So, we’re short staffed again: vacation, sickness, babysitting…and I’m in on my day off. Oh Well.I don’t keep a camera in pocket so I cannot, yet again, show you what’s going on around here: ERIN– HAVE YOU GONE HOME AGAIN WITH THE CAMERA?!? (To be fair to Erin, I could grab another camera). So, for you faithful Blog readers, here’s the deal. We might be getting a new bear. I’ll know more in the next week or two, but here’sRead more
Posts tagged: #American Black Bear
Oh no, someone’s in the bear pool! Oh wait, it’s just Sherry…
You may have read a post recently about the bear pool getting its annual cleaning. Well, the day after we finished, one of the drain covers at the bottom of the pool was seen in the middle of the exhibit yard (no doubt having been used as a toy for our playful bears). We had to get the drain cover back on, and Sherry volunteered herself for the job. She doesn’t usually get to help us with daily routines, butRead more
It’s fall, the bears are eating more…
…and I have found yet another fascinating artifact from the bear yard: They get whole ears of corn in their diet weekly and we usually find random pieces of cob and husk around. This empty cob, however, looks like one of the bears delicately devoured it end to end, manual typewriter style. I’m betting it was Mimi!Read more
Creature Feature: Gus the black bear
Our bears are some of the most entertaining animals to watch here at the museum. Gus is our only male bear, and he has some funny antics that make the keepers laugh on a regular basis. Even though he is the youngest bear, at only 3 years old, he is already the dominant bear in the enclosure! Since black bears are naturally solitary animals, they have to form a heirarchy in order for them to co-exist with one another. ItRead more
Watermelon
We have been dealing with a lot of watermelons in the animal department lately. They are truly multipurpose berries. They are great food for bears and a great way to welcome back a coworker from vacation. Sherry and I noticed some evidence of watermelon consumption in the bear house the other day. The bears obviously coordinated their defecations in order to teach us a lesson about how plant pigments are processed in the digestive tract.Read more