When we aren’t busy shoveling stalls, scooping poop or making diets we occasionally get time to work on a special project or make new enrichment items. Last month, Janine, Katie and I got to build a hammock bed for our bears. It involved some wood as the frame, fire hose and lots of washers and screws. At Janine’s past job she made plenty of these types of beds so she was showing Katie and I the ropes. Not only isRead more
Posts filed in: Bears
Bear Pool Cleaning Next Month
We fully drain and clean the bear pools twice each year (it used to be once each year but not anymore). Next month is time again. It is typically a very tiring, fun, fulfilling, frustrating, and dirty project. (Yes, all those words go together for this project). Below are photos of Autumn and Katie during the December cleaning process. If you want to see photos from previous bear pool cleanings, click here, here, or here. We’ll try and get someRead more
Keeper Katie’s operant conditioning work
Keeper Katie works with the bears closely and is their primary trainer. You can see how well Katie is doing working with Virginia to open her mouth. (Getting a good look at an animal’s teeth is an important part of veterinary care). We’ll post more videos of the Keepers doing operant conditioning work with the animals if you want- just say the word.Read more
Christmas 2016
So, I arrive this Christmas without any issues at all- waking before my alarm and remembering to pack some food. The Keepers have left me some notes: Compared to Christmas 2015, there are a few primary differences I notice right off the bat: I am using a smart phone this year to take pictures… no more flip phone for me. I set the logbooks up on the Vet Room table rather than the counter- apparently sitting is a desire thisRead more
Medicating the Bears
Every animals takes their medication differently. A few years ago, Jill made a post about how we get some of our animals to take their meds. Recently, we had Leslie out in Explore the Wild taking photos of some of our exhibits and she just happened to catch Janine and me giving our bears their dewormer. Just like your pets at home get prophylactic dewormers (medication that is intended to prevent parasites), we do the same for our animals hereRead more
Who Makes That Sound? –Answer
Believe it or not, this sound clip is of our bears! Yona is the whiny voice you hear first, and Mimi is the one yelling at her towards the end. It was rather like this photo, but with Yona on the left, rather than Gus. Yona starts arguments with the other bears fairly regularly, but don’t worry too much about it, their spats are nearly always vocal and very seldom end in any physical contact. Mimi “wins” most arguments with theRead more