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Successful Breeding continued constant observation by animal care specialists.
(See the sidebar on page 21 for more on rhino
Top: These red river hogs got to know breeding.) As for big cats, lions are much easier
each other through a “howdy door” and to keep in prides because that’s how they live in
successfully produced a litter. the wild. Tigers, however, live a solitary lifestyle
Right: For a hormone assay, a chemical is and are much more skittish and shy. Those
pipetted into a plate filled with a solution are factors that we have to know when we
derived from the feces of an animal (far introduce animals here for breeding purposes.
right). Postdoctoral researcher Katie Hall
(right) places a plate in a shaker, one step One tool we have is called, in zoo-speak, a
in the process of determining the amount “howdy door.” These doors are barriers, sometimes
of hormones present. made of tightly woven mesh, that allow potential
mates to see, smell, and generally sense each
22 GATEWAYS | A PERFECT MATCH other—with a male often getting to detect a
female’s hormones—without physical contact.
Based on careful observations of the animals’
behaviors—and by having expert knowledge
of the species—the care staff recognize when
it’s time for introductions to occur. Some
animals display outward changes, such as
when a female cat vocalizes loudly to attract a
mate. These give us a strong indication when
it’s appropriate to start introducing them fully.
On the more high-tech side of things, our
Endocrinology Lab is equipped to perform
assays, which are analyses of the presence and
amount of the hormones related to reproductive