Riverbanks Member Magazine May/June 2023

Lauren Greene

James Herlong

Denise Gunter Hudson

Wes Jackson

Shelby Kay Leonardi

Sarah Bovaird Locke

Donna Longo

Lindsey Miles

Matt Mungo

Andrew Reed

Allison Sanford

Deonca Shuler

Richard Slater

Dawn Staley

Sheila M. Willis

Riverbanks Executive Leadership Team

Thomas K. Stringfellow, President & CEO

Christie Vondrak, Chief Administrative Officer

Lochlan Wooten, Chief Operating Officer

Rachael Bashor, Vice President of Mission Engagement

Kevin Eubanks, Vice President of Operations

Ashley Harris, Vice President of Finance

Monique Jacobs, Vice President of Advancement

Riverbanks Senior Staff

Brian Blankenship, Director of Safety & Security

Andy Cabe, Director of Horticulture

Eric Helms, Director of Construction & Planning

Tracy Hughes, Director of Human Resources

Greg Peccie, Director of Animal Care

John Thompkins, Director of Information Technology

Martha Weber, DVM, Director of Animal Health

Sean Foley, Curator of Herpetology

Colleen Lynch, Curator of Birds

Jennifer Rawlings, Aquarium Curator

Subscriptions to Riverbanks are $24 per year. Members of Riverbanks Society are entitled to one free subscription along with free admission and guest passes, discounts at Zoo & Garden gift shops, invitations to special events and much more. To subscribe to Riverbanks or to join the Society, visit riverbanks.org or call 803.779.8717 and press 1.

Riverbanks Magazine

Editor - Monique Jacobs

Design Direction and Layout - Majken Blackwell

Contributing Design - Trenton King

Contributors - Hunter Balog, Rachael Bashor, Sean Foley, Melodie Scott-Leach, Colleen Lynch, Matt Perron, Alyson Proveaux, Amanda Schlegel, Martha Weber

Contributing Photographers - Larry Cameron, Lynn Hunter Hackett, Michael Jones

Cover Photograph - Meerkat pups by Trenton King

A little like magic yet much as expected, the opening of the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Aquarium & Reptile Conservation Center has drawn hundreds of thousands of visitors to Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in just two months. The feedback has been outstanding and we couldn’t be more grateful to The Boyd Foundation for this incredible facility and to our members for sharing in our excitement.

Last month we kicked off a yearlong countdown to the Zoo’s 50th anniversary, which will take place next year on April 25, 2024. Fifty years is a major achievement and a great opportunity to celebrate our successes as one of our state’s top destination attractions, a powerful economic driver in our region, and a trusted education and conservation resource.

As we look ahead to our next chapter in Riverbanks’ history, we have restarted the process of seeking approval from both Richland and Lexington County councils to approve a bond in support of Phase Two of Bridge to the Wild, our innovative vision for the future.

Phase One of Bridge to the Wild is well underway and includes the new Aquarium & Reptile Conservation Center, white rhino habitat, a long list of infrastructure improvements, and new animal habitats that will be announced soon. This $32 million dollar investment is entirely privately funded.

Phase Two of Bridge to the Wild will include an all-new shared species habitat for orangutans and other endangered primates, a first of its kind multi-purpose facility on the banks of the Saluda River, and a South Carolina nature preserve featuring black bears, red wolves, and bald eagles. Completion of this phase will increase Riverbanks’ annual economic impact to over $175 million, create 500 additional jobs in the community, and boost annual attendance to over 1.6 million—all at major time of growth in South Carolina.

Previous support from the two counties propelled Riverbanks from a local attraction to a leader in tourism and an economic engine, consistently welcoming more than one million visitors and dramatically increasing the local economic impact by 250% to $149 million per year.

If approved, the bond will be issued by the Richland-Lexington Riverbanks Park District and spread evenly across the two counties based on assessed property value—resulting in an approximate $44.8 million investment by Richland County and $35.2 million by Lexington County. The impact to local residents would result in an estimated maximum cost of $7.20 in 2025 on $100,000 of assessed property value, which will gradually decrease each year until it expires. The minor tax adjustment would not begin to impact property owners until 2024.

For nearly 50 years, strategic investments in capital projects have allowed Riverbanks to develop award-winning exhibits and impactful conservation programs that attract visitors and contribute to the economy and quality of life in the Midlands and state of South Carolina. Riverbanks’ status as one of the best zoos in the nation is the direct result of the nearly five decades-long public-private partnership with Richland and Lexington Counties, individual members and donors, and private corporations.

