Osteology is the scientific study of bones. The skeletal remains of an animal contain many clues about the life of the organism. Diet, disease, and activities all leave tell-tale marks on the framework of the body. Here in the animal department, Keeper Katy is particularly interested in osteological subjects. She is currently working to clean up this group of bones that she and Keeper Jill recently excavated. Before I tell you more about them, I thought it might be interestingRead more
Posts filed in: Education
Just friends?
Here’s a little something that I walked in on the other day when we had one of the box turtles out on the floor for some exercise…Read more
Big Word of the Month: Paradigm
Philosophers of science use the word paradigm (pair – uh – dime) to describe the set of ideas and practices that define a field of scientific inquiry. If you studied human anthropology and evolution in the last few decades you were exposed to the paradigm that humans evolved from an ape-like creature that resembles modern day chimpanzees. You might recall learning about Lucy, the 3 million year old hominid found in Ethiopia that belongs to the genus Australopithecus. A fossilRead more
Big Word of the Month: suprachiasmatic nucleus
I saw my first “V” formation of Canada geese of this fall and it got me thinking about migratory triggers. Here in North America the days are starting to get notably shorter, sunset is now about an hour earlier than it was in June. Most animals have circadian rhythms that are tuned to environmental cues like day length. In many species, the shorter day length along with cooler temperatures is the sign of coming winter and triggers migratory behavior. InsideRead more
QuikPost: Animal Photos.
I was flipping through the many photos on our camera and thought I would share a few with you. This is one of our box turtles doing some painting for enrichment. Our spotted turtle (male) likes to “bother” our painted turtle (female) in Carolina Wildlife. Our canebrake rattlesnake kept getting an abscess on her face. We did some work on her and she hasn’t had any recurrence yet. It’s hard to see, but that’s one of her fangs being manipulatedRead more
Always changing
There are a lot of improvements taking place in the animal department right now, and the renovation of our education holding room is one of them. I have never seen such a sparkly room in my life… I mean, that floor looks like an ice skating rink! For the last two weeks, the animals that normally live in the room (such as our ferrets, silky chicken, opossum and salamanders) have been staying in our exam room down the hall soRead more