Earlier this year, around May/June we noticed that Mimi (one of our Black Bears) was displaying aggressive behavior towards the keepers. When we would open up the bear house at closing she would charge at us, sometimes huff or spit or pace the fence line. While this behavior isn’t completely atypical for Mimi it seemed to come out of no where and with an increase in frequency. We already knew it didn’t matter which keeper was opening the house as sheRead more
Posts filed in: Bears
QuikPost: Our project was chosen!
Students chose our project! Our Team- Harry, Hunter, Grant, Cam, and James visited last week and presented the project draft to fellow students. We’ll have an idea of what they’ll be building in the next month. I can’t wait! Read more
My pitch to engineering students at Duke
I spent a few minutes this morning over at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering. The students in this class work on real world problems that need solving. Several people and agencies from the community came and presented different problems that could be solved with the help of the students. The project we pitched: You’ll learn more if our project was chosen as one to be worked on by the students. I hope so, and hope we get aRead more
QuikPics: bears and watermelon
A friend shared the following photos with me. Also, I took a quick video of the bears lining up getting ready for the watermelons to come (notice the woodchuck in the back of the clip). Thanks for the pictures Courtney! Read more
Watermelon Day 2017
Next week is Watermelon Day! Come on by on Monday August 7– it’s a great day to talk with Keepers, learn about enrichment and how we care for the animals during the heat of the summer. Check out the schedule here. Read about previous Museum Watermelon Days here and here. Read more
What is Browse?
In animal keeper language, browse means plants and vegetation that we offer to our animals. Several times a week we harvest freshly cut browse that has been approved by our veterinarians. Our veterinary specialist, Katy, put together a browse book that includes pictures of the plant/tree, who it is approved for and where on grounds it grows. This is a great asset for new keepers just learning to identify different vegetation and for seasoned keepers to make sure their knowledge is up to date.Read more