The semester is over, and our two student groups working on automatic skunk feeders have delivered their final work and manuals. (Although they’ll be getting us some updates in January).
Both teams scrambled the first half of December to get their projects functional, safe, and mounted. There’s still some tweaking to work through, but we’re really happy with how the semester has gone and the products we have gotten to help us care for Florian (and other animals).
Team FLORIAN + THE MACHINE, Varun, Alex, Yuna, and AshleyFLORIAN + THE MACHINE use these clear boxes. 3-5 boxes are mounted throughout Florian’s enclosureThis design requires food loaded into a delivery pod, to keep the box as clean as possible.delivery food pod loaded in the box and ready to go
Check out the video of the feeder in action and Florian’s response:
Team FLORIAN FOUR, Emily, Bailey, Mohsin, and Jason. Mohsin is holding one of their automatic feeders.Team FLORIAN FOUR, with Professor Simmons, capturing their Skunk Feeder in action, while other Museum guests and staff watch as well.An up close view of Team FLORIAN FOUR’S Skunk Feeder
Team FLORAIN FOUR’S skunk feeders were so portable, that we asked if we could try them in other areas. So, we mounted one of the feeders in a playpen area behind the scenes for our chinchillas and other Education Animals.
The feeder is magnetically mounted, so is easy to relocate. We mounted it to the top of the play-pen, filled it with hay, and waited for it to open.Salt Chinchilla rushed over to eat the hay as it fell from the sky!!