You can show your support of Phase Two of Bridge to the Wild by connecting with your council member and letting them know what Riverbanks means to you, your family, your business and our community.

Visit riverbanks.org/bridgetothewild to learn more.

See you at the Zoo –

Thomas K. Stringfellow President & CEO

RIVERBANKS

IN MIDLANDS CLEAN-UP

Matt Perron | Public Relations Manager

In the heart of South Carolina lies a gem of outdoor recreation and natural beauty. Lake Murray is a 48,000-acre reservoir serving several different roles for the Midlands. It is known to locals and travelers as a destination for fishing, boating, and watersports; however, with all this traffic comes a lot of trash. As a result, a partnership developed between Keep the Midlands Beautiful, Scuba Johns Dive Shop and Riverbanks Zoo and Garden’s Dive Team. The objective is a massive spring cleanup of Sandy Beach/Bundrick Island on Lake Murray.

Volunteers gather to make a difference by keeping Lake Murray litter-free. Many walk with trash bags provided by Keep the Midlands Beautiful as they clean litter from the shore. “Lake Murray is the Midlands’ greatest outdoor treasure for homeowners and visitors alike; and it is so important to keep it clean and healthy,” says Laura Blake-Orr, Core Programs Administrator at Keep the Midlands Beautiful. “We know that many people enjoy Sandy Beach, and we hope that these same people will join us in giving back and helping to clean it up.”

The shores and natural areas aren’t all that need cleaning. Litter also makes its way to the lake bottom, which is where our divers come into play. Riverbanks Dive Program Manager Casey Fissel states, “Trash is not only unsightly, but it also has an impact on the ecosystem for the lake’s aquatic life. In past cleanups we have discovered that aquatic organisms are forced to adapt to the trash. Baby catfish are found in bottles and crawfish living in cans. Mussels and clams will attach themselves to all the trash, while plastic and batteries leach harmful chemicals.” She is excited for her team to take Riverbanks’ mission of creating meaningful connections and inspiring actions that will have a lasting impact on conservation to the communities, those living both above and below the surface of our beautiful lake.

The Riverbanks Dive Team has plenty of help. Stephen Franklin is the event dive team organizer with Scuba Johns. He is passionate about collecting underwater debris that is carelessly or intentionally discarded by boaters. He and his team have adopted the underwater area around Spence Islands. They routinely remove thousands of pounds of bottles and cans annually. Through a simple Facebook post Stephen garnered an abundance of volunteer interest, and his shop will be handling dive rental gear and air tank refills.

The Lake Murray clean-up event, planned for May 6 from 9am-12pm, will make a tremendous impact on a treasured resource that many of us enjoy. And, this is not a once and done event. Keeping Lake Murray litterfree is an ongoing effort.

For more information about this and other opportunities to help, visit keepthemidlandsbeautiful.org

The shores and natural areas aren’t all that need cleaning. Litter also makes its way to the lake bottom.

To Celebrate World Oceans Day

5WAYS EVERY DAY

Every June 8th, Riverbanks takes a day to celebrate ocean species, marine ecosystems and the pivotal role the ocean plays in the health of our planet. Not everybody can help care for corals like our animal care staff but everyone can contribute to protecting our ocean and its inhabitants. Here are five ways Riverbanks invites you to positively impact our oceans.

-Rachael Bashor | VP of Mission Engagement & Director of Education

1.

Choose SUSTAINABLE SEAFOOD

Make smart choices the next time you have a taste for seafood with resources like seafoodwatch.org.

2.

Select OCEAN-FRIENDLY SUN PROTECTION

Some sunscreens have chemicals that can negatively impact marine wildlife. Avoid the sun between 10am and 2pm, wear UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) clothing, and select sunscreens without harmful chemicals.

Skip the SOUVENIRS 3.

Corals can take decades or longer to create coral structures. During your next seaside vacation, avoid purchasing souvenirs made of coral and other marine wildlife.

4.

Bring a TRASH BAG

Trash travels over land and through water and can have devastating effects on marine wildlife. Pick up your own trash and the debris others may have left behind.

5.

KEEP LEARNING

The ocean remains largely unexplored, and we learn new things daily. Stay curious about the wonders of our planet and the ways you can positively impact species near and far.

MONITORING MONARCHS Preparing for Spring Migration

Hunter Balog | Conservation Project Manager

As a member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums’ Monarch Butterfly SAFE program (Saving Animals from Extinction), Riverbanks is working with other conservation organizations, zoos and aquariums to reduce threats to monarchs, increase their population, and create more monarch habitats. If the SAFE collaboration is successful, zoos and aquariums will be among the leaders to safeguard the migratory monarch butterfly.

