Latest news with #BrookfieldZooChicago
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Brookfield Zoo Chicago helps save endangered toad thanks to Bad Bunny
The Brief Brookfield Zoo Chicago is helping to save the endangered Puerto Rican Crested Toad. Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny has brought attention to the effort to save the toads. The toad is something of a local mascot for Puerto Ricans, and Bad Bunny featured one in videos for his latest album. BROOKFIELD, Ill. - The bunny and the toad may sound like a children's story. But it's a real-life tale at the center of an effort at Brookfield Zoo Chicago to save the rare Puerto Rican Crested Toad from extinction. And now that effort is getting a big boost from Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny. Local perspective Brookfield Zoo Lead Animal Care Specialist Mike Masellis showed Fox 32 two of the 30 Puerto Rican Crested Toads they keep at the zoo as part of a breeding and conservation program that's been going on for years. This year, they mated two pairs of the toads, which produced 1,762 tadpoles that have already been shipped to Puerto Rico and released into the wild. "We're well over 25,000 tadpoles released since we've been participating in the program," said Masellis. "So it's good to know that animals here can have an impact on the animals in the wild as well." Why you should care Brookfield is one of 20 zoos across the country involved in this conservation effort, which is critically needed. At one point, the toads were thought to be extinct in Puerto Rico. They are the only species of toad native to the island, but have been decimated by habitat loss, climate change and competition from invasive toad species. "If they were to go extinct, that would be a major loss of kind of the natural heritage of Puerto Rico," said Masellis. The Crested Toad and the efforts to save it weren't very well known until recently, when Bad Bunny featured them on his latest album. The rapper also produced a short documentary about the loss of Puerto Rican culture and wildlife. That video featured an animated Puerto Rican Crested Toad that interacts with real-life characters. Since the video's release, the toad has turned into an overnight cultural sensation. "Which is great, because critically endangered animals, particularly small animals, like toads and invertebrates and fishes, really need all the attention they can get," Masellis said. "Because so many of the endangered species out there in the world are maybe non-descriptive. Cute to me, I guess, but not to everybody." It's unclear whether Bad Bunny knows about the efforts being made at the Brookfield Zoo to preserve the toad. But Masellis said he has a standing invitation to see the program. "We have a large off-island Puerto Rican population here," he said. "So I think it's important to connect with the various communities in the Chicagoland area to feature animals that are culturally significant as well."
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Endangered Amur tiger Malena euthanized at Brookfield Zoo Chicago
BROOKFIELD, Ill. (WGN) — Brookfield Zoo Chicago is mourning the loss of their Amur tiger named Malena, following its decision to 'humanely euthanize' the animal following life-threatening health issues. Zoo officials said Friday that their team of dedicated animal control specialists noticed changes in Malena's appetite and energy levels. Upon further examination, zoo veterinarians learned that Malena's kidneys were not functioning correctly, due to what officials called a 'cancerous process,' which led to life-threatening heart arrhythmias. Brookfield Zoo to welcome first bachelor gorilla troop this summer Due to the severity of Malena's ailments, the zoo made the difficult decision to euthanize her. Malena joined Brookfield Zoo Chicago in 2020 and made history one year later as the first Amur tiger in North America to undergo a successful total hip replacement. Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — are critically endangered, with fewer than 500 remaining in the wild. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
National Geographic
22-05-2025
- Science
- National Geographic
Do these Florida dolphins have a language? Scientists are finding new clues.
