Today I learned a fact that kinda blew my mind, and I'm almost astonished I didn't know this before as someone whose chief interests include zoo animals, the U.S. Presidency, true crime, and D.C. history. What an opener, right? How could those topics possibly combine?

Well, buckle up and get ready to hear how negligent National Zoo leadership potentially could have killed a US President or started a local epidemic. Spoiler alert: They didn't. But only because luck was in their favor.

First, the part that I DID already know. In 2004, Lucy Spelman stepped down as the director of the National Zoo after a spate of controversial zoo incidents, including a string of unfortunate (and often preventable) animal deaths, misleading and missing zoo records, and other signs of negligence. The AZA even "tabled" renewing the National Zoo's accreditation for a year until they made some significant improvements. Spelman was also a vet and some of the cases she was accused of bungling happened at her own hands, not just under her supervision. It was a major disgrace for a zoo that was meant to represent the nation's capital.

I was in elementary school during these fraught years and I remember devouring articles about this in the newspaper, riveted with shock and dismay. Some of the deaths were just bad luck, but others were obviously negligent. The most infamous case was two red pandas killed by rat poison shallowly buried in their enclosures as a slapdash solution to the zoo's pest problem. A young zebra died of starvation and hypothermia after Spelman ordered the zebras' feed be cut in half, an orangutan was euthanized due to a recurrence of cancer that didn't exist (she actually had salmonella), a lion died after being administered over twice the usual amount of anesthetic, and more. I remember the names and details of these animals from when I first read these cases 20 years ago. But the one I'm talking about today is that of Nancy the elephant.

Nancy was a 46-year-old African elephant whose health had been steadily declining for several years. She suffered from a bone infection in her foot that seriously affected her mobility and quality of life. She had lost a lot of weight, she was fatigued, she even lay down at times. Nobody could be blamed for deciding to euthanize the obviously ill animal.

But they could be blamed for what was discovered in the necropsy after she was euthanized. While she did indeed have a diseased foot, the bone infection was only "moderate." Why, then, was she so obviously unwell? Her lungs had been destroyed by the effects of untreated tuberculosis. It was the tuberculosis, not the sore foot, that most contributed to her decline in health.

Here’s the scary part: nobody knows how long she'd had it because she hadn't been tested for tuberculosis, a known concern for zoo elephants, in TWO YEARS. All this despite the fact that it's MANDATORY for all zoo elephants to receive a tuberculosis test once per year-- and in fact, it was a National Zoo staff member who pushed for that reform in the first place. And the elephant was on Prednisone for her foot issues, which zoo staff noted in her records made her more vulnerable to illnesses like TB. In fact, none of the zoo's elephants had been tested recently, which meant any of them, including one who was pregnant, may have had tuberculosis, too.

There are documented cases of humans catching tuberculosis from elephants. Now, Nancy the elephant had bovine tuberculosis, which seems to be less contagious to humans and which elephants haven't so far spread to humans... BUT it has spread to humans from black rhinos, a fairly close relative, so it seems likely that elephants COULD spread it. It can also take a while for TB for incubate (and can also be latent without symptoms), especially for elephants, so the elephants OR keepers who were around Nancy were at serious risk for TB.

NOW HERE IS THE PART THAT I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT UNTIL TODAY:

Spelman actively tried to COVER UP the situation, potentially putting many more people at risk. The elephant house was closed to zoo guests, but they were only told it was for "renovations." (The actual renovations, incidentally, were to improve ventilation so that illness would be less likely to spread.)

A BBC news crew that came to film the elephants was asked to keep a healthy distance from the elephants for their emotional health and the crew's safety-- the explanation given was that the elephants' group dynamics had been thrown off by Nancy's death. Spelman instructed zoo staff not to mention the TB situation to the BBC crew and, if asked why Nancy died, they were to respond that it was for multiple reasons and that the official test results weren't all back yet.

And here's the most shocking part of all, the part that made me GASP out loud. Spelman still personally gave some special VIP behind-the-scenes tours of the elephant house during the months that the elephant house was closed, a time when the remaining elephant inhabitants could potentially still develop active TB.

One VIP who received an elephant house tour was PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON and five family members!!!!

