Animals generally receive diets that are rich and varied.

Few images will stay as indelibly with me as the sight of a 500 pound grizzly bear devouring a horse bone while standing waist high in water. I should add to that the sight of a geriatric koala slurping his eucalyptus meal. In the aquatic realm, there's something ineffably captivating about watching an anemone's candy-pink arms wrap around its lunch of grain-sized krill.

Witnessing the feeding scenes firsthand, I marveled at the bewilderingly diverse array of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and insects that are fed every day at zoos and aquariums worldwide. Fortunately, to facilitate the feedings and developments of diets, today there are tools like Zootrition, a software program developed by the St. Louis Zoo that allows for the nutritional evaluation and comparison of various diets. Then there's ZuPreem, a manufacturer of ready-made meals for exotic animals. A perusal of their web site reveals such tasty items as "Primate O's" (naturally preserved with vitamins C and E), canned monitor food (boasting nutrient levels comparable to "a mouse in a can"), bags of dry omnivore diet for the hungry bear or boar.

The upshot of this is that animals at facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums generally receive diets that are rich and varied, frequently monitored for the effect they have on the animals to whom they’re served. Not surprisingly, many animals at zoos and aquariums live longer in captivity than they would in the wild, not only because of the high level of care they get in captivity but also because they are safe from predation in the wild.

Jacquelyn Jencek, Chief of Veterinary Services at the San Francisco Zoo, shared with me an amazing story of how they greatly expanded the longevity of koalas with an intervention that has been emulated at other zoos throughout the nation. Most koalas in the wild don’t live past thirteen years of age, when their teeth have been ground down from years of eating coarse eucalyptus leaves and they no longer have enough dental surface to break down the leaves and extract their nutrients. Thus, even if they attempt to eat the leaves, they can still die of malnutrition. So the SF Zoo decided to help the koalas by breaking down dried eucalyptus leaves with a coffee grinder and mixing the powder with water and supplements, turning it into a solution that could be fed by vial to geriatric koalas at the zoo. The zoo first tried administering the eucalyptus solution to Clarry, who lived to be nearly 20 years old, and is now giving it to Clarry's son, Leo, and a few other koalas whose longevity attests to its success. According to Dr. Jencek, "they love the taste of it", and it's clearly good for them.

The story affirms for me the bond of trust that exists between the animals and the zoo and aquarium personnel who take care of them, and how there’s nothing cookie-cutter about feeding the animals and creating their diets.

Watch the Animal Chefs television story online.

Each big storm with a high tide and an
onshore wind takes a big bite out of Sarichef.Photo By Shishmaref Erosion and Relocation Coalition

In an email this week from John Woodward, an Alaska builder and Home Energy author, he wrote, "I put together a working/management group to manage the relocation of the community of Shishmaref sustainabely. They live on Sarichef, a barrier island that global warming is wiping out."

Shishmaref is home to a small community of Inupiat, a Native American tribe. John is working with the Inupiat Tribal Government, the City of Shishmaref, and the Shishmaref Erosion & Relocation Coalition, to salvage as much of the village as possible before it goes under water and move it, along with the island inhabitants, to a new plot of land in the interior of Alaska.

The Army Corp of Engineers gives the island about 5 or 10 more years of livability. But as the ocean and permafrost warm and the ocean rises, unpredictable storms take a heavy toll on the island. "Each big storm with a high tide and an on-shore wind takes a big bite out of Sarichef," says Woodward.

The community is seeking funds for a comprehensive alternative energy plan, an anaerobic pump/methane generator, and the retrofit of all existing buildings, including more than 110 homes, community buildings and a school. The homes will be retrofit to use less than 5 Btu per square foot to heat. Heating load calculations can be pretty complicated, but in general, contractors recommend furnaces that can provide 30-50 Btu per square foot to heat homes in the Bay Area. To reach such a high level of energy efficiency, the Shishmaref homes will have the insulation installed on the outside of the structure, a technique that Woodward has successfully used in the past. The new village will have the look and functionality of the Inupiat culture as defined and designed through community planning.

"Our community planning process involves community charettes with the whole community gathered in the school gym," say Woodward. "The goal of these meetings is the rough-out of a comprehensive community plan for sustainable relocation of the existing salvageable infrastructure and the development of the new village site."

The Inupiat will build their new village to suit their needs and lifestyles, to be efficient, and to be in harmony with its surroundings-in other words, sustainabely. Let's keep an eye on our northern neighbors, who may teach us some valuable lessons. How long before whole towns in California will have to relocate because of water shortages? We all witnessed what happened in New Orleans a few years ago. How long before towns and cities on the coast of California will have to move inland or be seriously reconfigured because of the rising Pacific Ocean?

You can e-mail John Woodward with questions, comments, ideas, and offers of help at panuktuk@yahoo.com.

Image Source: AdactioThe expected shutdown of this year's salmon season in California is bad news not only for fishermen but for consumers too. It means that anyone buying wild salmon this year is going to pay some wild prices. There is another choice, of course, cheaper, farmed salmon. But that prospect has some consumers cringing… and it has some fish farmers thinking of new ways to please wild salmon fans.


You may listen to the "Wild Prices for Wild Salmon" Radio report online, as well as find additional links and resources.