'If there is a species that we might be able to engage with in some kind of two-way communication, these guys are really good candidates.' Bottlenose dolphins living near Sarasota, Florida have been observed making consistently structured whistles that suggest a common meaning. Photograph By "Photo by Brookfield Zoo Chicago's Sarasota Dolphin Research Dolphins are some of the most vocal animals in our oceans. Their pods are a bustling soundscape of clicks, whistles, and buzzy pulses. What to our ears is a creaking door or a melodic pop is to a dolphin a means to echolocate or communicate. They even have names—research has found they use 'signature whistles' to identify themselves, a sort of vocal version of a human's signature. These whistles are produced by one individual and repeated by another—'Jeff, Jeff'—to initiate or re-establish contact. The discovery back in 2013 that dolphins imitate each other's whistles showed that these cetaceans can understand and learn these unique sounds—a complex cognitive feat for non-human animals. Now a talkative bunch of wild bottlenose dolphins have revealed another talent: they appear to be using a broad repertoire of whistles that are not names. So far, researchers have identified 22 of these 'non-signature whistles' used by dozens of the dolphins. 'We have these non-signature whistles that seem potentially like they could function like words of some kind, with specific meanings,' says Laela Sayigh, a marine biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Hampshire College in Massachusetts. Sayigh and her team were recently awarded the Coller-Dolittle Prize for Two-way Inter-species Communication. Two of the whistles—with the catchy names NSWA and NSWB—seem to have a common function, one an alarm, the other a query, respectively. The findings, recently published as a preprint on bioRxiv, raise the question of whether dolphins may communicate using something akin to a language. 'If this pans out, it's a very, very big discovery in terms of understanding dolphin communication,' says Arik Kershenbaum, a zoologist at the University of Cambridge who was not involved in the research. But it's a big stretch at this point to consider these sounds similar to words, he says. 'Non-signature whistles have been of interest to researchers for ages and ages and no one's really got very far working on that. They're the big advantage of this study.' From scuba diving to set-jetting Creating a catalogue of dolphin chatter The idea that dolphins may have a language dates back to the 1960s, though any conclusive evidence has remained elusive. Studying communication among an underwater species is difficult to observe and dolphins don't make any recognizably consistent movements linked to their sounds. Yet for over forty years, scientists in the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program have carried out regular health assessments on a six-generation pod of around 170 wild dolphins that live in the waters around Florida's western coastline. As dolphins surfaced for air, researchers were able to record decades of dolphin vocalizations by briefly placing underwater microphones called hydrophones on their heads, as they swam in temporary net corrals. In 2012, the same research team began using digital acoustic tags fitted with suction cups, that ride on the back of the animals as they swim freely. These captured high-quality sounds and movement underwater. The result of this data is a giant catalogue of dolphin chit chat, based on more than 1,000 recording sessions made over the past 40 years. Commonly shared whistles Around 2017, while digging into some of this data, Sayigh noticed a strange whistle with an unusual flat tone in the middle. She was surprised to notice it was then used by another dolphin. 'I kind of thought I was going a little bonkers,' she says. But her team has now found more than 35 of the dolphins using the same signal. Based on the context in which the dolphins make it, the researchers think this whistle—NSWB—could function as some sort of question. In one instance, the researchers were running an experiment using a hydrophone dipped in the surface of the water. When they played the signature whistles of two closely bonded male dolphins as they swam together—they heard the query in return. 'On the boat we were joking that it was the 'WTF' whistle,' says Sayigh. 'It was kind of like, 'what's going on? We're together, but we're hearing us whistling to each other'.' The second most common non-signature whistle, NSWA, has been used by over 25 individual dolphins and is a punchy combination of up-and-down sweeps. During a series of trials using drones to monitor movement, the whistle seemed to cause most dolphins to avoid the source. 'That doesn't absolutely mean it's an alarm type call, but it seems like a reasonable starting point as a hypothesis,' says Sayigh. Jason Bruck, a biologist at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas who was not involved in the study, says that really nailing down what the whistles mean will be a big challenge that will need good behavioral data. 'If the animal swims away from the whistle, did you offend it somehow? Did you play an alarm whistle? Did you whistle something that was so loud it scared them? You have no idea what's going on inside that animal's head.' The research is still in its infancy. But dolphins are life-long learners, appear to use specific names, and females communicate at higher frequencies with their children—like human 'motherese.' The research team in Sarasota thinks this all suggests a wider repertoire of shared sounds that could reflect a starting point for a 'language-like communication system'. 'If there is a species that we might be able to kind of try to engage with in some kind of two way communication, these guys are really good candidates,' says Sayigh. Whether or not the dolphins' communication is 'language-like' depends on how 'language' is defined, says Sara Torres Ortiz, a biologist at the University of Southern Denmark also not involved in the research. If the criteria is referential signaling— specific sounds referring to specific objects or events—this ability has been seen in other animals, including vervet monkeys and prairie dogs. 'Given these precedents, it would not be surprising if dolphins also possess some form of referential communication,' she says. Other animals may even have communication systems that are more effective than the sounds and cues that humans think of as language, says Bruck, including dolphins who collect information about their friends through urine. 'If we take the animals out of our own heads and we take them for what they are, you find that there's a lot of complexity in what they do as it is.'
