The shooting of red wolves in the wild continues- it’s very sad and troubling. Another article below. http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/2013/02/19/reward-red-wolf-killed/Read more
Posts filed in: Exhibits
It’s the Little Things
Our Jersey steer, Max, is a picky eater. Unlike most bovine, which will eat anything you hand them, Max really only eats his hay and steer chow (breakfast cereal for cattle). Keepers Kent and Jill and I have been working extra hard since last summer to sneak extra pieces of training foods into his giant mouth, just to get him to try something new. For training reasons, it’s a good idea for Max to learn to eat foods that are moreRead more
Intern Enrichment Project
Our Interns, Jessica and Jamie, have started their enrichment project. They are interning with us Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and on Tuesdays and Thursdays they take classes. for one of their classes they have to do an enrichment project for an animal. They decided to work with Henry, our woodchuck, to see if they could get him more active. We’ll report back (if you want) later in the semester to see what they learned, but in the meantime, here areRead more
Sheep Update
Since the arrival of our 4 alpacas, we’ve had many people inquire about our sheep. A member of our farrier‘s family (the man who comes out to trim Lightning’s hooves) was very excited to provide the retirement home for our old ladies. They now live about an hour from Durham on a few acres of grass with a roomy stall they can access at any time. Their only jobs are to mow the lawn and to look pretty. Our farrier,Read more
Do owls drink water?
While closing one night I saw a barred owl standing in the water and pondered, What is that owl doing? A few moments later I watched as the owl took several drinks of water. I snapped some pictures with my phone and shared them with Keeper Kent who says he’s never seen an owl drink water before. Kent has been a keeper here for a long time so if he hasn’t seen owls drink then most of our readers haven’tRead more
Trimming Duck’s Wings
Have you ever wandered into the farmyard and asked yourself, “Why doesn’t the duck simply fly away?” There are three answers: He does, sometimes. As you can see here in an older post. He seasonally has wing feathers trimmed to help keep him down on the ground. At nearly 11 pounds, he’s a little bit too chubby to really get off the ground. In the early spring and fall, Ducky molts (loses) his old feathers and grows a niceRead more