Happy Thanksgiving, and Thank You for the Support You Have Given Your Zoo!
December can be a great time to visit the Zoo. Just remember that the gates close at 4 p.m. this time of year, and visitors need to enter and exit through the North American section of the Zoo. The good news? When the Sun is out and temperatures climb above 50 degrees, most—or all—of the animals should be on exhibit. Drop by to say "hello"— the animals will be glad to see you!
What's Happening this December?
The Zoo will be open everyday except Christmas Day.
December 13-Shooting Star Party
We're shooting for another shooting star party! Clouds blocked out the last one, but we hope clear skies will appear this time. If the night is clear, and you have registered ahead of time, then pack some blankets in your car and drive to the Zoo to join our shooting star party. We will have hot chocolate and cookies to help keep you warm. (You must pre-register to attend. We need to know how much hot chocolate to make!)
Cost is $5 per person unless you bring a telescope and promise to let other visitors sneak a peek through your lenses. Telescope toters get in free. We will open the Zoo's African Parking Lot to registered meteor watchers from 7 - 10 p.m. on December 13. The parking lot will be dark, so pack a flashlight (and cover the light with red cellophane) to use in walking around.
If it is raining or cloudy, we will cancel. If we cancel, we will announce the cancellation on our Home Page (
http://www.nczoo.com) to let everyone know to stay home. To register call Karen Powell (336-879-7262).
Have a Green, Green Holiday...
We wish everyone a green holiday season and want to help you please your friends and family with thoughtful gifts that are easy on the environment and that will help the Zoo's animals.
Zoo Society Gift Membership: Give a friend or a whole family a year of free admission to the Zoo—and discounted or free admission to more than 150 zoos and aquariums across North America. This year's gift membership arrives with a charming plush giraffe and your personalized message.
Holiday Animal Adoption: Go ape this holiday season and adopt Nkosi, our male 
Gorilla! The adoption package includes a plush Gorilla, a photo of Nik and a personalized adoption certificate. The proceeds from this—and all the Society’s adoptions—support the Zoo’s animal enrichment program. This program buys healthy treats and toys for our animals and provides training for the keepers who care for the animals.
Exclusive, Limited Edition, Handcrafted Tree Ornament: The 2009 ornament celebrates the opening of the Zoo's new high-rise platform, where Giraffes and visitors see eye-to-eye. A true collector's piece with only 300 offered. Each ornament is signed and numbered by the artist. Available online by clicking here or by calling 336.879.7267.
Bee-Friendly Calendar: This calendar puts Time and Thyme at your fingertips!
A calendar and how-to manual for enticing bees into a nature lover's garden.
This artfully drawn calendar brims with advice about drawing bees in to dance among the flowers.
Price includes our members' discount and shipping.
Zoo Society License Plate: Become a charter owner of one (or more) of our exclusive Zoo Society license plates. Begin by downloading an application form, filling it out and mailing it, with a $30 payment,
to the N.C. Zoo Society. (If you prefer, you can make your payment
online by clicking here, but you will still have to mail in your application.)
Or, step into a Zoo Society gift shop and make your purchase
there. Once we have 300 applications, DOT will press out and deliver
the special tags.
The
plate above is a rendering of the license plate design that we will
submit to DOT for its
approval. While DOT will have to approve any design before the plate
goes to press, you can count on the actual license plate to reflect the
same high standards of design and quality that you already expect from
the North Carolina Zoo.
Got questions? Click here for answers.
Give a Gift that Honors a Friend
Help the Zoo's Animal Hospital
Recently,
one of the Zoo Veterinary Hospital’s most important and specialized
endoscopes stopped working. It can’t be fixed, so veterinarians have to borrow one from the veterinary school in Raleigh every time they need to use one. The cost for driving it
here is enormous, and it takes several hours, at least, to get the
scope here—causing delays that can be costly in an emergency. Click here
to give a tax-free gift to help the Zoo replace this endosope—and, if you
want to, designate your donation as a gift that honors or memorializes
someone you love. Donors giving $1,000 or more will be invited to meet
a Zoo veterinarian behind the scenes to tour the hospital and see the
new endoscope and how it works.
What's up, up and away, from the Zoo's Wildlife Rehabilitation Center?
Congratulations to the Schindler Rehabilitation Center staff and volunteers for another successful month of releases that sent 4 Eastern Cottontails, 9 Eastern Gray Squirrels, 2 Southern Flying Squirrels, a Black Vulture, Blue Jay, Northern Mockingbird, Red-shouldered Hawk, Turkey Vulture, 4 Mourning Doves and 2 Eastern Box Turtles back to the wild.
Park Update
The Park staff is mostly busy keeping the animals warm and getting the park ready for next year's busy season.
