I finally figured out how to use the zoom on my phone. The wolves are difficult to snap good pictures of without a zoom.
The female, 1287
The male, 1414
the female
The male is the one facing the camera
photogenic 1414
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Emergency Training: Making Darts
May 20th, 2013Do you ever wonder what we do on closed Mondays? (Today, we’re cleaning the bear pool).
We do several Emergency Training Drills a year and a closed Monday is the perfect opportunity. I recently wrote about lemur tracking, we also do full on drills that include fake animal escapes and or damage due to storms or trees down, you might recall when Leslie played a bear. Today’s post is about making darts.
We would potentially use a dart to sedate an escaped bear and maybe even a wolf. Our dart bags are labeled well but without practice it’s a very nerve raking experience. Here you can see several people in different stages of making darts. We of course use water as our “drug” during drills and depending on the size of the animal we would be darting, the amount of “drugs” vary. So we practice making lots and lots of darts, for all the potential animal sizes. Afterwards we go outside and practice shooting them into a target- no not one of Sherry’s stuffed animals. In the event of a real emergency there always has to be two people making darts together. So during practice we pair up in teams.
Several of us making darts, can you pick out the non-keepers in the picture?
Sarah and Maya making darts
Marilyn focusing on her darts
Annie, Katy, and Jessi
You can see the back of Mike in this picture practicing with us
Next, we went outside and practiced shooting our darts into two targets.
We make a radio call alerting all staff of our plans so no one accidentally walks out or wonders what in the world we are doing.
Oops Jessi missed the target
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Nap time
May 17th, 2013Godzilla, one of our bearded dragons, is famous for napping in random positions.
Check out this previous post about his strange napping habits.
This particular sleeping position was excitedly pointed out to me by one of our latest interns Jamie.
Check him out:
Godzilla has no issues getting comfortable
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Lemur Tracking Drill
May 15th, 2013We recently had a Lemur Tracking Drill. Sherry informed us that two “lemurs” were hidden around campus and we had an hour to find them. Off we went…
Me, Sarah, Kent, and Aaron begin Lemur tracking
Sarah picking up a strong signal behind the Donkey/Goat yard
Aaron went into the woods between alpaca and pigs to see what he could pick up on his tracker
Duck was curious about Aaron in the woods
As was Max
We then decided to go out to the parking lot since our signal was pointing us in that direction.
Quickly there after, we found the first lemur in a tree.
The first lemur was found in a tree
After feeling successful about finding the first lemur so quickly we decided to split up at the boardwalk. Sarah and I headed to Explore the Wild and Aaron and Kent headed to Catch the Wind. Shortly there after, the guys radioed us to meet them at the Into the Mist exhibit. Kent had spotted the second lemur on top of an umbrella!
With both lemurs found we headed back to the building
Successful Tracking
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10 mins with the Ring Tailed Lemurs
May 10th, 2013After lunch everyday we head out to our respective areas and do afternoon checks. The ring-tailed lemurs have been enjoying their outside exhibit. I snapped some pictures during check recently. Sometimes all they do is sleep and sometimes they are climbing trees this is what they were doing on this particular day…
All 3 ring-tailed lemurs resting on top of their climbing structure
Still hanging out on the structure, just further apart
Lycus stands up…
for a nice stretch!
And sits back in a buddha pose for some nice sunbathing
Satyrus and Lycus, checking out some browse
Here you can see Satyrus in the back sunbathing while Lycus lays in the front
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Rummage Sale is tomorrow!!
May 3rd, 2013Come join Zookeepers and Volunteers from The Museum of Life and Science, Carolina Tiger Rescue, and Duke lemur Center for their annual Rummage Sale.
From 7 a.m. to noon under the picnic dome at the Museum of Life and Science
Great prices on a huge variety of stuff! And all proceeds benefit our local Piedmont AAZK.
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hope it was successful!
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Silly Times
April 29th, 2013The beginning of Spring brings all kinds of changes to the Animal Department. The bears are up and playing, the Ring-Tailed Lemurs get to stay outside in the yard, and the Wetlands explode with activity. One of our tasks for Spring includes removing the hay in the bear house. We put a good amount of hay on both sides of the bear house for the winter. It gets changed during supercleans and then removed completely once Spring arrives. There are 3 of us on the Explore the Wild team, Marilyn, Jessi and myself. We always try to work hard and have fun. But sometimes we butt heads. Below will be photo evidence of one of those times.
Marilyn was determined to get all of the bags of old hay to the compost in one load. Jessi and I were totally fine with making more than one trip. So we let her do what she wanted and I took lots of pictures.
First she tries to sit on the bags and immediately slides off the Mule
After several minutes she decides to hold one of the bags while riding in the back of the Mule
We drove from bears to lemurs before two bags fell off the vehicle, at this point Jessi and I are cracking up laughing!
We finally arrive at compost and Marilyn was successful at getting all the hay there in one load as well as making Jessi and I laugh for at least 15 minutes straight
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Black Bear Paws
April 27th, 2013Black Bear paws are used for many things:
Walking
Rooting around looking for food
Scratching
Marking trees
Climbing trees
Swimming
And as plates
Virginia using her paw as a plate for her nut shells
This last use is one of my favorites and all of our bears do this. Sometimes they will place a piece of food on their paw and raise their paw up to their mouth. So cute and functional.
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Join us May 4th for the AAZK Rummage Sale
April 19th, 2013
Mark your calendars!!
4th Annual AAZK Rummage Sale
Saturday May 4th, 2013
7am-12pm
under the picnic dome at the Museum of Life and Science
433 N Murray Ave
Several of us keepers (Jill, Sarah, Jessi, Katy, and myself) are part of the NC Piedmont Chapter of the American Association of Zoo Keepers, along with keepers and volunteers from both the Duke Lemur Center and Carolina Tiger Rescue. This is our biggest fundraiser of the year and we invite you to browse our large selection of cheaply priced items. There will be a wide variety of items to choose from. Anything from clothes and furniture to books and electronics.
AAZK promotes the continued development of animal caregivers and the welfare of animals through encouraging excellence in husbandry, supporting continued education and collaboration between professionals and promoting conservation through fundraising and stewardship.
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Zookeeper or Hair Stylist?
April 5th, 2013Our current interns have been mentioned a few times. One of my favorite things about having interns is when they have been here awhile and really relax and let you see who they really are. (actually I think these two were relaxed from day 1)
I walked into the office the other day and witnessed this…
Jessica Intern
Wait for it…
Jamie Intern is quite proud of herself!
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Kent looks thrilled about getting cuddled by Aaron.