Join Jason, elephant animal care manager at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, and Malaika for an update.

In case you missed our previous communications, Malaika has a history of health challenges, and has had far more good days than bad ones in her life. Last Thursday, we told you she was dealing with worsening mobility issues and a fluctuating appetite, which started in early February. We were really concerned about her at the end of last week.

On Sunday, we shared that she seemed to be brightening, and she was eating more. Her appetite has increased significantly over the last few days, and she has eaten nearly her normal amount of food every night since Sunday, which is great.

Her team continues to monitor and address her ongoing mobility issues. We’re hopeful because she seems to be on the right track, but we do know from this experience how quickly things can change for her. We’re cautiously optimistic, and her care team is working hard to encourage her to keep eating, drinking and moving.

Thank you for your continued support and compassion as our team navigates this complex situation. For now, we’re breathing a little easier, and we’ll let you know if we see any significant change in her either way.

To learn more, visit cmzoo.org/malaika.

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February is Heart Month, and just like our partners at Children’s Hospital Colorado encourage preventive and well-care visits, our great apes participate in ongoing maintenance and preventive care for their heart health. Go behind the scenes with Amy, senior keeper in Primate World, and her team as they ask Sumagu, Baka, and Goma to show us their husbandry training with an EKG, blood pressure reader, blood draws and cardiac ultrasound. Even young Kera shows her interest in the training!

Unfortunately, we have documented heart disease in some of CMZoo’s great apes. Because heart disease is prevalent in their species – just like it is with humans – CMZoo’s Primate World team works with the orangutans and Western lowland gorillas to get regular readings so they can adjust the great apes’ medications, exercise routines or diets to hopefully prevent disease progression.

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It’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment a story begins, but the end of the story could be near for Malaika [muh-LIE-kuh], a 36-year-old female African elephant. We think this story started for us about 17 years ago when the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Board decided to build a facility especially for aging female elephants, but that doesn’t make anticipating a loss any easier.

As humans, we deal with death from a young age. Our first experience may be with a beloved pet. At some point we all lose someone close to us. All loss is painful, but we know that some goodbyes are going to hurt especially bad.

This is true for our Zoo family, too. We know we are going to grieve deeply when it’s a certain animal’s time to go. Malaika is one of those animals. Combine an entire organization in various stages of grief with the logistics required for the sheer size of the animal we’re focusing on now, and you have an extremely complex and delicate situation.

Malaika has a history of health challenges, and has had far more good days than bad ones in her life. But, recently, she showed us signs that it might soon be her time to leave us, including worsening mobility issues and a fluctuating appetite.

After not eating regularly for a couple of days, Malaika’s appetite returned on Wednesday morning, when she ate, among other things, 11 blueberry bagels. Keepers said she seemed a little brighter.

By Wednesday evening, we were back to being more worried than ever for her. A couple of hours later, there was another light, when she ate again. Thursday morning, she ate and drank a little bit more. The situation is changing by the hour, and we are prepared for the worst while we reflect on her life and her mortality.

“Malaika loves people, and Malaika is easy to love,” said Annie Dinwiddie, senior elephant keeper. “She has social opportunities with the other elephants, but she usually chooses to be close to us keepers. It’s like she has adopted us as her own herd, and she’s really tuned into us.”

Malaika is a sensory elephant. She notices immediately if Dinwiddie is wearing a new lotion or used a different soap. She’ll give Dinwiddie a certain look, then she’ll slowly breathe in the new smell while looking at her keeper as if she has many questions about it.

“Malaika will hold out for the best training rewards possible,” said Jake Jachim, elephant keeper. “She loves training, but sometimes she’ll do the behavior we’ve asked for, and she’ll sense that she has a choice in how she’s being rewarded. I have seen her smell a reward in her keeper’s hand and completely bypass it for what was in their other hand. Like, ‘thanks, but I’ll take this instead.’”

Malaika, who came to CMZoo in 2008, loves to knock down trees and pick up giant logs to throw them across the yard. She also loves making noise. If you’ve been lucky enough to hear an elephant trumpeting during a visit, there’s a good chance it was Malaika.

