Phoenix Zoo

Smells so good, you want to wear it! 🍒

One of Auggie's favorite scents is cherry extract! His keeper, Emily, captured this video after she placed the extract on the walls in his habitat for enrichment. This behavior is called self-anointing and involves rubbing against stinky, novel scents to transfer the sensory information of the environment directly onto themselves. It is a common behavior across many species, including domestic dogs and cats!

Auggie's habitat is generously supported by Primrose Schools.

Happy Snail Day to all who shell-abrate! 🐌

The Phoenix Zoo's conservation team cares for over 10,000 snails. They are very small, ranging between 1.5 to 9 millimeters in length, so counting them requires an expert eye and lots of patience. Fortunately, the team uses a tally counter to keep track of their count!

The Zoo currently works with three different species: the San Bernardino springsnail, the Huachuca springsnail and the Quitobaquito tryonia. The populations of all known springsnail species native to Arizona are in decline due to varying circumstances, including groundwater depletion, predation by invasive species such as crayfish, habitat destruction by elk and cattle and the effects of wildfire on stream quality and flooding.

You can learn more about the Zoo's conservation efforts here: https://www.phoenixzoo.org/local-conservation/springsnail/