Laura and Angela have 25 years of combined experience with animal care, diet, and veterinary assistance. When Jenkinson’s Aquarium received the request, Cindy Claus, Director, was immediately committed to sending two staff members. The Christmas Chicks were collected and brought to SANCCOB for a little help and then returned to the wild. Because the African penguin is listed as endangered, losing even just one is a tragedy. Parents are getting ready to molt and they need to fatten up for this process unfortunately if the chicks aren’t fledged, they are abandoned. Every year around this time chicks are abandoned. After a long trip from New Jersey to South Africa, they were going to have to hit the ground running, work long hours, and help hand rear over 460 abandoned chicks. This wasn’t going to be a sight-seeing trip this was going to be hard work. Laura Graziano and Angela Pizza from Jenkinson’s Aquarium answered that call. On November 16, 2010, an email went out from the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds (SANCCOB) calling for help with a large group of African penguin chicks. Not only did they learn more about the Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle, but they also made a difference. Cindy and Katie are more fluent in Spanish now and have amazing pictures of their adventure in Rancho Nuevo. There was swimming in the local stream at the end of the day.Īfter 13 days, it was time to go home. There were a lot of tortillas with beans for breakfast, beans for lunch, and beans for dinner. It wasn’t all turtle counting and extreme heat! There were some fiestas mixed in there with tacos and cervasa. Despite what was going on in the gulf, the females kept coming to lay their eggs and Katie witnessed one of them doing just that. Fortunately, they never saw oil at their site, but they wondered how many of the babies that they saw crawling down the beach and into the ocean would be affected by this latest disaster. On one of the first days at Rancho Nuevo, Cindy and Katie took an oil spill class conducted by the Mexican officials. There was paperwork that had to be filled out, which was difficult at times when not everyone speaks fluent Spanish. There were three sections of beach that had to be counted and moved around to confuse predators like the mapache (raccoon). Sometimes they were as early as 3:00 am, but hey, if you want to count baby turtles you need to get there before the other wildlife does. There were a few (ok, lots of) bugs and unusual smells, but there was also the sound of the ocean and stars for miles and miles. Through a program with the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, Texas, Cindy and Katie were able to travel to Rancho Nuevo and help zoo staff and Mexican government officials with the Kemp’s Ridley turtle count.Īccommodations at Rancho Nuevo weren’t exactly roughing it, but not the Holiday Inn either. During last year’s AZA conference, Cindy inquired as to how the aquarium could help these animals. Jenkinson’s Aquarium has a visually impaired Kemp’s Ridley named Ace who is an ambassador for her wild cousins. The Kemp’s Ridley sea turtle is the most endangered of the seven species of sea turtles. This year Cindy Claus and Katie Gillis from Jenkinson’s Aquarium were among them. These volunteers come from all over the world to help save this endangered species. When the turtles arrive, so does a group of very special people: volunteers. Every year thousands of Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles arrive at the same location: Rancho Nuevo, Mexico.
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