Keeper Spotlight: Reptiles and Amphibians with Alyssa Borek

Keeper Spotlight: Reptiles and Amphibians with Alyssa Borek - Hi, friend Great Park Zoo, in this article entitled Keeper Spotlight: Reptiles and Amphibians with Alyssa Borek, we have prepared this article well and concise to be easy to understand for you to read and can be taken inside information. hopefully the contents of the post Article Alyssa Borek, Article Day Exhibit, Article herper, Article keeper spotlight, Article Kirsten Pisto, Article lizard, Article reptile, Article snake, Article turtles, Article zookeepers, that we write this you can understand and useful. okay, happy reading.

Posted by Kirsten Pisto, Communications

In case you missed our keeper spotlight on Instagram (@woodlandparkzoo) last week, here’s an inside look at what it’s like to work with snakes, lizards and turtles as part of Woodland Park Zoo’s reptile and amphibian team.

Hey everyone, we'd like to introduce you to Alyssa Borek, lead keeper on our reptile and amphibian team. Alyssa is a herpetologist—an expert in caring for our turtles, snakes, frogs and lizards. We're going to hand you over to Alyssa today for an up-close look at what it takes to care for these amazing creatures. Enjoy!

Alyssa Borek with a flowerbox turtle. Photo by Peter Miller.

Hi everyone, thanks for following me along today as I show you a few really cool parts of being a zookeeper and working with herps. In this photo, I am holding one of my favorite turtles here at Woodland Park Zoo!  This is one of our female flowerback box turtles, or as I refer to them, Cuora galbinifrons.  These turtles are Asian box turtles from China, Vietnam, and Laos and are Critically Endangered in the wild.  Woodland Park Zoo animal keepers have figured out the perfect balance of science, pixie dust and magic to get them to successfully breed.  We currently have five juveniles of this species ranging in age from 1 ½ to 2 ½ years old. 

 Thanks for all the fish! Burmese vine snakes hang loose. 

These Burmese vine snakes, Ahaetulla fronticincta, are a long time favorite of both visitors and keepers.  These beautiful snakes are piscivorous, only feeding on live fish. Many visitors enjoy watching carefully to see if they can see them hunting in action.  These snakes are now housed off exhibit, but I still enjoy offering them food and watching them hunt.  These snakes send a shout-out to our commissary staff who keep them in steady supply of just-the-right-sized fish.  

Black breasted leaf turtle gets its snack on.

Yummy breakfast!  This small turtle is a fully-grown black breasted leaf turtle, Geoemyda spengleri, enjoying a well-balanced breakfast of salad, fruit, cat food and bugs.  Since we are not always able to replicate an animal’s diet exactly as it would be in the wild, we work with a nutritionist to come up with a personalized diet that has all the nutrients that they would be getting in the wild with ingredients we have available to us.  Often, I think our reptiles eat a better diet than I do...I would not be too keen to eat the bug part of their diet, but the rest of it is always fresh and looks delicious, and the animals seem to agree!

Asian brown tortoises are some of the largest in our collection.

Asian brown tortoises, Manouria emys, are the largest tortoise species in Woodland Park Zoo's collection (4^th largest in the world!), with the male (in foreground) weighing in at over 30 lbs!  These majestic tortoises are from an ancient lineage, perhaps the oldest species of tortoise that currently exists.  The females will create a mound nest with leaf litter and vegetation to lay their eggs then actively defend it from predators—the only tortoise species to exhibit this behavior!  Look for these amazing tortoises to debut in a new exhibit, Assam Rhino Reserve, in the summer of 2018!

Up close with a Denny's tree frog.

Say hello to this Denny’s tree frog!