EnrichBits: A monthly look at animal enrichment Occasionally, we’ll get the chance as animal keepers to see our animals react emphatically to a completely different change of routine and surroundings. Over the fall, the Museum was closed to visitors on Mondays, so we used this no-people-on-museum-grounds opportunity to give Max, our Jersey steer, some (unleashed) time out of his exhibit yard. We had never done enrichment like this before, and weren’t sure how Max would react. He is a bigRead more
Posts filed in: Videos
Creature Feature: Donald the eastern box turtle
Donald is another of our education animals that lives behind the scenes. He came to us in March of 2004, and was brought in by one of the animal keepers. The animal keeper had acquired him from one of our volunteers at the time, who had found him injured in the road after being grazed by a car. When first found, one of Donald’s legs was injured and his shell was damaged, and the volunteer thought he was dead. However,Read more
What’s Happening THIS Week!?!?!
WRITTEN BY GUEST BLOGGER ERIN BROWN 12/31/08: What’s Not Happening This Week. Last week I talked about how hectic it was around the Animal Department for the holidays. This week is no different. The museum is closed New Years day, and since it is a holiday, there will only be two keepers working. Since basically all that’s going on this week is some more crazy holiday preparation to make sure our keepers are all set for New Year’s week, IRead more
A rescue of the strangest kind…
Katy and I got a break from our normal Sunday morning routine when we had to rescue our off-exhibit Tiger Salamander from his water dish. If you’re wondering what I mean by that, watch the video below! The salamander didn’t have any injuries from the ordeal and we gave him a different type of water dish so it will not happen again. [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd85Y48vZTY[/youtube]Read more
Big delivery!
One of the staple foods in our bears’ diets is omnivore chow. Having four black bears, with three still young and growing, imagine how much chow they can eat! In the fall when they are bulking up for winter, they eat 36 pounds of chow a day along with lots of fruits, vegetables and nuts! This means we get our omnivore chow in bulk… specifically 155 bags at a time. Last week our shipment came in, and there were 4Read more
If you love something, set it free
About a month ago, we noticed a new resident in the farmyard at the museum. After some encouragement from Animal keepers with food and calming voices, Keeper Cassidy was able to snag our new visitor. This was no ordinary pigeon as evidenced by his ankle jewelry. Keepers Jill and Katy were able to trace his or her registration numbers at a racing pigeon website and find out that our new resident was a racing pigeon that left Danville, Virginia enRead more