BILL. CLINTON. THE GOSHDARN PRESIDENT.

While zoo staff says that the tour was deliberately distanced and nobody got close to an elephant, there are photos of Bill Clinton's nephew about a foot away from an elephant's trunk. You know, their nose. The part they can spread disease with. So, uh, definitely in the danger zone there.

Hillary Clinton's brother, Tony Rodham, was on the tour and he said that nobody in the party was warned about TB risk or asked if they had any medical conditions that might (a. make them susceptible to communicable disease, or (b. be contagious to the elephants. This is especially egregious because according to zoo guidelines, all behind-the-scenes tour participants MUST be asked these questions-- not just when there's a very real possibility of a TB outbreak at the zoo.

Fortunately, none of the zoo's other elephants OR keepers ever tested positive for tuberculosis. But it was certainly a close call! And imagine what would have happened if a US President caught TB from a close encounter with an elephant thanks to poorly managed zoo staff.

Presidents meet a lot of people. In fact, this zoo visit happened only 2 weeks before the inauguration of President George W. Bush, which Clinton attended. He very well could have started a TB outbreak there. Heck, TWO US Presidents could have been infected!

Now THAT is something I will be thinking about for a long time!

Today I learned there has only been one documented birth of a hybrid African/ Asian elephant.

His name was Motty, he was born at the Chester Zoo, and he only lived for 10 days due to an umbilical infection.

I was so curious to see what he looked like, so I looked him up.

He looked ANGRY TO BE ALIVE.

Same, Motty.

A baby Sumatran rhino was recently born at a sanctuary (important because there are like maybe 50 left in the wild) and you guys are literally not gonna believe what this thing looks like

No offense, because I have full respect for scientists, but they REALLY could have done a more creative job naming bear species. I don’t know Latin, just enough basic Latin-derived English words to know what these names mean, but come on! Bears are beautiful, scary, funny, intelligent, powerful, revered and feared across cultures, and you’re gonna honor them with the most basic names? Latin makes sound all fancy and official until you break it down and think of what they all mean.

Brown bear: Ursus arctos. The Latin word for bear and the Greek word for bear. That’s a bear bear all right!

Black bear: Ursus americanus. American bear! (Let’s ignore the fact that four species of bears are native to the Americas. This one is the most American! It votes in every election, drives an SUV, and owns a gun!)

Polar bear: Ursus maritimus. Means sea bear! That’s fine, I guess. It is the most water-loving bear. But for an animal as majestic and unique and steeped in legend as a polar bear, this kinda rings a little flat.

Asiatic black bear: Ursus thibetanus. Tibetan bear. Interestingly, this guy also lives in India, Korea, China, Russia, Japan, Iran, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, and Taiwan, and probably some other countries I’m forgetting.

Spectacled bear/ Andean bear: Tremarctos ornatus. Okay, this is the only living bear in the genus Tremarctos and I’m not actually sure what Tremarctos means except obviously arctos means bear, but I know ornatus means fancy! This is the fancy bear! All you other plebeian bears go home. Normal bears eat salmon and berries? This one eats caviar and artisanal chocolate-dipped organic strawberries with edible gold flakes and a flute of champagne.

Sloth bear: Melursus ursinus. This means “black bear bear.” As opposed to the brown bear bear we posted above. COME ON, this bear species is so interesting, and this is the best they can do namewise? It has way shaggier fur than other bears, it primarily eats insects with a muzzle adapted to sucking up bugs, it makes over 25 different vocalizations, it’s straight-up funny-looking, and the best you can do is “black bear bear” when there are four (and a half) other bear species that happen to be black?

Malayan sun bear: Helarctos malayanus. That means “Malayan sun bear.” Exactly what it says on the tin. I guess I can’t be mad at that one. That said, like the Asiatic black bear, they have a huge range that covers quite a lot of Asia.

Giant panda: Ailuropoda melanoleuca. This means “black and white cat-foot.” Okay, I get the black and white part. I even get the “cat” comparison in the name. Apparently the Chinese name for a giant panda means “big bear-cat,” and they have pupils like cats. BUT WHY THE CAT-FOOT?? Black bears’ paws are actually more like cats’ than pandas are. Panda paws have an extra wrist bone that almost functions like a a thumb and lets them grasp bamboo.

