about everywhere else, the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium is closed now due to the coronavirus outbreak, and has been since March 16. Recently, Nat Geo WILD gave us the opportunity to take in several of those acres and animals, inviting Den of Geek on a visit to meet with some creatures and the human beings who care for them. While the zoo and its associated conservation center, The Wilds, are staggering in their scale and scope (covering over 9,300 acres altogether and hosting more than 7,000 animals), Secrets of the Zoo makes the whole operation feel a lot more intimate. Through two and a half seasons of television, Nat Geo WILD’s series has taken viewers behind the scenes of one of the largest and most popular zoos in the country: the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Columbus, Ohio. The first secret of the zoo is that, thanks to Secrets of the Zoo, there aren’t many secrets at the zoo.