What:
Woodland Park Zoo animal health staff will perform a routine physical exam on a 23-year-old male siamang (SEE-uh-mang) and consult with an ophthalmologist on the animal’s vision impairment. An exam two years ago revealed a detached retina might have caused damage to the siamang’s right eye where he is now completely blind; his left eye is now showing progressive signs of deterioration.

It is not uncommon for the zoo’s animal health staff to call upon medical specialists in the community. While the animals are regularly monitored for all medical, chronic and age-related conditions, the animals’ well being is best served by a variety of specialists. Tom Sullivan, DVM, Animal Eye Clinic (Seattle), will volunteer his medical expertise to make a prognosis and determine treatment, if any. Due to excellent animal management and health care in zoos, siamangs may live longer than their wild counterparts, up to 30 years.

Siamangs, often referred to as “singing” apes, are the largest of the gibbon species (lesser ape). The male and his 11-year-old female companion draw large crowds to their exhibit a few times a day as they sing their loud duet, which may last for about 15 minutes and can be heard as far away as 3 miles! .

When:
Thursday, December 11, 2003, 8:00-9:00 a.m.

Where:
Woodland Park Zoo’s Animal Health Complex. Enter through the zoo’s South Gate parking lot at N. 50th St. & Fremont Ave. N. Continue driving straight onto the service road that winds behind the Rose Garden. The Complex is the first building on the left.

Info:
Siamangs, an endangered species, are native to the island of Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. Overpopulation, logging, agriculture and other human activities are rapidly destroying forest environments required by siamangs and other gibbon species for their survival. To produce their loud call, siamangs have a throat pouch that acts as a resonator. When inflated, the pouch amplifies its hooting and barking to ear-splitting levels.

Visitors can encounter the zoo’s siamangs in the award-winning Trail of Vines. The 2.7-acre exhibit represents the shola forests of the Western Ghats in India, a rocky outcrop in Malaysia and a forest canopy in Northern Borneo. In addition to siamangs are macaque monkeys, orangutans, Indian pythons and Malayan tapirs.

The zoo opens 9:30 a.m. daily and closes 4:00 p.m. during the winter. For more information about the zoo call 206.684.4800.