What’s an animal you love whose scientific name just doesn’t do them justice?

Growing up in the DC area, seeing some really cool historical artifacts on display was always just kind of... normal for me, but one thing I never really appreciated was some of the noteworthy ANIMALS I got to see at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute as a child! You do kind of forget that it being the 'National' Zoo gives it a sort of special clout. Plus, animals can live to be pretty old, so it's easy to forget about the lives these animals lived before I saw them on display! So, because I miss going to the zoo during the shutdown, here's some fun facts

* HSING-HSING THE PANDA: In 1972, Richard Nixon was given a gift of two pandas by the Chinese government following a successful visit. Their names were Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing. While Ling-Ling died in 1992 (which still made it the longest-lived panda outside of China at the time), Hsing-Hsing lived until 1999, which means that I definitely saw a panda that had seen Richard Nixon several times in my childhood-- one of the first two pandas to ever live in National Zoo! (There had been other pandas in US zoos up to that point, but this was the first to grace DC.) Of course, the current pandas they display are major animal celebrities, too!

* PANGHUR BAN THE WHITE TIGER: The first white tiger in America (in fact, the first white tiger outside of India), named Mohini, moved into the National Zoo in 1960. Almost all white tigers in the USA are descended from Mohini, and ALL white tigers are descended from her father, Mohan, who stayed in India. (Note: this is one of the reasons I'm vocally against the breeding of white tigers, who are pretty much all inbred and have significant health problems, but more on that later.) Mohini was a massive celebrity and was officially presented to president Dwight D. Eisenhower on the White House lawn, giving her the nickname, 'First Cat.' She gave birth to several cubs, white and orange, over the years. The Smithsonian's last white tiger descended from Mohini, Panghur Ban, died in 2002. I distinctly remember him leaping impressively in his exhibit when I visited on a kindergarten field trip! The National Zoo no longer breeds or displays white tigers for ethical reasons.

* RUSTY THE RED PANDA: This is a more recent celebrity. A red panda named rusty escaped from the zoo in the summer of 2013 but was luckily recovered in Adams Morgan. Rusty moved out to their suburban breeding facility later, so you can't see him anymore (if he's even still alive-- I'm not sure how long those guys live), but I was delighted to see him during college!

* SHANTHI AND AMBIKA THE ELEPHANTS: Elephants have long, long lifespans. Unfortunately, two of the National Zoo's oldest and most distinguished residents died in 2020. Shanthi had been at the zoo for 44 years and Ambika for 59 years (although Ambika was thought to be as old as 72 when she died, having worked as a logging elephant in India before moving to the USA). It's wild to think that anyone visiting the zoo for the past 4 or 5 decades probably saw these same elephants. Shanthi and Ambika were two of the most studied elephants in the world (Shanthi was also one of the first elephants to give birth from artificial insemination) and zoos have learned a LOT about elephants in captivity during their lives and elephants are getting better care thanks to what was learned from these two.

* BONNIE THE ORANGUTAN: She may not be a worldwide celebrity, but she IS a scientific phenomenon and the subject of academic papers! Bonnie, who was born in 1976 and has lived at the Zoo since 1980, has an unusual talent: whistling. She appears to have learned this skill from zookeepers and is the only known non-human ape to do so. This is not a sound that orangutans are known to make in the wild, though they do sometimes pick up sounds from other species. She wasn’t trained to whistle and doesn’t do it for rewards— she just seems to like the sound! Like many of the zoo’s orangutans, she travels between the Great Apes house and the ‘think tank’ building over crowds by something called the ‘O Line.’ Unlike the other orangutans, though, she doesn’t merely cross quickly. She often stops sits on the tower and watches the crowds below!

***HONORABLE MENTIONS***These are two celebrity residents of the National Zoo that I never got to meet-- but my parents would have!

* SMOKEY BEAR: The real life Smokey Bear was a black bear rescued from a forest fire in 1950. When he came to live at the National Zoo, he became a huge celebrity and over 13,000 fan letters a week were addressed to him! When he died in 1976, his obituary in the Washington Post described him as a longtime government employee in DC. I remember there used to be signs and displays of him at the zoo when I was little.