At the Zebra, Ostrich, Giraffe exhibit, the new Giraffe Deck is closed for the winter. It will reopen in the spring. Keepers will continue working with the giraffes to get them acclimated to approaching the deck.
At the Africa Plains, the White Rhinos have been taken off the large plains exhibit for the winter, but they will be visible to visitors on warm days. Just look to the back of the upper Elephant exhibit to see the rhinos.
At the former Cato Patas Monkey exhibit, staff is busy renovating this exhibit to accommodate the needs of some new primates. This spring a new species or two will live in this exhibit. Look for news in early spring to learn which primates will be occupying the Cato Island.
Zoo Plants Some Roots in Philadelphia
Bob McCrory, a Zoo Arborist, traveled with some representatives from
Trees Asheboro to plant some young Chestnut Trees near Independence Hall. The planting is part of a reintroduction project involving this nearly extinct species.
Once known as the “Redwood of the East” because of its spectacular
size, the American Chestnut Tree once dominated the ecology of eastern
forests and the economy of the pioneers who swarmed through these
woodlands into the 1800s.
The average American Chestnut tree grew to a diameter of 60
inches, but the really old, really staunch trees reached a girth of
8 to 10 feet and could stand as tall as 100 feet. These grand old trees
blanketed almost all of the Appalachian Mountain chain and supplied the
wood pioneers needed to build their homes, fences, poles, caskets and
other artifacts.
Around 1904, someone noticed a fungus growing on a few American
Chestnut trees in New York City. Introduced from the Orient, and
commonly called "Chestnut blight," this fungus swept across the eastern
United States, killing nearly every American Chestnut Tree on Earth. In
only 60 years, the fungus destroyed more than
99.99 percent of the American Chestnut Tree population. The death toll
claimed almost four billion trees inside some nine million acres of eastern
forests.
Currently, the N.C. Zoo and other conservation groups such as
Trees
Asheboro and the A
merican Chestnut Foundation, are working to bring
back the American Chestnut by crossbreeding it with Chestnut species
that are resistant to the Chestnut blight. Conservation groups are
planting the hybrid, resistant trees throughout the former range of the
American Chestnut.
Help Us With the Buzz!
If you have visited our new Honey Bee exhibit, we want to hear your thoughts on the signs and the experience. We've put together a short survey (only nine questions) to help us evaluate our work. Just
click here to take the survey and, when you finish, click the "done" button, and it will direct you right back here.
Thank you for helping us out!
Society Launches Project: Polar Bears
The N.C. Zoo is planning a $4.7 million dollar expansion to its Polar Bear exhibit. The Zoo Society has pledged to raise $2 million to support those efforts. We have already raised $1.2 million toward that pledge. The Society announced the public phase of this fund-raising effort, Project: Polar Bears, in
November.
The planned exhibit will position the Zoo to exhibit more Polar Bears and will ramp up the Zoo's
involvement in conservation programs for this endangered species.
Learn more by clicking here.
Travel 2010
All prices are based on double occupancy. Unless otherwise stated, air fare is not included in the quoted prices.
Adventure to India
$9,995April 8 - 21
Travel with Zoo Director David Jones to visit Bandhavgarh and Panna and view wildlife from safari vehicles and elephant back. This luxury tour travels through cities, rural villages, ancient forts, temples and palaces.
Click here to learn more.
Cocos Island $2,291April 12 - 18
Set
sail on the
Pacific Explorer to vist the UNESCO World Heritage Site
that Jacques Cousteau once called "the most beautiful island in the
world." Lying off the coast of Costa Rica, Cocos Island occupies the
epicenter of the world's largest population of Hammerhead Sharks and
intersects with the ranges of 90 species of birds.
Click here to learn more.The Best of Kenya $3,495
May 31 - June 11
This
safari will have Giraffes eating out of our travelers' hands at the
AFEW Nature Center, and will visit the Maasai Mara during the Great
Wildebeest Migration. Other stops include Samburu Reserve, the Great
Rift Valley and Lake Nakuru National Park.
Click here to learn more.
Family Dinosaur Adventureto the Rocky Mountains July 3 - 9
Adult $3,195 Child $2,650Looking
for fossils at Split Rock, Colorado; taking a horseback (or wagon ride)
to the edge of the 10,000-foot Uncompahgre Plateau; hiking along the
"trail through time" to see dinosaur fragments from 145 million years
ago; and rafting down the Colorado River! A dream trip for anyone who
loves dinosaurs, learning and the wild, wild west. Led by a National
Geographic palentologist! Fun for the whole family.
