BREAKFAST at the ZOO
Meet Mortikai. He’s a 500-pound-plus Aldabra tortoise who’s at least 75 years old, and he really likes bananas. He’ll eat the whole thing, too.
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that “Monty,” a Burmese python, has passed away. The Honolulu Zoo is the only place in Hawaii that can legally keep a snake - they cannot be the same species, must be non-venomous and can only be males.
Zakahai tells us that snakes stick out their tongues “to find food. They taste and smell with that. They get little particles on their tongue.”
Some very small turtles are crawling around in a large tank, and these are called Star Tortoises, because the top of their shell has kind of a star design. Star Tortoises are actually endangered, Tesman says, and these particular ones were brought to Hawaii by people who were doing everything by the book, but must have had some paperwork problems, so the tortoises were confiscated by the zoo. They’d probably fit into the palm of your hand, that’s how small a Star Tortoise is.
Outside the Reptile House, we walk behind a few cages, two of which house three Komodo dragons.
“(They were) born at the Honolulu Zoo seven years ago. It’s extremely difficult to breed Komodo dragons. Only one zoo in 2007 was successful,” says Zakahai.
The Honolulu Zoo has three female Komodo dragons that are sisters. They were once all together, but the youngest was getting picked on and got hurt pretty badly. She is now by herself, and the other two are still together. However, Zakahai says, “they’re eventually going to have to be separated.”
Komodo dragons are the largest of lizards, continues Zakahai. One male was documented at 300 pounds, although he had just eaten so it really wasn’t really a fair assessment.
“In the wild they have dangerous bacteria. (Even with the ones at the zoo) you still don’t want to get bitten by one of these,” Zakahai advises.
Next we see a monitor crocodile - they can grow to 12 feet. They normally spend a lot of time on trees.
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“Their tail is two thirds of their body length,” says Zakahai. He adds that within the next few months, the one at the Honolulu Zoo will be shipped to a zoo in Mexico.
Speaking of reptiles, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) is declaring 2008 the “Year of the Frog.” Wendland-Gardner says that the Honolulu Zoo will be participating and is hosting some reptile-related events.
In addition to “Breakfast with a Keeper,” other popular zoo programs for kids and families are the overnight called “Snooze,” “Junior Zoo Keeper,” “Keiki Zoo Keeper,” and “Vacation Adventure,” the kids’ summer camp.
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