hi everybody I'm Melanie I'm one of the zookeepers here at the Cincinnati Zoo
and Botanical Garden we also have Erin here
hi guys and you are joining us for our home Safari and yesterday was a big head
we have the Fiona but today the competition for Fiona is
Rico the porcupine he's pretty darn cute so check him out he is a prehensile tail
porcupine Aaron is one of his primary trainers and she is going to be giving
him some rewards because we do positive reinforcement training with all of our
animals so that means that we asked Rico to come out of his habitat and do a
couple of fun activities and behaviors and when he participates in that then he
gets a reward so today it looks like he's eating some dried apricot they're
even hearing some smacking I also brought some dried banana chips which he
likes because they're very crunchy porcupine love a very crunchy treat
isn't that right Melanie yes so he is eating some fruit so dried fruit today
he Bluffs basically all types of crews some of his favorite things here at
Mizzou our corn cob and blueberries they also like to eat any type of salad
greens the mustard greens all kinds of healthy
things hopefully you guys at home are eating healthy as well so we can all
stay healthy and be active just like Rico in the wild though
prehensile-tailed porcupines they are from South America
so there's a lot of them in Brazil so another common name for them other than
prehensile-tailed porcupines is the Brazilian porcupine and so being in the
Neotropics and southern South Africa they live up into the trees so you can
probably guess what they might eat the leaves of the trees and they're even
known to sometimes eat on the bark and even on the inner parts of the trees
called the Cambrian layer and in addition to that they'll eat nuts and
twigs all kinds of things so it's really important for them to eat the seeds
because then they help with seed dispersal so this is something no one
should try at home with a porcupine Rico and I have been working together since
you first came to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and so we have a lot of
trust built up between the two of us and because the zoo is closed to
visitors right now we decided that we wanted
have a chance to get out and stretch his legs and play around a little bit so
we've set up a little bit of an obstacle course
Rico is going to be allowed to just sort of run around wherever he likes a lot of
the items that we put down the things he's actually never seen before so I
have no idea what he's going to do with them what do you think I want to come
try this ramp he knows pretty well but he's gonna take a quick spin around on
his table to make sure he did not leave any treats behind if some of his
favorite activities really just include anything with climbing so we created
basically a porcupine playground and this is one of the spaces that we do use
here at the zoo for a lot of that education program animals that Aaron and
I work with so that we can take them on quiet days like this to exercise and get
any sort of stimulation a lot of times there's some smells from other animals
in the purpose and just being outside of their normal space we also challenge
them to you might get to see a couple of that we have throughout the playground
packed up at the top of this ramp there is a ball with more banana chips in
there so there's a little bit of a puzzle here not sure about that one
there's a puddle feeder for him and that also more his brain so for those of you
guys still may be doing some school activities at home we gotta keep your
brain nice and sharp sharp as a quill that is so perfect mics do have quills
all over their body they do not shoot them out like most cartoons may imply
but actually Melanie let's do a home activity right okay I went everyone was
listening to close their eyes concentrate very hard and on the count
of three shoot the hair out of her head into the person next to you now if
anyone say that they can feel free to write in and tell us but I do not think
they will be telling the truth the fact is that Rico's quills which he is
showing up so nicely right now are made of the same stuff that our hair is and
just like our hair it is very firmly anchored into their skin and so it does
not shoot just because they feel like it Oh Rico's getting up on another table
now and he's gonna continue exploring his his classroom playground now as you
guys see him getting a little fluffier and there's quills kind of standing up
on ends that is a good example of what happens when porcupines get a little bit
excited if something startles them or something's happening that there
excitement about they tend to make those quills stand up and then as they calm
down they get a little bit sleeker and closer to their body one of the things I
like the best about Rico is that I feel like he's a lot like a lot of the little
boys and girls I know and that as soon as he sees a way to climb up something
he likes to choose the most difficult way possible so climbing up the
underside of his ramp or trying to climb up all the walls things like that but
like Melanie says he's an amazing climber and he really loves to do it
it's his definite favorite way to play you may see him climb he will use tail
that tail is a prehensile tail meaning that he uses it just like an extra arm
or leg you can even hang from it like a monkey or a possum and half of his tails
weight is actually in muscle it's a very very strong tail and you know I'm the
very underneath side it's kind of calloused and that it doesn't have any
quills and it has a big callus kind of like the bottom of your feet and then it
helps him to grip onto britches and use it to hold all of his body weight which
Rico by the way weighs about 15 pounds and he is a full-grown little boy he's
four years old you can hear him smack listen to that crunch one more time
so if anybody has questions about Rico you can always chime in on those but we
there's a lot of vocalizations that you might be hearing from Rico I'm trying to
be quiet in some moments just so you might be able to hear it I'm he's gonna
get some romaine anybody eating salad at home he does his without ranch dressing
but he makes all kinds of little moans or grunts or hisses or hops and hissing
doesn't always mean that he's upset unlike other animals where hissing might
be a threatening sound or a threatening call and those whiskers are so long he
uses those to feel his way around and what else you might notice something
very big on the front end of his face is his nose he has a really good sense of
smell and he's also very curious individual very interested in the phone
Melanie a lot of people are asking about this yellow color that they see is that
his skin is a skin Yellow is that just the base of his quills that are that
color I love that you guys ask that question the yellowing that you see is
actually from a waxy substance that comes from glands and his skin called
sebaceous glands we help them as well it provides the oils in our hair but his is
more waxy and it's also that yellow color so it helps to keep his quills
nice and moisturized and shiny in his skin as well of course that's a great
question Rico like some of our cats and dogs at
home it's really great at getting into new spaces but not always the best at
getting out of them we're going to try to give him the opportunity as it comes
