If you’ve been to a Meet the Keeper program at Lemurs, you may have heard someone ask if the Red Ruffed Lemurs have “thumbs” or “fingers” on the ends of their tails. The answer is “no”; the little bit of naked tail that sticks out in varying lengths from the normally furry tails of our lemurs is a by-product of over grooming. The Red Ruffed lemurs will occasionally groom their tail tips by licking, chewing or rubbing at them withRead more
Posts filed in: Education
What is that?
Photo Photo Don’t think this is a Photoshopped blog this time, even though it looks like a zebra-deer-giraffe…. Well, I’m not sure what else it looks like. But, it does exist and is called an OKAPI. I chose this animal because it is interesting to look at and are recently declared endangered. Okapi (Okapia johnstoni) are more related to giraffes and they live in the forest. Science was not aware of these animals until the early 1900’s and a lotRead more
Tales of tongues
The other day I was in the farmyard and talking with Max. Yes, I talk with the animals. They may not understand me when I tell them certain things, but they do recognize commands that are given and I know that they are not able to tell me they are tired of hearing the same stories. When I converse with our steer he tends to lick my arms, hands and anything else I might be holding. It is most likelyRead more
Caterpillars
Did you know that you can be stung by caterpillars? I was surprised when I got stung by one on the wolf cliff in Explore the Wild. I didn’t know that it was a caterpillar at first but after describing what it felt like to the other keepers, they said it had to have been a caterpillar. At that point, I was on a mission to find out what exactly stung me. I needed to have a plan to properly completeRead more
Godzilla
There have been many instances where the keepers go through difficult times. Unfortunately, we experienced the loss of our education bearded dragon, Godzilla. Godzilla was with us for a long time. When he first came, I would tend to have him resting on me when I sat in the office where he chilled and just looked around. We noticed Godzilla not acting his usual self and his appetite declined. He was taken off program usage and allowed to get restRead more
AAZK Conference for 2013
Last year I was lucky enough to be able to attend the American Association of Zookeepers conference. This year, a lot of us keepers were very lucky to be able to attend because it was held in North Carolina. Keeper Sarah and I were also lucky, because we were selected to present a paper this year. The topic was on enrichment and focused on inexpensive or free options. Even though I was presenting, it was said that Sarah was muchRead more