Even while she’s not feeling well, her keeper team knows they can count on resilient Malaika to participate so they can care for her. Dinwiddie remembers after what could have been a life-threatening fall that Malaika took in 2019, she kept fighting. After working for hours to stand back up with her team’s help, Malaika was exhausted, but still allowed her keepers to give her oral medications.

With the support of her team and specialized equipment, Malaika has fought her way through two potentially fatal falls – once in 2018 and again in 2019. During her previous episodes, we held on tight to hope, as we do now. We were realistic that Malaika might not make it through those challenges, but nearly three years after her most recent rescue, she’s still here helping people fall in love with elephants.

It may sound morbid to some, but preparing for death is part of taking care of animals. It is part of what it means to be their forever caregivers. The team has been preparing for the inevitable death of an aging elephant since we built the facility in 2013 – and well before that, when the CMZoo Board decided to go down this road of caring for aging elephants.

For now, Malaika’s future is uncertain, but her team is prepared to make the most compassionate decisions for her, empowered with the training and equipment we need to face whatever comes our way. We meet at 4:30 p.m. each afternoon to discuss what happens if there is a situation during the evening and who can get back and how fast. We consistently practice our emergency response protocols to lift an elephant that falls and can’t get up, or for a humane euthanasia decision.

While planning the design of the Wilgruen Elephant Center, the Zoo made a conscious decision to meet the demand for specialized staff and equipment to care for aging elephants, including a crane system in the barn. More than 20 cross-discipline Zoo staff members, including animal keepers, veterinary staff, and operations, maintenance and grounds personnel, team up for rescue lift efforts. Some specialize in rope work, others focus on operating the hoist, and others document the entire process so we can learn from it later. The Zoo also depends on Colorado Springs Fire Department’s Heavy Rescue Team for supplemental support. The Heavy Rescue Team receives on-site elephant rescue training in advance of an emergency, and they’re always on stand-by.

Our veterinary and animal care teams are working to keep Malaika as comfortable as possible. She is taking oral medications and receiving other treatments for discomfort. We also work closely with Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital to consider all treatment options for Malaika.

There are countless other Zoo professionals vital to an event like this. For example, we recently hired a career and life coach at the Zoo who provides on-site coaching support as our teams move through grief. When you care for as many animals as we do, loss is part of life.

We’re holding onto hope that Malaika will get through this, but we just don’t know what the next few days or weeks hold for her. If she does recover, it wouldn’t be the first time an aging animal has given us a scare and then lived happily for many more years. Still, we know it’s possible that it may soon be time to say goodbye to Malaika, if she takes another turn for the worse.

When the time comes, we have a beautiful final resting place in the mountains for her, thanks to a donor who has been planning with us for many years. For every foreseeable turn, there’s a plan in place for Malaika.

We’ll continue monitoring Malaika closely, during the day and overnight, and will keep you posted as we have any updates to share. Please join us in rooting for Malaika, and in celebrating the special ways this beautiful animal has touched your life and so many others.

Join Bhutan, our 13-year-old snow leopard, and his keepers for snow day enrichment and training! Learn about Bhutan’s personality, his favorite scent-masking seasoning, which husbandry behaviors he’s working on, and how Bhutan is contributing to the future of his species. Make sure your volume is up to hear Bhutan’s impressive growls during his training session.

Snow leopards’ wild populations are listed as ‘vulnerable,’ according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List. Bhutan’s genetics are extremely valuable to the Snow Leopard Species Survival Plan, but he prefers a life with plenty of his own space, so traditional breeding isn’t in his future. Bhutan’s sperm is valuable because he doesn’t have offspring and has an extremely high sperm count. His sperm has been collected and is kept in a ‘frozen zoo.’ If the need arises, conservationists can pair Bhutan with a genetically valuable female snow leopard without having to involve Bhutan.

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It’s officially winter, when many people wonder if Emmett and Digger, CMZoo’s grizzly bears, go into hibernation. The short answer is no, but it’s a more complicated topic than some might expect. Scientists continue to study seasonal animal dormancy and are finding that animals experience a wide spectrum of behavioral and physiological changes in the winter months.