to now his ramp for him what do you think bud do you think you can do this
you'd be rooting for me
so being an education animal or an ambassador animal as we call the animals
that go on our education programs here like Rico we do work very closely with
them very often so that we have a strong bond and Trust with them so that people
can meet these animals up close and in the comfort of our animals so we want to
make sure that they're very comfortable and that they're even not only just
comfortable but enjoying the time spending with people to inspire them
with wildlife with these up close encounters so Rico's having a good time
getting some exercise and treats and smelling different things this is very
novel for him being outside of his habitat and even within his habitat it's
also our job as the zoo keepers to provide enrichment
in his habitat so he will bring thanks to him as well as the time stinky bring
him out to other things we have another big question from John and Kelsey they
want to know if he has to be natural predators predators so they're actually
not so natural of predators at least in my opinion even a lot of people in
Brazil have been known to eat porcupines so a predator of porcupines are humans
and then also the humans best friend some dogs will pre date on porcupines
but there are occasional predators up in trees that will get these guys because
they do spend about 85% of their time up in the trees talking about predators the
tricky part about porcupines as everyone at home can probably see is that they
are covered in those quills and so a predator has to be smart enough to get
to the soft underbelly of the porcupine to be able to make a meal out of it
crosley asked how is Rico able to climb so well yeah so we talked a little bit
about the prehensile tail that works like an extra limb and can grasp onto
things as you can see he's doing right now he's wrapping that tail around for
some extra support but in addition to that I don't know if you can
shows his rear feet but they're kind of angled out and that helps them to grab
when two branches a little bit easier than a foot that might be angled so he
grabs onto the branches with him he's actually doing it right now just for a
second he's getting into the groove of this party here and I will also say
we've been working with Rico since he first came to the Cincinnati Zoo and
when he first came to us he was about four months old and he came from another
zoo in Ohio and he actually was a terrible climber and so it took a lot of
practice for him to be as good at climbing as he is today especially
learning how to use that tail took a very long time for him he was really
good with his hands and feet at first but that tail definitely took a while to
learn some of our followers obviously know some things about porcupines
because they're asking what they smell like I wish you guys could smell them
I'm not sure you would want the smell in your home but he smells almost like
really raw or rank onions and we have had female prehensile-tailed porcupines
at our zoo and they did not smell as oniony as our male Rico here and also I
don't know if you've noticed but there's a little bit of dispersal of some poop
now if you guys were planting a garden a lot of times you want to make sure you
throw seeds around everywhere which is basically what Rico is doing by pooping
everywhere they are known for eating tree seeds and then they move out in the
forest and they based plant those seeds by pooping all over
the place so that is a really important job that porcupines have while living in
the forests of the Neotropics is by planting and dispersing the tree seeds
this is a great way for you guys to see how long and strong his back feet are as
well as that tail he can hang on to this pole which is fairly smooth while he
uses his front feet to eat and just like a lot of people out there Rico is
right-handed so he almost always takes a treat first with his right manner and
then if his left hand is needed for something that's real big that he'll use
that as well his Rico nocturnal yes in general yeah prehensile-tailed
porcupines are nocturnal but since Rico lives here with us at the Cincinnati Zoo
Botanical Garden he is sort of used to being on a people schedule and so he
wakes up what we get into work which is around 8 o'clock in the morning and once
we leave for the day and we feed him his dinner around 5 o'clock p.m. at night
and so he is sort of switched onto our schedule it certainly does not hurt him
to be awake during the day part of the reason why the wild porcupines are
nocturnal because they mostly rely on that sense of smell to get around his
eyesight is actually not very good at all and he is mostly using that nice big
nose to find his way around the world I will say - I love to know the Latin
meaning of names of animals the word porcupine actually means
spiny pig and you can see why he would be called spiny pig take a look at that nose it's
very pink light however they are not close relatives of pigs they are
actually related to rodents here in the same order as rodents and they have
teeth that continuously grow just like rodents so he does not have any sort of
enamel on his teeth the protective coating that we have on our teeth to
keep them nice and white so that's why they turn orange he eats a lot of orange
colored foods he loves carrots and sweet potato and even look apricot
so his teeth are orange but that's okay because his teeth will always be growing
do you guys brush your teeth at home to make sure that your teeth don't turn
there are a lot of kids watching and a lot of kids want to know if we go ever
has to get a bath that is a great question and so Rico does not get baths
he actually prefers to stink since our job as zoo keepers is to make
sure that our animals are happy healthy and safe we do not mind that Rico stinks
so long as he is happy and healthy about it and he is in the wild these guys do
live in the rainforest and so they might get wet every day a little bit he's
trying to take the camera over he knows all of his best angles after all and so
we might get wet during the day we rainforest showers that happen but in
general Rico does not love getting wet he much prefers to just kind of be
stinky and dirty which is fine so I want you guys since you're getting a lot of
good angles of Rico I want to you guys too
at all of the features of his cute little body and face and I'm going to
challenge you guys to an activity at home I would love for you guys to make
some sort of art that is inspired by Rico whether that be that you get an
apple and stick it with some spiny toothpick quills or any other site sort
of art work that is Rico inspired we want to see your porcupine art and you
guys can follow the instructions on the post there or on our website on how to
submit the artwork and we are going to show Rico your lovely porcupine
themed artwork later on and possibly even post it on the Cincinnati Zoo's page so
there's an activity for you kids to do later or even big kids big kids can do
it too for sure I know I will yes Rico is one of our favorites okay so that
looks like it's gonna be about the end of Rico's time we actually have to go
and exercise other animals believe it or not with everything being shut down
we are still here giving the best care for our animals so we have to go and
take care of other animals