I train the keepers and educators to handle our two program raptors. (Misha and Christopher). I’ve completed five weeks of work with Molly, but she still needs to practice. She’s decided to send me a photo every time she take out one of the birds to show me of her commitment. Way to go Molly!
Molly with Christopher
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Ranger Greg may have noticed the first signs of the impending season change back in August, but here in the Animal Department, we hold off until the middle of October to make our changes from the summer heat to the winter cold. We also have our animals to let us know when it’s time to shut off the fans and turn on the heaters. Scout, the duck, molts all of his old summer feathers to prepare for what would be a fall migration and he starts running around the farmyard in the morning like he’s training for a race. Henry, the woodchuck, and our 4 bears, all pack on a few pounds with the start of fall and then slow way down, spending most of their days sleeping. The bears, wolves, steer, donkey and many others begin to grow in an extra thick coat of fur to ward off the impending cold.
One of my favorite signs of the season comes from our Red-tailed Hawk, Misha. Our normally quiet, calm hawk becomes very chatty in the early hours of the autumn mornings.
I love that you got footage of Misha doing this! I’ve heard him but never seen him.
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If you have never thought about it,ponder for a moment what it might be like to have to stand on one surface forever. You’re probably thinking how uncomfortable that would be. Well, for humans it would be because we aren’t made to stand for hours on end and jump off at a moments notice. We are capable of doing these things but our body wasn’t designed that way. Birds are different, they stand for a majority of their lives and their weights and joints are made differently.
At the museum, we need to make sure that what our birds stand on is proper for them. If not, they can develop foot sores.Next time you are at the museum, look at our owl exhibits and see if you notice these things:
Different woods- different branches of different kinds of trees have different textures. This can help with with their nails and a lot of times the birds like to either strip the bark off with their feet or beak.
Different sizes- the diameter of the branches differ for different kinds of birds. The feet have to be a comfortable fit with the branch, not too large and not too small. We put in different sizes for comfort as well as giving the birds foot “exercise” so the bird has to flex his feet for the different diameters.
Different textures- sometimes our perches are wrapped in foam,AstroTurf ,rope or neoprene. This can help with the comfort of the bird if the bird is a little bit older and needs a little more padding. Its also something that’s different for the bird.
Here the birds are perched on rope with an astro-turf perch pictured as well
Photo:Richard Brunotte
Stability- Of course all of our perches are safely secure but sometimes we purposefully secure them so they have a little bounce to them. This simulates how branches are in the wild since they usually have a little spring in them and the birds have to use their muscles to balance on them.
The last is my favorite.If you have followed our blog then you already know about out older Red Tailed Hawk, Misha.
Since he lives outside and is an older bird we want him to be very comfortable. When the nights get VERY cold we bring out birds inside, sometimes when its cooler and not bad enough to bring them in we turn on Misha’s perch.
Heated- Birds lose heat through their legs and feet.So, we decided to give extra heat through a perch rather then using a bulb or heater. Our exhibits department came up with a brilliant idea of heating with Christmas light bulbs. His perch is made of metal pole where several strands of Christmas lights inside. The lights give off enough heat to warm and not burn and the perch is wrapped with comfy and soft neoprene.
This is an example of bumble foot. A painful condition that can be helped with proper perches.
so attentive
I agree.. so attentive and so compassionate towards the bird’s needs.
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Normally, we do not post blogs for an animals birthday, there would be way too many entries and too many cakes to bake. However, this month is special for one of our Red Ruffed lemurs,Cynthia. This promsimian turns the big 3-0! That’s right, 30 years old! Another primate turning 30 around here is Keeper Kim. Normal lifespan for a lemur in captivity is early 20s. Another older lemur we have is Lycus, who was born in 1985.
We have other animals which are older but we cant prove it because we do not have the birth records, we have an arrival date but not a birth date. Misha, the red tailed hawk arrived in 1993, we know he was at least 2 years old because he had lost his juvenile feathers. Two of our barred owls arrived in 1989 and were adults as well.These birds can live into their 30s. When it comes to snakes, we have a rattle snake that arrived in 1990 at the age of 8. We cant forget about our oldest bear Ursula , who just turned 20 this year and some of the turtles we don’t even have an arrival date on.
Happy belated Birthday, Cynthia!
how do you no when your red ear turtle is a boy or girl
Hey there Marla!
Let me answer this one for Jill if that’s okay. Once your turtles are a few inches long, look at their front fingernails. If you have a male, the claws will be super long, like Wolverine from X-Men 
If you have a girl, they will be shorter and normal ratio length. The male uses his long claws to attract the females during the mating season when they are a little bit older.
You can also tell a little by ther length of the tails, with males having a longer tail than the females, but this a little harder to tell by unless you’re used to looking at alot of turtles. The claw method is the easiest way.
Good luck with it and have a good one!
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You may have seen a recent post about Birdapalooza, an event held here a few weeks ago. The day-long event included programs that discussed different species of birds, including raptors. Keeper Jill took the opportuntiy to do a program with our red-tailed hawk, Misha. Misha was born in the wild, but in November 1991 he was brought to the Carolina Raptor Center in Charlotte, N.C. with an eye injury.The staff there rehabilitated him and taught him to sit on a glove so he could be used for programs. The Raptor Center entrusted Misha to us in February 1993.
We are not sure how old Misha is since he was born in the wild. Red-tailed hawks don’t get their red tail plumage until their second year, and Misha had them when he arrived at the Raptor Center. This meant he was already an adult, at least 1.5 years old. Based on that, Misha would now be around 18 years or older.
For many years we were also not sure what sex he was. Male and female red-tailed hawks share the same basic plumage and they also overlap in regards to size, so there was no way of knowing unless we ran further tests. Just recently we sent his blood for DNA testing and it was determined that he was, in fact, a male.
Misha is currently one of the longest standing residents in the animal department. According to 12-year veteran Keeper Kent, he has barely shown any signs of aging in all his time here. Below is a picture of his beautiful red tail plumage, which is the best way to identify this species of hawk in the wild. The plumage of red-tailed hawks can vary between individuals, so Misha’s colors and patterns will not be exactly the same as others.
Please visit the web site of Carolina Raptor Center at www.carolinaraptorcenter.org/ for more information on red-tailed hawks and other raptors.
Awesome post…it is nice to be able to share Misha with the public.
Misha is tha bomb!!!!!!!!!!!
Wait- Misha’s a male? All the time I visited, camped, volunteered, and worked at the museum I thought Misha was a “Mi-she”.
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What a cutie! Christopher is pretty cute too