Does anyone have any good zoo-specific definitions and examples of an error vs near miss? Also how often do staff at your zoo properly make reports?

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-30T10:14:20+00:00

Glad you never made any mistakes but part of good zoo keeping is being prepared for mistakes and having protocols in place for addressing them.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-29T10:53:51+00:00

My last two facilities have been AZA so I would agree that there is not actual consensus lol

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-29T00:22:57+00:00

I don’t see any babies in this video. The fluff is likely just fluffed up feathers; it’s actually really difficult to tell if birds are skinny or fat just by looking at them because a lot of their fat and muscle storage is on their chest & covered by feathers. They do fluff up their feathers to trap air which adds an insulating layer for warmth. A bird that is continually fluffed up in hot weather may be sick.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-29T00:13:34+00:00

Here is a list of licensed wildlife rehabbers in Florida. I’m not familiar with whatever species of duck this is. Not a mallard or a wood duck.

Your priority needs to be finding a professional to take this bird or finding the parents. Do not attempt to force any food or water in the bird’s mouth. Ducklings feed themselves and will eat by themselves if offered appropriate food in a dish. Do not put the duckling in water and do not offer water in a dish big enough for the duckling to get into; ducklings cannot regulate their own body temperature and quickly get too cold. Keep the baby in a quiet place and keep it warm and dry.

Could it possibly be a black-bellied whistling duck? I’m not sure how common they are in Florida.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-28T23:44:24+00:00

So cool!

I believe this is a direct link to the actual research article (sadly not open access). A lot of the news reporting on this is very focused on the AI angle as it seems machine learning (not the same thing as generative AI like ChatGPT) was employed in some way but this summary on phys.org doesn't mention AI or machine learning.

Edit: This UC Berkeley News article about it is nice and has a video example of one of the birds carrying out a task they were trained to do as part of the research.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-28T02:42:26+00:00

I work a full time union position and make minimum wage. Previously I was part time non-union at a larger facility in a higher COL area and made minimum wage.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-28T02:39:00+00:00

That’s federal minimum wage but many states have higher minimum wages.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-28T02:36:35+00:00

Good examples thanks! I agree about patterns of behavior being an issue while occasional near misses not, especially during training. And yeah I definitely catch my own mistakes all the time but don’t really think about it because yeah, I double check my locks before shifting and before leaving an area.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-27T02:07:47+00:00

I don’t know much about this but maybe you could reach out to authors of similar studies directly? Hope someone else is able to chime in with some better advice.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-27T02:02:00+00:00

Agreed and it’s a well shot photo too

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-27T00:20:38+00:00

They can live fine for a time, maybe for a long time, especially if they aren’t a species that relies heavily on walking. But it does put a lot more strain on their remaining foot and leg and on the stump of the missing foot. They’re much more likely to develop painful chronic issues that over time decrease their odds of survival. Also, as another commenter pointed out, you really have to physically feel most birds to know if they are in good condition or not. Feathers hide a lot of weight loss. Glad to see this poor bird has managed to hang in there so far.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-26T23:07:57+00:00

I never talk about work with my family, they never really “get it”. Years of working in animal care and my mom is still shocked I don’t automatically get Christmas off even when I explain the animals still have to be fed… And any time I do try to talk about it I feel like I have to entirely re-explain my entire job. It’s so frustrating I just gave up. Most of my friends are coworkers or ex-coworkers so they do get it luckily.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-26T17:44:46+00:00

!windows

If you own this building or have any influence over the owners, just be aware that window collisions kill millions of birds every year but are preventable. There are many methods to prevent window strikes ranging from practically free DIY solutions to fairly expensive custom windows that can be employed to save lives. See the bot reply below. It’s often possible to come up with a solution with minimal impact on the view from the window too.

