Hi everybody!  Hope you guys are doing well, I am all kinds of fine and ducky, thanks for asking!  For this post, we’re going to have a bit of a game.  Now, I know you guys are all aware of my intellectual awesomeness, but now I’m going to give you a bit of a test.  Ever play those “What doesn’t belong” games when you were a kid?  Well here it is in blog form!  I’m going to write a fun little blog post.  And there will be an undetermined number of mistakes in it.  your job is to go ahead and find them!

For instance, I may be talking about opossums.  And I say “Opossums are wonderful arboreal mammals.  They have a prehensile tail, a great sense of smell and are one of only two marsupials that live in North America naturally.”  What about that statement is wrong?  Their tail IS prehensile, they DO have a great sense of smell and they ARE arboreal.  The wrong fact is where I said they are ONE OF TWO marsupials in North America.  Actually, they are the only species of naturally occurring marsupial on this continent.  You guys got it?  Find my mistakes and catch my errors – enjoy my friends!  🙂

So it’s almost spring time (sorta).  Some days it’s freezing and rainy, others it’s almost 80 degrees and sunny.  But even if the weather can’t seem to make up it’s mind, the animals already have.  Anyone who was getting a little lazy with the coming of the colder weather is definitely starting to bounce back.  Henry our Woodchuck has been eating more of his daily diet, plus is much more active.  All four of our bears are out and moving for more time during the day instead of sleeping in the cave or on the cliff and only rousing themselves at meals or training times.  Of course none of our reptiles were affected too much by the winter season.  They all live inside in a climate controlled room.  So both the native and the exotic species fared wonderfully.  From the Banded Water Snake to the Asian Bearded Dragons, our cold blooded friends didn’t miss a beat.  And everyone in our Farmyard is also doing just great.  Time for some of them to shed though!

March is also a fun Month of novelty days.  And not just for animal stuff.  Just to name a few, March 3 is “If Pets had Thumbs Day”, March 9 is “Panic Day” -All I can say is “Danger! Danger Will Robinson!”, March 12 is “Plant a Flower Day”, March 14 is “Learn about Butterflies Day”, March 19 is “Poultry Day”, March 22 is “Give a Calzone to a Zookeeper Day”, & March 28th is Something on a Stick Day (I recommend some kind of meat, preferably wrapped in bacon.  Like a corndog, but better!)

Also, with the coming of spring many of our outdoor species are beginning to pop up again.  Ranger Greg has been sighting more and more species in the wetlands and around the rest of the park.  The past few days of warm weather have started many aquatic turtles sunning on the rocks, a number of waterfowl are enjoying the Explore the Wild area, and I have been finding Bullfrogs in the bear filter baskets again each morning.  I know this is just the beginning.  Soon we’ll have all the bugs out (oh, and Aaron found the first ticks of the season in the Wolf yard the other day!  Marilyn is so thrilled!), the trees will be blooming and the we’ll be getting calls to go out and move snakes from the paths.  If they’re the usual rat snakes we usually just let them go on their way, but sometimes we have to move the poisonous copperheads to a different location so they’re out of visitor range.  You’re all welcome!  🙂

By the way… if you keep up with my earlier posts, it seems Katy has struck again!  Definitive proof that she is too environmentally minded and attempting to recycle our animals!

And while the above picture may look like Galileo is getting into the trash himself, don’t be fooled!  He’s being coerced from off camera!  His breakfast is being held hostage!  🙂

Okay Guys and Dolls, it’s time for me to pack this one in.  I’m going to go and close up, tuck the animals in for the night and make sure all is right with things.  Plus, I have to feed the alligators before we start.  They’re growing well, just about up to eating whole capybaras now  🙂  See how many mistakes you can find and I’ll put up the answers soon.  Until next time!

P.S.- The Loch Ness Monster exists!