Compared to a “normal” 8AM – 5PM, Monday-Friday job, we have rather weird working schedules here in the animal department. For example, in the 5 days a week I work, I have 4 different sets of hours. Keepers show up between 7 and 8AM (sometimes even earlier on crazy days) and stay between 3PM and 5:30PM depending on their scheduled work week. Some keepers work Sunday – Thursday, some work Tuesday – Saturday, some work Monday – Friday and oneRead more
Morning Bear Yard Scooping
Sunny, quiet mornings are always the best time, in my opinion, to call in the bears and go scoop poop in the bear yard. This past week, Volunteer Colet and Human Resources Lady, Maureen, put on their grubby sneakers and went in with me. It only takes about an hour to finish scooping and scatter the day’s food around the exhibit. Sometimes, though, we find cool surprises! Meanwhile, in the bear house: Once we’re done scooping and letRead more
A Little Farmyard Fun
When I first started working here at the museum, I was told a very useful piece of advice from Kristen: “if you ever fall into the muskrat pool, toss your radio somewhere dry as you fall…radios are really expensive.” The last person I know of that fell into the pool was Larry and I have no idea if he saved his radio; it was before my time. While I’m sure you’d all love to laugh at me for falling intoRead more
Colorful Chemistry
We run weekly water quality tests on all of our fish, alligator and turtle tanks in the Animal Department. We monitor the waters’ pH and the levels of Ammonia and Nitrates. This is important because aquatic animals are often very sensitive to chemical changes in the water they live in and drink; more so than their terrestrial relatives. 10 tanks plus 1 “control” tank (filtered water, to make sure the tests are working properly) The end result: 33Read more
The Caterpillars are Growing!
Back in July of 2012, Ranger Greg posted about the Orangestripe Oakworm caterpillars out in Catch the Wind. A year later and the caterpillars have taken over the big Oak tree in the farmyard. If you didn’t get to see the little critters eating away when they were out in Catch the Wind, you can certainly spot them right now in the Farmyard. Just head over to Max‘s yard and stand by his big water trough. It’s actually harder toRead more
QuikPic: Resting Gators
I was cleaning the Carolina Wildlife glass recently and caught a couple of our American Alligators in my favorite “just hanging out” pose. Read more