Various states of dormancy, including torpor or hibernation, are caused by seasonal changes including less sunlight, lower ambient temperatures and reduced food availability in the wild. But, animals in human care can also experience seasonal changes, even though they have plenty of food and shelter available. When animals go into these dormant states, their body temperatures, heart rates, metabolisms and respiratory rates are reduced. Generally, they slow down.

“Although bears have become the poster children of hibernation in popular culture, bear experts maintain that not all bears hibernate,” said Kelsey Walker, Rocky Mountain Wild keeper. “Wild bears naturally slow down to conserve energy, since they don’t have regular access to food. Even with consistent access to food, our boys experience changes each winter, so dormancy could be an adaptation developed over generations of bears surviving in the wild, and it has to do with more than food availability. Like I said, it’s complicated.”

Emmett and Digger sleep more and eat less during the winter months, even though they have access to warm dens and plentiful food year-round. Still, they stay pretty active during the winter, and continue training with their keepers and exploring their multi-yard exhibit and pond.

“In the winter, they will still interact with us, but they expect higher rewards for participation,” said Courtney Rogers, lead keeper in Rocky Mountain Wild. “What seems like a tasty snack during the summer isn’t worth the effort in the winter. I’ve seen Emmett and Digger square up over a single blueberry in the summer. In the winter, we can toss them a whole fresh trout and if it doesn’t land in their mouths, they don’t want it right away.”

Keepers say Emmett and Digger still play-wrestle, splash in their pond, and train in the winter months, but in a less energetic way. To maintain a good relationship while their normal food rewards aren’t as interesting to the grizzles, the keepers give them extra-rewarding items, like salmon.

“We want to make sure they’re still mentally stimulated while their bodies are in a more restful state, so we give the bears opportunities for mental stimulation, through training and enrichment options, while their bodies rest,” said Walker. “If you’ve seen them in the summer, you’ve got to come out and watch them in the winter. Although they slow down a bit, they’re as captivating as ever and guests can see them snuggling together, training with us or investigating enrichment items all winter long.”

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Keepers recently noticed Anja, a 5-month-old ring-tailed lemur pup, appeared to be consistently clenching her hands. The extremely energetic little lemur didn’t appear to be having any mobility issues as a result, but because lemurs use their hands to grip trees and move around, keepers wanted to keep a close eye on her. She was keeping up with her twin brother, Elo, and older half-brother, Maky, just fine.

“Once Anja gained independence and wasn’t spending most of her time clinging to her mom, we noticed she wasn’t opening her hands all the way,” said Grace Sullivan, Water’s Edge: Africa keeper. “She’s constantly leaping around with her brothers, so we’re not concerned about her well-being, but if there’s something we can do now to help her avoid any potential future limitations, of course we want to do that.”

Water’s Edge: Africa keepers and CMZoo’s veterinary staff teamed up to check on little Anja, and didn’t see any injuries or unusual bone structure. There’s no formal diagnosis at this point, but it appears she has tight ligaments.

After consulting with a veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist, her team built a physical therapy routine for Anja. The routine has similar goals as the exercises prescribed by physical therapists at Children’s Hospital Colorado’s Sports Medicine Center, partners of CMZoo.

“During her therapy, we ask Anja to hold onto a wooden pole and then we turn the pole slightly so her fingers open up,” said Sullivan. “She’s really smart, and she loves the training rewards she receives during the sessions, so she’s usually eager to participate.”

Anja doesn’t appear to experience discomfort during these training sessions and keepers have seen some improvement in her range of motion since starting the therapy in mid-November. Keepers do this behavior with Anja three times a week.

In addition to training, the team added some obstacles to Lemur Island that encourage her to stretch those tight ligaments as she moves around throughout the day. There’s a series of bamboo poles attached perpendicularly to another pole, which the lemurs have all enjoyed exploring. The poles are a wider circumference than other climbing opportunities on Lemur Island, so Anja’s fingers get a good stretch while she navigates, as has fun at the same time.