Chicago Tribune
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Chicago Tribune
Community news: Brookfield Zoo Chicago brings back its Ferris wheel, and more
Brookfield Zoo Chicago has another reason for people to visit this year, because its Ferris wheel has returned. Through Labor Day weekend, when weather allows, patrons can enjoy a five- to seven-minute ride that offers views of the zoo grounds, animal habitats and even the Chicago skyline. The Ferris wheel is 110 feet high and features 24 riding gondolas and multicolored LED lighting. Riders must be at least 32 inches tall to ride the attraction with a supervising companion; anyone 42 inches and taller may ride alone. Tickets are required and cost $8 for children, adults and seniors. The zoo is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekends. Details are at Free choral concert includes Broadway tunes The Hinsdale Sounds Good Choir presents its free spring concert at 7 p.m. May 6 at The Community House, 415 W. Eighth St., Hinsdale. Concert selections include hits from 'West Side Story,' 'The Wizard of Oz,' 'Hamilton,' 'Oklahoma' and 'Porgy & Bess.' The show will be conducted by Daniel Segner and Jonathan Miller. The event is free and open to the public, and children are welcome. No tickets or reservations are needed. The nonprofit organization Sounds Good Choir is the Chicago area's largest 'no audition' choral program for adults 55 and older and also offers Good Memories for people with early stage dementia and their care partners. Information is at or 630-395-9542. Oak Brook run to raise money for breast cancer patients The Oak Brook Park District Annual Pink 5k Run/Walk steps off at 8 p.m. May 10 the Oak Brook Park District Recreation Center, 1450 Forest Gate Road, Oak Brook. The race, which will be chip-timed through Central Park, is family friendly and teams are welcome. Online registration, which ends May 9, costs $35 per person. Day-of registration fee is $40. Teams, which must be at least 15 people, have a registration fee of $30 per person. All registration fees will be donated to the Hinsdale Hospital Foundation Open Arms Breast Cancer Outreach Fund, which was established in 2011 to help breast cancer patients and their families via free mammograms to women in need because they don't have insurance or it isn't sufficient. Individual packets may be picked up from 4 to 7 p.m. May 8 and 9 at the Family Recreation Center, 1450 Forest Gate Road. Race day pack pickup is from 6:45 to 7:45 a.m. Team captains may pick up packets regular hours May 7 to 9 at the Family Recreation Center by checking in at the front desk. None will be mailed. Information and registration are at Nazareth Academy to host fine arts showcase Fine arts students at Nazareth Academy will present Scenes & Sounds Open House Showcase from 5 to 9 p.m. May 7 at the school, 1209 W. Ogden, La Grange Park. Attendees can explore galleries of student work, meet fine arts faculty and interact with student artists. Musical performances include a choral concert at 6:15 p.m. and a band concert at 7:30 p.m. The event is free. The academy is a Catholic, coeducational, college preparatory high school that serves families from 60 communities, was established in 1900 and sponsored by the congregation of St. Joseph. Information is at 708-354-0061. Oak Park association schedules talk on hunter-gatherer societies A retired medical researcher and urologist interested in evolutionary psychology will discuss recent anthropological findings about hunter-gatherer societies during the Evolution of Human Language, Aesthetics and Free Will at 1:15 p.m. May 4. The program, presented by the Nineteenth Century Charitable Association, takes place in the second-floor ballroom of its headquarters at 178 Oak Forest Ave., Oak Park. Walters has coauthored and written papers about evolutionary psychology. The session is free and open to the public, although donations are appreciated. The association promotes lifelong learning through multicultural programs featuring science, literature, music, art and the social sciences. Information is at
