Godzilla, 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
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
Katy has been going through her photos and came across this one of Galileo which made us both laugh.
Annie was terrified when she found Galileo in the ball so the ball now looks like this
But, since the opossum got out of the ball just fine, Katy and I think the ball should not be labeled “not for opossum use” but rather “not for Annie use”
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
awwwwww
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
Our Interns, Jessica and Jamie, have started their enrichment project. They are interning with us Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they take classes. for one of their classes they have to do an enrichment project for an animal. They decided to work with Henry, our woodchuck, to see if they could get him more active. We’ll report back (if you want) later in the semester to see what they learned, but in the meantime, here are some photos of what they built and their first day of watching Henry with their item:
Jamie ties on the whiffle balls
Ready to go
Henry watches from his bed at first
Jamie and Jessica take notes diligently hoping for some interaction.
Henry approaches
Henry engages
FYI- I went back and checked and only one of the whiffle balls is still hanging up. Seems like he’s been having some fun.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
While closing one night I saw a barred owl standing in the water and pondered, What is that owl doing? A few moments later I watched as the owl took several drinks of water. I snapped some pictures with my phone and shared them with Keeper Kent who says he’s never seen an owl drink water before. Kent has been a keeper here for a long time so if he hasn’t seen owls drink then most of our readers haven’t either. In fact owls get most of the moisture they need from the prey they eat, so this is a rare sight. Enjoy the pictures below.
If you come in at 7am you can see at least one of them drinking on most mornings. 1 Wing will also often play with the mulch in the mornings throwing it all over the place!
I believe it is 1 wing. Katy that sounds fun to watch.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
Happy belated Chinese New Year. Yesterday began the year of the water snake.
We have a Water Snake at the Museum that lives in Carolina Wildlife. This snake has been with us for about 5 years. This snake lives with our mud turtle. The Keepers shot a video of the snake catching a fish- click here to see it.
You can go to numerous websites to learn about Chinese New Year, but below are two to start with.
http://www.adafruit.com/blog/2013/02/10/happy-chinese-new-year-year-of-water-snake/
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
The San Francisco 49ers go head to head with the Baltimore Ravens, so who is our woodchuck and opossum rooting for?
A few years ago Henry was right
Last year we had a snafu with the video and Henry chose incorrectly, but Galileo was right.
Watch the video below to see who Henry and Galileo chose
I have to agree with Henry even though he dislikes me…go 49er’s!
I didn’t really care who won since the Steelers weren’t playing but this was fun to watch. Thanks to Henry, Galileo and the Animal Keepers!
Maybe Henry has a future in Vegas? My money is with Henry.
Opossums Rule!!! Woodchucks Drool !!!
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
The Animal Department does several programs a week.
We have a daily 2pm Explore the Wild Keeper Talk, which changes between Bears, Wolves, and Lemurs each week. At these programs we talk to visitors about our animals, wild animals, what kind of food they eat, or any other specifics you’d like to know.
We also have a Farm Yard Program at 4:30pm all days but Thursday. At these programs we close the Farm Yard which includes feeding the animals and shutting down the barns, here you can ask Keepers questions and even help feed hay to a couple animals.
And a special Reptile Program on Thursday’s at 4pm in Carolina Wildlife. At this program we talk about our exhibit reptiles or any you have questions about and we feed our snakes and alligators.
Keeper Kent doing the 4pm Thurs Reptile Program
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
In the fall we receive A LOT of donated pumpkins that are used in the animal department. Some animals eat them, some animals play with them, and some animals don’t really do anything with them.
Our muskrats really like to eat pumpkin, so we give it to them sometimes as enrichment or as a substitute for another vegetable in their daily diet. In an effort to use some of the many pumpkins that we had, I decided to do both.
We usually only give the muskrats pieces of pumpkin at a time, so I had to substitute several of their vegetables for one day in order to give them an entire pumpkin. I decided to clean it out and put their daily food inside.
I thought it would be best to only put half their food inside the pumpkin so that they wouldn’t fight over the pumpkin once they realized their food was inside.
So I placed the pumpkin, lid on, in the exhibit and scattered the remaining food for them to find (we do that daily.)
I thought they would probably go directly to the pumpkin to check it out, but they actually seemed a bit apprehensive about it.
After several minutes of keeping their distance from the pumpkin and eating the scattered food around the exhibit, they started to creep up to it to check it out but would then run away.
I finally decided to take the lid off the pumpkin in an effort to help them realize that this big round orange thing was something good and yummy. At that point I had to go clean the rest of the exhibits, so I left them to continue checking it out. When I came back about 30 minutes later, I found this…
Yep, that’s right, the muskrats had dragged the pumpkin into their pool. It was floating upside down, waterlogged but surprisingly with most of the original food still in it. I drained out the water and placed it back on the floor of the exhibit with the rest of their diet still in it.
When I came back later I found the pumpkin moved back to the water’s edge, but this time there was a big chunk eaten from it.
Then I looked over at their den area and saw that they had taken the top of the pumpkin and put it at the window for everyone to see, along with some of their other veggies. They do this with their diet a lot, and it makes it pretty convenient for the visitors to get a look at all their food. I enjoyed putting this enrichment togther for them, and it was neat to see what they did with it throughout the day!
….think this could be part of the 2013 New Year’s Resolution list….the Museum’s awesome keepers will help you overcome your fears of unusual veggies.
If you have an account on any of the Museum's blogs, you can sign in with the same login to contribute to the discussion.
If you don't have an account, signing up is free and easy.
That’s fantastic!