There are UVB/A permeable plastic panels available… I’ve dealt only with companies that supply the material in bulk, for zoos and greenhouses, but you may be able to find another source via an inter-net search. If not, please write back and I’ll see if I can turn anything up.

However, if you use regular plastic to block the wind your lizard will seek out other sunny spots if available…they are very good at thermo-regulating and even, recent research indicates, in sensing UVB. Heat magnification is mainly a problem in small terrariums placed in a sunny location…as long as space is available, the lizard will move away if it becomes too warm.

Good luck and please keep me posted.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

I’m sorry. I wasn’t sure where to post this question. Feel free to put my question anywhere on the sites if you think it might help others.

I live in sunny San Diego. While friends and family have commented that my menagerie is a zoo. It’s just a crazy house with an usually large number of pets. The pet I am writing to about is our bearded dragon.

I am in the planning process of creating a new outdoor enclosure for her and I have but one stumbling block. The sunny side of the enclosure is also the breezy side.

We live very close to the ocean and while there is no shortage of sunny days, it can be a bit breezy. I am desperately trying to find a material with the following properties.

1. Blocks the wind
2. Allows in UVB and UVA ray (natural sunlight)
3. Does not have the dangerous magnification properties of glass and some plastics.

I don’t think such a material exists. I am starting to think that I should just use a low wall of white plastic on the sunny side (like the other sides) to block the wind and hope she has enough sense to stay low and move into the sun) far enough away from the wall) if the breeze is bothering her. Obviously she’s also going to have a nice sheltered place to get away if she gets too hot or wants to lay low for a while. above the white walls there will be fine mesh and other ingenious ways to keeps critters out and in.

I’m only going to put her out on warm days and bring her in every night.

So, do you know if there’s a way to block the breeze and not the sun? Any ideas?

Thanks!

Paige

If you have a deep interest in animals, then you can ask for no better life than that of a zoologist. Please feel free to write in whenever you might need specific advice, and I’ll do my best to help out. Also concerning any subjects you might like to read about, just let me know – I found the lives and travels of zoologists and naturalists to be very inspiring in my younger days, and still re-read them today.

Good luck and please keep me posted.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

Thanks for your interest in our blog. I’ve answered your questions below…please let me know if you need further details.

1. I’ve been interested in animals for as long as I can remember…the encouragement of my family and growing up near the Bronx Zoo and American Museum of Natural History certainly helped.

2. I enjoy it immensely…I’m one of the fortunate few who has made a hobby into a career.

3. I have a Master’s Degree in Conservation Biology/Zoology.

4. The animals I work have varied over the course of my career…everything from tiny invertebrates to the large reptiles, birds, fishes and mammals at one time or another. That is not typical of a zoologist, just my very good fortune.

5. Herpetology is the study of amphibians and reptiles.

6. What to look for really depends upon the nature of the question or problem, and so varies a great deal. For example, captive care, behavior in the wild and taxonomy all require very different perspectives.

7. I prefer work with live animals in captivity or the wild as opposed to typical lab work.

8. Zoology can be extremely physical – capturing and tagging animals in the wild, for example, or less so, i.e. when one is involved in research and writing. There is something for everyone, no matter what their level of interest or physical abilities.

8. When working for an institution such as the Bronx Zoo, payment is as a salaried employee. In other cases, I engage in freelance work, and am paid for specific projects…for example, designing a zoo building, writing museum graphics, field surveys to identify endangered species living in an area slated for development, and so on.

9. Good question! Pay levels in zoology are almost always lower than in other fields requiring the same amount of education and experience…it is a field one enters out of interest. Many of the organizations that hire zoologists are considered “not for profit” institutions, which typically offer modest salaries. Living in NYC, I’ve always found it necessary to take on extra work in the form of writing, etc. However, zoologists involved in certain research areas, or who become administrators, may earn higher salaries.

10. There are a great many subdivisions in zoology, and new ones appear regularly. In its most general sense, zoology is the study of animal life, past and present, microbes to whales. Many other research areas spring from this, so that the work a zoologist does often finds application in medicine, agriculture, industry and countless other disciplines.

Good luck in your work,

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

1. What made you want to become a zoologist?
2. Do you enjoy what you do?
3. How much schooling did you go through?
4. What animal(s) do you deal with most?
5. What is herpetology?
6. What do you look for when you examine animals?
7. Do you prefer lab work or in natural habitat?
8. Does zoology require any physical activity?
9. How do you get paid?
10. Do you like your pay?
11. What are the other branches of zoology?

Interesting question…and original – in all my years at the Bronx Zoo, no other visitors seemed to wonder about that!

I worked in the exhibit you are referring to, in the Bronx Zoo’s World of Darkness, for quite some time. In mixed species exhibits, zoos utilize animals that would occur together in the wild. The natural ranges of striped skunks and the fruit bats exhibited with them (Artibius species when I was there) overlap in northern Mexico. Both are nocturnal, and the reverse lighting cycle used in that building encourages them to be active during visiting hours.

Skunks are not able to catch healthy bats, but in the wild enter bat caves in search of young or injured bats that have fallen from their roosting places on cave walls and ceilings. The skunks kept in the Bronx Zoo exhibit are, as you may have noticed, quite “hefty”, and do not bother hunting. The bats do breed in that exhibit – I have netted 100 or more surplus individuals at a time for shipment to other zoos. I would not be surprised if a skunk occasionally took a youngster that fell to earth, but I have not actually observed this. The skunks are shifted into off-exhibit holding areas when the zoo closes for the evening.

In the same building you may also notice stripped skunks that appear to be housed with broad snouted caiman. In that exhibit, a glass wall actually separates the two species.

Please be in touch if you need any further information.

Best regards, Frank Indiviglio.

Thanks for writing in.

My first thought is that what you are seeing is the male sexual organ, known in lizards as the hemipenes. A prolapsed cloaca or hemipenes usually remains out of the body and is not withdrawn frequently as with your monitor.

Lizards sometimes extrude the hemipenes during periods of excitement or agitation, irrespective of breeding condition (or opportunity!). It seems that the “wiring” for all classes of excitement is very close in some reptiles and amphibians – male frogs, for example, often attempt to enter amplexus (the fertilization position) with females, other males and even floating plants when they are fed in a group situation!

If your water monitor is of the species Varanus salvator (others are sometimes sold as “water monitors”), then he seems a bit on the small size to be exhibiting sexual behavior. However, if he has been feeding well he may have mmatured early. Please send in a photo if you are unsureof the species.

Factors which might cause your lizard to extrude the hemipenes include aggitation (territorial defense, a cage that is too small), anticipation of a meal upon seeing you enter the room, a new smell or any type of environmental change. In fact, old zookeepers’ tricks to induce breeding in monitors and snakes included changing the cage’s substrate and also putting the intended couple in a burlap bag and driving them around in a car for awhile…both techniques worked on occassion!

If the condition seems to worsen, or the organ remains out of the body, you should bring the animal to a veterinarian specializing in reptiles (please let me know if you need some listings in your area).

Please bear in mind that all monitors are agressive feeders and can administer severe bites..also, they often react (as perhaps you are seeing here)to stimuli that we do not sense, so always handle them with care.

Careful attention should be paid to the diet of rapidly growing monitors, as they need proper amounts and ratios of calcium and other nutrients. I’d be happy to provide some suggestions if you feel that might be helpful. Again, please send in a photo of your animal if you are unsure of the species – Varanus salvator, the Asian water monitor, can reach 6 feet in length, so you’ll need to do some advance planning if this is the species that you have.

Good luck and thanks for your interest in my articles.

Best regards, Frank