* HAM THE CHIMPANZEE: The National Zoo used to be home to a real astronaut! Ham the chimpanzee is sometimes described as the first hominid in space. Unlike past primate flights, he actually had to do tasks in space, so he wasn’t a mere passenger. He was launched on a suborbital flight in January 1961 as part of the Project Mercury missions. Ham was transferred to the National Zoo in 1963 and lived there for 17 years! 

***OTHER HONORABLE MENTIONS: The Most Endangered***These aren’t celebrity animals, but some of the rarest creatures you might see on display at the zoo when it reopens:

THE PANAMANIAN GOLDEN FROG: Some of these live in the Reptile house (and possibly Amazonia?) None have been seen in the wild since 2009. This species has been decimated by a disease caused by amphibian chytrid fungus, which the National Zoo was instrumental in identifying and researching. They are also part of reintroduction efforts

SCIMITAR HORNED ORYX: Two of these live in the Cheetah Conservation Center exhibit, and while most guests are most interested in the cheetahs (also famously endangered animals), say hi to the oryxes next time you get a chance! This species is excinct in the wild, though the National Zoo is participating in reintroduction campaigns. There are now thousands in captivity.

BLACK-FOOTED FERRETS: You can see some of these in the small mammal house. These are now considered only endangered (as opposed to critically endangered), but they used to be extinct in the wild in the mid-1990s. Thanks to a reintroduction campaign, there are now over 1,000 in the wild.

PRZEWALSKI’S HORSE: These beautiful wild horses live in a pen across from the Elephant Trails exhibit. Formerly extinct in the wild, there were only 12 horses alive in zoos by the end of the 1950’s, and reintroduction projects have occurred since the 1990s. There are around 1,900 alive today. The National Zoo was home to both the first successful reversed vasectomy on a Przewalski’s horse and the first birth by artificial insemination.

SUMATRAN TIGER: These creatures are critically endangered, with only 200-400 left in the wild. No, that is not a typo. The  National Zoo is home to a female Sumatran tiger named Damai, as well as several Amur tigers. Damai gave birth to three cubs over the years, all of which have moved on to different zoos.

What's your favorite animal to see at the zoo?

I’m used to seeing little Asian small-clawed otters at my local zoo, which are like under 10 pounds, so the first time I saw a sea otter, which are like 75 pounds, I was like

The Latin name of the chimpanzee is Pan troglodytes and honestly? Mood

Emojis are dead. We react to things with pictures of tree kangaroos now:

I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again: I love giant pandas, but they probably should be extinct.

I know this is a very controversial opinion to hold in the nation's capital, but they are evolutionary jokes and self-sabotagers to boot. If you look up pandas' scientific classification, they are in the order Carnivora. That means they have the digestive system of a carnivore. But what do pandas like to eat? All together, children: BAMBOO! Almost exclusively! One of the least nutrient-rich foods around for a carnivore's digestive system! That's right, they're basically the cute fuzzy version of a person who eats nothing but Twizzlers.

They derive extremely little energy and protein from bamboo and compensate by eating HUGE amounts of bamboo every day, spending almost all of their time eating just to obtain enough energy to go through basic life functions. Because bamboo has flowering, death, and regeneration seasons, a panda must also live in an environment with at least two different species of bamboo available so they don't starve to death due to a lack of bamboo. So let's see, very picky possibilities for environment AND they go through a huge amount of bamboo every day... that must mean they are accustomed to migrating around to find new habitats?

Sort of. They move between the mountains and valleys to get the nutrients they need, but, like I said, they are VERY low on energy and don't always get around so well. Did I mention that the nutrient-rich bamboo shoots are only available at high altitudes in the summer? Pandas who don't get to those protein-rich shoots on time suffer from low protein and calcium... which, of course, makes it even HARDER to get to the top of the mountains. Thanks to humans destroying pandas' habitats, there's an even more limited number of places where pandas can reliably live and eat.

