This month’s Big Word post will allow me to rant about one of my pet peeves while also reporting on some recent discoveries in Biology. The term cryptozoology is rooted in the Greek word “kruptos” which means “hidden”. So cryptozoology literally means the study of hidden life; sounds pretty cool, huh? Unfortunately, folks who call themselves cryptozoologists usually spend there time looking for animals like Big Foots and Loch Ness monsters. Even more unfortuately, major news outlets spend way tooRead more
Posts filed in: Education
Big Word: Microclimate
This month’s Big Word of the Month is not really that big. You can probably figure out what it means even if you have never heard it used. A microclimate is simply a small area that has different temperature and/or moisture conditions than the surrounding area. Many factors can contribute to microclimatic conditions within an organism’s habitat. For instance, south-facing hillsides (in the northern hemisphere) receive more solar radiation than nearby north-facing slopes. Therefore, southern exposures tend to be warmerRead more
mealworms
Mealworms are a portion of many Musuem animal diets, including the robins in the aviary, the bearded dragons, our Silkie chicken, and our American toads. For weeks I have been hearing rumors about a “national mealworm shortage” but as our supplier never had any problems providing us with our normal 20,000 large mealworms, I wasn’t too worried. Well, I guess this shortage has finally made its way up to the major suppliers, because when I called to order… there wereRead more
Munch Cam Fun
Munch Cam is a new feature of the Museum’s web site that focuses on our animals eating. These clips are short, humorous, and informative. Check out some of the Munch Cam clips below and see others on the Munch Cam page of the Museums web site or on the Museum’s YouTube channel. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfbO1ssRCNg] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZljWw7Ltpzo] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBcVLDJvLXI] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On04t6OZorg]Read more
opossum surprise
I walked out of my office to recycle some paper and to my surprise I put the paper on top of a sleeping opossum. I really shouldn’t have been surprised as it is not the first time that our ‘possums have deceided to take a snooze in the recycling box. Jill showed you another photo in her last post about recycling We let our education opossums (and other animals) have exercise on our support hall, but after they’re done withRead more
Creature Feature: Al the Ferret
Al is a well-socialized and very playful ferret who lives off exhibit in our education holding room. He is one of four ferrets here and is used for programs and birthday parties. Al was born in June 2005 and was originally purchased by someone from a pet store. He was given to the museum in January 2006 because the original owner could not care for him anymore. Al got his name from the fact that he is an albino ferret,Read more