Monarch SAFE program partners are creating a conservation corridor from Canada to Mexico. We are doing this by planting native, pollinator-friendly species across gardens, cities, and farmlands, ensuring that migrating monarchs and larvae are fed throughout their life cycle. As monarchs embark on their annual migration back north, they may have already stopped at waystations at the Dallas Zoo, Birmingham Zoo, and Zoo Atlanta before stopping here at Riverbanks to eat and lay eggs. Our horticulture team started preparing for the 2023 spring migration in March and April by planting a variety of native plants, including plenty of milkweed for butterfly larvae to munch on.

In addition to building pollinator-friendly habitats for monarchs, we want to know how the monarch population is doing and where they are stopping. Every fall, when monarchs prepare for their migration from Canada back to Mexico, Riverbanks joins SAFE program partners in the Monarch Watch Tagging Program by placing tags on individual butterflies that pass through our waystation. We do this by gently adhering a special butterfly-safe sticker to their wing, and when they reach their winter destination in Mexico, their tag number is written down and recorded. This allows us to better understand the origin of monarchs that reach Mexico, the timing and pace of the migration, mortality during the migration, and changes in geographic distribution. By coordinating our conservation efforts, we can learn how to improve our actions to support monarchs.

How Can You Help Keep Monarchs SAFE?

Try planting native species in your backyard like native milkweed, asters, Joe Pye weeds, and sunflowers. By expanding the available pollinator habitat beyond Riverbanks, we are increasing the size of the monarch conservation corridor. You can also be a citizen scientist and participate in the Monarch Watch Tagging Program by ordering your own tagging kit through the program. When our community works together to be conservation heroes for monarchs, we are building a future where monarch butterflies can thrive for many generations to come.

National Pollinator Week | June 19-25

Learn more about creating pollinator gardens at riverbanks.org or scan the QR code.

Photo courtesy of Frank Baker

MAINTAINING THE MISSION

Miranda Pharis, General Maintenance Technician, recently walked us through a day in the life of the Riverbanks maintenance team and their essential duties that create a safe and engaging environment.

CREATING CONNECTIONS. When restrooms, attractions, animal exhibits, or walkways are inaccessible, it affects the overall guest experience. Our maintenance technicians are charged with urgency to address and repair our guest areas to reduce inconveniences and maintain the high value of our guests’ experience. That experience IS our mission—facilitating meaningful connections between guests and animals. No day is the same for maintenance. The only routine tasks are inspections and preventative maintenance. Every morning prior to the park opening, we hustle to both the Zoo and Garden campuses to inspect guest attractions (carousel, climbing wall, trains, trams, etc.) for safety and operational integrity. Then we refer to our assigned work orders (fix this, make that, troubleshoot, make this safe, alter this) all throughout the day, while responding to immediate radio calls requiring our skills. I could be repairing a broken fence at the giraffe feeding area (carrying all my tools and materials) and get a radio call for immediate assistance for a sliding door repair behind rattlesnake. I must work efficiently, safely, and quickly around the guests at giraffe then switch gears, weaving through guests, to respond to the reptile team, and assess and repair the door for rattlesnakes. It’s all exciting, empowering, and challenging—and I love it!

Amanda Schlegel | Donor Engagement Specialist

INSPIRING ACTIONS . The facilities maintenance team provides services such as plumbing, carpentry, HVAC, welding, electrical, mechanical, and Life Support Systems to every area at Riverbanks. When an area performs at its best, it continues to inspire coworkers, guests, and the community to act for conservation. My favorite projects are the ones involving working around my buddy Patrick the gorilla. Anything that gets me close to the animals. However, I also work closely with our events team, and my work last year for the Wine Tasting event is still receiving kudos, so I’m excited to be asked to join in on that project again this year. A project close to my heart that I am currently working on is a custom husbandry device for the otters’ keepers. With only a few reference pictures and some measurements (shared by another zoo’s keepers), I get to craft, by hand, a device for the otters to walk into allowing keepers safe access for improved health assessments, medical needs, and enrichment training.

IMPACTING CONSERVATION.

Our team does not directly provide care for our cherished resident animals; however, we can see our efforts support the animal division’s goals of real-world conservation. All maintenance is coordinated by and with the animal keepers. This ensures the animals are priority number one. Our team of tradesmen, craftsmen, and technicians joined the Zoo to perform their craft in a specialized environment to challenge our skill sets while being involved in a personal passion, conservation. A simple bolt, the correct lighting, the necessary temperature, water access, non-toxic and customized materials, and more all contribute to the safety, care, and welfare of our precious animals which, in turn, maintains Riverbanks’ conservation mission.