Another factor here is mating. Pandas are, by nature, solitary creatures. Their brief mating season is between March and May. A female's estrus lasts for 2 to 3 days and only occurs once a year. So pandas are only interested in meeting up with other pandas when the feeling strikes... BUUUUT they live far away from each other, so they have to find each other... ANNNND they are low on energy because of the lack of nutrition in their diet.... so they don't always find each other in that narrow window of time, and when they DO, they often still lack energy to actually mate. Oh yeah, also, they usually give birth to twins but typically only nurture the stronger one and let the weaker one die, so that's another mark against them in the ''propagating the species" category.

Scientists do everything they can to encourage pandas to mate in captivity, but it's not easy. They often seem to lose what little interest they have in mating while in captivity. Maybe they get sick of seeing each other? Zookeepers have literally shown pandas videos of other pandas mating to try to get them in the mood, or given male pandas drugs to, erm, encourage virility.

Artificial insemination is still a more reliable method. The patriarch of the panda family at the National Zoo, Tian Tian, has fathered three surviving cubs and a few cubs who did not survive, all through artificial insemination. He and his mate, Mei Xiang, have been given many opportunities to mate naturally and have attempted to do so... but in their NINETEEN YEARS together at the National Zoo, they have NEVER gotten the positioning correct to conceive. Possibly because it requires more athleticism than bamboo-crazed Tian Tian is capable of. (Tian Tian weighs 275 pounds, larger than male pandas in the wild and over 50 pounds heavier than his mate.) See, even when pandas eat enough bamboo to maintain energy and are living in the same exhibit, there's no guarantee of successful mating.

Despite all this, pandas are a well-known symbol of conservation and human efforts have helped to reverse some of the habitat loss and low reproduction rates of wild pandas. In 2016, they were reclassified from 'endangered' to 'vulnerable.' Jolly good show to the humans, but let's be real: these little dorks are not exactly pulling their own weight!

STATE OF THE RHINOS ADDRESS:

I've been seeing a lot of misinformed posts going around lamenting that white rhinos are now extinct. It's a bit more complex than that. The subspecies that is near extinction with only two females and no males left is the Northern White rhinoceros, but the Southern White rhinoceros in general is considered "near threatened," but is not endangered, though poaching raises some real concerns for their future.

Meanwhile, the other species, the Black Rhinoceros, actually is critically endangered, with one subspecies recently going extinct in 2011. :( There are maybe 2,500 left in the world.

If you’re in the DC area like me want to see white rhinos in person, they no longer live at the National Zoo, but its not because of extinction. You can find white rhinos at the Virginia, Maryland, or Philadelphia zoos!

PSA for anyone visiting Washington DC

Did I ever tell you guys about the tortoise guy?

So, I used to be a volunteer in the insect zoo at a popular museum. While I was there, I heard a fantastic anecdote from another volunteer who had previously volunteered at the reptile house at a nearby zoo.

Apparently, while he was there, there was a man who would come to visit the reptiles fairly regularly, and he always wore a long raincoat, even when it was hot and sunny out. He seemed a little weird, but nobody really thought much of it. 

Until the day that someone realized that his visits co-incided with the mating season of the giant tortoises.

The staff started subtly passing through the tortoise area, and sure enough, he would show up, stand there in front of the tortoises, and subtly pleasure himself under the raincoat to the sight of wrinkly giant Aldabra tortoises getting it on.

He was arrested, and it turned out he was wearing nothing under the raincoat. After hearing that story, nothing that happened at the insect zoo could ever startle me.

I used to work with a guy who also volunteered at the National Zoo, and apparently there was a strange guy who used to come in and hang out at the reptile house for a long time every day wearing a raincoat, even when it was sunny. Nobody thought that much of it, until someone realized that he was actually masturbating to the giant tortoises during their mating season. Now that's all I think about when I see tortoises.

Guess what my favorite animal is

For some reason, I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT CALLING THOSE LARGE AMERICAN WILD CATS MOUNTAIN LIONS. Like, I know it has the record of most commonly used names for an animal in one language, but when someone calls them cougars, pumas, panthers, or anything else, that means NOTHING to me, and I almost feel personally offended. MOUNTAIN LIONS.

Wow, I just freaked out because I realized I'M NOT ACTUALLY SURE IF I'VE EVER SEEN A WHALE IN REAL LIFE OR NOT. You'd think that'd be the kind of memory that sticks out, but I am really not sure. That's the weird thing about living in an age of TV, internet, and photography...