“The lemurs also share a new rope hammock made of thick ropes set far apart,” said Sullivan. “It’s enriching for all of the lemurs to explore these new items, but we’re especially happy to see Anja using them successfully.”

The team will continue working with Anja to gain flexibility in her fingers.

“We talk about how there’s always a balance when you’re addressing any potential struggles an animal might face,” said Sullivan. “We want to make sure Anja is okay, but we don’t want to go too far with treatments or diagnostics if she can clearly do all of the lemur things she needs to do with her hands as they are. Her hands might just be another thing that make this little one so special, in the long run. For now, we’re seeing the exercises help, so we’ll keep doing them.”

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Are you busy preparing your own epic feast this Thanksgiving? CMZoo’s commissary team prepares hundreds of meals every day for the animals in our care. Learn more about what goes into feeding and enriching our animals from our commissary manager, Chelsea!

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One the of many benefits of living at the Zoo is our animals’ access to round-the-clock expert veterinary care. Combined, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo’s veterinary team has more than 100 years of experience in the veterinary field. The team of six brings an extensive background in animal medicine, conservation, research, education, animal husbandry training and clinical practice to the hundreds of animals that live at the Zoo. From elephants to axolotls, their passion for animals of all shapes and sizes is a driving force at CMZoo.

Just like humans, animals get varying levels of medical care. Depending on what a person needs, they might go to their primary care team, or an urgent care or emergency care center. Our partner, Children’s Hospital Colorado has human tips on how to choose the best level of care based on what’s going on.

At CMZoo, the veterinary team works closely with keepers and animal care managers to provide varying levels of care, too.

“Our goal is to provide the best medical care available for our animals, and to care for them in a way that helps them feel in control and confident,” said Dr. Jon Romano, CMZoo head veterinarian. “Unlike human doctors, we can’t explain to our patients what kind of care they need. Animal care teams work with animals to participate in voluntary husbandry training, which means the animals get positive reinforcement – like treats – for doing a behavior we ask of them, and that allows us to care for them with their participation.”

Through husbandry training, animals can receive routine care, like blood draws, vaccinations or x-rays, in their homes. With mobile veterinary equipment and special exhibit ports that allow our vet team to safely access animals, the scene is set for successful, low-stress diagnostics.

“When we’re working with an animal that could potentially be dangerous, we always put our staff safety first,” said Dr. Romano. “Our maintenance team has built ports into many of the animal exhibits, which allow us to draw blood from a grizzly bear’s paw or from an African lion’s tail, for example. Those voluntary blood draws help us track an animal’s health routinely, or address any concerns their care team might have.”

Abuto, CMZoo’s 10-year-old African lion patriarch, deals with ongoing kidney issues. Because of his trusting relationship with keepers and his voluntary trained behaviors, Abuto’s team can give him subcutaneous fluids if he’s not feeling well, right there in his home. They can also track his kidney levels through routine voluntary blood draws. Giraffe, elephants and many more animals at the Zoo participate in voluntary blood draws. With testing equipment at the CMZoo clinic, the veterinary team can get fast results from those blood tests and start treating an animal quickly.

When BB, CMZoo’s one-year-old reticulated giraffe calf was born in September 2020, the team saw her front legs were more bent than usual. To make sure BB wasn’t dealing with something more serious than tight ligaments (which corrected themselves in a few weeks), her animal care team brought the clinic to BB, in the giraffe barn.

“Because BB was only a couple of days old, we were able to safely go into to the stall with her to take blood draws and x-rays of her legs with our mobile equipment,” said Dr. Romano. “Being able to diagnose BB quickly, in her own home, and with as little stress as possible, was a huge benefit to BB. And, it meant that she was only separated from her mom for a few minutes so we could check on her.”

Thankfully, BB turned out to be just fine, but the diagnostics gave the vet team immediate answers about any treatments she may have needed. Once the veterinary team has diagnosed an issue, they can often treat it on-site.