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden will celebrate a major milestone next April when the Zoo turns 50! You are invited to help create a memorable celebration by sending us photos, drawings, articles, your favorite memories and best-loved Zoo stories to 50years@riverbanks.org

We can’t wait to hear from you!

Friday, August 4 | 7:00 - 9:30pm

Tickets on Sale June 15 | riverbanks.org

WEDDINGS | CORPORATE EVENTS | PICNICS | SOCIAL GATHERINGS

BOOK YOUR PRIVATE EVENT WITH US!

∙ UNIQUE VENUES FOR EVERY OCCASION

SAVE MONEY & TIME WITH INCLUSIVE EVENT PACKAGES

∙ PROCEEDS SUPPORT CONSERVATION EFFORTS

CAPACITIES FROM 25 TO 5,000

∙ EXCLUSIVE ON-SITE CATERING & BAR SERVICE

FULL PARK RENTALS AVAILABLE

Phone:(803)-602-0900

Email: PlanYourEvent@Riverbanks.org

Website: Riverbanks.org/PlanYourEvent

ABOUT BEES The Buzz

While many animals aid in pollination, bees are the work horses of the pollination world. Pollination by animals is necessary for many flowering plants to produce seeds and fruits. This in turn feeds wildlife and humans. Bees have a bad reputation for being pests, and many people are scared of their sting, but they are vital to our food chain.

There are over 4,000 species of bees in North America with 700 to 800 species in South Carolina. Each of these distinctive species work in different ways. They are diverse in color, shape and size. They may emerge from overwintering at different times and forage at different times. Bees cannot be lumped into one wicked category as the “stingers” of the insect world.

Melodie Scott-Leach | Horticulture Design and Operations Manager

When most people think of bees, they think of the non-native honeybee. These bees have been imported all over the world to provide food and serve as mobile pollinators. Honeybees and bumblebees live in hives, and they do sting to protect the hive. However, that leaves 3,998 native bee species that live and navigate the world differently. These bees rarely sting as they do not have hives to protect. They live all around us and are vital for pollination. We should welcome them into our yards and gardens.

The best way to help bees is to provide them with habitat and food, just as you would help attract other wildlife to

Visit the Planting with a Purpose page at riverbanks.org to find more pollinator-friendly plants and information. AND, look for our new pollinator graphics throughout the Zoo on your next visit!

Burrowing Owl

Where on Earth?

North America to South America in the desert, grasslands, rangelands, and open, arid areas

Measuring Up

Diminutive, less than 10 inches tall

Digs at the Zoo

Four burrowing owls arrived in spring 2022 to get settled into the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Aquarium & Reptile Conservation Center before it opened on March 2, 2023.

Weird but True

Burrowing owls are not very owl-like! Instead, the species is terrestrial and diurnal. They are adapted for life on the ground with long legs for speed running. They spend the hottest part of the day sheltered in underground burrows where they also nest and raise their chicks. The tiny birds hunt at dawn and dusk but are largely inactive after dark.

Did You Know?

The scientific name Athene cunicularia is a remarkably apt description for this feisty little bird. Athena is the Greek goddess of the battle, and cunicularia is the Latin word for tunnel. These owls are like warriors when it comes to protecting their underground homes. They will even mimic the sounds of rattlesnakes to deter possible trespassers!

CONSERVATION STATUS

Endangered Critically Endangered Extinct in the Wild

Athene cunicularia

Colleen Lynch | Curator of Birds

DISAPPOINTMENT, DETERMINATION & DESIGN

The 3D model that led us to a creative solution

Alyson Proveaux | Mammal Supervisor

When you are training an animal, the last thing that you want to think about is the bucket that is holding your animal’s reward. The bucket becomes a part of your body, an extension of your hand, and you trust it to allow you to easily access the rewards. Your focus needs to be on the animal in front of you—their body language, their positioning, and your interactions with them, not fumbling to get to a food item!

At Riverbanks, we have been using plastic hip buckets during training sessions with the sea lions. They are special buckets that clip onto your hip and hold about 8 to 10 pounds of fish at a time. If you have ever watched a training session at the Zoo, you have seen these buckets, and the keepers have grown to love them. Over time the buckets began to break, and the company that made them no longer does! With every bucket that broke, we felt an immense sadness as we attempted to find replacement products that worked as well, but none of them ever worked quite right.

One day, our Mammal Curator came to me and said that he might have a unique partnership idea. Jackson Phillips, a son of an acquaintance, was in a 3D printing class at Richland Two School District’s R2i2 Inovation Center. Jackson took one of our buckets to study with his class and instructor, Nic Jones. They went through several iterations of design ideas, and they created a perfect replacement, with their own twist! They took the design and helped improve the parts that were breaking and printed us a collection of these buckets to use.