Journey to Ecuador& The Galapagos Islands $3,595
September 17 – 25
Join
Zoo Society Executive Director Russ Williams to visit Quito and the
Ecuadorian Highlands before boarding the
MV Santa Cruz to visit the
island chain that inspired Darwin's theory of natural selection.
Travelers can snorkel with Fur Seals; follow the antics of Sally
Lightfoot Crabs, iguanas, Blue-footed Boobies, Magnificent Frigatebirds
and Waved Albatrosses; and add an optional extension to Sacha Lodge in
the heart of an Amazonian Rainforest.
Click here to learn more.
America’s National Parks $3,495 (Includes air fare)October 1 - 16
Think about it -- a Rocky Mountain Autumn.
Travel
with the Zoo Society to see some of America's most breathtaking sights.
The tour visits Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Arches, Monument Valley,
Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion.
Click here to learn more.For more information, contact Stephanie Gee at 336-879-7253 or e-mail sgee@nczoo.com.
Keep in Touch!
Let's BBFF! Follow us on Twitter@NCZooSociety or become a fan of the NC Zoo Society on Facebook at
http://tinyurl.com/nrgl8m .
The Zoo has launched some social medic sites, too. You can visit these sites to learn the latest news about the Zoo's animals, exhibit openings, special events and all other happenings. To visit the Zoo on face book go to
http://facebook.com/nczoo . To read tweets from the Zoo go to
http://twitter.com/nczoo . In addition,
The Zoo FileZ, a long-running zoo television series now seen on 12 broadcast stations and three cable systems statewide is also available on YouTube at
http://youtube.com/nczoo .
Our Vet Camps are Back and Better Than Ever!
We have added behind-the-scenes tours and even more hands-on activities to 2010's camps—including first-aid training
for small animals (dogs and cats). Campers will learn CPR, and more,
working with sophisticated mannequins that breathe and have a pulse.
Veterinary
Camp - A fun place to mingle with the Zoo's veterinarians, our camp
counselors - all currently top students at N.C. State Veterinary School
- and other campers who share a passion for animals. To apply or learn
more, click here.
Day Camps for Students, Ages 12 up to 15
The
cost for day camps is $230 for Zoo Society members and $279 for
non-members. (Payments may be scheduled over two months.) To see what
we have planned for the campers,
download a draft schedule.
Want to Know More?
Download a Day Camper Flyer here. Download a Day Camp Brochure here.
Want to Apply?
Download the Health Form component of the Day Camp Application here. Fill out an online Day Camp Application by clicking here.
Three-day, Overnight Camps for Students, Ages 15 - 18
Girls Only, 9 a.m., Friday, July 16 - 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 18
Boys Only, 9 a.m. Friday, July 30 - 4 p.m. Sunday, August. 1
Cost is $539 for Members $579 for Non-members (Payments can be scheduled over three months.)
Want to see what we have planned for these campers? Download a draft schedule here.
What to know more? Download a Senior Veterinary Camp Flyer
here. Download a Senior Veterinary Camp Brochure
here.
Want to apply? Fill out an online Senior Veterinary Camp Application by
clicking here.
Download a Senior Health Form
here.
Planning a Legacy
If you have any
questions or would like to discuss your gift plans, please contact Russ
H. Williams at 336-879-7252 or at rwilliams@nczoo.com.
Check Out Our Monthly Feature Articles:
Legislation Lets You Use Your IRA to Help OthersIf
you are 70½ or older, you have a unique opportunity to make a tax-free
gift to The North Carolina Zoological Society, Inc. from your IRA
before Dec. 31, 2009.
More3 Steps to End-of-the-Year Tax SavingsA
preliminary look at your taxes this year may have you scrambling for
additional deductions, often in the form of charitable gifts. Take
these three steps to ensure savings yet this year.
MorePrepare Your Estate for 2010 Tax Law ChangesAs
we prepare to ring in 2010, we also need to prepare for some major tax
law changes—unless Congress intervenes soon. Take a look at these three
changes that may affect your estate plans should something unexpected
happen to you.
MoreLeave Your Legacy—TwiceIf
you are in a position to stop receiving payments from a charitable life
income gift, you can benefit from an additional income tax charitable
deduction.
More
Send questions and comments about this Web site or Z-mail content to Jayne Owen Parker, Ph.D. at jparker@nczoo.com.
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Our
mailing address is: North Carolina Zoological Society, 4403 Zoo
Parkway, Asheboro, N.C. 27205. Phone 336-879-7250, toll free
888-244-3736. Web address: www.nczoo.com.
Thank you for your continued support of the North Carolina Zoological Society. Send questions and comments about this Web site or Z-mail content to Jayne Owen Parker, Ph.D. at jparker@nczoo.com.
