Well, I visited today and was rather frustrated. Instead of displaying all the work that SCBI does, and the animals, instead several stands were set up from various conservation initiatives. There were a few specifically about SCBI or the zoo's animals, but nothing too special. Here are a few I remember:
-Invasive species in Hawaii (focusing on red-billed leiothrix and Japanese white-eye vs. the native amakihi and I'iwi).
-perhaps 4 or 5 on elephants. Monitoring them in the wild, the zoo's elephants, etc.
-some interesting things on the NA population of fishing cats
-a large display on canids near one of the maned wolf enclosures (more on that later)
-various native species conservation and research
-information on kiwis
-information on cranes
-a booth from the Cheetah Conservation Fund
-GIS mapping
-Red Siskin Initiative
-information on bird house renovation (will post in the zoo's thread)
-camera trapping
-something on medicine
I also attended two of the lectures, as well as the end of the another. When I first went to the auditorium, I caught the tail end of a lecture entitled Return of Black Bears to Virginia, talking about camera trapping. The next lecture was by Kathy Brader, the international studbook keeper and SSP manager for North Island brown kiwis. She is absolutely hilarious. I could listen to her talks all day, and although this one was quite similar to that given at the Bird House (which is also given by her) I still enjoyed it immensely. She was accompanied by Pops the kiwi, who almost managed to convince the audience he was asleep, but then he was given food and tempted to poke around a bit. The third and last lecture I listened to was by Nucharin Songsasen, the SSP coordinator for maned wolves. She was extremely knowledgeable about canids, and gave a quite thorough presentation, perhaps too much so (she even went into things such as sperm count, and we weren't the best audience for that). Regardless, I enjoyed the lecture and learned a bit that I didn't know before. Maned wolves and cheetahs are actually quite similar, if you think about it, and I never had before.
The Institute itself is part research/conservation center, and part college campus. The latter was the part the festival was hosted in. Disappointingly few animals are viewable. I saw only perhaps 15: two maned wolves, 1 kiwi, two box turtles, and a variety of unidentified amphibians. The amphibians were set up in a work shop type room in quite temporary enclosures, as were the box turtles. The kiwi was only brough out for the lecture. As such, the only really notable part of the facility that I saw was the maned wolf compounds, split into two parts. The first part, near Race Track Hill, held 0.1 (1.0 will soon arrive from the John Ball Zoo for breeding). Only one enclosure was there. A very nice presentation on the differing canid species was set up, as was some more local info. The second part was viewable near the exit of the facility. I saw two maned wolves in one enclosure each, the only large animals I saw today. While the quality of these two habitats (and an adjoining larger habitat that I saw nothing in) was great and similar to the grasslands that maned wolves live in, the size was not quite what I expected. Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, which has a similarly large behind-the-scenes breeding area for many species, has a much better maned wolf complex. The enclosures there are larger by a significant margin. However, it seems that SCBI does better with breeding, so I guess the size isn't that much of a factor.
That pretty wraps up what visitors were allowed to see. There was also a horse cemetery and unused horse barn, from what the campus was before Smithsonian took over. Sorry that I can't provide a list of species.
Also, to anyone who knows the answer: should I post photos of the facility into the National Zoo gallery or into the United States- Other gallery? Thanks.
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. Any other questions, feel free to ask.