“Our veterinary hospital is equipped for us to house an animal that needs consistent monitoring, or temperature control, or needs to be separated from its group to receive care,” said Dr. Romano. “We can also perform procedures that require animals to go under anesthesia. We try to avoid that as much as possible because anesthesia always presents a risk. Because we can perform more involved diagnostics here at the Zoo hospital, they’re under anesthesia for a shorter time than if we had to transport them somewhere else, which reduces that risk somewhat.”
These procedures take place at the Zoo in the clinic’s treatment room, which houses anesthesia machines for all sizes of patients, and monitoring equipment including heartrate, respiratory rate, and blood pressure. Juju, CMZoo 40-year-old Western lowland gorilla, recently benefitted from a diagnostic procedure at the vet clinic and has since recovered well.

There are many aspects to providing the best possible care for the animals who live at the Zoo. The veterinary team’s expertise, the hospital and mobile equipment, voluntary animal training, exhibit modifications, and keepers’ personal relationships with their animals all benefit the animals in their care.

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Last month, Juju, 40-year-old CMZoo female Western lowland gorilla, started showing her keepers she wasn’t feeling well. Juju, who is known for being confident and independent, was spending more time away from the group, being less energetic, and sitting uncomfortably. Juju is in her golden years, having surpassed the median life expectancy of 39 years for female Western lowland gorillas, and had experienced short periods of similar discomfort, but this episode was lasting longer and her symptoms were more severe.

On August 4, 2021, after her team had exhausted all voluntary diagnostic and treatment options, Juju received a thorough examination under anesthesia in CMZoo’s vet clinic. Anesthesia is risky for any animal, but especially for an older animal. X-rays showed she doesn’t have major issues, like fractures or breaks, causing her pain, and that it’s more chronic, age-related issues to manage. She did well under anesthesia and has recovered and responded well to the treatments, including steroid injections in her left knee and left hip, and ongoing oral medications to help with pain and inflammation. Thankfully, Juju’s keepers and veterinary team have seen her continue to improve physically since the treatment.

Unless Juju’s care team sees that she’s declining, they’ll continue to manager her discomfort with oral medications, and won’t attempt any further diagnostics. They track her quality-of-life markers for her ‘new normal,’ which help the team set realistic expectations and more specific behavior trends that help them identify if she might need assistance again.

Some might think Juju’s care plan is purely focused on her physical conditions, but there’s another factor to consider when an animal has to leave and rejoin its group: the well-being of the troop. Because gorillas are such social beings, and because CMZoo’s Western lowland gorilla troop of five has been somewhat slow to form a cohesive group, the next step was to reunite them while preserving the relationships they’ve worked so hard to establish.

Silverback gorillas joining an established group, like 30-year-old Goma, have to earn the respect of the females in their troops, and a large-and-in-charge female like Juju doesn’t always make it easy for him. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn’t be unusual for Juju to ‘challenge’ Goma, testing her limits by sitting closer than he would prefer, for example. When Juju does this, Goma’s job is to prove he’s a leader to earn her and the other females’ respect. He might ‘display,’ by standing up tall and making noise with nearby objects. Normally Juju would show him respect by moving away. While she wasn’t as mobile as usual, Goma – knowing Juju’s tendencies – could have seen her inability to move away quickly as a continued challenge, which could have caused tension between them. To avoid creating this environment, which would be stressful for the whole troop, keepers gave Goma his own space. Other than during her time at the vet clinic, Juju was with the females consistently.

“Once our vet team decided Juju was steady enough, she rejoined the girls,” said Eleanor Knox, senior keeper in Primate World. “When we opened the door between them, she was still pretty stiff from the procedure. Roxie and Asha were doing happy gorilla grumbles and touching her. Roxie, her best friend, patted her. Asha sort of encouraged her out of the den to a comfy hay bed, where she relaxed for the next couple of hours with Roxie close by.”

By the next morning, Juju had made her way outside, followed by Roxie. The team gave Juju about a week after the immobilization before reuniting her and the females with Goma. After a week, they could see the ladies were calm and settled, and Juju was confident and mobile enough to share space with him.

