Were I a bearded dragon, my chin would not be turning black with anger/ excitement but instead, red with embarrassment. You see, a couple of weeks ago, we determined that we needed to be extra vigilant about making sure Godzilla was getting enough exercise. We have been a little worried about his back legs and keeping them in good, active shape. He is an animal that by nature tends to sit and bask a lot, and by upbringing sits aroundRead more
Posts filed in: Enrichment & Training
Today in the hall
The Animal Support Hall is always full of life. Whether it’s a Sunday morning with one keeper and one volunteer inside or a Thursday right before lunch with eight keepers and five volunteers. Today the hall was used for exercise. Our opossums Sonny and Cher are a bit on the heavy side so we place their daily diet in various places around the hall and let them wander in search of their goodies. This afternoon while doing snake enrichment, I wasRead more
Creature Feature: Ladybelle the ferret
Ladybelle came to live at the museum in September 2010, and was donated to us by a private owner. She was already 5 years old when we acquired her, because she was born in August 2005. She lives in the Education Holding Room (EHR) behind the scenes and is used for birthday parties and educational classes. She is great at being handled, so she makes for a wonderful animal that children can pet. But like most ferrets, once you putRead more
QuikPost: Max and his stump
Kimberly shared the stump story, along with photos of the bears and the stumps. Jim, our landscape environments director and deliverer of the stumps to the yards, caught this video of the end of Max’s initial meeting with his stump. Enjoy. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-nv5nhNrH8[/youtube]Read more
Fun with a fake sheep
We like to make work fun around here whenever possible. Sometimes that fun can be as simple as joking about what the emergency radio call would be if someone were to spontaneously combust while busting up ice in the bear moat (this is a joke between me and Kimberly). But the fun can also be as simple as pranking one of our teammates…. or even just picking on them. The other day, Kimberly and I set out to make aRead more
Stumped
The City of Durham donated 6 huge tree stumps to the Museum. We had 4 put into the bear yard, 1 in with Max and Chummix, and 1 in with Lightning and the little goats. While the bears were locked in the house we took the time to scoop the yard and add more hay to their sleeping spots. Here are a couple pictures of the bears checking out the stumps. This is really great enrichment for the animals. Smelling, climbing,Read more