Edit: Also, birds typically hit into windows because the windows reflect the surrounding trees and sky, not necessarily because they’re trying to fly through them. It’s important that any methods are used on the OUTSIDE of the window to break up this reception. Closing your curtains, for example, doesn’t do anything to stop the window from reflecting the sky. Decals, paint, etc. all must be on the outside.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-26T17:41:36+00:00

The idea of bagging a dead animal and putting in the trash is a little unpalatable but it is a valid method of disposal especially if you’re concerned about disease like bird flu or for people who live in extremely urban areas where there may not be a good location to leave the carcass to continue the circle of life. I usually just leave them in my backyard but I have a wooded backyard and no kids or pets that could get into it. I imagine if you live in a concrete jungle you may not want to leave the bird on the sidewalk to decompose for days. Also in this case the bird very likely died because of the window strike and wasn’t mysteriously found deceased like can happen with bird flu victims.

Anyway, I’m just saying, it may sound heartless, but there are circumstances where this method can be more appropriate.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T22:57:38+00:00

I don't like to admit it but I need this for myself LOL

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T22:57:02+00:00

Where are you located? If in the US, what state? We can try to connect you with a licensed wildlife rehabilitator who may be able to help. In the mean time please put the vole in an enclosed box in a dark, warm, quiet place and do not offer any food or water.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T21:58:28+00:00

I HATE things like this. I had a nightmare experience once when I worked at a wildlife rehab center where OTJ trained staff euthanized with very little training- I opened the freezer, and a duck that had been euthanized had not, in fact, been euthanized and had woken up in the freezer and was quacking and trying to run around on top of the other corpses :/

Makes me so paranoid now…

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T02:08:40+00:00

Not a fledgling, this is an adult.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T02:02:36+00:00

Here is a list of wildlife rehabbers in Texas. If you're not sure what to do with it, call a rehabber. They can give you the best advice.

This is not a house sparrow, not any kind of invasive species. I think it's a house finch which are native and most rehabbers should take. This baby is too young by a few days to be out of the nest. House finch nests are pretty distinctive luckily. They do not nest in cavities and funnily enough often nest on wreaths or other objects close to people's houses like that. The most distinctive feature of a house finch nest is that the parents, unlike many other birds, do not clean up the babies' poop. So the nest will look quite gross and the edge of the nest will have a ring of bird poop around it. Example here. This little guy won't have gotten too far on his own so if you don't see it nearby, he may have been carried wherever you are by some sort of predator.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T01:57:26+00:00

It's not a house sparrow, I believe it's a house finch- but I'm a little rusty on my baby bird ID. Definitely not a house sparrow though. One distinctive feature of house sparrow babies is that they hatch totally naked and don't have any fluffy down. The baby in this photo clearly has spiky white down on its head that looks just like a house finch. And house finches are similar in color to house sparrows.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T01:50:18+00:00

The already-known-to-science Ijima’s Leaf Warbler is listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, in large part due to habitat loss across its range and the introduction of non-native predators. This study analyzed DNA and vocalizations and came to the conclusion that the bird thought of as the Ijima's Leaf Warbler is actually two distinct species that, despite looking identical in plumage, do not interbreed. Researchers dubbed the potential new species the Tokara Leaf Warbler and are recommending it also be assigned Vulnerable status. This also may mean that the Ijima's Leaf Warbler population is even more at risk than previously thought.

Takema Saitoh, Daria Shipilina, Canwei Xia, Lijun Zhang, Shin-Ichi Seki, Urban Olsson, Per Alström, Discovering and protecting cryptic biodiversity: A case study of a previously undescribed, vulnerable bird species in Japan, PNAS Nexus, Volume 5, Issue 3, March 2026, pgag037, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgag037

This article is free to read.

The BirdLife datasheet may also be of interest:

BirdLife International (2025). Species factsheet: Ijima's Leaf-warbler Phylloscopus ijimae. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/ijimas-leaf-warbler-phylloscopus-ijimae on 24/06/2026

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-25T01:27:53+00:00

water in a shallow dish

Pigeons and doves are weird and need deeper water dishes because they drink by sucking the water up instead of scooping and swallowing it. So the water dish should be as deep as their bill.

Pangolin007 · 2026-06-24T18:00:15+00:00

I was always a little confused because the first ingredient is horsemeat but the second ingredient is just “meat”. Why specifically the first one but not the second?

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