We’re very excited– we have a couple of “new” hollowed out logs arriving in the next week. Lots of coordination and communication to get a couple of logs that we can use in our animal habitats. Thanks to Michele, from our exhibits department, and her contact Jesse! As I type, the logs have been loaded and are making their way back to Durham this weekend. More news once the logs are out in animal areas…Read more
Posts filed in: Behind-the-Scenes
So much help (for so much work)
We just finished up bear pool cleaning and yard work. It’s a bear of a task and takes help from so many people. Folks from six different Museum teams spent about 100 total hours taking care of tasks and the bears. The pools are now clean, yard is mowed and weed-eated; poop-scooping complete; pruning off fences; viewing camera is now functional; added traction to cliff access for bears, and probably some other items I’m too tired to remember. The teamRead more
Being a Big Brother
Many people have seen the below video of one of our yearling brother wolves having at the den camera. He removed and destroyed the camera, without ingesting any of it. This is one of the most special (and pretty funny) den video clips from my point of view. So much is going in this clip for me. First, notice that there are pups in the den. With the pups five weeks old, mom, F2062, allows the rest of the familyRead more
Goodall Shed!
Our female pine snake, Goodall, shed last week. Her shed was about 8 feet long and came off in one long beautiful piece.Read more
Yesterday’s pup check
We had great weather yesterday to do our 4-week check on the pups. We gathered our team, supplies, and made our work plan for entering the yard. At 4-weeks, the pups are more mobile, their ears are starting to get pointy, snout longer, eyes are open, and their dark color is starting to fade on their legs in particular. By next check, the blazes on their chest will likely be very faded. We still use our newborn pup check sheetRead more
Interns’ Final Project
Intern’s Vickie and Rachel finished up their semester with us last week. We will miss them– and all their help. Part of the work of their semester was doing a scientific research project on animal enrichment. They chose to do something for Dusty and Dallas, our Miniature Hereford Cattle. The purpose of their project was to increase locomotion and have the cattle utilize the entire exhibit area by increasing activity levels. The hypothesis was with the introduction of a PVCRead more