“The goal is to have a cohesive group, so separating Goma was the best thing for them at the time, but we knew we would need them to reunite when Juju was better,” said Knox. “It didn’t take long to see we could reunite everyone safely.”

When gorillas are excited or happy, they let out ‘gorilla grumbles,’ and the day they were reunited was grumbly indeed. They’ve been back together for their normal daily interactions for about two weeks.

“Just seeing that they could go through this potentially stressful scenario so calmly, and actually seeing excitement during the reunion is a huge nod to their resilience and bonds as a group,” said Knox. “Goma has been paying a lot of attention, which we can interpret as him caring about the overall good of the group.”

Primate World keepers will continue to monitor Juju and adjust treatments as needed. For now, the troop has settled back in together so well, that they’ll continue spending time together as a troop, growing their bonds.

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Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is home to five Western lowland gorillas. Within the group, the gorillas have unique individual relationships, but Juju and Roxie, our eldest and closely-bonded longtime residents, are especially tight knit. They’ve both surpassed the 39-year median life expectancy for females of their species in human care, with Roxie at 44 and Juju at 40. Both ladies have experienced periodic medical issues, but overall have been in relatively good health for their ages until recently.

In 2019, Roxie’s care team placed her on long-term hospice care for ongoing kidney, reproductive system and gastrointestinal issues. This means they decided it is in Roxie’s best interest not to go to heroics to help Roxie recover from another severe episode. They would, however, continue to provide supportive care. If she needs it, they could administer IV fluids and nutrition, if she has another phase of not eating and drinking. Since making that decision, Roxie’s keepers say she has had the longest stretch in good health they can remember.

Juju has experienced short phases of physical discomfort. The cause of her discomfort has yet to be diagnosed, but her symptoms are now presenting more severely than they have previously.

“We’ve seen Juju spending more time wanting to be away from the group and being less energetic,” said Carrie Supino, Primate World keeper and Juju’s primary trainer. “We’re also seeing signs that her left leg is uncomfortable. She hasn’t been sitting cross-legged like she normally does, which leads us to believe that’s a main source of her pain.”

Typically, Juju’s discomfort occurs once or twice per year and can be corrected in a matter of days with pain and anti-inflammatory medications. But, in mid-July, she started showing signs that this episode is more severe. Oral pain and anti-inflammatory medications, which have worked in the past, are not bringing Juju the relief she needs this time.

At this point, the team has exhausted all voluntary diagnostic and treatment options, so they’re planning an immobilization for Juju in early August 2021. Under anesthesia, the team can safely get hands-on with Juju to hopefully diagnose the cause of her discomfort and start effective treatments. There is always a risk when an animal goes under anesthesia, and that risk is higher for older animals, like Juju.

Juju’s team tracks quality-of-life markers that help them identify if and when they need to escalate her care, including her appetite, activity level, social interactions with other gorillas, mobility and interest in training and enrichment.

“Juju is overall in good health,” said Supino. “Other than these issues, she’s doing great. As a team, we think this immobilization is the best next step in helping Juju feel better.”

Roxie was born at CMZoo and Juju came to the Zoo in 1982. Keepers say they have been best friends from the time they met.

“We’ve seen them sitting next to each other watching the rest of the troop, like they’re two old ladies on a park bench,” said Supino. “They’ll even have little tickle fights and get playful together. Juju has a respect for Roxie, and vice versa, that seems to allow them to let their normal gorilla guard down around each other.”

Roxie is known as a tactile gorilla, who enjoys patting her troop mates on the rear, playfully wrestling, tickling and even cuddling with them. Juju is described as ‘the boss.’ With an athletic build and a lot of confidence, Juju isn’t one to back down from a challenge. Gorillas generally prefer to have their own space, but the special bond between these two is different. In the last couple of weeks, as Juju deals with health issues, keepers have seen how important they are to each other.

“Lately, Roxie never leaves her side,” said Supino. “Being as close as six feet for gorillas is considered an interaction that means they’re really comfortable together. There aren’t many other gorillas Juju will let sit close to her. For the past couple of weeks, wherever Juju is, Roxie is right there.”

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