THANK YOU

The sea lions and the keepers are thankful to R2i2! We look forward to putting these buckets to use day after day! For more information on R2i2, visit R2i2.org

New Bucket

Prototype

Old Bucket

Let’s peer in a PIRANHA

The fish in the aquarium never cease to amaze me with their diversity and adaptations. Some differences in fish anatomy reflect what different species eat or what niche they occupy in the water. Some differences, as we found out, are actually adaptations that a sick animal has made to its own body to cope with its illness.

The aquarium team called us about a piranha that “didn’t look quite right” and was having trouble swimming at the same level in the water as the other piranhas. Most fish have a swim bladder—a gas-filled sac that helps them stay at a preferred depth in the water without having to use physical effort. Fish that are not positioned correctly in the water often have swim bladder abnormalities, so we took a radiograph of the piranha to get a look inside it. On the first x-ray, you can see that he has a nice air-filled structure (air looks black on x-rays), but usually swim bladders are tucked up near the fish’s spine, so his anatomy did not look right to us. There are no reference books out there that show what the swim bladder looks like in every species of fish, so our best option was to ask the aquarium if we could borrow a healthy piranha for comparison. In the x-ray of the healthy piranha, you can see that not only does its swim bladder sit in the expected position but also it is shaped very differently than what we saw in the first x-ray. In order to better define what was happening with the sick piranha, we decided to give him barium to outline his stomach and intestines. In the third x-ray you can see that the barium, which is white, filled what we had thought was the fish’s swim bladder but was actually his stomach. It turned out that some disease process had destroyed this piranha’s swim bladder, and the fish was using its stomach to act as a replacement swim bladder to help it maintain buoyancy.

This fish had adapted his own anatomy to cope with a significant disease and was managing surprisingly well. We returned him to the system with the other piranhas, and the aquarists continued to monitor him.

Martha Weber, MPH, DVM, DACZM, DACVPM | Director of Animal Health

UNHEALTHY PIRANHA

HEALTHY PIRANHA

UNHEALTHY PIRANHA WITH BARIUM

Home Sweet Home

Now that the Darnall W. and Susan F. Boyd Aquarium Reptile Conservation Center (ARCC) is open, one of the most common questions we are asked is, “Are the animals enjoying their new home?”

While this is a good question, there’s not necessarily a straightforward answer. Unlike a dog or a cat, it is not exactly easy to look at a rattlesnake, iguana or snapping turtle and discern if it is happy with its new home. With reptiles and amphibians, we try to take emotions out of the equation and just focus on creating appropriate habitats that meet the high standards of welfare we have established for the animals in our care.

With that said, it does appear that the animals are settling in quite nicely to their new homes. For example, the very first day the radiated tortoises were moved into their new outdoor habitat, several of the females excavated nests and laid eggs. Meanwhile, inside the building, the pine snakes immediately began digging burrows as well as breeding. Both females are now gravid (have eggs), so we’re looking forward to babies this summer. Within a week of being in their new space, the Panamanian golden frogs laid eggs in their water feature. In the new Desert Biome, the pair of blue-tongue skinks also bred soon after being introduced to each other. The bearded dragons have also been very active. The male has been courting the females by repeatedly bobbing his head and puffing out his darkened throat. The females look like they are waving, but this is a natural display of submission to the male. And in one of the displays in our Biodiversity Wall, we have discovered our first leaf-tailed gecko eggs. So, as you can see, it’s an exciting time in the ARCC right now with a whirlwind of activity!

Hopefully during your next visit to the ARCC, you will be able to observe some of the many natural behaviors that are on display daily, and witness for yourself just how well the reptiles and amphibians have adapted to their new homes.

Sean Foley | Curator of Herpetology

It’s an exciting time in the ARCC right now with a whirlwind of activity!

EXPLORE THE WORLD

with Riverbanks’ Travel Partner

Riverbanks Zoo and Garden is pleased to offer conservation safaris to some of the world’s best wildlife destinations through a conservation partnership with Safari Professionals. While Africa tops the list of exciting wildlife destinations, there are incredible opportunities to view land-based and marine wildlife in areas around the world from Galapagos Islands to India, Alaska to Patagonia.

To learn more about any of Safari Professionals’ conservation destinations, please visit www.safariprofessionals.com/riverbankszoo

AQUARIUM & REPTILE CONSERVATION CENTER

Darnall W and Susan F Boyd